Play Eats: Etsy rules

Of course to finish off Play Eats, Project: Project saves the best for last with Etsy. These awesome felt foods are from DogBoneArt. When Z was tiny tiny, Laura and I traded loot because her sister was having a baby. I've also bought from her several times because her prices are good and she is awesome. Laura designs and hand prints all of the stuff in the shop herself. I love stuff that has faces on it.

We also love faces that have a mustache. I was looking through the play foods today and found this hilarious carrot from Flaky Friends. I can't vouch for the quality or anything but that carrot is great.

I was planning on doing a link list to shops on Etsy that sell either play foods or patterns for play foods but there is so much cool stuff from crochet or felt to wood or cotton, I think I will just give some words of advice: 1) acrylic felt is going to pill. There is no way to avoid this.  2) wood is hard. Your kids are going to whack each other upside the head with it.  3) acrylic yarn also pills. 4) Read the descriptions carefully.  5) Look closely at the photos for craftsmanship. 6) Finally, remember that actual people are making this stuff. Ask questions if you have them; if they don't respond, buy from someone else.

Here is a good way to search for just play foods on Etsy, click here. That should give you just food and a few mistagged items.

And click here to search Etsy for just patterns.

For all of the Play Eats posts, click here. I will probably add random posts here and there as new and wonderful stuff appears.

Play Eats: Ikea play food and dishes review

I love Ikea. I have had a long-standing affair since junior high when a friend of mine had the catalogs at her house. As most people know, their stuff is super cheap, usually durable (depending on what it's made out of), and looks good. When Z was a baby, I drooled over the duktig dishware but didn't buy it right away. Fortunately, it was still around some time later and I was able to pick up a set of the cups and glasses (now in colors, ours are clear), and a set of the very cute teacups. My sister-in-law awesomely shared some silverware with us as they had plenty.

So far, the stuff has held up very well. It's suffered many a drop to our hardwood floors without a knick (yet). And at the price point, it wouldn't be the end of the world if we lost a saucer.

I decided not to buy the foods on our last visit to the nearest Ikea. We already have so much I couldn't justify spending anymore at that point. But luckily, Carolyn who reviewed the Pottery Barn Kitchen, has a couple of sets and offered some information:

"Like most things Ikea, the play foods are very affordable. As much as I would love to have all upcycled handmade wool felt food, I could buy all of the Ikea food for about $30 and I can throw it in the washing machine without worrying about it. Because it is fabric, it makes it easier to "eat" sandwiches than the hard wood or plastic play foods. The coolest part about the Ikea food is that some of the pieces such as the banana and lettuce have velcro on them so they can peel apart. The cake also comes apart into slices. The only letdown is the ice cream."

The verdict: Ikea play food is well priced for what you get so go for it if you are near the store. I'm not sure it's going to be a value if you have to pay for shipping. The duktig dishware is an amazing deal and worth the hour and 30 minute drive to go get it. It's cheaper than almost any other play sets out there and lovely.

Special thanks to Carolyn again! For the rest of Play Eats, click here.

Play Eats: Target's Play Wonder play food review

We now have a couple of these Target Play Wonder sets. We have gotten them on clearance for around $7.50/set, sometimes more, sometimes less. Target is always changing their packaging so you can get these cheap at least once a year.

The construction of the foods is quite nice. We haven't really had any problems with the paint chipping off or the fabric wearing. However, the "fabric" is so synthetic it's almost gross to touch it. I'm sure they made it out of this stuff so that it will stick to the hook side of velcro without pilling like acrylic felt. But it just feels cheap.

That said, these sets are super cute. We have had a lot of fun making different pizzas with the toppings (and they have faces!). The little pizza cutter has been a huge hit as well. The pancake set came with some fakin' and two pats of butter so there's a lot of realism without being over the top. I love the little jar of maple syrup.

The verdict: Definitely pick these up if you see them on sale. You can get a lot of pieces to stock your kitchen. Don't buy them full price unless you have to. The quality just isn't there and you can get the Melissa and Doug stuff for around $15 and it will last longer.

Play Eats: Melissa and Doug play foods review

We have several sets of Melissa and Doug foods. We started with the Cutting Fruits box and then split the Cutting Foods box with my niece (I mentioned before the carrot that I thought was a hot dog creeping me out). While their products are now made in China (some people have a problem with that), I do trust that this company is safe. Everything in these two sets is wooden and I did expect some of the paint to wear off (although it's really not bad at all considering how much use these have gotten). The velcro that holds the sections together is strong and we haven't had any problems. I don't have any problems with either of these sets (or any other Melissa and Doug items we have). I do see different levels of quality with different items, however. The watermelon seems to be made of a much softer, lighter wood and some of the foods have much less detail than others. Overall, for the price, these sets can not be beat. Some craft stores even carry this brand. Top a 40% or 50% off coupon to that and you can really get a bargain. Also check stores like TJ Maxx.

Our favorite set, by far, is these Bake and Decorate cupcakes. I got these from Amazon this Christmas during one of their daily deals for $10. They are awesome. The little icing tops are made of plastic and the tubes of icing are actually dry erase markers. These have kept the toddler busy for hours. As long as you erase with a paper towel shortly after decorating, these clean very easily. The first time we used them we left the marker on overnight and we had to really rub to get it off. The velcro patches hold wooden candles but we never use them. I had thought I might sew some felt berries to use instead but, well, that hasn't happened yet.

The Verdict: Melissa and Doug foods are good quality toys at an excellent price point. If you can catch these on sale, even better. They hold up well to heavy play and are good for a variety of ages. Most of the food sets come in a little crate which is excellent for storing other stuff.

For the rest of Play Eats, click here.

Play Eats: Garden Fresh Fruits and Veggies play food review

We bought this set (brand uncertain) because they are called "peel-able." We really liked the idea of being able to learn about how the fruits and veggies have layers and the peas seemed cool. While the pea pod certainly is one of the best parts of this set, the veggies aren't "peel-able." You can pull apart the pieces but the plastic is hard, and peeling implies some flexibility.

So this set was not used for the first year we had it because it was just a hot mess for chubby hands. Now that Z is almost 3, it's getting a lot of use. The only odd thing is that the scale of these pieces, while play scale, is not relative to the other pieces in the same set. They are otherwise very realistic: the peach has a pit (painted), and the orange has sections.

The verdict: We paid almost $20 for this set. It's now down to just over $15 at Amazon and eligible for free prime shipping so an excellent deal. It comes with a knife and an adorable little canvas bag. In a year of heavy use, nothing has broken and everything is still looking quite new.

Play Eats: Haba play food review

Overall, I'm impressed with the quality of Haba play foods.  I bought these "dog dogs" for Z for Christmas. I also bought a cute set of biscuits for my niece (also ten bucks).  Both sets are very nice and the tins are a nice bonus. I've also seen Haba foods at fancypants toy stores in the bigger cities that we visit and they are well made, some of felt, some of wood.

But seriously? These sets were ten bucks.  Each. 10 bucks? I photographed these with the quarter so you can see how small they are. Amazon sells a potato for 5 dollars. One potato. That's just not in my budget.

The fault isn't entirely on Haba, however. The website I bought them from (a site that has a bunch of similarly overpriced kids stuff) did not include the size. But I've never seen play foods this small so in my mind, they were much larger. (Note: The Haba foods not in tins seem to be more realistic to a play food scale).

The verdict: I feel that there are a lot of companies making play foods that are at much much better price points with similar quality and better scale. But if you are looking for quality over price or any other factor, go for Haba.

Play Eats: Whip up a batch of fabric pretzels

Today's awesome guest post is courtesy of Jess from Craftiness is Not Optional. She has done some amazing tutorials on her blog so I was so excited that she agreed to design something new for Play Eats.

These fabric pretzels look super cool but look how easy she makes it. They are a really great idea. My kid is starting to get into junk food (we've been lucky enough to hide it from her for a long time) so these are on the radar.

Click over for the full tutorial.

Thanks so much to Jess for baking up this batch. Make sure you check out her other play food tutorials here and these awesome upcycled kitchen canisters. She is super talented.

All photos courtesy of Jess.

Play Eats: Thrift it and repurpose it

One of the best things about having a kid is getting to buy silly drinks at street fairs. I would never spend half a million dollars on super sweet juice and crushed ice for myself, no! But if Z wants it, I tend to indulge every now and again, especially if we can reuse it. So this pineapple wasn't half a million dollars but it was at least twice as much as all of the other overpriced street fair grub but I knew that we would remember our fun day way longer if I bought this. This has been a huge hit in the play kitchen (even though the drink was so syrupy we didn't even finish it).

Yes, this is a shot glass. But it is a Dinosaurland shot glass. Yeah sure, the first thing I want to do around realistic (what do I know?) fiberglass dinosaurs from 50 years ago is get wasted so why not buy a shot glass to make that easier (I'm joking). Anyway, it's a cool play size tumbler and another memory of a fun day. And it has yet to break.

Another awesome part about life with a child is getting to dig through bins of toys at thrift stores. I was raised at yard sales so I feel like I have a trained eye. But I think it is a skill that can be achieved through lots of practice. You just have to keep an open mind and use hunter's vision. The orange juice was a quarter; the eggs are from Easter last year; that round thing is a piece of bologna (weird -- one random slice in a bin of dinged up Happy Meal toys); and the tea set pictured is part of a larger set that came in a little basket. The basket was trashed and some of the pieces are missing but I figure that they could just as easily get lost at my house.

Dig deep, people and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.

Play Eats: Make more play foods

Not all handmade food has to be super involved or time consuming. This ravioli just requires pinking shears and an iron.

First, iron your Wonder Under to the dough colored felt. Cover the whole project with a cotton dishtowel or you'll melt the felt and ruin your iron.

Next, cut your felt into strips and then squares. I found it easier to make these one at a time. Peel off the paper backing to your interfacing and place a triple size cotton ball right in the middle of the square. Put another square on top (interfacing together) and iron each side. Don't forget your dishtowel! Don't worry about being neat because you'll trim your edges.

Snip snip with the pinking shears and you have some easy no-sew ravioli. If you didn't do a good job with your ironing, you can always pull apart where it didn't fuse, dab some glue stick on it, and iron it back up. To make the cute jar, I just hot glued some vintage ribbon to a Christmas container from the Dollar Store.

These peas and carrots are even easier. Buy some tiny pom poms and you have peas. The orange carrots are made from polymer clay rolled into a cylinder and sliced and baked.

Tomato slices take a bit more time. Embroider some veins onto your solid and stitch to your backing fabric RST (right sides together) leaving a gap for turning. Stuff with a smidge of polyfill. Turn them inside out and handstitch up the little gap.

There are several different tutorials out there on this bowtie pasta. But it does take a long time to stitch each one together. They look really cool though so the effort is worth it.

We eat lots of wrap around here. This is just some thick cotton fabric from the clearance bin at JoAnn's. I took some Tupperware from the cabinet and traced around it. Sew them together RST just like the tomato and clip the edges because you want nice round wraps. Stitch up your opening. Since these are flat, I just used the machine to finish them off.

And for the final step, I put all those painting skills that I got with that BFA to make char marks with the edge of a flat brush. I actually put a real tortilla on the table and copied it for the highest realism.

Let me know if you make any of these fun foods. Put some pics in the flickr pool.

Play Eats: Make some food

These cherries are super easy to make. The original idea is courtesy of Catherine Hug of Hyggelig. Instead of the rope, we used brown pipe cleaners, cut them to size and sealed them in the holes of the wood beads with some hot glue. To make painting the beads easier, we stuck them on the ends of chopsticks and just painted half at a time. The tin is from Michael's and those are just stick-on letters. Super quick and easy project. My sister-in-law helped with making most of the play foods so the other part of that "we" is her. I do recommend tackling these projects with a friend, you'll get a lot more done and it's a fun way to spend the day.

Now these strawberries were a lot more difficult. The pattern can be found here. I was not about to do any hand-stitching out of sheer laziness so I added a seam allowance to the whole thing and used the sewing machine to create the shape. My sister-in-law and I both stuffed them and closed up the top (by hand, there was no other way) and I hot glued on the leafy top.

I think the tiny polka dot print is what really makes these work. It's from Jo Ann's. Oh, and we just cut the tops freehand so they would look more realistic. That's green fleece.

And don't forget, you can reuse your container from the grocery store for some realism (although I think blueberries or tomatoes came in this). Now, if only we can find the rogue strawberry that's been missing since Christmas...

These tea bags were one of the most difficult play foods to make but certainly worth the effort. I stole the idea from my amazing friend Nikole of A Happy Nest.

I used some muslin I keep around for well, muslins (test garments), and cut up some Beatrix Potter scrapbook paper to make the tags. What was difficult was folding the tops in and stitching them up so they look nice and neat. We filled them with quinoa but I think lentils would work better. They are bigger so you won't have to worry about them spilling out if your sewing is crap. We were thinking it would be nice and fragrant to put some actual tea in each bag but I had already finished them by then.

The little tin is something my sister in law picked up at Ikea and more sticker letters for the top.

Finally for today, some peanut butter and jelly. My mother in law made these. She said they are just a simple single crochet and she reduced and increased whenever it felt right. Each one takes less than 20 minutes. I just traced a piece of our play bread and asked her to do whatever she wanted. These have yet to be used as peanut butter or jelly though. Z likes to put them in the blender, in her tea cups, on the pizza...

Play Eats!

Two whole weeks of awesome play food tutorials, play food reviews ('cause not everyone's crafty and some people are busy), play kitchen stuff, play dishes ideas, some great stuff. So stay tuned.

Special guest posts: Thanks to Sabra of Sew a Straight Line, Jess of Craftiness is Not Optional, and Katie of Hippos and Dinosaurs for their play food and cookware tutorials. Also thanks for extra reviews to Carolyn who finds amazing vintage furniture for cheap like it's her job. See their posts for links.

Day 1: Shopping Cart Tutorial

Day 2: Cherries, strawberries, tea, and peanut butter and jelly slices.

Day 3: Tortillas, peas and carrots, tomatoes, bowtie pasta, no-sew ravioli.

Day 4: Ideas on repurposing and thrift store finds.

Day 5: Play Kitchen roundup and inspiration photos.

Day 6: Pottery Barn Kids play kitchen review

Day 7: Fabric pots and pans tutorial

Day 8: Fabric pretzel tutorial

Day 9: Felt egg tutorial

Day 10+: Play Food Reviews...

 

Haba

 

Garden Fresh Peel-Able Fruits and Veggies

Ikea

Target's Play Wonder

Melissa and Doug

Green Toys

Finally, some Etsy tips.

Play food reviews disclaimer: I have either bought all of the play foods discussed here or a family member has bought them for my kid. No company is paying me to write about this stuff. But if they were, I'd still be super honest about it.

Also, the photos may or may not contain all of the pieces found in a particular set. The play kitchen is a mess and I did my best to find a nice sampling the day I shot the images.

We made a play kitchen

I had an idea of what I wanted and I sketched it out in the car on the way to Ikea. We picked up a bunch of stuff from the wonderful land of AS-IS and went to town. We spent a total of $68.04 (plus tax) and used up a lot of stuff that we had in the basement.

Mr. Lemon did all the building and I provided emotional support and detailing.

Many more photos in my flickr set. The descriptions and comments have more information as well.