Winnie's DIY Play Kitchen

We fit into that widening category of folks who are broke.  We live with Jake's parents and spend about 90% of our money on food.  We don't get to go shopping or out to eat often.  We don't go to the movies. BUT, we have a wonderful life where we need for nothing, nor want for anything.  We are blessed with wonderful family, friends and creativity.  We spend our time loving each other, and laughing with one another.  We have made a commitment this year to buy nothing new (unless we absolutely must).  It's more than just a fix for our money problem.  

We have boycotted Walmart for about two years.  We believe that Walmart is a huge problem in the United States that will continue to monopolize the consumer industry and take small businesses out of the scenario.  They will continue to replace the good jobs that they destroyed with part time, minimum wage jobs.  I honestly could go on and on, maybe that's a different blog post for later.  And I'm not trying to make you feel guilty for shopping at Walmart.  Honestly. ;) 

So we shopped at Target and I remained blissfully ignorant...by choice.  But it was just a matter of time before the facts and evidence of Targets corruption came spewing out into the open and I could no longer close my eyes.  I was devastated.  Where would we shop?  We chose to vote with our dollars and I was no longer willing to vote for Target.  

That's when we thought of our no new things idea.  Everything you need has already been made.  It already exists.  Even "new" fashion is a recycling of older styles.  Why not sport the real deal?!  

So here we were at Christmas and I knew that I wanted Winona to have a play kitchen.  I also knew that a new kitchen ran about $100.  Why not make one?  Exactly the way we wanted for much less.  And so we did.  Or mostly Jake did.

 We went to our local Habitat for Humanities Restore and picked up this old cabinet for $20.  What a deal!

 The refrigerator is painted with chalkboard paint so Winona can make out her grocery list.  Right?

 Meet Roy and Bunny.  They are regulars in her kitchen and she makes sure they never go hungry.

 Something we did buy new was her dishes.  Ikea has the most beautiful play kitchen dishes and cookware.  They also have quite beautiful felt food.

 This is the inside of her fridge/pantry.  Does this feel like Cribs yet?

 Oh that's just some broccoli being rinsed off in the sink.

She is in absolute heaven and I think this year is going to be a lot of fun with our new resolution of sorts.  Next year Jake is already planning on a doll house!  EEEEK

What are some resolutions that you made for this New Year?

A Little Catching Up {Photo overload}

We are back!  Things got really busy and I had to step away from the blog for a few months but we are back and running. (Yay!)  I feel as though so much has changed and I have grown in so many ways in the past few months.  We have made some incredible friends and life has gotten much busier lately.  We have had to minimize our media usage to make room for much needed family time.  We also finally got rid of our family room television!  Woo hoo!  It was something we had been working up to for over a year.  We replaced it with a beautiful (new to us) vintage stereo/turntable system that my parents gifted us for Christmas.

Fall passed us by much too quickly but we did make room in our tight schedules to relish in the autumn color and participate in fun, family festivities.

 I wish I could find the picture that we took last year right here.  She is SO much bigger now.  

 She was a garden knome for Halloween.  AHHHH it was a cute overload.

 Winona and her friend Soli.  

 These beautiful people are my parents.  My Dad and Stepmom came up to see us for Christmas and made our holiday!

 She insists on wearing these boots quite often.

Somehow, I managed to take very, very little pictures.  But I did get this gem of a photo!  We (mostly Jake) made Winona a play kitchen for Christmas.  It was from Santa.  She also got the beautiful table and chairs.  I will be doing another blogpost on the kitchen.
We are planning on making this year the best so far.  I have a lot of "resolutions" to be more positive, loving and self sufficient.  So here's to a New Year that makes 2011 hold his head in shame.
I hope your holidays were filled with loved ones, laughter and joy.  Happy New Year!