once upon a time...

Keaton has been super into storytelling lately. Hearing stories, telling stories, asking to hear the same story again and again and again. And acting them out with his toys.

That + this  resulted in this project...

the first (of many brewing in my brain) playset box.

it's a little wooden box with a latch- it's about 8x8- perfect size for playing at home- or taking in his backpack for when we're out and about and need something to do...

here it is opened up, with all the bits in place-

(the link above that sparked this idea had the box propped open at 90 degrees and I considered doing that, but as I was trying to figure out how to best swing that- I realized there would be more space to play if it opened all the way up...)

birdseye view-

(ooh- that sneaky wolf is hiding behind a shrub in the meadow...)

I was pretty nervous before I painted the wolf (it is obvious I'm kind of a perfectionist? must calm down!) I had a few different ideas on how to make his little face...one was to just pop ears on top and paint his face- but after I molded the ears, I was afraid he'd look too much like a cat... my next plan was to construct basically a mask out of Sculpy - that way I could do ears and a muzzle- really make him wolf-y. But after trying that I decided it made the wolf too realistic and I wanted him to be more a suggestion of a wolf that Keaton could embellish in his imagination...  So I settled on just ears and crossed my fingers that the paint job on the face would work... and I think it does. He's pretty wolf-y without being too realistic.

and here are the piggies and their houses- straw, sticks and bricks

thanks to a little engineering- the straw and stick house are both "blow-down-able"- and with the help of that windowbox of flowers and a "step" inside- the brick house withstands any wind my near 3-year old can throw at it...

here you can see the brick house better-

and here's Buster playing with it...

I gave it to him the other day when he woke up from nap and he BEAMED and said "Oh, mama- me LOVE it!"   WIN!

(I'm considering selling making more and them on etsy... I will keep you posted if I get enough "double nap times" out of the boys...)

 

Comments

[aud]

genius idea, Nisa! This looks fantastic! I was just thinking how much my girls would have loved something like this. Heck, Cami is 10 and would probably still play with it! LOL

[Rachael]

Oh my goodness...this is precious!! I would definitely purchase one if you had them on Etsy! ;)

[Lynnette]

Oh this is so cute! It reminds me of old-school Little People, before they went and made them all ginormous. So fun!

[Emily Leiphart]

This is so cute! I love it.