Ideas In Progress....

For Christmas/my daughter's birthday, I want to get her an easel and a puppet theater. There are some really cool easels out there but most are ridiculously priced. The best one that I've found?
IKEA Mala Easel $14.99, There is a whiteboard on one side and a chalkboard on the other. One side has a shelf to hold paints, etc. and the other has a dowel to hold the paper roll.
ADD the Mala roll-o-paper $4.99
AND I'm going to add the Kusiner wall pockets, $3.99, under the paper roll/dowel for more storage.


 
I'm planning on buying this awesome paintbrush and cup set, $12.99, from Lakeshore Learning. These cups have specially designed lids to keep the paint from spilling even when the cups themselves are tipped.


I've also been looking into buying a puppet theater for my daughter. Unfortunately, the only theater that was in our price range was ridiculously ugly and I would have spent time and more money re-designing it. While I was at IKEA I came across this inexpensive item that I will be spending a ridiculously small amount of time and money to turn into a puppet theater.... Introducing Skylta Children's market stand, $14.99

It is all cardboard, hence the cheap-o price, but compared to the $100 + that the wood and fabric getups were charging, this is awesome! When I put it together, since IKEA conveniently packs things flat and allows you to put them together, I will not put in the shelves. I will be buying some red velvet fabric and making theater curtains that will then most likely be glued to the top and have tie-backs. The alternative is to see if I could mount a simple dowel which I will figure out once I put it together and ask my hubby's opinion. I'm thinking of not putting that little brown framed sign thing on the front and instead glueing on a piece of metal I have leftover from another project so that we can use magnets on the front. But we'll see. I may also get another Kusiner wall pocket and paste it to the back so there's storage for the hand and finger puppets we'll include with the theater.

I'm very excited about my projects. I will try to post the finished looks once I'm done. Since my last post I've been working on and finishing a wedding quilt for my sister-in-law and machine quilting a lap quilt. I'll try to make the time to post some pics.