Homemade Christmas Gifts

A few months back, my parents gave me a doll highchair that was mine when I was little. It was in shambles, needed some sanding and paint and wood glue. I got it whipped into shape just in time for Christmas for Emily.

The before picture, my mom made the little blue seat cushion for it when they bought it. My sister had a matching highchair with a pink seat cushion and we shared a doll cradle, also with mom-made bedding.

After lots and lots of sanding, a few coats of white spray paint and some clear coat. Oh and some pink vinyl.

Emy's doll cradle, also adorned with pink vinyl, part of her Christmas presents from my parents.

She has to have a flight suit diaper bag for her dollies! Now she just needs to get old enough to care about playing with these things!

So, then the motherly guilt started weighing in heavily that Emy was getting an adorable family heirloom and Brian wasn't, so I decided to make him a kitchen helping stool. Sounds exciting, right? What almost 4 year old wouldn't love a stool for Christmas, you say? I know it's sort of lame, but he really enjoys helping in the kitchen and this way he doesn't have to drag a chair over. He's also found many other uses for it, like he can use it to climb onto things and get into cabinets we'd rather he not. He can slide it over to the back door and get to the top lock, there are all kinds of shenanigans this stool can assist with!

So here he is helping me mash some potatoes. I got the plans from my favorite-est website ever, http://www.ana-white.com/. The paint is Lowe's Martha Stewart "Barn Red." The ladder stool took me about 5 hours start to finish since I'm a newby woodworker and an absolute perfectionist when it comes to painting. The assembly was easy (saws are fun), the sanding and painting were a pain.

I also whipped out this little "Future Fighter Pilot" sign for his room last week with a 1x3 scrap and some blue paint I already had and of course, some fun with my vinyl cutting machine. He actually says he's going to be a "Papa Jet Pilot" and fly the airliners like my Dad. Steve's becoming okay with the idea.