Weekend Play: Sweet Shop Set-up

The Christmas tree is gone, so back out came the grocery store playset along with the progress from the dark corner project.  I love how the space seems so sunlit now.

Is it just me or does it look so much more inviting to play than this?

But it was time to change it up!  So while Ladybug Girl was napping, I set up the new pretend play theme of a sweet shop:

I was trying for "upcycled".  Haha.
But I like that it actually blends in a little more rather than taking over the space.

First I made the sign, of course.  Branding first.

This was a cardboard calendar I had used as a birthday countdown.  I just covered it up with pretty paper and wrote on it.  Ladybug Girl wasn't asleep yet when I made this, so she chose the words.

For the awning cover, I literally slapped a piece of cloth on top of it.  Now I love it so much I might just glue it on permanently.

Then the fun part : setting up shop. 

I had saved some fun things in jars and used post-its to label the other materials.  Marbles became "icy drops".  Pompoms became "fruit balls".  Beads became "sprinkles".

An old bead necklace became a cutting activity.  Moondough became a pie-making set.  The playdoh ice cream maker came out from storage - I had cut up the box for visual instructions which I taped to the wall.  Notice I put the play dough in lock-and-lock containers that are easier for little fingers to open.  Seriously, even I am challenged by those play-doh lids.

 When she woke up from her nap, she was so excited to explore.

One of her favorites - cutting the 'candy' necklace

A little bit of this, a little bit of that : making her own 'treat jar' concoction.

Then some moon dough pie decorated with her choice of toppings

Want some of this?

Or maybe this?
(Or maybe see another use for moondough here?)

Then some play dough ice cream

Then rolling out some cookies

And then she said "where's the lemonade?"  So I explained that a lemon costs fifty pesos in the Philippines, but I would get her our calamansi lime next time.  But inspiration struck, and I ran to setup a pretend-lemonade recipe tray:

Pretend-Lemonade Recipe = mix some lemon flavoring + yellow food coloring to some water

It smelled delicious!  But I tasted it and it was horrible, of course.

Back to cutting.  Someone did not want to go to bed that night.

Perfect play date activity the next Saturday : nearly two hours of fun

And the next day, even for a play date with little boys!

Believe it or not, most of the 'ingredients' for this sweet shop play just came from that little white bin on the left of the storage chest in the living room.

And to make it look less cluttered when it's not in use, I've since contained the more garish toys out on display inside these storage boxes:

Boxes are from SM Homeworld

So now the play area looks like this.

Accessible for play but the whole area blends in more with the home.

The setup time was a little long (1 hour), but the playtime has been so worth it.  

And really, I may have had just as much fun as Ladybug Girl did.  

But then again, maybe not.