Rock Soup and Mud Pies

I hope you all aren't getting tired of me mentioning Pinterest.

Well, a while ago I pinned an outdoor kitchen that I thought would be fun for finley.  How great would it be to have a special little area where you could make as many mud pies as you wanted?  I also pinned this little play area that I thought would be perfect too.

You see Finley had been digging all over the yard making holes everywhere and I was tired of looking at the mess.  Plus, we have a slight grass problem mainly being it won't grow.  So the random holes weren't really helping.  I decided to take the idea of the play area but instead of using wood as a border I bought some cinder blocks and painted them the same colors as I used for the pavers I put her sandbox on.  The plus of using the cinder blocks is we can plant stuff in the little holes. 

Like I said above I also pinned a play kitchen.  I wanted to make her a simple kitchen with shelves to store her stuff and also have a bowl that she could fill with water. 

If you know me I am kinda cheap.  I'm also a slight trash digger.  Not that I dig through trash cans to find stuff but if I see something in the alley or at the curb I am not shy about loading it in my car and dragging it home.  It drives Matt crazy but I have found some pretty cool stuff. 

The people down the alley from us are moving.  They have been piling stuff outside for weeks.  They finally put a little beat up dresser out that I couldn't stop thinking about.  I first saw it as I was leaving for a walk and I thought about it the whole hour.  I mean I knew I wanted to drag it home but if I didn't have a use for it Matt would kill me.  That's when it came to me.  Finley's outdoor kitchen!

 It was a little wobbly so I reinforced the back and drawers with some nails.  I also sanded it a bit and painted it with some leftover paint that we had.  Since I wanted to put a "sink" in it I took apart the top drawer and reattached the front with nails.  I then used the left over pieces from the top drawer and made a back splash of sorts.  I put in some hooks so she could hang her various tools.

I didn't really have a bowl that I could use for the sink so I set off to find something suitable.  After searching Target and Dollar Tree I found a stainless steel bowl at Marshalls for only $3.99.  So for under $5 I made Finley an awesome outdoor kitchen with a ton of storage.

Here is how her area is shaping up.  We still need to plant some stuff in the cinder blocks but that's easy and cheap.  She loves having her very own special area in the yard and I love not having holes and mud puddles everywhere.