
Emma’s 4th Birthday
This is Emma’s 4th trip around the sun and what a trip that has been. We have watched her develop into such a kind, compassionate and smart little girl all year.
Here are some photos from Emma’s birthday party.
Emma’s new headphones and MP3 player Chillin to some tunes Getting dressed up for her party Pink hair too Every princess needs a crown thingy Belinda’s amazing efforts once again Party preparations Party table ready Emma with her new kitchen I think maybe she likes it? India checking out the kitchen Emma blowing out her candles To eat cake or not to eat cake Eat cake
Building the Kitchen
I received an old TV cabinet from mum and dad, which I thought would make a great project for me and, a great birthday present for a 4 year old girl (after the completed project of course). So, I decided to turn this old TV cabinet into a mini kitchen for Emma for her birthday. I had 6 months to complete it. Plenty of time right.

I started out by cleaning it up and sanding everything back. I wanted the kitchen to not only look good, but be interactive for her as well. So I decided to incorporate a “few” electronics. And of course I painted it her favourite colour – pink.

Now we all know that every good kitchen needs a working oven, however due to power constraints, I could only make the oven “look and sound” like it was a working oven. So I installed some red LED lights and a 12v fan with switches to toggle them on or off.

Next, any modern kitchen must have an electric hotplate. I created dimmable hotplates using a series of red LEDs and some dimmer switches. Each hotplate was wired up independently and could have different heat (brightness) settings.
I installed a tap and a sink, using one of Belinda’s good mixing bowls. She didn’t mind, cause it was going to a good cause. I didn’t connect running water at the request of Belinda. In hindsight I now know this was a very good idea not to go with the running water. I made the space below the sink into a dishwasher and left it rather simple with just a pull out dish rack.

I made the fridge face metallic and magnetic so that she could place magnets on it just like a real fridge. I wanted to have an ice maker in the fridge too. I bought some plastic ice cubes for the job and developed a reasonably well, working, ice dispenser. However, I wasn’t completely happy with it so I decided to leave it out. Partly too because I was running out of time. I cut down about 60% of what I wanted to do with this project because I knew it was better to give it to her at 4 years old with less features, than at 25 years old fully finished.

My favourite part of the whole kitchen is the window, where I installed a rainbow led lighting behind a custom made sheet of acrylic, with Emma’s Kitchen etched out. It is remote controlled to allow emma to change the colour of her window to any colour she wants. I put in some down lighting to illuminate the main kitchen area and tied it all into a main timed pressure switch, that turns everything off after an hour of no use.
Because of the vast amount of lights and fans, I wanted to be able to monitor the battery usage. I created the microwave as a kind of double feature. The microwave display not only gives the feel of a working microwave but it display real time battery voltage, current draw and play time. The start button on the microwave plays a random melody each time it is pressed. I then created a false wall in behind the microwave to store most of the wiring connections and battery. I installed a solar regulator and detachable solar panels so the whole kitchen could be powered completely (and safely) off grid.
Finally, I tiled the backsplash with some colourful 100mm tiles in a rainbow pattern and put the final touches on, like a tea towel rack and somewhere to hang her pots and pans. I topped it off with some wooden letters saying “Princess”.

I hope that Emma will have lots of fun with her kitchen, making lots of yummy recipes and most importantly plenty of happy memories..