Tea-rrific Birthday

Posted on February 3, 2026 by lexicolton

Hello friends. Last week was not ideal. Two snowdays, lice, frozen then busted pipes, double vision issues and the worst TMJ I’ve ever had (probably from stress?!) Good news is, it’s a whole new week! I know a lot of you had it far worse with no power and heat for weeks! Much more stressful. So I really can’t compare but it was not a great week for me.

This weekend we are visiting my brother and sister in law and finally seeing their (not so) new house that they bought 2 years ago! The kids are excited to see their cousins and because of postponement due to weather across the South a couple weeks back we even get to be there for Ari’s birthday party. We are looking forward to it.

Speaking of birthdays I realized I didn’t even show you Patricia’s party! Patricia asked for an “animal tea party” this year and as you know I’m rather a tea party afficionado so I didn’t need to do much to make that happen. Because she wanted to invite her whole class (20 kids) plus a couple others and I knew parents would ask to bring siblings, I rented out the community center cafe for the party! It worked great.

This is the one party where I did not have too many crafts, in fact I ran out of crafts. It is so kid dependent how long they spend on something that I totally stand by my usual inclination to have twice as many activities than they need. Luckily it was unseasonably warm out and my mom suggested we play some outdoor games with the kids like farmer and the dell and what time is it Mr fox. They seemed to enjoy that.

Theme & Invites

I don’t know the emails of most of the people in Patricia’s class so I did old fashioned paper invites! I made these on MS Word… they did the trick.

Decor

From past parties, you’ll know I have a collection of tea cups. I added a few more this time around from the thrift shop, and also bought a bunch of pretty plates that I turned into tea party tiered trays for cheap! I wanted there to be one per table, and ended up with a few extras that I used for cupcakes. I bought sheets from the thrift store that I turned into tablecloths and splurged on some paper plates from Michaels that look like real china. But the real pièce de résistance? A streamer chandelier that covered the ceiling and had a (I know I went against my rules) golden 5 balloon. Will gets full credit for putting that up exactly to spec. I never would have been able to reach the ceiling and he did a marvelous job.

Activities

I bought these cute little “aqua puff” animals. Basically they are dry flattened sponges you color with marker and then paint with water to get them to puff up. I figured it would be a good activity as kids arrived. Unfortunately kids arrived in varying amounts of time and some kids took wildly varying amounts of time to make them.

Next I bought a bunch of mini wild animal stuffies (made from 100% recycled materials). I made adoption certificates and little bow ties and hair bows for them to decorate then with as well as little capes for them to decorate and put on. Again, varying amounts of time for these.

Finally I had kids make tea party hats by picking out flowers and bows to put on their hats. I helped them with the bows, they decorated with the flowers using tacky glue and then my mom glued them all down for the kids with hot glue. This worked well and most kids’ hats stayed together!

High Tea

After this we had the actual tea party, described below. All the kids liked the tea choices I picked with many asking for seconds.

Games

After lunch we went outside for a few games, and then back inside for cupcakes and singing.

Food

We had a couple kids with different food allergies so I did not put any questionable items with allergens on the tables with the kids (honestly I wasn’t even going to serve anything with any known allergens but my friend, whose child has an egg allergy, convinced me she wanted to eat egg salad so I made an exception… Plus it’s Patricia’s favorite). Frustratingly some parents didn’t tell me their kids had food allergies (partially my fault because I usually put it on the invite and didn’t this time). Luckily it was an allergy I had accommodated for as a “just in case” (and I’d taken pictures of the things I had purchased instead of making from scratch so the parent could double check). As for food prep, I brought a toaster oven to heat up the crumpets but everything else was prepared in the morning and put in the fridge until we served it. The labels made it easy to remember where everything should go.

Menu

  • Mini Crumpets served with jam and flower shaped butter (these were a huge hit)
  • Egg Salad on Sourdough Rolls
  • Sunbutter and Jelly sandwiches (store bought bread)
  • Turkey and Cheese sandwiches on rolls (no mayo, store bought rolls)
  • Cucumber and Cream Cheese sandwiches (bread not homemade)
  • Fruit Salad
  • Teacup Cupcakes
  • Raspberry Herbal tea
  • Paris Herbal tea
  • Assorted seltzers
Posted in Culinary Delights, Thrift Finds | Leave a comment

Moxie Boxy

Posted on January 27, 2026 by lexicolton

Well I really meant to post last week. I really did but I started reading Manacled and physically and mentally could not do anything else until I finished that. It was a struggle to live life last week with the knowledge that if it weren’t for <playing with the children/working/eating/sleeping> I could be reading that book. Man I loved it. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a book that much since ACOTAR. Suffice it to say I’m now in a reading slump because nothing else compares.

Julius has been baking for us every weekend in his easy bake oven. It’s really cute. He seems to really enjoy it, even more than I did as a child. We got him a cookbook that has a bunch of recipes so you don’t have to make the kits and he’s been cruising thru it. I think he’s made a dozen recipes. Patricia has been playing with her easel almost daily as well, which means I’m greeted to a new assortment of colors decorating the floor. (But at least it’s not on the carpet anymore!) I’m glad she’s so creative and it’s fun to watch her paint. The kids have also been doing a really good job picking up after themselves a bit more. We did a huge clean up after Christmas because we literally had too many toys to fit in the house. We got rid of a bunch before Christmas too, but seeing what they got for Christmas made the kids realize there were a lot of things they were just never going to play with again (read: Will donated and threw everything away while they protested.)

In all honesty though I was at my wit’s end with the state of the house on a day to day basis and my therapist suggested having a quick family clean up time in the evenings, and try to make it fun. So we dubbed it the ten minute tidy (anyone remember The Big Comfy Couch?) and each kid picks a song to add to our tidying playlist and then we work on an area that mom dubs the most messy. We’ve been doing it daily since before Thanksgiving and I really think it has improved my sanity! It also holds the children a bit more accountable for their messes. Yesterday they surprised me by doing TWO ten minute tidies themselves (they set up Alexa to play songs for them and count down a timer). Today they did another 10 minute tidy before dinner without me asking! Of course they’re not perfect, but it is a relief to have them even notice the disaster.

Speaking of organized I want to show you the silly thing I made for Will for Christmas. So for a while I’ve been wanting to make Will a board game carrying case. The idea is for him to take a bunch of games out of their boxes and bring them in a hard sided carrying case. Will usually brings a bunch of boxes of games and the boxes get all crushed. He’s tried bringing just the components in his backpack but then the cards and boards get bent. This, in theory would solve those problems! The key dimension is that it had to be carry on size. I bought a box at the thrift shop before I realized that it would be too big to fit in the overhead or under the seat in front of him. I eventually found a utensil box at Savers that fit the bill: it was small enough for a carry on in all dimensions, and it had a cover with some depth to hold game boards. I would use the bottom to hold cards. If I’d made the box myself completely I would have made the bottom a bit taller so I could fit cards on their side.

The first step I did was removing all the gross interior fabric, and fabric on the bottom of the box. It was in pretty bad shape. I then added a clasp mechanism (taken from the first box I bought, and added a handle for carrying like a suitcase. I added felt to the bottom again, and inside the box I added a strap and pouch to the top area to store game boards and instructions. On the bottom I added a couple slots the width of a standard deck of cards and used balsa wood strips to create dividers. On the outside I added some gilding. (though I realized afterwards that I put the gold meeple the wrong side up in my opinion!)

Ripping out al the gross velvet.
Stitching in an elastic band for the
Adding a meeple using gold foil.
Adding felt to the bottom.
Finished inside
Finished outside.

We took it to Nashville for it’s maiden voyage and it fit A LOT of games; especially card games. It’s not going to fit Dark Tower or Fireball Island, but it will fit a bunch of fun favorites. Check out everything we took:

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Reindeer Dreams

Posted on January 13, 2026 by lexicolton

Happy New Year everyone! We had quite the holiday season! We started Christmas Eve off with my parents joining us for dinner… And Patricia had a really high fever! She tucked herself into bed before my parents arrived and slept thru dinner. She did eventually wake up and we played some games, put cookies out for Santa and sent the kids off to bed.

That night Santa came! I was a bit worried he might pass us by because Will and I ended up staying up way too late… The kids this year wrote Santa a note and left out their autograph books which Santa signed! They must have been very good kiddos because they got way too many toys this Christmas. I have no idea where we are going to put everything. I nearly forgot to mention that Julius woke up at 5am Christmas morning with a high fever! So we gave him some Tylenol and sent him back to bed and luckily he felt well enough to open presents at 8am. Then he immediately tucked himself into bed for a nap… My parents came over later in the afternoon with MORE presents before they headed out. Julius seemed to like the easy bake oven the most… and Patricia loved this weighted stuffed cow she got from aunt Mary Elizabeth (fun fact, we got stopped both there and back for the cow. They had to test every seam for explosives…)

We were supposed to leave early on the 26th to fly to Nashville but the family requested we stay home until our kids were 24 hours fever free. We were able to move our flight (for exorbitant prices) to the 27th. Then we woke up on the 26th to find both kids were fever free (yay!) and our flight on the 27th had been cancelled and there were no available flights out on JetBlue for 5 days (boo!). We then scrambled to rebook flights on a different airline for even more exorbitant prices while I waited on hold with JetBlue for over 3 hours before they hung up on me. I was not happy. We had gotten reasonable prices in April and we ended up paying triple the cost for these last minute flights. Luckily we were able to stay for longer because it was the “cheapest” option. I’m grateful that we have enough means to do this (even if it really pisses me off) but I can’t imagine what happened to those folks whose flights were cancelled who don’t have the means to rebook. I hope they were able to have happy holidays wherever they got stuck.

Once we made it to Nashville we had a blast with the Coltons celebrating Xmas part 2, seeing friends and family, going to lots of outings like ice sculptures, the car museum, the pancake pantry, several favorite restaurants and of course playing lots of board games! It was fun to see the whole family and we were lucky that we only had to work one day while we were there!

I have a couple things to show you that a made as presents for Christmas this year, but this week I wanted to show you something silly the kids and I did. Patricia came home before Christmas with reindeer food that she was supposed to sprinkle on the lawn to attract Santa’s reindeer to make sure they didn’t miss our house. They were really excited about it but to me it looked like oats mixed with silver glitter… and I’m going to guess the glitter would not be ideal for animals to eat (though I guess we all have a plastic spoon work of microplastics in our brain already… but I want to avoid contributing…) I told the kids that I was worried about the glitter being made of plastic and that we could definitely make our own. Julius was pretty convinced that it wouldn’t work without the glitter because it was reflective to attract the reindeer. Luckily I have a stash of sprinkles (read this as: I have a whole cabinet of sprinkles because I’m a crazy person.) We were able to find a suitable substitute! We used the Sweetapolita Flight of the Unicorn sprinkles with silver edible glitter stars and small silver dragees. (Yes I know these are no longer considered edible by the FDA but Canada still thinks they are and under this regime I’d trust Canada more with my life than the US. Just don’t eat a bucketful!)

We can confirm it works! The kids sprinkled it all over the lawn and woke up to presents and our cookies and carrots gone!

Teamwork
Here’s the finished product
Fevers didn’t stop them from sprinkling magic reindeer food on the lawn.
Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 4 Comments

Happy Solstice 2025

Posted on December 29, 2025 by lexicolton

Happy Winter Holidays to you and yours!

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Holiday Mayhem

Posted on December 22, 2025 by lexicolton

Again posting a week after I wrote this one! Gah!

Another 2 weeks flew by again! We went to the nutcracker, went to some drive thru Christmas lights, saw Santa, went to the Hudson Holiday Stroll and rode a horse drawn carriage, hosted 3 sets of people, went to 3 parties, mailed out Chrismas cards and barely had time to sleep! It has been complete holiday madness! This weekend is solstice so we’ve got even more holiday plans coming up.

I haven’t had a ton of time to craft again this holiday season but I did manage to make a cute craft for my book clubs. And we did a cute little craft at ladies night that I wasn’t sure how it was going to go over, but seemed like it was a hit! I had a completely different plan in mind but when I got around to testing it it was a total fail. I will need to find another use for the clear plastic Christmas ornaments I bought. Luckily I had a backup in mind, so the night before ladies’ night I was able to test out and order black headed pins off Amazon with 1 day shipping (I know, sorry).

For ladies’ night this time I made a raddichio, pomegranate, red bean salad from Rancho Gordo, my mom’s pumpkin soup (made with part of the 5 pumpkins I roasted and froze a couple weeks ago) with fresh sourdough and again my lentil shepherd’s pie. I think the raddichio salad could have used a bit more of a pop of sweetness or else the raddichio should have been cut into smaller pieces to guarantee you’re getting all pieces in a bite. It was my bad for not testing the recipe first! (Yes I did forget to get a picture with all the food… Again).

We also did a cookie swap! People brought some amazing cookies! Spumoni, hot cocoa, shortbread, pistachio chocolate chip, buckeyes and gingerbread bars. They were all amazing (and devoured quickly). The kids and I need to make some more for Santa.

The silly craft we did was making cork dog ornaments. Most folks in the group have (or had) dogs so I thought this would go over fairly well. Everyone went all out making customized dogs and other animals! I was so proud! Amy even made a capybara which cracked me up.

Cork Dogs

What you’ll need:

  • small eye hooks (.062 x 1/2”)
  • small black screws for the nose (#6 x 1/2″)
  • pins with black heads
  • various lengths of finish nails (I used #18 x 3/4″ wire nails but also provided 1.5″ finish nails)
  • corks
  • felt
  • ribbon

To make the corgi

Cut a cork for the head down to 2/3 original size (at the party I provided a little flush cut saw).

Hammer in nails for the legs and tail (or just push them in)

Hot glue the head onto the body, keeping it a bit further back than you’d expect so it’s center of balance is better.

Add pins for the eyes

Add a screw for the nose

Cut out triangles for ears and hot glue them to the back of the head.

Cut a 4″ piece of ribbon for the scarf and hot glue around the neck (to cover the hot glue from putting the head on).

Add an eye hook for hanging (may need to be on the head to hang properly).

Display proudly.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing, Culinary Delights, Parties | 2 Comments

Hot Cocoa Dreams

Posted on December 3, 2025 by lexicolton

Well we had a blast at Thanksgiving with my family. We all stayed at my parents’ house and my siblings and their spouses and family all came to town. We played games, did a 2000 piece puzzle, went to the zoo lights, and had STUMP FEST (where we decorate our Christmas tree stumps from years past). The kids had a blast playing with their cousins. They were all crying when they left for the airport today (so was I!)

I felt like I was ahead of the Christmas rush this year having already bought most of my Christmas gifts and finished my cards and calendars, but then 4 swaps got added to my calendar. So close. My first one is this weekend and I can’t wait to share you one of the things I made for it. Not yet though! We had our first snow of the year on Tuesday and I’ve been thinking warm thoughts and cooking warm meals. Patricia has had hot cocoa 3 times already this season! (Though I haven’t made any of it.)

Speaking of hot cocoa… when camping I started buying the little prepackaged bags of oatmeal because it was easier. I like the Kodiak brand because it has slightly less sugar, and supposedly more protein (not sure how). Julius and I decided we preferred the chocolate chip version. I decided that I could make that for way cheaper (and plastic free). Julius has eaten several variants, as have I. I decided this is my favorite version. It’s reminiscent of a hot cocoa oatmeal… Note that powdered milk has a lot of sugar in it. That’s where most of the sweetness comes from in this recipe, but the mini chocolate chips add a little pop of sweetness. I don’t think this is cloyingly sweet though, and those used to the grocery store version may be disappointed. Fair warning. And full confession – I eat it after the kids go to bed as a dessert sometimes.

I really need to work on how to make these photos less ugly.

Hot Cocoa Oatmeal

  • 1/4 cup quick oats
  • 1 tsp chia seeds
  • 1 tsp powdered milk
  • 1 tsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp mini chocolate chips
  • 1/3 to 1/2 cup boiling water (to preference)

Mix all ingredients except water. When ready to serve either pour boiling water over and let stand (covered ideally) for 5 minutes. Or pour room temp water over and microwave for 1-2 minutes. Pour milk on top if desired when serving.

Kids enjoying their oatmeal while camping in Vermont this fall.
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Julius Dreams of Sushi

Posted on November 16, 2025 by lexicolton

Finally coming up for air! As you know I LOVE Halloween. As you also know my kids were born 4 days apart in early November and I LOVE planning their birthdays. Basically mid October to mid November is the most busy period for me all year. Julius asked in July for an “electric car party” which I spent many hours agonizing over what to do and coming up with several ideas. I thought my last one (giant race track with matchbox car racing plus solar car building) was a winner for sure, but Julius went to a friend’s birthday at the roller rink and decided he wanted a skating party. Honestly it was a relief for me. He was again inviting his whole class which is a lot of kids. Then there is always the awkwardness where people ask if they can bring siblings (been there done that too, no shame) and I have to legitimately figure out if I’ll have enough space or not. At the roller rink we could allow siblings because they have infinite space. Plus Will and I both love roller blading so it’s fun for us too! It was insanely expensive though. I think overall it was probably worth it.

So for Julius’ party I luckily had to do very little prep work. Lucky because a week before Halloween Patricia ended up in the hospital with antibiotic resistant bacterial cellulitis. Thankfully some IV antibiotics and warm compresses caused it to drain and we ended up only staying one night (because she didn’t have surgery). Patricia is doing a lot better now but it was pretty scary. This cut down on birthday and Halloween prep time… More on that later. Then my friend Delaney visited from out of town for 3 nights the week before both kids’ parties. We had a blast but I had even less time finishing up party planning!

The good news was Julius’ party was a synch. I only needed to provide cupcakes (I could have bought them but what’s the fun in that) and party favors (which I did buy). I never do typical party favors. I know this is an unpopular opinion but I feel like the favors frequently get thrown in the trash so I like to spend the money on activities they can do and take home at the end of the party. And Julius’ party was EXPENSIVE. So I wasn’t about to drop $5 more per kid for trinkets. Instead Julius and I bought a bunch of matchbox cars at dollar tree for $1.25 a piece (Julius loves matchbox) and I stuck a sticker on the back with the 50 prize tickets and free admission that came with the roller skating package. That seems like a pretty great favor to me…

So all that was left for me to do after Patricia’s party was cupcakes! I made another batch of chocolate cupcakes (after freezing 72 a few days before) because I wanted to be sure to have enough for everyone invited. I defrosted the last 30 and started on the icing after everything was cooled and defrosted. I had a Pinterest board of cupcake ideas for his party, but I couldn’t come up with anything clever that was electric car related. He saw on the board some sushi cupcakes I’d pinned and decided that was a way cuter idea. There are a lot of variants of sushi cupcakes online and this was my variant. I didn’t want to make fondant fish like some of the super cool ones did. So this version was pretty easy and they came out great!

The first step was baking the cupcakes with black cupcake liners, then whipping up a batch of white icing.

I piped a dollop of icing in the center of the cupcake. (I’m not sure why they rose and fell but it actually was perfect for the sushi cupcakes.)

Then I pressed the cupcake into a bowl of white sprinkles, flattening out the icing.

Next I added my toppings. For the whole fish version I added icing to the back of a Swedish Fish candy and then affixed it to the top of the cupcake.

For the other versions I took Starburst candies for the raw fish and cut and lightly shaped them to look like bits of fish sticking out the end of the roll.

Then I used a spoon to press down on the frosting a bit in the center. On top of this I added a small blob of frosting and added the Starburst fish pieces.

Finally I pressed in some green sprinkles on the sides to look like avocado and cucumber.

I experimented with flattening it out but decided it liked it better popping up a bit like you’d see at the end of the roll.

For the day of presentation I mixed some green and yellow food coloring into a small amount of icing, and scooped in into little piles to make wasabi.

I also used this recipe to whip up a batch of chocolate sauce that I provided as “soy sauce” for dipping.

Unfortunately the skating rink has terrible lighting so the colors show a bit more neon than they were in real life. The cupcakes were very well received though and a lot of the kids dipped them right in the chocolate sauce!

Posted in Culinary Delights, Parties | 4 Comments

The Children of the Night, What Music They Make

Posted on November 1, 2025 by lexicolton

I’m going to pretend I hit submit on this when I actually wrote it….

Ahhhhhh! It’s only 9 days til Halloween!!! I’m in full panic mode. We had Patricia’s daycare Trunk or Treat last night which is always a blast. It is also when I always aim to have the kids’ Halloween costumes done by. I finished Patricia’s costume 10 minutes before we left and I don’t consider Julius’ done but Julius seems to only want a cape to be a vampire so maybe I am done.

Julius and Patricia actually picked a theme that works together! Julius wanted to be a vampire and Patricia said she wanted to be “a cute bat”. We decided those were perfect costumes, no notes. Julius said his costume HAD to have a black cape with red inside because that’s what all vampires wear. (He is now realizing that’s what Dracula wears but whatever.) I bought everything for his costume (except the teeth) at the thrift shop (dress pants, dress shirt) including a couple of red and black flat sheets that I turned into the cape. The shirt and pants can be completely worn again because they are great quality! Total I spent less than $20 on his costume.

Kids’ Vampire Cape

What You’ll Need:

  • 3 yards of black material
  • 3 }yards of red material
  • 1/2 yard of peltex 70 ultrafirm interfacing
  • clasp (I used a large sized metal hook and eye)

1. I started by measuring Julius’ height from his shoulder to his calf. I also measured an appropriate width for his neck (but I did this by measuring below and around the collar of his dress shirt collar. This helped me keep it loose enough).

2. I took the neck width number and divided it in quarters then I drew a shallow curve the length of the quartered width from above on top of the red fabric folded in half. I measured down from that line the height measured above to form a panel for the cape.

3. I repeated steps 2 but no longer on a fold and with a more elf-shoe-like-curve to my line for the front of the cape.

4. Cut the same pieces out in black.

5. I sewed the pieces from step 3 on either end of the piece in step 2. Repeat for both black and red sides of cape

6. Place red and black pieces right sides together then pin and stitch around the whole cape leaving the neck completely opened.

7. Turn right side out and press.

8. Cut out your collar from interfacing using the shape in the picture. You will need to adjust so the length of your collar matches the underside of the pattern. I made a template of scrap paper first.

9. Cut a piece of red and black fabric with seam allowance beyond that of the collar.

10. Stitch red and black collar fabric together leaving the neck portion opened.

11. Turn right side out, press and stuff with interfacing.

12. Pin entire unfinished side of collar to cape on black fabric only. Stitch.

13. Turn collar up and fold under red fabric on the cape to cover the unfinished edge. Stitch thru the folded under portion (using red thread on the top of your machine, and black thread in the bobbin.)

14. Finally add a clasp of your choosing – I didn’t have anything else in my stash that matched so I used a large size hook and eye, which made it easy for Julius to get on and off himself.

15. Scare up some fun!

Posted in Crafts & Sewing, Thrift Finds | 2 Comments

I Wish I was an Ocean Maybe then I’d get to see you Again

Posted on October 14, 2025 by lexicolton

Wow. What a trip. My siblings and I went on our first ever Collins siblings trip this past weekend to LA to see The Format. The last time we saw The Format was also one of the most fun experiences of my life. I was home from my first year of college and Mandy, Mark and I all went together to see the show at The Living Room in Providence. I drove us to the venue (super low ceiling intimate venue) and together we belted out all their songs. This time around Ryan hosted us all in LA and he was just the best as usual. He spoiled us with hospitality – we went to Disneyland, the beach, various fabulous cafes, two concerts, went swimming in the pool, went to a farmers market, took pretty much every mode of modern transportation available (Bird, Lyft, waymo, bikes, cars) and stayed up way too late every night. It was bliss.

The concert itself was amazing. It was in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery which is an actual active cemetery. It was a super cool venue and I learned Saturday that your final resting place can be in front row concert seats. Sounds amazing!

Can I also just share that the electric scooters are super fun and Waymo was way better than imagined. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel putting myself in the hands of an AI driver but I got comfortable instantly. The best features? No more awkward small talk with cabbies and you can blast your own music! Whenever we couldn’t take Waymo it made the ride way less exciting. We also got to the point where we’d be thinking to ourselves (while in human driven cabs) “Waymo wouldn’t have cut that guy off”. Waymo did have a couple weird glitches but nothing that ever made me think I was going to die (which has happened to me dozens of time in ride shares over the years).

I am saddened the trip is over and I have to go back to the real world tonight! I’ll share the last project from my other escape from reality, camping. One of the last things I made for the micro camper was big covers for the windows. These may get modified to use different material but right now they are made of stretchy knit netting. They don’t let as much air in as I would like though, so I may make new versions with a different fabric, but the process will be the same.

Custom Car Camper Window Covers

  • ~1 yard of stretchy mesh material per window cover
  • Fridge magnets (mine were left over from wedding save the dates)
  • e1000

1. Using scrap paper trace the shape of your windows.

2. Use this as a template to cut 2 pieces of fabric for each window and add 1″ seam allowance to the top and sides and several inches for the bottom (you’ll want to figure out the best place to add the magnets from trial and error.

3. Stitch the top and sides using a serger.

4. Place the covering over your window and the place magnets on top, figuring out the best placement to get them to stick. The magnets will prevent bugs coming up underneath.

5. Move the magnets to the same placement but underneath the fabric and secure with e1000 glue.

6. When dry trim the excess fabric to the location of your magnets.

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Cloud 9

Posted on October 7, 2025 by lexicolton

So before I get into my weekend I have to recount the most adorable tale. Two weekends ago Will went to visit Erin and Mark to play board games while I stayed home with the kids with the theory that I would have a relaxing weekend. I’m not quite sure how I deluded myself into thinking this, but I ended up not relaxing at all since the kids had multiple birthday parties, soccer games, piano lessons etc. During the evenings I ended up fixing Julius’ seatbelt (which I discovered after a long period of poking had been thwarted by a tortilla chip) and doing dishes/tinkering with the dishwasher because our dishwasher had broken. Again. I digress, let’s get back to the adorable tale.

Patricia was invited to tag along to Julius’ friends’ party at the roller rink. She was a little bummed because she was having a tough time skating and Julius was playing with his own friends. I came over to help her and she lamented, “why can’t Julius play with me?” I patiently explained to her that we were at a birthday for Julius’ friends and he may want to play with his own friends. She then tearfully said, “well he can play with me AND his friends”. I told her that maybe he would eventually do just that but until then I’d skate with her. She rejected me and said she’d rather skate on her own so I went back and watched from the sidelines while she slowly tried to make skating progress. As soon as I got back to the edge of the rink I noticed Julius skating around the corner, hunched over and rather chaotic (as he is still learning to skate himself). He clearly sees Patricia up ahead of him, and he inelegantly slows down, goes right up next to Patricia and then puts his hand out for her to hold. They then take off together hand in hand. It was adorable. He’s just the best brother.

This past weekend we went for a final camping trip of the year (that I know of) bringing our camping to 4 different weekends in 3 different states! This one was in Vermont which was GORGEOUS. The foliage this past weekend was incredible. We went on a hike to a pond, then canoed around the pond, went to the nature center, checked out the actual Cabot factory (from afar, they don’t do tours) and then went to a HUGE fall festival. It was basically my perfect weekend! We didn’t have cell service either, and except for my kindle dying and me not being able to read the book I brought, it was everything I wanted for a fall camping trip.

I am going on an actual vacation this weekend by myself and I hope it is more relaxing than my delusional weekend of “relaxation”. I’ll let you know. Despite my jam packed weekends I did get in some crafting time a few weeks back to finish up a couple items for camping. The one I’ll share with you today is ridiculously easy. Our first camping trip of the year was to the cape and Will and I had forgotten our pillows. We went to a camping store and found they sold camp pillows for $25. Then we went to Target and found standard size pillows for $5 each. Insane. We bought 2 and were much more comfortable. Unfortunately they weren’t super compact. Well I fixed that. I cut one of the pillows in half, sewed it closed and made a cover for it. And it was literally 1/10th the cost of the camp pillow…

Camping pillows from $5 Target Pillow

What you’ll need:

1. Cut pillow in half. (My pillow was 20×13 after cut in half.)

2. Squish stuffing in and then fold under the unfinished edges and sew. I put an extra layer of pins to hold in the stuffing so I could sew more easily.

3. Cut fabric for pillow cover. For mine, one was 21.5″x14.5″, the second was 27.5″x14.5″

4. Hem one short edge of each pillow.

5. Place the longer pillow cover piece right side up and fold the finished edge over by 5″. Place the shorter piece on top of this with right side down. Stitch around the 3 unfinished edges.

6. Turn pillowcase inside out and place pillow inside.

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