The Lady Beekeeper

I hope you all had a Happy Easter/ are having a Happy Passover/Ramadan!  We had a fun time yesterday celebrating spring, despite the snow flurries and hail.  This is the first year since Julius was born that I’ve made absolutely nothing for Julius’ basket.  I did thrift most of the stuff in the baskets (except for some stuffed animals that I caved and bought immediately so I couldn’t have another last minute hairy stuffed beast tragedy).  Honestly it was a bit disappointing not making anything for the basket so I’ll have to figure out how to remedy that next year.  Julius got a lot of crafts though, which he loved. And Patricia got a ball, which she was very excited about.  (She pulled it out of the basket, shouting “ball”, which was completely expected).

My favorite new Patricia word lately has been her word for Julius, which is “Juju”.  Today she was shouting “Juju, Juju, Juju” in the bathroom over and over again, because Julius helps her wash her hands.  (Have I mentioned how good a big brother he is?)  Speaking of Julius, before I left to go to the thrift store (allegedly to buy Patricia more pants, which was a half truth) I had this conversation with Juju:

Me: I have to go to…

Julius: (interrupting) the bathroom?

Julius: the renaissance faire?

Julius: the clown shop?

I nearly died laughing.  I guess that pretty much sums me up (except the clown shop part, what exactly is he trying to say there)?

So I’ll finally show you the last part of the closet redo (I won’t show you the shelf install because that was just a piece of sanded wood with purchased brackets that I spray painted copper).  For this part I was originally going to make baskets or hanging bins that were tilted slightly so you could reach inside them.  But the baskets couldn’t be very large, and after making some baskets that were more floppy than structural I decided to go with purchased baskets.  The problem is most cheap baskets these days are made of some form of plastic.  I went to Michaels to look around for some baskets they had online only to find they were entirely made of plastic (despite what they looked like on the website).  I lucked out though because I also ran into these little wooden crates.  They were only 11″x8″x5″ so I could fit 3 perfectly in the closet.  I’m glad I found them because they fit tons of gear and they work so much better than the shoebox we had filled with hats.  Speaking of new places to store gear don’t forget to check out my contest from last week.  I’m giving away a Stasher bag in honor of Earth day!  You have until May 2nd 2022 to enter!

Hanging Hat Crates

What you’ll need:

• Small Wooden Crates
• Screws and drywall anchors
• 2 yards of 3/8″ elastic per crate (mine was in rose gold)

1. Locate the position of your crates and mark within your closet/space.  For me, the crate was 2.25″ inches above the coat hangers. I used a pencil to align my crates with my shelf, just a pencil depth below the shelf.
2. With your crate in position drill through the crate and into the wall with a bit that is slightly smaller than your screw width.
3. Remove the crate and enlarge the holes in the drywall to the size specified for your drywall anchors.  Insert drywall anchors.
   

   Insert drywall anchors

4. Knot the elastic on the bottom left side of your crate front (what would normally be the top of the crate).  Weave it under and over the other side of the crate, making sure to keep the elastic flat and not twisted.
5. Continue twisting from side to side until you reach the top right of the crate front.  Gently pull the elastic you have woven taunt, so it still stretches but isn’t loose.  Secure the elastic by tying it to the crate again.
6. Mount the crate to the wall by screwing through the crate into the drywall anchor through the pilot holes drilled in the crate.
7. Fill each box with hats and gloves by gently pushing between elastic.

Friends with kids, do you ever feel like you are constantly being defeated in the cleaning realm by your children?  I’ll spend all night cleaning and organizing a disaster they have created, only to turn around the next morning to see it already in horrible disarray.  Puzzles strewn about and buckets of toys upended… and I only turned around to pop oatmeal in the microwave.  How did this happen?!  I thought maybe it would get better after Julius was done with the toddler phase and we weaned/forced him out of the “dump out every basket of toys” phase.  Unfortunately he has transitioned into the art supplies phase, in which not only does he produce messes, but actively creates choking hazards.

In an effort to contain the arts and crafts mess/danger I moved all the art supplies to the basement.  This sort of worked to contain the art mess, but the basement instantly became coated with a snow-like blanket of teeny-tiny scraps of paper, open markers, glue and WIP projects.  It looked like Edward Scissorhand and Andy Warhol opened a studio together.   I moved trash cans around so Julius could more easily remember to cut into the trash can but it never worked.  He would cut up tiny pieces of paper wherever he pleased.  Then one day he left the glue open to leak all over my brand new couch and for my own sanity I came up with a new idea.  I bought him a little art table and told him he needed to do all art at the table.

Adorable (foldable!) arts and craft table and chairs I got for the kiddos.

Of course it didn’t help, and now I have just a carpet covered in tiny scraps of paper with a table sized silhouette of clean carpet.  There hasn’t been any more glue situations though, so I’m calling it a win.  It’s the little things, like 2’x2′ of carpet you don’t need to vacuum on a daily basis.  Speaking of game changing organization I’m still basking in the glow of my improved closet.  Today I’m going to tell you how I made the cute little coat rack for Julius and Patricia’s coats.

Closet Door Coat Rack

What you’ll need:

• 3.5″x3/4″x (see below) wood (I used one of the pieces of pallet…)
• 5 single wall hooks
• 2 Hollow Door Drywall Anchors
• paint (in the color of your choice)
• spackle

1. Cut board down to size (our door is 30″ wide and I cut the board down to 23″ wide).
2. Route edges of wood with desired border on top side of board. 
3. Here you really should sand the wood.  But it didn’t do that great a job and I wish I’d tried just a bit more. 
4. Paint & let dry.  (I did 2 coats of white.) 
5. Attach hardware.  You’ll want the outside hooks to be no less than 7.5″ from the edge of your door.  For me this meant the outside hooks were 4″ from each edge.   I then evenly distributed the other three hooks between.
6. Prepare to mount your board (you may need another set of hands).  Position the board where you would like to mount it.  I mounted mine centered in the door, 42″ off the ground so it was easy for kids to access.
7. I then drilled a 1/8″ hole centered between the 1st and 2nd hooks – through the board and into the door.  Confirm your board is level then drill another hole between the 4th and 5th hooks and removed the board from the door.
   

   Here’s one of the pre-drilled holes.  Contrary to what I said about getting an extra set of hands, I did this myself so I didn’t have a third hand to take a picture.

8.  Into the holes drilled in the door I inserted the anchors. 
9. Finally I mounted the board through my predrilled holes into the anchors, sinking the screws so they are slightly below the face of the wood board.
10. To clean up the face of the board and hide the screws I used drywall spackle to cover the holes.
    

    Pink spackle (dries white) waiting to dry.

    You made it to here again?!  You really do deserve a prize!  Well Earth Day is coming up, so to prepare you I’m going to be giving away a mid-size stand up Stasher bag to one lucky winner!  I realize lately that I’ve gotten a bit downtrodden and pessimistic about climate change, so I need your help to cheer me and other readers up!  To enter the contest post with some positivity on climate change progress (from things you are doing to help the planet, to news stories that cheered you up)!  You have until May 2nd to enter.  I can’t wait to hear what you’ll come up with.

I hope everyone is doing well!  For this family of kids under 5, we’re still dreaming about vaccines.  Julius told me today (out of the blue) on our car ride to daycare, “the virus isn’t gone right?  When is it going to be gone?”  I didn’t want to discourage him, but I also try to honestly and openly answer his questions.  I decided to tell him “I’m not sure bud, they think it might never go away and we will just have to keep practicing safe behaviors.”  He sat quietly for a minute and then said “they better get us those vaccines soon or we’ll never be able to go on planes.”  Adorable.  Then I told him all about Moderna from Massachusetts and how vaccine trials work (Ka and dad you probably would have had a few corrections…)  He seemed satisfied with my response.

Julius still wears his mask to school.  They lifted the mandate but we told him we wanted him to wear it until he is vaccinated and he did not argue.  Some kids and most of the teachers still wear masks.  Patricia really wants to wear masks.  She has multiple times asked to put on Julius’ masks and has worn them all around for long periods at a time.  I always fear someone is going to tell me to get the mask off my 16 month old, but then I’d have to break it to them that she’ll cry if I do.  I am pretty sure she thinks they are a fashion accessory, and you know what?  I am okay with that!

Patricia is getting a bit better at voicing her opinions or questions.  I remember Julius being frustrating about this time period because he clearly wanted to communicate verbally and we just weren’t understanding him.  It’s the same problem with Patricia.  It doesn’t help that she does things like calling both Will and I “mama” and “dada” with no distinction.  Today on our way into daycare she kept saying “shoe, shoe”.  (Her second word if you’re counting.)  I was very confused until I put her down on the sidewalk to walk and realized she was only wearing one shoe… oops.  I had a good laugh and I think she was proud that I eventually figured out what she was telling me.

Speaking of shoes, if you loved the custom shoe rack I made, I’ve got instructions for you to make it below.  You can adjust the length to fit your closet, or add even more tiers as you see fit!  I was feeling the industrial chic look and wanted to make one entirely out of copper pipe, but it turns out copper is pretty expensive!  And it is difficult to cut… I still think it would look pretty amazing if you soldered the pipes together, but I choose to use wooden dowels spray painted copper instead.  The grand total for the project was $38, not terribly cheap, but I am quite happy with it! (Note the price of copper fittings has apparently DOUBLED since I assembled this project in May 2021, so you may need to add another $12 for copper and who knows how much for dowels.)  Oh!  The planks for this project were reclaimed wood from one of the pallets I tore apart while pregnant with Patricia, so I didn’t count that cost.  I think I was in better shape while pregnant…

Here I am 8 months pregnant ripping apart pallets with 2 year old Julius. What a cutie.

New custom coat rack.

Copper Shoe Rack

What you’ll need:

• 9 planks 5/8″ thick x 3 3/8″ wide x 30″ long (or your desired shoe rack width)  (I used 6 planks 3 3/8″ wide, and 2 planks 6 3/4″ wide because I was using whatever wood I had on hand)
• 4 1/2″ diameter x 48″ long hardwood dowels
• Rustoleum hammered copper spray paint
• 8 – 1/2″  Tee couplings
• 8 – 1/2″ copper elbow couplings
• 18 – 1/2″ copper tube straps
• 36 – 1/2″ screws for tube straps
• Masking tape (optional)

1. Sand all wooden planks so all edges and faces are smooth to the touch.
2. Spray paint wooden dowels.  Let dry, rotate and then spray paint reverse side.  Let dry.
3. When dowels have dried, cut 4 – 4.25″ segments, 4 – 11.5″ segments, 4 – 11.75″ segments, and 8 – 5″ segments (I used a hand saw)
4. Start assembling according to this picture.  Note that the two vertical bottom pieces are only 4.25″ long while the others are all 5″.  Also note that the two center horizontal bars are all 11.75″, while the top and bottom bars are 11.5″.  You can use a rubber mallet to gently hammer in the dowels.  If the dowels are not a tight fit then wrap 3/8″ of the bottom of each dowel with a layer of masking tape.  Add more tape until the dowel fits snug in the fitting.
5. Assemble second side.
6. Place 3 planks on the ground, top side down, fitting snuggly together.  Place the two sides of the rack on either end of planks, about 1.25″ from the edge.
7. Place a tube strap over the dowel, centered on the first board.  Screw down.
8. Repeat step 7 for both ends of each piece of wood.
9. Insert 3 more boards (top side down) between the row of piping you just screwed into, and the one above.  Prop them up with scrap wood so they are flush with the dowels above them and repeat steps 3 through 8 for planks on the props.
10. Repeat step 9 for the last set of planks on the last row.
11. Flip the entire project over and show off your shoes!

Thank you to Matt and Mandy for entered the contest with the great ideas for improvements.  I will let you know if I come up with any ideas!!!  By Google random number generator Mandy will be getting a new tiny bag holder.  Stay tuned next week for April’s contest!!

Alright few quick adorable stories before I show you the project I have been waiting to show you!!!  So today I asked Julius to help Patricia wash her hands before dinner.  He took the job very seriously and immediately dropped what he was doing and took her hand and guided her into the bathroom before helping her get soap on her hands and rub them together.  Patricia loved it, because she loves washing her hands and she loves her brother.  It was the most adorable thing to watch.  Speaking of adorable, Will’s family was planning to take an adults only trip (those plans have since changed) and Julius overheard us talking about it.  He naturally asked us about it, and if he was going too and we explained that it was adults only.  He didn’t blink and eye and said, rather excitedly, “that’s okay I can stay home and watch Patricia!”  I still cannot get the (hilarious? adorable? insane? concerning?) image of 4 year old Julius babysitting 16 month Patricia out of my head.

Another adorable story is that yesterday Patricia kept walking over to the table and saying what we thought was mama, or perhaps “more more” but didn’t sound quite right.  Eventually we realized she was saying “momo” and pointing to the “Go Away Monster” box.  We handed her the bag of monsters and she lovingly crooned “momos” as she proceeded to take each one out of the bag and carry it around.  We’re probably down 7 or 8 monsters now (out of 8).  They’ve got to be somewhere in this mess….

Well speaking of my completely disheveled house our black hole filled with toys getting my act together… I organized a mess and I’m quite proud of it.  Our closet started out like this:

This disaster was our original closet organization. It looks SO much better now.

There were not enough room for shoes, the hooks were the mushroom type hooks that never really held your coat properly, we had no where to put our hats, gloves and winter gear, small odds and ends constantly fell through the wire shelving, and Julius and Patricia could not reach their coats, even with a step stool.  I have resolved ALL of the above problems.

The first thing I tackled was the shoe rack.  The shoe rack served us well for many years, but it had a few problems.  First, the distance between each rack was way too far apart for normal shoes, but way too short for boots.  Plus shoes on the top portion would constantly hit our coats since the rack was so high.  Because our closet was so shallow I couldn’t find a rack that would fit out of the box, so I custom built this one to fit the closet, and it just perfectly fits.  To solve the functionality problems of our old rack, I narrowed the distance between the racks and widened it, increasing the amount of shoes we could fit overall while shortening the height of the rack.

New custom coat rack.

My next step was the coat hooks.  I sawed off all the mushroom type hooks (I saved them for a later project… maybe a fairy wonderland).  Then I repainted the coat hook rack and added multiple types of metal hooks.  Between the large coat/hat hooks I added smaller individual hooks, that we’ve been using for backpacks and purses.

Next I added in a new little coat rack I made myself using small individual hooks, and I mounted it on the door at kid-height.  I used some special anchors made for hollow doors to mount the coat rack.

After I’d tackled the hangers, I took down the wire shelf and replaced it with a simple wooden shelf with metal brackets (spray painted with the same copper paint I used for the shoe rack).  I also raised the shelf slightly to make way for my final idea.

The last step was to add somewhere easily accessible to store our hats/gloves etc.  I debated between baskets in various orientations, and eventually went with these little crates I found at Michaels at a discount. I added 3/8″ elastic in a zig zag pattern to hold in our gear, and screwed the crates directly into the wall (with drywall anchors).  They have been holding up great!

Overall I’m THRILLED with this tiny remodel!  It took me many months to complete because I was working on other, more pressing concerns throughout, but now that it’s done, it feels so much more organized!  The kiddos love being able to access their own coats and because we’ve increased the amount of hooks we also finally have somewhere to store their backpacks when they aren’t in use!  Okay all you other type A’s, go ahead and bask in the glory of organization! 

If you want to tackle any of these projects yourself I’ll be blogging about them in the future.  Oh and just a reminder to enter the contest for March!!  You have until next Monday (April 4th) to enter, before I draw names!