The Lady Beekeeper

My big guy turned 4 this weekend!  We had a little celebration that you’ll hear about in upcoming posts.  He had a great time celebrating with his friends Mia and Caleb and his grandparents.  And his birthday presents were a total hit!  We got him a camera which he loved and a… vacuum.  Which he also loves.  He loves to try and help me vacuum now.  He used to take out his toy vacuum everytime I pulled out the big one, but now he wants to use the real vacuum and has gotten to the point that he won’t let me use it because “he can do it”.  I really appreciate the help but now he’s lugging this giant vacuum around while I cannot actually get the floors clean.  So I decided to just buy him a lightweight Dirt Devil.  It is perfect!  He can carry it all around, maneuver it easily and he is actually helping us clean!  It is a win-win!

Julius’ homemade Mama costume

Well, Julius insisted that he needed a scepter in order to be Max for Halloween, so about an hour before our photo shoot Julius and I threw together a scepter out of stuff around the house (and a lot of hot glue).  I think it came out pretty good, considering we only spent about 20 minutes on it and 0 dollars.  This lead Julius to come up with his own “craft” from the rest of the supplies.  He then asked Will to take a picture of him “with his homemade Mama costume”.  (I am not exactly sure what this says about me or Julius’ view of me, but I’m sure we will unpack that one in 20 years.)

Oh just one more story.  I have had to repair the scepter about 4 times now because, it is just held together with hot glue.  Every time I repair it I cannot find the glue gun.  Thinking I must be going crazy I finally asked Julius “do you know where the glue gun is”?  To which he got all excited and started scrambling around saying, “ummmm yup!”  He then ran off into the wood shop and pulled out the glue gun from one of the bottom drawers of my tool chest.  I literally never would have found it.  Yesterday I was missing my glue gun again (which I swore I had put away in my craft desk), so I looked in the bottom drawer of the tool chest again and there it was…

Max’s King of the Wild Things Scepter

What you’ll need:

• 18″ of 1/2″ dowel
• ping pong ball
• a 4″ diameter circular take out food container with lid. (Or two 4″ diameter lids.)
• black spray paint
• yellow acrylic paint (or paint pen)
• hot glue and glue gun

1. Cut the outer rim off the take out container, leaving aa 1/2″ wide ring.  Cut the inside of the take out container lid out, so only the outside of the lid remains.  These will form the rings.
2. Using a craft knift (or drill – which I did but was tricky because it shattered more than drilled) cut two holes in the top and bottom of the ball, just large enough to fit the dowel through.
3. Insert dowel through holes in ping pong ball so there is 1.5″ from the top of the rod.  Hot glue in place.
4. Cut through each of the two rings so they can open up into a “c” shape.
5. Hot glue the portion of one ring opposite the slit to the top of the dowel.  Glue the two ends in place 1.5″ below the ping pong ball, where the ring hits naturally.
6. Repeat step 5 for the other ring, gluing on top of the first ring but at a 90 degree angle from the first ring.
7. Spray paint the entire thing black.  Let dry.
8. Paint the ping pong ball yellow (I used an acrylic paint pen to do this quickly).
9. Let the wild rumpus start!

Well we had an excellent Halloween!  We got to hang out with our friends Ka and Joe and their kiddos who are the same ages as Julius and Patricia.  After an amazing dinner of homemade flatbread pizza we set out for some trick or treating in their cute neighborhood.

Forever blurry because she’s always in motion!

Stopping for a second before sprinting to the next stop.

Julius LOVED it.  It was adorable watching him excitedly run from house to house!  We had been practicing “trick or treat” all day and at the first house he sprinted up to the door, where an older gentlemen was sitting just inside the door ready to give out candy.  Julius ignored him and pressed the doorbell (step 1 in our practicing).  The older fellow chuckled and then offered Julius the candy bowl.  To which we asked, “did you say trick of treat?”  He then shouted “trick or treat!” and took a piece of candy.  We prompted again “what do you say?” “THANK YOU!”  The process continued like this for a while until he started getting to the hang of it.  At one point he ran up to a house and shouted “TRICK OR TREAT THANK YOU” immediately, I guess streamlining the process.  It brought me so much joy watching him have fun!

We had fun too!  Of course we all dressed up, and since Halloween temps are not like they were when I was a kid, we were all sweating.  Julius remarked at the end of the night, “oof I’m super sweaty!”  Guess that was all the exercise from running house to house!  I showed you Julius’ crown last week, so this week I’ll show you the rest!

Julius as Max – side view.

Max’s Wolf Suit (from Where the Wild Things Are)

What you’ll need:

• White zip up footed onesie to fit your child
• 4 1.25″ white buttons
• 1/4 yard of black faux fur
• Stuffing
• Pattern for tail here

1. Cut out two tail pieces as indicated on pattern, leaving 1/2″ seam allowance.
2. Pin tail pieces, right sides together.
3. Leave top of tail opened and stitch around the rest of the length of the tail.
4. Turn right side out and stuff with stuffing until firm.
5. Position tail over the seat of the pants, with the unfinished portion pointing down, tip of the tail pointing towards the hood. Stitch across the unfinished portion to attach it to the suit, let it flop over.
6. Hand sew 4 buttons on one size of the zipper, spaced 3″ apart.  Be sure to avoid stitching the buttonholes near the teeth.

The night Max wore his wolf suit he made mischief of one kind…

…and another.

Well…. it’s been a busy couple weeks.  I have a new position at work so I’m busier than usual.  That means no time to do much blogging… I think last week was the first week in a couple years that I’ve missed.  I won’t let it happen again!

Despite my miss last week I have been working on Halloween costumes in the limited time I have off.   Below is a crown I made last weekend for Julius.  We are all going as Wild Things from the book “Where the Wild Things Are” and Julius is Max, the king of all wild things.  He was so excited by his costume that he wanted to wear it as soon as I finished it.  I had to convince him not to wear it (for fear of getting it completely wrecked) before we took pictures in it (yesterday).  After pictures he wanted to keep the costume on.  This afternoon he came downstairs to bring me dinner and he was again wearing the wolf suit.  I would say this is a successful Halloween costume so far!

Check out this sweet crown!

Max’s King of the Wild Things Crown

What you’ll need:

• Pelton peltex interfacing
• Gold synthetic fabric
• 3″ x 22″ of Brown fake fur
• 2″ wide Velcro hook & loop
• Pattern here

1. Using my pattern, cut 1 piece of interfacing with no seam allowance and 2 pieces of gold fabric with 1/2″ seam allowance on the top 3 sides.
2. Stitch gold fabric, right sides together along top and sides leaving the bottom opened.
3. Trim selvedge and points.
4. Turn gold fabric right side out.
5. Insert interfacing into inside of gold fabric and baste along the unfinished edge.
6. Cut a 2″x24″ rectangle of fur.
7. Pin fur, against bottom of gold fabric crown right sides together, lining up unfinished edges.  Stitch 1/2″ from the edge along the bottom of the crown.
8. Fold fur around the bottom edge of the crown, and fold under 1/2″.  Stitch in the ditch on the front of the crown (along the stitching in step 7) to secure the fur band. 
9. Stitch a hook end of velcro to the outer outside edge of the crown.
10. Stitch a loop end of velcro to the inner outside edge of the crown.

Adjustable velcro means it can fit a variety of head sizes.

So excited to wear his costume.

My two wild things.

Well today was my Patricia’s first day of daycare!  I was a nervous wreck the last few nights, and I haven’t slept thinking about people who may or may not be vaccinated taking care of my baby during the pandemic.  If you’ll remember for Julius’ first daycare drop off I had no prior nightmares or anything, but I did burst out crying.  When we actually got to the daycare center I managed to hold it together and didn’t interrogate the staff or break down crying and take her back home with me.  I will admit I did cry a little bit on the way, explaining to her that she was going to get to play with some babies.

Poor thing had a bit of a rough day.  She ate all her beans and corn (read: an entire ear of corn off the cob, and an entire can of beans) for lunch, but she only napped a single nap of 45 minutes, and took only one 7 oz bottle.  I hope the little lady does better tomorrow.

Poor Patricia being the second baby has a lot less attention doted on her.  The first couple weeks she was born we used to joke that she would get super excited when you’d look at her because no one ever paid any attention to the little lady.  Well the little lady took matters into her own hands and crawled at 7 months, meaning we HAD to pay attention to her!  She has such a silly personality too.  She’s curious and FAST.  You’ll turn around for 15 seconds and she’ll be on the other side of the room trying to jump off the side of the couch.  I call her my wild thing.  She loves baths, and snuggles.  And she especially loves her brother!  Yesterday Julius had a fever so we kept Patricia and Julius separate just in case.  Patricia cried every time she saw Julius and was taken away from him.  Julius cried when he heard Patricia crying.

The funniest thing Patricia does now is blows fart noises on your arm.  Every night while I’m getting her ready for bed I’ll blow on her belly, and she retaliates and blows farts on my arm.  And she looks at me afterwards and laughs because she knows she’s hilarious.  It is my current favorite thing.  She also GROWLS.  Like a full on growl.  It’s not just when she’s mad, she’ll just be sitting there and will growl at her toys.  It is very startling and hilarious.  Will thinks she’s part bear and Julius thinks she’s part tiger.  I just think she’s 100% adorable.

So today’s pattern is a slight modification of a previous pattern that I’ve made a dozen times by now.  It’s a portable utensil holder.  We take these with us everywhere to prevent having to use plastic utensils.  Well that was before the pandemic.  Now that we’ve gotten a bit braver, we have been using them all the time again.  We take them on road trips and on picnics and we bring them with us to Davis Farmland.  I’ve found now, more than the before times, people are really trying to push the plastic utensils on you when you purchase a meal.  Unfortunately our portable utensil kits lacked a couple of additions.  Julius, when he was slightly younger, always wanted a straw for his drinks.  Mandy got us some neat reusable straws from her company that are GREAT for kids!  Unfortunately they never fit in our little portable kits, so they stick out the side.  We also thought that sometimes it is nice to have chop sticks in your kit.  You know, for when you do ramen or sushi to go… :D

Upgraded Reusable Utensil Holder

What you’ll need:

• Heavyweight scrap fabric such as denim, upholstery weight velvet, canvas etc.
• Lightweight scrap fabric to be used as contrast/lining
• Single fold bias tape .5″ wide
• Size 16 dritz snap
• Pattern here

1. Cut out pattern pieces as directed.
2. Pin lining fabric to outer fabric for both pieces.
3. Along the flat surface of the pocket fabric, open out the bias tape and place along the unfinished edge, outer fabric to right side of bias tape, pining along the bias tape fold line.  Stitch along the fold line. 
4. Fold bias tape over unfinished edge, pin in place and stitch close to the first set of stitching, enclosing the entire edge.
5. Lay pocket on top of backing, with lining material on the inside.  (Match the marks on the backing with the top of the pocket.)
6. Open out bias tape as you did in step 3 with the fold 1/2″ from the edge, with unfinished edges parallel to one another.  Fold over the starting edge of the bias tape so the seam looks finished.  Pin all around the perimeter in this fashion, overlapping the start of the tape by half an inch.
7. Stitch.
8. Trim the seam to 1/8″.
9. Fold the bias tape over the unfinished edge, pin in place and stitch close to the first set of stitching, enclosing the entire edge.
10. Insert utensils into pouch and fold flap down over them so it holds utensils in snuggly.  Mark location for snap.
11. Insert snap following manufacturer’s instructions  with the male end on the pocket and female end on the back of the flap so it will snap together when the flap is closed.
12. Toss in your lunch bag and save the planet!

Wow what a weekend.  This was the first weekend in over a year that we’ve had plans with multiple groups of friends in person.  It was so much fun but I am exhausted!  I am starting to think I have become a total introvert…  In person conversations are exhausting!  Actually, if I’m being honest I only had in person conversations 2 of the 4 holiday weekend days.  My exhaustion probably stems from the fact that since I’ve been back at work for 4 months I’ve forgotten how tiring watching 2 kids by myself all day is…

Well you’ve probably forgotten by now, or maybe you’ve been waiting with baited breath… but here is how to make those fabulous balloon valances that I put up in Patricia’s room!  Like Julius’ curtains, I adapted a pattern that my mother-in-law gave me for fully functional shades.  Since we have actual black out shades on our windows these are strictly for decoration and completely nonfunctional (though with slightly different mounting and by increasing the length they could very easily become functional…)  *In the interest of laziness I designed this pattern to be used to minimize cutting; if you have only 54″ fabric to work with, use 54″ fabric, it will not affect the finished product’s fullness much.  The original pattern also called for lots of hand stitching to make invisible seams, but having done 3 sets of shades by hand I did these completely by machine and will never go back.  No one will notice the seams, not even you.  Unlike all the other shades I have made for my house these are mounted using a simple curtain rod instead of building a shade board.  This also makes them MUCH easier to mount!  (Well it would have made them much easier if the darn curtain rods I had bought from Home Depot had not been missing hardware!  Thankfully a very nice man at the Home Depot took pity on me for being so close to my due date tracked down some hardware and walked it out to my car for me!)

Weirdly I only have a couple pictures of me stitching some non-descript seams.  I guess that’s what happens when you do projects at 40 weeks.  And, more tragically, I don’t have any pictures of 40 weeks pregnant me mounting the shades on a step ladder with a drill.  You’ll just have to imagine that I guess.  So without further ado…  my DIY Balloon Valances!

DIY Balloon Valances

For each valance you will need:

• 48″ of 58″ wide fabric* – I used this beautiful poppy fabric from spoonflower in lightweight cotton twill 
• 48″ of 58″ wide white cotton fabric for backing
• 24 plastic rings for roman shades
• several yards of string or yarn for tying up the curtains, preferably white

1. Place white cotton fabric on top of curtain fabric, right sides facing out.
2. On the long edges of the fabric, create a 1″ double fold hem.
3. Machine baste the unfinished top edge of the fabric at 1/4″ mark so it doesn’t wiggle around.  Repeat for the bottom edge.
4. On the bottom edge create a 1″ double fold hem.
   

   Here’s the one mystery picture of me sewing a seam? Bottom hem?

5. Fold under 1/2″ at the top, press, then fold under another 2 inches.  Stitch close to fold to form rod pocket.
6. Here is where you will need to hand stitch.
7. Place your curtain on the floor so you can spread it out.  Mark a line in tailor’s chalk or disappearing ink 2″ from the left and right edges.
8. Mark 2 more lines 17 1/3″ from each of the 2″ lines.
9. Starting along the bottom hem stitching line, mark an x where your tailor’s chalk lines intersect.  Hand sew a ring to each of these 4 points.
10. Measure up each line 6″ and place another ring.  Repeat until you are out of rings.

To hang the curtains:

1. Mount curtain rod as per instructions for your curtain rods, you will want the rod holders to be just slightly outside your window frame.
2. Insert curtain rod through rod pocket, you will need to bunch fabric in the rod pocket to make the curtain fit just slightly wider than your window.
3. Before you hang your curtain, thread string through each of the vertical lines of shade rings, pull together slightly to make fabric bunch and loosely tie.
   

   Loosely tie each vertical set of rings.

4. Repeat for each set of vertical shade rings.
   

   Thread string through curtain rings (I didn’t have any curtain rings so I used chain maille links… :D)

5. Hang curtain and manually adjust each set of ties so the valance is as low as you desire, and the height for each set is equal.  Knot each set of ties when you are satisfied.
   

   If you zoom in on the window glass you can see 40 week pregnant Lexi taking this photo… you’ll have to imagine me hanging these and fiddling with the ties.

   

   Here’s a photo of me 4 days before I hung the shades for perspective.

   

   Julius (featured bottom left) helped me hang the second one.

Well we just spent the last week hanging out with Will’s parents, siblings and cousins.  It was a fun trip and nice to be able to see some family that we haven’t seen in over a year.  Julius and Patricia loved the extra attention and were so happy to see people other than their parents.  We loved not having to cook or shop for ourselves!  It’s so nice to be doted on.

I worked most of the week again unfortunately, but I got to go for a couple nice hikes in the green mountains.  I also spent some of my down time planning and creating things for DanyCon 2021!  Because none of the kiddos are vaccinated and that makes travel hard, we’ll once again be hosting a virtual DanyCon for our siblings.  That doesn’t mean it will be any less great though!  We are going to have lots of new activities to keep us all occupied.  I can’t wait to share in a few weeks…

Just like I can’t wait to share this hilarious Julius-ism from one of our hikes.  On one of my days off the family decided to take the gondola up to the summit of Killington and hike back down.  Julius was very excited about the whole prospect and did a great job hiking most of the way himself.  The hike down the mountain wound between ski trails and snowcat roads.  At one point Julius, who was at the very front of the hiking at this point, shouted “there’s a road!”  So I asked Julius if I could tell him a joke, and our conversation went something like this:

Me: Julius can I tell you a joke?

Julius: Yes!

Me: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Julius:  Hahaha!  Mama that is so funny.

Me: I haven’t even told you the funny part yet!

Julius: Oh.

I guess jokes come later.  Makes sense considering everything they do is so darn funny.  Speaking of darn funny, check out Will’s pandemic hair in this picture. 

This was taken during Will’s birthday in July 2020, several months into the pandemic back when we believed that he would be able to go back to a hair dresser soon.  Funny hair aside, check out that sweet shirt Will is sporting!  That’s one of the gifts I made for his 30th birthday.  *Looks at the year.*  Wait no, we are way older than 30!  Where has the time gone?!  Well this project is something I thought of well before I bought my embroidery machine.  Honestly it was the reason I bought my embroidery machine.  My idea was to make geeky symbols to sell on polo shirts.  Only 5(? 6?) years after I bought my embroidery machine I finally accomplished my original goal!  If anyone wants to buy one from me just let me know… ;)  (Wait, I need to find an appropriate GIF for that.  I’ve been trying to use GIFs since will accused me of being 3 forms of communication behind everyone else since I still use emoticons.  You know what I say to that?  There are no GIF hotkeys!  GIF and emoji use severely limits my WPM.)

(RIP Jessica Walter)

Super Stylish Meeple Polo

• 1″x2.5″ hoop (like this one)
• Blank Polo Shirt – I love Jiffyshirts.com for shirt blanks.
• tear away stabilizer
• White (or desired color) machine embroidery floss
• chalk
• Embroidery file here (Note you will need to unzip it first)

1. Mark where your meeple will go on your polo shirt using the chalk using a large cross.
2. Hoop the shirt and stabilizer, centering the hoop over the cross.
3. Thread embroidery machine with white floss, load embroidery file then embroider.
4. Remove shirt from machine, remove from hoop, brush off chalk, and tear away stabilizer on back of shirt.