I’m All Ears

Posted on August 21, 2024 by lexicolton

Well that concludes our two week whirlwind vacations of Block Island and Disney World. We had a great time but we all didn’t sleep nearly as much as we should. I am exhausted and plan to sleep for the next week. Thank goodness I’m still on sabbatical! Now I have to think about what I’m going to do with my spare time (unfortunately there isn’t a ton because we have so much planned). I’m thinking mainly baking bread and updating my resume (sadly).

The kids seemed to enjoy Disney but they probably would have been equally happy just playing in the pool all day. They were doing a really great job swimming around (even Patricia without a life vest). Oh and I forgot to mention that Julius moved up to the next swim level right before we left! They’re doing a great job. Patricia loves to jump in the pool. We witnessed this pump up speech before her first couple jumps:

Patricia (to herself): you can do this!

It was pretty adorable. The kids also got signatures in their autograph books from lots of characters! Including the famed Mickey himself and everyone’s favorite Disney princess (well with the exception of Princess Leia and Princess Vanellope Von Schweetz which somehow are not counted). Unfortunately the lack of sleep and eating of sugar lead to some cranky episodes for both Patricia and Julius. We were not the only ones seeing this. When Patricia witnessed one such meltdown from the outside she said:

Patricia (commenting on some other child’s meltdown after her own near meltdown): It’s tough to be a kid.  She’s just a cranky kid.

Honestly Disney was even a bit stressful for me! I couldn’t handle Patricia’s meltdowns when I was myself hot and sweaty. The stress must have gotten to me because I slept walked on the 3rd night there and somehow ended up bleeding on the floor. I had a gash down my lips that I went to ER for (spoilers they didn’t do anything so it wasn’t actually that bad). I’m still not exactly sure what happened. I probably have to do something about that.

Despite the crankiness and sleep walking we had a great time! Patricia claimed her favorite ride was Pirates of the Caribbean (my favorite) despite the fact that the first time we went on it she was terrified and hiding the gem on her princess costume so the pirates wouldn’t steal it. Julius’ favorite was Space Mountain. Which is Will’s favorite. He got to go on it twice (once with Will, and once with me later for rider swap). Will and my favorite was Guardians of the Galaxy – I think it may have even replaced the Rockin’ Rollercoaster for me in terms of favorites! Patricia asked me the second day why they kept calling her “princess” since she wasn’t a real princess. I told her everyone is a princess in Disney World, but that didn’t placate her. Everytime someone would call her princess she’d look at me like, “see? Another one!”

Well now that we’re done with Disney I can show you the ears I made! I didn’t have time to make a pair for myself but I might later anyway (because I had an awesome idea!) The pattern for the ears and headband is the same, I just did some slightly different things for each. Julius wanted Disgust (from Inside Out) ears. There was no Disgust character in the parks but he did get a picture with Joy. She thought Disgust would not have been disgusted with the ears haha. That is a serious compliment!

Patricia loves Ariel so she wanted Ariel themed ears. For both sets of ears I didn’t buy anything and used scrap fabric I had on hand. The mermaid sequins were slightly off in color from what Ariel’s tail is… but they coincidentally matched the Ariel outfit Patricia chose from Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique. Talk about fortuitous!

Basic Mickey Mouse Ears

What you’ll need:

  • 1 headband (I used these)
  • scrap fabric for ears and headband
  • scrap peltex 220
  • fiberfill
  • chopsticks to add stuffing
  • pattern here

1. Cut out fabric for your headband (2 pieces).

2. Cut out fabric for each ear (should have 4 pieces in total)

3. Cut out 2 pieces of peltex ears with no seam allowance.

4. Stitch headband fabric together, leaving openings where indicated in the pattern.

5. Trim close to seam allowance and clip curves then turn right side out.

6. Insert headband into the opening on the end and then stuff the outside portion of the headband lightly with stuffing using the chopsticks through the other openings.

7. Using a ladder stitch, stitch the openings closed.

8. Place two ear pieces together then stitch, stopping where indicated.

9. Trim ear seams and clip curves. Turn right side out.

10. Insert Peltex 220 into ear then stuff on both sides. Stuff rather firmly.

11. Using a ladderstitch, attach the ear to the headband.

12. Repeat steps 8 thru 11 for the other ear.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 2 Comments

Starstruck

Posted on August 12, 2024 by lexicolton

We are on week 2 of my sabbatical/whirlwind vacation. This week we’re going to “see the princesses” aka Disney. The kids’ babysitter told them a while back that Disney World is where all the princesses live so they’ve been talking about going to see the princesses. We have been using this as an excuse to work on our manners for the last several months. The phrase “we cannot eat with the princesses if we eat with with our hands” has been uttered dozens of times. I do think there has been some improvement to their table manners. Hopefully there is because we are eating with the princesses tomorrow in the castle!

Despite our best efforts (and worst efforts such as cajoling about princess behavior) Patricia still has a very quick temper. The other day this gem of an insult came out of her mouth when we were trying to get her to put on pants…

Patricia (scathingly): You are all black rainbows with a little bit of purple!

Harsh.

Julius has his moments too. I love that Julius and Patricia play so well together. Just listening to their conversations together is alone worth having two kiddos. This is the one we overheard yesterday:

Julius (proudly, to Patricia): I’m a good looker. I have big eyes.

Speaking of good lookers, I made a couple little things for the kids for Disney including autograph books and custom Mickey ears! The autograph books took very little time and I used recycled wrapping paper for the covers. I love making books and this was a great excuse to make them.

Autograph Books

What you’ll need (for each book):

  • scrap heavyweight cardboard (mine was from a frame back that is no longer used)
  • a sheet of wrapping paper (mine was reused from some birthday packaging)
  • White copy paper (13 8.5″x11″ sheets – I made 2 at once and used 25 sheets)
  • separate paper for the book plates if desired
  • needle and embroidery thread
  • White glue and foam brush
  • sharpie (I got the click top sharpie so we don’t lose the covers)

1. Cut the copy paper in half to form 25 8.5″x5.5″ sheets.

2. Separate into 5 pages in a bundle then fold the sheets in half to form 10 pages that are 4.25″x5.5″

3. Using a ruler on the inside fold of one of the folded bundles poke holes using your needle at the 1.5″,2.75″ and 4″ marks.

4. Using a needle threaded with embroidery thread facing the spine of the folded paper go down thru the center hole, up thru the left hole, back down through the center hole and back up through the right hole then tie off with the tail of the string.

5. Repeat steps 2 thru 4 for the other booklets.

6. Tie all 5 bundles together on the left and right sides by tying all 5 strings on each side together.

7. Cut the cover for your book from cardboard by cutting two rectangles 5″x6″ and another rectangle for the spine .5″x6″ with an xacto knife.

8. Place the rectangles on your cover paper as shown below. Cut paper so it is has 1″ border for folding.

9. If necessary (like in the case of using recycled wrapping paper) iron your paper on cotton setting, moving constantly so it will not burn until it is flat. Note you can only do this with paper that is all natural fiber. If it has any shiny coating don’t risk this.

10. Coat the back of each piece of cardboard in a light even layer of glue by using the foam brush.

11. Press cardboard onto the cover paper and smooth out the paper. Repeat for spine and other side of cover.

12. Fold over the overhanging edges of the book cover.

13. Put a thin layer of glue on the cardboard edges (1″ wide) on the top and bottom of the book cover. Press top and bottom folds in place.

14. Fold the corner of the remaining overhang paper so it forms a triangle.

15. Put another thin layer of glue on the left and right edges of the cardboard and fold over the edges (each should look like a trapezoid when folded over). Let dry.

16. Cut 2 pieces of paper for the book plates if desired (should be 8.5″x5.5″). Fold each in half. If not using separate paper for the book plate skip to 19.

17. Apply a thin layer of glue to the outside of one of book plates. Glue to the stack of book pages you created, aligning the pages. Repeat for second book plate and other side of the stack of pages. Let dry.

18. Apply glue to the spine of the book and place the stack of pages, folded ends down onto the spine.

19. Place a thin layer of glue on the inside of the book cover, align the pages with the cover and then press down the book plate (or first page of the stack if not using book plate paper).

20. I used some permanent foil vinyl in gold to add some details to the autograph books!

21. Go get some autographs!

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 2 Comments

Summer Lovin’

Posted on August 6, 2024 by lexicolton

Well friends, I’m pretty pumped. I’m on an 8 week sabbatical! Intel is (really sadly) getting rid of those in a few months, which is rather depressing. But I won’t be depressed on (my last 8 week) sabbatical! For the start of sabbatical we’re on Block Island. I know you’ve heard me talk about how quaint and beautiful it is, so I won’t wax poetic about it again today. It’s going to rain quite a bit this week so we tried to frontload the week with all the usual outdoorsy things we do when it’s not raining. Then we’ll get in some more Disney movie watching before our trip to Disney next week! Yes that’s right we’re front loading sabbatical with lots o’ stuff. I’ll tell you all about that next week though.

I’m going to be honest here. I love Block Island, I always have since I was a kid. But I REALLY LOVE the place we stay on Block Island because it’s this teeny little loft house that still has everything we need. More importantly though… it has an outdoor shower. Is there anything that is better than an outdoor shower? I declare there is not. The sunshine overhead with the wind caressing your naked body… nope, nothing better. I told Will he needs to build me an outdoor shower.

You know what Patricia loves? Sock puppets. She has made several more sock puppets since the Earth Day Celebration. They haven’t really used the theater a ton since that week though… but I’ll convince them. The theater was so fun to build. I was debating on making it out of wood, but I figured I might as well use cardboard… since… it was for the Earth Day party. Here’s how I did it…

How to Make a Cardboard Puppet Theater

What you’ll need:

  • A large (2ftx2ftx1ft) box
  • Additional scrap cardboard for supports & decorations
  • Wood glue
  • Acrylic paint and chalkboard paint (optional)
  • a canary box cutter
  • scrap fabric for curtains
  • pushpins
  1. Start by making sure your box is completely sealed and then cut it in half (on the line between the box flaps).
  2. On the face of one of the box-halves (where the flaps are) cut out a square (or rectangle depending on box size) leaving a 2″ border all around, except on the bottom (where one of the flaps would fold down – see picture).
  1. Glue the remaining flaps so the border becomes secure.
  1. Fold down the flap from cutting out the stage. Glue the top of the box (from step 2&3) to the bottom box, so the whole thing will form a tall theater (should be 4’x2’x6″ when complete).
  1. Glue supports with the excess cardboard on the bottom of the theater so it isn’t wobbly.
  2. Paint the entire theater in the color of your choice (I chose red). Again I used a roller brush to paint the whole thing.
  3. Cut a rectangle from excess cardboard that is slightly smaller than the bottom half (this will be used for a sign). Then paint with chalkboard paint.
  1. Cut out a pattern of your choice to use as a decoration above the puppet stage. Paint in contrasting color (I chose yellow)
  1. When everything is dry, glue on the decoration above the stage and the chalkboard sign.
  1. Cut your scrap fabric into two pieces that are a couple inches wider and longer than half the width of the stage opening.
  2. Using the pushpins, pin the fabric to the back of the stage. If the pushpins go all the way thru the cardboard, glue a strip of cardboard just above the stage opening.
  3. Perform away!

Okay and since you got this far here are some gems from J&P this week:

Julius stares at the table contemplatively after we’re all done.

Will: What is it Julius?  Are you still hungry?

Julius: (pointing to full water cup) Was this supposed to be my water cup?

Will: Yes.

Julius: (Eyes wide) I drank from Patricia’s!

Patricia (about letting me have the last tomato): Daddy had 3, Julius had 3 and I had a hundred so I’ll let Mommy have that one.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

Grass is Always Greener

Posted on July 29, 2024 by lexicolton

Well it’s a bit of a miracle I’m still up right now. I tested positive for covid yesterday and I’ve been feeling pretty bad. I slept most of the day today while the kids were at camp/daycare which I think is the reason I’m feeling quite a bit better. It’s rather inconvenient timing to get sick because I had to cancel a 3 way retirement party at my house Wednesday, I have a friend from Costa Rica visiting Friday and we are supposed to travel again on Saturday.

Hopefully we’re better soon! I’ve been working on some little crafts for our trip to Disney that I’ll show you shortly! But since I’m sick I’m going to keep this one short. One of my friends was asking if I ever went thru with the clover lawn… and I did. Last June I bought a ton of Dutch white clover seed (44lbs of seed – enough to cover 1/2 an acre) from this great store called Nature’s Seed. Our entire plot is 1.49 acres, and most of that is grass, but the plan was to intersperse the clover seeds with the grass. Total cost for 44lbs of seed was $227. I borrowed our neighbor’s spreader to spread it out… but I didn’t realize the clover seed was SO TINY. We’re talking like grains of sand tiny. It slipped right thru the hopper so I eventually gave up and just threw it around by hand… which was wildly inaccurate.

Luckily though it sprouted in a few weeks and has been making our yard look lush, green, and, periodically, like a meadow. (Prep for when the bees come back.) We haven’t had trouble with the robotic lawnmower mowing it, or, this year while Moe’s been under repair, with the regular deck mowers mowing it. Clover is drought tolerant, so we went way longer than usual before starting to water the lawn, turning on the sprinklers on June 29th this year. (This was mostly an accident.) I have some pictures below of the yard at various points so you can tell what it looks like! Oh and check out this little surprise I found while waiting with Julius for his bus in June!

A little luck o’ the Irish!
This is August 2023 after I sewed the seeds!
This is September 2023 after a fresh mowing
This is the end of May 2024 before they had mowed!
You can tell the clover is a bit patchy in places which I want to fix (I bought some more seed). This is June 2024
Here’s more obvious view of the patchiness. The grass hasn’t been watered yet so the color difference is a bit drastic
This is right before we first started watering in June 2023. You can see the meadow-ness!
Posted in Beekeeping, Home Improvement | Leave a comment

New and Improved ladybeekeeper

Posted on July 15, 2024 by lexicolton

I’m still not keeping bees but Will has given my ladybeekeeper blog a re-vamp. He made several changes that should allow pictures to load faster, and hopefully the site will have less downtime. Most importantly though it is accessible via https. Hopefully you won’t notice any differences on your end, but if you do please let me know (for better or worse)!

Since I’m just testing out the new wordpress version I’ll keep this one short. I want to show you some of the silly puppets I made and the puppet show I put together (thanks Amy for recording it). I really deliberated with what to do for the puppet show. Since Native Americans are such wonderful stewards of the Earth from which we can learn so much, I wanted to share an Earth related tale from one of America’s native peoples. I ended up taking out a a storybook from the library called Keepers of the Earth which was a collection of many different Earth related stories from different Nations and some ways you could tie these stories to a science curriculum. Julius and I read thru the entire book and really enjoyed the stories and teachings. His favorite was a tale from the Abenaki peoples called “Gluscabi and the Wind Eagle”. Gluscabi is a bit of a trickster and his antics cracked Julius up. The tale contains just three characters; Gluscabi, Grandmother Woodchuck, and Wuchowsen the Wind Eagle. I thought it would be perfect for a puppet show so I made some puppets and performed it (I will be honest, there was a lot more stressing out than this including worrying about the socks I was using and searching extensively for how to sing the canoe song in the story, which was thankfully documented by a folk singer). The kids seemed to like it and I really hope that I did the story some small measure of justice even though I’m sure it cannot compare to any version told by the Abenaki. If you want to see my humble interpretation Amy recorded it! Thanks Amy!

I also thought you’d like to see the close up of Gluscabi (a silly looking sock fellow, with removable vest and hair held on by velcro), Grandmother Woodchuck (who I decided to paint brown since I only had white socks) and Wuchowsen my interpretation of a wind Eagle.

Gluscabi
Wuchowsen, the Wind Eagle
Grandmother Woodchuck
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I think I can… I think I can

Posted on July 8, 2024 by lexicolton

Well this past week was a double birthday celebration.  We celebrated with some yummy dinners and way too many sweets.  (Seriously, I am done with sweets, I always feel so bad afterwards both mentally and physically.  Well after this cupcake tutorial maybe.)  Thank goodness it was a short week after our vacation because it was a struggle to get back to the real world.  We didn’t buy the internet package on the boat because it was so expensive, and all I can say is that I loved the forced disconnect.  I think I’m going to start a “vacation” program where I just turn off somebody’s internet for them.  (It’s hard to pull that plug yourself.)  What a relief to not have the temptation of internet garbage.  Not only that but being out of contact with the rest of the world was also somehow relaxing and liberating.  (Plus the onboard spa pampering helped.)  Seriously though, it felt like the first time I have been able to disconnect in ages.  It was amazing.

Oh and I witnessed this while Julius and Patricia were playing quietly in the hotel room before we said we would get up on the day of the cruise:

Julius: I’m so excited today.

Patricia:  Me too, but why?

Julius:  We’re going on the cruise today.

Patricia: TO DAY?!

Now that we’re back to the real world, Julius has been doing summer camps and Patricia is back at her daycare (with summer water play!)  They both have been having a great time.  I can’t believe how quickly they are growing.  We’ve been desperately trying to improve their eating manners (usually they start with their food on the plate and the food ends up on the napkin, then on the table.  They use any surface in front of them as an eating area.  And don’t get me started with utensils.  Remember how Julius was so excited and proud of himself for using utensils as a baby?  Well he gave up on all that and prefers to only eat with his hands.  Where did I go wrong?  The only thing helping right now is our reminder that “the princesses” (the ones who live in Disney World) will be disappointed if their manners are not up to par.  Patricia has started remarking when they (or others) are not meeting the Princesses standards.

Well these cupcakes may not be princess material but they sure are cute.  I found these adorable locomotive cupcakes on pinterest.  They don’t tell what brands they used to make them, but I would know those dipped wafer rolls anywhere!  My grandma always used to have them on hand.  Unfortunately for me, they are German (just like my grandma) and very difficult to find in the US.  For those who plan ahead, they are called Bahlsen Waffeletten and they are delicious!  I went to the usual stores with imported items, but no luck, I couldn’t find them anywhere and I didn’t have time to special order them.  So instead I went to my backup plan.  I made the trains a bit smaller and used Pirouline wafers for the engine.  This meant I had to cut down the vanilla wafer cookies as well.  I don’t know a single child (and not many adults under 89) who like black licorice candies so I also sized down the wheels a bit and used mini york peppermint patties and mini brown m&ms instead.

Cupcake Train

What you’ll need:

  • Cupcakes (mine were these super easy and delicious chocolate ones)
  • buttercream frosting (I’ve been using this one!)
  • Pirouline rolled wafer sticks
  • vanilla wafer cookies (like these)
  • m&ms minis
  • mini York Peppermint Patties
  • chocolate pocky
  • Green food coloring
  1. Divide out about 2/3 of the frosting and dye it green.
  2. Using 234 piping tip, pipe “grass” blades all over the top of the cupcakes
  3. Using white frosting and a moderately sized line tip, pipe a line of train tracks (or you can dye the rest brown, but I didn’t have brown food coloring)

For each locomotive:

  1. Cut a vanilla wafer lengthwise so it is only slightly wider than a Pirouline.
  2. Cut the wafer down to about 1.5″ long.  Cut a Pirouline down to match.
  3. Cut the chocolate part of the pocky stick so it it 1/2″ long.
  4. Finally cut a square of vanilla wafer for the top of the engine.
  5. Set aside 5 brown m&m minis and 2 mini york peppermint patties.
  6. Assemble the train.  Use the cut down vanilla wafer as the base, then draw a line of frosting on top.  Place the pirouline on top of this.

    Not the width of the wafers has been cut down, as has the length and small squares have been made to match the new width.  Here I am adding the pirouline on top of the base wafer with frosting.

  7. Place a blob of frosting on one side of the square vanilla wafer, then place on top of the Pirouline on one side for the cabin.

    Here I’ve placed the square cabin top of the locomotive and in one the smokestack.

  8. On the opposite side, place a little dab of frosting on top of the Pirouline.  Place the cut pocky stick into this dab of frosting to stand upright for a chimney.
  9. Place a bit of frosting on the back of a brown m&m mini and gently press it onto the pocky stick chimney.
  10. Place a bit of frosting on the back of a mini York peppermint patty.  Press it onto the bottom wafer on the side with the cabin.
  11. Place a bit of frosting on the back of 2 more brown m&m minis and stick them to the bottom vanilla wafer base in front of the mini York Peppermint patty as wheels.
  12. Repeat steps 10 and 11 on the other side of the train. Let dry.

    Check out the finished locomotives in the right of this picture.

  13. When dry, press onto a cupcake on top of the train tracks.

To make the train cars

  1. Cut down 2 wafers lengthwise like you did for the locomotive.
  2. Cut the 2 wafers into two pieces 1/3 of the way down the wafer.
  3. Set aside 4 brown m&m minis for wheels.
  4. Assemble the car by putting some frosting on either end of the 1/3 pieces of wafer. Lay one of the long wafers down then press a shorter wafer at each end. Place another long wafer on top.  Lay flat it should look like a basket.

    Assembled coal cars plus one with partial wheels.

  5. Put some frosting on the back of the m&m minis and affix two to the bottom of a long wafer on either end.  Repeat for second side.  Let dry.
  6. When dry, place on top of the railroad track on a cupcake then fill with m&m minis.

    In the back of the photo are the cars filled with m&ms the one in the foreground has the layer of icing to allow the m&ms to overflow slightly.

  7. Put a small amount of white frosting just outside the hole for the m&ms.  Scatter more m&ms on top.

    Up close of the finished locomotives and train cars.

 

Posted in Culinary Delights | Leave a comment

Mermaid Tales

Posted on July 2, 2024 by lexicolton

Note I wrote this before the cruise but forgot to autopost it!

We are going on a cruise!!  The last one we went on was to Alaska about 8 years ago!  That one was super fun but it was pre kids.  So we’ll let everyone know how it works with kids.  Hopefully it’s great!

The last couple weeks at work have been pretty dark.  They offered my entire organization voluntary severance.  And I just found out a couple of friends took it.  I did not.  I still maintain this is the best team I’ve been on in my career and I am just not ready to let that go.  They are threatening to make us return to the office 3 days a week but as one coworker said “they can’t put the genie back in that bottle”.  I don’t know why executives care.  It just seems like a power play especially when they deliver these remarks from their own home offices.

But enough work for the next week it’s all about fun!  I won’t even be able to work even if I wanted to (I don’t) because we decided not to pay for wifi on the ship (it is really expensive).  So I’m off grid (mostly)!  Well I thought I’d show you how I made Patricia’s mermaid cupcakes since we’re about to embark on our own sea voyage.  Oh wait before that… Patricia had her last day of preschool Friday!!  Here’s her first and last day pictures!

My big girl! Done with preschool! On to PreK (1)

Mermaid Cupcakes

What you’ll need:

  • Mermaid tail candy mold
  • Candy melts (mine were pink and teal)
  • Edible luster dust
  • American buttercream recipe
  • Food coloring
  • Cute sprinkles
  • Cupcakes (I used this recipe, though it is not my favorite) and I dyed the batter orange, pink and purple then put a spoonful of each color batter into the muffin cup so they looked sort of tie dyed.
  1. Melt your chocolate/candy melts according to package directions.
  2. Place silicone mold on a baking sheet.
  3. Spoon melted chocolate into the mermaid tail molds.  Use a toothpick to make sure the chocolate reaches into all the crevices and then shake the mold a bit.  Using an offset spatula remove the excess chocolate from the top of the mold.
  4. Let cool then add another thick layer of chocolate where the tail and fins meet.  Let cool.
  5. When mermaid fins are cool and hard gently remove them from the molds. It is really hard to do this without breaking them (even with our extra precaution) so don’t worry if they split between the tail and fins.
  6. If they split, dip the tip of tails into a teensy bit of melted chocolate (or use a toothpick to place a tiny bit of chocolate on the broken part) then place the fin on top gluing it back together.
  7. When tails are whole and dry dust with lustre dust.
  8. After making sure your cupcakes are sufficiently cool, make your buttercream, split it in half then dye one half pink and teal.
  9. Insert a large frosting tip (2D) into piping bag then fill with teal frosting.
  10. Starting at the center pipe a disc of frosting in teal.
  11. Sprinkle sprinkles lightly over the outside area of the teal buttercream.
  12. Repeat 10&11 for all cupcakes.

    I’m between steps here!

  13. Clean and replace frosting tip (2D) in a new piping bag.  Fill with pink frosting.
  14. Pipe a single star in the center of each cupcake on top of the teal frosting.
  15. Place a mermaid tail into the top of the star to look like a mermaid is diving into the water.
  16. Finally before presenting I placed a second cupcake wrapper on the outside of the first so it looked prettier.

    Patricia is showing off the inner wrapper and the tie dye cupcake

Posted in Culinary Delights | 2 Comments

Sharktastic

Posted on June 17, 2024 by lexicolton

Well Julius is officially done with Kindergarten!  I will admit I cried when I was taking things out of his backpack.  How is the year already over?  It’s gone by too quickly!  I feel the need to do one of the before and after photos that everyone does with the chalkboard I made this summer!

First and last day of Kindergarten

Julius’ summer camps don’t start yet so he’s home this week doing Legos and vegging out.  Hopefully tomorrow he’ll be cleaning his room.  He also had his dance recital this weekend!  It was the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen (well tied with watching Patricia do gymnastics).  I’m sad he’s not interested for next year because that 30 seconds of performance was totally worth it (I’m not being sarcastic it was so darn adorable).

Speaking of darn adorable, I can’t believe I haven’t posted Julius’ shark costume tutorial.  This is basically a shark snuggie.  It’s a bit hard to see in while walking, but that didn’t stop Julius from wearing it as a Halloween costume.  Fun fact, this is the picture we originally took for our Christmas cards, but our photographer told us it looked like we were missing a person from the photo!  This pattern is a bit looser than some of the others I’ve done because I used Julius as a pattern.   Use my photos as a guide, and let me know if you have questions.

Shark Snuggie

What you’ll need:

  • about 2.5 yards of blue fleece material
  • about 1.5 yards of white fleece material (I used just white sweatshirt material I had)
  • about 1/4 yard or scrap of off white fleece material
  • Scrap black and white felt fabric
  1. Using your child(or an adult) as a model, cut two pieces of blue fleece in the shape of a shark (seen from the side) complete with fins with the arms fall, tail where the feet are and a hood at the top.  Cut a large dorsal fin (x2) and smaller secondary dorsal fin (x2) proportional to the rest of the shark from blue fleece.   Make everything quite a bit larger than your child to account for comfyness and seam allowance.
  2. Serge or stitch 2 large dorsal fin pieces together, leaving a gap at the bottom.  Repeat for smaller dorsal fin. 
  3. Turn dorsal fins right side out and place them inside the shark body with the unfinished edges along the back seam. Stitch from hood to bottom. 
  4. Open the back piece up and cut front tail piece in 1 solid piece.  Cut pieces for front of arms in blue fleece to where the arms stop protruding from the body.
  5. Cut white belly from where the bottom tail piece comes up to the base of the hood.  Cut a halfmoon piece for the top of the hood from white for the upper mouth.

    Sketched on where the belly should be and the mouth (the white parts. The fins and tail should all attach here.

  6. Serge/stitch the tail to the belly and the arms to the belly.

    Where tail attaches to belly.

  7. Serge/stitch the upper mouth to the hood.

    Inside view of where mouth attaches to hood.

  8. Stitch a row of shark teeth the width of the hood by stitching a triangle pattern in the off white fleece. 
  9. Turn teeth right side out.  Serge/stitch teeth white mouth on the hood, then serge rest of teeth onto the bottom of mouth (the white belly).

    Stitch teeth onto mouth.

    Stitching onto belly.

  10. Stitch a an elastic loop on the top mouth center behind the teeth. 
  11. Stitch a button on the back of the middle center tooth. 
  12. Finally cut out two black circles from felt.  Cut two smaller circles from white felt.  Stitch white circles to black eyes.
  13. Stitch eyes on either side of the hood. 

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 2 Comments

In Bloom

Posted on June 11, 2024 by lexicolton

Will for Mother’s Day has been updating my blog so I can switch to https and Google will start indexing my blog again (maybe).  Yay!  He’s almost done so we’ll have a grand unveiling (maybe).  Spoilers, it will look exactly the same, it’s just backend changes.

This is Julius’ last week of Kindergarten.  I can’t even believe it.  It’s funny, I started to think of Julius as such a big guy compared to Patricia, but seeing other young kids through his classes, cub scouts and other activities it’s clear he is just a little guy.  He is little with a big personality though!  (Just like Patricia.)  His latest is trying to learn music.  He desperately wants to play an instrument so we bought him a harmonica and he was getting pretty good at the tabs!  Until he lost it.  This weekend at the library he realized there were instruments you could take out from the library.  So he borrowed a ukulele from the library.  Luckily my BFFITWWW Amy came over with Chris and the kiddos this weekend and tuned it for him.  She is the opposite of music clueless like myself (as proof she has a conservatory in her house with tons of different instruments).  Being musically talented she also taught him a few chords on the ukulele, which he has somehow remembered!  I’m actually pretty impressed.

Friends and cookies!

Patricia is such a cheeky lady.  She really doesn’t like to be told she’s doing something wrong, and will break down crying.  When I think I’ve really ruined her day though she seconds later will bounce back as her happy bubbly self.  She always wants to help (maybe this is a phase with children, because Julius used to be a big helper and he’s less interested now).  This weekend we went to Ikea and she helped Will lift the boxes onto the cart proclaiming, “I’m a big strong lady”.  Best affirmation I’ve ever heard, I’m going to start using that one.

This weekend was also Julius and Patricia’s “Gymnastics Extravaganza”.  It was super cute – each kid did a demonstration of their gymnastics skills and then got a medal and ice cream.  They had little beach pail sets you could get as a congratulations prize but they looked like things that would be thrown away so instead I decided to make them cookie bouquets.  They weren’t super hard and they came out really, really cute!  I made them the night before the performance, let them dry overnight and then packaged them in the morning.  Both kids loved them which made me incredibly happy!  (Sometimes it’s hit or miss what the kids are going to like or not.)  There are tons of cookie bouquets on pinterest and these are the ones I used as an example!

Cookie Bouquets

What You’ll Need (for 2 small bouquets):

  • 1/4 batch of my favorite sugar cookie recipe.
  • kabob skewers (with the ends trimmed)
  • biscuit cutters
  • 1 batch stiff royal icing (I use the one on the back of the Wilton meringue powder  as is)
  • piping bag and 104 tip
  • pink food coloring
  • white non pareil sprinkles
  • brown kraft paper (upcycled is best – mine was saved from an amazon package)
  • white tissue paper (upcycled is best – mine was from Julius’ dance costumes)
  • Dried babys breath (optional – but I have a lot of this drying in my basement from the party)
  • Upcycled ribbon
  1. Roll out your sugar cookies to 3/8″ thick (this is a bit thicker than I usually make) then cut with a 2.5″ biscuit cutter.
  2. Press a kabob skewer down flat into the back of the cookie dough circle.
  3. Take a piece of dough and press over the skewer to enclose it.
  4. Flip over and gently press so it’s flat, place on prepared cookie tray.
  5. Repeat for other cookies (I made 9, but 1/4 of a recipe could have make around 14 or 15).
  6. Bake for 6-8 minutes (7 in my oven) until barely golden on top.
  7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
  8. As cookies are cooling, prepare frosting.  I divided the batch in half and made two different shades of pink (one barely pink).  Place frosting into frosting bag fitted with 104 rose piping tip.
  9. The other tutorial doesn’t describe how to make the petals other than by holding the fat part of the tip down.  I have never piped this kind of petal with a 104 tip, only rose petals, which you do vertically, so this was a bit challenging.  I made a video, but I was doing it myself so I’m not sure you can tell what I was doing so I’ll try to describe it.  The good news is even the ones “I screwed up” still look great.  So just do your best.
    1. Hold the cookie in one hand and the piping tip in the other
    2. With the fat part of the piping tip facing “down” pipe a ‘c’ shape, turning the cookie to facilitate this.
    3. Continue to pipe c-shaped petals around the edge of the cookie.
    4. Move just inside the other petals, but overlapping (ideally overlapping where two petals meet).  Pipe more petals in a ring.
    5. Repeat until you get to the center of the flower where the petals are all overlapping (for my size cookie that was the third ring).
    6. Place a pinch of non pareils in the center.
  10. Repeat step 9 for the other cookies then let dry overnight.
  11. To wrap, first make sure your upcycled paper is nice and flat.  I always iron my recycled paper on cotton setting (just don’t hold the iron in one place).  It works great to get out crinkles or folds.
  12. Place 3 cookies in a rough bouquet shape on your paper.
  13.  Cut the recycled paper into rectangles that are a couple inches wider than the bouquet, and a few inches taller than the bouquet.
  14. Fold tissue paper to fit roughly on top of this rectangle.
  15. Place down brown paper followed by white tissue paper, followed by bouquet.  Tuck a few sprigs of baby’s breath behind the edible flowers if desired.
  16. Carefully scrunch the brown paper and tissue paper over the bouquet stems.  Tie a ribbon around the stems to hold in place.
  17. Deliver to your favorite star!

    Julius Gymnastics Star

    Patricia gymnastics star (pleased as punch)

    Patricia enjoying her cookie with Meemah and Meepah

 

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 2 Comments

I’ve a Fondness for Tea

Posted on June 3, 2024 by lexicolton

Today we picked up a “new” suitcase for Patricia from the free site.  Have I told you how much I love the free site?  The idea is to give things you don’t need to people local to you who may need them and in return take those things others don’t need anymore.  This saves things from going in the landfill and giving items away to people in your town cuts down on gas and emissions.  This weekend I gave away a bunch of stuff I didn’t want/need (old questionable grass seed, chicken wire, an old kiddie pool, a non-induction pot) and then today ended up with a slightly used pink and rainbow flowered rolling suitcase for Patricia.  Patricia was delighted.  And she did not care in the slightest that it had a little tear on a pocket because “mommy can fix it”.  When we got home she immediately filled it full of stuff “for Florida” including about 27 recipe cards, a pixel art kit, a bunch of books, and, my favorite, a real can of lentil soup that she took off my shelf – for a snack perhaps?!

I love when Julius and Patricia play together.  It is probably my favorite thing ever.  Tonight they kept whispering to each other and while I was putting Julius to bed Patricia came in and Julius said to her “don’t forget the plan”.  When I asked them “what plan”?  They said, they couldn’t tell me and that it was a secret plan.  Later Will found Patricia sleeping on Julius’ bottom bunk and we decided this had been “the plan”.  Sneaky.  But,  let’s be honest, also adorable.

The kids put up with an awful lot of silliness having me as a mom.  Well silliness and sometimes sheer frustration.  Patricia pushes everyone’s buttons (especially mine) but most of the time she is just a cheerful ball of energy.  So despite some contrary nature the kids most of the time go along with my harebrained schemes.  We have tea parties more than anyone else I know (which is only like once or twice a year but still).  I inherited my grandma’s tea cup collection which I always adored.  After Sunday dinner we’d each get to pick a tea cup and try some tea from her collection.  This is definitely where my fondness for tea comes from, though my fondness for Earl Grey, my favorite of her tea collection,  was not one shared by my grandma, who one time remarked in awe, “we never thought anyone would like that one!”  I also always drink my tea black which seemed to baffle her.

My absolute favorite tea I developed a liking for in college.  Everytime we’d have a formal dinner in the Statler hotel for some such event, recruiting, Eid, SWE etc they would bring out what my sophomore roommates and I deemed “the fancy tea”, which is the Harney and Sons sachet collection.  My favorite of which is Paris, a delicious black tea with hints of vanilla and bergamot.  Like an upgraded, more subtle Earl Grey.  Just the smell has me drifting off to my happy place.  Perhaps needless to say I buy it and their decaf Paris version in loose leaf by the pound.  If you ever want to try it just stop by and ask me for a cup.

Sorry I’ve once again digressed.  You see?  Tea just makes me wax poetic.  It used to be wine but honestly, after 4 years of pregnancy/nursing I’ve become a bit of a teatotaler (see what I did there).  Anyway, the kids, when home sick from school or on the weekends always beg me to make them tea (I keep many tisanes on hand for this reason).  They almost never drink it.  So last time when we were running late, I negotiated to do a tea party the following weekend instead.  They were all for it.  So I went all out.  I made homemade sourdough honey wheat bread (note: the bread was delicious but didn’t rise tremendously), and two tiny batches of desserts for the 4 of us and we had tea in place of lunch on Memorial Day.  The kids picked out their own teacups and saucers from my grandma’s collection. Oh and one final note – if you have never had homemade crumpets with jam and butter you don’t know what you’re missing!

Afternoon Tea

Menu

Tea party ready to commence.

Now the same picture with me!

Top to bottom:
financiers & cupcakes; crumpets; egg salad hearts and cucumber sandwiches

I should have taken a picture before I dived in!

Julius’ favorite was the egg salad.

Will’s digging in.

Posted in Culinary Delights, Parties | Leave a comment