The Lady Beekeeper

Okay, I really didn’t mean to troll you again.  There will be no pictures of adorable tiny fluffy dogs this week.  But next week.   Next week for sure.  The reason?  It is Earth week!  Honestly I had this whole ridiculous idea planned for Earth Day this year.  Will and I were going to hype it up to Julius as if it were Christmas and start all sorts of fun Earth Day traditions!  Then we could have an Earth Day “party” to crown the week off (yeah I know, I was still working on this one).  Anyway I was thinking about all this about right before the shit hit the fan whole coronavirus outbreak hit the US.

Well, we still have plans to have a happy Earth day and to wish Mother Earth to continue healing so she can support our raucous, frequently ungrateful abundance of human life.  So don’t forget to show a little love to your Earth Mother this Wednesday and let her know you’re thinking of her.  Some ideas?  Eat vegetarian!  Sign up for a local CSA who uses IPM!  Plant a tree!  Clean up litter!  Send an email to the Trump administration explaining (in short sentences) how they are sacrificing the planet!  Yes I’m still bitter right now about this and this and how about going back to the start of it – this?  Sorry, I digress, the whole point of this paragraph was to explain that later in this post there will be an environmentally friendly craft so stay tuned!

Anyway, want to hear some adorable stories instead of more doom and gloom?!  Well the other day Will relayed to me a cute conversation.  Will found Julius peering down the cellar stairs and Will asked, “why are you opening the basement door Julius?”  To which he replied “checking for bears.”  Will returned “are there any bears?”  And Julius replied “I hope not.”  I hope not either buddy.  I think I had better tone down the “bear hunts” in our neighborhood.

Will and I have gotten into a sort of routine with Julius throughout the past few weeks.  We are somehow each able to do 8 hours of work while watching Julius throughout the day.  While exhausting, we each get to spend a lot more time with Julius which is really nice.  I do like that little guy.  And I want to give a shout out to teacher of the month Will over here – Will has been doing a great job teaching Julius the written alphabet and Julius can now recognize all the letters!  He gets confused on a couple – but who doesn’t?!  On to algebra!

So this tote is very similar to the bags I made for Danycon last year.  Those bags are a nice size for toting your lunch to the beach, but I wanted a bigger bag to carry bulky grocery items in so they don’t get squished.  I’d purchased this adorable farmer’s market fabric at Ikea a couple years ago, and I guess it screamed out farmer’s market tote.  It is PERFECT for the farmers market (or grocery produce section since I don’t have a farmer’s market near me).  Roomy, and I can throw it in my purse so I don’t inevitably forget to bring it!  It was super quick to make and I plan to make several more to give away.  

Farmer’s Market Tote

• 23″x40″ rectangle of sturdy fabric
• 2 xxy rectangles of same fabric for handles
• 1 7″x12″ rectangle for pocket, with 12″ side along seam allowance.
• 1 5″x1″ strip for bag hanging hook

1. Serge each 23″ edge of fabric to prevent unraveling.
2. Fold canvas rectangle in half to form an 23″×20″ rectangle.  Stitch down both sides adjacent to the fold with 1/2″ seam allowance.
3. Serge along these two sections to reinforce.
4. Mark a 4″x3.5″ square in each of the bottom corners of the bag (4″ side is into the seam allowance, so effectively creating a 3.5″x3.5″ square within the non seam allowance portion of the bag).
5. Cut out rectangles.  Starting with one side of the bag, pull the points of the two negative space rectangles you just created apart so that the two seams meet and the unfinished edges line up.  Pin.  Repeat for second corner of bag.
6. Stitch along the areas you just pinned.  Serge along each seam to reinforce.
7. Fold rectangles for handles in half the long ways, wrong side in, then fold under 1/2″ on each lengthwise side. Press and stitch.
8. Take 5″x1″ strip for bag hook and fold in half the long ways, wrong side in.  Fold under 1/4″ on each lengthwise side.  Press and stitch. 
9. At the opening of the bag, turn the fabric over 3/4″.  Press
10. Mark at the 5.5″ mark and 6.5″ mark and the 11.5″ and 12.5″ mark along the top edge of the bag.  Place one edge of one handle inside the 5.5″ & 6.5″ marks, so the edge touches fold.  Pin. Ensuring the strap is not twisted, place second edge of handle inside the 11.5″ and 12.5″ marks.  Pin.  Turn bag over and repeat.  At the center of the bag, place hook into the bag as you did for the handles, as shown. 
11. Stitch 1/2″ from the top of the bag and again 5/8″ from the top of the bag, encompassing the handles and hook.
12. Fold 12″x7″ length of fabric (right sides together) in half to form 7×6″ pouch.  Stitch along one long edge and one short edge with 1/2″ seam allowance to form a pouch. 
13. Match pouch side seam up against side seam of the bag, near the bottom.  Pin and stitch through seam allowance to secure. 
14. Turn bag right side out.
    

    Finished bag.

    

    Finished bag interior

    

    Bag all tucked away in it’s pouch.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter or are having a wonderful Passover to those of you who celebrate.  I know you were expecting more cute dog photos, but you’ll have to wait for those next week.  Instead let me tell you about our Easter weekend while it’s still fresh!  We had a great weekend prepping a bountiful feast and fun activities for Julius.  And of course watching your kids have fun is the main return on investment for parenting.

While I’m fully committed to being trapped at home, I’m trying to avoid doing a lot of online shopping.  I did cave and buy Julius a boatload of books since he has been wanting to read about 20 books a day, plus I knew the books I was buying weren’t available in stores anyway.  Two of these ended up in his basket, and the rest of his Easter basket consisted of handmade items.  Julius kept asking for slippers that were his size, so I decided to tell him “maybe the Easter bunny will bring you some”.  After that anytime the Easter bunny was mentioned, Julius brought up “maybe the bunny will bring my slippers”.   So slippers was one of the items I made for Julius.  The other ones were Easter sugar cookies and a little stuffed bunny.  (Now known as the Easter bunny bunny.)  I had big plans to make a quiet book style house to go with the little stuffed bunny, but as usual time ran short.

The Easter bunny was really proud of these cookies… so here’s a close up.

The basket the bunny brought for Julius

Julius loved everything.  It really made my month.  There is nothing like having your toddler love and appreciate the things you’ve created for them!  He even brought his Easter bunny bunny to the bunny parade!  (Where you sit in your car while the Easter bunny drives by on a fire truck.)  Julius loves fire trucks, but when I asked him if he wants to get out of his car seat and stand up to see better he vehemently said “no!  I scared!”  Poor guy, the sirens on all the vehicles were very loud.  Good news though, when he saw the Easter bunny drive by waving on top of the truck Julius actually giggled.

Julius wearing his slippers, holding his bunny and eating a cookie!

Easter Bunny Bunny

What you’ll need:

• scrap amounts of white cotton or linen fabric
• scrap amounts of pink cotton fabric
• a small white pom pom
• a tiny amount of stuffing
• blue, pink and black embroidery thread
• pattern here

1. Cut out all pattern pieces as indicated.  Be sure to add seam allowance.
2. Place two body pieces together and pin.  Stitch all around body, leaving 1″ gap in one side to turn inside out.
3. Clip curves, especially around the legs and neck.  Turn right side out.
4. Stuff.
5. Hand stitch the opening closed using a ladder stitch/invisible stitch.
6. Choose the least attractive side of the bunny.  Stitch pom pom tail onto bunny on less attractive side.
7. Create two arms following steps 2,3,4 and 5 but stuffing the arms a little less full.
8. Position top of arm just below neck of bunny.  Stitch through each arm about 1/4″ from the top directly into the torso and back out the same hole, so it forms a movable limb.  (I do this several times to make it secure.)  (Here is a site with examples – I basically did #3.)
9. Assemble the ears.  For each ear, sandwich pink fabric between 2 white fabric pieces.
10. Stitch around ear, leaving the bottom opened.   Trim excess fabric.
11. Turn right side out.
12. Turn the unfinished edge of each ear inside and invisible stitch closed.
13. Pin ears to head at a slight angle so pinks of ears are visible.
14. Invisible stitch ears to head.
15. Transfer face pattern onto bunny.  Embroider eyes in blue, mouth in black and finally nose in pink.

In the last two weeks Julius has been experiencing a lot more screen time than he ever has before…  In the past we’d let him watch one movie a week, now he has a daily conference call at 10:30am with daycare, and he watches 2 movies a day in the afternoon.  (Yes you read that right, Julius has been conference calling with his daycare – it’s adorable.)  Poor Will is taking the brunt of childcare activities during this quarantine because until a couple days ago I was working crazy hours and weekends.  (Now I’m working mostly normal hours and just every other Saturday.)  I can’t complain because unlike a lot of people I am able to continue working full time from home.

One of the activities during Julius’ daycare conference call this week was “a bear hunt”.  (If you haven’t heard about this, you should put a teddy bear in your window even if you don’t have a kid.)  I was not surprised to learn that his daycare was excited to share news of the international “bear hunt” since Julius made me aware that his class had read “Going on a bear hunt” a couple weeks ago.  This morning we went on a walk in our tiny neighborhood and found 3 bears!  But Julius assured me “I not scared”.

Julius and I are also baking and cooking to beat the quarantine blues!  We have made several batches of muffins in assorted types, peanut butter coconut flour cookies (when we couldn’t find regular flour), peanut butter ice cream and gnocchi to name a few.  The peanut butter ice cream was amazing, I used the Ben & Jerry’s recipe from their book (yes I have their book) and it was to die for.  The gnocchi I used in a vegetarian-ized version of Olive Garden’s Chicken and Gnocchi soup.  It was amazing.  Overall we’re eating pretty well during this quarantine.

My little chef has been wearing the apron I made him for Christmas during our cooking forays.  So far so good – it’s covered in stains so it must be doing it’s job.  This one was really quick to make.

Toddler Apron

What You’ll Need:

• 1 yard of woven material of your choice (I used linen)
• template here

1. Cut out apron using template provided – be sure to cut on fold. 
2. Cut a 16″x2.5″ strip for the neck and two 22.5″x2.5″ strips for the ties.
3. Fold ties in half, press.  Fold under 1/2″ all around (with the exception of one side on the length.  Press and stitch.
4. Fold neck loop in half, press.  Fold under 1/2″ on the long edge. Press and stitch.
5. Form a rolled hem on all sides of the apron except the top.  Press and pin.
6. Feed the unfinished end of one raw strap underneath the rolled hem you just pinned on one side of the apron where the apron makes a point. Then fold strap so the end faces out from the apron.  Pin.  Repeat with second strap on opposite side.
7. Stitch all around the rolled hem you created, making sure to securely attach the straps you pinned.
8. Fold the neckline down 1/2″ and then another 1″ to form a thick rolled hem.  Pin.
9. Insert one end of the neck strap under the rolled hem on one edge, then fold up so the strap protrudes from the top of the apron.  Pin.
10. Repeat for the second side of the neck strap, taking care to avoid twisting the neck strap.
11. Stitch close to all edges of the 1″ rolled hem.
12. Decorate as desired!  (I of course decided Muffin Man was apropos!)

Well I was feeling disheartened about the recent pandemic, and almost decided to put off blogging for a while.  Then I realized, “wait! If I am disheartened, others are too!  What better time than this to put some cheer out there into the interwebs?”  So here is your Monday cheer report.   (Sorry if there’s a lot of tongue in cheek humor this week.)

So let’s recap the last week’s events from the point of view of a germaphobe.  I was supposed to fly out today (Sunday; writing this a day early) to Austin for a work event lasting 2 weeks consisting of hundreds of travelers, during the week of SXSW.  I’ve been freaking out about this for a while.  Monday Intel cancelled all domestic flights for work, so my trip was cancelled.  I started freaking out about transmission of COVID19 in the office on Monday when they recalled a bunch of people back to our office from business in CA. Tuesday, Intel instilled a “work from home if you desire” policy.  I finally got so freaked out that on Thursday I worked it out with my managers to work from home until further notice.  Friday, Intel issued a strongly suggested work from home policy for those who are able to work from home.  I also convinced Will to work from home, since HPE had a “work from home if you talk to your manager” policy.  Now I’m just worried about Julius (affectionately known as the plague bearer) contracting it at daycare.  Today, the governor of MA issued 3 weeks of shut downs for schools and dine in restaurants and gatherings of more than 25 people.  So guess that means day care… Honestly this is all just affirming my germaphobia.  Maybe I’m not a germaphobe?!

I’ve been reading the CDC recommendations daily, so when they announced 3 weeks ago to prepare for a pandemic with canned goods I went out and bought enough soup and beans (vegetarian protein) to last us for a month.  It was far enough in advance that I got some strange looks from the cashiers.  Will returned to the grocery store today and reported back that everything I bought 3 weeks ago is still in stock, but that they were nearly out of toilet paper and meat.  The only silver lining I can envision from all this whole situation is that the pandemic may turn everyone into vegetarian hippies.

Julius has no problem eating vegetarian.  Today he glommed down his plate of crock pot chana masala we made together and asked for more!   Yesterday, Will fed Julius palak paneer while I was working from home in the other room and Julius kept exclaiming “yummy, yummy tummy!”  from the other room.  (His version of “yummy in my tummy”.)  It was adorable.

While Julius and I haven’t been baking as much, he has been helping me quite a bit in the kitchen.  I made Julius a chef’s hat and apron for Christmas to go with his kitchen playset.  He’s been wearing both in the kitchen when cooking with me.  I’ve explained to him that my “sous chef” gets to wear a fancy hat which further increases his desire to cook with me.  Today I’ll show you how to make a toddler chef’s hat in less than an hour!

Toddler Chef’s Hat

What you’ll need:

• 1 yard of white cotton fabric

1. Cut 22″ diameter circle of fabric and 21″x7″ strip of fabric for hatband. (.5″ seam allowance included everywhere)
2. Pin strip of fabric end to end to form band of hat.  Stitch.
3. Fold band in half, so unfinished seam is inside.
4. Stitch a wide running stitch all around the outside of the circle, close to the edge.
5. Pull up the edges to gather the circle.
6. Pin circle to hatband, unfinished edges together.  Pull up gathers to fit.
7. Stitch hatband to cap.  Turn right side out.  If you desire, you can add elastic to the back of the hat so it has a more snug fit.

“Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds” – Buddha (paraphrased by Jack Kornfield)

Okay guys, I have another vegetarian recipe for you this week!  Just joking, don’t worry!  Instead – the next best thing – an upcycling craft!  You see, my grandma passed away last week.  Yes, this is my grandma Kohm who kept all the German food and traditions alive and who I very recently mentioned a couple weeks ago in this post.  I’m happy to say my grandma will always live on in all the traditions she passed down to us, that we all hold so dear.  This includes her love of all living things and the Earth!  My grandma was a regular green thumb (I did not inherit that from her sadly) and my grandparent’s postage stamp backyard was always a verdant jungle of fresh fruits and vegetables.  And for as long as I can remember (I’m certain much longer) my grandma always composted her kitchen scraps for that fabulous garden of hers.  I started composting because of her!  She also was an avid seamstress and upcycled all she could – a skill/desire that I’m certain was passed down to me from both my grandmas.   I hope they’d both approve of this craft.

This craft was born from the netting that I didn’t want around the Christmas tree, but was already around the tree by the time we got back from our walk to get it.  I’ve been wanting to make lightweight produce bags for a while, but I decided not to buy any new material this year (did I mention that?!)  The netting has been hanging around my basement, since, well, Christmas so I finally tried to make a produce bag out of it.  It was slightly time consuming, but it seems to hold up well and it is definitely very lightweight!  And as an added bonus I’m not accidentally killing any dolphins or porpoises or adding to trash island.

Upcycled Produce Bag

What you’ll need:

• 2/3 yard of lightweight netting
• 20″ of 1″ thick woven trim
• 1 yard of kitchen twine

1. Cut a roughly 16″x16″ square from the lightweight netting.
2. Stitch ends of trim together.
3. With needle and thread, hand stitch each loop of the netting to the “bad side” of the trim (where the unfinished edges face in), spacing the netting evenly over the whole trim.
4. Trim off any unruly threads.
5. After the hand stitching is complete, machine stitch on top of the hand stitching on a very narrow straight stitch setting.
6. Fold the trim in half, enclosing the raw edges of the netting.
7. Machine stitch very close to where the edges of the trim meet.   Leave a 1″ gap opened somewhere along the perimeter.
8. Using a yarn needle, thread the kitchen twine into the 1″ gap and through the perimeter of the bag.  Knot loose ends of twine together.