Gone a-Maying

Posted on May 29, 2024 by lexicolton

So obviously I have to talk about the elephant in the room.. err… pole in the yard.  Will erected a maypole for me a few weeks ago.  If there is a greater token of love, I would be surprised.  After he put up the maypole I quickly whipped up the topper with some ribbon.  Then, naturally, we tested it out by doing some folk dancing around it.  It was challenging!  I would have danced for longer but everyone could only bear humoring me for so long and I think it isn’t the same solo…

Maiden voyage of the maypole

Wrapping is looking good!

At the party we got a dozen people to do it.  Afterwards, at least one person said “it’s more fun than I expected” so I consider that high praise.  Next year many folks suggested I send out the dance moves in advance to make sure everyone knows the moves.  I didn’t want to give people homework… but if that’s what people want… I will gladly oblige.  We had a bit of trouble with the full weave so there is improvement for next year to be had!  It still looked pretty wrapping around the pole.  I want to say that I did ask Will if this was the most pagan thing I’ve ever asked convinced him to do and he thought for a really long time before saying “maybe”.  So that is promising.

I used this tutorial as the inspiration for our maypole, but I did things slightly differently.  They had some great ideas including using galvanized steel pipe for the pole.  Personally, I didn’t think we should fell any trees for our maypole, and galvanized steel means we can keep it year after year.  What I didn’t like about the tutorial is that they used a single stake of rebar driven into the ground to hold up the 10′ pipe.  That didn’t seem like that would handle 20 people dancing around it.  So we changed that a bit!  Unfortunately it involves some digging.

In order to accommodate digging and still have a 10′ maypole, I attached a 3′ length of pipe to the bottom of a 10′ pipe with a coupling.  To the bottom of the 3′ pipe I attached a threaded floor flange fitting, to make it more difficult for the pipe to just pull out of the ground.  Using a post hole digger, Will dug 3′ into the ground, then buried the pole, 3′ length side into the ground.  Then we filled the hole back in (while also checking it was level) and Will tamped down the earth until we were satisfied it was buried.  I also left the cap on the top of the 10′ pole so water wouldn’t get inside when it rained.

Will tamping down the earth.

Then I made the topper with 1.5″ ribbons –  (made from recycled plastic and happily sourced from this Indigenous run shop) and two 8″ pine plaques from Michaels.  We (the kids helped me) measured out 20 15′ lengths of ribbon and then I used the staple gun to attach them to the back of one of the plaques.  I then sandwiched the ribbons with the second plaque and screwed them together.  Finally, I attached the threaded floor flange fitting to the plaque.  This allowed me to remove the ribbons when they were not in use so they didn’t get wet.

Stapling the ribbons on

Putting the second plaque on top to “sandwich the ribbons”

Attaching the floor flange.

For those who are wondering, the pole is still in the ground.  We are debating how long it might stay there.  If you want to see us in action… watch below!  (What good friends I have!)

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Sustainable Pinata

Posted on May 21, 2024 by lexicolton

Well last week was a teensy bit of a bummer!  Patricia got sent home from school for pink eye!  And then Julius got sent home for a mild fever.  Both kids were out for several days.  We let them watch way too much tv while they were home which I fear might be a bit of a reward because Julius claimed he was sick a day longer than we intended to keep him home.  I want to believe my child if they say they are sick, but he didn’t have a fever or any symptoms so how am I to know if he is really sick?  He stayed home all day chipper as ever asking us to play with him.  Today we again got a call from his after school program that he was not feeling well.  He had claimed both his ears hurt and his stomach hurt so we took him to urgent care.  They didn’t find anything wrong with him.

Julius has been really into musical instruments lately.  He asked for a harmonica and has been begging me to print him out harmonica tabs.  I think I need to sign him up for a music class, but his schedule is already so busy.  He wants to do all these activities, but there is only so much time in the day!  And Patricia still just adores her big brother.  She always wants to give him a hug and a kiss before bed (much to Julius’ chagrin).  And she always wants to play with him.  Today her “question of the day” was “how are you feeling today” and she answered “peaceful because my brother plays with me”.  That’s her happy place.

We went to see “Bluey’s Big Play” this weekend which was adorable (as all things Bluey are) and one of the themes was being a big sibling.  I hope it gave Julius some food for thought.  I definitely remember having a similar conversation with my mom at Julius’s age about my sister copying me and my mom explaining that it was because she looked up to me.  It was eye opening.  Now I look up to her, so hopefully she doesn’t get too annoyed when I copy her ;).  Patricia does of course do her own things too.  For instance I caught her gluing giant googly eyes to this rock the other day.

Gosh so many things to talk about from Earth Day!  I guess I’ll describe how I made the Earth piñata this week.  In the past I’ve made piñatas entirely out of paper mache.  Paper mache is so satisfying.  It’s just recycled paper, flour and water.  This time I didn’t even bother to simmer the flour and water.  I just mixed a 2 parts flour to one part water.  I briefly considered using sourdough discard but wasn’t sure if that was taboo.  Ha!  Usually I use a balloon but I didn’t want to throw away a balloon just for a piñata so I tried another tactic. This one was made of recycled pizza boxes and constructed with the paper mache as glue.  This was the perfect amount of durability as everyone got in a couple of good whacks before it busted opened.  (We went youngest to oldest, and we went thru the order twice.)  I was horrified that someone was going to get whacked so I had everyone stand WAY back while the kids were swinging.  Even so you can see my horrified face in the photos below.

Oh one last thing!  I wanted to make the filling for the piñata sustainable so I went to a penny candy store with my stasher bags and bought bulk hard candies and bulk foil wrapped candy (foil is recyclable!)  We put a tablespoon of each of the hard candies into little paper envelopes.  I also bought these cool completely plastic free tattoos from a company called Nuukk.  They work really well!  I think the kids enjoyed the treats. 

Paper Mache Earth Pinata

What you’ll need:

  • 2 Pizza boxes
  • old newspaper or ads
  • flour
  • a canary cutter (this is the best thing ever, I’ll wax poetic about it in a later post)
  • recycled crepe paper streamers in green and blue (I saved mine from the under the sea party.  Yes for 6 months. I know, I’m crazy.)
  • a glue stick
  1. Cut first pizza boxes into two circles
  2. Cut a 6″ wide strip from the other pizza boxes, then fold up the sides to form a 2″ wide strip with two 2″ wide strips on either end.
  3. Cut the 2″ wide strips into tabs 1″ wide, then bend at each tab.  These will be used to form the curved portion of the earth connecting the two circles.
  4. Whisk together two parts flour to one part water to form a paste.
  5. Rip strips of newspaper into roughly 1″x5″ strips.
  6. Dip a strip of newspaper into paste and lightly remove some of the paste so the mixture only just coats the paper.  Start layering this on top of one side of the piñata where the face of the earth connects to the curved portion.  
  7. Keep layering until a segment is covered, then cover with dry newspaper.  Let dry.
  8. Repeat with the rest of the side of the box until a 6″ length of the curve is left.

    Flap left opened.

  9. Repeat steps 6 thru 8 with the other side of the box.  Let dry.
  10. After it completely dries determine if you need another set of paper mache to keep things together.  The 6″ strip you left opened will be where you fill the piñata.
  11. After the pinata is dry, start adding your strips of crepe paper.  Fold strips of crepe paper and cut 1/4″ cuts halfway into the paper.  
  12. Start layering at the bottom by applying a stripe of glue stick, and then applying the non-fringed portion of the crepe paper to the glue.  Make row continue around sides and bottom of the piñata.  
  13. Stack the next row about the first continuing up the piñata.  Intersperse the green and blue in strategic spots to form the continents.
  14. Continue stacking until you fill out the entire pinata including the portion at the top.  Tuck the top portion in after filling it with candy and glue in place. 

Finished Piñata

Watch my face.

Pure shock.

PS – I realize this Earth representation is flat.  The Earth is not flat.  I just wanted to use all recycled materials to make this Earth Day piñata Earth friendly.

PPS – I have already been told my continents leave something to be desired.  I tried really hard, but a. I was a bit loose with geography and b. it is really hard to make continents out of rectangular strips!

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A Recipe for Disaster… or how (not) to throw an Earth Day Celebration

Posted on May 13, 2024 by lexicolton

Well thanks for your patience!  The party ended up getting rained out two weekends ago, but on the rain date this past Saturday the weather was gorgeous!!  This meant of course that I procrastinated finishing party prep until last week.  I was a bit ambitious with Earth Day party crafts this year, and I think there were simultaneously more activities that were hits, but also some that were not even touched at all.  Before I get into the activities let me tell you about the drama.

It wouldn’t be a recipe for disaster without some drama.  This year I decided to make the main course gluten free and vegan. (You see last year I failed to know one of our guests was gluten free, in my defense I had never met them before and Will had anecdotally told me they were gluten free before I had even conceived of having a party.  And no one responded to my “tell me if you have food allergies or intolerance”.  In a here’s-what-not-to-do moment, I did tell the person to their face it was such a relief that none of the friends that were gluten free were here because I’m always so nervous cooking gluten free.  Ouch.)  So anyway this year I painstakingly spent 6 hours making 5 GALLONS of gluten free, vegan chili.  It took me 1.5 hours of veggie chopping alone.  Then 1 hour of cooling it before it was cool enough to put in the fridge.

If I look tall it is because I am standing on a 2 foot step stool to stir the chili.

When I woke up the next morning (the day of the party) the garage fridge (where the chili was stored in batches) was at 57 F.  I had a near melt down.  I decided that we could save the party by getting some kind of vegan soup from the store so I ran off to the nearest grocery store.  For some reason completely unknown to me, the entire vegetarian soup section in the store had only 5 cans in it. I broke down sobbing. Luckily my BFITWWW Amy and Will saved the day by finding me MANY cans of Annie’s vegetarian lentil soup (which is actually super delicious).  We heated these in several crock pots and moved on with the party.  Julius was very sweet and told me multiple times while I was sad “I think you do a great job with Earth day parties Mommy.  You are so creative.”  What a love bug.  So without further ado let me show you the 2024 party.

Food

The pb&j sandwiches are hiding underneath that bees wrap.

Menu

I had way too much food as usual.  People never eat as much as I expect.

In theory this menu should have been pretty simple for me (if my backup fridge hadn’t died). Here’s approximately how I made it work.

Food Prep

Several months/weeks before:

I have been making 2 loaves of sourdough for the last couple months and freezing one for the party.  To thaw I just unwrap the loaf and put it on a baking rack overnight and they were still perfectly crusty.  I also made and froze two batches of cookies pre-scooped.

A couple days before the party:

I made the bread for the pb&j sandwiches a couple days before the party and then sliced it and put it in containers. I also baked the two batches of cookies from frozen (at 375F for 13 minutes).

The day before the party:

I made the chili and chopped all the ingredients for the salad.  I also took out the loaves of sourdough to thaw.

The day of the party:

I made the pb&j sandwiches, put the chili/soup in crock pots to heat, assembled the salad, plated the cookies and put the sourdough out on a cutting board with some butter.

Overall everyone seemed happy with the food and people talked more about my sourdough than anything else (which let’s be honest is all I really wanted to hear)!  I think total for we went thru one loaf of pb&j sandwiches, one crock pot of lentil soup, one giant container of salad (consisting of 2 cucumbers, 2 pints of tomatoes, onion and 2 large heads of green leaf lettuce) and half the cookies for 19 adults, 11 kids (I know it seems like I made too much food but the previous weekend we had 54 “yes” RSVPs).  Other people brought items too like broccoli salad, cheese, tapenade and cookies, so that accounted for some of it.

We put out seating inside the porch, in the shade of the house and also in the shade of the maple tree in the yard.  We put several picnic blankets out for guests to use too (and sun tan lotion). 

Activities

May Pole Folk Dancing

I wanted to throw a bit of “May Day” into the mix this year, as who hasn’t wanted to frolic around a maypole?!  (Turns out the answer is most people, even if they know what a maypole is which is already rare here in America.)  Well anyway Will is a trooper and dug me a 3 foot deep hole for our maypole (13 feet of galvanized steel).  I got this idea from this clever tutorial though I couldn’t find rebar long enough to convince me it could structurally hold up 10 feet of steel pipe with 20 people dancing around it.  So instead I got a 3′ length of pipe with a threaded connector and a 10′ length of pipe and buried the 3′ length in the ground.

Everyone who participated said “it was more fun than expected” so I consider that a win!!!

Earth Piñata

The final set of swings!

Dany also was looking for candy

Patricia said this was her favorite activity.  I made a piñata entirely of recycled items then filled the piñata with hard candies I got from the bulk store and packaged in recyclable paper bags, foil covered chocolates from the bulk store, and plastic free temporary tattoos.  All the kids got several whacks in until Veronica busted it opened!  I think all the adults had a great time watching this one too.

Solar oven crayons

The solar oven in action

Some finished crayons

I made a solar oven from recycled materials for the party.  Because I’ve always wanted to make a solar oven.  We used broken crayons to make new crayons.  It was too cloudy the day of the event, but I baked the crayons today in full sun and it worked great!

Utensil sets

I wanted to give everyone a utensil set they could keep in their car/backpack/lunchbox/purse like the ones I carry around, but I didn’t have time to make 40 cases.  So instead I went to the thrift shop and bought 40 spoons/forks/knives and napkins and demonstrated a way to fold these together for easy transport.  You can take butter knives on planes so these are safe to keep in your carry on!  Julius said this was his favorite activity, but I’ll be honest only 2 people did this one.

Flower crowns

Julius and I with our crowns

Ibis and Joanna with their crowns (and sock puppet!)

Keaton and Owen sporting crowns

This seemed liked the favorite to me.  I bought (way too many) fresh flowers from the local florist (/our landscapers) and provided instructions for folks to make their own crowns.  They all came out so unique and cute.  I wanted an excuse to wear a crown.  And everyone obliged me.

Earth paper craft

This one was for the kiddos and I don’t have pictures of anyone doing one.  This one was simple to put together and used recycled crepe paper streamers I’ve been saving from Patricia’s under the sea party.

Pinecone Bird feeder

Behind Patricia on the right of the table is where the pinecones were! I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture!

A lot of kids made these and they were MESS-Y.  Several kids left them on the ground and Dany ate several.  I did provide recycled bags for people to take them home in but we also hung up about 5 that were instantly devoured by squirrels the next day.

Sock puppets

The kids seemed to love this one.  Patricia made several more sock puppets after the party, and also today.  It was just a “here’s a bunch of stuff, use your imagination” craft, which I used to like the best when I was a kid too.

Sock Puppet Theater

Joanna and Patricia show off their puppets.

I couldn’t have a party without cardboard crafts, so I made a puppet theater from recycled cardboard for the kids to play with their sock puppets in.

I also did a sock puppet rendition of “Gluscabi and the Wind Eagle” which is a tale from the Abenaki people about the wind.  The rendition I performed was from a book called Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children which I took out from the library.  As we know the indigenous peoples of the land we now call America were deeply in tune with the spirit of the Earth and its creatures so we have a lot to learn from them about protecting the Earth.  Julius, one of our cub scout friends and I read all the stories in this book and really enjoyed them!  Our favorite (the one Julius cracked up at the most) was a story about a trickster name Gluscabi who gets frustrated with the wind.  I made silly sock puppets of the three characters in the story and did my best performance of it.  I hope my humble attempt did it justice!  As an added bonus we learned a beautiful song that Gluscabi sings when paddling his canoe.

Cardboard Train

Does this look familiar? Well you’re right. I tried to pass along the train from Julius’ birthday party, but while over 10 people said they wanted it, no one ended up taking it home.   So this is the last hurrah for the train before we break it down!

Fire starters

I don’t know if I should talk about these!  My hot plate stopped working for some reason so the wax didn’t melt properly so 0 people did this craft!  It’s too bad because my test batch burned amazingly well!!!!

 

Favors

As Will said “it wouldn’t be an Earth day party without something planted” so I made plants the favors!  I totally forgot to give them out to all but the last people but the favors were herbs/beans planted in shells I had washed out.  They were marjoram, dill and navy beans.  

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

Quick Hiatus

Posted on April 29, 2024 by lexicolton

Hi All!

Just in case you were worried why I didn’t post last week, I wanted to let you know I’m taking a couple weeks’ hiatus as I prepare for the Earth Month/May Day party I’m throwing.  Rest assured I’ll have some great projects when I post again the week of May 5th.

I’ll leave you with this tidbit to keep you guessing:

Will:  what’s going in the piñata again?  Silverware?

XO,

Lexi

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 4 Comments

On Board

Posted on April 17, 2024 by lexicolton

I’ve been a bit stressed out this week.  Like burst out crying to the therapist stressed out.  Monday night I heard some rustling around in the front hall and found Dany eating from a bag of dark chocolate chips.  There were about 10 chips left in the 9oz bag when I caught her and freaked out.  After a few minutes of trying to figure out what the heck happened from an (unreliable) 3 year old and a (slightly more reliable) 6 year old, we discovered Patricia had snuck a new bag of chocolate chips out of the cabinet, used her scissor skills to cut it open and hid in the bar room eating them.  Then she ran away so we wouldn’t catch her and left them on the floor.  She claims she ate “a LOT” but I now suspect that may be like 10 chocolate chips. I freaked out and may have told Patricia that she killed Dany.  (This is not the first time she has done something like this, which is why all the candy and marshmallows in the house are on top of the fridge – except for the chocolate chips.)  Pretty sure you aren’t supposed to tell your 3 year old that they killed their favorite pet.  She doesn’t understand what death is exactly but she came downstairs weeping, “is Dany going to have to stay at the doctor for a long, long time?”  Not my best parenting moment.  Actually probably my worst parenting moment.  Hopefully she never does this again.

Poison control told me I needed to go immediately to an emergency vet with overnight care.  There they had Dany vomit up the chocolate (she had definitely eaten the entire bag) and hooked her up to a monitor to make sure she didn’t have any heart problems overnight.  I was pretty depressed late Monday when I got home.  I just kept thinking of how rough Dany looked when I left and how she was looking at me out of her cage. Poor thing. Luckily Tuesday morning I was able to pick her up and she seemed back to her normal self!  She is now just confused why I’m giving her rice and chicken for all her meals (because of stomach upset) and all her legs are shaved.

Between guilt for yelling at Patricia, sadness for my doggie getting hurt, and then some lame pity party type sorrow I decided I needed some retail therapy (after actual talk therapy and actual crying).  Since it’s Earth Month I decided to buy from Patagonia worn wear!  If you don’t know, this is Patagonia’s second hand store.  I need shorts (I think it’s finally time to pass along these ones from high school…) so this seemed like a good way to go!  Not only does Patagonia re-sell clothes second hand and recycle textiles, they will repair your clothes!  I love this and really hope it catches on.  As you know, I’m already on board.

Since it’s Earth Month I have to show you another upcycle.  For Julius’s party I really wanted to create little suitcases as favor bags.  The caveat was that they had to be made from the brown paper grocery bags that I collect.  Here’s how to do it!  

Train Luggage Favor Bag

What you’ll need for each:

  • brown paper grocery bag
  • paper for “strap”
  • black cardstock for handle and corner supports
  • 4 brads
  • tape roller
  • brown cardstock for luggage tag
  • string for luggage tag
  • Cricut pattern for luggage tag
  • stickers or stamps
  1. Fold paper bag top down to a couple inches from the bottom of the bag.  
  2. Cut off the top of the bag 1″ above the fold.
  3. Cut slits in the four corners of the bag down to the fold from step 1. 
  4. Fold each side into the bag.  Tape down using tape glider.
  5. Cut 1″ x8.5″ strips of paper for the straps
  6. Using the tape glider, glue the strips onto the front of the bag so they look like bag straps.
  7. Cut out 4 corner pieces (a triangle rounded on one end). 
  8. Glue the corner pieces to the front of the bag at each corner. 
  9. Cut out 2 handle pieces.
  10. Tape the handle pieces to the top center of the bag on the front and back. 
  11. Using a sharp needle (or other sharp pointed object) punch a hole thru the handle and the layers of bag on each place where the handle connects.
  12. Insert brads thru holes.
  13. Set your cricut to cardstock settings and then use the regular cutting tool and the fine tip pen as specified.  Cut/write with cricut. 
  14. Insert string thru hole and then tie to handle of bag.  
  15. Decorate with stickers or stamps if desired.
Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 2 Comments

Eclipsed

Posted on April 10, 2024 by lexicolton

So we woke up at 445am (or I did at least) and then packed into the car at 5am to head to Vermont Monday morning to see the eclipse.  We brought breakfast, lunch and dinner because we were paranoid based on all the hubbub that things would be overwhelmed.  Despite a vomit incident and a bathroom run we made it to King Arthur flour 5 minutes before they opened.  We bought some delicious baked goods and I got King Arthur flour merch (did I mention I’ve been buying like 2 bags of KA flour a week?!). It was a slice of heaven for me.

Then we headed over to Ben and Jerry’s and managed to get there 20 minutes before it opened, but they turned us away.  So we found a spot in the Best Western parking lot next door for 20 minutes making our sun masks (great idea from my friend Katie who is a teacher!)  Then we left and got a parking spot in Ben and Jerry’s!  What a great spot to spend the eclipse.  We checked out the grounds (no factory tours).  Then we had a nice picnic lunch overlooking the mountains.  After lunch the kids played in the playground and then we had some ice cream before heading to a picnic blanket on the hillside.  For the eclipse we watched from the parking lot where there were no trees to eclipse our eclipse view.

Julius took this picture!

Yes even I needed one of these plates. My glasses kept falling off!

Holy cow it was so cool!!  I’ve never seen anything like it!  The sky was black, all the streetlights came on and we could look at the sun without the glasses (for a second we were confused because you couldn’t see anything through the glasses anymore).   Then the sun looked like this bizarre dark orb hanging in the sky backlog by fire (of course it was actually the moon but you know). The moon looking unnaturally dark with the  juxtaposition of the halo of light from the sun’s corona.   It was super surreal since you have been told never to look at the sun directly your whole life.  And there it is smoldering there behind the moon the whole effect was like some dark angel crowned by light.  (Basically my favorite male character archetype right there.)

It only took us about an hour and a half longer than usual to get home too so it wasn’t so bad!  I have been exhausted all week though!  No excuses I’m sorry I didn’t post Monday.  I should remind everyone that this is Earth Month.  While we should treat everyday as Earth Day it is nice to set some goals for the next year in honor of our mother and home!  I thought this craft would be a good one to show you during Earth Month… this is how I made the goody bags for Patricia’s party!  As a bonus I’ve been using these as gift bags for birthdays.

Mermaid Gift Bags

What you’ll need:

  • Brown paper grocery bags
  • Teal and purple paint
  • A foam roller and spouncer or sponge
  • A piece of thin plastic (like those from vinyl backing)
  • Spray adhesive (that can be repositioned)
  • My cricut pattern here
  1. Using my cricut pattern cut out the stencil on the thin sheet of plastic
  2. Spray the back of the stencil with adhesive then position in the middle of the bag
  3. Using the roller roll a small amount of paint onto the foam.  Roll around until it is mostly absorbed and evenly dispersed (not wet looking) then start rolling on top of the stencil.
  4. Continue rolling until the entire tail is covered, being sure to add more paint as necessary.
  5. Switch to the purple paint.  Using the spouncer or sponge get a small amount of paint on the foam.  Sporadically dab the purple over the scales as desired.
    1. Remove the stencil then let dry.
Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 6 Comments

Mending Managed

Posted on April 1, 2024 by lexicolton

I am SO SORRY I didn’t post last week.  I planned to post, but Mondays have turned into cub scouts day, and this particular cub scout day I had DOUBLE cub scouts so I didn’t have time to write.  Then the next two days I had a procedure (don’t panic it’s probably just stress related like everything else) then was catching up on home activities and work stuff and let’s be honest, doom scrolling.  Then finally on Thursday I was cleaning up a bit before a friend came to visit on Friday.  And then it was the weekend and Easter activities.  Before I tell you about all that let me jump back to the Tuesday before Pax.

Will’s parents gave us this awesome Christmas gift this year to fly out to visit and watch the kids for a weekend while we did something fun by ourselves!  Basically the only thing we ever want/need anymore.  And it’s an extra bonus for Julius and Patricia who get to spend some quality time with Sugar and Daddy-O.  Well on Monday night I stayed up late tidying up around the house but figured I’d do the bulk of the clean up on Tuesday night before his parents arrived.  Well… at 2pm on Tuesday Will comes down and tells me (while I’m on a call), “my parents are at the airport right now.  I got the the date wrong.”  I was really, really close to homicide.  Instead of committing murder I finished my last call of the day, then scrambled to do whatever clean up I could in the hour I had before I had to get Julius and Patricia to gymnastics (inconveniently it is the day of the week I have to leave work earliest).  I was just starting to think the house didn’t look completely a shambles and that I could mostly live with it when Will and I both had to leave (Will to pick up his parents from the train station, me to get the kids).

Will and I are both leaving the garage at the same time something that almost never happens.  I usually judge my garage being opened by the puller noise and chain movement ceasing.  This time I was in a rush.  I had hit my garage door opener before Will walked out since I walked out first.  There was still a motor whine but I thought it must have been Will’s door because I looked up and saw the chain on mine had stopped.  I then threw it in reverse and backed into the door.  We’ve lived in the house for over 12 years and this has never happened to either of us so I was now really, REALLY upset.  Luckily Will hadn’t left yet so he was able to pull my garage door up manually so I could get out.  I got Julius off the bus and then sobbed silently on the way to get Patricia.

Julius and Patricia were so happy to see Sugar and Daddy-O when they got out of gymnastics that it made it all worth it.  And then we got to spend a night with Will’s parents before we left for PAX the following night.  We had a great time!  Ka and Joe were there Thursday so we hung out with them and ate potatoes.  When they left I got to play a great session of D&D (as a paladin!)  Mark came in late Thursday and we played a lot of great board games (with Mark and Francisco) and ate more potatoes.  I bought more dice that I don’t need and some earrings I didn’t need and some cute shirts and pins that I also didn’t need!  Basically it was everything I could want and more!  I’m so sad it’s over already.

PAX!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 20th PAX (Prime)!

Clefairy and Wigglytuff

PAX!!! Fireball island

Meowth, Vileplume and haunter (you can’t see him but he’s top left)

I’ve got a potato problem

This past weekend we celebrated Easter with an Easter egg hunt in the yard, Easter baskets indoors followed by a brunch that consisted of scalloped potatoes, asparagus and Eggs Benedict/Eggs Irish/Asparagus Eggs Benedict for the vegetarians (aka me).  I made the English muffins, prepped the asparagus, and even poached the eggs the night before.  All I needed to do before serving everything was:  heat up the Canadian bacon (ham), heat the hash, cook the scalloped potatoes, cook the asparagus, heat up the eggs (3 min in water at 150F), and make the hollandaise sauce.  It all worked out rather well!  I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture though.

Easter dress

Easter egg hunt!

Easter brunch!

Oh and Mending March is over!  But I ended up mending a bunch more things including:  the hems on several shirts of mine and Julius’, my eye pillow, a stuffed animal bunny, 2 of Patricia’s dresses, my PJ pants, a pair of my shorts, another pair of Julius’ pants (he wanted stars on these), Patricia’s blue sweater, my white and blue sweater, one of my Bombas (I KNOW RIGHT) and a favorite pair of grey pants.  I feel pretty accomplished overall.  Many things saved from the landfill for a while at least.  I want to show you how I mended my grey pants because I kind of love it and was complimented on them the first time I wore them.

I’ve been experimenting with the Japanese sashiko technique – which is a running stitch used in the art of visible mending.  I don’t think there is any wrong way to do visible mending.  The point is that you want mending to make your clothes look cool.  And sashiko is the ultimate way to do this.  (Just google sashiko, trust me you’ll be tearing holes in your pants just so you can patch them up).  So for me I did kind of a crazy pattern that started out symmetric but didn’t finish up that way.  I knew I wanted stars.  (I will be honest the pants are dark grey so the first thing I thought of was the night sky and ACOTR.)  So I used a black felt patch on the inside, bold white cotton thread and silver thread for accents.  I also had a rip on the butt where I only used a few stars.  We’ll see how they hold up.  Julius liked them so much that the next day he came home from school with a rip in yet another pair of pants and requested I fix them up “but with stars this time”.

Julius’ star mended pants.

Velaris would be proud.

Star Jeans Mending

What you’ll need:

  • thick cotton darning thread (or embroidery floss)
  • silver thread
  • a long needle with an eye long enough for your thread (I don’t have a very long one, I wish I did, but the longer the better for sashiko to keep your stitches straight)
  • felt for mending
  • pins or safety pins
  • ripped item of clothing
  1. Cut a patch slightly larger than the area you want to mend or reinforce.  I decided to reinforce the entire knee, since even though it isn’t ripped it was showing signs of wear.
  2. I next pinned the patch in place inside the pants (I used safety pins because I kept putting my project away and picking it back up again during PAX and I didn’t want to stab myself)
  3. Then I started in on the mending.  I tied a knot in the back of my cotton thread and starting from the inside of the pants where the patch was, I stitched a straight running stitch down the pants.
  4. When I got to the bottom of the patch I moved the needle over a few mms then continued up the other way. 
  5. When I’d covered the whole patch I switched to horizontal lines along the patch, crossing the other lines in strategic places.
  6. Finally I added in some x’s on top of the plus marks in a few places to look sort of like stars.
  7. Lastly I added some silver thread for more show.

    Finished mending.

    Star mending on my booty.

    You get a pass for looking at my mending here.

 

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Beautiful Sole

Posted on March 18, 2024 by lexicolton

Okay so mending March has started to pick up (about time since we’re over halfway through!) I’ve now mended Julius’ comforter, a pair of Julius’ pants, a mushroom hairstick, a Christmas ornament, a beloved fridge magnet, a beautiful maternity shirt that I thought would be better mended for the thrift store rather than sent to the scrap heap, a remote control and, if you count it, ceiling tiles.  (Though I really just replaced those so not sure that counts.)  I have a LOT of things left to mend.  The problem with mending is that it is a never ending process.  For instance today Patricia went to school with a perfectly good shirt and came home with a shirt with a huge set of holes in it.

I’ve also found that a large amount of my solid colored long and short sleeved shirts have frayed hems or have developed small holes in them all over the place.  The holes are usually along the seams making it very difficult to mend.  I had a bunch of those on my list to fix, but I’m starting to think they will NOT be worth it.  People talk all the time about fast fashion vs. quality clothing and how fast fashion has invaded the thrift shops.  What I don’t know is what brands are actually considered good quality?  I never used to pay much attention to clothing brands, but that also means I don’t understand what to look for in high quality clothing.  For instance a lot of socks I bought for Will were what I considered “name brand” but they are total garbage.  I was so sick of Will going through like a pair of socks a week that I invested in some crazy expensive brand of wool socks called Darn Tough.  They have a lifetime warranty so I don’t mind paying more up front.  Honestly I’d pay a premium for all my clothes to come with a lifetime warranty!  If anyone has suggestions of some great brands that last and have cotton long and short sleeved solid colored tees let me know!

Oh speaking of socks, I have to tell you all the sock incident.  I have apparently never posted about the original sock incident because it was so long ago it pre-dates the blog.  That and it was almost a marriage ending saga (joking, mostly).  The sock incident is very simple.  I used to own a bazillion pairs of those cheap novelty socks that people seem to love.  I hated them.  They are cheap and deform when you put them on and slouch or wiggle around in your shoes.  And they have almost no padding.  They are awful.  (Note:  I am really a glutton for punishment because I kept self declared awful socks until 2 years ago when I decided enough was enough and I sent them all to the textile recycling bin.) In addition to these awful novelty socks I also had about 4 pairs of really great socks (honestly not as great as the Bombas I have now, but it was a different time in my life).  Anyway I noticed that my really-great socks had been starting to fit not-so-great lately.  I thought maybe they were going the way of the other cheaper socks and I was saddened.  And then I caught Will wearing my socks.  My really-great socks.  I have large feet for a woman of my stature (apparently) and I wear a women’s size 8-8.5.  That’s like a 7 in men’s.  Will has large feet. He wears a size 12 in men’s.  You may have noticed that there is a 5 size difference between my foot size and his foot size.  The mystery of the warped socks was solved but I was FURIOUS that Will had ruined my really-great socks.  From Will’s side of the story I’m sure he will tell you that he didn’t even realize they were my socks and that I brought up him wearing my socks way too many times (I did).  An embarrassing number of times (I was really mad about those socks).  I brought it up so many times in fact that Will finally told me we could never talk about the sock incident again.  So I mostly didn’t.  Until last week.

Last week I caught Will wearing a pair of my socks again.  My really, really great socks that I got for Christmas.  (I know what you’re thinking, “why does she care so much about socks”.)  For some reason the socks were mismatched, but I knew they were mine because in pink writing one of them said “I am beautiful”.  Okay, maybe he could have believed this was his sock.  Will is beautiful; a beautiful man with a beautiful soul.  But the other sock said “I am a great mom”.   I know he doesn’t identify as a mom so the jig was up!  I said “don’t you remember the sock incident”.  His response was that he has no socks left and these were in his drawer.  Well I let it go, but then Friday he was wearing a pair of my BOMBAS.  The crème de la crème of socks!  I did not murder him.  I instead took the high road and ordered Will 6 more pairs of Darn Tough socks for him to try to destroy.  (To Will: Surprise! They were finally shipped today so hopefully you get them for PAX.)

Mending March might make for some boring tutorials so let me show you a cute one I did.  Julius is constantly getting holes in his pants.  I’ve been struggling to figure out what to patch with because I usually try to match the material I’m patching, but it doesn’t always hold up (or will sometimes require more work to finish the patch to prevent unraveling or fraying itself).  Some folks said wool felt was a great patching medium since it doesn’t fray so I decided for the next few patching jobs I’m going to use felt and see how it goes.  I just so happen to have way more felt than I can ever use in my lifetime, so I grabbed a scrap of red felt and got to work!

Note: this rip is about 1/2″ wide on the unstitched side and 1″ long total. Another side note, I do not remember adding those stitches on the left side, was it Julius?

Monster Patch

What you need: 

  • A torn pair of kid’s pants
  • thick red felt (mine probably isn’t wool)
  • thread to match the pants
  • white embroidery thread
  • black embroidery thread
  1. Cut out a patch to fit 1/2″ in all directions beyond the hole/tear.  Place patch on side of pants, covering the hole.   Pin.  (Note:  you may want to open the hole slightly so some of the red is coming thru.)
  2. Using the matching thread, stitching around your patch, 3/8″ from the tear with very fine stitches.
  3. Stitch two white eyes (in a size proportional to your mouth/rip) using a satin stitch.
  4. Add French knot pupils in black (unless rip is huge, then use another satin stitch.)

I wasn’t sure Julius would like him because the monster is a bit derpy (I’m not a great hand embroider-er.)  Well Julius told me after school today that he doesn’t like it he LOVES it.  So I would say that’s a win!

  1. Oh and I’m on my 7th loaf of sourdough.

 

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 7 Comments

Night Lights

Posted on March 15, 2024 by lexicolton

So… I pulled a (nearly) all nighter for bread this past weekend… I think it’s safe to say I’ve lost any marbles I had left.  To be fair it was sort of normalized because I’ve been working way too late for actual work the last few weeks.  Good news though my bread came out GREAT.  And as of today (Thursday because I’m behind on posting… on account of the working way too late thing) we have already polished off 2 entire loaves.  I made soup just so I could have bread with it.  Yum.

I get a freezer tomorrow too!  Yes that’s right our downstairs freezer, the only large appliance in our house to survive the pandemic, has been slowly getting warmer and warmer.  I’m pretty sure right now we’re approaching fridge temp.   All this to say… more space for bread!!!

So I realized while I was looking thru my notes that I haven’t told you the bed story.  So Will and I broke the bed.  I know that’s not like a thing you’re supposed to admit in public but much as I wish this were a quirky story from a romance novel, alas, it’s not.  Will and I were just sleeping in bed minding our own business when all of a sudden I woke up on the floor at the foot of the bed.  I was having a near heart attack sitting there jogged awake from sleep when I realized I had a gash in my leg and the footboard had sheered away from the rest of the bed.    Will’s story is slightly different.  He remembers me shouting “oh my God help!  It’s really happening!” So he jumped out of bed to turn on the light which is when he also discovered that the bottom of our bed had been ripped away from the sideboards.  The next day we realized we were both covered in bruises.  It’s a mystery what happened but I suspect I may have sleep-bed-destroyed (that’s next level sleep-walking).

This is the footboard that ripped off the sideboards. Not mending that sadly.

 

And the preferment!

And this beautiful wheat boule!

Ironically we kind of like the mattresses on the floor.  It’s way less bouncy and doesn’t wake the other person up when someone gets in after the first has gone to sleep.  I moved the footboard down to the headboard spot for now to make it not look so terrible.  (Or maybe it looks worse now I have absolutely no idea.).  Either way I sort of consider that a mini repair so I wanted to tell you about my new idea (that I haven’t had time to do yet): March Month of Mending!  Next month is Earth day and the best thing we can do for the Earth is repair and reuse.  I always have piles of mending and repairs sitting around that I never get to.  For a while I was darning socks on airplanes but Will puts holes in socks faster than I can darn them so I started finding new uses for old socks.  Since then I am trying to go thru my backlog of repairs and mending.  I haven’t accomplished much so far but I’m holding out hope that I’ll make progress over the next couple weeks.

In lieu of mending I’ll show you a recycling craft!  This is how I put together the lanterns for Patricia’s birthday.  You can use any clear jar you want but I used these little twinings tea infuser containers that I got off the free site because they were plastic.

Mermaid Lanterns

  1. Clean jars, then let dry.
  2. Remove lids then paint the clear portion with frost effect glass paint following bottle instructions.  Let dry and recoat as necessary.  I found it easiest to dab it on with a spouncer. 
  3. Using your cricuit fitted with the standard cutting tool and lightweight cutting mat, mount your vinyl.  Select vinyl and then cut.
  4. Weed the background material so the stickers are easier for little fingers to remove. 
  5. Insert batteries in the lights and wrap the lights around the battery pack.  Insert into jar.
  6. Let kids decorate to their heart’s desire!
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I Loaf You

Posted on March 5, 2024 by lexicolton

Well friends, it’s time to tell you about a new hobby I’ve started.  Or rather an old hobby I revisited.  You probably don’t remember, (because even Will didn’t remember) but before Julius was born I started a very short foray into sourdough making.  Bees to yeast was a logical leap (in my head at least) and there is something so ancient and wild about making bread rise by cultivating millions of micro-organisms that you can’t even see.  It’s basically magic.  Anyway, back 7 years ago I made a few loaves and then stuck the sourdough starter in the back of my fridge to feed every few weeks for a few years until the fridge saga started, and I finally had to say goodbye.

If I’m being perfectly honest I wasn’t too happy with my sourdough attempts back then and I’ve been wanting to give it another try for a while.  In my first attempts my starter never really gave my bread a good rise.  Probably, it is because I live in New England and my house is generally what normal humans would describe as cold.  (For the record I am a mostly normal human and I do think it is cold.)  Anyway, one of my BFFs started baking bread as a side project for baking pizza (he might be more crazy than I) so it was the perfect opportunity to get back into sourdough.

So this time I decided I was going to do it RIGHT.  I started with the same sourdough starter recipe as last time, and this time I put it in the warmest place in the house, on top of my oil burner.  After day 3 my starter was already starting to show signs it was starving after 24 hours.  So I did a bunch of research and decided to move it to over my hot water heater (also lots of residual heat loss from pipes) and switch to the King Arthur Flour starter method which discards half every time you feed (which makes way more sense).  The KAF method warns that your starter may not be perfect for a while.  So I patiently fed my starter twice a day… for 24 days.  On day 24 I started doing experiments.  I split my starter into 2 and started feeding each different ratios of flour:water.  I was like a mad scientist.  It seemed my liquidy starter didn’t rise a great deal, but when I used a greater amount of flour to water my starter doubled.  Oh I also moved it back from the water heater to on top of the oil burner.  I was finally ready to bake some bread…

Check out those bubbles

My starter is finally ready to be used! (In a vintage ball jar from my grandma)

While this was all going on I was accumulating sourdough discard.  I was desperately trying to keep up with baking things to prevent waste and I ended up making sourdough pancakes, sourdough biscuits, english muffin bread, english muffins, sourdough chocolate chip cookies, sourdough biscuits, sourdough buns, sourdough pizza, sourdough discard naan and… crumpets.  (Yes the British things that look like American English Muffins.)  I also went through like 4 bags of flour on creating this starter.  My entire house was a gluten free diet’s worst nightmare.  I hadn’t thought about that at the time and during the middle of all this we had a friend with celiac’s over to watch a movie.  I basically told him that nothing was safe and he could touch nothing in the kitchen.  I was sort of joking because I’d wiped down everything before he came, but then he touched the countertop where Julius sits and he was like, “so should I really wash my hands now”.  And after I moment’s hesitation I decided, “yes, it’s probably a good idea”.  I think I might have scared him.  I really hope he didn’t get sick.

Well, I finally baked a loaf of bread last weekend and it came out GREAT!  I mean it wasn’t quite perfect but it was beautiful!  This weekend I made another loaf and it was even better!!!! I’ve been using the KAF no knead sourdough (thanks to Ryan for trying 3 recipes first and telling me this was his favorite).  The second time I made it, I accidentally cooked it for 20 minutes at 500 before lowering the temperature to 450F.  I think it came out better!  So I probably will do that again (on purpose this time).  Some other tips I’ve found seem to help – I always mix my starter with liquid then add flour.  This seems to help distribute the yeast better and was something I didn’t do before.

My first loaf with my new starter!

The inside was dense in one spot! No one seemed to mind though.

Loaf attempt #2!

Yum. This bread is perfection.

Just so I remember my first loaf I accidentally let it come to room temperature in the bowl before I shaped it then plopped it directly into the dutch oven into the oven.  The second time I let it come to temperature into a basket/towel combo after shaping and then moved it to the dutch oven to bake immediately.  It was more difficult to move so I probably won’t be doing that again….

Posted in Culinary Delights | 2 Comments