The Lady Beekeeper

We had a fun week with Patricia.  I think it is the first time that she’s ever been with both parents without Julius for more than a few hours (aka an only child).  She was a very good girl the whole time.  She was quite upset when she learned she would be apart from her playmate so we tried to do some fun things to keep her entertained.  Like we did a movie night, let her pick dinners, and declared the whole weekend “Patricia weekend”.  It was great!  I don’t know if life is just that much easier with one child, or if she was just a lot easier last week!  We didn’t have to rush around as much which certainly helped.

We planned to have a weekend alone with Patricia but Julius ended up coming home around 1pm on Saturday so that didn’t leave much alone time.  She was happy to see her buddy though and wanted to completely forgo all the plans we’d made.  I decided to drag her to them anyway which ended up being fun (I think).  One of the activities was pottery painting which both kids usually love to do but we had a bit of a debacle when leaving.

Patricia had just changed into a very fancy dress (that she wore to Will’s cousin’s wedding) so before we left we convinced her to change into clothes we “didn’t care about getting paint on”.  Will helped her change and she ended up in some hand me down jeans and a top from Julius.  When we went to get shoes on she refused to put on her favorite shoes (these crazy sparkly shoes she always wears).  When we asked why she said she wanted to wear boy shoes.  We found her some appropriate “boy shoes” but she was sobbing when she put them on.  I asked her why she wanted to wear boy shoes and she said it was because she looked like a boy.  I asked if she thought the clothes make her look like a boy.  She said yes.  It almost broke my heart.  I explained to her that there is no such thing as boy clothes and girl clothes (which is funny because she always says things like “girls wear dresses and so do some boys”).  I asked her to tell me what I was wearing (jeans and a sweatshirt).  And I asked her if I looked like a boy or a girl.  She said I looked like a girl and I said, “see, so do you because we both want to look like girls”.  And she gave me a big hug.  It was incredibly sweet and also heartbreaking that she is so concerned about her appearance and femininity.

Julius is the total opposite he would wear the same thing every day if I let him and I have to nag him to comb his hair.  Julius’ latest thing is that he doesn’t want to cut his hair.  I don’t want to force him to cut his hair, but he is 6 and he looks like a total ragamuffin.  Then again so does Patricia, and so do I more than half the time, so why not embrace it?

For Patricia’s Valentines I decided to make all the kids paper crowns they could decorate.  Patricia loves crowns so I figured this would be right up her alley.  I asked her what animal she wanted on her cards and she said “a little tiny piggy”.  (And she squished her fingers together so there was nothing between them to indicate the size of the piggy.)  I don’t think I fully comprehended what she was asking for so she was a little disappointed with the pigs I gave her though she said something like “yeah they’re good”.  She had a great time picking out which card went to which person.  She didn’t completely divide the class into pink for girls, red for boys, but it was pretty close.  A few boys Patricia decided, “they like pink” and a few girls she declared, “they like red”.  So I felt pretty good about that.  She didn’t pay attention to the pigs on the cards.  I really need to up my pun game.  You’d think with pigs AND royalty I would have been able to come up with multiple puns.  But I couldn’t think of anything… that was appropriate for toddlers.

Royal Piggy Crown Valentines

What you’ll need (for each crown):

• one 8.5″x11″ sheet of 65lb foil cardstock
• puffy stickers (I gave about 5 or 6 per kid)
• #10 envelope
• printer
• cricut with regular (premium fine point) blade cutting tool
• Envelope template here, here, here , here, here and here.
• cricut template here

1. Take envelope and load it into printer (in my printer you need to load upside down).
2. Print by selecting #10 envelope and fitting to page.  (I used paint.net to open the .jpg and print.)
3. Load 8.5″x11″ sheet horizontally onto lightweight 12×12 mat.
4. Select material as lightweight cardstock
5. Cut. 
6. Weed and remove the crown then assemble by slotting one part of the band onto the tabs on either side of the crown.  
7. Place tape over the connecting tabs to secure if desired.
8. To fit into the envelopes, fold the side with the tab along the first unused slot near the crown peaks.  Fold the other side at the first crown peak and trim excess that hangs beyond the other edge.
   

   Can you see how one end is folded to the edge of the crown, the other is folded two bars away from the end?

9. Address envelope, place crown into envelope with stickers and seal. 
   

   Here’s a finished crown

   

   Julius showing off his crown

   

   Patricia showing off her crown

   

   Stuffing the envelopes

   

   They even fit adults! (Even crazy wanna be queens.)

We are heading home from Maine with one child fewer.  Julius is spending February vacation skiing with my parents.  He is doing an amazing job skiing.  Yesterday we went down two blue runs and he did great.  When Patricia found out Julius was staying in Maine she was filled with grief.  She was both upset she didn’t get to stay and that Julius wasn’t going to be home to play with her.  It is adorable watching he two of them play together.  Before we left for Maine I wrote down a few snippets of their morning imagination games…

Julius and Patricia started playing a game where the floor is lava. Julius laboriously helps hoist Patricia onto the couch.  After she’s settled in the couch they introduce themselves, “hi im Julioso.” “Hi I’m Jon. I’m a girl.”

Later Patricia says “let’s play princesses and knights!” (This is a game they play A LOT.)  Julius replies, “I want to keep playing this game.” Patricia graciously defers, “oh yes we will play after this one!”

Several minutes later…

Julius: “Princess Odd is getting arrested!”

Still later…

Julius: “Patricia the roof is on fire!”

Julius having a ski waffle break.

For Valentine’s day I made the kids stuffies (I’ve been learning to crochet) and a box of homemade truffles (I had a truffle making ladies’ night).  We had cheese fondue with bread, carrots and apples for dinner followed by chocolate lava cakes with ice cream for dessert.  The kids opened all their Valentines from classmates after dinner. I was surprised by the number of cards that were printed out at home!  Definitely less store bought ones this year.  My cards fit right in!

Valentine’s dinner

Look at my 3 Valentine’s!

This week I’ll show you the ones I made for Julius’s classmates.  At Target’s after Christmas sale I found these cute mini wooden handled rubber spatulas in red and pink.  They were $.10 each!!!  I thought immediately that they would be perfect for Julius’s Valentines.  He loves to cook (or at least read cookbooks).  So I thought we could give the spatulas with little packets of mix for mug cakes.  Then I found out that the entire school district has a no food gifts policy… so we decided to just give the recipe for the mug cakes with the spatula.

Julius still loves sharks so I sketched a shark with a chef hat for his cards.  I’ve never seen a shark with a chef hat but I’m kind of obsessed and I think they came out really cute!  And my puns are only mediocre this year not bad.  (Okay I may be wrong there.)  Anyway, I have the document below if you want to make some next year.

Shark Valentine’s!!

Chef Shark Valentines

What you’ll need:

• White 65lb cardstock
• Color printer
• Paper cutter
• Xacto knife
• Small rubber spatulas

1. Print front of cards.
2. Insert paper with printed fronts back into the printer (this may take some time to figure out for your individual printer so make sure you do a test page with scrap).
3. Cut paper into 4 sheets 4.25″x5.5″ wide using a paper cutter.
4. On a piece of scrap cardboard place a one card (shark side up).  Using the xacto knife slice a 1.25″ cut at an angle above his fin.
5. Slice another cut parallel and 3/4″ below that (below his fin).
6. Remove the top on the spatula and carefully insert the spatula into the slot you made.  (Julius helped with this).  Replace spatula
7. Address and hand out!
   

   Julius addressing his Valentine’s.

   

We took out the Valentine’s decorations this weekend.  This was after cleaning the entire house top to bottom (okay middle out).  I am ashamed to divulge the last time I’ve really cleaned the house.  Luckily I couldn’t even tell you if I wanted to because I honestly cannot remember how long it’s been!  After we finished the cleaning, the house was immediately overrun with toys and crumbs and paper scraps and other flotsam from young children.  But it is okay because I now also have hearts hanging all over the place.  And who could be disgruntled about their chaotic house situation while they have hearts staring them in the face?!  No one.  If you need convincing, just let me know and I’ll send you some decor.

Valentine’s day, or Lupercalia, (if you’re into Rome, ritual goat sacrifice and random coupling – don’t look at me, I’m not one to kink shame) is only a couple weeks away.  For us that means I’ve pulled out the Valentine’s backpacks for the kids again and started leaving them little love notes for the mornings I sleep in.  Julius loves it but Patricia told me several times that she wrote last night’s note for me. I don’t know why she was trying to convince me of this, but I can tell you that she did not succeed.

One quick tangent before I show you the craft I’m desperate to show you this week.  Silly Julius quotes are so rare these days since he’s such a learned kindergartener, so I have to share this one.  He was telling us how they settled a playground dispute earlier in the day,   “they did rocks, paper, scissors, shoes.”  We then asked him the rules of the game, which he had completely down pat.  We then played a game, during which he chanted “rocks, paper, scissors, shoes”.  I am ashamed to say I did not correct him.  It was too cute.  Much like I quickly stopped correcting Patricia’s word “cupcapes”.

Okay, speaking of cute, I really hope you think my latest project is cute.  But if you don’t, it’s okay, because I think it is SUPER CUTE.  And I’ve still got the hearts to cheer me up.  First, some backstory because everything on my blog has backstory.  During the pandemic I took a free needle felting class that was remote and lead by our local library.  I got hooked!  (I’m sure you realized this if you’ve seen any of my silly creations over the years – examples here, here ,here and here.)  Since the inaugural class, I’ve taken several other wool fiber classes including wet felting.  Last year I couldn’t help myself and went to Walmart after Christmas to see if they had any ornaments for the kids that I could put away for the following Christmas.  In the pile of cast offs I found a 5 foot garland of ~1″ white wool balls that was 75% off.  I showed it to my mom and soon I had 7 garlands at 75% off (thanks Mom).  I swear I had a plan for them all.  So I went to the thrift shop and bought a couple of wreath forms for $4 each.  Fast forward to 2 weeks ago when I finally decided I was executing my amazing plan.

My amazing plan was to make a wreath of wool balls.  Yes, I know, you probably figured that out by now on account of the wreath form and the wool balls.  Well anyway, this is not a unique idea.  I’ve seen and coveted these adorable colorful wool balls wreaths all over pinterest (yes I get lots of pin suggestions of wool balls).  But I’ve needle felted my own and it took me forever.  This is why I wanted 35 feet of wool balls.   These balls are not colorful though, so originally I thought I would dye them.  Unfortunately I realized wool doesn’t take my favorite dye (fiber reactive) well since it’s an animal fiber.  Instead, I finally put my plan into action using the cut off bottom from that team rocket shirt I made, a bit of additional colored wool roving and the aforementioned wreath form and wool balls.

Super Awesome Wool Ball Wreath

What you’ll need:

• A crap ton of 1″ wool balls (I used around 420 wool balls)
• A straw wreath form (mine was 15″ wide)
• sharp needle and thread
• wool roving dyed in various colors (you will only need a small amount, enough to cover 16-20 balls)
• fabric to cover the wreath form (mine was knit fabric from the bottom of an old tshirt)

1. Wrap your knit fabric around your wreath form to cover all the straw.  Stitch in place.
2. Next, if your balls are not strung on a thread, string onto a thread.  Tie the ends so the balls cannot fall off.  Mine were already threaded so it saved me a step.
3. Lay the wreath on a flat surface and place one end of the ball chain to the outside of the wreath along the table.  Affix with needle and thread by stitching thru the wool ball and thru the fabric covering the wreath.
4. Pull the string of balls over the wreath and affix to the wreath by stitching into the fabric, securing the thread, then looping it between two balls over the string or thread used to hold the ball chain together and back into the fabric.  Secure. 
5. Affix the center of the line of balls you just attached, by again stitching into the fabric, securing the thread, then looping it between two balls in the center of the line then back into the fabric.  Secure.
6. Bring the balls back across the front of the wreath towards the outside again and again affix on the outside of the wreath using the technique in step 4.
7. Again follow step 5.
8. Repeat steps 4-7 until you come to where you meet on the inside of the wreath form.  Here you will need to be a bit more creative, and fill and stitch things in a ‘v’ pattern instead of in a line pattern.
9. Once you get to the last gap, stitch down the last ball you secured, thru the wool.
10. Next cut off the string of remaining balls, 3″ or 4″ down from where you secured the last ball.  Remove the balls that are not secured and then knot the string/thread holding the balls on the wreath.  Secure the knot on the underside of the wreath.
11. Add a loop of string on the back side of the wreath form.
12. Needle felt colorful roving on top of 16-20 remaining balls – you can make them various colors and sizes.  I made mine in shades of purple because it felt very snowy and wintry. 
13. Take your needle and thread and attach each ball to the wreath by stitching thru the wool ball and the balls where you want to attach. 
14. Voila!

Note – my wreath is huge – it’s probably 18″ wide.  You can always make a smaller one with less balls and a smaller wreath form!

We went skiing this weekend!  First time in a long time.  Julius had an all day lesson on Saturday and today he was shredding the mountain!  Not even joking!  He did amazing!  Now Patricia is a bit jealous that she declined learning to ski.  Soon we’ll get her skiing…

Julius had like a two hour fever last night.  It was really weird.  He went to bed early because he was super tired and he felt a little warm so I checked his temperature.  Sure enough he had a fever.  A couple hours later when we put Patricia to bed his temperature was totally back to normal.  This morning he was totally fine too.  He was not feeling well so he didn’t want to read to me, but he still wanted me to read him a bedtime book.  Reading him a bedtime book is always so weird lately.  Ninety percent of the time he has me read him recipes from his cookbooks.  Yes he has cook books.  A lot of cook books.  It is one of the main things he asked for for Christmas.  I don’t know if you’ve ever read a cookbook to a child as a bedtime story but it is not my idea of fun.  Last night I asked him “do you want me to read the ingredients and measurements” and his response was “of course”.

Patricia is in the loving books phase.  She loves story books so I feel fulfilled when reading to her.  After reading to Julius I’m either really hungry or ready to bake a cake.  Patricia has her own quirks lately though.  She adores changing clothes.  She changes outfits like 10 times a day.  That is not an exaggeration!  It drives me completely insane since the clothes she throws all over her floor I end up having to wash.  I thought moving from cloth diapers to potty trained would decrease my clothes washing but I’m definitely at about double the laundry I did when they were babies.  Lately Patricia has only wanted to wear dresses.  She usually layers a shirt (any shirt on top of a dress she calls a sweatshirt) and a cape on top.  Honestly she’s a complete fashionista.  I’m sure I’ll be consulting her for fashion advice in a couple years.  Right now though I don’t think I have the confidence to pull off any of the outfits she’d pick for me.  Especially since her current qualification for ‘a dress’ is “it covers my bum bum”.

Both kids are growing up so fast.  It’s crazy the amount of project ideas I had that are just moot because the kids are too old. I finally decided to tackle one that has been on my to do list since Patricia turned 1.  My aunt gifted Julius this beautiful hand made name puzzle bench when he turned 1.  I’ve been wanting to make one for Patricia to match.  It’s getting to the point though where she is amazing at puzzles!  In a few months this puzzle is going to be obsolete.  Since there is no time like the present I figured it would be a great way to improve my woodworking skills!  I’m pretty happy with how it came out even though it is not as perfect as Julius’ bench!  You live and learn!  Oh and this is adapted so you don’t need a lathe!  I think it is just as strong (I tested it by standing on it on Christmas Eve – Will freaked out when I did this).

I caught Patricia playing with her bench and tried to take a picture but she suggested she sit on it and pose. I couldn’t argue. This outfit pretty much captures her style too.

Patricia Puzzle Bench

What You’ll Need:

• Transfer paper
• Scrap piece of 3/4” thick wood
• Scrap piece of 1 1/4″ thick wood
• 1 1/2″ thick dowel
• 3/4” thick dowel (unless you have a lathe)
• Drill and 1/2” drill bit and 3/4″ forstner bit (honestly drill press would have been better but I don’t have one)
• Table saw or bandsaw
• Coping saw
• flush cut saw
• Sandpaper and orbital sander (or belt sander)
• Water based Acrylic paint
• Water based polyurethane
• Tung Oil

1. Decide how big you are going to make your bench.  Then cut the 3/4” piece of wood and 1 1/4″ piece to the size you want the top of bench to be. I actually would recommend making it 1/4” wider to account for sanding. My bench top is about 7”x15”.  I used the band saw to cut my bench.
2. First I wrote out Patricia’s name on paper.  To keep duplicate letters the same size I traced them.
3. Using the transfer paper trace name onto 3/4″ wood.
4. Find an area at the edge of your letters that is rather innocuous.  I used the inside of the ‘c’.  Use 1/4″ drill bit to drill a hole in the wood. Take apart coping saw blade and insert thru the hole.
5. Clamp the project in a vice so it doesn’t wiggle.  Cut around the edges of the letters along the lines you traced.
6. After all your letters are cut, drill holes in the letters with holes in the center (ex: ‘P’, “a”), clamp letters and again cut around the centers as in step 4.
7. Sand all around letters until smooth.
8. Sand around the inside of the puzzle until smooth.
9. Prepare the legs.  Cut 4 pieces of 1 1/2″ dowel 6 1/2″ long.
10. Using a forstner bit, drill a 3/4″ hole in the center of each leg about 1″ deep.  (Unless you have a lathe – then cut your legs longer and trim down).
11. Put a bit of glue in the hole then insert 2.5″ long 3/4″ dowel in the leg.  Repeat for each leg.  Clamp and let dry.
    

    Finished legs.

12. Using a forstner bit, drill a 3/4″ hole at each corner of the 1 1/4″ wood, 1.5″ from each edge. Note:  If you’re fancy, before step 11 you can cut the leg at an angle, and in step 12 you can drill into the stool at the same angle.  You’ll need a drill press to properly do this though…
13. Add a bit of glue to the 3/4″ dowel on each leg and insert into each hole.  Clamp and let dry.
14. Once dry, use your flush cut saw to trim the excess part of the dowel.
15. Sand entire surface.
16. Glue puzzle frame to stool base.  Clamp and let dry.
17. Sand all edges, face of puzzle, base of puzzle and legs.
18. Level legs by sanding.
19. Paint each letter with 2 coats of water based acrylic paint
20. Follow bottle instructions to coat each letter with 2 coats of water based polyurethane. Let dry.
21. Follow bottle instructions to coat bench with tung oil.
22. Once everything is dry assemble your puzzle!

I’m so happy with how it came out but it is a bit challenging to do this puzzle!  The pieces fit into each slot amazingly well, but Patricia has duplicate letters in her name and because I’m not a pro with the coping saw they are not completely interchangeable.  She’s getting used to it though!  Her favorite thing to use it for right now is a baby bed.  I’m pretty much the perfect size.

Will and I had a great weekend celebrating the wedding of Will’s cousin Dennis and his partner Jaime.  It was so much fun, and we even got to have a kid free night out because my parents watched the kids while we flew to Texas!  As always though I missed the kids’ witty banter while we were out.  Oh and do I have a great witty banter story for you.

Over Christmas Mary Elizabeth, Jesse and I were talking and Patricia saunters over.  Patricia casually asks Mary Elizabeth, “who’s your dad?”  Mary Elizabeth helpfully responds, “my dad is daddy O.”  Patricia dismisses this as obvious and then clarifies, “no, but who is your dad to bring home.”  At this point I understood and was trying desperately not to laugh.  I explained to her that not every woman has a man, and even asked “does Auntie Mandy have a dad to bring home?” And she said “no, she’s married to Auntie Bailey.”  So at least she got that.  Mary Elizabeth clarified that she didn’t have a partner and Patricia looking downright mischievous glances out of the corner of her eye at Jesse and back to Mary Elizabeth then says “well I like him” while jabbing her finger at Jesse and walks off.  I almost died laughing.  Mary Elizabeth’s response was, “not the first time someone mistook Jesse for my date.”  What a good sport.

Speaking of dad’s to bring home I just finished the Raw Shark Texts which I would describe as a trippy sci fi romance.  It was cute and I enjoyed it, even if I’m not completely sure it made sense.  I thought given all the sharks I should share some shark stuff over the next couple weeks.  Since it’s late I’m going to show you the quicker shark thing, which is the silly shark hoodie I made for Julius for Christmas.  For this I got a hoodie at the thrift store and added some modifications.  

Shark Hoodie Modifications

What You’ll need:

• Blue hoodie
• A sheet of paper to create a pattern of teeth
• a 6″ strip of white sweatshirt material for the teeth
• embroidery machine, hoop and black thread
• pattern of eye if desired: circle

1. First step is to embroider the eyes onto  the hood.   I used a basic circle that was 3/4″ wide.  Pattern is attached in case you don’t have access to something to help you create a circle.
2. Next make the template for your shark teeth.  I measured the length of the hood and then took a piece of scrap paper that wide and folded it until it was the width I wanted for each tooth.  Then, paper snowflake style, I cut out one tooth, leaving a 1″ base.
3. Unfold your snowflake-teeth.
   

   Pattern ready to go!

4. Fold your strip of white sweatshirt in half the long ways (right sides in), so you have a 3″ tall strip ..
5. Place teeth pattern on top and mark. 
6. Stitch along teeth as marked. 
7. Clip around the teeth and clip into curves.  Leave 1″ excess fabric below where the teeth markings end. 
8. Turn right side out.
9. Tuck 1/2″ of excess fabric inside the bottom of the teeth to form a 1/2″ border.
10. Stitch close to the edge of this border.
11. Pin the teeth to the hood, completely overlapping the 1/2″ border. Stitch. 
    

    He looks a bit like a daisy here. But it’s still adorable.

How is it already December?!  I’m shocked.  I was making family calendars again this year and looking thru pictures of the kids and some of the activities from the beginning of this year felt like they’d only just happened!  I must be stuck in some kind of time warp.

We finally got our house all fully decorated for Christmas, and the pumpkins are gone.  I even changed out the tablecloth to a Christmas one.  That’s when you know I mean business!  There is eerily no snow yet this year.  Just a few flurries here and there, but nothing that stuck more than a few hours.   We’ll see if we get some snow before Christmas!

Will has been showing the kids classic Christmas movies, and we’ve been doing a dinner and a movie night on the weekends.  The kids recently watched the Polar Express, which I will admit I watched only 10 minutes of before I called it enough.  I do love the book though.  But the Polar Express is about a train – so it’s going to be a winner for our train loving family!  For that reason we decided to book the Edaville Railroad version of the Polar Express.  It was quite fun but pretty pricey.  The train stopped at 3 stops, one to receive hot cocoa, another to pass out chocolate chip cookies, and the last one for Santa to board the train.  After we received the cookies, Patricia said, “Julius won”.  When I asked her what she meant she said “I thought we were going to have m&m cookies and he thought we were going to have chocolate chippies, he was right.”  They are the best siblings.  I love watching them interact and play together… even though they get frustrated with one another every once in a while.

Edaville’s steam train!

I thought given the Polar Express was a pretty popular theme around this time… I’d show you how I made Julius’ birthday train.  It could very easily stand in for the Polar Express.  I had an epiphany painting this one.  After making my fair share of cardboard masterpieces (see the spaceship, or the catbus) I finally figured out the right way to paint!  I highly recommend you use a small foam roller rather than trying to use a foam brush!  It went on evenly, took me 1/3 the amount of paint and I only did one coat!

The Julius Express

What You’ll Need:

• 2 very large boxes (mine were from a very large swivel chair)
• 1 large box (mine was from a dishwasher)
• 1 medium box (mine was from a vacuum)
• other scrap cardboard (I used another 2 large boxes that were in worse condition)
• 1 roll of white duct tape
• 1 roll of black duct tape
• box cutter
• 1 32oz bottle of black acrylic paint (I only used about half)
• 1 foam roller
• hot glue gun
• Fiberfil stuffing

1. Start by laying out boxes where you would like them to go.  I recommend the two very large boxes for train cars, the large box for the driver compartment of the engine, and the smaller box as the front of the engine.
2. Cut out windows in the sides of the engine car and a smaller window in the front of the engine compartment.  Cut a large door in the back of the driver compartment of the engine.
3. Cut a rectangle of cardboard from your square boxes that is the length of the front of the engine, but twice as wide.  Gently bend this to form a half circle.  Using the black duct tape, tape this to the medium box to make the front of the engine more shapely.
4. Measure and cut a piece of cardboard in an arch shape to fit the front of the train.  Tape arch on.
5. Bend a piece of cardboard to form a cowcatcher.
6. Bend a 1ft high piece of cardboard into a 4″ diameter cylinder for a chimney.  Tape together.  Cut a hole in the top of the train front to insert the chimney.
7. Cut rectangle windows out of the passenger cars, and cut a door in the front and back of each passenger car.
8. Cut 12 small wheels and 2 large wheels.
9. Paint everything black.  Use the foam roller and press with an even pressure to obtain a uniform coverage.  I only needed a single coat for the whole train.
   

   So easy!

   

   Note the shape of the cow-catcher in the front of the image.

10. Let dry.
11. Use the white tape to form stripes on the cowcatcher.
    

    Cowcatcher after bent into place.

12. Use the white tape around the windows and doors as an outline (I used half a piece of tape.)
13. Use the white tape to form two stripes around the smokestack
14. Use the white tape to form spokes on the wheels, then around the edge of the wheels as an outline.  Paint a black dot in the center of the spokes.
    

    So… many… wheels! And while I was painting them I also saw so… many… spiders! I ignored them.

15. Use glue gun to attach wheels to cars.
16. Place fiberfill in chimney of smokestack to look like steam.
17. Cut a small hole for your flashlight in the front of the train.  Insert flashlight.
18. All aboard!