The Lady Beekeeper

The leaves are AMAZING!  Last week everything was in full spectacular color and it was too beautiful to ignore!  I guess I’ve been annoying Patricia the last few weeks by pointing out how incredible all the colors are.  Now every time I point out a spectacular tree Patricia gets all pouty and says, “NO! Not even one tree is beautiful!  They are all just green!” Every. Single. Time.  It makes me chuckle.  No one can get me down because October is the best month!

Well I finished the Halloween costumes a whole 2 weeks early this year! Amazing, right?!  I will be honest.  I cheated slightly.  I only had to make 2.5 costumes this year.  Maybe more if you count the shirts.  You probably wouldn’t count the shirts.  Julius has wanted to be a shark since July.  Patricia has gone between octopus and sea turtle a few times before settling on mermaid.  And…. her mermaid tail from her first birthday party still fits her.  So there’s one mermaid tail down.  And did I mention I started making tails for Will and I for Patricia’s party but didn’t finish? So I had a half-made tail for myself.  As for the tops.  It is October on the east coast.  It’s cold.  And no one wants to see us all half naked.  No one.  So we decided to lean in and go for the “mer-family” look.  We decided to wear graphic tees that a mermaid family might wear…

Mine says “Mer-Mom”.  I think I might wear this one outside Halloween.  Will’s says “Lvl 1 Merdad” which is a reference to once of our favorite comics, Litterbox Comics.  They are basically us, but, like, cats.  (The comic I linked above is an actual conversation we once had complete with crying child over peeled banana.)  Patricia’s shirt is masterful.  Will gets full credit.  I asked “what would a toddler mermaid wear” and Will responded, “sea unicorn”.

“21st Century Mer-Family”

I designed all the shirts myself then used this method of sublimation here.  I briefly considered using the cricut to cut some sparkley HTV out, but sublimation was easier.  I’ve included my pngs below so you could use them yourself.  (As always, only for personal use.  If you want to sell stuff, come talk to me first.)  Don’t forget to mirror before you print!

We had a great weekend visiting our college BFF Ryan and his lovely wife Lydia in LA.  Ryan had a billion amazing things planned for our visit to LA, including, the highlight for me, a Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service concert.  The last time I saw Death Cab was in college with Ryan.  They’ve apparently become a bit bigger since then, but were just as awesome.  It’s not every day I get to see my favorite band with some of my favorite people in the world.  I’m always sad when a vacation ends and I’m especially down this time.  The ray of sunshine is that I had happy kiddos waiting for me when I got home.

Now that I’m home, it’s real crunch time for Halloween/double birthday extravaganza season. I’ve already been staying up way too late for the last week making Halloween costumes.  I finished Julius’ right before my trip, but I’ll probably show you that next week.  He was delighted with his costume and wants to wear it all the time, so I consider that a win.

I should have written this on our 6 hour plane flight back, but since I didn’t, and it’s crunch time I’ll keep this short.  I’m going to show you a tutorial for a renaissance garment I made many years ago, but recently perfected.  It is a pocket!  It is such an easy thing to make, but can hold all the things!  I actually resurrected this pocket a few weeks ago because the awesome leather belt/pouch I got doesn’t really work over my more elegant ren dresses (which is basically all of them, because let’s be real, I’m a wanna be princess).

Ren Pocket to Hold all the Things

What you’ll need:

• 1/4 yard of structured fabric (scraps are great – I used scrap corduroy fabric)
• 1.5 yards 1/2″ ribbon

1. Cut out fabric as per pattern above.
2. Fold fabric down 3/4″ on the top of one of the pouch halves (right side out).  Stitch.  Repeat with second half. Note:  the picture shows step 2 after step 3, but I do not recommend doing it in this order.
3. Place pouch halves on top of each other (right side in).
4. Stitch all around the pouch, leaving the top hem side opened.  Turn right side out.
5. Pin the ribbon to one side of the pouch opening, in the center of the ribbon length. Stitch.
6. One more thing – if you used polyester ribbon you can move the ends close to the flame to melt the ribbon and prevent it from fraying.
7. Tie around your waist to wear!

See the pocket over my dress here? It blends in rather nicely!

Hello friends.  Monday again.  I hope you all had wonderful weekends.  I had such a great weekend.  On Saturday we went to our town’s craft and book fair and had a fun time browsing the crafts, booths and books.  Then we went for a short bike ride on the backroads near our house so Julius could practice road biking.  On Sunday we went to the local renaissance faire, which after our shenanigans a couple years ago you probably thought I might never go to again. Actually, it has been 7 years since I had the shop at the faire!  Time really flies.

My renaissance family

Laughing at the jousting

This guy was a little taller than Julius. (Will and I think it was John Mulaney under that costume.)

Julius’s favorite part – the fairy circle.  Fun fact – I used to tie a wish on the fairy circle every single day of the faire that we worked there.

Voyage to the new world

Why yes that is the underdress I made a few years ago… and the dress I made in high school… (And the hat I made in between.)

I spent the week before the faire making Patricia a costume.  I thought it was really darn cute.  She, however, was being very her usual contrarian self and refused to put it on for the final fitting.  Julius wanted to put it on, so he tried it on instead.  That’s how we know it fits either a size 3T/4T Patricia or a size 5T Julius.  Julius afterwards told us he wanted to keep it and wished boys wore dresses so he could have one.  I never know how to respond in these scenarios.  Last year I made him a tutu when he was sad that Patricia got a tutu, but he never wears it.  I would love to make him a dress to make him happy and f**k the status quo, but I am being cautious to avoid making him a subject of ridicule at school (kids are mean and he may not yet realize that).  Ultimately I resorted to saying something like, ‘you tell me if you really want one and I’ll work on it’.  We shall see what he decides.

My beautiful boy modeling Patricia’s outfit.

Patricia on the other hand is a complete gender conformist and has always been into dolls.  (Much the opposite of me as a child.)  She carries a baby doll around with her everywhere she goes.  It’s wild.  At the faire she carried around a stuffed baby doll she named “baby Sydney” (after my cousin’s adorable baby who she met in real life a couple months ago).  She also has another baby (girl) doll named George who she used to carry around all the time.  George seems to have fallen out of favor in recent weeks.  Patricia actually told us the other day “George died”.  Which was a bit disturbing, but she’s probably just processing my grandpa’s death.  When she told us George died, Julius looked at us shocked.  Julius is still Patricia’s favorite.  Patricia won’t let anyone hold her baby dolls except Julius because “my baby likes just only me and Julius”.  When asked this morning what she did over the weekend during her round table at preschool, she said “I played with my brother”.  Clearly that is the highlight of her weekend.

Two love bugs

My highlight of the weekend?  Probably when Patricia and Julius went into “the Jester’s maze” by themselves and Patricia came out a solid 5 minutes before Julius did.  I have no idea how she found her way to the end before he did but it was hilarious.  When asked where Julius was she responded, “Julius wouldn’t listen”.  Not sure what that meant!

Patricia down the slide first

Toddler Medieval Underdress

What you’ll need:

• about 1.5 yards of linen shirting (or cotton)
• about 1 yard of 1/2″ twill tape
• 1 foot of 1/4″ elastic.

1. I followed the instructions I used for my medieval overdress except I made a couple of modifications for the neckline and sleeve ruffles.  I actually might make these modifications to my own dress I was so pleased with them!
2. I followed steps 1&2 and plugged in Patricia’s measurements and came out with the following.  The only adjustments I made were to add 2″ for ruffles in the arm.  (Obviously it is not drawn to scale.)  Note the arms came out about 3/4 length!  If you want them longer, you will need to add more length! 
3. I followed steps 3-5.  Then instead of step 6 I did the following…
4. Cut a 4″ slit in the center neckline on one side.
5. Fold the side areas of the slit under so the unfinished edges are inside and stitch.  
6. Next fold under the top hem by 1/4″ then fold over again by 3/4″ Stitch close to the bottom fold line.
7. Instead of inserting elastic, insert twill tape through the hem.  Make sure the tape is a few inches longer than the entire neckline.  Gather. 
8. Skip steps 6-9 in the adult medieval underdress pattern.
9. After hemming the sleeves, add some twill tape on the end of the sleeve hem inside the shirt.  Sew close to the edges of the twill tape to form a casing for the elastic.  Be sure to leave a gap to insert the elastic.  
10. Feed elastic into the casing you just made, pull it tightly so it forms a ruffle and then tie or stitch the elastic together at your desired length.  
11. You can then finish enclosing the elastic in the tape by stitching the ends closed.  Repeat for second sleeve. 

Hello friends!  I’m in another exciting town meeting again, so what better to do than zone out and daydream until they call for a vote?!  Despite a truly horrible week last week (Patricia was sick and home from school without care for 4 days last week) we had a great time this past weekend.  We bounced at the trampoline park, went apple picking and even had a tea party.  As the icing on the cake, Patricia is finally back to her usual cheerful self today after 7 days of being a sad lady.  Oh and Julius learned to bike with his training wheels off too!  What a week!

Patricia despite her crankiness, still had her moments.  Everything she says at this age is pure gold.  I love to listen to Patricia and Julius converse during their imagination play.  Julius doesn’t just pull her along for the ride, he actually has her fully participate.  For instance yesterday we excused them from the table yesterday and they both ran over to the couches (their sleeper trains) and Julius, slightly behind, shouted, “Patricia is the train leaving?”  To which she responded, “oh no, not yet don’t worry.”  It is great to have a friend to play with and I love watching the two of them interact.

I also (usually) love her frankness.  Yesterday in the car she was wearing a baseball cap and she exclaimed, “I am the coolest!”  She was being so silly so I said, “what about me?  Am I the coolest?” She quickly responded, “No mama.  You aren’t the coolest ‘cause you don’t look like this ‘cause you don’t have your hat on.”  I then put on my really, really (un)attractive “desert sun hat” (yes you read that right, complete with wide brim, neck coverage, a lanyard and detachable veil).  I asked, “how ‘bout now?”  She quickly responded, “oh yeah, now you’re the coolest.”  Satisfaction.

Now for Julius.  He still is adorable of course.  He’s also doing great with reading; reading well above his grade level.  (Luckily his kindergarten teacher is awesome, aware of his reading skill and working to keep him engaged with harder content.)  Because of this, I tend to treat him as a big guy, and I forget that he’s really just a little guy.  The other day at cub scouts the leader called for a toast.  Before the toast, he asked the kids if anyone knew what “a toast” was.  Julius raised his hand and said, “it’s when you take bread, and you cook it again in the oven so it gets crispy”.  The adults in the back were trying really hard not to chuckle too loudly.  It was so adorable.

Okay so I don’t know if you can call my stickers adorable, but if you like them, they are yours.  I love to draw doodles, so I will probably draw some in the future.  After I explain how I made these (again reminder, I’m still not sure this is the best method) I’ll have a follow up on how I got them to stay on toddler water bottles.  Toddlers, who frequently do tape removal activities in preschool, also love to peel stickers it turns out.  Patricia’s water bottle survived several days when it was just her using it, and then on the first day back to preschool 75% of the stickers had been peeled off.  I’m not sure if she finally succumbed to the temptation, or if her friends circled the water bottle like vultures when she returned.  Let me just say that “permanent” cricut vinyl is not toddler tested.

Sublimation Stickers on Vinyl

What you’ll need:

• Sublimation printer, ink and paper
• White Permanent Vinyl
• Heat press
• heat resistant tape
• parchment paper
• My sticker sheet!  (If you so desire)

1. Using your sublimation printer, print out your design on sublimation paper (remember to mirror the image!).
2. Set your heat press to 350F and wait for it to heat.
3. Use heat resistant tape to tape sublimation paper image to vinyl, face down.
4. Cover the design in parchment paper then heat press for 30 seconds.  Make sure to do this in a well ventilated area.  Next time I’m wearing a respirator.
5. Let cool.
6. Remove tape and remove design, it will probably have stuck to the vinyl.
7. Wet the rest of the paper under the faucet and gently rub your hands over the remaining paper to remove.
8. You can then cut your stickers out (or if you used the cricut print and cut option, you can cut them with your cricut!)

Well the kids both have a couple weeks of their new classes under their belts.  Julius seems to still be enjoying class and he even made a friend in his class who is also in extended day.  (Fewf.)  We’ve been waiting for him to tell us he made a friend.  Though he told me this morning he was a bit lonely on the bus because no one sat with him.  (Trying not to let this break my heart.)  Julius has also started both gymnastics and cub scouts so we’re hoping he has a lot of fun in both.  So far so good.

Patricia is having a bit of trouble adjusting to the preschool class.  For the entire first week she refused to go into the room and would cling to us when we left.  We’d literally have to push her off us and run out the door to get her to go to preschool.  Talk about heartbreaking.  The teachers don’t seem as helpful as her last class to help distract her or motivate her to play while I’m trying desperately to leave.  To be honest the few times that leaving her in the class went smoothly was when one of her previous teachers, Ms. Jen or Ms. Sara, happened to be walking by and helped her into the classroom.  Patricia, Will and I had a discussion about going into preschool mid last week.  The last couple times she has been very brave going into the classroom and didn’t even cry when we left.  I’m very proud of her.  Now we just have to work on all the accidents she’s been having.

I loved getting new things for back to school.  New pencils and notebooks, etc.  Well kindergarteners and preschoolers don’t need pencils or notebooks… and I really hate buying new things for the sake of buying new things so I decided to revamp all their old stuff.  I resewed some seams on Patricia’s unicorn backpack (which I got from the buy nothing group), then we got an LL Bean backpack (also off the buy nothing group).  It was in perfect condition, so I just embroidered Julius’ initials on it and asked him what he wanted to decorate it with.  I bought a bunch of shark embroidery patches that I hand sewed on it.  He was quite pleased with it.  (Side note – is it so adorable watching him walk with the LL Bean backpack on.  It’s like as big as he is.)

I also repaired Julius’ lunchbox (yes this one) that he’s had forever.  This is the one thing where I asked Julius straight up if he wanted to pick out a new one, and he flat out refused.  He actually broke down crying when I suggested such a thing.  Instead I completely re-stitched all the seams on the lunchbox and once again repaired the velcro.  It is like 1″ smaller than when it started, so it’s starting to become difficult to fit an ice pack inside.  Massachusetts gives free lunches to all schoolkids though, so luckily all his lunchbox needs to hold is snacks!  I also am working on a new lunchbox for him in secret as a present.

The only picture I have of Julius backpack.

The last thing I did was redo their water bottles.  I LOVE the “funtainer” thermos waterbottles.  They are stainless steel, a great size for kids, they have a handle, and the straws are easily replaceable and even sold at Target.  Julius’ water bottle used to have the Paw Patrol pups on it, but they’ve long since scratched off.  Patricia’s had some space unicorns, that somehow had also scratched off, in far less time.  I decided to redo Julius’ with sharks, and Patricia’s with unicorns.  I didn’t have sticker paper and waterproof material so I decided to experiment with sublimation on vinyl.  I’m not yet sure I recommend this method.  I had a horrible headache for the next day afterwards, and I’m not sure if it was because of off-gassing from the vinyl.  So take all this with a grain of salt, and if you do try it, be sure to do so in a well ventilated space, potentially wearing a properly rated respirator (I usually wear one, but for some reason I didn’t this time).  I’ll post about the sticker making next week; for now I’ll show you how to get your water bottle looking as good as new!  I used 4 different methods (including steel wool, dremel polishing, and melamine foam pads)  to get Julius’ water bottle looking good again before finding the right solution.

  Upgrade a Worn Thermos Funtainer

What you’ll need:

• 12 oz Thermos Funtainer
• Waterproof Vinyl Stickers
• 220 grit sandpaper
• Dust mask/ventilator and eye protection

1. Remove the cap and bottom of the funtainer Thermos.  (Yes the bottom is removable, but you have to pull very hard to pop it off the first time.)
   

   Here’s a before image – it’s pretty gross looking.

2. Put on your mask and eye protection and sand the waterbottle, always going in the same direction around the circumference of the bottle.
3. Periodically wipe the dust off the bottle and check to see if any marks remain.  Continue until satisfied.
   

   That look pretty darn good to me!

4. Wash the entire bottle, lid and bottom inside and out with hot soapy water.
5. Dry then reassemble the bottle.
6. Apply stickers as desired.

Wow Julius’ first week at kindergarten!  And Patricia’s first week at preschool!  Will took Patricia to school on her first day and she was very (understandably) confused and sad that she wasn’t heading to preschool with Julius.  We decided to keep her at her school for another year since she is still 3 years away from Kindergarten, and we thought was technically too young for preschool but then we found out they were moving her up a class in her school.  So now she’s in preschool!  My kiddos are both so big now!

For some weirdness, Patricia is the age Julius was during the pandemic when we were drowning and watching him/plopping him in front of the tv while we worked from home.  Ah memories.  Honestly the one good thing about those times is that I got to spend a lot of time with Julius.  I took Julius in the mornings, so Will got up early and worked and I took Julius on walks or did outside play or went to the farm and picked fruit until my first meetings at 10am.  Then I’d work until late, usually stopping to put Julius to bed, but frequently just eating dinner at my desk.  (Which was pretty depressing, not going to lie.) Will was the real hero for doing the brunt of the childcare during the work day.

But alas, now we have two big kids!  It’s so bittersweet.  I am so proud watching them grow, but where have my adorable babies gone?  Honestly, I’ve never been that into babies, except my own, and I think the toddler years are my very favorite.  This is part of the reason I was so horrified she’s a preschooler now.  No more toddler?! I told Will that when Julius was Patricia’s age we treated Julius like a big kid because he looked so grown up compared to when he was a baby (our only comparison).  But now, looking back at pictures from that time he was really just a little guy!  We put a lot of pressure on that little guy.  For Patricia we have a constant side by side comparison with big brother Julius, so she’s always going to seem like our little lady.  So she gets away with a lot more than Julius did, and everything she says right now is still so darn cute.  For instance, she dropped some cheese on the floor the other day and she asked Alexa, “Lexa, can Dany eat cheese?”   (We’ve been teaching her that many things are not safe for dogs to eat.)

Well, here are my two big kiddos off to school.  I made them this back to school chalkboard, modified from one I got for three dollars at Savers.  I made it reusable so we can fill in “first” or “last” day of school.  (We’ll see if I remember.)  I love my little nuggets and I’m so proud of them both!

Patricia’s first day of Preschool!

Julius’s first day of Kindergarten!

First/Last Day of School Sign

What you’ll need:

• Chalkboard (I modified a bistro chalkboard I got at savers).
• Cricut and my pattern here
• White permanent adhesive vinyl (I used oracal, which I haven’t used before but was the cheapest at Michaels)
• Transfer paper

0. First I modified the bistro chalkboard I got by removing the hardware, chopping off the feet, and fixing up the paint to match.

Before

After

1. Make sure your chalkboard is clean and dry.
2. Load the pattern I provided above onto your cricut (note – my chalkboard is 11″x14″ so you might need to modify it to fit your chalkboard)
3. Place adhesive vinyl on regular grip 12″x24″ mat.  Cut pattern.
4. Weed the while spaces (everywhere but the dots and letters and banner.
5. Using a brayer, press a piece of transfer tape over the design, gently peel the back off the adhesive vinyl so it sticks to the transfer tape.
6. Position transfer tape with design over the chalkboard, then press down to adhere.
7. Use the brayer again to really press the vinyl onto the chalkboard.
8. Gently remove the transfer tape.