The Lady Beekeeper

WOW! Talk about a packed weekend of Halloween fun! Friday night we went to “Halloween on the Hill” run by the Trustees of Reservations in a botanical garden. They had 1000’s of carved pumpkins and spooky setups and lights! I think it’s safe to say we all loved it, though Patricia was very disappointed she didn’t wear her costume. (Glad she didn’t, it was cold!) As a bonus they had a little snack tent in the middle with hot apple cider and other treats and I let the kids get a treat (as if they need more sugar this season). Julius picked a cookie, which I considered a solid choice, but Patricia insisted she wanted “Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans”. I tried to steer her away from them, explaining some of them tasted bad, but she was insistent that she “loved them”. Honestly I’m glad she talked me into it because she did love them and we had a lot of laughs trying the awful flavors. (They really nailed the dirt flavor, not so convinced on earthworm.)

On Saturday we went to a Halloween Party at a friend’s house and it was a blast! Costumes were required so there were lots of great costumes! Sadly it wasn’t the right crowd for the Dune nerds but we’d already committed… so Lady Jessica and Duke Leto made an appearance. Luckily it wasn’t too cold for Patricia’s costume because she didn’t want to put the wings on her coat.

Sunday we had a Halloween tea party (an excuse to make crumpets). Then we went to the town Halloween party where it WAS way too cold for just a dress. In the beginning I managed to convince Patricia to put on the wings over her winter coat. She tolerated that for about 30 minutes until she saw some other kids she knew and decided she wanted her dress to show. We allowed it since the sun was still up. Patricia (sans coat) and Will sauntered off to finish the trunk or treat while Julius watched the magic show. In a few minutes Patricia came back over to me and she was, and I’m not exaggerating here, violently shivering. Despite that, she refused to put on her coat again until I explained that otherwise we would have to leave immediately…

Hypothermia aside I think it is safe to say that she loves her costume! Since I missed posting last week I wanted to show you the crowning touch, the antennae I made her. It was super simple, but worked really well! Plus I can just bend them back into shape when they inevitably get out of shape.

Butterfly Antennae

What you’ll need:

• 18 Gauge jewelry wire (I used silver because that’s what I had)
• thin black fabric covered headband (you can cover it yourself if you want, like in this tutorial)
• Black pom poms
• hot glue
• wire cutters
• Wide Marker

1. Take jewelry wire and cut a length of 2 feet with the wire cutters.

2. Using the end of the wire, poke into the top of the headband about 2″ off from center.

3. Feed thru until 2″ past center on the opposite side.

4. Tilt antennae up on either side of center.

5. Twist one side of the jewelry wire around the wide marker to form a swirly antenna. Repeat for other side.

6. Hot glue a pom pom to the top of each antenna, taking care to cover the potentially sharp wire tips.

7. Wear!

Gosh, how is it Monday again? I just got to my laptop and it’s already past 10pm at night. I doubt I’ll finish this entry tonight. Julius and Patricia were home from school today while Will and I both had to work, so our house is a complete disaster. Will and I have been trying to clean the house on Friday nights (I know, trust me, my 20 year old former self is disgusted with me). So the trashed house after only 2 days of cleanliness is even more depressing to me than usual. At least I can listen to audiobooks while I clean, which is why, dear reader, I am slowly becoming illiterate.

Well only mostly illiterate. I joked to Will the other day that I was going to write a novel, but when I told him my idea, he laughed in my face! I won’t tell you what it was, not because I am ashamed of getting laughed at, but because it is not possible to do the plot justice without getting taken off search forums. Someday, someday.

During my sabbatical, when I could have been writing romance novels, I got ahead on Halloween costumes. Except I couldn’t decide on what Will and I should be. I’ve been really interested in making wings for a Rhysand costume, but Will wasn’t sure he could pull Rhysand off. That made me a bit sad on several levels. I guess I can pretend that a Rhysand and <insert female lead> costume would be a spoiler for all those poor souls who haven’t gotten to read ACOTAR. Instead of being a walking spoiler we are going with a completely different couple who Will is admittedly more into than I am. But at least one part of the couple is a badass female. That’s all the spoilers I’ll give for now. Unfortunately there is no family costume this year because Julius wants to be a blue m&m and Patricia a purple and orange butterfly so I just couldn’t figure out how to mesh those themes together this year.

I am really excited about Patricia’s butterfly costume, and I finished it like 3 weeks ago so I’m desperate to show it to you this week. The only thing I bought for the costume is the black dress which was on sale at Target.

Marpesia Butterfly Wings

What you’ll need:

• black shirt or dress
• white lightweight synthetic material (mine was leftover from a project I can’t even recall)
• black, orange and purple acrylic paints
• fabric painting additive
• foam brushes
• needle and thread
• candle

1. Place a shirt, arms spread wide, on top of your white fabric. Using a tailor’s pencil or chalk, trace first around the top arms of the shirt, then downwards forming a butterfly wing shape on one side of body.

2. Fold shape in half then cut along the lines you drew in step 1 forming a pair of wings.

3. To prevent your wings from fraying without sewing, light the candle, then hold the edges of the fabric close to the flame so they knit together. Continue with entire edges of wings.

4. Mix your paint colors with fabric additive, then paint the wings. I recommend doing the lighter colors first or the central colors then finishing with the black.

5. When one side is completely painted let dry. Flip the piece over then repeat the pattern on the opposite side using the bleed thru as a guide.

6. Let second side dry.

7. Using a needle and thread tack thru the wings along various points on the arms of your dress.

8. Fly!

We had another fun weekend but it was bittersweet for me since yesterday was my last day of sabbatical. On the happier side, Ryan visited us this weekend and we played a bunch of board games, took a baking class at King Arthur Bakery and went to a Red Sox game at Fenway (the kids’ first one). Overall a good distraction from impending doom err… my first week back.

Luckily my first day back wasn’t completely horrible. I went into the new building which actually is really nice. The drive in was picturesque with the autumn colors. I got a tour of the new building and we had a team lunch in the new “craft beer” place downstairs. Later my friends at work managed to give me a heart attack and pranked me on my first day back… It started when Mike told me this morning he needed to get on an airplane suddenly and gave me 0 details (other than the backlog of emails) of what might need covering. I originally thought it was a joke, but my manager and Delaney both went along with it and asked if I’d heard from Mike to see if everything was okay. Then Alex called and asked me to drive a huge decision for units for the program… something that I had 0 details on and would have to ramp on super quickly… he called in his “planner” to the call and after me asking a few more questions to Alex, the “planner” spoke up and I realized Mike and Delaney were both on the call and I’d gotten got. I feel like this replaces the old cubicle decoration ritual. We’ll have to think of something elaborate for Mike’s sabbatical next.

In really uninteresting news Will thought I should share this super simple upcycle “craft”. I hate to call it a craft because it’s so simple. This is how to turn broken pants hangers into chip clips for keeping potato chips fresh. We always end up coming home with weird hangers from kids’ stores (the ones that had tags thru them so you can’t leave them at the store for them to recycle). So I started cutting off the alligator clip bits and using them for chips. Will actually didn’t realize they were upcycled which is why he thought it would be a worthy post.

Upcycled Pants Hanger Chip Clips

What you’ll need:

Pants hangers

a saw (fine toothed is better, in the picture below I’m using a coping saw)

sand paper (I used a fine grit)

1. Place pants hanger in a vice. Use the saw to cut off the hanger very close to the clip portion.

2. Sand the area you cut off to ensure it is smooth.

3. Clip your chip bags with it. I know that was too easy to write a blog post on so have at it!

My vacation to Denver last week was so fun! Mandy and Bailey planned a million fun things to do like Meow Wolf, a comedy show, and multiple hikes including the Manitou Incline. And I got to see my dear friends Matt and Maren and their lovely kiddos for a fun farmer’s market adventure plus a visit to their beautiful new house! As an added bonus Bailey’s sister Erin came out for a super fun sister weekend! It was a great time and I’m so sad it’s over. Mandy also got me into Chappell Roan this weekend (a feat she’s been working on for a couple months now, and she finally succeeded). Who doesn’t love a sassy, lesbian pop queen who dresses in drag?

In other news I am on my last week of sabbatical and it’s pretty heartbreaking. Hearing all the horrible Intel news and learning about some of my favorite colleagues leaving has been disheartening. That and now I have to go back to work… So I’m trying to finish up the prep work for Julius and Patricia’s birthday parties and work on Halloween costumes for the kids so I might be able to enjoy the fall. Last weekend was the first weekend that truly felt like fall! It was chilly enough to wear sweatshirts outside and the leaves are beginning to turn. Oh it also rained!

We took advantage of the weather and had a typical New England Fall weekend. Saturday during the rain we made pancakes, then the kids put on a puppet show with the puppet theater I made for Earth Day. The show was rather ad hoc. To be honest I’m not sure there was even a script… I overheard this conversation during the show…

Julius: “Now you introduce your characters”

Patricia: “Ok… What does ‘introduce’ mean?”

Will and I tried really hard not to laugh. After the fabulous puppet show we made licenses for the kids. They have been wanting to make licenses since they saw custom ones at Storyland in August. For our version they decided to make their own backgrounds. Julius wanted bananas and Patricia wanted a rainbow so I sketched them and they colored them in (on the computer). The next day the kids drove around in their car with their licenses in their pockets while Will pretended he was a police officer and gave them various citations. I’m pretty sure at some point they were on the lam and I heard Julius was sentenced with 500 hours community service.

Later on Sunday we went on a bike ride to George Hill Orchards for caramel apples, cider, cider donuts and apple picking. The caramel apples were unplanned but Julius wiped out on his bike into the orchard driveway and scraped his chin and knee. He was very sad and caramel apples were the only thing that seemed to help. Later Julius lost his wiggly front bottom tooth in the apple and got his first visit from the tooth fairy. I have no idea how the tooth fairy was able to get the tooth out from under Julius’ pillow without waking them up, especially when Julius was holding the bag with the tooth! She must be magic!

DIY Kids’ “Licenses”

What you’ll need:

• paint.net template here
• printer
• laminator & laminating pages
• Scissors or paper cutter

1. Open template with paint.net. Change “Address and Birthday” Layer to have address and birthday in the locations indicated using the font indicated.

2. Have your child sign on the “Signature” Layer then shrink and move it to the location indicated.

3. Take a photo of your child (we wanted it to be authentic so we took it ‘in the moment’ from the laptop as if they were going to the DMV). Crop it and move it to the location indicated on the “Photo” layer.

4. Select the background layer desired (either banana or rainbow) or create your own. Tip: Use F4 to bring up the opacity window. Ours was set to a middle opacity value.

5. Save as a PNG. Copy the finished image into Microsoft Word or similar program that will keep the sizing.

6. Print. I used regular printer paper but it might be better with cardstock.

7. Run printed page through the laminator. (I always run it through twice.)

8. Using scissors or a paper cutter, cut out license. If you have an edge trimmer you can also use that to round the edges.

I’m on my way to Denver to visiting Mandy and Bailey (and also Matt and Maren!)! I am long overdue to visit my siblings so this is the first of two trips I need to make to see everyone. I had grand plans to visit Dallas and Denver during sabbatical but here I am with only 2 more weekends left. Where has the time gone?! No, seriously, it’s a real question. Where?

The last week (well like 3 days after DanyCon) I’ve been doing silly little mending projects that have been sitting on my sewing table for years. One of them was an old cloth all in one diaper that was leaking that I aimed to repair. I decided my original plan to repair them didn’t work well (plus I’m way past the diapering phase) so instead I turned it into a set of reusable swiffer pads. I also finished a very lightweight cloak that my friend started (she’d cut out some of the pieces). I mended one of Julius’ shirts and a unicorn headband my mom had bought for Patricia. Then two of my super cool art gallery panels fell down! So I had to repair those too. I also baked 4 mini loaves of bread and one full size one (which is in my backpack right now headed to Denver). All of this while on my third read thru of the ACOTAR trilogy. Not a spoiler: they hold up on the third read thru, I still adore them.

Things I still want to do while on vacation (not counting visiting Mark and Erin which we decided we need to do with the kids or they will not forgive us for seeing Finn and Ari without them): Make progress on Halloween costumes (probably should add deciding on Halloween costumes before that), work on Julius’ science birthday party, work on Patricia’s rainbow unicorn birthday.

Before I go into today’s tutorial (leftover from last birthday) I wanted to share a cute thing Julius did. Julius came home from school the other day super excited saying “the best thing ever happened today”. I was so curious to hear what it was, and he shared, “they had compostable plates in the cafeteria and sporks so there is less plastic waste”. I mused out loud about if my letter to the cafeteria manager helped, and he responded, “I have told the principal every time he asks our classroom what we can do to make our school better that they should get rid of styrofoam plates in the cafeteria. I think he finally listened.” I have never been more proud. I think it’s safe to say ‘mission accomplished’, I’m done.

So this tutorial is from Patricia’s mermaid party. You may recall that one of the activities was decorating crowns with ocean themed stickers. I made the crowns on my cricut (similar to how I made the valentine’s crowns).

Mermaid Crown

What you’ll need (for each):

• My cricut pattern here
• a 12″x12″ sheet of glitter cardstock

1. Use your cricut to cut out pattern, being sure to select glitter cardstock.

2. Size the crown on the child’s head by inserting arrows on crown front into slots on crown back.

3. Tape.

4. Decorate if desired.

Well I’m late again posting. I fear this is becoming a habit. This was the last week of summer for Julius before he started school again. Last week he had “space” summer camp but it only went to 1pm. That meant we got to hang out doing silly things together. We biked to the orchard and picked peaches, blueberries and grapes. Then yesterday for the last day of summer we biked to the library and playground. He is doing really great biking! One of our friends saw us biking on one of the main streets in Lancaster (which happens to be a really big hill). Julius made it up without much grumbling!

As much as it will be nice to have an actual kid free day of sabbatical to myself I will miss my little buddy! He was a bit nervous for his first day of school but I’m sure he’ll do great! A few weekends back amidst our traveling I made a little kit for my BFFITWWW’s son for his birthday. (Amy I know you said no presents but you also got me a birthday gift so fair is fair. ) Alex loves matchbox cars so this little case is one you can both color and use for cars. Hopefully to much entertainment on road trips. At Alex’s birthday Patricia stole it an colored in in for hours so I knew I had to make one for her and Julius as well… So here it is. Note – if you don’t have a sublimation printer don’t fear! I discovered that cricut has sublimation markers! You draw on sublimation paper with them and then you can sublimate the marker ink onto your polyester surface. Oh! And I forgot to mention the best part! Since these are 100% polyester if you use washable markers you can wash the markers right out after playing!

Washable Coloring Car Play Mat

What you’ll need:

• 100% polyester fabric (mine is leftover woven polyester fabric from the towels I made for everyone for xmas)
• a candle (recommended to prevent fraying edges)
• 1/4″ elastic (2 pieces, cut to 7″ each)
• Sublimation printer and ink – or cricut sublimation markers and paper (see comment above)
• My designs for the castle set here and the road set here
• Ultra-Washable Crayola Markers (for playing)

1. The first step is to cut your fabric into a rectangle (that will leave about 1/2″ for seam allowance).

2. Use the candle to melt the unfinished polyester edges. I do this by moving the fabric close to the flame and watching it carefully as it melts together. This is a bit fiddly but I really think it helps keep the polyester intact. The other option is to make your fabric slightly wider and doing a rolled hem.

3. Fold under 1/2″ on each side of the fabric then press.

4. Pin the hem of the fabric, and at the top of your design, 2″ from each side insert the elastic (fold in half, then insert both unfinished sides into the hem.

5. Stitch entire seam.

6. Flip elastic up and then stitch again to hold in place (so loop protrudes above the top of the fabric, not inside.)

7. Press your fabric with a heat press at 375F for 30 seconds to steam out any moisture.

8. Apply the sublimation design with your heat press. I used my head press set to 375F for 60 seconds and covered the sublimation paper & design with a sheet of parchment paper.

9. If desired, apply a second design below the road/castle scene. (I did my child’s names.)

10. Fold the bottom edge under 4″ to form a pocket. Stitch along both edges to finish the pocket.

11. Place markers and car inside the pouch then let them play!

Note: It’s best to wash it within a day or two after coloring to prevent lingering stains. I used just water and mild soap then hung it to dry.

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

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

Patricia (to herself): you can do this!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Basic Mickey Mouse Ears

What you’ll need:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Harsh.

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

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

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

Autograph Books

What you’ll need (for each book):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

21. Go get some autographs!