The Lady Beekeeper

We spent the last week in Nashville/Knoxville as a celebration of life for Will’s grandparents. I think they had all the cousins and aunts and uncles and all their partners and kids for a total of 32 relatives there! That’s wild! The kids had a blast because they got to hang out with their cousins! It was really cute to watch them all play together. Such fun.

Some of Will’s cousins were really sweet and indulged Julius’ love of cars by chatting with him about them at length. Patricia took it upon herself to play with (and mind) both Liza and baby James, the newest cousin in the gang. She just loves being an older cousin since she generally is the youngest in the other cousin group (and in the sibling group)! When the cousins were napping or elsewhere they spent a lot of time in the pool and playing “hamsters”. This is where Julius makes squeaky noises and pretends to be Patricia’s pet hamster. It’s adorable.

Our flight got cancelled but luckily we were able to get booked on the flight 5 hours later so we’re hanging out in the airport. While I’m here I’m going to show you a project I did just after Christmas last year. So we have this super skinny Christmas tree that we put up on the second floor. My grandpa won it from the local 4H several years when I entered a tree in their contest. I baked lebkuchen hearts for it and decorated it with German Christmas stars. It took me a really long time. I did not win though! (Though I’m pretty sure mine was the best, I think some company sponsored one won!)

Anyway, I digress! The whole point of this story is that this is a skinny 5 foot tall tree! I am too lazy to redecorate a second tree every year so I put it in the attic every year fully decorated. The problem is there are no tree bags made for skinny 5 foot tall trees! They are all way too large. The one I’ve had until the version I made was so large that when I tried to hold it by the bag handles the tree was just swimming around inside and would completely become disassembled. I decided instead to make one that was lightweight, custom sized to the tree, and would strap onto the bottom supports of the tree so it would not fall apart. Honestly I’m so happy with how it came out. I even used the rest of the oly fun I bought ages ago which is very lightweight but still fairly durable. I will tell you how I did it, but you’ll have to custom measure everything for your own tree!

DIY Decorated Tree Cover

What you’ll need:

• 6 yards of Oly Fun
• 3 yards of Ribbon

1. Measure the height of your tree from the bottom of the needles to the top. Measure the radius of the bottom of the tree where the needles are.
2. Fold Oly fun in half lengthwise and draft a right triangle that is the height you measured above for the leg along the fold, and the length of the radius *.9 for the other leg.
3. Here I made my triangle a bit longer to account for more material to fold underneath to cinch in. I recommend adding the radius width more.
4. Cut out 4 of the above shapes (this accounts for all the seam allowance and some wiggle room for the circumference of the tree.
5. Stitch the 4 shapes together leaving the bottom opened.
6. Fold the bottom of the bag under 1.5″ and stitch along the edge, leaving a 1″ channel for a ribbon to go and a 1″ gap for you to insert the ribbon.
7. Thread a ribbon thru the bottom of the hem.
8. Add handles on 4 axises of the tree (on the top and bottom, for a total of 8 handles) by folding a piece of 8″x4″ oly fun in half and stitching along all axes. Stitch the top an bottom of the handle to the middle side of the tree bag on each seam.
9. Along 3 points interspersed on the bottom of the bag (it’s easiest to do this last after testing) add a 18″ piece of ribbon stitch thru the middle. This is where you will tie the bag to the feet for extra support.

To use the bag, put it over your decorated tree, cinch the bottom of the bag closed and tie, then tie the ribbons on the bottom of the bag to each leg securely. Hoist by the handles up into the attic (or wherever!

Alright friends… more about how I created the “micro camper”. You’re probably going to get sick of this in a couple weeks, but it was quite the project so I want to detail everything to death. So it all started out because Julius is obsessed with our next door neighbor’s RV. They have a class A RV, which is huge. Like a bus. Like Julius, my neighbor is also a bit obsessed with his RV and can be seen washing it in the driveway every weekend or airing it out. He also built a platform for it which is next to our property line so my kids are now able to creep on the camper at all times of day from the safety of our yard. They just stand there, stare at it, daydream and ask me questions like “do you think we can go in it?”, “do you think it has a toilet in it” and “can we get one”? (To which I answer ‘no’, ‘no’ and ‘no’, though they figured out I’m joking about the second one.)

Anyway I got so sick of hearing them talk about the RV that I started looking up van life videos. Or maybe my phone was spying on me and started feeding them to me. Either way I started thinking to myself, I bet I could turn the RAV4 into a camper. Plenty of people have posted videos of platforms built in the back of the RAV that sleep 2. Four though, I couldn’t find that anywhere. In fact my friend told me it was impossible. To which I replied ‘challenge accepted’. After much measuring of all the family members, measuring of the car interior and then forcing Will to lay in the back of the RAV4 with me I decided it was actually possible. I was going to win this challenge.

What I’d discovered to make it all possible are these things used for camper vans called “Cabbunk” beds. They are basically cots that are mounted above the front seats to provide a place for a child to sleep. They didn’t look that hard to make. The measuring helped me determine that my kids could sleep horizontally in the RAV4 above the front seats and above the second row of seats (folded down). I’d found some folks on pinterest had made their own versions of Cabbunk beds that had various methods of being attached to the car. Most were made of PVC (which really didn’t seem strong enough) but the ones linked above were made of steel tubing. I decided to use these as my guide! I also used this tube calculator to overengineer the heck out of this thing. It can technically hold Will, but he’d never fit.

I made mine a bit different than their tutorial. Instead of using elbows, I used T connectors so I could feed a strap thru the center of the pole to hang them. (I hang them with racketing straps from the roof rack for Julius, and the roof rack and across the front window for Patricia.) I also added some padding (pipe insulation I had lying around) on the short ends so not to damage the windows. For the material for the cot I bought cotton duck canvas material from Joann Fabrics (RIP). (Luckily it was after they announced they were closing but before the bankruptcy sellers took over so I bought 3 yards for $6 a yard.) It was exactly enough for me to make 2 cots. To make the seam more sturdy I overlapped several inches of material and sewed double seams on each end. I also liked the idea of being able to add a layer of padding in between for additional R-value while camping in cold weather (idea in the video), so I made one end velcro open-able. (It also made it easier to construct.)

From the moment I hung them up to test them out the kids started asking me if they could sleep in the car. (Luckily this made them stop creeping on the RV next door so mission accomplished I guess.) I didn’t give in until the actual camping trip though. I was worried Patricia would tell one of her teachers “we slept in the car last night” and that might be misinterpreted… When they finally did get to sleep in the car, the kids said they slept very soundly in the cots and they were quite comfortable. They looked all cuddly and cozy in their little nests.

Before you go, I forgot to share a funny story from while we were camping. The first day of our trip we’d all gotten settled into the car (remember no way to open the car from the back) and I was just starting to drift off to sleep when Patricia shouted from the front “I have to go potty!” I just burst out laughing and then carefully extracted myself from the car to take her to the bathroom. I couldn’t stop laughing for hours.

Micro Camper Hanging Cots

What you’ll need (for each bed):

4 – 3/4″ Structural Black Single Socket Tee ($19.24)

1 – 10′ 3/4″ Structure Black Pipe (DOM Steel) ($28.85)

1 – 36″ 3/4″ Structure Black Pipe ($9.38)

2 – 12×1″ Racheting Strap 500LB (4.96)

pipe insulation or foam padding (free from scrap)

1.5 yards of heavyweight duck canvas ($9)

1′ of 2″ velcro (purchased in excess from another project)

Steel Frame

1. Start by measuring your car to determine the length and width of the cot. You can then determine the length of your tubes by accounting for the bump out from the ‘T’ connectors. I needed to cut 2 58″ bars and 2 18″ bars for one set and 2 56″ bars and 2 18″ bars for the other set.

2. Cut your bars to length. I used a hacksaw and a LOT of patience for this. It took me several hours to cut them all.

3. Attach your t-connectors and assemble.

4. Feed the ratcheting straps thru the long ends of the tubing.

Fabric Cover

1. Measure around the metal bars and add an inch of fabric. Then add an additional 2″ for seam allowance and 4 additional inches to strengthen the seam.

2. Next measure the length of fabric needed lengthwise from t-connector to t-connector. Add 2″ for seam allowance.

3. Cut fabric to measurements above, and then hem the edges by doing a rolled hem.

4. Overlap the two long ends of the fabric by 4″ then stitch along each rolled hem.

5. Measure and cut a rectangle to fasten to the head of the fabric, loop over one end of the tubing, and fasten to the back side. Then cut a second, larger version to fasten to the head of the fabric, loop over one end of the tubing, and overlap the back side by several inches (for velcro). Again make sure to add 2″ seam allowance on each side.

6. Again hem.

7. Stitch the shorter version to the front side of the bed and the back side of the bed.

8. Stitch the longer version to the front side of the bed, and add a 2″ velcro hook strip to the opposite end (on the underside). On the bottom side of the bed add a 2″ wide velcro loop strip.

9. When complete, shimmy fabric onto the steel structure.

10. Hang and Level.

Total cost per bed: $71.43

Hi Friends! Last weekend was PAX! My mom watched the kids while Will and I got to play games and do nerdy things. Even though no one stayed with us from out of town this time it was still a blast. Then of course I got sick. PAX pox are real I guess!

Julius and Patricia cleaned my car for Mother’s Day which was a really nice surprise! My mom told they they washed the entire outside of the car with a cup of water and wipes which cracks me up. Julius used his vacuum to clean the entire inside of the car and the shedding brush to get rid of Dany fur (I discovered this method a couple years back and it works wonders). My car looks great! Oh and my mom bought me a hubcap cover to replace the one Toyota broke during service a couple years ago (still furious about that). So I’m now all ready for next weekend for the micro camper debut.

Julius and Patricia make me laugh a lot. Usually unintentionally. Julius intentionally made a very clever joke the other day. Will was telling Julius that he wouldn’t punish Julius if he was naughty instead he was going to eat him up (as one does). Julius in quick response said “oh yeah like a salad”. I totally didn’t get it but I’m going to leave this here for a second to see if you do.

Julius clearly gets his hilarity from me (just kidding). In this really terrible tangent my friend Ryan apparently remembers the first thing I ever said to him as being “muffins smelled backwards is sniffum”. If that is not weird and hilarious I don’t know what is. In tribute I give you this muffin recipe. Not a recipe to bake but a recipe to make! These felt muffins I started when Julius was TWO. I only finished them earlier this year randomly. Patricia immediately started playing with them so I still consider it a win.

Felt Muffins

• What you’ll need:
• felt in brown beige and white
• a muffin pan mine was of course from the thrift shop
• pattern here

1. Cut pattern pieces out from tan or brown felt. Note: These are made with NSA so you can hand stich them…. But I actually used the sewing machine for many of them so you will have to adjust the pattern slightly to account for this.
2. To the muffin top piece stitch blue blueberries or white or black chocolate chunks or other toppings as desired.
3. Fold and stitch the side piece along the unfinished edges. Pin and stitch the top and bottom pieces to the side… By hand using a whip stitch or blanket stitch… Or add seam allowance and sew them by machine. Leave one part of the muffin bottom opened.
4. Turn right side out if you choose to sew by machine.
5. Fill with stuffing.
6. Hand stitch closed (using an invisible ladder stitch if you sewed by machine).

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about how my kids are big kids! (They aren’t really big kid-big kids but they are big to me.) Julius has started to have big kid problems like friends. He’s been stressing out that he doesn’t have enough friends even though he’s been invited to several playdates and his teacher always tells us he is popular and gets along with everyone. He was actually so anxious about something I said to him about sticking up for kids when they are getting bullied and that I didn’t want my child to be a bully that we had a tearful conversation about it. Poor sweetie. This is my greatest fear, messing up my kids. Everything I say is taken to heart.

Patricia meanwhile is still our little wild thing. She’s been talking about butts and poop a lot and mooning us! Where did this child come from? I guess I’m just glad she has no body shame haha. She’s still the sweetest and loves her brother. Julius finds this frustrating at times but she’s so earnest and her cheerfulness and zest and infectious so he can’t help but be grumpy for long. Yesterday we went to Davis Farmland and Patricia found a classmate from school to play with and Julius told me he was lonely and wanted Patricia to play with him…

So I want to talk about the solar oven today. it worked alright, but I really want to try again to build a better one. It got hot enough to melt crayons (we made new crayons out of broken crayons last Earth day party). Things I was concerned about… I wanted to make it out of cardboard so I made an outer box that I fit an inner box into. Between the boxes I added a bunch of insulation (in the form of tissue paper that I’d saved). Unfortunately I needed to size the inner box to fix nicely in the outer box. But I didn’t know what to use to hold it together. Tape would melt so that was out. I decided to use wood glue – but again is that safe for an oven? I never used it for actual food so I guess it’s fine…. Just in case I used tempura paint for the black inner surfaces of the oven.

The real problem I had with the oven is that the mirrors didn’t stay up properly. A small breeze would topple them over (one shattered). I ended up taping them together so they could hold themselves up.

If I did this again I would use wood and wood fasteners so I don’t have to worry about food safety (as long as the wood is untreated). I’d also make hinges for the “door” of the oven and have a gasket for the door, rather than just plopping a piece of glass on top of the top of the oven. For mirrors I’d probably go with some plastic versions. (I bought absolutely nothing for this solar oven so that wasn’t in the cards this time.) I think I’d have to use better insulation as well.

You can see that the solar oven got up to around 200 when it was melting the crayons. For the crayons I used FSC unbleached, compostable mini baking cups to hold the crayons while they melt. I think they would have come out a bit better if I’d put them in muffin trays (note that everyone says black pots and pans are better than shiny in the solar oven since they will absorb the heat).

Why am I so exhausted lately?! Was 35 the turning point? I’ve been taking power naps after the kids go to bed just so I can stay awake later to pack lunches for the kids or enjoy a bit of me time after work. It was a struggle to get back out of bed.

In other news I’m beyond my one year anniversary of sourdough and still at it. My co-worker sent me a meme the other day that sourdough was basically like the Tamagotchi of the 30 and 40 year olds. They are not wrong. There are so many stories of people accidentally forgetting about it or neglecting it, comparing notes, showing off their best versions. I even was complaining to my coworker how I have to sometimes plan out my meeting schedule/lunch break to catch my starter at it’s best. (Remember trying to feed your Tamagotchi during recess or lunch break?!) I’ve been trying to perfect sourdough hot dog bun making and today was probably my best batch. It’s so fun to make something so delicious with just flour, water and magical microbes.

Though I’ve been tired, I’ve been working diligently on my “micro camper”. I am now working on the bed for Will & I. I did pause right before Easter to make a couple fanny packs for the kids. They came out super cute. I let Julius and Patricia pick out some fabric before Joann Fabrics closed (I know I can’t believe it either). They chose some cute fabrics that I told them I would make into “a bag” for them, but I didn’t give them anymore information than that. I’ve been wanting to make them fanny packs since Maren mentioned it a while back! I think she was making them for her girls and I thought it was a great idea. Julius has a wallet now that he likes to carry around, but he misplaces it everywhere. I figured a fanny pack (or I guess they call them hip bags now) would be an improvement! I showed Patricia that she could also wear it over her shoulder like my Patagonia sling bag that I’ve been using since before she was born, and she thought that way was way cooler.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with how cute they came out and honestly tempted to make one for myself! Aside from the fabric, I purchased the clips. I looked everywhere for them, and the only place that carried any larger ones was Home Depot, but the ones near me (tried several) didn’t sell the right sizes. I ended up having to get them from Amazon… sigh. To counteract that I reused some ribbons and webbing I saved up from presents and old shopping bags and I also got the opportunity to use up some zippers that were from my grandma’s stash of zippers! Talk about way upcycling.

DIY fanny pack/sling bag

What you’ll need:

• About 1/3 yard of exterior material
• About 1/3 yard of interior material
• 1 12″ zipper
• 1 8″ zipper
• 1’x1′ lightweight sew in interfacing
• 1 yard of 1″ or 1.5″ webbing (or wider if you have a wider waist) divided into 1′ and 2′ pieces
• 1″ or 1.5″ side release buckle (depending on ribbon or webbing width)
• my pattern here

1. Cut out all pattern pieces according to pattern.

2. Cut one of the bag face pieces in half on the horizontal.

3. Place one side of the cut face of the bag face on the 8″ zipper tape, right sides together (matching up the edge you just cut with the zipper tape). Stitch with a zipper foot, then press out and repeat with other half.

4. Stitch another bag face outer piece underneath the bag face where you’ve attached the zipper (you want the right side of the outer fabric to show thru when you unzip the zipper. Baste 1/4″ from the edge.

5. Attach 12″ zipper to one strip of the “zipper top” piece as you did in step 3. Repeat with other piece of zipper top.

6. Attach bag bottom to zipper top and 12″ zipper piece created in 5 on the short edges (make sure right sides are together). It should form a closed loop.

7. Pin the last piece of bag face to a piece of interfacing (wrong sides together and baste on 1/4″ mark.

8. Place the bag front (with the zipper) to the closed loop from step 6. Make sure to line up the horizontal center line with one seam of the closed loop, then pin all the way around, right sides together.

9. Place one of the stacks of waist flap as follows: interfacing, waist flap (right side up), waist flap (right side down). Pin around edges, leaving the wide end opened. Insert one end of your belt material into the wide end, between the two layers of outer material. Pin to the shorter end. Stitch all around the edges of the waist flap, leaving the unpinned edge opened. Turn right side out.

10. Repeat step 9 from the other pieces of waist flap but make sure when you make your stack the waist flap is pointing the other direction (so the interfacing ends up on opposite side).

11. After your waist flaps have been assembled and turned right side out you can pin the back of the bag to the closed loop and pin as in step 8 but don’t stitch yet. After you have it set up, decide where to position your waist flaps (you will want them between the end of the zipper and the corner), then remove the pins there and insert your waist flap inside, lining the open unfinished end up with the unfinished edges of the bag back and closed loop. Repeat for other flap.

12. Stitch.

13. Unzip and turn right side out.

14. Assemble the lining. First fold the zipper top fabric 1/4″ and press. Repeat for second strip. Put zipper top strips side by side, folded sides touching and baste bottom edges so they stay together.

15. Repeat step 6 with lining (and there is no zipper).

16. Repeat step 8 with lining fabric on front and back of bag lining.

17. This step I didn’t take any pictures of which is annoying because it was tricky. What I did here is stitched the lining to the zipper. You can do this multiple ways, but the way I chose to do it was by stitching the folded over portion of the lining to the wrong side of the zipper tape. I did this by turning the outer part of the bag inside out and putting it inside the lining material and stitching around the zipper leaving a 3″ gap to turn the fabric. I then turned the fabric thru and then stitched closed using an invisible ladder stitch.

18. To attach the clips, seal the edges of your ribbon/webbing using a heat gun (if polyester) or by making a small rolled seam. (Make sure to do this for both sides.)

19. Place the shorter end of ribbon/webbing thru the female clip end and stitch it on permanently. Thread the male side with the longer end of ribbon/webbing.

20. Wear!

Happy Earth Day! Listen to how good my children are, I have to brag for a minute. Julius was disappointed that Earth day was on a week day because we would not be able to celebrate. Patricia told me all about the Earth day craft she was going to make at daycare to celebrate Earth Day (she made it up herself, not a planned activity). When I got home from work Patricia was so excited to show me her creation. She also made a hedgehog where the spines are her hand.

After dinner the kids were pumped to go out and collect trash to clean up the Earth. They were really great helpers (before we left, they proclaimed they were super cleaners and shouted it for the neighborhood to hear). We got a few “good job” honks from auto passerbys which was fun. After all was said and done we filled two huge garbage bags before we had to turn back for bed time. I mean, such joy this brings me I cannot even begin to describe.

I feel like in honor of Earth day I have to share a recyclable craft! This one is kind of silly. You see my kids are allergic to a lot of types of sun tan lotion, but not the mineral based types. We’ve been buying Blue Lizard brand for a while because they are somewhat eco concious. That said, there is so much waste from sun tan lotion. The giant bottles tend to be sold out all summer and we end up going thru about 6 of the small bottles (or more) a summer for the family. The cool thing though is that the bottles CHANGE COLOR with UV radiation. So of course I had been saving them up for ages to use them for a craft…

The first step was to attempt to wash the leftover sunscreen out of the bottles. This proved extremely difficult. I ended up cutting the bottles in half and washing them out by hand.

After they were clean and dry I drew a template for a charm I wanted to cut out and drew it with permanent marker.

It was really hard to cut these out because the plastic was rather thick! I ended up cutting them out with scissors.

To make them fancier I added a rhinestone to the center of one side using E1000 (applied outside with my ventilator on).

Then I used a dremel to add a hole for a split ring to pass thru.

After I drilled a hole in the heart I added the split ring and put them in baggies with some rainbow beads that I got from Michaels and some stretchy bead cord.

At Patricia’s birthday party everyone made their own necklace! Honestly I think it’s really cute and matches a lot of stuff so I wear my example one a lot!