Okay, Pumpkin

I just finished a project that I started about 10 years ago… Way before I had kids. But I’m not going to tell you about that yet! You might have to wait another 10 years… or at least another week. Julius and I have been alone since last Friday and despite my suggestions we had a pretty low key weekend. I offered to go to the Boston museum of science but Julius said it was too far and just wanted to stay home. (This was after he told me he wanted to drive to Sugar and Daddy O’s house.) Instead we went to the library and then made dumplings which honestly isn’t too bad of a day. Wait can we go back to the kids not wanting to do fun stuff for a second? I asked Julius and Patricia if they wanted to get a birthday bear from build a bear the other day and they both said no. What?! Since when? So we just .. didn’t go. I’m as surprised as you are.

In other actual fun news I joined a book club. A smut book club. I honestly might not read enough smut for this book club (I know, hard to believe) but it’s been a great place for romance recommendations and everyone is super nice and fun. I got a pin and a sticker when I joined! These girls are legit!

So I wanted to do a tutorial for some fun bread I’ve been making this fall. I made 5 of these pumpkin loaves in the last couple months and I think they came out really cute.

This is an adorable half loaf!

Pumpkin Sourdough Loaf (or half loaf)

  • 1 recipe sourdough just out of the fridge (step 6)
  • cotton butcher’s twine
  • More flour and rice flour
  • a large pretzel rod

I have been making the King Arthur No Knead Sourdough for quite a few months now and I have made some adaptations to the recipe. Honestly this is what works best for me. I have also tried baking it with some of the techniques I learned in the King Arthur Baking class I took with success but those are a bit more laborious so for just one load I recommend sticking to the Dutch oven method.

Start preheating our oven to 500F. Remove the dough from the fridge and turn out onto a floured countertop. (If making a half loaf divide in two.) Let sit on the counter for 10 minutes or so until the dough warms up a bit. Then shape into a boule. I find the easiest way to do this is to pull a bit of dough from the sides of the dough into the center to form a circular shape.

Next flip your shape upside down onto the counter in a place where there is no flour; you want friction with the counter for this bit. Put your hands together on the counter as if you were going to sweep a bunch of flour into your lap. Then use this motion to draw the loaf towards you as you spin the loaf gently. Turn the loaf a half turn and repeat that motion. This should create some tension in your dough and the loaf will hold it’s shape. Note: If you aren’t getting any friction pat the surface with a damp cloth (not wet) then try again.

Flour your bread proofing basket of choice (I used to use a bowl with a towel to great success but I caved and I bought a basket and liner with the same amount of success). I know the KA baking class discouraged this but I find a super fine layer of rice flour works the best to prevent sticking, but I recommend you try what works for you. The way I get the rice flour in such a fine layer is by shaking it all over the bread form then use a spoon in a circular motion to scrape off as much as possible off the liner.

Place your shaped bowl into the bread form. (Make sure the side that was in contact with the counter is now facing up.) Let sit in a warm place for 1 hour. (I put mine on top of our oil burner…)

While you’re waiting for your dough to warm up, flour your string. Cut 3 lengths of string about 24″ each. Dampen very slightly then toss in flour. Toss in flour again right before the hour is up**.

Covering string in flour.

Prepare the dutch oven. Place the strings across the dutch oven forming 6 equal wedges.

Positioning in the dutch oven for the strings.

Invert loaf onto your hand and place gently down on top of strings. Draw each set of string ends up around the loaf (you should NOT pull them tightly, you want them just resting against the dough) then tie in a bow. Repeat for all 3 strings.

Grab your scoring tool (I use just a razor blade from my Leaf razor). In each wedge score 3 upside down v shapes.

Loaf tied and scored.

Place cover on dutch oven and put in preheated 500F degree oven for 20 minutes.

Lower the temp to 475F and continue to bake for 15 minutes (10 minutes for half loaves).

Lower the temp to 450F and continue to bake for 15 minutes (10 minutes for half loaves)

After removing the cover in the oven.

Remove the cover and bake for 15 more minutes (10 minutes for half loaves). At this point check if it’s done (if you aren’t sure because you haven’t baked bread often, you can use a thermometer – it should be around 210F in the center)

Loaf after baking (needed an extra 10 minutes).

Remove the strings then let cool. When ready to serve break a pretzel rod in half and insert in center of the loaf to look like a stem.

Finished half size loafs!
Finished full size loaf!
Served a half loaf on Halloween with my mom’s pumpkin soup.
Oh and these cute salads (those are supposed to be pumpkins and ghosts)

**I’ll be honest, I still get some cotton fibers on my loaf even with this method. So make sure you’re using 100% natural fiber string.

Posted in Culinary Delights | Leave a comment

Rainbow Dreams

Hello friends! I am done with birthday parties until next year! What a relief! Time to relax for 24 hours until I start the Christmas project list. The birthday season is completely bittersweet because my kiddos are growing up so fast! I did remember to take pictures with the wooden blocks I made when Patricia was born, and they are both big kids now.

Speaking of big kids, Julius has been using lots of slang that I don’t understand. Here’s a conversation we had the other day:

Julius: Do you know what sigma means?

Me: It’s a Greek letter.

Julius: Well that’s right but it also means ‘sus’.

Me: What is ‘sus’? (I know sus.)

Julius: Sus is when you’re koo koo kachoo and naughty at the same time.

Patricia still says plenty of cute things. I am disappointed though that this year she figured out “cupcapes” are actually pronounced cupcakes. There goes that cute one. On the morning of Patricia’s party the kids woke up and I heard Patricia outside my door speaking in a hushed voice to Julius:

“They’re both still asleep. They’re not even awake. How will they go to my party?”

I decided to get up then so I didn’t worry her further. The party with a dozen 4 year olds was quite a bit more chaotic than the one with a dozen and a half 7 year olds. And we had one/two activities that were total flops. That aside I do think everyone had fun! I was worried about it until I came to pick Patricia up today and all the kids rushed me and talked about Patricia’s party. Her teacher said they’d been talking about it all day! I guess I can call that a success!

Theme

Patricia told me many moons ago that she wanted a “rainbow unicorn” themed party. I figured, “slam dunk. This will be easy.” The problem is there are too many rainbow unicorn things out there. Everything can be rainbow unicorn. As you know I like to have kind of a plot or flow to my parties and this one I was challenged! I was worried thinking about Julius’s 5th birthday where some kids spent 15 seconds on each activity and others spent 30 minutes. So I went with the “so many activities” mode.

Activities

Unicorn Makeup

I made a bunch of unicorn headbands for the party ages ago. I thought they’d be a cute give away. And a Patricia party wouldn’t be complete without face paint. So I set up a face painting station in the lounge and painted rainbows on anyone who wanted it. I wanted to use a rainbow split cake, and the super gentle brand I used last year (Snazzaroo) doesn’t make them. I went with another reputable hypoallergenic brand called Tag. It worked pretty well! Though I regret not making stencils for the stars and clouds because it would have made it far quicker!

Unicorn Stickers

While kiddos were getting their faces painted we set out a bunch of unicorn sticker boards that my mom had found. One of the kids was so silly and gave their unicorn a mustache. Much like Julius’ 5th birthday some kids spent an hour at this and some kids spent 5 seconds.

Necklace

While I was finished up the face paint we let everyone make rainbow necklaces. I made the charms out of the UV reactive bottles from our sunscreen.

Unicorn Hunt

I decided I wanted to give away a unicorn and was debating between a peg doll unicorn and a little stuffed unicorn. I pinned a bunch of inspiration pictures and Will thought the inspiration for the unicorn stuffy looked cuter.

To find the unicorn we thought it would be cool to follow a string around the room. But with 10 (actually 11) kids the path around the room was complete chaos. Julius was able to do it no problem, but most of the 4 year olds had tons of problems. They ended up getting tangled in the string…. so I had to cut kids out of the deathtrap web.

Tattoo Hunt

We also hid tattoos all around the room (Will did this), and our theory was that they would work on the web and afterwards they’d notice the tattoos. But some kids just noticed the tattoos and collected all 100 of them. I think 2 kids found all of them. In retrospect we should have done this in 2 rooms. Next time!

Paint a Cookie

This is my favorite project I’ve done in a while. I made a bunch of paintable sugar cookies and after lunch let the kids paint them. The kids seemed to really like them and this is the one activity that every single kid participated in.

TP Roll Unicorn

This activity was a bit of a challenge for some, but everyone persevered! I think they came out cute!

Bounce House

We had the bounce house that Laura and Sal gave us set up in the garage as a backup plan. Well all the kids heard about it and they all bounced for about 30 minutes beyond when the party lasted.

Lunch

We once again had party pizza from Mr. Z’s but this time they got the order correct. I also did rainbow fruit and veggie platters. For drinks we had Polar unicorn seltzers and lemonade… this time with color changing ice cubes. And once again I forgot to take a picture of the setup!

Dessert

I was planning to make a unicorn cake with rainbow layers and surprise sprinkles like I did for Julius’s 3rd birthday. But Patricia said she wanted cupcakes. So I made unicorn cupcakes. I used a different recipe for the cake which got rave reviews. It was kind of a terrible recipe though. The cakes rose and then fell even though I cooked them about double what the recipe called for. I felt they came out pretty nice though I think the chocolate frosting and cake is far superior.

By the way did I mention my mom cleaned our house before the party?! It was a life saver!!

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 4 Comments

Julius’ Laboratory

Okay dear friends, you probably can guess why I didn’t post last week. In case you can’t, it was a combo of trying not to go near the internet or media and prepping for Julius and Patricia’s birthdays. I won’t write too much about how disappointed I am in the US once again for failing to elect a competent female president over a sexist, racist, transphobic, homophobic, fascist, hate mongering convicted felon tv celebrity. Just know that I am extremely disappointed and now more than ever I fear for the future of America (and really the world, because goodbye climate protections, and a crazy person once again has the nuclear codes.)

I have to attempt to be positive though because how else can I raise positive kids? Well, what could be more positive than a child’s birthday?!

Right now we are in the midst of birthday chaos. Julius’ birthday was a few days ago, his party was this past Sunday and Patricia’s birthday is today. We’re hosting Patricia’s party next weekend so that I have a few days of breathing room. Both Patricia and Julius wanted to invite their entire classes. That’s not so bad for Patricia but Julius has 19 kids in his class. Luckily we were able to rent out the community center which had a pretty perfect setup for a Science Birthday. Thanks to my mom and dad who came up to help with the party plus set up and clean up. We only had an hour to setup and 45 minutes to clean up so it was tight! Without further ado, here’s how it went!

Julius’ Science Birthday

Theme

Julius has been obsessed with science experiments for the last year. So a few months ago he told me he wanted a science birthday. I’ve been thinking about this theme for a while and have been pretty pumped. I ended up doing 4 different experiments with lunch and cupcakes mixed in. For “favors” all the kids got lab coats and goggles that obviously they were to put on immediately.

Lab Safety Slide Deck (I didn’t share this one but I did share the info in it!)

I made these signs for all over the building!
Here are the favors! The syringe pens were contentious. I was thinking they looked like oral syringes but Will thought they looked like needles… The kids thought they were cool at least…
The room is all setup for slime and ready for everyone to arrive!

Activities

Obviously we were going to do science experiments. I wanted experiments the kids could do themselves. Since they were 6&7 year olds I figured they’d be able to do some exciting ones. I tested several in advance and got it down to four that worked really well and seemed pretty exciting. The kids were extremely enthusiastic about them all and it filled my heart! Is this how teachers feel?? I did have several slide decks to explain the experiments but I really only used them for conversation. I’ve included them below if you need inspiration.

Name Badges

For a starter activity we had everyone write a name badge and decorate with stickers as they desired. People came at wildly different times so I probably should have done a longer starter activity but it worked out alright. After they got their name badges we had everyone pick a seat, which had a pair of goggles and lab coat.

Slime

Slime Slide deck here

The first experiment we did was slime, and we sort of slow rolled this while people trickled in. Everyone seemed to love the slime making. Especially the addition of glitter, which I kept under close watch at the front table.

Slime!

Acids and Bases

Acids and Bases Slide Deck Here

This one was a two part-er. I did one part with an acid indicator and the other with a base indicator.

Invisible Ink

We used baking soda as a base to write on paper, and decoded it using tumeric (a base indicator). They were all pretty enthusiastic about this one too because what child doesn’t want to make invisible ink?

Writing with invisible ink
I’m lecturing about the next activity but you can see the completed invisible ink pictures.

Color Changing Lemonade

Those Medela sterile bottles are always getting put up on free sites and my friend Mary got me a bunch of sterile sealed ones someone was giving away! I thought these would be perfect for our food science experiment! I told everyone that we were never to eat science experiments but this was one exception because it was a food science experiment. I had everyone wash their hands and then head into the lunch room for this one where we’d set up containers of butterfly pea flower tea at each seat. Then each child filled a cup of ice full of lemonade. I let everyone try the tea and lemonade before mixing and everyone hated the butterfly pea flower tea. But their expressions when they mixed it were priceless!

This is my favorite picture of the day. Look at the amazement on their faces!

Rocket Launch

Rocket Launch Slide Deck Here

We did our final activity, the rocket launch, after lunch back in the science room. We launched rockets using baking soda and vinegar. It worked pretty well, and we had extra for those that that misfired. Julius said this was his favorite experiment!

One of the launch sites and the prep site!

Lunch

For lunch we had party pizza! They screwed up the order though and didn’t bring us any pepperoni! I also made a giant fruit salad and veggie platter with dip. We also put out lemonade and more butterfly pea flower tea with instructions in case the parents wanted to try it out. And finally we had tons of seltzers. I put out post it notes for where everything should go and my mom and Will set it up while I finished the invisible ink experiment.

As usual I forgot to take a picture of the food spread but you can see the pizzas were followed by fruit salad, veggies and drinks (the cupcakes came out later).

Cake

Julius wanted chocolate cupcakes again this year, but he wanted chocolate frosting instead of vanilla. Honestly these were my favorite cupcakes ever. I’ve been sneaking them for the last couple days (and I am full of regret). I used the same recipe for chocolate cupcakes that I’ve been using for the last couple years, and this chocolate frosting recipe I used years ago. The combination was amazing, and both are so easy (as opposed to Patricia’s which I’ll talk about later). I made fondant decorations for the cupcakes in the shape of beakers and flasks to put on top… Julius saw these and called them “science cups” which made me chuckle. I’m pretty happy with how these guys came out!

The joy on Julius’ face makes me so happy!

Overall I think the kids had a lot of fun! The party was a bit chaotic at times so it was awesome my parents and the other parents were there to help out! So thankful to everyone who helped! Julius said he loved all the experiments and immediately went home and made more slime with Patricia. (Then today we launched more rockets.)

Posted in Parties | 2 Comments

Bootiful

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.)

Patricia bartering beans
The entrance to Halloween on the Hill

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.

Davis Farmland Halloween Party!

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!

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

Wings and Ruin

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!

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 4 Comments

AHSOM Fun

We had a fun fall weekend again! We went to the fall craft festival in our town which I adore. The weather was pure autumnal majesty! Brisk and drizzly in the morning, with some sunshine in the afternoon to show off the gorgeous changing leaves. I think this past weekend was the foliage peak though it gets better every day. I definitely annoy my children by pointing out all the beautiful leaves on the drives from school and activities but I just can’t help it. I want everyone to see what I’m seeing! If someone could invent Lexi-goggles they’d help make every tree look decked out in full autumn splendor. Sometimes it makes me wish I could paint!

Speaking of hobbies Julius just started piano lessons! He has been desperate to learn an instrument and I actually never played an instrument (unless you count keyboard when I was 6). He may end up in my shoes, but at least he can say he tried! Hopefully though he’ll find something he loves. Though I think he has too many activities. I feel like he’s only 6 and we spend a large amount of time driving him (and even Patricia) to and from lessons. I fully expected this to happen, I guess I just didn’t realize how exhausting it would be… On that same note, we gave Patricia the option to stay home and play while Julius was at his soccer game and she said she absolutely wanted to go watch him. I love that. Patricia is a lot of things, but she’s nothing if not a loyal sister.

Well I think I mentioned a bunch of my friends from Intel in Hudson retired or left and I finally (after postponing due to covid) held a little gathering. The gatherings originally started out as a mindfulness book club about 7 years ago. We’d read a book then discuss it over snacks. The first one we held in the Intel cafeteria after work and a bunch of folks saw us and joined us. The next one a few months later had more people and less books but just as much (or more) fun. We continued this until the pandemic which put a damper on things. Eventually it restarted, swapping off at different peoples’ houses. (And Jay made up some acronym “AHSOM” to sound like “awesome” though now we can’t remember what it actually stands for.) I never got to host one with all the children chaos in my life, so this time I was finally able to!

It’s evolved into a potluck type thing so everyone brought something. Just in case I did a sandwich bar, which I figured would be easy and filling, since it’s around dinnertime. My plan was to bake a loaf or two of sourdough and a bunch of sourdough pitas but I screwed up and overproofed the pita dough. I turned it into sourdough focaccia which was alright, but definitely not as good as the pitas! People ended up bringing vegan chili, pickles, a veggie platter, a bunch of desserts and drinks so we had quite a spread. We couldn’t fit all of it on the table!

Sandwich bar with all the fixings, plus vegan brownies and fruit salad. I had to move the sweets indoors to have room for all the other stuff people brought!
The cold cuts and hummus/condiments were over ice, though I did end up bringing them inside early.

I hosted in the screen porch (because I love the screen porch) though there were so many people everyone could barely fit out there! We had a great time though and it was nice to see so many friends to wish them farewell. At the party only 3 of us were actually still staying at Intel (slightly depressing)!

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Bittersweet Symphony

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!

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 2 Comments

License to Chill

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.

Will on our front lawn pulling over our children for speeding so they have to show their licenses.

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:

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.

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Crown of the Sea

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).

Julius rocking his finished crown.

Mermaid Crown

What you’ll need (for each):

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.

    Everyone working on their crowns!
    Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 2 Comments

    DanyCon 2024

    Sorry for the missed post last week! I was scrambling to do some last minute prep for DanyCon! Everyone flew in Thursday night and most flew out Monday so we had 3 full days of Danycon fun! It was fabulous! Our last guests left this afternoon so the house is quiet now… we’re all thinking about next year already.

    Theme

    This year we did Medieval Danycon. This meant – shirts that look like knights, a Shakespearean (I know this is renaissance) murder mystery, an extended D&D session and plenty of medieval themed games!

    Party Favors

    The favors for this year were pretty basic – we had everyone pick their D&D character in advance so they got an unpainted mini, this year’s t-shirt complete with cape, a DanyCon bingo card and a copy of Excalibohn.

    Side Quests

    Mark and Erin made some amazing “side quests” for Danycon which were a Connections, Strands and Wordle for each day. I’ve added them here below if you want to try your hand!!

    Day 1 – Friday

    https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=ycijt

    https://connections.swellgarfo.com/game/-O61yZa3DrIV7go9GH3b

    https://customstrandsnyt.com/play/HeyGoodLookin-

    Day 2 – Saturday

    https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=codhc

    https://connections.swellgarfo.com/game/-O61vAd5alJcNvYWfZW3

    https://customstrandsnyt.com/play/GoodKnight

    Day 3 – Sunday

    https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=dcsej

    https://connections.swellgarfo.com/game/-O624zGPraBFBXfmrjoy

    https://customstrandsnyt.com/play/YourTurn!

    Friday

    Most people were working Friday so we did mini painting during the day and nothing formal for gaming. For dinner we did the Maiming of the Shrew murder mystery. This year I randomized the characters everyone got (honestly this is how I should always do it). Weirdly every single person but one was off gender so we had some great costumes. Dinner was Impossible Shepherd’s Pie with salad and sourdough cookies for dessert.

    Finished minis!
    Quite a cast of characters for “the Maiming of the Shrew”

    Saturday

    Saturday was heavy games. Once again with Will’s website that allowed you to pick a game in advance things went much smoother than previous years! The medieval games played were Lords of Waterdeep and Kingsburg. We then had a dinner of salad and tofurky “chicken” and biscuits followed by D&D.

    D&D

    Our D&D adventure this year Will and I decided we wanted to each DM both groups. We usually split the group in half and somehow make the adventures meet up, but we knew people suspected that twist. Instead we focused on the fact that it seemed everyone loved to compare their experiences. So we decided to plan two shorter sessions; I’d run one session Will would run the other and the players would swap so they get to do both. This unfortunately didn’t exactly play out as expected. My session took almost 3 hours for my first time running it because the session was role play heavy. I will admit I had a grand time running it. The 3 hour session was my favorite session I’ve ever DM’ed. We went so long though that we had to do the second sessions the following day. I think some folks in the group were a bit less than thrilled, we’ll have to rethink this next year!

    If you’re curious the background of the sessions were, for Will, that they had to free a trapped pegasus (which included a puzzle). For me they had to locate where a unicorn had gone and free it – this involved finding the location of the villain’s hide out by role playing city interactions. Both teams were employed by a group called HEMA (Heroes for the Ethical treatment of Magical Animals). I had a single sheet of paper (which included Will’s scenario) as the background for my story and winged the rest. I did manage to keep the important parts consistent though with that sheet of paper. It was interesting to see how different the two parties acted.

    Sunday

    After finishing up our D&D games, we all went straight to a game of Zoovadis which is a negotiation game. Everyone was mad at each other by the end and we vowed never to speak of the game again. This was followed by a giant game of Freelancers which is another RPG type game. (I know, you’d think they’d be done with RPGs for a while, but most folks weren’t!) We’ve played the pirate version by the same company and it was just as good. Dinner that night was pizza, generously sponsored by the Coltons!! (Everyone joked it is our first real sponsor.)

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