Fairy Tales

Posted on January 16, 2023 by lexicolton

Well that was a week from hell!  And of course, Julius had absolutely no symptoms until yesterday when he had a fever of 104!!!  Let’s just say he did not sleep well last night and we are trying to figure out when the kids can ever go back to daycare.  Sigh.  I guess we’re just lucky we have dodged this for so long!

We did manage to take down our Christmas decorations this weekend and put up some winter/Valentine’s decorations instead.  That was pretty liberating.  We also got rid of some baby toys and baby books that Patricia has outgrown.  Always great to de-clutter.  But did I tell you we already filled the costume chest?!  The good news is that it is working as intended!  The kids have been asking to go downstairs on put on costumes nearly every day!

One of the items I created for the costume chest are the sets of butterfly/fairy wings for Patricia’s birthday!  There are lots of beautiful wings with appliques online and I fully intended to create a version like that, but as always I started to run out of time and created a simplified version that just uses some beautiful shibori fabric.  I felt it would be a crime to cover up any of it, so I didn’t applique over it!  You can use the below pattern to make your own!

My little fairy!

Kids’ Fairy Wings

What you’ll need: 

  • Pellon 70
  • ~1/2 yard of cotton material of your choice
  • 1/4″ metallic elastic
  • pattern here
  1. Cut out 4 wing pieces of cotton fabric (adding 1/2″ seam allowance) and 2 pieces of pellon 70 (adding no seam allowance).
  2. Stitch 2 wing pieces together along the outside of the wings, leaving the flat side where they connect to the back opened.  Repeat for second wing.
  3. Turn right side out and insert pellon 70 wing into each wing, tuck the unfinished edges in, and stitch closed.
  4. Cut a 1″x6″ piece of pellon to form a placket.
  5. Cut a 3″x7″ piece of contrasting fabric to cover the placket.
  6. Fold placket fabric in half (right side in) and stitch along the bottom edge and side edge (with .5″ seam allowance).
  7. Turn right side out and insert the pellon.
  8. Tuck the extra seam allowance at the top into the placket and stitch closed.
  9. Pin the wings to the placket but don’t yet sew.
  10. Cut two 18.5″ pieces of elastic. Tuck one end of each piece under the top of the placket and other end of each piece under the bottom of the placket (between wings and placket).  Stitch all along the placket to attach wings and elastic to the placket, backstitching along the elastic for strength.

Here I am demoing the wings!

Back view of the wings.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

Castles and Dreams

Posted on January 9, 2023 by lexicolton

Well I’m sitting in the basement in quarantine.  I somehow caught covid despite wearing a mask in public all the time and being one of the most cautious people I know.  Ironically I went into work the day before I got sick, something I only do every other month, so I also potentially exposed a bunch of friends and co-workers.  That seems incredibly unlucky.  Anyway, guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, I’m just glad it didn’t happen during the holidays!

For Christmas this year I fell in LOVE these adorable Maileg mice.  They each come clothed in a little outfit, with a little stuffed bed set up inside a pretend matchbox (or the like).  They are very well made.  For all these reasons they are a bit expensive.  I had convinced myself that I was going to sew my own version of these little mice for the kids, but a couple months before Christmas (right when I was cutting down on the crafts I had planned for Christmas) I convinced myself I should just buy the real deal.  So I gave up on making the little mice and bought Julius and Patricia each a mouse from Maileg.  Some day I’ll probably make them outfits…

And instead I decided to make a mouse house!  The cool thing about the Maileg designs is they are plastic free.  A bunch of their dollhouses are made of cardboard!  Having made many a cardboard dollhouse in my day, this seemed right up my alley.  What I decided to make is really close to the Maileg castle tower, which I love.  Is has an adorable modular design that you can add other components to.  Originally I had grand plans to make two towers, but it took me so long to make just the one that I halted construction of the second.  I will get to it someday though, I’ve already cut out all the doors which took me a considerable amount of time!

Oh and before I forget – Patricia LOVES her little Maileg mouse.  It was the first present she opened on Christmas, and she flat out refused to open any other presents for a solid hour afterwards.  She just sat there snuggling it.  Now she sleeps with the mouse in her bed, in it’s bed.  It’s very frustrating to find all the pieces whenever she loses them (which is all the time) but it’s so adorable watching her snuggle it that it makes up for the constant scavenger hunt.   And I asked Julius if he liked the castle and he said “who made that?”  His response when I told him I did was, “wow Mommy, good job it looks great”.

Well if you want the Maileg castle, you should definitely buy it yourself.  But if you’re like me and had lots of boxes lying around from that pirate ship you never made then have at it!

Cardboard Castle Dollhouse (inspired by Maileg)

What you’ll need:

  • 1 sturdy box about 2.5 feet tall and 1 foot deep and at least 1 foot wide (mine was a server box, so double layered and very sturdy)
  • Additional cardboard for turret and balcony
  • Hardboard for flooring
  • Assorted colored paper for wallpaper and flooring
  • ~6 feet of quarter round
  • brown craft paper
  • 1/2″ washi tape
  • colored pencils
  • wood glue
  • Glue gun
  • xacto knife
  • Pattern here
  1. Cut your box in half to form a box about 1’x1’x2.5′.
  2. Use wood glue to glue the box flaps shut.
  3. Measure and divide box into 3 equal height floors.  Using my template draw a door to a balcony on top floor of one side, and door to outside on bottom floor on opposite side. Cut.
  4. Using my template draw and cut out windows on sides opposite the doors, and the middle floor.  These should be an inch or so above the floor dividing lines.
  5. After the doors and windows are cut, wrap the entire box in kraft paper, leaving the inside open.  I folded the sides first, then cut a piece to fit on the top and inside top.

    Wrap outside of box in kraft paper.

    Cover top of box (inside and outside) with kraft paper.

  6. Cut an ‘x’ in the center of each door or window and fold down the kraft paper over the exposed pieces of cardboard as best you can to form the window ledges/frames and doorframe (note: I actually only did this for the doors, but wish I’d done it for doors and windows, so I’m telling you to do it this way for future reference :D )
  7. Measure the size of each segment of wall and cut down paper to this height.  Hot glue paper into inside of the box in each “floor” segment.

    Wallpaper glued in place.

  8. Glue washi tape into window openings, curling into the inside of the castle over the wallpaper.

    Gluing washi tape into windows.

    Inside view of washi tape.

  9. Measure the inside dimensions of the box for each “floor” and cut two pieces of hardboard for the upper floors.
  10. Cut piece of cardstock for bottom “floor”.  Glue in place.
  11. Cut quarter round into segments to fit within your box.  The flat side will need to be on the top to hold a piece of hardboard, and the two pieces of wood should be cut at 45 degree angles to meet in the corners. (See image below)

    Cut quarter-round.

    Example of how it should look when completed.

  12. Glue quarter round into place on middle floor

    Gluing quarter round into place. (you can see the bottom floor is also glued into place in this picture).

  13. Glue hardboard into place on middle floor.

    Hardboard in place.

  14. Repeat steps 12 & 13 for top floor.

    Top floor completed.

  15. Measure the outside perimeter around the castle.  Cut two pieces of cardboard that length and 5″ tall.
  16. Offset pieces slightly then glue on top of each other to form a thicker piece of cardboard. Fold to form a box that will fix over the top of the castle.

    Gluing to form a box.

  17. Glue offset portions together.
  18. Cut pattern into top of castle wall by cutting a 1/2″x1″ rectangle notch with every 1″ between along the castle.  (Note:  I had to fudge this slightly to get it to measure out evenly)

    Cut notches into top of castle.

  19. Cover top of castle wall with kraft paper by folding a piece of kraft paper in half so that it is slightly taller than the castle wall.  Glue inside portion in place first, then cut slits to match the cut out portion of the wall.
  20. Fold slits over down to the front of the castle wall, glue in place.
  21. Glue the outside of the wall in place, then cut a slit down the center of the cut out portion of the wall, and along the bottom of the cut of portion of the wall.  Fold onto the large sections of castle wall, and glue in place. (*note this picture doesn’t show step 20 being completed first, just ignore this, I didn’t have a better picture with the correct placement.)
  22. Fold the top of the wall down and glue in place.
  23. Create the balcony.
  24. Use my template to cut and fold the balcony as indicated.
  25. Glue bottom to sides at tabs.

    Glue bottom to sides using tabs

  26. Glue back sides to bottom at tabs.

    Glue back flaps to the bottom of balcony via tabs.

  27. Wrap in kraft paper.
  28. Create a smaller brick topper for balcony 5.5″ wide and 1″ tall.
  29. Cut out  1/2″x1/2″ notches with 1″ bricks in between.
  30. Cover top of castle wall with kraft paper by folding a piece of kraft paper in half so that it is slightly taller than the castle wall.  Glue inside portion in place first, then cut slits to match the cut out portion of the wall.
  31. Fold slits over and down to the front of the castle wall.  Glue in place.
  32. Glue the front (outside) of the wall in place, then cut a slit down the center of the cut out portion of the wall, and along the bottom of the cut portion of the wall.  Fold onto the large sections of castle wall, and glue in place.
  33. Fold the top of the wall down and glue in place.  Fold unfinished sides in to the back and glue in place.
  34. Using template for windows and doors draw windows and door on front of castle, and then draw an outline around windows and doors on side of castle and fill in with colored pencils.
  35. Use a ruler as a guide to draw 1.5″ bricks spaced 1″ apart on entire face of castle.  Repeat for top turret portion of castle as well as balcony.
  36. Glue the top of the castle with brickwork on top of castle.
  37. Glue the brickwork piece of balcony on top of balcony.
  38. Glue balcony on outside of top balcony door.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 2 Comments

You Can Dress Them Up

Posted on January 3, 2023 by lexicolton

Today is Tuesday?!  I know what you’re thinking, “\s you’re starting off the year great Lexi /s”.  I know, I AM.  I FORGOT IT WAS MONDAY!  How zen must my vacation have been if I didn’t remember what day of the week it was?!

I did have a great vacation!  The kids got to play with their cousins, we got to hang out with my siblings and parents, we played lots of board games and I did lots of crafts (at the expense of lots of sleep).  Oh, and Santa came!  (As Patricia would say, “Santa!  Ho, ho, ho, Mewwy Cwistmas!”)  For the first time ever Santa delivered presents to our house!  It was awesome.  I loved opening presents in front of our fireplace and the kids were so excited for Christmas and Santa this year, especially Julius, but even Patricia!  (Patricia told Meepah before we left my parents house on Christmas Eve this year, “I’m gonna go see Santa!”)

Oh and Santa even brought Julius a jelly cake!!!!  I have no idea how Santa knew what a Jelly Cake was, but it appeared to be made of pumpkin bread, raspberry jelly and marshmallows for frosting!  Wild!  Perhaps all elves, Santa included, have a palate like that of Buddy the Elf.

I wasn’t such a slouch myself this year.  As I mentioned, I once again had way too many plans to make for Christmas.  My favorite one I’ll have to talk about next week because it took me so long to make I know it is also going to take me comparably long  to post about… So instead I’ll tell you about the big gift I made for the kiddos!  The kids have lots of costumes… I’m an enabler, obviously, because I’ve made them mermaid tails, fairy costumes, so very, many Halloween costumes, renaissance costumes… and half those are just from this year.  So I wanted somewhere to store all the costumes so they could use them whenever they want.  Originally I was going to make a big trunk, but (you guessed it) I ran out of time.  So instead I found a secondhand one off craigslist/fb marketplace that I actually was quite fond of!  (Fun fact – I paid asking price for it, which was $30, and given the time, wood and labor it would have cost me to make I thought it was a good deal.When I got it home I noticed a garage sale price sticker on it for $15.  I really should work on my bargaining skills.)

I actually liked the dark wood color, but I was set on painting it with a whimsical motif and cherry stain didn’t scream whimsical to me.  Plus it doesn’t match the grey scheme I’ve got going in the basement.  So I decided to whitewash it using this technique, which worked pretty well!  It was a wee-bit finnicky though and I ended up doing the coat, wait and wipe twice before I got the look I wanted.  I will suggest that as the author said, you start off by lightly wiping until you get the hang of how much pressure to apply.  The good news is you can always add more paint if you take off too much.  I will warn you that I was convinced I ruined the box until after the second attempt.

Waiting for the first coat to set in.

I didn’t like the first try.

Second try, a bit lighter which is what I was going for.

After I painted the box, I used water based acrylic to paint on some designs.  I sketched them on my tablet, then I freehand sketched them with pencil onto the box (I find it is so much easier to do a couple sketches to work out the kinks first).

Then I painted, highlighted, and outlined until I was happy with my unicorn and dragon.

Sketching designs onto the box.

Coloring in the basics.

Mid-coloring

Outlining

For the names, I didn’t risk freehand sketching because the acrylic whitewash was a bit delicate and I would not be able to erase or cover it up with paint if I messed up.  Instead I drew both names on a piece of paper then I placed patternmaking tracing paper below the name sheets and traced over them to transfer the names.  This also meant I could ensure the names were perfectly straight first before doing the transfer.  Then I colored over them.

I wanted a little mirror in the box so the kids could look at themselves, so I was planning to make a frame for a dollar store mirror I bought 6 years ago for my hat shop.  Then I had a genius idea to buy a frame for my mirror.  Normally I’d go to a thrift shop, but we are talking two days before Christmas, so I ran to Michaels.  I had a 50% coupon so I think I paid about $10 for an 11×14″ frame.  I then sanded the entire inside front cover and then I applied wood glue to the ends of the frame, and nailed it into place on the cover.

Hammering on the mirror… bit dangerous.

I decided the little holes they made for the screws to hold the top together were ugly, so I pounded some wooden button caps into place.

Mirror with screw caps in place

Then I applied 2 coats of water based polyurethane over the entire box.  I should have probably done 3 but I was in a rush and I wanted it to completely dry between coats.

Then I tackled the hinges.  I’d removed these to paint the boxes, but I wanted to make them not-black. I guess spray painting was an option, but as you know, I’m into gilding lately so I decided to use some of my gilding supplies to gild them copper.  I used my steps here and folded them towards each other to apply adhesive, apply foil to gild them, then eventually apply varnish, making sure to move the joints a bit after applying foil and after applying varnish.  I also gilded the screw heads to match.  It worked GREAT.  They are works of art!  And they still move perfectly.  I think they came out better than they would with spray paint, but we will just have to see how long they last!

Gilding the hinges and screw heads.

The last step was to replace the handles.  The plastic rope handles for the box were ugly and a bit discolored, so I decided to just cut those off and replace them with clothesline I had from when I had a clothesline in my basement for the last 10 years (more on that someday I swear.)  I am ashamed to admit that I needed Will’s help for this part.  I know how to make many types of knots, having learned from my dad, who has owned many types of boats and being both crafty and a scout, but I could not figure out how to make a square knot with just one piece of rope.  Luckily Will showed me quickly and I was able to make some very secure knots for my handles!

My beautiful square knots

It was a fun project, and good thing too because I’ll have to make another one soon since with the excessive amount of costumes it’s already overflowing!

Posted in Crafts & Sewing, Thrift Finds | 2 Comments

Happy Winter Solstice Holidays 2022!

Posted on December 27, 2022 by lexicolton

Well I’m a day late of posting my annual happy holidays post, and I was so swamped with last minute gift making last week that I’m behind on a craft.  So let me make up for it!  For anyone who still needs some last minute tags for some belated Hanukkah or Xmas presents, you’re in luck I’ve got a quick cricut template for you below! Though these would work for any occasion!  And feast your eyes on my I’ve-gone-off-the-deep-end cards!

Gift Tags

What you’ll need:

  • 12″x12″ paper (in color of your choice)
  • cricut cutting tool
  • cricut fine point pen (black)
  • cricut template here 

Mount 12″x12″ paper.  Follow instructions on your cricut to load cutting tool and fine point pen into specified slots and load mat.

 

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

Cap’s off

Posted on December 12, 2022 by lexicolton

I’m behind again!  Today Julius had a runny nose so we decided to test him for covid and the test showed the very barest ghost of a pink line!  So we kept him home and he watched a lot of tv today…  I’m of course behind on the mountain of projects I planned to do for Christmas and that is after Will helped me cut down the list to a reasonable number last week from an unreasonable number.  That said, I’m still on time for my promise to ship last month’s prize to the winners in time for the winter solstice holidays so Matt and Amy keep an eye out!

For those who didn’t win I’ll show you how to make your own hats!  They are very simple. Simple enough for me to make a dozen in a weeknight for Julius’ party!

But before I show you that, first a Patricia anecdote.  Patricia loves to ride around on the toddler ride on toys that we have.  We have not one, not two but three. Two were obtained second hand and one was gifted by Meemah.  Patricia prefers the two that don’t make noise when you push them.  That’s because she likes to make her own noises.  Yesterday I heard her scooting around the house saying “Beep, beep. Beep, beep.  Watch out!  Me’s coming!”

Showing off my hat!

A stack of hats!

DIY Pirate Hats for a Crowd

What you’ll need:

  • Black (or brown) felt (1/3 yard)
  • Assorted jewels
  • Glue dots, or hot glue
  • Assorted feathers (I used ostrich and peacock)
  • Sewing pattern here
  1. Cut pattern from black or brown felt as indicated.
  2. Place two pieces of fabric on top of each other and stitch front top from edge to edge.
  3. Flip inside out.
  4. Fold up the sides of the hat that are unsewn so the finished portion of the hat is inside.
  5. Stitch on the sides of the hat
  6. Adorn with jewels and pirate icons (see below)
  7. Wear me hearty!

    Please ignore the piles of WIP Christmas presents

Felt Pirate Cut Outs

What you’ll need:

  1. Mount felt onto lightweight mat.
  2. Select material -> felt
  3. Insert fabric blade into A.
  4. Press go.
  5. Remove from the mat.

    Stack of skulls

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 2 Comments

Lovely Legumes

Posted on December 5, 2022 by lexicolton

Well despite the growing list I have, I’m finding it difficult to motivate myself.  I only just finished creating my Christmas cards despite having the pictures and idea a month ago!  The good news is I can feel my motivation turning around… tonight I’m going to work on another project I’ve been procrastinating on.

Julius apparently wrote a list to Santa in preschool and he was really excited to tell me “there’s a magic mailbox!”  I asked him what he asked Santa for and he told me “a jelly cake”.  I asked what a jelly cake was, and he told me, “Santa will understand I drew him a picture.”  When pressed for more information none was forthcoming.  I might be doomed on that front unless I can convince him to write Santa a back up letter, you know, in case the magic mailbox doesn’t work.  I guess I’ll have to work on that.

Patricia is extremely good at speaking.  Almost completely understandable, even to strangers.  But there are certain words that she gets a bit wrong.  For instance, she always says “applesauce” in place of “octopus”.  And no matter how many times you correct her she says “shark” for “sharp”.  As in “That’s shark?”  This conversation is one of the best recently.

Patricia: (pointing at her hat) “My bugs are in the kitty hat”
Julius:  “It’s a bear hat Patricia, not a kitty hat”
Me: “Well if we’re working on accuracy they’re also called gloves, not bugs”

So I’ve been on a lentil kick lately.  Obviously the “turkey” lentils have been a hit in our house.  Wait.  I forgot to tell you the story about the Thanksgiving lentils.  The day before Thanksgiving I decided to make my thanksgiving lentil stuffed delicata recipe in preparation for Thanksgiving.  My sister in law was very sweet and sourced and purchased some delicata squash from Trader Joe’s, having never eaten them herself.  I was more than a little surprised when she brought home these football sized pudgy delicata squash.  They had their signature markings on them though, so I just figured it was a “things are bigger in the south” situation.

Well I made the lentil filling the night before turkey day, and on Thanksgiving morning I decided to cut a delicata squash in half to stuff.  It was HARD.  I have never had so much trouble cutting a delicata in half; this was like cutting a piece of wood in half.  I finally got one of them cut in half and scooped out.  I then heaped the filling in the two halves and put it directly in the stove.  After about an hour the squash did not feel even remotely done.  The skin and flesh was not getting soft.  I figured it was because the squash was so large.  So I returned it to the oven and cooked it for another entire hour until we had to leave for Thanksgiving and I’d given up.  The squash was brought to our host’s house and disappeared into the kitchen to I have no idea where.  So when it came time to eat, the squash was no where to be found (this was a blessing in disguise).  It didn’t matter because one of our friends had made a delicious lentil, butternut squash and goat cheese dish that was superb.

When we returned home later that evening I found someone had retrieved the squash from wherever it had been and returned it to my in laws’ fridge.  I decided to have myself a helping (in this case 1/4 of one of the enormous squash halves).  I noticed it was still incredibly hard to cut thru the skin, and when I went to eat a bite, the flesh came apart in strands… like spaghetti.  That’s when a everything clicked into place and I realized that these enormous squash were definitely spaghetti squash masquerading as delicata.  One bite confirmed it.  It also confirmed that spaghetti squash cannot be substituted for delicata squash in the lentil recipe!

Anyway I had a few lentil setbacks including burning a pot of lentils on the stove (did you know burned lentils smell like cannabis)?  Will came downstairs and said in all seriousness “one of our neighbors is smoking weed, who do you think it is?”  I would have laughed had I not been extremely grumpy since I’d only just the discovered the burned lentils after wandering back upstairs wondering where the smell of cannabis was coming from.  But these setback have not been enough to dissuade me from loving lentils (though I will never, ever eat burned lentils again).  They are an amazing meat substitute.  I love making Impossible shepherd’s pie, but usually I try to limit our intake of processed foods so I’ve been trying to do more with legumes instead.  Well this recipe is a great substitute for an impossible meat version, and it’s just as quick.  It’s also probably less than half the cost  I’ve made it several times and there have never been leftovers.  Also fun fact, I originally tried to make this with mashed squash as the topping – it was not as good as it sounded to me.

Vegetarian Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dry green/brown lentils
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 3tbsp soy sauce
  • 1tsp of vegetable boullion/1 cup water OR 1 cup vegetable broth
  • 2.5 cups frozen peas
  • 2 packages instant mashed potatoes prepared according to package directions – I prefer to get the garlic version

Simmer lentils in a pot of water (about 4 or 5 cups) for 25 minutes until they soften, stirring frequently.  Add more water as necessary to prevent them from burning.  Drain.

In a large saute pan, saute onion in olive oil for 5 minutes or so until softened, add garlic and continue to cook for an additional 2 minutes until fragrant.  Add lentils to the pan and add the bouillion/water or broth and soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for an additional 5 minutes.  Add peas, cover and cook an additional 5 minutes until peas are tender.

Move lentil mixture to a 9.5″ pyrex pie dish (lentils should have some liquid left but not an excessive amount) and cover with prepared mashed potatoes.  (I know the instant kind are a bit shameful, but to me they are a comfort food, like the Thursday canned turkey and instant mashed potatoes hot lunch from elementary school.  That slop was divine. If you are morally opposed to instant potatoes use your favorite fresh recipe).  Rough up the mashed potatoes a bit with a fork.   At this point you can store it in the fridge for the next day.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes (or an hour from cold).

Posted in Culinary Delights | 2 Comments

Clap if you Believe

Posted on November 28, 2022 by lexicolton

We had a fun time in Nashville visiting Will’s family.  Patricia and Julius entertained themselves (mostly) without getting into trouble.  This lead to many adorable conversations between the two of them.  Patricia is always delighted to follow Julius around and will mimic his every move (sometimes to Julius’ chagrin).  In the long front hall bathroom they have a slightly hidden shower in the back hidden behind a curtain.  Julius and Patricia discovered this and played in the shower for hours.  One day the front hall bathroom was closed all day long, and I kept thinking someone was in there, but when Patricia had to use the bathroom I finally knocked, got no response and went in.  In the back they had brought two little chairs into the shower and seated across from the chairs were giant monkey and cow stuffed animals who were seated as if having a conversation.  I remarked to Patricia, “What are those guys doing here?!” To which she responded, “ummm, taking a shower!”

We drove to Knoxville one day to see Will’s grandfather, and it was quite a long drive but Julius, Will and I entertained ourselves by telling “jokes” about ghosts. (Julius’ idea.)  Julius has not exactly mastered the art of joke telling, probably because he really doesn’t understand the concept of a joke.  His understanding is that a joke is when you ask a question, respond with an outlandish answer that is usually not on topic and then laugh hysterically.  Probably the best “joke” he told all day was “What is a ghost’s favorite food?”  The answer is obviously “ch-ooo-cken”.  At least he was starting to grasp the concept.

The day after Thanksgiving we celebrated Patricia’s birthday with Will’s family.  Patricia had asked a couple times “where’s Patricia’s party” since she got to celebrate Julius’s pirate party with his friends.  We decided to cut out the friend portion, but we did throw her quite a fun little party!  I don’t know what I’m going to do when they understand calendars and time a bit more, and I won’t be able to discretely hold Patricia’s party 3 weeks after her actual birthday. I guess I’ll worry about that next year.

Woodland Fairy Party

Theme

Obviously I’ve been very into fairies this year based on all the fantasy novels I’ve been reading.  Since Patricia and Julius are basically woodland sprites themselves I decided to just lean in on the fairy idea.  (Side note: did you know fairy core is a new style thing?!)  I had originally planned to make some kind of mushroom house for them to play in, but obviously that wouldn’t be portable for Nashville.  Instead we ended up bringing the princess playhouse that Sugar and Daddy O got Patricia for her birthday.   (It folds up small enough to easily fit in a suitcase.)

If these napkins don’t scream “fairy party” to you, then you can just stop reading now!

Ready to party

Note the fairy house in the distance

Food

Cake

Patricia is obsessed with sweets.  It’s kind of concerning, so we really try to limit her sugar intake.  That said I did make cupcakes for her party, dipped in red frosting with fondant dots to look like mushrooms.  I arranged them on a slice of wood stump that I got from my new neighbors (they cut down a bunch of trees in their yard while landscaping, they may have thought I was crazy when I asked them for a stump, but they hid it well).  Patricia liked the fondant dots more than the cupcakes. Admittedly the cupcakes were boxed cake mix and frosting was from a tub, whereas the fondant was homemade so maybe she just has good taste.

I’m obsessed with mushrooms, Patricia’s obsessed with sweets, win-win.

She ate the fondant off the cupcake, you’ll get a better view in a later shot.

Wand Making

I was originally going to have the kids decorate a felt wand or something of the sort, but at the last minute pivoted and decided it would be cute to do a cookie wand instead.  I eventually realized a cookie wand would be more effort to create than I desired so I had (what I thought was) a genius idea to make wands out of rice Krispie treats.  I’ll show you how I did it in a future post, and the entire thing is edible!  The kids (and Will) happily decorated theirs with a boatload of frosting and different sprinkles.

Wand decorating station

Wands ready to be decorated

Kids working on their wands

Patricia devouring her creation

Will also made and ate a wand.

Julius won the award for most artsy

Lunch

In addition to the cupcakes and fairy wands Will had the great idea to have Patricia’s favorite foods for lunch – appetizers!  Mary Elizabeth picked up some great apps from Trader Joe’s that were quickly devoured!

Nom! What a spread! (Credit to Mary Elizabeth for the organization.)

Activities

Crown Making

A month ago I picked up some discount Halloween crafts at Michael’s at like 75% off.  One of the “Halloween” crafts was a DIY paper crown covered in sticker jewels.  I grabbed some discount fall leaf stickers too and let the kids make their own crowns.  This activity would be super easy to make for a group using the cricut, so I’ll probably post my own version in the coming weeks.  Both kids seems to really enjoy the craft (stickers of any kind are a home run right now for Patricia).

Patricia and Julius decorate their crowns

Face Painting

After Halloween I also nabbed some face paint at 75% off.  I bought the crayon kind, but now wish I’d bought the actual paint kind because the crayons were difficult to apply.  Everyone at the party had their face adorned with fairy-ish motifs by the end.

My first victim model

What ears? Those are 100% natural. (Yes I did wear those all day.)

Mushroom House and Peg Fairy Dolls

I am obsessed with the peg dolls.  You may remember that I made Winnie the Pooh character peg dolls for Julius’s 3rd birthday and Wallace and Gromit peg dolls for Julius’s 4th birthday.  This year I made fairy peg dolls for Patricia’s party!  Julius’ peg dolls frequently become passengers in his magna-tile creations, so hopefully these fairies get a ride in one of his rocket ships.  Patricia seemed delighted with them.  Her reaction when she saw them was “Peoples!” then “little peoples!” and then “little peoples have wings!”  These peg dolls also have their own mushroom house and little mushrooms that I made from cast off items I’ve been saving.

The little peoples with wings’ village. Yes that one fairy does have bat wings, and, now that you mention it, looks an awful lot like someone from a book I once read…

Playing with the fairies.

Fairy Free Play

As I mentioned we brought Patricia’s princess castle for some fairy free play (and our bubble maker) and fairy free play wouldn’t be complete without wings and fairy skirts!  Patricia and Julius wore their wings, skirts and crowns all day!  And Julius even wore his outfit the entire next day!

My little fairy.

My other, slightly bigger, little fairy

This is later that night after he’s changed into PJs.

Overall it was a great party and the kids had a lot of fun.  Just a reminder – don’t forget to enter the contest for a pirate hat package for your kiddos… or yourself (no judgement here)!  And now in the words of Patricia… “byebye, see you later!”

Bye bye, see you later!

Posted in Parties | 3 Comments

Prepare for Trouble…

Posted on November 21, 2022 by lexicolton

I hope you all are having a very happy Thanksgiving week!  We are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving with my in laws as well as a belated little party for Patricia.  It should be a fun week!  Then we’ll be on to the next holiday!  I have so many ideas for Christmas presents again this year and I really want to host a winter party!

So before I get past Thanksgiving I have to finish Halloween!  Here’s the last of our costumes from Halloween – Will and my Team Rocket outfits.  I did end up buying the wigs, gloves and high socks for these costumes.  I also ended up buying a white turtleneck for me.  The rest I got second hand or already had.  I suspect we can wear these again sometime though… perhaps to PAX?  So I don’t think it was a waste. 

Both of the costumes started off the same… with a white turtleneck that I cut down and slashed slightly up the front then hemmed.  

Then I used my Cricut to cut a large R out of heat transfer vinyl (leftover from another project).  Feel free to use my design here.  Then I pressed it onto the shirts following the instructions on the package.

I made my earrings out of sculpey… so they are actually quite heavy!  

Will just wore some very light khakis he already owned for his pants, and I bought a white skirt at the thrift store and cut it down into a miniskirt.

Before…

…After (I cut the skirt down into a miniskirt)

Overall it was a super quick costume…

Yes this is the scenario where Team Rocket has successfully captured Pikachu and converted him to their side.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

I Choose You!

Posted on November 14, 2022 by lexicolton

Hello Friends!  I am currently sitting in the gym of our elementary school, attending my very first special town meeting!  Spoilers, I’m probably never going to go to another one!  It is an interesting experience though I guess… Anywho!  Will and I had a fun weekend last weekend attending Lobster Trap and also celebrating Patricia’s birthday!  We went to build-a-bear where Julius and Patricia got to pick outfits for their new birthday bears Patricia picked an incredible matching sparkly purple outfit complete with purple sunglasses and purple sparkle boots. The Teddy Bear’s name?  Teddy.  She’s got style for miles.

She did spot a pikachu at build-a-bear when we walked in though and I thought I was going to end up walking out with one.  Patricia and Julius both love pikachu, despite Patricia having never seen the show, and Julius being a little bit frightened of the show.  Let’s be honest though, everyone knows who pikachu is, and I don’t know anyone who dislikes the little kawaii guy.  This is the only reason we still have a group costume this year!  While talking about Halloween costumes, Will suggested that we could be Jesse and James and Patricia could be Meowth.  Julius’ ears perked up when we said and if Julius changes his mind, he can be Pikachu.  His response was “I want to be Pikachu! I  love Pikachu!”  So here we are.

Julius’ costume was made entirely of materials I already had, with the exception of the onesie I cheated and bought.  All the hand sewing for both Julius and Patricia’s costumes I did on the plane to Mandy and Bailey’s wedding, while watching the children!  Honestly, it was a very productive flight!  You may have to adjust the pattern slightly if you’re making it for a larger child or adult.

Pikachu Costume

  • 5T footed zip up onesie
  • yellow fleece
  • red felt
  • brown fleece (I actually used some scrap velvet I had)
  • stuffing
  • pattern here
  1. Cut out all pattern pieces as directed (adding seam allowance where it is indicated NSA)
  2. Stitch brown tuft portion of ears to yellow tuft portion of ears at border indicated on pattern.
  3. Place two ear halves together and stitch around edges leaving the bottom opened.  Stuff with stuffing.  Repeat with second ear.
  4. Stitch bottom brown portion of tail to top yellow portion of tail at the border indicated on pattern.
  5. Stitch two tail halves together, right sides together, leaving the bottom of the tail opened.  Stuff.
  6. Cut two 3″x18″ ovals from brown fleece (adjust for size of onesie – they should be long enough to wrap around the back.  Stitch onto back of onesie.
  7. Using a ladder stitch, hand stitch the ears onto the top of the hood slightly off from the center to the right and left side of the head.
  8. Using a ladder stitch hand stitch the base of the tail onto the seat of the pants in the center.
  9. Lay the tail flat along the back of the onesie and stitch the top portion of the tail to the onesie.
  10. Stitch the red cheeks on either side of the hood above where your child’s cheeks would be.
  11. Use thunderbolt!

 

 

 

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

Avast Ye, I’ll Tell Ye a Tale

Posted on November 7, 2022 by lexicolton

We had a great time celebrating Julius yesterday!  We had a bunch of people over to the house consisting of Julius’s friends from school and their families.  In August (when we were on Block Island) Julius discovered Santiago of the Seas and said he wanted a pirate themed party.  That was great because up until then he had been telling me he wanted a “monkey party”.  When pressed for details about this monkey party he suggested “we act like monkeys and eat bananas”.  If I ever offered suggestions of other activities we might do at this monkey-themed party he promptly suggested that instead he wanted a Wallace and Gromit party again.  When I would then mention to him that we could try a different Wallace and Gromit theme, instead of the space “A Grand Day out” theme, he would respond that he wanted it to be exactly the same as last year’s, complete with giant cardboard rocket ship.  All this is to say how you can imagine that I latched on for dear life and refused to let go after Julius suggested a pirate party in August.

Theme

So pirates aren’t technically good people, but we glossed over that and focused on the treasure hunting and pirate aesthetics.  I saved boxes from the last 4 months to build a giant pirate ship out of cardboard as the pièce de résistance and then decided a few days before (after having worked nights and weekends at my “day” job for the last several months) that I just didn’t have time.  It ended up working out because the activities all doubled as decor for our theme.  For a centerpiece for the dining room table I used the cake I made, and a couple of my favorite pewter mugs that I filled with some ostentatious  ostrich and peacock feathers and pirate flags I made.  I also made a bunch of favor bags for the kids to take their hats, pets and candy home in, and I hung them from the front door to double as decoration.

I was very pleased with my 10 minute flags and decor.

These favor bags (upcycled from Hannaford’s grocery bags) doubled as a fun decoration!

Activities

Make your Own Pirate Hat

When guests started arriving we directed them to sit at the dining table and make a pirate hat.  I’d made pirate hats out of black felt for each of the kids and they could decorate the hats with skulls (that I cut out of felt using my cricut) and jewels (that I had leftover from my princess Peach costume years ago) and feathers (from, of course, Whimsical Brims).  The kids used glue dots to attach the accessories which worked to varying degrees of success depending of the application.  Overall it was a perfect activity that we could slow roll as kids arrived at different times.

Here’s the setup for the pirate hat activity. We used glue dots as a non-messy option to add the hat accessories. Though a glue gun would have worked better (but been much less safe).

First kiddos working on their hats.

Pick a Pirate Pet

No pirate is complete without their trusty sidekick, so after critical mass of the party arrived we headed to the garage that Will and I had turned into a play gym.  During the pandemic I built the climbing wall for Julius (you may remember that I also later entirely removed said climbing wall and painstakingly put it back up after Tesla finished the walls of the garage.  You may not know, but I also installed heavy duty playground hangers into the ceiling that we use sometimes to hang gymnastics rings, swings or hammocks.  That combined with our little trampoline, slide, pikler triangle, ball pit and tunnel (on top of a bunch of yoga mats we bought for cheap) served as our fake gym.

Our make-shift “gym” (we thought it was going to be cold given it is November… but it was 70 degrees… creepily warm).

I prompted the children before they went thru the door that they could choose either a parrot perched on the “Parrot Wall”, a monkey hanging over “Monkey Ladder” or a frog from “Frog Cave”.  The children then ran into the room and completed the task to retrieve their desired pet (and then played around some more on the equipment).  Patricia and Julius were the only two children to choose frogs.  (Perhaps because of Santiago’s pet coqui frog? And Patricia’s love of following her brother?)  I was flat out shocked after the whole request for a monkey party.

Map to the Pirate Pets

Parrot Wall

Monkey Ladder

Frog Cave

Sometime later Patricia decided to rescue the rest of the frogs.

After they retrieved their pirate pet I encouraged the children to make their pet a name tag (using pipe cleaners and some discount fall letter beads from Michaels).  This actually come in handy because several children “lost” their pets during the course of the party and their name tags meant they were easy to find.

Name Tag Table. The example Lutra (Israeli otter) was named “Gup” because I was trying not to use letters others might need….

Treasure Hunt

The children alternated between playing with the equipment, getting their pets, naming them and making them tags.  Unbeknownst to them I had hidden a treasure map in a bottle inside the ball pit.  One party-goer found the treasure map and alerted everyone!  That’s when the final phase of the party began!  Everyone grabbed their hats and pets and tried to figure out my extremely cryptic map!  Every child in the room (except perhaps Patricia) knew the treasure was under the “X” but I provided some helpful context that the black dot was probably the starting point at the garage entrance.

Here’s the message in a bottle that was hidden in the ball pit.

The pirates mull over the map.

The kids took the hint and barreled through the door into the kitchen looking for the first symbol.  They all shouted in glee when they found it and proceeded in that way through the symbols we’d hidden around the house.  The cutest part were some of the kids lagged a little bit behind, and were just as excited when they found the symbols a couple minutes later.   The treasure hunt eventually lead the kids to the basement where they found an “X” marking the spot on top of the sofa.  The children told me disheartened that there wasn’t any treasure there!  That’s when I asked what pirates usually do to hide their treasure… and someone said they bury it.  After that they were digging up the couch cushions and eventually Julius found the treasure chest full of booty – gold coins and ring pops (Dia de los Muertos ring pops which I figured were aptly thematic because of the skulls – and I couldn’t find any regular ones anyway).

They found the first clue!

An “x” marking the spot. But where’s the chest?

My favorite photo of the day – kids hunting for treasure.

The booty!

Food

I forgot to take pictures of the food but it wasn’t anything fancy!  We opted for “party pizza” which I’ll warn my family is not the same as Rhode Island Party Pizza  but still delicious.  I also made a huge platter of veggies with sour cream dip and humus and a fruit platter.  The food was nice and easy because I prepared the huge platters the day before and we had the pizza delivered!

Cake

This year Julius requested a chocolate vanilla swirl cake with chocolate frosting.  I decided I hated the cake recipe I’ve been using the last couple years and wanted to do something different.  I also decided that a loaf pan cake looks very similar in shape to a treasure chest so I decided to make a marble pound cake recipe.  It was so easy and delicious!  I used this recipe for the cake and I made a second batch that I turned into cupcakes (only baking for 30 minutes).

I usually make an Italian Meringue buttercream frosting, which is divine but (I’ll be honest) a pain in the butt to make. It takes me at least 2 hours from start to finish because it involves getting sugar syrup to the perfect temperature and cooling the entire mixture in a very controlled way.  It looks and tastes amazing though.  That said, I made this 6 minute chocolate buttercream icing recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen and I will never need another American chocolate buttercream icing recipe again!  My only real complaint is that I ended up making two batches of it because it really doesn’t make very much, and I needed a lot to frost an entire loaf pan cake and 20 cupcakes.  It’s not much of a complaint though because it really does take 6 minutes after you have the butter at room temp, and I could have made about 20 batches of this in the time it takes me to make my usual recipe.

My original plan was to frost the cake, cover it in fondant and make it look like a treasure chest, but after I frosted it with chocolate frosting I realized it already looked like a treasure chest and I decided to only use fondant for the details.  I used my favorite fondant recipe (also from Amanda Oakleaf) which comes together quickly, though to my dismay requires you to wait 24 hours to set after you knead it together.  I waited about 12 hours after mixing it and it seemed mostly fine. I’m pretty darn happy with how cute the cake came out.

Cake! With candles.

Julius blowing out the candles.

side view

The cupcakes though, I was a bit disappointed in.  A couple months ago I had bought some cupcake decorating tips  because I still haven’t mastered the beautiful sweeping ice-cream like frosting mounds.  I started practicing with the tips on these cupcakes and realized the large tips were not improving my skills.  So I decided instead to pipe designs onto the cupcakes.  I ended up using a flower looking tip, and the cupcakes came out cute and spikey, but looked too much like brown flowers.  So I cut some coins out of fondant with a 1″ circle cutter, looked up “pirate coins” on the internet and settled on the symbol on the back of a bunch of Roman coins that was the easiest to replicate.  I just now looked that symbol up and realized it’s a Christian symbol (the chi-rho I guess, guess these are later Romans the pirates are stealing from). In my defense it was past 1am by this point and I could not remember the word “doubloon” which would have yielded much better search results.  Anyway, I dusted the cupcakes with gold sugar and then placed a roman coin on top of a few of them.

Roman coin (sadly not doubloon) cup cakes

Overall I think the party was a great success and it seemed like everyone had lots of fun!  In the coming week’s I’ll post some of the how-to’s from Julius’ birthday so you can make your own pirate hats and flags if you so desire!  Speaking of which…

This Month’s give away is for an instant-pirate kit!  A couple lucky winners will receive a pirate hat to decorate complete with jewels, skulls and feathers in your very own pirate bag.  I’ll draw the winners on December 4th, so you can hopefully get it in time for the winter solstice holiday of your choice!  Avast ye, all that’s required is to put a comment below with your pirate name.  Until then, may the wind be at yer back and roll that old chariot along me hearties.

~Captain Dark Jangle

Ye could win this pirate-kit!!!

 

 

 

 

Posted in Parties | 5 Comments