The Lady Beekeeper

We had a great fall weekend again – the weather was so beautiful we were able to do a bike ride to our favorite orchard, George Hill Orchards.  The nice part is it is so huge that even on the weekends I don’t feel unsafe there, and if I ever do, it is very easy to just move away from people somewhere else.  Julius totally understands.  This year we’ve picked blueberries, peaches, apples, pumpkins and gourds there!  I fully intend to go back weekly until they close (or I have this baby).

This week I had a lot of good ideas for a socially distanced Halloween.  I LOVE Halloween.  Have I ever mentioned that?  (Probably.)  It is hands down my favorite holiday – fall, gallivanting outside at night, spooky full moons and black cats, costumes, candy, what isn’t to love?  As you know I love to make costumes, so we of course have been planning ours for months.  They are pretty low key compared to last year, but I’m still excited about them.  Julius’ birthday being only a week away from Halloween makes planning everything a bit challenging… and did I mention my due date is the day before Julius’ birthday?  Because of that I’ve been trying to put together the baby’s room, Julius’ party, a homemade present for Julius, and Halloween costumes all at once.

Last year I started a bunch of projects for Julius’ play kitchen to give him for Christmas or later.  I tucked some of them away for a rainy day, and I was thinking I could give them to him for his birthday this year since he still loves his kitchen.  Well he ended up finding my stash the other day, and he was so excited, that I just let him have a couple things early.  The one I’ll share with you today I made on a plane ride (remember those?)

Felt Farfalle

What you’ll need:

• off-white felt
• pinking shears
• off white thread
• An empty box of farfalle

1. Cut 1.75″ wide strips from felt with normal straight edge scissors.
2. Using the pinking sheers cut strips into 2″ long segments to form 2″x1.75″ rectangles. 
3. Pinch a rectangle in the center so the pinch forms a “w” shape (or “m” shape depending which way you’re looking at it).
4. Use off white thread to put a couple quick stitches through the pinch to fit it in place.  I found it nice to hide the tail of the threads inside one of the peaks of the “w”.  
5. Repeat until you get sick of making pasta.
6. Place pasta in box. 
7. Let child’s imagination go wild.

Making us lunch

We are not sure what Julius thinks of the fact that he will have a baby sister in a month.  He has wanted to feel the baby kick exactly one time, and is a bit mischievous around my belly.  (Though only upon occasion.)  We decided to buy Julius all these books about being a big sibling, to see what he thought.  Before the book order came in, Julius was looking through the ultrasound photos I keep on my desk (dining room table).  His hands were covered in something, so I told him he could only have one of the photos.  I gave him the one that looked like the baby had her mouth opened, upon which the ultrasound technician had written “hello my brother Julius”.

Well, he was very excited about this photo (even though he cared very little about it months ago when it was taken).  He kept hugging with it and snuggling with it, and when we went up to take a bath he asked to bring it with him in the bathtub.  I told him he could snuggle with it when he was out of the tub and dry.  Then when he went to bed, he asked if he could bring it in the bed with him, like he does with all his favorite toys.  It was adorable!  The books may help too.  His favorite is this adorable book called Poor Louie about a dog becoming a big brother.  Yesterday we read the book three times.  Once when he woke up, once before his nap, and once before bed.  Somehow I still think it’s adorable and haven’t tired of it even after 20,000 readings in 5 days.

I’m finding it harder to capture my little man’s attention as of late.  I have so many ideas for activities to try with him, but frequently he doesn’t want to do anything but play.  He is great at imaginative play, and can entertain himself for hours, so I am really not complaining.  I just want to make sure he gets some additional stimulus and education.  The other day though I did manage to capture his attention with a bubble wand I made, which he dubbed “the wishing star” from Winnie the Pooh.  After I got fancy hangers for my closet I wasn’t sure what to do with all the old wire ones.  I got the idea from this fancy copper wand my mom gave me from my absolute favorite store in the whole wide world that hasn’t existed in a decade “The Silver Dragon”.  This was a good way to use the hangers.  If Julius was having an actual birthday party this year, you bet everyone would be getting a wishing star bubble wand in their favor bags.

Wishing Star Bubble Wand

What You’ll Need:

• Wire coat hanger
• 2 pairs of Needle nose/regular pliers
• a fancy bead (optional – mine was not fancy)
• hot glue

1. Unbend coat hanger into a relatively straight shape.  
2. Starting at one of the bends for the shoulder, form a star shape using the pliers.
3. When the star is complete, wrap the wire around the opposite end of the star from where you ended, to hold it in place.
4. Wrap down again around adjacent indent and back to the center.
5. Form a flourish, and return down the other side to where you started the looping.
6. Wrap the leftover lengths of coat hanger around each other.  
7. When you get to the bottom, curl into another loop and add bead to the end as desired.  
8. Put hot glue onto the tips of the coat hanger if they are in any way sharp (mine were actually coated and not sharp).
9. If those instructions made no sense, follow the diagram below. 

8 weeks away from my due date and I’m starting to get nervous!  The baby’s room is nowhere near done, Julius’ birthday is unplanned, and I haven’t started on our Halloween costumes yet!  Well, I guess we did completely clean out the baby’s room.  That was a big step because it used to be the office and involved completely moving Will’s desk and a number of other things.  In the process we donated 10 huge boxes of books to the library, which felt liberating.  I’m working on Julius’ birthday, but we have no idea what we are going to do covid-wise.  Virtual is out of the question, Julius can’t sit still in front of skype for more than 5 minutes.  But, we have been such hermits, it is hard to gauge what others would consider normal.  Even if we invite just one family over to celebrate with us, I’m not sure if that is in people’s comfort zone.

One thing is checked off the list though – DanyCon!  It was certainly a lot less work this year because it was virtual but because I had to mail out the swag bags it also meant I couldn’t procrastinate up until the night before.  I did start everything well in advance of DanyCon, but still ended up staying up late the night before my (self imposed) mailing deadline.   As for give aways, I think the custom Collins/Colton copy of love letter is my favorite so far.  It was a lot of work, but I think it ultimately took me less time than printing and cutting out copies of Secret Hitler for everyone.  We have introduced everyone to Love Letter many years ago and given many copies of Love Letter out as prizes for both DanyCon and our Medieval party.  I’m pretty sure everyone in the Collins/Colton tribe already owns Love Letter… but now they own a super cool DanyCon custom copy!  Also as a side-bar isn’t it amazing that I had/was able to get pictures of almost everyone in Ren Attire?

DanyCon Custom Love Letter

Even though I have all the templates saved, I don’t want this to be a substitute for buying the actual game… so if you make your own custom copy you’ll have to do the work of making the card art yourself.

Custom Loveletter

What You’ll Need (for each copy):

• paint.net or other photo editing program
• Photos of your friends and family looking silly in ren gear
• 110 lb cardstock
• corner cutter
• 3 mil laminating pouches
• thermal laminator
• guillotine paper cutter
• 12″x5″ strip of red cotton fabric
• 2 2″ pieces of white 3/4″ ribbon
• 13 tiny heart pieces

1. Design cards. Design loveletter cards on paint.net.  I used one picture for each character, and changed them all using the “oil paintings” effect.  Then I layered over each card the number, name and description.  I made each canvas 2.5″x3.5″.  I designed the back of the cards as well.
2. Print cards.  I moved all the cards one by one into MS Word and adjusted the margins so I could fix 9 per page in a 3×3 grid.  I then printed the front side of the cards, inserted the pages back in upside down and printed backs on each.
3. Finish cards.  I next inserted each page into a laminating pouch and put it through the laminator on the highest setting.  I then fed it through a second time for good measure.  Finally I cut out the cards using my paper cutter, and trimmed the ends.
4. Make pouch. Fold fabric in half to form 6″x5″ rectangle.  Stitch side seams together, .5″ seam allowance, leaving 1.25″ open at the top.  Press seams. Fold top of bag down .75″ each side.  Stitch .5″ from the fold.
5. Finish pouch.  Feed one length of ribbon through front of bag from left to right, and then back of bag from right to left.  Tie ends together.  Feed second length of ribbon through front of bag from right to left and then back of bag from left to right.  Tie ends together.
6. Assemble. Insert cards, 13 heart tokens, and rules (if you made them) into pouch. Find some friends to play with.  (Or play virtually on BGA.)

Will asked for a case for his switch last year at Christmas.  Oops I finally delivered for Will’s birthday this year.  Will was worried about the joysticks and buttons getting mashed in a homemade case so that was my main concern.  After much deliberation and a couple quick prototypes I decided to use some leftover foam from one of the board games we had, and cut indentations into it.  Originally I intended to glue the foam to the outside of the case, but foam is tricky to glue and most of the glue that is okay to use is pretty toxic.  For pregnancy’s safe I didn’t glue it yet, but it seems to be working out well so far.. so I may never glue it.

Fabric Nintendo Switch Case

What you’ll need:

• 2 pieces of foam – 10″x4.5″x.75″
• 1/3 yard of cotton material
• 1/3 yard of heavyweight material – I used upholstery fabric
• 2 yards of 1/2″ double fold bias tape
• 6 size 16 snap fasteners

1. Cut cotton fabric into 4 rectangles 3″x4.5″and one rectangle 10″x17″.  Repeat for heavyweight material.
2. Pin cotton fabric to heavyweight material for each of the 5 rectangles, right sides facing out.
3. Finish the large rectangle with bias tape, completely surrounding the perimeter.
4. Finish the small rectangles with bias tape, leaving one long end of the rectangle open.
5. Pin small rectangles onto each side of large rectangle, 5.5″ from the top, and 11.5″ from the top. The flap should protrude 1.75″.
6. Stitch flaps onto bag.
7. Cut foam pieces to accommodate joysticks and triggers.
8. Place switch inside foam then place foam sandwiched switch on bottom-most part of case and fold upwards so top flap overlaps bottom by 2/3.
9. Place two female snaps on one of the side flaps, .5 inches from the edge of each end of the flap.  Place the male snaps on the other flap and make sure to position the male end of the snaps so they align with the female snaps above.  Repeat for other side of case.
10. Place final two sets of snaps on the bottom portion of the case flap.

Well sorry folks, I’m going to have to make this a quick one!  I had to work late, and we have Danycon coming up in a couple weeks, so we’re finishing up some last minute preparations!  (But get ready for all those great posts!)

Let me tell you quickly some adorable Julius anecdotes.  A couple days ago Julius was laying on the floor of our screen porch underneath the pillow from one of the sofas.  This was the conversation that ensued:

Me: Julius, you look kind of tired.

Julius: I look kind of tired, but I am going to teach you how to fly a helicopter.

I need to get him some caffeine if he’s going to start teaching helicopter lessons before nap time.

Will witnessed another hilarious conversation that Julius was having with himself.  Julius was peering into the mirror while holding a measuring tape to “measure” himself.  After he “measured” himself in the mirror he looked at the tape and exclaimed “sixty pounds?!”  I have no idea where he got that from because I’m pretty sure I haven’t weighed myself in front of him.  I do empathize on unit conversion though.  I frequently get confused if oz are a weight or a volume, and really can’t tell from context clues.

I can tell you that my closet organization though is all about increasing volume without clutter.  One of the last things I did for the closet was add a couple boxes for my swimsuits.  I used a swimsuit and some pretty wrapping paper recycled from a gift from my mother in law.  It was incredibly easy and took me maybe 10 minutes total.  I was planning to do some decoupage, but this came out so great and took me far less time…

Close up of my stylish organizer…

Papered Trinket Box

What you’ll need:

• old shoe box
• recycled wrapping paper
• hot glue

1. Take your shoe box and remove the lid.  Mine had an attached lid, so I simply cut it off.
   

   Remove cover from box – for me this meant cutting the cover off.

2. Place the box centered on top of your recycled wrapping paper.
3. Pipe a strip of glue the inside portion of one long side of the shoe box at the top.  Gently press paper onto the glue.  Let dry.
   

   Hot glue the inside of the box.

4. Make sure paper is pulled flush, then repeat for opposite side of shoe box.
   

   View of the small side of the box, with the long ends glued. You can see on the right that I have already started folding the excess material in.

5. For the short ends of the shoe box, fold in excess paper on one side of one end so outer paper folds up flush to the end of the shoe box.
   

   After tucking in the extra paper on the small side of the box, fold the outside material up to meet the corner.

6. Repeat for other side.
7. Trim the paper, leaving about 1″ of excess fold up and over the side of the box.  Fold and glue.
   

   Cutting off the excess paper before folding.

8. Repeat steps 5-7 for other short end.
   

   Finished organizer – note that it is unlined. If you will see the inside of the box, you may consider lining it.

9. If I was feeling fancier I would have lined the inside of the box, but since I wasn’t going to see inside it anyway, I opted for the less paper method!
   

   Recycled shoe boxes make stylish organizers!

We had a vacation!  We went down to visit my parents in RI, and my sister and her girlfriend drove all the way here from Colorado.  It was lots of fun, and perhaps more importantly almost felt normal.  Mandy and Bailey were extra careful because they know I’m so paranoid, so they quarantined for 14 days before they came up and then to be extra cautious took a covid test the day before they left.  One bonus to them driving over half the country was that they were able to bring their dogs!

Julius had a blast!  He was so happy to see everyone, hang out on the lake, pretend to be a dog, etc.  On the last night of the trip (extended by one day because at the last minute I found out I didn’t have to work on Sunday) he said to me, pensively “we are not leaving today, but we are leaving tomorrow”.  I told him that yes we were leaving tomorrow and asked how that made him feel.  He reflected, “I think it makes me feel sad.”  It was just about the cutest, most heartbreaking thing ever.

I’m going to have to come up with some great activities over the coming weeks, to get him through.  Apparently RI got added to the do not travel list in MA, after we’d already been there for a while, so now we have to quarantine for 14 days.  And to think that I was just starting to get over my covid induced anxiety…

One of the better activities I came up with for Julius recently was a color your own face mask.  I had all these fabric markers left over from Erin’s baby shower, and I just quickly made Julius a plain white mask.  Julius colored on it, and I think it looks pretty great.  It did take some encouragement to get him to use anything but a brown marker though.

Kid’s Color-Your-Own Mask

What You’ll Need

• Plain White Mask – pattern here
• Scrap paper
• Fabric markers

Insert scrap paper into your plain white mask (if your mask has a removable layer like the pattern above).

Let child color on front of mask as desired.  Launder as recommended before wearing.

My mom retired this year!  She’s been working as a nurse for 41 years at Women and Infants Hospital (where Julius was born, not a coincidence).  She didn’t want a big send off because of all the hardships nurses and hospital employees have been putting up with for the last several months.  Since we were all in separate states, we decided to throw her a virtual retirement party!  Below is all the silly stuff we did for her retirement “party”.

Here are the boxes I sent out!

Here were the contents for each guest!

Food

I really wanted to mail everyone cake in a jar, but I could not figure out how to get it there fresh!  Instead Will and I tried many iterations of microwave mug cake – we decided on a very slightly modified version of this cake.  I mailed the dry mix packets out, and warned everyone they needed eggs, milk and butter.  Everyone liked the cake – even my nephew who had a version made with applesauce instead of eggs!

Celebration Cake Dry Mix Packets

Ingredients (for each cake)

• ¹/₄ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground vanilla
• ¹/₄ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon decorator sprinkles

Mix ingredients together, place in individual candy bags, tied with a ribbon and the instructions below.

Cake Mix in progress

Cake Mix with Instructions!

Instructions

Use the instruction labels here, with the text below:

Celebration Mug Cake!

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp Butter
• 1 large Egg Yolk
• 1 Tbsp Milk
• Dry ingredient packet

Place butter into 12-ounce coffee mug; microwave 30-45 seconds or until melted. Add all remaining cake ingredients; mix well with fork.

Microwave 45-60 seconds or until cake pulls away from sides and top is dry. (Do not overcook.) Cool 1 minute. Top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, as desired. Serve warm.

Decor

For decor – we gave party guests silly nurse caps, and little toothpick inserts for their mug cakes to make them more festive!  For my mom we also added in a “Happy Retirement” banner!

Silly Nurse Cap Party Hats

• 2 sheets of white paper
• tape
• glue stick
• red paper cut out into crosses using my pattern here

I used this tutorial to fold the hats, and it went very quickly!

Retirement Toothpicks

• Cardstock (I used black)
• Colored paper (I used purple)
• Toothpicks
• Glue Stick
• Hot glue
• Cricut Pattern

1. Use cricut to cut out this pattern on cardstock.  
2. Use cricut to cut out this pattern on paper.
3. Remove paper and cardstock from excess paper then use glue stick to attach paper to cardstock. 
4. Hot glue the toothpick onto the back of the “Happy Retirement” paper and while the glue is still hot, cover with a scrap piece of cardstock.  

Happy Retirement Banner

• 2 sheets of colored paper
• 6 feet of ribbon
• Cricut pattern here

Cut letters out of colored paper using cricut.  Thread ribbon through holes in letters. 

Games

A party isn’t complete without games!  We did a silly “Who Knows the Retiree” game (see here if you’re interested) as well as a version of Bingo we got at a thrift store (it was actually called Bardo – and had Shakespeare trivia built in).

Retirement party in action! Note the great games (Bingo and Who knows the Retiree Best?)

Presents

We decided to give my mom a subscription to Masterclass, so she could investigate some new fun hobbies that she might want to try.  In addition we also compiled a list of ideas for what to do during her retirement.  We did this by entering items in a google spreadsheet and I then printed them all and put them into a bag.  She could then read them all at once or take them out anytime she needed a “retirement idea”.

Retirement Ideas Bag

Masterclass Card

The retiree!