The Lady Beekeeper

This weekend was definitely peak foliage in Lancaster.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  We did another bike ride to George Hill Orchards again to get some lunch, cider, cider donuts and sugar pumpkins.  The views from their hilly farm were spectacular.  I don’t know what we’re going to do when the picking season ends.  It’s one of the few places that we feel fairly comfortable “in public”.

At this point in time we have acquired a large quantity of squash, gourds, pumpkins and apples between our CSA and our weekly farm trips.  It’s like fall has exploded inside the house.  I can’t show you a picture or you’d be embarrassed for me.  For perspective I’m sitting at the kitchen island and there are 14 pumpkins/squash sitting next to me.  And trust me that is just the tip of the iceberg, there are more on the other counters and in the other rooms and outside as decorations.  It makes me so happy.  (I might be a pumpkin hoarder?  Is that a thing?)

Well speaking of pumpkins and fall… I don’t think I need to remind you that my favorite holiday is coming up!!  I don’t want to ruin any surprises about our family costume this year… but let’s just say it involves a drum.  I had actually completely forgotten it involved a drum until Julius asked me “but where is my drum” when trying on his costume.  All will be revealed next week, but now I’m going to show you how to make a drum for a toddler.  This was completely free for me to make as I had everything on hand, but it was actually a bit time consuming.  If you can guess who’s drum it is (and I haven’t already told you) I’ll send you a prize.

Also I have to tell you one more cute thing.  Upon presenting Julius the drum after his naptime with the words “I made you this” (and probably by making him lots of other things) I may have accidentally convinced him that I am capable of making all his toys.  He started looking at the Amazon wish catalog the other day and pointing to things saying “I want you to make this for me”.  One of the things was a robotic hand, and he asked me “could you make this one?”  I skirted the question by telling him that I went to school for robotics and sometimes worked on things like the robot hand.  He surely knows I didn’t make all his toys, right?  I’m not sure I did a good job convincing him, but do I really want to destroy the image that mama can make anything…?

Toddler Drum

What you’ll need:

• 2 sheets of red paper
• 1 26 oz coffee can (my mom always has the chock full o’ nuts cans)
• 3/8″ yellow ribbon
• brown cord or yarn
• yarn needle or very large embroidery needle
• 2 small clasps (I used these swivel clasps that I had leftover from past projects)
• 2 small eye hooks and 2 small cubes of wood
• 1-1.5 yards of tan ribbon 1″ wide (mine was saved from old Williams-Sonoma gift packaging)
• chop sticks
• hot glue gun

1. Holding the paper horizontally, mark the height of your coffee can on the paper, so the paper will be between the top and bottom metal lips of the can.
   

   Mark the height of the coffee can

2. Cut both pieces of paper to this height.
   

   Cut paper to marked height.

3. With a drill bit slightly smaller than your eye hook screw, drill 2 holes in the can, about .5″ below the top of the can, 5″ apart.
   

   Drill holes in can for eye hooks.

4. Hot glue paper to the can.
   

   Hot glue paper to can.

5. Poke screw eyes through paper and screw through the holes you just made in the can.  Screw into tiny bits of wood on the inside of the can to secure.
   

   Screw through paper and holes you drilled into bits of wood on the inside of the can.

6. Measure the circumference of your coffee cylinder.  Mine was 19″, so to make it easy I chose to divide this into 6ths for the drum threading, leaving a slight gap at the back of the drum where no one would see it.
7. Cut one strip of ribbon 1″ longer than the circumference of your cylinder.
8. For the bottom of the drum you want to create small triangles, so I marked out dots along my strip of ribbon in the following pattern:  1″, 2″, 1″, 2″ until I had 6 2″ long markings
   

   Mark pattern for drum cording.

9. Using the yarn needle, poke through the holes, going out at the 1″ markings, and back in at the 2″ markings.  Adjust the yarn or cord so it is about 3″ long at the 2″ markings.
   

   Leave 3″ loops on ribbon over the 2″ markings, and pull 1″ segments taunt on the backside.

10. Hot glue the ribbon along the bottom perimeter of the can, covering the bottom metal rim. The brown yard/cord along the 1″ segments should be hidden, and the 3″ segments should be loose towards the top of the can.
    

    Hot glue ribbon to the bottom of the can.

11. For the top of the drum, if your top is already yellow (like the choc full of nuts cans) you do not need to use another piece of ribbon, otherwise mark along the ribbon as in step 8.  Mark 6 points,  3″ apart from each other.
12. Using the yarn needle, poke through the holes, going out at a mark, down to the 3″ yarn/cord segments from the bottom of the can, then back through the same marking.  Repeat for other 5 markings, and other 5 3″ segments.
    

    Poke through the lib, loop down to catch the bottom triangle, and back up through the hole you exited from.

13. When you are finished, put the top on the can, making sure to center your top lines in between the bottom 3″ segments.  Pull up the slack so everything is taunt and the top yarn/cord pulls the bottom segments into triangles.
14. Push one end of your ribbon strap through the loop on one clasp.  Fold 1.5″ up, and then 1/2″ under and stitch down to hold clasp on.  Repeat for second clasp and other end of ribbon.  (You’ll want to see how far down this should come on your child.)
    

    Fold under ribbon 1/2 and stitch just below fold.

15. Attach claps to eye hooks.
16. Present drum and chopsticks (drum sticks) to child and let them parade around the house. 

Ignore the kitchen chaos and just focus on the happy toddler with the drum.

The empty coffee can actually makes a pretty good sound.

Well this is going to be a quick one because I’ve been sick the last two days.  In brighter news my sister in law, Erin and my sister, Mandy threw me a virtual “sprinkle” for baby #2 this weekend!  It was a bee-themed family tea party and so very fun and cute.  And despite not having a registry everyone gave the baby girl such sweet and thoughtful things.  On top of all that brightness my co-workers (I shall remind you my co-workers are 70% male) threw me a surprise shower last week complete with silly games.  I had no idea it was coming, and actually had prepared to give a presentation in the meeting (though my manager had urged me to not work too hard on it, suspicious now that I think about it).  They really had me surprised!  I’m so lucky to have such great family, friends and co-workers.

Me and my little bee

Julius and I have been preparing for Halloween.  We decorated the house, and have been acquiring pumpkins, gourds and mums on our bike rides to local farms.  The other day Will, Julius and I were at George Hill Orchards and decided to check out the gourd and ornamental pumpkin patch.  (They have 3 pumpkin patches!)  I picked out a huge swan neck gourd and Will picked it up so I wouldn’t have to carry it.  Then I found this adorable little green warty pumpkin and decided I wanted that one too.  Julius, apparently disappointed he wasn’t carrying anything, grabbed the next little pumpkin he saw (a little sugar pumpkin) and said “and this one is mine”.  Will and I both looked at each other and chuckled and Will said “well if you can carry it, you can take it home”.  And the little guy carried it all the way to the farm store, not a short walk.

For Halloween night I ordered a bunch of things from Oriental Trading, and will probably set up a table at the end of the driveway.  You may recall that we get a total of 8 trick-or-treaters every year (and in previous years it was even less) so buying gift bags from Oriental Trading did not break the bank at all.  Plus I can use them for my trick-or-treating idea for Julius!  Since the CDC thinks trick-or-treating is a high risk activity (I’m not 100% sure I agree) and we are avoiding anything above low risk, we are not going to go out.  Instead – we are going to have Julius trick-or-treat from door to door around our house!  We have a front door, side door and porch door as well as a door on our shed.  All total that’s more houses than we hit up last year.  If we’re feeling really up to it I’ll have whoever answers the doors put on a silly disguise at each door.  We may also pop down to meemah and meepah’s house for some treats.

The other day I was staring at the adorable coffee filter butterflies that have been on our sliding glass door, and decided they clashed with the Halloween decor.  Then I had a stroke of genius!  Why not make coffee filter bats?!  We could use the same technique with bat-colored markers.  I put them all up on the window and reused Julius’ moon artwork from earlier this year at daycare!  They look a bit like devils, but I suppose that works for Halloween too.

Bats on a dark night.

Coffee Filter Bats (or Devils)

What you’ll need:

• coffee filters
• washable markers in browns, blacks, greys and purples
• medicine dropper
• pipe cleaners in corresponding colors

1. Take coffee filters and cut them in half down the middle in a jagged line.
2. Have child color on the coffee filters with washable markers.  (The more marker the better – Julius went a bit light on his)
   

   I love his concentration when coloring.

3. When they are finished, provide them with a medicine dropper and a cup of water to wet the coffee filter and make the markers bleed.
   

   Dropping water on his bat wings.

4. Place coffee filters on towels to dry.
   

   Letting the wings dry.

5. When coffee filters are dry, form your bat’s head with pipe cleaner.  Fold pipe cleaner in half and then twist to form a quarter-sized loop.
   

   Testing wings for dryness.

6. Form ears onto the loop.
   

   Form bat head.

7. Insert coffee filter wings underneath the head in between two tails of pipe cleaner, scrunch slightly.
   

   Secure wings under bat head.

8. Twist pipe cleaners together below wings and form legs.
   

   Form legs.

   

   Finished bats

   

   Bats in daylight?! Watch out…

   

   Julius with our Halloween setup.

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!