The Lady Beekeeper

I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer.

Posted on September 17, 2025 by lexicolton

Well work has been very busy. Honestly I much prefer that, but the kids on Sunday were so upset when I told them I had to work. They shouted at me “it’s not fair! You worked all week!” And I couldn’t argue with them. I need to make it up to them this weekend. Will and I still alternate who wakes up with the kids every day of the week so on weekends I am guaranteed one sleep in day. The problem is while I would gladly sleep in all day, the kids are so excited to see me so I generally choose not to sleep in. I feel like their excitement to hang out with me is not going to last for much longer so I need to bask in it while I can.

Speaking of basking, 5 more days til the equinox and the leaves have already started to change. I’ve been basking in their orange hues. It is beautiful. I want to just sit in a rocking chair and marvel at the leaves all day. I feel like that combined with some meet ups with friends is really putting a spring in my step this week. Next I just need to get on to some new crafts and spend more time with the kids for a full recharge.

I managed to do some meal prep this weekend because I knew the week would be awful. I prepped for two dinners so I’d be prepared for working late. I made eggplant Parm casserole and potato leek soup (aka ghost soup). It is starting to become soup weather, which honestly is a vegetarian win. I feel like soups of all kinds are the absolute easiest vegetarian recipes to make. When I made a lot of omnivore food back in the day I’d just throw a roast chicken or hunk of meat in the oven and then make some sides while I waited. For vegetarian protein I have to think differently and it’s sometimes easiest to just throw everything in a pot and enjoy it. (Especially when my protein of choice is frequently lentils! They are magnificent!) As a bonus my kids don’t seem to hate soup which is great because I make a lot of it.

So you might think all this talk of soup means I’ll be sharing a soup recipe with you… But nope! Total misdirect. I’m going to show you my Halloween costume from last year. Last year we went to a Halloween party thrown by some new friends in town… And it was clearly the wrong crowd for our costumes. Not a single person there had heard of Dune the movie, nevermind read the books. Alas. I need to go to more nerd gatherings. That said, I am pretty convinced our costumes were spot on. Since Will went as Duke Leto Atreides I went as his love and consort the Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica. I chose an outfit from the first movie when she actually appears with Duke Leto and looked attainable to complete in time for Halloween. I started with the yellow dress version but quickly panned to the blue/grey dress when I couldn’t find anything that matched at the thrift shop. Let me tell you it was hard to figure out what was going on with this costume from the movie. BUT I discovered that they have the costume on view in the Warner Brothers Design Studio in LA. I was about to send Ryan out there on a reconnaissance mission when I realized the whole thing has an online walk thru! So I took a bunch of screenshots from all angles of the dress that I could get from the wall thru! I never would have figured it out without the walk thru. Thank you Warner Brothers!

So it seemed the dress was made in 4 parts: a solid colored underdress, a long sleeved sheer overdress, a sheer shawl type thing on top of this and finally an over the shoulder sash. There was also a headdress/wrap thing of the same sheer fabric. I skipped the sash for speed.

Lady Jessica Costume

I first took apart a dress I got from a thrift shop. Of course I have no pictures of what it looked like before, because I never remember to do things like that. I do remember that it was a size 16 so I had to take it in a lot. I also changed the neckline slightly to match the dress from the movie.

2. I made the outer dress using some stretchy sheer I had bought back when I owned a hat shop. I first drafted this on my mannequin and then added arms (that I also drafted, but I don’t have a picture of this…)

3. Then I drew a pattern for what she has on her dress on my computer and cut it out of HTV on my cricut then heatpressed it on.

4. Next I worked on the cape. Using the excess fabric from the hem of the dress I created the edging of the cape. I again created a design on my computer and then cut it out with HTV on my cricut and heatpressed it on. I think it would be better if this design was a bit more translucent but this was the best I could get.

5. Next I sewed on more stretchy sheer fabric, but I was totally lazy about this and didn’t really make it into a cape shape so it did not drape right! I should have fixed it, but I didn’t bother.

6. Then I added the headdress portion. I draped this over one of my mannequin heads and achieved a similar look by just tying it. When it looked about right I stitched everything in place and stitched on a bobby pin at the top so it would stay in one spot. I’m a bit annoyed because the tied part was supposed to sit in the back, but I was in a rush when our photographer was taking photos and it’s all messy in the photos.

How close do you think I came?

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Part of courage comes from extending our knowledge

Posted on September 9, 2025 by lexicolton

Woof! New school year! That means we’re back to the grind, back to leading cub scouts, and (unfortunately) our CEO is forcing us back to the office. I’ve been going in one day a week for the last year, but they decided to decrease morale further (I know you thought that wasn’t possible) by sending us back 4 days a week. Luckily (?) my office doesn’t have enough space for us to go back 4 days a week so we are there 2 days a week. Unluckily we have very crowded workspaces consisting of rows of desks with no privacy or sound control. When your whole team is on different calls (regular occurrence for my team who all work on different programs) it’s rather annoying. On top of that I found out one of the managers in the building is reserving one of the best windowed conference rooms (of which there are not many) all day long to use as his personal office. As you can tell I’m really delighted about RTO.

Okay enough complaining! Get ready to hear what I’m pumped about! It’s September! And I know it’s not officially the equinox yet… it’s basically FALL! The leaves have already started to turn… and it hasn’t started getting really cold, but there is a hint of chill in the air. It’s perfect outdoor activity weather! I fixed up the bike trailer again (mice ate thru the canvas top I made) so Patricia has been asking me to bike to her school! It’s really not that far away. Only 3.3 miles. Honestly though, after I dropped Patricia off and biked back home I felt like a God. That’s probably endorphins speaking? Whatever it was I liked it! Maybe if I start practicing more Amy and I can do another triathalon…

Wait I still didn’t come to the best part! Halloween costumes! Patricia and Julius decided on something that meshes well enough to do as a family costume. I’m pretty darn excited. I can’t reveal that yet though. Our neighbors up the street already have their crazy Halloween setup out though… and this week it has a giant Cthulhu. Patricia saw him and described him as “a guy with a beard made of octopus arms”. I thought this was the most apt description of the elder god I’ve heard. I’ll give you a treat (loaf of sourdough bread? sourdough bagels?) if you can tell me what you think our Halloween costumes are this year.

This reminds me that I told you how I made the kids’ costumes… but I never told you about how I made Will and my costumes!

Will went as Duke Leto Atreides and I thought his beard was perfect! Let me tell you how I made his costume!

Duke Leto Atreides Costume

The costume started out with a regular suit jacket I bought from the thrift store (for $6!) I turned up the collar (I made sure to get one that was black on both sides) and turned out the lapels. This alone made it look just like Duke Leto’s suit from the movie.

Next I created the badges on Leto’s uniform using sculpey. I drew onto paper what I wanted them to look like then carved them out and baked them.

Afterwards I painted them gold with gold leaf.

Finally I affixed pin backs to them.

I do regret using sculpey because while they looked beautiful, structurally they were not sound. I think all of them broke after a few times wearing them.

I next removed the buttons, folded the left hand side lapel under, ironed it flat and then blind stitched it so that it would stay flat.

I added hook and eyelets to hold the jacket closed.

Lastly I bought a bunch of thrifted gold chains from the thrift shop, took them apart and then stitched them to the shoulder.

Paired with suit pants and black shoes Will looks damn fine.

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Winds of Change

Posted on August 27, 2025 by lexicolton

We are spending the week enjoying Block Island. Will was at a bachelor party from Wednesday night to Sunday so I packed and headed over here myself with the kids. I was terrified about backing the car onto the ferry with the bikes on the back since I can’t use the backup cam but I just told them I was going to be awful and they gave me some slack and I was eventually able to get where they wanted me. It’s so crazy because you can’t really open the doors after the cars are on the ferry so we have to climb in thru the windows like a racecar driver. Actually after I told Will I succeeded in backing onto the ferry he called me “the greatest driver of our time, like Max Verstappen in reverse”. I fear that is a huge insult to Max but I felt like a champ. (Especially when climbing in the windows.)

Our first day was fun though the kids complain A LOT. Like ALL THE TIME. We went to the farmer’s market and Patricia complained it was too far of a walk (like 100 feet). Julius then complained when we got there that I was going too fast and not letting him look at things thoroughly (we only had 30 minutes to explore before it closed). Then about 5 minutes later (when I lessened my pace) he complained that I was going too slow. Then they kept asking when we were getting into the house. When we finally got into the house they kept asking when we were going bike riding. I was going mad.

We did get to go to the beach though and had fun doing all the usual beach things (jumping in waves/body surfing, digging giant holes and reading). And bonus we all took an outdoor shower afterwards. If I haven’t raved about outdoor showers (okay nevermind I checked and I have) they might be my favorite thing ever. I managed to get the kids all showered and in towels and sent them inside to get dressed while I snuck in a quick shower alone. It was glorious… for about 30 seconds before the kids started barking at me (yes, barking) from the bathroom window right next to the outdoor shower. #singlemomlife? Do your kids bark on the regular?

Well the end of summer does mark the best season of all time… FALL. So it’s officially socially acceptable (unlike barking children) for me to post my witch hat tutorial so you can make one in time for your next fall haunting. (Or séance or sacrificial offering… no judgement zone here.)

DIY Witch Hat

What you’ll need:

1 yard Hat Wire (is that what it’s called?!)
2 yards Velvet

Note, you will need to adjust this hat for your head size. This means the crown of the hat will need to be wider/smaller and the hole in the brim of the hat will need to be larger/smaller proportionally.

1. Cut all pattern pieces as directed.

2. Stitch two triangles together (wrong sides in) along the long sides to form one crown piece. Repeat for second set.

3. Place velvet brim circles right sides together. Sew Brim of hat along the outer edge.

4. Clip curves

5. Draw a circle for your head (I made it .5″ wider than the circumference of my head) in the center of the brim. Clip into center of the hat up to the markings.

6. Turn brim right side out.

7. Use the hat wire to measure around the circumference of the brim. Clip.

8. Connect wire together (with heat shrink wrap or tape). Insert into brim.

9. Turn one of the crown pieces inside out. Pin the crown of the hat onto the brim, 1/2″ outside the markings (or so to fit the circumference of the crown). (Make sure to do this right sides together.)

10. Stitch and turn right side out.

11. Hand stitch the inside portion of velvet crown along the stitches of the first crown piece onto the brim.

12. Wear to your next spooky gala!

Yes I did try to use the AI edit feature to remove that woman on the left of me. It didn’t go well. I spent an hour watching it make these grotesque horror scapes. By that point I was creeped out and too offput to manually do it. So this lady is staying. If you are this lady, let me know and I’ll credit you in the picture.

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Death of Summer

Posted on August 16, 2025 by lexicolton

Ugh this blog has accidentally turned into a biweekly update. I’ve gotten so busy this summer that I’ve lost track. We’re off to our last vacation of the summer and I’m pretty sad because this officially marks the end of summer.

Do any of you other parents ever freak out that anything you do might mess up your children? I get frustrated sometimes with things the kids do that Will later reminds me are totally trivial. (Let’s be honest it is not about the kids, it is all rage and frustration with the current political situation poorly channeled). Then I have to explain to the kids that I got frustrated and snappy when I should have instead taken some calming breaths.

Patricia unfortunately inherited my awful temper but times 100. I do think she is getting a bit better at controlling it, though she changes from happy to rage instantly so it’s really frustrating to deal with. 98% of the time she’s the sweetest, most thoughtful child, and then 2% of the time she’s a nasty, mean soul crushing train wreck that doesn’t care about consequences. It’s always at the worst possible time too, like when I’m late to picking Julius up, or when I’m taking her to gymnastics (fun fact she has done so many mean things to me when taking her to gymnastics, an activity that she wanted to do, that I refuse to take her anymore). Thank goodness she shows her sweet adorable nature the majority of the time or I would probably be legitimately losing my mind right now.

Since I think we all could use a bit of stillness I’ve been trying to teach the kids about meditation lately which seems to be helping somewhat. It might be helping more with going to sleep in a timely manner than calming down, but I’ll take what I can get. We’ve been doing just 2 minutes of meditation before bed but the kids have been asking me to do it which I love! I started off guiding but lately have just been letting them do it themselves. And the other day Patricia put on her noise cancelling earmuffs and meditated in the car (she also scolded us for being too loud while she was meditating but… progress).

So I made the kids this super simple craft before our trip to Michigan. They are mini geo boards. Both kids knew immediately what they were and said they love them. They spent quite a while making a bunch of shapes with them, so I’m pretty happy it was such a hit given it was low cost and a low time commitment!

I used a bunch of rainbow loom bands (Julius has a million) for the elastics which worked perfectly (but I threw in some bigger ones too). I was too exhausted to make my own templates, but I printed some out from this cool site! You have to provide your email and then they will send you the printables for free which is nice! As you know, I’m all about open source crafting, but I will say I’m not keen on AI corporations profiting off of my IP. As in, I think it should be illegal. Unfortunately that ship has sailed and (again with the concerns about our current politics) I doubt anything will be done (unless it involves wining and dining those who own the AI corporations.) Sorry I digress – let’s make one of these geoboards. It is crazy easy!

Mini Geoboard

What you’ll need:

4.25″x4.25″ piece of 3/4″ wood (mine was scrap)
25 1.5″ finish nails
a handful of rainbow loom bands in assorted colors

1. Mark a grid out on the face of the wood following the picture (3/8″ from each edge and 7/8″ between each nail).

2. Mark each verticy using an awl or the tip of a pen

3. Take your piece of wood and sand it until smooth (especially the corners).

4. Gently hammer nails into each verticy 1/2″

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Insert Punny Lumber Joke Here

Posted on July 28, 2025 by lexicolton

Well… I feel like I am constantly building more storage for me to cram more stuff into our house. Lately I’ve been eyeing the vertical space in the garage. You may remember a few years back I added a bunch of storage to the garage. And that has been working out GREAT. It’s mostly holiday decor and things that I only access occasionally. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I have since acquired a few more items for camping, and I wanted to put things into plastic bins so that I could more easily pack if we want to pull a last minute weekend road trip. Since I don’t need to get to that stuff often, ladder access should be fine (we’ll see). I also needed somewhere to put the big bounce house that our friends (very kindly) gifted us a few years back that has been blocking access to the garage fridge.

Well I have so much scrap wood in the basement I figured I could rig something up on the cheap. I watched a few youtube videos on cantilevered and gallows shelving and decided that was what I would build. This person had a very helpful video. (I did test the arms by hanging from them.) I didn’t buy anything for this shelf. I used Spax #8 2.5″ construction screws to attach the 2×2″ upright portion of the shelves to the wall then screwed on the bracket portion (which was built of some scrap 3/4″ lumber for the arms attached to a 2×4 cut at 45 degree angles). I then used some 1″ plywood for the shelf (mostly – it wasn’t long enough so I had to make do with a less thick piece of plywood for 2/5 of it. I will monitor the warpage of this and will probably end up swapping it out.) I was pretty lazy and didn’t pre-draw up any plans instead measuring the supports and arms to fit what I had for lumber. It still only took me about a half day, even after moving around all the gardening tools.

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Fancy Nancy

Posted on July 25, 2025 by lexicolton

Well we just had a fun vacation in Michigan! Mandy went to Saugatuck last year and convinced everyone to take a chance on the salt-free beaches of lake Michigan. It was beautiful! It looked and felt just like the ocean. The town was cute as were the surrounding towns. One day we went to a Dutch village with a real windmill that had been brought over from Holland. It also had a cool bellows powered pipe symphony thing that was super neat to look at and listen to. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins. They cried last night when they found out we were leaving in the morning.

I’ve been a bit behind on posting because last week before we left I was scrambling to get stuff ready for our drive to Michigan. There were no direct flights to Michigan so we’d either have to take a connection or drive several hours from Chicago. Since we were going to have to rent a car anyway we actually saved a lot of money by driving. Even with the cost of gas, a campsite and treats I bought for the kids we still saved like $900. On the way there we decided to stop at a campsite outside Niagara Falls. We stopped at the falls, had a nice walk along the rapids and rode the Maid of the Mist. Then we went to the campsite to cook dinner and sleep (we used our microcamper of course). Our campsite was on Lake Ontario, and we could see the lake from our site. It was a bit buggy and hot with almost no wind, but luckily right before bed the wind picked up and we had a pleasant sleep.

To keep the kids occupied in the car I put together a bunch of little crafts and activities. Will and I put them into paper bags and we gave them one each hour. The beginning of the journey I gave them out a laminated sheet of license plates and a map of where we were headed so they could track our progress. I also took out a bunch of library books including these cool books they have at the library that read to you (and you can plug in headphones to them). Patricia loves those books because she isn’t a strong reader yet. Julius even enjoyed them because they have fancy narration and music. I didn’t think of doing movies but that would have been a great idea in retrospect.

I bought a bunch of the little crafts on sale from Michaels, put together a few crafts myself and then made a few little toys, combined with some toys that they already had. I also made snackle boxes for each way that had fruits and a watercolor painting cookie which is basically a craft and a snack! We also packed lunches which saved money on our drive. It took me quite a while to prep all that for the drive though, combined with packing the microcamper. I’m still all in on the microcamper. At some point soon I’ll show you the window coverings I made, though I think I might have to upgrade them.

Today I’ll show you how to make a knitting nancy (I guess that’s what they’re called). My grandma gave me one when I was a kid that was in the shape of a mushroom so I call them knitting mushrooms. Julius is about the age I was when I first got one so I made one for him from one of the wooden spools from my grandma and some dowels. He said he loved it and made a 2 foot chain on the way here.

Knitting Mushroom (or Nancy)

What you’ll need:

¼” dowel
Wooden spool of thread
Wood glue
Crochet hook
Yarn

Drill 4 holes in the top of the spool of thread in a square.

2. Cut 4 1” lengths of dowel.

3. Place a bit of glue in each hole.

4. Insert dowel in each hole.

Follow this great video to start knitting.

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Christmas in July

Posted on July 7, 2025 by lexicolton

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

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

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

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

Here’s the finished tree bag. Note the cinched bottom and the ties onto the legs, plus the handles!

DIY Decorated Tree Cover

What you’ll need:

6 yards of Oly Fun
3 yards of Ribbon

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

Here’s how to make each panel for your tree.

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

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Sweet Dreams

Posted on July 1, 2025 by lexicolton

Okay it’s time to talk about the final part of the microcamper! Will and my bed! So I know it’s a huge shock that a 6 foot tall man can (barely) fit in the back of a RAV4. With the front seats all the way up there is 6.5 feet of length… Will says the length is not an issue, it’s the fact that sometimes he likes to tent his legs up and he can’t do that with Julius over him. Luckily he’s a good sport – the best sport – and has put up with my whole microcamper idea.

So one problem with the RAV4 for sleeping is that the back seats don’t fold down completely flat. They are slightly bent upwards. This means that you could pop a mattress in there and sleep with your head up by the front seats, and your feet in the trunk…. except we had to sleep 2 kids in the car. For this reason I had to hang two beds over the front and middle regions of the car, meaning our heads were better off in the back of the car near the trunk hatch. So step 1 was leveling out the back of the car with some kind of platform. This was pretty easy.

I used a level and determined how much height I needed at the back vs. the middle (where the seats fold up). (I believe the answer was 6″ vs. 3″). Then I cut some 2x6s down to the length of the trunk (-2″) and then at an angle (had to use a hand saw) so that one end was 6″ and the other end tapered down to 3″. I cut 3 such pieces and then I cut a piece of 1/2″ plywood (4’x8′) the length of my back trunk, rounding the part by the hatch on either side.

I screwed this to the 3 pieces of tapered plywood, leaving a gap at the end closest to the middle seats. In this gap I placed a 2×2 strip, 2″ below the platform. This is going to be used to hold some extensions. The extensions are 3 lengths of 2×2 that will slide out from the back trunk section and lay on the back of the middle seats that are folded down.

Note: these ended up only going up to the grey part, not on top of the seats.

Finally I installed two more pieces of plywood (cut into 18″ lengths) and screwed them together with hinges (2 on the top of the pieces between the back and the middle, and 2 on the back of the pieces between the middle and the front). Oh and I cut out a place for the center console since that is behind the front seats when they are all the way forward.

Next I tackled the mattress. I had a bunch of extra 4″ Lux foam from foam factory from when I made the climbing wall padding. I took that and bought some extra to make the mattress. I cut it down into 3 24″ x48″ lengths. Well, I had to do a bit more assembling with 3M super 77 adhesive – make sure you spray liberally on both pieces you want to secure, let it sit for 5 minutes to get sticky then press together thoroughly to adhere, or at least pinch the edges together. Then let it sit for 24-48 hours.

I made the mattress casing from old scrap fabric (you might recognize the pink from my Princess Peach costume) and the blue is a bedsheet that ripped. I have to post some instructions on how to create the mattress coverings, but I essentially cut out all the pattern pieces, added a super wide zipper (like 36″ long) and then stitched it up.

Overall I would say it is very comfortable, and the slight bonus with the back platform is I can fit camping supplies underneath.

Grand total for the platform mattress:

1 – 1/2″ 4×8 plywood ($45.55)
1 – 2x6s ($7.72)
2 – 2x2s ($5.74)
4 hinges ($6.54)
zippers ($19.99 from zipper shipper)
4″ lux open cell foam ($49.99 from foam factory)
Grand total: $135.53

For perspective a Luno air mattress that fits perfectly in the back of your car costs $500, so I feel like I got away at a steal here. It folds up into the back, but takes up quite a bit of space vs. the air mattress but it’s quite comfy so I think it’s a worthy trade off.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing, Home Improvement | 2 Comments

Time Flies

Posted on June 24, 2025 by lexicolton

My Julius is a big 2nd grader! His last (half) day of school was Monday and he has been home since. He told me he had a sad feeling in his chest when he came home because he was going to miss his teacher. I told him that was a normal feeling of sadness and of course it instantly made me feel the same way. We all adored Julius’ 1st grade teacher and are just so sad it’s over. I’ll take a minute to brag though that my big guy got a perfect report card and we are so proud of all he’s learned this year. I’m crying right now just thinking about how fast he’s growing up!

Both my kiddos are growing up so fast. I’ve been a bit behind putting up the artwork from the last several months (I found things from Easter) and I started going thru all the art. And Patricia’s artwork is just incredible. Julius was helping me go thru it (since I’m letting him stay up a bit later since he can sleep in this week) and we both looked at each other impressed on one particular piece and he said “wow, that is really good.” I couldn’t help but agree. She’s a natural!

We’re off to camping this weekend again this time with my BFFITWWW! After camping last weekend with the scouts in a tent everyone said they prefer the car. Also I can confirm it takes way less time to put everything up and away 3 times vs the tent. That said… I’m not convinced the car is going to be weather in the heat. It’s a heat wave here and this weekend is no exception. We’ll see how we do….

Oh but first I did add a button to the back of the car to let us escape! It was super easy because I just tapped into the existing connector for the trunk switch. It cost me $14.33 for the momentary push button switch from Advanced Auto Parts, then about an hour to take the back off, install the switch, drill a hole for the switch in the plastic housing and replace everything. Only problem is now the kids always try to go out the trunk.

This video is where I got the original inspiration (thank you!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3YE8nMFaSY&t=167s

Here’s my follow up to the above video:https://youtube.com/shorts/2zBt-39L9iU?si=5qnTz-8nqPcTipoN

Here’s an amazing video that helped me figure out how to remove the back plastic housing (I don’t have a trim tool but the tool used to pry the housing off toy trains worked perfectly for me):https://youtu.be/b9kzwplt4rg?si=qYy80L78Bn5HSDOz

PS. – In case you’re wondering this totally cured the claustrophobia for me! We slept all weekend in the car at another great camp site!

Posted in Home Improvement | 2 Comments

Just Hanging Around

Posted on June 10, 2025 by lexicolton

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

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

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

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

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

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

Micro Camper Hanging Cots

What you’ll need (for each bed):

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

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

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

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

pipe insulation or foam padding (free from scrap)

1.5 yards of heavyweight duck canvas ($9)

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

Steel Frame

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

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

3. Attach your t-connectors and assemble.

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

Fabric Cover

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

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

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

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

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

6. Again hem.

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

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