Julius Dreams of Sushi

Posted on November 16, 2025 by lexicolton

Finally coming up for air! As you know I LOVE Halloween. As you also know my kids were born 4 days apart in early November and I LOVE planning their birthdays. Basically mid October to mid November is the most busy period for me all year. Julius asked in July for an “electric car party” which I spent many hours agonizing over what to do and coming up with several ideas. I thought my last one (giant race track with matchbox car racing plus solar car building) was a winner for sure, but Julius went to a friend’s birthday at the roller rink and decided he wanted a skating party. Honestly it was a relief for me. He was again inviting his whole class which is a lot of kids. Then there is always the awkwardness where people ask if they can bring siblings (been there done that too, no shame) and I have to legitimately figure out if I’ll have enough space or not. At the roller rink we could allow siblings because they have infinite space. Plus Will and I both love roller blading so it’s fun for us too! It was insanely expensive though. I think overall it was probably worth it.

So for Julius’ party I luckily had to do very little prep work. Lucky because a week before Halloween Patricia ended up in the hospital with antibiotic resistant bacterial cellulitis. Thankfully some IV antibiotics and warm compresses caused it to drain and we ended up only staying one night (because she didn’t have surgery). Patricia is doing a lot better now but it was pretty scary. This cut down on birthday and Halloween prep time… More on that later. Then my friend Delaney visited from out of town for 3 nights the week before both kids’ parties. We had a blast but I had even less time finishing up party planning!

The good news was Julius’ party was a synch. I only needed to provide cupcakes (I could have bought them but what’s the fun in that) and party favors (which I did buy). I never do typical party favors. I know this is an unpopular opinion but I feel like the favors frequently get thrown in the trash so I like to spend the money on activities they can do and take home at the end of the party. And Julius’ party was EXPENSIVE. So I wasn’t about to drop $5 more per kid for trinkets. Instead Julius and I bought a bunch of matchbox cars at dollar tree for $1.25 a piece (Julius loves matchbox) and I stuck a sticker on the back with the 50 prize tickets and free admission that came with the roller skating package. That seems like a pretty great favor to me…

So all that was left for me to do after Patricia’s party was cupcakes! I made another batch of chocolate cupcakes (after freezing 72 a few days before) because I wanted to be sure to have enough for everyone invited. I defrosted the last 30 and started on the icing after everything was cooled and defrosted. I had a Pinterest board of cupcake ideas for his party, but I couldn’t come up with anything clever that was electric car related. He saw on the board some sushi cupcakes I’d pinned and decided that was a way cuter idea. There are a lot of variants of sushi cupcakes online and this was my variant. I didn’t want to make fondant fish like some of the super cool ones did. So this version was pretty easy and they came out great!

The first step was baking the cupcakes with black cupcake liners, then whipping up a batch of white icing.

I piped a dollop of icing in the center of the cupcake. (I’m not sure why they rose and fell but it actually was perfect for the sushi cupcakes.)

Then I pressed the cupcake into a bowl of white sprinkles, flattening out the icing.

Next I added my toppings. For the whole fish version I added icing to the back of a Swedish Fish candy and then affixed it to the top of the cupcake.

For the other versions I took Starburst candies for the raw fish and cut and lightly shaped them to look like bits of fish sticking out the end of the roll.

Then I used a spoon to press down on the frosting a bit in the center. On top of this I added a small blob of frosting and added the Starburst fish pieces.

Finally I pressed in some green sprinkles on the sides to look like avocado and cucumber.

I experimented with flattening it out but decided it liked it better popping up a bit like you’d see at the end of the roll.

For the day of presentation I mixed some green and yellow food coloring into a small amount of icing, and scooped in into little piles to make wasabi.

I also used this recipe to whip up a batch of chocolate sauce that I provided as “soy sauce” for dipping.

Unfortunately the skating rink has terrible lighting so the colors show a bit more neon than they were in real life. The cupcakes were very well received though and a lot of the kids dipped them right in the chocolate sauce!

Posted in Culinary Delights, Parties | 4 Comments

The Children of the Night, What Music They Make

Posted on November 1, 2025 by lexicolton

I’m going to pretend I hit submit on this when I actually wrote it….

Ahhhhhh! It’s only 9 days til Halloween!!! I’m in full panic mode. We had Patricia’s daycare Trunk or Treat last night which is always a blast. It is also when I always aim to have the kids’ Halloween costumes done by. I finished Patricia’s costume 10 minutes before we left and I don’t consider Julius’ done but Julius seems to only want a cape to be a vampire so maybe I am done.

Julius and Patricia actually picked a theme that works together! Julius wanted to be a vampire and Patricia said she wanted to be “a cute bat”. We decided those were perfect costumes, no notes. Julius said his costume HAD to have a black cape with red inside because that’s what all vampires wear. (He is now realizing that’s what Dracula wears but whatever.) I bought everything for his costume (except the teeth) at the thrift shop (dress pants, dress shirt) including a couple of red and black flat sheets that I turned into the cape. The shirt and pants can be completely worn again because they are great quality! Total I spent less than $20 on his costume.

Kids’ Vampire Cape

What You’ll Need:

  • 3 yards of black material
  • 3 }yards of red material
  • 1/2 yard of peltex 70 ultrafirm interfacing
  • clasp (I used a large sized metal hook and eye)

1. I started by measuring Julius’ height from his shoulder to his calf. I also measured an appropriate width for his neck (but I did this by measuring below and around the collar of his dress shirt collar. This helped me keep it loose enough).

2. I took the neck width number and divided it in quarters then I drew a shallow curve the length of the quartered width from above on top of the red fabric folded in half. I measured down from that line the height measured above to form a panel for the cape.

3. I repeated steps 2 but no longer on a fold and with a more elf-shoe-like-curve to my line for the front of the cape.

4. Cut the same pieces out in black.

5. I sewed the pieces from step 3 on either end of the piece in step 2. Repeat for both black and red sides of cape

6. Place red and black pieces right sides together then pin and stitch around the whole cape leaving the neck completely opened.

7. Turn right side out and press.

8. Cut out your collar from interfacing using the shape in the picture. You will need to adjust so the length of your collar matches the underside of the pattern. I made a template of scrap paper first.

9. Cut a piece of red and black fabric with seam allowance beyond that of the collar.

10. Stitch red and black collar fabric together leaving the neck portion opened.

11. Turn right side out, press and stuff with interfacing.

12. Pin entire unfinished side of collar to cape on black fabric only. Stitch.

13. Turn collar up and fold under red fabric on the cape to cover the unfinished edge. Stitch thru the folded under portion (using red thread on the top of your machine, and black thread in the bobbin.)

14. Finally add a clasp of your choosing – I didn’t have anything else in my stash that matched so I used a large size hook and eye, which made it easy for Julius to get on and off himself.

15. Scare up some fun!

Posted in Crafts & Sewing, Thrift Finds | 2 Comments

I Wish I was an Ocean Maybe then I’d get to see you Again

Posted on October 14, 2025 by lexicolton

Wow. What a trip. My siblings and I went on our first ever Collins siblings trip this past weekend to LA to see The Format. The last time we saw The Format was also one of the most fun experiences of my life. I was home from my first year of college and Mandy, Mark and I all went together to see the show at The Living Room in Providence. I drove us to the venue (super low ceiling intimate venue) and together we belted out all their songs. This time around Ryan hosted us all in LA and he was just the best as usual. He spoiled us with hospitality – we went to Disneyland, the beach, various fabulous cafes, two concerts, went swimming in the pool, went to a farmers market, took pretty much every mode of modern transportation available (Bird, Lyft, waymo, bikes, cars) and stayed up way too late every night. It was bliss.

The concert itself was amazing. It was in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery which is an actual active cemetery. It was a super cool venue and I learned Saturday that your final resting place can be in front row concert seats. Sounds amazing!

Can I also just share that the electric scooters are super fun and Waymo was way better than imagined. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel putting myself in the hands of an AI driver but I got comfortable instantly. The best features? No more awkward small talk with cabbies and you can blast your own music! Whenever we couldn’t take Waymo it made the ride way less exciting. We also got to the point where we’d be thinking to ourselves (while in human driven cabs) “Waymo wouldn’t have cut that guy off”. Waymo did have a couple weird glitches but nothing that ever made me think I was going to die (which has happened to me dozens of time in ride shares over the years).

I am saddened the trip is over and I have to go back to the real world tonight! I’ll share the last project from my other escape from reality, camping. One of the last things I made for the micro camper was big covers for the windows. These may get modified to use different material but right now they are made of stretchy knit netting. They don’t let as much air in as I would like though, so I may make new versions with a different fabric, but the process will be the same.

Custom Car Camper Window Covers

  • ~1 yard of stretchy mesh material per window cover
  • Fridge magnets (mine were left over from wedding save the dates)
  • e1000

1. Using scrap paper trace the shape of your windows.

2. Use this as a template to cut 2 pieces of fabric for each window and add 1″ seam allowance to the top and sides and several inches for the bottom (you’ll want to figure out the best place to add the magnets from trial and error.

3. Stitch the top and sides using a serger.

4. Place the covering over your window and the place magnets on top, figuring out the best placement to get them to stick. The magnets will prevent bugs coming up underneath.

5. Move the magnets to the same placement but underneath the fabric and secure with e1000 glue.

6. When dry trim the excess fabric to the location of your magnets.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

Cloud 9

Posted on October 7, 2025 by lexicolton

So before I get into my weekend I have to recount the most adorable tale. Two weekends ago Will went to visit Erin and Mark to play board games while I stayed home with the kids with the theory that I would have a relaxing weekend. I’m not quite sure how I deluded myself into thinking this, but I ended up not relaxing at all since the kids had multiple birthday parties, soccer games, piano lessons etc. During the evenings I ended up fixing Julius’ seatbelt (which I discovered after a long period of poking had been thwarted by a tortilla chip) and doing dishes/tinkering with the dishwasher because our dishwasher had broken. Again. I digress, let’s get back to the adorable tale.

Patricia was invited to tag along to Julius’ friends’ party at the roller rink. She was a little bummed because she was having a tough time skating and Julius was playing with his own friends. I came over to help her and she lamented, “why can’t Julius play with me?” I patiently explained to her that we were at a birthday for Julius’ friends and he may want to play with his own friends. She then tearfully said, “well he can play with me AND his friends”. I told her that maybe he would eventually do just that but until then I’d skate with her. She rejected me and said she’d rather skate on her own so I went back and watched from the sidelines while she slowly tried to make skating progress. As soon as I got back to the edge of the rink I noticed Julius skating around the corner, hunched over and rather chaotic (as he is still learning to skate himself). He clearly sees Patricia up ahead of him, and he inelegantly slows down, goes right up next to Patricia and then puts his hand out for her to hold. They then take off together hand in hand. It was adorable. He’s just the best brother.

This past weekend we went for a final camping trip of the year (that I know of) bringing our camping to 4 different weekends in 3 different states! This one was in Vermont which was GORGEOUS. The foliage this past weekend was incredible. We went on a hike to a pond, then canoed around the pond, went to the nature center, checked out the actual Cabot factory (from afar, they don’t do tours) and then went to a HUGE fall festival. It was basically my perfect weekend! We didn’t have cell service either, and except for my kindle dying and me not being able to read the book I brought, it was everything I wanted for a fall camping trip.

I am going on an actual vacation this weekend by myself and I hope it is more relaxing than my delusional weekend of “relaxation”. I’ll let you know. Despite my jam packed weekends I did get in some crafting time a few weeks back to finish up a couple items for camping. The one I’ll share with you today is ridiculously easy. Our first camping trip of the year was to the cape and Will and I had forgotten our pillows. We went to a camping store and found they sold camp pillows for $25. Then we went to Target and found standard size pillows for $5 each. Insane. We bought 2 and were much more comfortable. Unfortunately they weren’t super compact. Well I fixed that. I cut one of the pillows in half, sewed it closed and made a cover for it. And it was literally 1/10th the cost of the camp pillow…

Camping pillows from $5 Target Pillow

What you’ll need:

1. Cut pillow in half. (My pillow was 20×13 after cut in half.)

2. Squish stuffing in and then fold under the unfinished edges and sew. I put an extra layer of pins to hold in the stuffing so I could sew more easily.

3. Cut fabric for pillow cover. For mine, one was 21.5″x14.5″, the second was 27.5″x14.5″

4. Hem one short edge of each pillow.

5. Place the longer pillow cover piece right side up and fold the finished edge over by 5″. Place the shorter piece on top of this with right side down. Stitch around the 3 unfinished edges.

6. Turn pillowcase inside out and place pillow inside.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

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

  1. 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?

Posted in Crafts & Sewing, Thrift Finds | 2 Comments

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.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 3 Comments

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″

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | 1 Comment

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.

Before…
After!
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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
  1. 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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