Merry Christmas Josephina!

For Christmas, I really wanted to give Ruby a bed for her American Girl doll, Josephina. The American Girl brand beds are pretty expensive, and we aren't in the market for pricey doll beds. So, at the end of the summer I asked my yard sale-master mother-in-law to look around and see what she could find. She didn't find any doll beds at yard sales, but did find an old doll crib in her basement. It was in pretty bad shape, and was a crib, which isn't the bed for a 9-year-old doll (Josephina is 9 years old, according to Ruby).

Here's what it looked like when I got it. It had a drop side, which was broken pretty badly, and missing rails. The metal guides for the side were all bent up and loose. There were old broken wheels on three legs and the whole thing was worn and loose and wobbly. It had been played with a lot, and had crayon and marks and dirt on it. For some reason my camera made the finish look pretty good, but it was in bad shape.

Old Broken Doll Crib

I had some work to do, but I thought I could make it into a really nice daybed--two pieces of furniture in one!. When I was a kid, my grandpa built us a bunkbed for our Cabbage Patch dolls and my grandma made all the mattreses and blankets and pillows and everything. With lots and lots of detail. The mattresses were made with ticking, there were fitted sheets and top sheets, and felt blankets with the ribbony top, and quilts, and bedspreads that folded over the pillows, and oh, they were so fancy. I probably don't even remember all the details that were in those bed sets. I wanted to do all the wonderful details my grandma had done, but I didn't have that much time, so I did what I could. Those bunkbeds were my inspiration.

First I removed the wheels and drop side and tightened and fixed the bed to make it sturdy. Then I cleaned the living daylights out of the thing. Here's how it looked cleaned and ready to start working on it, and you can see a little better how worn the finish was:

Cleaned up and repaired

Next I used Restore-A-Finish by Howard to restore the worn away stain. After that I used a Feed-N-Wax polish to make it shine. Both are great products. I had originally wanted to paint the bed white, but it's too cold to paint outside or in the garage and I don't have anywhere to paint in the house, so I went with a stained wood instead. It looked really nice when I was done. The beeswax polish does a really nice job making the wood shine. I think I'll use it on the rest of the furniture we have that's looking at bit worn. I bought a piece of hardboard at Home Depot and had them cut it to size for the base of the bed. The tag on the board said it was 24 inches, exactly what I needed, and I had the guy measure it to be sure, but he cut the piece off the other end of the board, which was not exactly 24 inches, so there's a little gap on the ends (if the tag says 24 x 48 inches, it really should be 24 inches on both ends). I took some little plastic cupboard door bumpers and cut them in half and they ended up being just the right size for the gaps. I have the rest of the board, so later on I'll probably cut a piece that fits properly.

Stained with new base

Once the bed itself was finished I turned to the task of making it comfy. I made a tufted mattress, two side pillows and a bolster for the back. I used some muslin I had kicking around and I had a bag of stuffing already, so up to this point, the only money I spent was on the hardboard, stain and polish. To help make them all less lumpy, I lined the insides with quilt batting (which I also had) before stuffing. I also made box corners for everything. I was really happy with how they came out. That side of the mattress that looks flat, I ripped open the seam and stuffed it some more after the picture. It looks better now.

Mattress and Pillows

Next up: a sheet for the mattress, a duvet, duvet cover, bed skirt and pillow cases. Everything is made with envelope openings, so she can take them off easily. The sheet goes on like a pillowcase so it doesn't slip off. I forgot to take a separate picture of the duvet, but I made it with baffles to look like a down comforter. It's made out of the same white fabric as the bedskirt and has a layer of quilt batting. It's cute.

With Bed Linens

The duvet cover and pillows have a darker pink on the back so she can have different looks depending on her mood. Eventually, when I feel like sewing again, I might make her a set in different colors so she can change the look of the bed. Maybe darker colors for winter.

When I was at the fabric store waiting in line at the cutting table, I had the bolt of the dark pink fabric and I was planning to get a yard of it cut, and there was .98 yard piece in the remnant bin. Remnants are 50% off, and the fabric was already 30% off--Score! Deal Of The Day!

Reversible!

Here's a picture of Josephina in her nightgown (Ruby has a matching one in her size) in bed. Ruby told me Josephina loves her bed.

Goodnight Josephina!

Josephina got a new friend for Christmas, her name is Kit. Here they are getting to know each other on the daybed in its couch mode (you can kind of see the baffle indents on the duvet in this picture). The bed is wide enough that both dolls can sleep at the same time. The bed is also tall enough that I could make a pull-out trundle, which I might do sometime. It's just the right height to fit three plastic shoeboxes that she uses for the doll clothes and accessories.

Sharing with her new friend Kit

I started this project the afternoon of Sunday the 23rd, went to Home Depot & the fabric store for supplies the next morning and worked all day the 24th and finished up around 5:00 a.m. Christmas morning. I was so full of adrenaline when I finished I couldn't get to sleep. I got started so late because I finished my knitting projects late, and since they had to be mailed, I had to get them done first.

Overall, this was a great project. I wish I had been able to start earlier so I wasn't so rushed, but it sure looks great and Ruby loves it. Which is the most important thing of all.

I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here!

One of my new favorite things about our new town is all the walking/bike paths that go all over town. You can get to most places in town on a bike path. It's great. I've been taking walks on the paths after walking Ruby to school in the morning. I'm already out of the house and walking, so I might as well keep going! For me, getting started is the hardest part about exercising. I always have an excuse.

This morning we went for a family bike ride to explore the paths together. It was awesome. We rode over to a park that was a 25 minute walk for me, and we rode there in less than 10 minutes. There's another park that's about a 2 minute ride. The kids could go there themselves. The kids spent a lot of the ride pretending to play MarioKart and kept throwing pretend banana peels and shells at each other.

We decided that we want to live in one of the houses that backs up to the bike path. There are some that have a little strip of woods between the yard and the bike path, so you have your privacy, but easy access to the path. None of them are for sale, but we can keep hoping! There are some houses for sale further down the path that don't have the wooded strip, but have a really big yard that backs up to the path. Those are listed between $450,000-500,000. A bit out of our price range. Okay, a lot out of our price range. But they're so pretty!

After the ride, we decided to give a second look to some of the houses for sale near the bike path that hadn't passed muster before. There are some options that we might be able to make work. We will probably be focusing in neighborhoods that the bike path goes through, and houses near the path.

I guess it's not such a bad thing that we'll have to rent for a while. It does give us a chance to get to know the city a bit better before we decide on a permanent place to live.

Lots of things to like here!

The Sassy Cow

One thing I really like about living in Wisconsin is that they're all about dairy. Lots of little dairy farms with red barns all over the place. Some of them have their own little creameries, where you can buy all sorts of milk, cheese and other dairy products. Even regular grocery stores have a huge cheese selection. They take their cheese very seriously here.

Our current favorite is about 10 minutes up the road, in Columbus, called Sassy Cow Creamery. They have two farms they use for milk, each owned by a brother in the family. One is an organic farm, and the other is traditional. They sell the milk in the local grocery stores.

They were having an ice cream social on Aug 25th, and since the kids and I had been up there for ice cream the week before, we decided to take the whole family and John's parents who were up for something else, and check it out.

It was a big to-do, and we had to park way down the road. They had tours of the diary where they process the milk. Inside the store, they have big windows into the diary so you can watch them making cheese and ice cream. If you're there on the right days, you can watch the guy stretching the string cheese. 

Meghan, John Sr., Sam, and John getting ready to go inside for the tour.

John, of course, knew what all the pipes and machines were for, and he said he had never seen such a small pasteurizer before. We got to watch them make ice cream, though we were in the back and couldn't see well, and really we got to hear them make ice cream. But we had John with us, so we could just ask him questions.

Ruby and I went on the hay ride that went around the field.

On the hayride.

They had a big long row of tractors for kids to climb on. They had signs on the front telling what kind of tractor it was and the year. I didn't note them. Sorry.

Ruby on a tractor.

Meghan playing a cranky old man on a tractor.

John and Sam next to a John Deere. They had been to a church softball game in the morning, which Sam dressed up for.

We had ice cream and chocolate milk (their chocolate milk is super yummy). I had the root beer float flavor on a waffle cone. It was sooo good. They had buses taking people over to the farm for farm tours, but we kept missing them, and then we were really hot and tired and decided to skip the farm tour and head home.

But this is our new favorite little dairy and ice cream shop. Just thinking about it makes me hungry!

Survivor

Remember my fig tree? The one the kids have named "Planty the Potted Plant"?

He's made a remarkable recovery! All he needed was some peace, some sunlight, and water. We'll let his roots recover for the next year or so, then put him in a big pot on wheels so we can easily bring him in when it gets too cold at night.

Such a relief!

Green Bay

John was working in Green Bay this week, and while up there, he found out they were having their office summer party on Wednesday, a luau at the Bay Beach Amusement Park. He invited us to come up and join him, and we did.

Meghan was at girl’s camp, so it was just the two younger kids and me. It took about two hours to drive up there, and we checked in and took our stuff up to John’s room and waited for him to get back from the office.

After he changed, we headed over to the park, stopping on the way to check out Lambeau Field. The kids and I got out to take some pictures. 

See the big group by the doors? Tour group. Many of them are dressed in Packers finery.

The Bay Beach Amusement Park is a small park with mostly little kids rides, bumper cars, a train, a tilt-a-whirl, big swings, a big slide, etc., and a roller coaster that had been bought from other larger parks. The rides each had a little sign telling about the history of the ride. Each ride was one or two tickets, except the roller coaster, which was four. As part of the company party, we each had eight tickets, and one of John's co-workers gave us her and her husband's tickets, so we had plenty for everyone. 

Sam, John and Ruby with Green Bay in the background.

 They had a nice dinner, including a full roasted pig and side dishes. We had a nice time meeting John's co-workers and chatting with the boss. Everyone was very friendly. After we ate, we rode some rides. We started with the train and worked our way around from there. Ruby was kind of skittish and didn't want to do anything she considered dangerous.

Except the roller coaster. She was on board for that one! It was once a part of Libertyland, and one of Elvis Presley's favorite rides. The wood is all new, but the coaster is still rickety and scary as all get out. I'm pretty sure I got whiplash at one point, and my glasses almost flew off.

The Zippin Pippin.

A good time was had by all, and while we were pretty tired, we still had enough energy to go out for ice cream! You just can't have a day at an amusement park and NOT have ice cream!

The next morning it was pouring straight down, and the kids and I decided to take it easy, have a leisurely breakfast and wait for the rain to pass before we headed for home.

On the way out of town, the kids and I thought we'd swing by Lambeau Field again and get a picture of everyone tailgating. Unfortunately, we got there around 11:30, and the parking lot didn't open until 3:00. Ah well. There were people at the houses around the stadium who were setting up in their yards, so I'm pretty certain that if the parking lot had been open, there would be a party going on! We did get this nice picture of the front on opening day.

Lambeau Field, Opening Day 2012.

Our route home took us though Oshkosh, WI, which is a big outlet center. We stopped at the American Girl Outlet and bought a couple of things for Ruby's doll. We also popped in to a couple of other stores to look for some deals on school clothes. The Levi's store had lots of shorts in Sam's size, and I started to grab a bunch, then I realized that here shorts aren't really school clothes, since it won't be long before fall arrives and it will be too cold for shorts! I did get a couple of pairs, though, and a couple of shirts.

On our way home, we heard from John that he had gotten a call from the hotel mentioning that he was supposed to check out, but his clothes were still in the room. He had originally planned to check out Thursday, but had forgotten to change his reservation. Alas, it was the Packers' home opener, and they did not have a spare room for him, so he had to go get his things and check out.

On the upside, he got to come home a day early!

Wisconsin or Bust: Thursday

Last day on the road! Woo-hoo!

The plan for Thursday was to just drive to Sun Prairie and pick the the keys to the house. That’s it.

But, as we were driving through Minnesota, we saw signs for the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota. And we said, “We can’t NOT stop there!” 

According to the website:

“Few experiences in life are as meaningful and meaty-filled as those you’ll have at the magnificent SPAM® Museum. Referred to by some meat historians as The Guggenham, Porkopolis or M.O.M.A. (Museum Of Meat-Themed Awesomeness), the SPAM® Museum is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of spiced pork artifacts.”

How could you pass that up? We couldn’t. We stopped.

The kids in front of the museum.

And we loved it! Well, John and I loved it, Meghan thought we had lost our minds and Ruby and Sam played with and touched everything in the place.

Ruby and Sam and the Can O'Spam.

The whole place had a great attitude, poking fun at Spam at every turn, while also presenting a good history of canned ham, Dinty Moore stew, and also Hormel chili. 

They had a section where you could dress up as a Hormel worker and time how long it took you to cook and process 6 cans of Spam, and then they told you how many cans the factory had done in that same time. Here’s Ruby all dressed up.

Ruby, the Hormel Worker.

It took me 1:19 to do all 6 cans and the factory had made thousands of cans in that same time. Here are Ruby and Sam racing each other.

How fast can you can a can of Spam?

At the end they had the video of the Monty Python Spam sketch. Here are Meghan and John watching it in the Green Midget Cafe.

I'll have the Spam, Spam, Spam, eggs and Spam.

They had what has to be the best gift shop ever. They had anything that could possibly be printed on with the Spam logo on it. We bought a small can of Spam spread for the kids to try on crackers in the car, and apron, and a couple of pencils for the kids.

And a squashed penny or two!

As I said, John and I really enjoyed it, Ruby and Sam had a lot of fun, and Meghan was in full teenage “I can’t believe I am stuck with these people” mode.

I highly recommend the Spam Museum to anyone anywhere near Austin, Minnesota. It’s great fun.

After the museum, we got back on the road with no more detours and got to the house while they were still cleaning it and picked up the keys. The kids ran around and picked out their rooms. Then we headed back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.

We made it!!!

Interlude

We made it safely, but we don't have the Internet hooked up yet. I can't do justice to our last day of travel on my phone blogger app, so stay tuned for what is surely the most exciting attraction on I-90!