Now that it’s officially summer, elsie marley is officially in summer mode. Like last year, I’m going to keep a simple summer journal. Post will be a bit shorter, a bit slap dash, just a peek into our summer days really.

If you like the idea of a simple, summertime blog I would love it if you played along! If you have a blog, use summer journal as your title. If you are more of an instgramer/twitterer/tumblrer type use the #summmerjournal hashtag. Leave a comment if you’d like to play along, so I can follow your summer journal!

The other afternoon, we played a game of Simon Says, Draw! Jean from the Artful Parent, posted about this game years ago and I’ve been meaning to try it ever since.  It’s just like the Simon Says game you played when you were little only with drawing instead. So Simon says things like:

• draw a dot
• use a blue crayon
• draw a squiggle
• pass your marker to the left
• draw three eyes
• draw seven legs
• color something purple
• color with two markers at the same time (this one was a bit hit)

You can say Simon says at the beginning of the sentence or not. That part of the game got lost and we just had fun telling each other what to draw. Everyone’s picture ends up completely different. And it’s a great game to wake up your creativity on a hot summer afternoon.

I mentioned last week that I was thinking about making a summer passport. And would you look at that: I did! It was super easy and I’m going to tell you how to do it.

diy summer passport

materials:

• a small moleskine plain journal with a kraft paper cover. They are called Cahiers and are sold in sets of three (for 7 bucks).
• crayons, markers, pencils, whatever
• a list of activities (see below)
• stickers, or a date stamper

directions:

1. Make your cover. We went with the basic, Summer Passport 2013. You could get a little more exciting, like THIS IS GOING TO BE THE JONES’ BEST SUMMER EVAR!

2. Write something fun to do on every right hand page. This ends up being about 30 activities, which I think is doable for summer. It also leaves the left page open for writing about when you did that activity (optional, obviously).

3. Draw a box under the activity. This is where you will put the stickers (or stamp the date) when you do that activity. If you plan to do something often, make sure to draw a big box. My daughter seems to think we will be going to the pool a lot this summer. :)

4. Go do something! Here’s a list of 40 things to get you started:

list of summer activities

1. run through the sprinkler
2. blow bubbles (last year, we made super big bubbles!)
3. eat watermelon (in star form maybe?)
4. make a giant fort
5. make grape sculptures
6. eat corn on the cob (and make your own awesome holders!)
7. buy a treat from the ice cream truck
8. go to the farmer’s market
9. sign up for your library’s summer reading program
10. play in the rain
11. write a letter to Grandma
12. make your own gummy treats
13. wash the car
14. find a new park in your town
15. go swimming!
16. make paper airplanes
17. learn cats cradle
18. paint with chalk paint
19. build a fairy house
20. feed the ducks
21. get your face painted
22. watch fireworks
23. play sidewalk simon
24. catch fireflies
25. play badmiton
26. sail boats down a tin foil river
27. water balloon fight!
28. be a super spy–make invisible ink
29. make ice cream or popsicles
30. make your own stickers
31. exploding paint bombs!
32. go to a local fair
33. have a magic potion lab
34. make saltwater taffy
35. have a lemonade stand (or a tattoo stand!)
36. camp in the backyard
37. go fishing
38. go bowling
39. see a concert in the park
40. pick strawberries

What are you doing this summer? Add your ideas in the comments!

This shorts sew-a-long came right at the perfect time. My children were pretty much shortless before Carla asked me to be a part of this amazing event. Now I’ve got a few made and more cut out. Carla and Rachel have even lined up some awesome prizes from Jo-Ann, Pretty Prudent/Pellon®, and Hawthorne Threads this year and all you have to do is sew some (much needed) shorts!

Here are my shorts I made for my daughter, and on the line to boot! The pattern I used comes from the Japanese book, Happy Homemade vol. 5

The actual pattern for both pairs of shorts is the same, only one is longer and one is shorter with added cuffs.

They are both of the super skinny variety. The pattern is nicely tailored with a simple elastic waist, two rounded pockets in the front, and two typical jean pockets in the back.

I call these her Fruit Stripe shorts. If I was a more organized mom, I would have put a pack of fruit stripe gum in the tiny pocket!

The fabric is by HGTV I think? It is an outdoor fabric I got at Joann’s and I knew it would become fruit stripe shorts the moment I saw it.

What I didn’t think about was matching all those fruit stripes: four patch pockets and separate cuffs. After much sweat and swearing, they [almost] match! Woo Hoo!

The second pair is made from a striped fabric too (I never learn). I scored a yard of this railroad striped denim at the thrift store. I’m usually not a fan of the jean short, but I think these work.

I made these shorts for my daughter last year (paired them with wellies then too!). They got a lot of wear and no wonder–they are comfortable and durable. She is a rough and tumble gal and needs shorts that can keep up.

Those are my shorts on the line! Check out all these amazing sewers to see more:

I took this picture last year right before the kids got home. They were so excited to bust through the finish line! Woo Hoo! Summertime!

We also made a GIANT list of all the fun things we wanted to do that summer. I’m happy to say we checked off almost every one (I don’t think there were any pony rides, but hey! they’re expensive).

This summer, I’m inspired by this post about getting summer right.  Having a schedule–albeit a loosey goosey summer one–is key to keeping my sanity in the summer. I really like the idea of having a set amount of time everyday dedicated to a specific task: say 20 minutes reading, 20 minutes writing, 30 minutes chores, 20 minutes working toward their summer goal.

My idea is to make a summer passport–inspired by the restaurant passport above (hmm, that link seems to be broken, but you get the idea). We’ll make some little books together and write down all the tasks we want/need to accomplish all summer in them. Then I’m going to go out and purchase one of those handy dandy date stampers–you know, the ones the librarians used to stamp your book?  And I’ll stamp their passport when they finish the tasks.

Does this sound too complicated? Last year our summer was filled with fun stuff and my kids’ definitely learned some things too. But this summer I want them to see how a little time each day adds up to awesome things.  Oh my, I think KCW has taken over my brain!

I said I would and look! I actually did: I made summer pajamas from a bunch of thrifted tees.

And the kids actually like them! There is no Iron Man or Perry the Platypus or Elmo or whatever character they’re into this minute in sight. I’m not against the odd licensed character, but I cannot deal with the weird, plastic, pajama fabric they are printed on. When they’re new the fabric feels like slimy alien skin, and after a few washes it turns into pill-y, old, molted alien skin.

Obviously I have some issues with kids’ pajamas. Not these suckers though! They are all 100% handmade from 100% second hand clothes.

Here are all the sewing details:

fabric: thrifted tees pictured here

pattern: For the shorts I used the sleeping johns pattern from Growing Up Sew Liberated. I made the sleeping johns a few years ago and they still fit my daughter. So the fit is obviously pretty generous. My 7 year old daughter is wearing a size 5T, my 6 year old son is wearing a 4T, and my 3 year old son is wearing a 3T

The shirts are made with Rae’s Flashback Skinny Tee pattern. The only time I actually followed the pattern was for the gray shirt in the middle. For the other two shirts I used the pattern more as a guide. The tank top is far from perfect, but it works for pjs.

sewing: The shorts went super fast and were not a problem at all. The shirts were a bit more fiddle-y, because I chose super soft, super thin material. My sewing machine prefers to eat material like that rather than sew it. Arg!

The plan was to have two pairs of pjs for each kid, but only the youngest got two (the second pair is pictured above). For that gray striped top, I used Kristen’s Flashback Tee –> Tank Top tutorial and blatantly copied her style while I was at it. There are two more pairs of pjs in the works. Both are half done, but I think I hit a pajama making wall. Maybe I’ll climb over it this weekend :)