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 :)

My children eat oatmeal all winter long. They never tired of it. I don’t get it. Come summer I can’t even stand to make it any more, though I’m sure they would eat it. I need something cool and quick for hot summer mornings. Last year I discovered this recipe for chocolate granola and it is delicious. Really it’s not like granola at all, it’s more like cereal–real, out-of-the-box cereal, something that rarely shows up in this house.  But a jar of Hippie Cocoa Pebbles is now a staple in my cupboard.

The first step is extra hippie: soak the nuts overnight. Hippie Cocoa Pebbles are nut based–they contain no grains, no oats, no gluten at all. Super great! but nuts contain a lot of phytic acid, which is an anti-nutrient (I laughed the first time I heard that word too). Soaking minimizes the damage phytic acid can do. You can obviously read more about this on the internets if you are interested, but for now just know that soaking the nuts makes this cereal taste better and be better for you.

After the nuts have soaked overnight, you rinse them, dry them, and pulverize them in the food processor. I make quite a big batch, so the nuts fill my food processor up to the top. This involves a bit of stopping and stirring in between chopping, so they don’t inadvertently become nut butter!  You want them to be about the consistency of grape nuts–on the coarser side of finely chopped I’d say.

Then you make a delicious mixture of butter and cocoa and maple syrup. I freely admit that I hide from my children in the kitchen and lick the spoon clean.

About the cocoa powder: buy the best stuff you can find. Really. This recipe uses a lot (1/2 cup) and it is the dominant flavor, so break out the good stuff. I am in love with Penzey’s high fat cocoa powder. It smells like chocolate, rich dark chocolate. Cocoa powder should smell like chocolate, right? Sadly, most smell like ash (I’m looking at you Hershey’s).

Then you take that lovely buttery, chocolatey syrup you just made and mix it with the nuts. If you make a smaller batch you can get away with mixing in the food processor, but for a large batch it works out better in a bowl. This is where I usually forget to add the coconut, so if you don’t care for coconut feel free to forget it. Toasted coconut  (if you have some leftover) would be absolutely lovely.

All of it goes into a warm oven and as it bakes it fills your whole house with the most amazing chocolatey aroma. The temperature of the oven is so low in fact (200 F) that if you have a dehydrator now’s the time to dust it off. I think it would even qualify as raw then. This cereal does indeed come with a lot of buzz words: Gluten free! Grain free! Low sugar! No refined sugar! Paleo!  But there’s only one word it comes with that really matters: Delicious!

hippie cocoa pebbles

adapted from Gourmand in the Kitchen’s chocolate granola

ingredients

• 3 cups almonds
• 2 cups pecans (you can easily substitute walnuts, macadamias, or skinless hazelnuts, but if you use cashews only soak them for 2-3 hours)
• 3/4 cup butter (coconut oil is a good substitute if you can’t do dairy)
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup dried, unsweetened coconut (optional)

directions

1. Soak the nuts in filtered water overnight. Drain and rinse them well. Dry on a clean kitchen towel.
2. Chop in a food processor until they are the size of little pebbles (cocoa pebbles!)
3. Melt butter and maple syrup over low heat.
4. Add cocoa powder and mix well.
5. Pour the buttery mixture and the nuts into a big bowl and mix thoroughly
6. Add the coconut and mix.
7. Spread the cereal on two sheet pans lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake in a 200 degree F oven for 2 1/2-3 hours, stirring now and then.
9. Cool and store in airtight containers.
10. Hippie Cocoa Pebbles keep two weeks at room temperature, longer in the freezer.

This recipe makes 5-6 cup cereal. Enjoy!

My job for the day is to turn these knit shirts (and one dress) into summer pajamas for my kids. I only have a vague notion of how I’m going to do it, but it has to happen because it’s hot!

Many of you have asked where I get my knits. The answer is the Dig & Save. It’s a store somewhere between dumpster and thrift shop. I’m not making it sound very glamorous am I? I suppose it isn’t really, but it is very cheap and very awesome.  The store is full of giant bins of clothes too tattered or stained for the thrift store. You have to literally dig through them to find what you are looking for, or in most cased what you didn’t know you were looking for. Everything you do find is $1/pound (half price on Wednesdays).

I often go looking for t shirts to cut up and use for something else. All the different names of knits (and all fabric to be honest) confuse me, but if I can feel the fabric I know exactly what I’ll make with it. All the knits pictured above are soft and stretchy, but not too stretchy. There are some that are thin and will work for pj tops and some that are thicker for pj bottoms. I could’ve never gotten exactly what I wanted through the internet.

That said, there are limitations to using old t shirts: pockets, buttons, v-necks all can get in the way. When I stumble upon an XXL turtleneck I do a little dance. If you don’t have a digging-based thrift store in your area or just want straight up yardage for your project, Girl Charlee is a fantastic online resource for knits. All of their fabrics are reasonably priced and though I have gotten some printed knits that were a bit scratchy, 90% of the time they are butter soft.

Have you ever finished a Christmas present in May? I suppose that’s what happens when you start the largest and most complicated crochet project you’ve ever attempted in November.

Yes, this is a christmas present for my mother (and birthday present and now mother’s day present). Yes, she has seen it, unfinished and unblocked. Yes, that is kind of mean: “Here is this thing I’m making you that’s half done and kind of crappy looking! Aren’t you excited? No, you can’t have it! And I have no idea when I’ll be done! Merry Christmas!”

Oh well. It is actually done done now. I finished the crocheting in February I think, then I had a little project fatigue. I did not want to see it or touch it or do anything else with it. Has that ever happened to you?

I was super nervous about blocking the shawl, because blocking could make or break this project. This project I had devoted a crazy amount of hours to already.  Finally, I borrowed some blocking wires from a friend (thanks, Debbie!), bought 200 pins, cleared off the guest bed, and blocked that sucker. It turned out nicely, seeing I had no idea what I was doing! The before and after blocking pictures are pretty striking. Block your work, people!

You can find the link to the pattern on Ravelry. Sorry there isn’t any information about the yarn I used. I will try to hunt it down, because I’ve completely forgotten what it was called. It was a lovely lace weight, mohair blend just slightly variegated. It was the absolute perfect yarn for this project. I guess I’ll just have to go back to the yarn store to see if they still stock it.

Maybe this would be a good time to start working on her present for this christmas…