Every once in a while our house gets inundated with 6-8 year olds. It's great. Penelope has a little gang of friends that she parties with, they bounce around from house to house on their bikes scavenging for tasty snacks and things to do. I tend to keep a closed pantry policy most days, but every once in a while I bust out the popcorn maker and make a giant batch of popcorn and send them outside. It gives them something to do, something to eat and it's incredibly easy/cheap to make. It's also very allergy friendly as well (unless using peanut oil). For some reason I thought that kettle corn was a tricky recipe with a tricky process, until last week. It's not. Now that I've figured it out, I'm off to experiment with other flavors. I found this recipe on How Does She?, a recipe for stove top kettle corn. Below is my adaptation for cooking corn with a regular popcorn maker. This would not work for a hot air popper. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Kettle Corn Recipe

Makes about 6 cups of popcorn | For popcorn maker adapted from How Does She?

• 2-3 tablespoons of coconut oil
• 3-5 tablespoons of sugar
• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
• dash of salt

The coconut oil in this recipe makes a huge difference with the flavor. It's incredibly delicious. A MUST add in my opinion. Turn on the popcorn maker so the spinner is rotating, but the lid is off. Put coconut oil in the popcorn maker and wait for it to melt to an oil-like consistency (takes a minute or so). Add the popcorn kernels THEN the sugar. Replace the cover and allow the corn to pop until you hear a 1-2 second pause between pops. Pour into a bowl and sprinkle salt overtop. Serve.  You may want to add more oil and more sugar for a more caramelized, intense flavor. Measuring bowls c/o Red Envelope. 

Only 6 weeks left until I meet miss Juniper. I can't wait to finally hold this little girl in my arms and sleep on my stomach. With this being the last (at least we feel like she'll be the last), I'm hesitant to make or buy any full blown maternity clothes. I broke down a few weeks ago while in Arizona because I have a shockingly short supply of basic tees that fit my figure at this point. Now that I'm in the home stretch any motivation to make anything maternity specific has gone down the drain. I thought I would sew a lot more for myself with this pregnancy, but I don't want to cut into my favorite fabric for something that I might wear for a month or two! I found 5 yards of this chevron fabric at a thrift shop not long ago. Since I have so much yardage and pink and teal chevrons aren't really my go-to colors/patterns, it wouldn't hurt to make something maternity out of it. The fabric is a summery dream. It's lightweight, opaque  and very breathable. I basically made a gigantic muumuu with a teal tie for some structure. I did a little pleating around the shoulder, but they get lost in the busy print. I figure with how loosely structured it is, I could possibly get some use out of it after baby comes along and I still need a little extra room around the middle. I sewed it late the night before flying out to a calligraphy conference a few weeks ago. I tried it on, but it was very late and dark. When I ended up wearing it for the conference I kinda felt like I looked like a chevron whale, when I was hoping for a more grecian goddess look. It doesn't matter, because at this point I just want something that doesn't constrict my ribcage, go under my belly or makes me feel like it's 1000 degrees everywhere I go. This certainly fits that bill. With less than a month and a half to go, I bet I'm going to get a lot of use out of this dress. The fashion police can't convince me to do otherwise. Outfit details:

• earrings and shoes: Aldo
• bracelets: handmade and vintage
• dress: handmade