Tis Almost the Season

It has started... the first toy catalog arrived in the mail yesterday along with a severe case of "I want this." My kids do not have a lot of toys and what they do I have I would say they play with about 30% of them. Last year for Christmas M got so many toys that he got bored opening them. To add to the chaos his birthday is just a couple days after Christmas.

This year I vow to control my spending - one largish gift for each kiddo and then a couple smaller items. I am going to try and make the majority of the gifts such as; crocheted food, counting bean bags and new hats and then a couple store bought toys.

Hubby made this wonderful toy box for M that fits the majority of his toys. I would like him to make G a wooden doll pram. Aren't these adorable!

I hope I can encourage you to also cut back on the junk and think quality over quantity. Do you agree or am I just a Scrooge?

Fresh Bread

Zoe Francois (Author)

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My friend recommend I check out the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Seeing as I am on a quest for a bread recipe I can actually conquer I figured it was worth the $13.49 Amazon is currently selling it for.

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com

The basic idea is that you mix up enough dough for a couple days, let it rise, stick it in the fridge (stick it in the fridge, stick it in the fridge - sorry, G Love and Special Sauce tangent), and when you are ready for a fresh loaf of bread you pull out some dough and bake. Pretty simple!


I was a little skeptical. Where was the proofing of the yeast, the kneading the long rising times? Gone. The only downside I have found to this system is that because the bread continually comes out perfect, even without the steam bath and baking stone they recommend, we now have two 6 qt. tubs in our fridge that take up a lot of real estate. I think that is a fair trade considering we are eating bread that contains no strange chemicals or tons of unnecessary sugars.

So far I have made the basic boule recipe and the peasant loaf. So yummy.

If you are in search of gluten-free recipes, it looks like their new book, "Health Breads in Five Minutes a Day."  has a chapter devoted to gluten-free. Their web site also has some great tips that you should check out if you are interested in serving up great homemade bread. 

Happy Halloween

Last night we went to a Halloween party at a local school and Little Man won second place!

But let's be honest, I was more excited than he was - validation for all that work on my crappy sewing machine!

We had a great time, thank you to the local firemen for putting on this event.

Baby Girl has a fever so she didn't get to go and won't be trick or treating tonight either. I am really happy that I decided to make her costume so large, it will easily fit next year and she will be more likely to actually walk around wearing it.

 Wonder Women won first place and the Garden Gnome came in third - how cute are they?

I picked up this blue wig at the grocery store and boy was it itchy, I guess that is the trade off for a $6.00 wig. I also tried to do some Jerseylicous make-up but my husband just said it looked like normal make-up. Oh well, it felt like heavy eye make-up to me.

Glitter Pumpkins

I watched Martha Stewart add glitter to whole pumpkins the other day and thought I would try a variation on our carved pumpkins.

I added white glue to the desired area and then sprinkled with orange glitter. I forgot that the glitter was going to end up everywhere. I tried to wipe out the access but after about 5 minutes I realized that it didn't matter.

Our bedazzled pumpkins

Baby Girl wasn't as excited about getting messy as I thought she would be. Poor thing has a fever. Little Man kinda sorta helped, but mostly just asked "Whatcha doing?" 

 I like the affect but think the technique can be improved upon. I am open to your suggestions.

Raven or Black Chicken - You decide

Originally Baby Girl was going to be a mummy like her brother, but seeing as my sewing machine and I are taking some time off from one another, I needed a different idea that would require little to no hand sewing. I thought a bird would be easy to make and I was right!

Please forgive the poor images. My good camera is broken and I am using a point and shoot that my toddler son has claimed as his own that has no lens cover - desperate times call for desperate measures.

I bought two boas from Joann Fabrics and a plain black turtleneck (3 sizes too big) and leggings from Wal-Mart. I wrapped the boa around and pinned it to the turtleneck and then pinned some tufts to the shoulder and then down the arms. I bought the turtleneck larger so I could get regular clothes under it if necessary and so it would hang longer like a dress.  To make the beak, I took some black construction paper and folded it into a triangle and then hot glued it to a stretchy headband, add some more feathers with some more hot glue and call it a day.

Once again my model is napping but I promise to post some pictures of them actually wearing the costumes. The raven looks better with a little body in it.

My mother-in-law said I should have bought a white boa and made her into one of her Polish Crested Hens, which in hindsight would have been hilarious - c'est la vie.

Another Polyester Flower Tutorial

Polyester Poppy Tutorial
Not that the Internet needs one more fabric flower tutorial but really is one more going to hurt?

No picture this week for the cocktail, not sure why, but it just didn't happen. We did 7 and 7 which was okay, but not my favorite. Now I have a big ole bottle of Seagram's 7 and I am not sure what I am going to do with it.

 - 2 oz. Whiskey, straight grain
 - 5 oz. 7-up
 - 1 wedge Lemon

Mix and serve in a highball glass. Garnish with the lemon.

For the flowers you will need:
1. Cheap fabric that is made of polyester so it will melt - a quarter of a yard will make a lot of flowers
2. Heat source - candle or embossing gun
3. Needle and thread
4. Scissors
5. Template if you feel that is necessary
6. Buttons
7. Hot glue gun
8. Bobby pin or clip you want to affix your finished flower to
9. Cold water to dip your burned fingers in 


Step 1: (I always here New Kid's On The Block "Step By Step" when I type that out)
Cut out about 5 or 6 circles in whatever size you like. We did 3 inch diameter circles.

 

Step 2:

Clip small slits into the circle until they almost reach the middle.

Step 3:

Hold circle over your heat source and watch it melt. I found that this step went really fast and it was hard to hold melting plastic. Please be careful. In one tutorial I read the gal recommended holding it with a hemostat, and if I had one handy I would have used it.

This is where having the cold water on hand is nice.

Slightly melted but not burned - it is a fine line.

Step 4:
After you have all your petals melted, place them on top of each other and sew together. We found that if you scrunch the middle up while stitching you get a fuller flower. Don't worry about your stitches being neat because you are going to soon do Step 5.

Step 5:
Attach a button to the middle of your flower either by sewing it on or with your trusty glue gun.

Step 6:
I used a large bobby pin that I found at Joann Fabrics and sewed my flowers to the end. In hindsight I should also have used some hot glue to add some strength. You may also like the idea of attaching a couple flowers to a piece of felt and then gluing the felt to a hair clip or pin.

Here is my friend Audrey's finished product. Not only does she have a beautiful polyester poppy she also has great hair.

It's Not You, It's Me

Ouch! How can something so generic and boring hurt you so much? I understand that less than one percent of unsolicited manuscripts get purchased which is about the same odds being injured by a toilet this year or finding a four-leaf clover on the first try: both 1 in 10,000. I am not going to lie though... I was hoping I would be the lucky person that they wanted to fly out to meet and start working with right away, can you say sequel? I knew that wasn't going to happen after a couple months went by and I hadn't heard from the publisher, but a girl can hope.

Now I have to decide if I want to continue to try and find a publisher or a literary agent. Nothing needs to be decided today, I think I will tend to my wounds and go camera shopping.  Perhaps it is poor form to post my rejection letter, but I am proud that I put myself out there. I still believe my book is a great idea and I will comfort myself knowing that Martha Stewart's first craft book was also rejected.