Mary's Beer Bread

My mom's good friend, Mary, brought a loaf of warm bread to dinner while we were in Oklahoma during the holidays. It was mouthwateringly delicious. When she told me there were 4 ingredients, I was shocked! I got the recipe and finally pulled it out a couple weeks ago to eat with pasta. Since then I have made this recipe at least 10 times. I've gifted 5 loaves of this bread in the last week alone. It is seriously simple, super quick to pull together, and only uses 4 ingredients we always have. I hope you run to try this recipe and love it as much as we do. My almost 4-year-old daughter deemed me the "very best bread maker in the whole wide world" because of this recipe. =)

Mary's Beer Bread

(adapted by me to lessen the butter)

3 cups self-rising flour (or 3 cups of all-purpose flour plus 3 3/4 tsp baking powder and 3/4 tsp salt)

1/3 cup sugar

1 can of beer - any kind

1/2 stick butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a loaf pan with oil. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour and sugar. Pour in the beer, and stir just until it all comes together. The dough will be very stiff and dense. Dump it into the loaf pan, and spread to fill. Bake for 45 minutes, then pour the butter over the top, and bake for another 15 minutes. Serve warm.

In the bread pictured above, I sprinkled the top with parsley, basil, oregano, and garlic powder. It was heavenly, but it is equally heavenly just plain with butter. Yum!

Chevron Love

In February I finished probably the most special labor of love I've made yet. My little sister is due with her first baby in May, and I started this blanket within weeks of finding out she was pregnant. Certain that she was having a boy, I ran out and chose the yarn with that in mind. As a pile of skeins, the yarn looked a LOT more gender-neutral than the blanket turned out. I held it on the needles just after the darker blue row knowing I'd need to add some pink should the baby not, in fact, be the boy I was so sure she was having. As often goes, I was dead wrong! =) And I couldn't be happier about it. I adore this blanket, and it was an absolute joy to knit. Knitting projects are so perfect because they're portable, can be worked on when you have time, and give you plenty of time to think about and pray for the recipient. I can't wait to see pictures of my sister's little bundle of joy wrapped in this sweet blanket.

For those of you interested, I doubled the width as the finished blanket in the pattern was really, really tiny. I used this pattern and this yarn (purchased from Hobby Lobby but also sold at JoAnns) and this tutorial for winding the yarn. After buying the yarn and knitting most of the blanket, I read some terrible reviews. But I used 9 skeins in almost every color available in the entire line, and I absolutely loved it. I never had any of the problems people complained of.

Boredom Busters

We are caught in the doldrums of everyday life these days. We've been busy with lots of household projects and seem to have a lot going on lately. Because of this, on the days home, we are stuck in a rut of the same toys, the same routine, the same TV shows, and the same snacks. The kids and I are super bored - especially when it's rainy and cold and we can't go outside or to the park to break the monotony. When we get bored, the kids get antsy and bicker constantly. As a teacher, I always had a few tricks up my sleeve for those times, and they came back to me the other day. I broke out a couple of the ideas, and they completely turned our day around. I wanted to take a minute to jot down a list of things to do in those times. I hope you find them useful too. First a disclaimer: Make sure to only pull these things out when boredom strikes and to only do these activities once every few months. Repeating them often will make them lose their appeal.

1) Storytelling: Bind a handful of plain white paper together into a book by either stapling, 3-hole-punching, taping, or tying. Pretend to read a story off the plain white pages describing in detail the pictures and encouraging the kids to play along. Then give the "book" to them to create their own imaginary storybook to read aloud.

2) Paper Sorting: Hole punch a stack of colorful paper. Put the paper circles in a bowl, and hand it to your child along with an ice cube tray. Have them sort the circles into like colors into the sections in the ice cube tray.

3) Steam Art: Create a steam room in the bathroom by turning the shower on hot for 10 minutes or so and closing the door. Sit the kids on the bathroom counter, and allow them to draw with their fingers, q-tips, or even foam paintbrushes on the steamy bathroom mirror.

4) Dry Erase Mirror: Lay a large mirror (we use one of the inexpensive tall wall mirrors) on the floor, and allow the kids to draw on it with dry erase markers. You can lead them to trace the images of things they see in the mirror.

5) Cup Stacking: Grab a package of plastic disposable cups, and show your kids how to stack them in a pyramid. See who can build the tallest one.

6) Sticker Starters: Place a sticker on a piece of plain white paper, and have the kids draw a picture that incorporates that sticker. For example, if you place a dinosaur sticker in the middle of the page, the kids can draw it standing on a mountain, pretend it's jumping in the air, or have it stepping on a truck. Encourage them to think outside the box.

7) Cardboard Town: Gather a supply of cardboard boxes of varying sizes (shoe boxes, cereal boxes, cracker boxes, jewelry boxes, etc.), and wrap them with butcher paper or colorful wrapping paper. Allow the kids to draw on them to create buildings to set up a play town. They can use plastic people, animals, and cars and trucks to play in their town.

8) Tape Roads: Grab a roll of blue painter's tape, and tape a pattern onto the floor. Encourage the kids to pretend the tape is a road for their Matchbox-sized cars.

9) Construction zone: Gather construction vehicles from your kids' play toys. Using an under-the-bed storage container, a box lid, a jelly roll pan, or any other shallow container, fill it with wadded paper for the kids to push around with the vehicles as dirt. They can fill up dump trucks, push with the machines, and build.

10) Candy houses: Create gingerbread-style houses using graham crackers and peanut butter as glue. Give the kids a variety of healthy treats (cereals, raisins, dried cranberries, fruit slices, and even a few chocolate chips) to decorate their houses with.

11) Snack necklaces: Give the kids an assortment of snack foods that have holes in them (cereals, pretzels, fruit and veggie straws, bagel chips, apple chips, etc.) to lace onto a string to create a snack necklace.

Lemon Blueberry Yogurt Loaf - Pinterest Deal or Dud

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A month or so ago I tried this delicious bread that I found via Pinterest. It is absolutely fabulous - just as good as it looks. I wanted to write about it right away, but I ended up doubling the recipe and freezing a loaf. I thought I'd wait until we thawed the loaf so I could report about its freeze-ability. It turned out perfectly. I'd highly recommend it if you're looking for a delicious bread.

I followed the recipe exactly using frozen blueberries. They were blueberries that I purchased fresh, spread on a cookie sheet, then froze. I then placed them in a large freezer bag to store so I can measure out what I need to thaw. I've heard from commenters that store-bought frozen blueberries are too watery for the bread. So I would either use fresh blueberries or fresh frozen blueberries like I used. Also, the loaf that I froze I skipped the glaze. I thought I'd add it after it was thawed, but it turns out the bread is perfectly moist and delicious (and sweet!) without it. I think from now on I'll leave the glaze off altogether.

Hope you enjoy! Recipe can be found here.

Stockings

I absolutely love the challenge of a new project. Two sweet friends had me make their families' stockings for this past Christmas. Both projects were very different from one another, and it was a really fun to dream and create.

Pinterest Deal or Dud?

I absolutely love Pinterest. But one thing I get frustrated with is that most people I've found just repin without changing the caption. So I have 10 people I'm following all posting a recipe that says that they've made it 10 times in the last month and everyone has kept requesting it. So I never know who actually made it 10 times and whether or not their recipes are tried and true. I have tried at least half of the things I've pinned, but I don't actually have a way of reviewing them on Pinterest, so I thought I'd do that here.

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So the first pin I absolutely love is this. Did you know that, once you chop the green stems off green onions, you can simply put the whites/roots into a glass of water, and the greens will grow back?! I've done this since Thanksgiving, and it's worked every time perfectly. I even had 2 onions that I kept, used, and grew and re-grew for over 2 months. They don't have to be in the light, the temperature can vary greatly, it doesn't matter if they're in a draft. The original pin said they'll grow about an inch per day, but mine grow at least 2 inches per day. It's amazing and so convenient. Try it!

It's a Circus!

I just finished and shipped my latest order, and I love the way everything turned out. Thought I'd share in case you're looking for party ideas. This party package is for a precious girl's circus-themed first birthday party. I thought the mom had a great idea. She wanted a birthday banner that she can use each year for each child. So I did the name separate from the "Happy Birthday" and focused on gender-neutral colors including the pinks and purples only in the name banner. I love, love, love all the bright colors!

1 Onesie - Front

And who can resist a rainbow ruffled hiney? =)

Circus Bunting (x2 - each was 13-feet long)

Birthday Bib

And the birthday banner

These projects could not be more fun to create!

Simmer Pot

Ahhh, I love Fall. And, judging by my candle cabinet, I'm a tad obsessed with Fall scents. I just always wish my house could smell more authentic than some chemically-crafted candle. As I was baking some pumpkin bread the other day, I thought I'd throw some of the spices into some water and boil it to emit the scent. It was heavenly. Every day since I've loaded up my mini crockpot with fruit, spices, and water to give my house the perfectly real scents of the season. Since I peel an apple at least once a day for the kids, I've been saving the skins and core to throw into the pot. My favorite combination so far is apple skin, orange peel, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla. But the combinations are endless. An added bonus - when I pour the contents down the drain each evening, it cleans and freshens the garbage disposal nicely.

Here's the how-to:

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil (on the stovetop or in the microwave). Pour into a crockpot (although you can always just leave it on the stove), add your favorite combination of scents (apple peels, apple juice, oranges, lemons, cloves, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, lavender, etc.), and let simmer all day. Make sure to check it frequently and add water as needed. Yum!

Church bags

My 3-year-old is at the age now when she has things for Sunday school that need to be carried back and forth each week between church and home. She has a backpack that we use often, but we always switch it out with her Leapster and accessories, her Tag reader and books, and her Sunday school things. When we showed up to church with her Tag reader and books sans Bible and Sunday school supplies one Sunday, I knew it was time to get a bag that's solely for Sunday school. Of course her brother had to have one too. I picked up some plain canvas craft bags at Hobby Lobby for $2.99 (and half off!). Then I grabbed a handful of fabric scraps, backed them with Heat-n-Bond, cut out some letters and shapes (I used this tutorial for the flowers on Hannah's bag), and decorated a bag for each of them. Hannah's carries her Bible, her memory verses, and a snack or two. And Parker's holds a couple of diapers, wipes, snacks, and a toy. I already love that they are always packed and ready to grab. And the fact that the whole project was less than $8 for BOTH bags is a win for sure!

Color Finder

There are so very many ideas floating around the blog world for using paint chips from your local paint store. I came across one I had to try, and it's been a huge hit. I just grabbed a rainbow assortment of paint chips, hole-punched one corner for a ring binder clip, and hole-punched the opposite corner of each to use as a see-through hole for color matching. I tossed it into our library book bucket, and the kids have used it to match colors in their library books, magazines and catalogs, and even their toys. It's provided hours of fun and learning in one simple, free project. I'd highly recommend this for your little ones.

A Christmas Tradition to Get Started on Now

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I started a tradition right after I first got married (over 9 years ago!) that has been so much fun. Each year I put up a small, tabletop Christmas tree on a sofa table right in our foyer. I make handmade ornaments (but you could just as easily and with just as much meaning purchase a variety of store-bought ones) to fill the tree. Then, each and every guest that passes through our doors during the Christmas season picks an ornament off the tree to take home. Even the Verizon installers chose one a couple of years back. The two grown men acted like kidsina candy store over homemade ornaments. It just makes people happy! And it, in turn, will bless your heart too.

Need some handmade ornament ideas? Here are some of my favorites:

Paint Stick Ornaments with Free Printables

Altered Canvas Ornaments

Felt Flower Ornament

Rag Fabric Flower Ornament

And many more...

A Solid Foundation of Faith

My kids are now 3 years, 5 months and 17 months old. Neither are in preschool, so the three of us hang out all day every day together. After carefully considering whether or not to send our 3-year-old to preschool this year, we've decided to keep her home instead. I used to teach at a preschool, and my plan was to start to implement that curriculum at home with both kids. But my 3-year-old already knows all of her shapes, colors, numbers, letters, letter sounds, and most letter blends. She's starting to read and write 3-letter words. We have zero structured learning time as-is; she is just a sponge and loves to learn. I do not feel like she needs any supplementing in that area. She's already where she needs to be for Kindergarten, and I have no interest in rushing any more schooling in unless she's ready and seeking.

So my heart really turned more toward a year-long vacation Bible school set-up. I have such a desire to build the foundation of faith here, in my home, prior to sending my kids off to Kindergarten. My problem is not at all a lack of ideas, resources, or time. It's 100% a lack of planning. We are always dreaming up projects. But, after finally gathering everything to complete them, my 3-year-old has typically lost interest. Often our last-minute ideas require trips to the craft store to complete. I really wanted a way to have a loose plan for each week that includes gathering supplies for different projects to have at-the-ready for times when boredom strikes.

I've been working hard for the past week on a new blog chronicling my plans. A Solid Foundation of Faith is my new baby. Each week I'll add a theme based on a Bible story or concept. I'll list activities, recipes, adventures, service ideas, books, songs, and fingerplays that go along with the theme. From then on it's up to each person how to use it. You can go all-out and schedule your week around the activities. Or, like me, you can pick and choose the projects that would work for your family, gather all of the supplies each weekend, and pull them out when you have the opportunity.

I'll use it much like Tiny Tidbits to feature ideas here and there that I've seen online too. And I'll share with you some things that I learned as a chapel leader of kids 18 months old to 2nd grade over the years. But, unlike this site, the activities will all be geared toward the under Kindergarten crowd, specifically shaping their hearts for Christ.

If this is of any interest to you, I hope you'll come visit!

Women's Fitness - A Great Resource

Another fellow mom of an April 2008 child shared her website with me, and I wanted to add it to my sidebar, but not before pointing you all in that direction. Rachel, a practicing physical therapist, mom to two boys, and a woman committed to healthy living and physical fitness, started a website as a way to compile reliable advice for women regarding living a healthy lifestyle. I hope you'll take a minute to browse her site, and I hope you find as much helpful information as I have.

Here's the link: FitMommy

Kids' Table

We always pull our card table out for the kids when we have people over for dinner. I have an inexpensive (and pretty ugly) tablecloth that I usually throw on top, but last time we had dinner guests I grabbed my daughter's roll of butcher paper to cover the surface. I had fun doodling pictures for the kids to color, and it was a hit. We ended up keeping it up overnight, and my daughter did some more coloring the next morning. Simple, inexpensive, and interactive - win-win-win.

A Sweet Tradition

When I had my first baby, my sister-in-law brought a couple dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies along with a little card to set out in my post-partum room. The card thanked the doctors and nurses for taking such good care of me. It got a huge positive response, and several of the nurses would just drop in to grab a cookie. It was also nice to have something sweet to offer all of our visitors.

It's become somewhat of a tradition in my circle of friends and family, and I loved sharing it with a friend who just had her second baby recently. Since she loves, loves, loves all things s'mores, I went with that theme. I made Golden Graham s'mores bars inspired by this recipe, cut them into 2" squares, stuck them in a plastic bag, and tied it with an "It's a Girl!" ribbon. I printed the sign above, and stuck everything in a cute gift bag for her to carry to the hospital. This might be one of my very favorite baby-related traditions now!

Garlic and Herb Pull-Apart Bread

I saw a delicious-looking recipe for pull-apart bread that I was dying to try. The problem is that it used homemade bread dough that incorporated most of the flavorings. Sure, it's ideal. But I don't often have time for all that. So, after consulting my sister, I came up with a shortcut recipe that was a huge hit.

Garlic and Herb Pull-Apart Bread

2 tubes of refrigerated flaky biscuits

1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

seasoned salt

black pepper

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Heavily grease a bundt pan, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Meanwhile, open your biscuit tubes, separate them, and cut them into quarters.

Combine the melted butter and seasonings in a bowl. Dunk each piece of biscuit in the butter mixture, and toss it into your greased bundt pan. Repeat with half of the biscuit pieces. Then sprinkle one half cup of the cheese over this layer making sure it falls between each nook and cranny.

Top with the rest of the biscuit pieces dunked in butter, and finish with the rest of the Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Turn onto a plate, and serve warm.

Rainbow Ice

We've been HOT in Texas this summer and have had to keep most of our activities indoors. One afternoon my 3-year-old and I made a tray of rainbow ice cubes, and they were a huge hit! I just filled up a small plastic tea pot with water for her to fill each cube, then we squeezed one small drop of food coloring into each one. We stuck to mainly primary colors. She used a toothpick to stir each cube.

Once these were frozen, the possibilities are absolutely endless. My daughter had so much fun mixing a couple of cubes into a Sprite to see what color it would turn. I always cool her oatmeal with 2 ice cubes after it's cooked, so I used a blue and a red one. As she stirred and her oatmeal turned purple, she was thrilled. You can also stick a toothpick in these as they're freezing to use as a handle. Then, when they're frozen, the kids can use the toothpick to hold it to paint on paper outside. They could also use the colored cubes as a sensory activity floating in water in the sink.

Hope you have as much fun with these as we did!

Long-distance Baby Shower

Some of our great friends from our neighborhood had their second child, a baby girl, Saturday. They are a part of our neighborhood group of 4 couples who meet every other weekend for Bible study and dinner, and we are so incredibly blessed by them. They moved here a year ago from the west coast, so most of their close friends and family are way too far away to have made it in for a baby shower. The rest of us girls from the group wanted to throw an unforgettable shower that somehow included the long-distance friends and family. We had so much fun, and it turned out to be a hit.

We decided to send invitations to everyone with information on the when's and where's of the shower in case they wanted to send a gift. We also included a little note asking everyone to email a family photo along with a message or favorite quote that we could turn into a photobook for the nursery. The invitations were simple - plain cardstock cards (sold in bulk at Hobby Lobby) with a 2D cupcake sticker. I just ran them through my printer before attaching the stickers.

Since the guests were our four couples, we wanted to do something a little different than traditional shower foods. Instead we made up a menu of the mom-to-be's pregnancy cravings. Chili-cheese dogs, french fries, strawberry limeades, and some crunchy snack-food appetizers rounded out the menu. She also loves all-things-s'mores, so dessert were these delicious s'mores cupcakes (recipe here).

We really wanted to keep the decor simple too and focus our budget more on our gifts. We made tissue paper pom poms in the nursery colors to hang from the chandelier.

We also used my Onesie Kit (more in the shop asap!) to make a clothesline filled with precious girly gifts.

It was so fun to have a table filled with gifts from friends and family from so far away.

We wanted to be sure to include something special from our kids. So we gathered them all up (including the baby's big brother secretly), and used their fingerprints as "sprinkles" on this cupcake decoration for the nursery.

We played two fun shower games - Math the Mom-to-Be, and Celebrity Baby Names.

And then we opened gifts. The finished photobook was priceless. I used Mixbook for the first time, and it was quick, easy, and precious!

What a neat memory of such a special evening.

We had such a great night celebrating!

Freezer Paper Stenciling

Have you ever tried freezer paper stenciling? I tried my hand at it a few weeks ago for the first time, and I am hooked! I offered to make a t-shirt for a friend's little boy's first birthday. It was an Uno themed party, and she couldn't find the shirt she had in mind. She described it to me, and I got to work. I wanted a very clean, almost screen-printed look - not a handmade, artsy look. I bought a handful of shirts thinking this probably wouldn't work, and I had a Plan B and Plan C. I was shocked when it turned out almost flawless after my first attempt! The design itself was the most complicated part as I had to create it from scratch. But I used my SCAL software, Inkscape, and my Cricut to cut the stencil. But it was a lot easier than I imagined despite the many steps. Then I just ironed the freezer paper onto the shirt, and painted 3 thin coats of white fabric paint. I held my breath as I peeled the freezer paper off, and I was so pleased with how crisp the lines were. If you haven't tried this, you should!

Here's a great tutorial if you're interested. Happy stenciling!

Infant Carrier Tent

I'm so sorry for my blog hiatus. Life just sneaks up on me sometimes, and I can't find a spare moment. I'm hoping to be a bit more disciplined now that Fall is almost here and things have started back into a much more normal routine.

For now, I wanted to share my latest project. We had some friends in town last weekend, and they brought their precious twins over one night for dinner. A friend had made them infant carrier tents that I thought were so clever! I had never seen one before, and I instantly knew I had to make one for one of my good friends who actually delivered baby #2 this morning. The twins' mommy went over the features she loved and the features she thought could be improved upon. And I set to work...

I love the finished product (so much so that my baby fever hit an all-time high after completing this! I better get out to meet that new baby asap to cure the fever!).

I copied the binding on the twins' tents, and I think it is precious. Basically I just sewed the top and bottom pieces together wrong-sides facing. Then I cut the edge into fringe. It should fray a bit when washed. So cute and unique.

I also gave the straps a little ruffle decor which I think adds so much to what could be a very plain piece.

Since my friend plans to nurse, I made this strap that matched which can be thrown in the diaper bag to turn any blanket into a nursing cover.

I love whipping up quick, easy, and precious baby goodies!