the invitation

Just a sneak peak of more to come!


Sorry about the blurring. one can never be too safe!

Princess Tea Party

For Ms. C's birthday party, she wanted princesses and a tea party. I think I was more excited than she was. It was so much fun to put this together.

Invitation



The banner is my favorite part.


The cake was really easy to make, but I made it the night before and made the mistake of putting the wafer cookies on that night. In the morning, the moisture from the frosting had made the layers start to come apart so the cookies were falling off the cake by layer.


As party favors, I found those little mailboxes in the dollar section at Target. I had a friend cut some vinyl for the names and she did those cute crowns with their initials as well. Claire and I filled them with more dollar bin goodies like stickers and hair bands.


For the activities we decorate crowns with glitter, feathers and jewels and then had a pinata (per Ms. C's request).

Unbelievable Bread

I can't recall exactly where I found this bread recipe, so I can't take credit for it. It is amazingly good. The title is deceiving because it really takes awhile to make. The time you actually spend making it is minimal, it just has to sit around for four hours. It is crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. It mimics an artisan bread. I promise you won't be able to stop eating. I have used both white and whole wheat flour. They are both delicious.

Speedy No Knead Bread

3 cups bread flour

1 packet ( 1/4 ounce) instant yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Oil as needed.

1. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Shaggy bread after 4 hours

2. Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes more.

3. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6-to-8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. (If your pot isn't a cast iron and well greased, I would grease my pot) When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under dough and put it into pot, seam side up. I grease my hands and use a large greased spatula. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.

4. Cover with lid and bake 25-30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 10 to 20 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: 1 big loaf.

Crafty Caterpillars

Thought you might enjoy a quicky craft. Go here for instructions. Claire did really well stringing them on and naming colors. It was fast a virtually painless. Have fun!

Father's Day Cards

I found this template here and thought it was super cute and super easy. Turned out, I was right. I whipped some up for the special dad's in our lives. You can too!

Bacon Cheddar Scones

I tried another one of Rebecca Rather's recipes and it followed suit to all the rest. These were delicious. They were quick too.

They are really supposed to be Apple-smoked bacon and cheddar scones, but where would I find that apple-smoked bacon around here?

3 C all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter
1 1/2 c. grated cheddar
4 green onions
10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
3/4c-1 1/2 c. buttermilk
1 large egg
2 T water

Preheat oven to 400 F. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a large bowl on low speed. With the mixer running, gradually add the cubes of butter until the mixture is crumbly and studded with flour-butter bits about the size of small peas. Add the cheese and mix just until blended. (you can also do this by hand with knives or a pastry blender).

Add the green onions, bacon, and 3/4 C of buttermilk to the flour mixture. Mix by hand until all ingredients are incorporated. If the dough is too dry to hold together, use the remaining buttermilk, adding 1 T at a time, until the dough is pliable and can be formed into a ball. Stir as little as possible. Remove dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough into a ball and then for it into a circle about 1/2" think and 8" across. Cut the dough into 8-10 wedges.


Place scones on baking sheet. Whisk the egg and water in a small mixing bowl to combine. Bruch each wedge with the egg wash. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown and no longer sticky in the middle. Serve warm.

Baby Gift Set

Since I gave this away on our trip to Utah, I can post about it now.

I was rather pleased with the results. I knew that I wanted to put some kind of image on the bib, but didn't know which direction to take it, but then I was inspired by my frog prince stamp. The question was how to get it on there without having to buy a bunch of new stuff like a washable ink pad. So I thought that acrylic paint might do the trick...and it did. I used one of Claire's old onesies that had some stains on it. I stamped onto it, cut it out and simply zig-zag stitched around it. Easy as pie...well I maybe even easier!

And the burp rag...or as Claire would say, DURP rag.

Here are the steps...sorry no pics.

1. cut a 8" x 14.5" piece of fabric and iron in half.
2. Fabric glue Ric-rac to ribbon and then sew ribbon to one long side of fabric.
3. Sew the other piece of ribbon to the fabric, BUT make sure it extends about a quarter inch longer than the other piece of ribbon when the fabric is folded together.
4. Turn right sides together and sew up the short sides with a 1/4" seam.
5. Turn right side out and put diaper up into the pocket you have formed. I pull the corners of the diaper up into the corners of the fabric. Sew along the bottom edge of the ribbon that is shorter. This will make sure that you are able to catch the longer ribbon on the other side with your seam.

6. Ta-da! you have a really cute "durb" rag!