Bread Bread I love Bread

I've always found making bread VERY intimidating. Using yeast, punching things down, kneading and more kneading seemed like a lot of work. Some of the recipes I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. My friend Ginny (the one I wrote about) told me to check out Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day  Well I checked out this book and the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day out of our library and I have been having a good time.

It has been so EASY and simple to incorporated it into our menu for the week. Last week I made an olive dough and with that it makes 4 loafs of bread. We had two loafs of focaccia with onions and rosemary with our pasta. I also made Cheese and Spinach Calzones, which were AMAZING. It was thumbs up for these recipes and our company loved them as well.

I've also done the whole wheat dough and so far have made homemade cinnamon raisin bagels.

I am really impressed with these books and thinking that they are a good buy because there are so many different recipes. They take no time at all plus no kneading and the dough lasts about 2 weeks in the fridge. There are many different recepies you can make out of the one dough.

If you check it out or use these books let me know what your favorite recepie is.

Tammy

Mirror Mirror on the Piano

I really wanted a mirror for on my mantel. I was seen a few fantastic mantels with these beautiful mirrors. When I was a the salvation army I found this mirror for $5.

I'm not a huge fan of gold so I decided to paint it a nice white. I don't think it's done yet because there is something missing. I might do some glazing to bring out the details but for now this works.

By the way it never made it to the mantel but it looks great on top of our piano.

Until next time,

Tammy

A Thankful Tuesday

I'm so happy the nice weather finally decided to show up. Got to sit out back today and work on this project well the kids played. PERFECT day!

I read this idea in a parenting book I was reading. Once a week you sit down as a family and talk about thinks you are thankful for, for each family member. Some weeks you will find some silly things written on our fridge but we love this idea and I wanted to share it with you.




We were using post-it notes but I was sick of seeing those little yellow papers on the fridge. I decided to make little close-pin note hangers for each family member. Now we can use up that scrap paper from our printer. Works great for me!


Hope you have a sunny day.

Tammy

Bottle it up

 This organization was inspired by my little Monkey after a disaster with finger paints. He had a wonderful time decorating our couch and floor in a matter of seconds. We all know that the craft cupboard slammed with everything and is off limits. So I wanted to make something easy for him to take that is ok for him to get on his own, without getting into to much trouble.


I started to organizing our abundance of crafty supplies for the kids. Finding old jars some with lids so we don't have any spills for things like beads. Paper to cover up the sticky parts of the a few jars that I couldn't get off and an old tray I had laying around.

I just love this because not only does it make it easier to do crafts with the children it lays out a bunch of different materials. Monkey usually pick up the beads and pip cleaner, and goes to town. This week he's been using his imagination with the other materials. A new favorite is Moms cut offs of fabric and coloured popsicle sticks.



After some tidying of the bookcase, adding a few extra doors and taking some toys away here is our revamped kids storage area.

Tammy

Ginny is My Friend

My dear friend Ginny introduced me to the DIY and crafty blogs. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be writing this right now. She always tells me she isn't crafty but it's all LIES! She has a fantastic imagination and some of the beautiful things the does blows my mind. I just wanted to share my non crafty  super crafty decor friends works of art.

 The beautiful revamped wreath, that was washed out by the sun. A little crafty work with a glue gun and some colour to make it pop makes ones fantastic spring wreath.

This chair went from garbage to gorgeous with a new seat and some paint. Ta-da!

After a Ginny and Tammy adventure to pick up free windows a family was getting rid of, here is one of the many ways she uses them in her decor. Beautiful.

 Just look at these yummy treats she made. Raspberry mousse and focaccia. I know you are jealous because yes I do get invited over and get to have some fancy Ginny treats.

Can't wait to see what she comes up with next. hmmmm.... maybe a DIY blog?

Tammy

Before There Was A Blog

 Well going through my pictures I found a few fun crafty things I had done earlier this year that I wanted to share. I really don't know where I found time to do these things but hey they got done and I got no sleep. That's what this Mama has to sacrifice to be crafty.

Like I said in my first post I started to crochet when I was expecting with my daughter. Since then I've been practising my skills and making lots of fantastic things. There are a few things I didn't take pictures of like a slouch hat for me and a mini bear for my Monkey but here are a few things I've whipped up.

These were just a few of the hats. Many of our friends got owls or skunks or ones with brims for Christmas. Well making these incredibly fun hats I seen so many adorable owl things. So I thought I'd try my hand at a little sewing. Which by the way I haven't done since grade school. I came across a pattern online and changed a few things and here is Sweetpea's little owl. She just loved the button eyes. I was going to make tags of different fabric on the wings but she was getting to be over that when I was making it.

I came across this photo well going through my project picture folder... Yummy caramel chocolate apples that the kiddos decorated. I think we will need to do this again soon... REALLY soon :)

Last but not least was a stool we found that the previous home owners left behind. Well my hubby was away on business I tackled this project but was so disappointed when I went to spray paint one night because the black spray paint was actually green. Being a very patient person... not at all... I went ahead and painted it green. After putting it in our bathroom I decided we are painting it cream but at least it functional now.

Until next time,

Tammy