Button flowers

I love buttons! There is something so fun about them all the different sizes, shapes, colors ect.. I have lots of buttons! Especially white ones, so today I thought I would make something for my sister to keep at work and thought a little flower bouquet of buttons would be cute. They are very easy to make and I think look adorable.

MistleToes

For the holiday season Jess & I got crafty! Couldn't post this until after Christmas. Jess had the great idea to make cute plates for "the grands". It was super easy and fun - even Ry enjoyed it.

Materials:
White Dinner Plates
Sharper Makers
Acrylic Glass Paint
Nail polish Remover
Sponge brushes
Oven

English Muffin Bread

I love homemade bread. The problem is that I really don't like making homemade bread.  Usually I solve this problem by just enjoying my mom or my sister Christy's homemade bread. They make some delicious ones!  (Seriously - you should check my sister's blog for some ideas).  But, I had a friend who had recently had a baby and instead of bringing a meal, I wanted to bring some muffins, scones and breads to put in her freezer so she'd have something easy to grab for breakfast.  (When I had Riley, people brought us dinners, which is a huge help and I was so thankful, but I never knew what to do for breakfast when I didn't have time/was too tired/decided to shower instead of eat/etc. and found myself eating some strange things for breakfast.) I felt bad trying to get my mom or sister to make some breads for me to bring my friend so I decided to just suck it up and do it myself. 

The part of bread making that I don't like is all the steps. I get a little intimidated using yeast. I don't like waiting for dough to rise. I get confused with where I am in the process. Thankfully I found this recipe for English Muffin Bread. It was super easy, cheap to make, only used one bowl and made 4 loaves. 

I found the recipe on The One Good Thing by Jillee Blog.  If you want to see pictures of what it looks like, head on over to her blog. Be sure to grease the pans very well and don't cut it until it's completely cooled! This made 4 loaves. It has all the nooks and crannys that English muffins do (hence the name) and tastes best toasted.  It was good with jam or jelly but I liked it best with butter and honey.  Here is the recipe...

5 1/2 cups warm water
3 packages RAPID RISE yeast
(Update: You can use regular yeast, but you will need to let is rise TWICE. Once in the bowl, til it reaches the top…and then again in the pans, til it reaches the top. With the RAPID RISE you only need to let it rise once in the pans.)
2 Tablespoons salt
3 Tablespoons sugar
11 cups all purpose flour (you can use bread flour as well)

Mix altogether, then spoon into (4) well greased loaf pans.  Let rise in pans until dough reaches the top of the pans, and bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown. 

10 minutes before done, brush with melted butter. Makes 4 loaves. Bread will be moist at first. Allow to COOL COMPLETELY before cutting. Makes terrific toast.

 Enjoy!

Holiday Wreath

I decided to FINALLY get a new wreath up on my front door. I don't really have extra money to go buy a nice real pine wreath with a big read bow like I usually do, so I went the crafty way.

You will need a wreath and some yarn-i used my friend Kaits extra read yarn.

Tie a know around the wreath, and you simple wrap the yard around it keep it nice and tight.  Now i struggled hacing this HUGE ball of yarn so I broke it down into smaller chunks, which really helped

I made small little balls of yarn by wrapping it around my fingers. This made it a lot easier and faster to wrap around the circle wreath.

When I got the end of the yarn, I just tied the two ends together and continue to wrap.

Cover the entire wreath by wrapping it with yarn, you can make the wreath thicker by adding more yarn around the wreath.

I then made some green felt and velvet flowers and attached to the wreath. 

Finished product!

Roasted Veggie Tacos

I love tacos. Lately I've been trying to be more creative than the normal chicken or beef tacos. I saw a recipe for roasted vegetable tacos on a website and adapted it a bit.

I diced a summer squash, a zucchini, a red pepper and a red onion into large chunks and then tossed them in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, a large pinch of salt, 2 teaspoons of cumin and 4 cloves of minced garlic. I then put all the veggies on a baking sheet and roasted them in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes (until they were tender and starting to brown).

While they were roasting I mashed together an avocado, a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt until it was creamy.  (just use a fork to mix these. i tried it in the blender and it would have been much easier just to do it by hand!)

I also heated up a can of black beans on the stove.

Then I warmed up some corn tortillas in a skillet (wrap them in a clean dishtowel to keep them warm) and shredded up some monterey jack cheese.

When the veggies are done, you just assemble your tacos. A big scoop of veggies, a spoonful of black beans, a good drizzle of the avocado cream and then some of the shredded cheese.

These were SO good. I should have used more veggies because Kirk and I could have each had another taco or two!

kids crafts

Today my niece and nephew came over and we had low key Christmas Crafts time. It was a lot of fun, especially since I wasnt feeling too good it was easy enough for me to sit and tell them what to do and they just had fun doing it!

Tissue Paper Snow Man: black construction paper, glue and tissue paper

Crumple of little bits of tissue paper to make little "balls" 

draw three circles on paper and fill it with the little crumpled up pieces of tissue paper

We added google eyes and a nose, then after i took the picture added more "snow" around the snowman

BUTTON SNOWFLAKES

Have a wide variety of white buttons!

Using three popsicle sticks and wood glue, glue the sticks together.

Using the the glue on sticks, glue on white buttons on the sticks! If you want, you can even add a little glitter.

SOCK PUPPETS!

White sock, red felt, pink felt, google eyes and buttons or sequins