My New Homemade Bread Recipe

If you are anything like me then you love homemade bread!  But if you are anything like me then you shy away from it because of the time required to make it!

I found a very easy no-knead bread recipe that makes BEAUTIFUL bread loaves that are VERY VERY tasty!!  I thought I would share the recipe with you :-)

I got this recipe out of my Cooking Light cookbook!

No-Knead Bread

Prep: 20 minutes

Rise: 50 minutes

Cook: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

3 pkg dry yeast (about 6 3/4 tsp)

3 3/4 cups warm water (100 to 110 degrees)

10 cups all-purpose flour

6 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp stick margarine, melted

1 tbsp salt

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

cooking spray

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes.  Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife.

1. Add flour and next 4 ingredients to yeast mixture, stirring until well blended.  Cover and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees), free from drafts, 30 minutes or until double in size.  (Press two fingers into dough, if indention remains, the dough has risen enough.)  Spoon dough evenly nito 3 (9x5-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray.  Let rise 20 minutes or until doubled in size.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. 

Enjoy!!!

Made Hiccup dolls to match our Night Furys!!!

If you have seen the movie 'How To Train Your Dragon' then you know that one of the things that makes the movie so good is the relationship developed between viking-in-training Hiccup and Toothless, the Night Fury.

If you saw this post then you know that I have made a Toothless plush for my sons and my nephew.  Well, my mom, sister and I decided that they needed a Hiccup to go with them.

I did some research online tutorials for dolls that I could make work (that would be easy too) and decided on this tutorial.

Here are pics of my result!  I was pleased!  I hope the boys love him!

This is also being posted in Watson Family Christmas

A giveaway I am DYING to win!!

OMG!!  I found this giveaway for a bundle of sewing patterns that I would LOVE to win.  Here is the link to the giveaway!! http://livelearnlove226.blogspot.com/2010/11/christmas-giveaway_12.html#comment-form Go check it out and see if this is not right up my alley!  Especially with everything I have been making for Christmas this year!  I LOVE all of these patterns!!  OMG!  I wish I could win this!  It includes a doll pattern and doll clothes pattern, purse pattern, apron pattern, other plush toy patterns...OMG!  I love them all!!

Wish me luck (I guess you could enter too if you want...but you would be diminishing my chances...do you really want to do that to me?!?! - HA!!!)

And yes I am blogging because I get three extra chances if I blog about the giveaway!!

Oh please let me win!!!

Ok...I will let you get back to your day now!

My Toothless plushies!!

OMG!  I can't believe I finally finished this project!

My nephew's favorite movie right now is How To Train A Dragon.  In fact a few weeks ago they came up and brought the movie and we watched it.  I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the movie.  My boys fell in love with it as well!

So when I found this tutorial to make a Toothless plushie I decided that this needed to be another Christmas present!  This will be my Christmas present to my nephew and I thought to go ahead and make one for each of my boys while I was at it!

This was probably one of the most challenging sewing projects I have done yet!  There were about 25 pattern pieces!!  And some of the steps were difficult to figure out but I did!  And I am glad I stuck with it!

I enlarged the pattern pieces by 200%!!  The final doll is a dimension of 36" from tip of head to tip of tail!  (I found one online for not quite this big for $250!!!)

I can't wait to see their faces on Christmas!  I especially can't wait to see my nephew's reaction when he opens his!!

Here are some pics (they don't do it justice...I am not a good photographer and could not figure out the best way to get photos to show you what these are like!  Yes there are flaws (it is my sewing so there are going to be flaws!) but I still think they are cute!

Oh - and I probably should state I made these with black felt!  Felt is very easy to work with :-) That was a plus for this project!

Here is a full body view - like I said they measure 36" from tip of head to tip of tail.  The wing span is 45"!

Here is a belly shot - sorry it is blurry!

I'm ready for something a wee bit easier! :-)

(I am also posting this is Watson Handmade Christmas)

Another Doll :-)

I got another doll for Alyssa made for Christmas!!

I got this pattern from a Pioneer Crafts book I found at the library.  The pattern was for a rag doll.  I decided to use some of Alyssa's receiving blankets from when she was a baby to make the doll out of!

I thought it turned out really well.  Every time she would walk in and see me working on it she would start yelling "baby baby" and wanting to hold it...she couldn't figure out why I wouldn't let her (she doesn't grasp the whole wait until Christmas thing - HA!)  But it's good to know that she wants to hold it!  It will be exciting to watch her open it on Christmas!

Here she is next to the book I used for the pattern:

This post was also posted on Watson Handmade Christmas

My Faith Box

Several weeks ago I entered a blog giveaway over at Good Morning Girls for the "My Faith Box".

Here is the description of this awesome resource: "A new resource for parents to guide their child's faith journey and capture spiritual growth keepsakes.  My Faith Box includes a My Faith Box and My Faith Book.  Ideal to help you create an age-specific plan on each birthday and capture memories from special milestones; while giving you resources and ideas for how to be intentional in helping your child know, love and follow Jesus."

Angela decided to give one of these boxes to the total number of 153 people who entered the giveaway! You read that right - everyone who entered the giveaway received one!!!  

Mine arrived in the mail on Saturday!!!   I loved it so much that I am ordering 2 more so that I can have one for each child!!  Not only does this notebook provide away to journal spirtual milestone, special prayers, etc for your child.  It also has some AWESOME ideas to do as a family on regular occasions as well as some neat neat ideas for holidays!  In fact we will be using some of them for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year!  I will blog about them when we do them :-)

Also the box is a good heavy-weight box that is perfect for keeping different memorabilia for your children!  I am just in love with this thing and feel so blessed that I was given one!!

Click here to order one for each of your children!  I promise it will be a blessing to you!!  If you are on facebook click here to check out their facebook page.

Have a great day!

The Cat In The Hat sock puppet

Aaron is in love with the cat in the hat right now!  I thought it would be fun to try to do a sock puppet dressed like the cat in the hat!  Thankfully Aaron spent the afternoon at Granny's this afternoon and I was able to get this made for him!  I can't wait to give this to him on Christmas!!

This is also posted in Watson Handmade Christmas.