The Ever After Frock Halloween Grosgrain Giveaway

The Ever After Frock Halloween Grosgrain Giveaway

Every year our church puts on a "Hallelujah" night as an alternative to halloween. This year's theme is "Knights and Princesses." How great would it be to win this gorgeous costume?! Hope I win!!

What am I doing here?

Well, it's been awhile since my last post. Mostly it's because I spend my computer time drooling over other people's blogs, thus neglecting my own. Another reason is because I don't really know what to post about. More specifically, I don't know how I would categorize my blog, and so I feel like I need a few blogs to post all of my ideas, and end up posting nothing. I don't want to have a craft-only blog, or a food-only blog. I also don't want it to be a "how we spend our days" blog, although that may be more the direction I am heading. I think this is going to be an "all of the above" blog. If I have a cool project to do a tutorial on, I'll post it. If I have a new recipe or homemaking project, I'll post it. Eventually my goal would be to get enough readers to have giveaways. That would be fun. Fun for me and fun for you. Anyway, you should be hearing more from me in the next few weeks. Hopefully :)

I do have some exciting news that I will be posting tomorrow. So stay tuned.

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is awesome! From the looks of it, cooler (and cheaper) than a Cricut! I hope I win!!

Shabby Apple Queensland Swimsuit Giveaway

Shabby Apple Queensland Swimsuit Giveaway:

Another giveaway. Need a swimsuit?

The Oh Dear Frock Grosgrain Giveaway

The Oh Dear Frock Grosgrain Giveaway:

Beautiful. That's all.

Sourdough

I have been wanting to start developing my bread making skills lately. Our family's 5 generation rolls were the extent of my talent until now; well, that and pizza dough. I was reading my favorite blog the other day and she was giving away some of her new sourdough starter. So I entered, being thoroughly frustrated with entering people's giveaways and not winning anything, and patiently waited to hear the results.The whole weekend came and went and finally, she picked (through random.org, of course) a winner... drum roll, please... Lucky number 5... that's me!! Whoo hoo! So I sent my new friend my address [and last name- thats important :)] and a day later, got my sourdough beginnings.The container had exploded inside the package all over the direction, unfortunately. So, I scooped the sticky goop off of the paper and bubble wrap and stuck it a bowl and proceeded to feed my new project, and my new dreams. After it got a little food, what do you know but, IT'S ALIVE! A bubbling sticky mess.

So I waited until today to actually dive headfirst into some new recipes. I tried the Rustic Sourdough recipe that came with it (from King Arthur Flour) and made a pizza crust with one half, and a loaf with the other half. The results? See for yourself:

The pizza was absolutely delicious. It was the best crust I have made so far. And by the way, it was a Kalamata olive and Feta cheese pizza (with green onions and tomatoes). Yum!

The loaf was great too. We tested it out after it had cooled and our bellies had settled. It didn't really have that strong of a sourdough flavor, more like a hint. I think next time I will try the Extra Tangy Sourdough recipe. I was all out of spelt flour, and used whole wheat instead. I think it would be great with spelt, though. So, all in all, I love it. Thank you, Katie! So who wants some starter? I need to give (or throw) away a cup every week.

Posture

I had a realization today about how bad my posture is. It's awful. I used to have great posture. Then, I got pregnant and my body flourished on relaxin. All of my joints got loose and limber and then I had Sam. The relaxin stopped. My joints got stiff and my muscles ached. Now, I always ache. I used to think my mother was so stressed and tense and wondered how she got like that. Well, my neck feels the same. And believe me, I feel it.

I was reading Chi Running by Danny Dreyer and before you get our running, you need to have the correct form. The main component of good form is good posture. As I am reading the chapter and looking at the diagrams and exercises, I think to myself, "Man, who's posture is really this bad?". I try out the exercises, and guess what? MINE IS!!

All day now, I have been walking around correcting my posture. I can feel my muscles slowly releasing the built up tension. This is good. So... maybe a little tutorial :)

Stand straight with feet parallel and hip width apart. Soften your knees. Straighten your spine by placing one hand over your belly button and the other hand with your thumb and middle fingers just under your collar bones. Pull up with the top hand and down with the bottom hand. This straightens your spine without throwing your shoulders back and opens your chest cavity, allowing you to breathe easier. Now, rest your head on the pointer finger of the top hand. This puts your head in the correct position- not too high, not too low.

Now, thinking about posture has got me thinking about our spiritual posture. If out of alignment, we get stiff and our heart gets hard. If we reposition ourselves and our gaze heavenward, we are realigned and feel ourselves starting to soften once again. One look at ourselves and we need sevenfold more looks at Jesus. I am so thankful of His grace and holiness and faithfulness. So thankful that the end is not myself, but His glory. Soli Deo Gloria.

The last thought I want to leave you with is this from Sunday's message:

What in this world can possibly compensate for a lost soul? Mark 8:34-38

Laundry Soap

We have been using Charlie's Soap now for about a year because we switched to cloth diapers and 2 out of 3 of us have sensitive skin. This wasn't a problem until we moved in with the in-laws and went through the soap A LOT faster which equals mucho dinero. Anyway, to counteract this problem, I ventured out into the unknown -- making our own laundry soap. It has been super successful! Clean diapers = happy baby bottom :) So, take a leap and try it yourself!

You will need:

Borax (20 Mule team cost me about $3)

Liquid Castile Soap (the whole bottle was $8 on clearance and we also use it for shampoo and body wash-maybe a post on that later)

Washing Soda (the box was $2.89)

Baking soda ($0.75)

White Distilled Vinegar ($2)

3.5 (or more) gallon bucket

2.5 gallons hot or boiling water

big spoon

Mix one cup each of the powdered ingredients (I only use 1/2 cup of the Borax). Add 1 cup of liquid castile soap.

After it's all mixed in, add 1 cup of vinegar. Once the volcano has died down, dissolve with 2 quarts of boiling water.

Then, add 2 gallons of hot water.

And you're done! Use about 1/2 cup per load. It will get chunky floaties on top the next day, but just give it a little stir before each time you do laundry and you'll be fine. My clothes come out clean and smelling fresh. You can add essential oils if you like for extra scent. I don't (yet) just because we are used to the smell of clean cloth.

I got the recipe from thesimpledollar.com

and tipnut.com/homemade-laundry-detergent/ (they have 10 different recipes)

Enjoy!

New Venture: Homemade Yogurt

So we have been trying to eat more heathy and save money at the same time. So I decided to try and make yogurt (thanks Serena!). It turned out well, and luckily took pictures of the process. So here you are, as my first blog post... make your own yogurt!

First, you get your milk (we use organic whole) and 2-3 TBSP of yogurt with live active cultures, a big pot and a smaller pot that will fit inside, a metal spoon, a thermometer, and a heating pad.

This step is optional: Fill a big pot with water and put all your utensils in to sanitize them. Turn the other pot (which you will use to make a water jacket later) upside down to sanitize the inside.

Once the water is boiling, you can put the other pot right side up and get your thermometer ready. Slowly pour in the milk. The milk and water line should be about the same. Heat the milk up to 185 degrees.

Remove the pot from the water and put into an ice bath to cool down to 110 degrees. Once milk is cooled, "pitch" (add) the yogurt and stir well.

Turn your heating pad on low and put the lid on the pot. Put pot on heating pad and cover with a towel. Set the timer for 7 hours (depending on your tastes).

Once the timer is up, stir it all up really well and separate it into containers (I use my old yogurt containers) and pop it in the fridge. Pull it out the next day and enjoy. It was gone to fast to take a picture of the finished product, but it was delicious! I added a little vanilla and some agave nectar and viola! Delicious homemade yogurt full of wonderful probiotics for a happy belly.

P.S.: This is the site I got all the directions on: http://www.makeyourownyogurt.com/. It has lots of good info and more detailed instructions.

Now, I am going to get back to this:

and this: