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my kind of snow day

Today was sunny and warm. There used to be a time in my life where 34 degrees was cold. Nebraska has changed that.

All M has been asking to do the past few days is to go outside and play snowballs. She got this from watching Charlie Brown Christmas almost every day for the past month. Remember the scene? All the kids are throwing snowballs trying to knock a tin can off the fence and then Linus uses his blanket to nail it. M thinks this is very cool.

We’ve had a good deal of melting and the snow is really wet. Perfect for making snowballs! We threw them into the snow, at each other and on the ground. We squished them with our feet. We used a cup to make snow bricks and snow castles. We picked tiny icicles off of the car. And most importantly, we made our first snowman. (Snowperson? Snowcreature?)

snowman

M insisted we make him a snowdog.

snow dog

He has an icicle for a tail and sadly has no ears. The snowman seemed happy to have the company, though. Especially since shortly after I was able to convince M to come inside for some hot cocoa. 34 degrees is warm, but not that warm!

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a healthier amish friendship bread recipe

mini loaves

A few months ago, a friend gave me some Amish Friendship Bread starter with this recipe. I made a few loaves for us, then I kept the next batch of starter and made a bunch of loaves as Christmas presents for friends. I really like this bread and have been storing the extra starter in the freezer so I can make more. Now it’s becoming an every day snack instead of a treat, so I had to adjust the recipe to make it a little bit healthier. The result is definitely not as sinful as the original, but it’s still pretty darn tasty!

1 cup amish friendship bread starter
3/4 cup egg substitute
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup skim milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp (kosher) salt
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup chopped craisins
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Spray 2 medium loaf pans or 4 mini loaf pans with light olive oil.
• Combine ingredients.
• Pour the batter evenly into the pans.
• Bake for 45-60 minutes until wooden toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool for 5 minutes and turn onto a backing rack to finish cooling.

What I changed: Swapped real eggs with egg substitute to cut out some cholesterol. Swapped oil for pumpkin puree (pumpkin is a super food!) Used skim milk and swapped 1 cup of white flour for whole wheat. Skipped the instant pudding. My original recipe had you dust the greased pan with sugar. Skipped that step, as well. I also ignored the “Don’t use anything metal” warning in the recipe and threw all of these ingredients in my big blender. It really speeds up the whole process, plus it’s easy to pour and clean up.

Some other starter tips: If you are using a ziploc bag, it’s ok to let the air out after a few days to avoid a starter explosion. (Yes, this really happened to a friend of mine!) It’s not the end of the world if you can’t mix ingredients or bake on the exact day. I’ve kept starter in the refrigerator after day 10 for a few weeks and it turned out fine. I’ve even put it in the freezer for future use. As long as it doesn’t turn weird colors, it will be fine. And speaking of the freezer, the bread freezes very well. I usually make the mini loaves and freeze the extra ones as soon as they have cooled.

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handmade holidays

I’ve been trying to write this post for awhile and figured I’d better get it up before Valentine’s Day! I took the Handmade Pledge last year and have to say that all of my birthday/baby/holiday gifts were handmade. I’ve been posting them throughout the year and here’s the final gifts of the holiday season.

holiday gifts

Sweater Scarves from my own pattern.

holiday gifts

Coasters from Joelle Hoverson’s sewing book. Bar towel from my own pattern.

holiday gifts

Zipper pouches from 24 Hour Sewing Projects.

holiday gifts

Mason Dixon Warshrags.

I also made lots of loaves of friendship bread (with mini chocolate chips and chopped craisins. YUM!) and tree ornaments.

holiday gifts

Tiny stockings from Joelle Hoverson’s knitting book.

holiday gifts

Tiny stars from Shh, I’m counting!

I plan on posting a tutorial for the sweater scarves. I also have fiddled with the friendship bread recipe (when do I not fiddle with a recipe?) trying to make it a bit healthier for every day snacking. I’ll try and post that, too. Right now I’m working on baby gifts. They’ll be revealed soon!

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we’ve joined the children’s museum!

I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile. Last week we purchased a membership to the museum and the zoo. We met up with Lisa, Elsa, Christy and Eva for an afternoon of fun. I can see us going a lot. We were there for two hours and didn’t even explore half of the cool stuff. M had an awesome time.

jungle bus

jungle boat

lunar lander

big chair

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felted wool sweater coffee sleeves

I think I have officially made use of all of the sweater parts I recycle into felted wool accessories. Here’s my latest, made from the leftover cuffs of my sweater sleeve scarves. More photos in my shop. I have a few more I’ll be posting over the next few days. These were fun, small projects to do after finishing up M’s blanket. I also have one more project idea up my sleeve (ha, ha) that uses the neck ribbing of the sweater. Stay tuned!

felted coffee sleeves

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custom wool felted bag :: maroon

I had hoped to sell a lot of items on etsy during the holidays, but I didn’t have a lot of time to make things to stock my store. Fortunately, it was because I had custom orders! One of my favorites was a matching messenger bag and scarf. The sweater was huge and superwash wool. It didn’t felt at all, so I had a lot of fabric, but I had to be careful it didn’t unravel while sewing.

maroon wool felted bag

Most of my bags are one of a kinds, depending on the shape and design of the sweater. I’m thinking of writing up a standard pattern, though. I really like how this one turned out.

maroon wool felted bag

I’m also loving my scarves. I made a bunch for Christmas presents this year. I hope to have a tutorial for these up on the blog soon. They are so warm!

maroon wool felted bag

Soon to follow, all of my handmade holiday gifts!

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a million little pieces

Ok. That’s a little bit of an exaggeration. I’m talking about all of the Christmas toys that come with too many pieces and nothing in which to store them. I have to give a thumbs up to the folks who designed M’s drum. They put a handle on it, so you can turn it upside down and store the drumsticks and other instruments inside. Brilliant!

Her awesome eco-friendly tea set could have used an awesome eco-friendly tote or basket, though. And it would have been great if her cute wooden “paper” doll set came with a cute wooden lid. Plus, there is the growing collection of matchbox cars and Thomas trains. I needed to get control over all these bits and pieces, so I sewed up a bunch of drawstring bags last weekend.

These were super easy and economical. I bought the set of fat quarters from Michael’s with my 50% off coupon, the ribbon came from a thrift store and the muslin lining came from one of my amazing garage sale fabric scores last summer. Total for all of the bags: about $4. I love these so much, I’m thinking of making some for my knitting projects. M thinks they’re pretty cool, too.