Homemade Bread

I've been on a homemade bread making kick lately. It all started with this bread on PW's site. Super easily and amazingly delicious. Then, I checked out The Bread Bible from the library. Whew! It was a world of education since I hardly have any experience making homemade bread. But I tried out the cinnamon raisin swirl from it today and it was worth the learning curve. The recipe made two loaves and I made one with raisins and one without. After only a few hours out of the oven, the first loaf was nearly devoured! All of us enjoyed it warm from the oven with apple butter.

So I think this bread making kick will last for a while. It's sort of addicting. Any good bread recipes or favorite bread cookbooks? Please share.

Library Note: Leaf Man

A while ago we checked out Leaf Man by Lois Elhert. It's a great imagination book that follows "leaf man" wherever the wind blows him. It is full of illustrations using the beautiful leaves found in nature arranged in such a way that make them look like animals and people.

Today when we were outside enjoying our unseasonable 80 degree weather, we remembered the book and decided to make some leaf men of our own.

And play some tic-tac-toe with leaves, rocks and sticks. {I was inspired by this post by The Prairie Girl, my new friend from the PW book signing.}

Holiday Handprint Placemats

We started a tradition last year of making placemats during holidays. We use our handprints to create the art on drawing paper and then laminate it for the kids to use as placemats. It's fun to see how the kids' prints grow and to look back and remember who was celebrating with us. We make everyone present participate!

For Christmas last year, we had so many I had to make two placemats to fit them all.

I've found that the best way to ensure clear handprints is to use a foam brush to paint the acrylic paint onto people's hands.
For the turkeys, I had a separate foam brush for each color and quickly painted the fingers and palms different colors before pressing them firmly on the paper.

I use thin construction paper or computer paper for the handprints. Then, once they're dry, cut them out and use a glue stick to arrange them on your drawing paper. This way you can collect several handprints without anyone accidentally smudging the art.

Another suggestion is to have each person do more than one print, maybe even with each hand. That way, when you sit down to turn it into art you have more options for creating your design.

As for turning it into a placemat, Office Max will laminate anything smaller than 11 x 17" for around $2 per sheet. Check your drawing paper and trim if needed to keep it smaller than that size. If it's bigger, you'll have to have it roll laminated which costs more than twice as much.

This is a great craft to do with your children around the holidays and my kids love pulling out the placemats year round to use during mealtime.

Jesse Tree: Jesse Prophecy

For the first day of our Advent devotionals, we will focus on the prophecy from Isaiah 11:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -

and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;

but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

Although the Jesse Tree itself serves as the symbol for this day's devotional, I decided to make a small banner as our tree topper with the verse on it.
I hand embroidered part of the verse on a scrap of burlap, attached it to a piece of craft wood and trimmed it with decorative ribbon. I plan on setting it in the top branches of our tree.

I love the way it turned out and having that verse as a banner on our tree is further symbolic of the words in verse 10 of Isaiah 11 that says, "In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious."

Check out more Jesse Tree ornaments I've made and collected here and on Flickr.

Happy Halloween

We had fun trick-or-treating last night as the characters from the Wizard of Oz.

I posted here about how to make the scarecrow costume. The Dorothy costume was a McCall's pattern and the lion was a Tom Arma pattern. The Tin Man we whipped together with silver lame, foam board and velcro.

Jesse Tree Flickr Group

Over the last few months I've been chronicling the ornaments I'm making for our Advent Jesse Tree. I still have several more to post but in the meantime thought it would be fun to see what others have made. If you've made any of your own oraments or purchased some that you'd like to share, join our Jesse Tree Flickr Group.

Muffin Tin Monday: Pumpkin Waffles

The theme this week was fall harvest. I decided to do breakfast instead of lunch and we made pumpkin waffles with a muffin tin full of yummy {not necessarily healthy} toppings.

You can't really tell, but I cut out the waffles with a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter.

Boo decorated the waffles with his toppings:

-orange whipped cream {unsweetened - to offset the sugar in the sprinkles and chocolate chips. This is the same methodology I use when I order a skinny Cafe Mocha with just a little whipped cream.}
-pecans
-bananas
-sprinkles
-chocolate chips

Here is the Spiced Pumpkin Waffles recipe I used from Country Living. They're delicious.

As always, check out other muffin tins from this week's Muffin Tin Monday at Her Cup Overfloweth.

Acacia Custom Art

Quick plug for my sweet friend, Michelle. She just started an Etsy shop full of her beautiful artwork and painted scripture. Check it out.