My favorite bread recipe

I love baking bread. 

Yea, you read that right. 

I LOVE it. 

I began baking bread about 2 years ago and now I go through phases where I have two fresh loaves every week (or as needed).

The recipe I use makes two loaves, and since I'm a firm believer that home baked bread is best during the first two days, I'll often give away my second loaf so I have an excuse to bake more fresh bread during the week. (and, let's be honest, so I don't eat two loaves of bread to myself in a week)

Without further ado, here is my (still adapting) go to bread recipe:

2 cups warm water 

(110 degrees, or if you don't have a thermometer, I just make sure the water is a little warm to the touch, not hot or you will kill the yeast)

1/3 c sugar (I have also used honey here)

1 1/2 tbs dry yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1/3 cup ground flax seed

5 2/3 cup bread flour (I prefer wheat)

(this recipe will not work as is with regular flour)

1. In a large bowl dissolve sugar into water until the water is almost clear. Add the yeast and let proof until creamy and foamy looking (I usually set a timer for 7 minutes so I'm not tempted to stir or mess with it before it's ready).

2. Mix salt and oil into yeast. Mix in flour and flax in one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. 

(fun fact, the act of kneading bread actually activates the gluten in the flour and causes it to form elastic web looking patterns that hold air and make your bread wonderfully fluffy, so the more air, the fluffier your bread, hence the saying "the more you love your family the more you knead your bread")

3. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a warm damp cloth and let rise until doubled or 1 hour.

4. Punch down the dough, knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves and place in two oiled (I flour the bottoms after an unfortunate sticking incident) bread pans and let rise until 1 inch above the bread pan (at least a half hour)

bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

I like to cut little designs into the tops of my loaves so when I take them out of the oven, not only does my house smell like warm, yummy, bread but I feel extra fancy too. (Google image search if you need ideas)

If your bread isn't rising, your kitchen may be too cold; try turning on your oven and setting the bread on top of the burners (not above the one that exhausts heat from the oven itself, if your oven features this)

An interesting thing about this (if you don't use honey) the bread is technically vegan!

Thrifty Thursdays: A month of dates for Nad

One of the most important things to keeping a strong and fun marriage is to keep courting each other.  Keep oogling his nice arms and he'll keep sneaking pinches each chance he gets.

And it will be so much fun!

But, starting out, generally doesn't provide the funds for weekly big dream dates and adventures. Sure, someday we'll fly somewhere awesome on a whim or drive up to Yellowstone for the day, but for now; these will more than suffice.

1. Go on a walk together: the weather is just starting to warm up and those sunshiney rays will do you, your heart, and your love for each other so much good!

2. Go throw rocks: what? No, seriously though. Find a little pond or lake and skip rocks. Frozen over? See who can break through the ice first. Activities that may seem a little juvenile (but not in a way that will land you in jail or with a misdemeanor seeing as you are an adult now) will help break down defenses that you may have up and help you to communicate things that you may at other times feel to silly to bring up.

3. Spice up dinner: You're already going to eat, so why not shake it up a little bit? Eat dinner picnic style or build a fort and eat it inside. Finish up with a dessert you can just nibble on and play a board game together. 

4. Watch the sunrise: yes I know it is cold out right now and yes it is very possible that the whole excursion will be less comfortable than romantic, but sometimes when things going  a little wrong and you feel really silly about them later, it creates the best memories. So, when you are old and grey, or just feeling lack-luster on an off day, you can think about that time you guys woke up at the crack of dawn, bundled up with homemade hot chocolate and traipsed out into the snow to watch a winter sunrise. and froze.

So, have fun with your free dates and let me know what you do for your impromptu, ultimate budget friendly, dates.

Tutorial Tuesdays: Shirt to Yoga Pants

Double Tutorial Tuesday! Weee
Since the releasing darts tutorial is more of an informative-if-you-are-making-something deal, I thought I'd throw in this super quick, super comfy tutorial:

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I saw the idea to make a shirt into yoga pants on Pinterest, so I went for it!

(The original tutorial is here, mine is a little different)

Take a men's long sleeved t-shirt:
Small Shirt= Small Pants

Medium shirt= Medium pants

Large Shirt= Large pants

XL Shirt = XL pants

you get the picture.

 (Sorry this is upside down, I was in a hurry)

Step One:

Lay your shirt out on a large flat surface, making sure the side seams are lined up and cut off the sleeves and down the center. Next, cut off the neckline.

The body of the shirt will now be both of your pant legs.

Step Two:

Cut out two rectangles from the sleeves. They should be the same length as the top (by where the neck was) of your pant legs.

Open up each rectangle and sew them to each other on the skinny ends, then fold so the seams are enclosed.

Step Three:

Turn both sides inside out (so the previous serging is on the outside) and

Sew the side leg seams together on the outside edge.

Step Four: 

Turn one leg right side out and put it inside the other leg, matching up the curve of where the armholes used to be and sew together. Pull the leg back out.

Step Five:

You should have something that looks like pants now! To lengthen the waistline (highly suggested if you have any sort of fanny to speak of) add the waistband by matching up the side seams of the band to the side seams of the pants with the pants inside the waistband and the raw edges of the band and the pants facing up and sew together.

Step Six:

Put them on and go work out!

Happy sewing!

Tutorial Tuesdays: Releasing Darts

The next several Tutorial Tuesdays combined with this dress top will turn you into the ULTIMATE Modcloth  dress hacker!

When sewing (especially with woven--non stretchy-- fabrics) you will run into pesky little things called darts.

And oh buddy are they important! They can make or break the fit of a garment and can be converted into release (as in today's post) pin-tucks, pleats, gathers and seam lines. Whew!

On a women's sloper/block (pictured above) pattern piece, there are typically two darts (the one pictured only has one) one at the waist (shown) and another coming from the side to the bust. These darts must be fitted to each individual for a perfectly tailored fit...

Lucky for us, a lot of popular styles today are over-sized and drapey.

So using the thrifty dress from a past Thursday, 

lets talk about releasing darts.

The top for this dress pattern can be found (for free!) on the burdastyle  website. 

I made several changes to the pattern based upon personal opinions of modesty (sleeves and length) and (at the time) personal distaste for zippers.

As you can see in the outline of the dress, there is a jabott of sorts that I also omitted. 

To avoid putting in a zipper, while still using a woven fabric, I converted the waist darts to release. What this means is simply, instead of sewing the darts closed, I left them unsewn. 

Referring back to the top picture of the front sloper, you can see the sew line on the dart. Just don't sew it, you rebel you. 

Since converting the darts to release made the top too big at the waist, I gathered in the excess fabric to the skirt with an elastic encased in the seams. (Darts released and gathered)

With these little steps I was able to create a dress that can still fit over the head and bust without installing a zipper in the equation. Easy peasy, and now you're a pro. Even if you don't have your own slopers/blocks (which most people don't) you can still easily manipulate any commercial pattern (as I did with the Coffee date dress) into whatever you like.

With todays tutorial (if you can really call it that, it was so easy) you can recreate dresses similiar to these:

Cold, Cold

Winter has made it's official mark. 

I have my second cold of the season. 

This usually means we are about halfway to spring.

But halfway isn't soon enough!

So in spite of the cold outside, and in my sinuses, Russ and I had a little summer dance party.

Complete with, 

Cranked up heat, 

Swimsuits, 

Beach boys, 

....

and drawn shades.

Russell always asks me if there is anything he can get me, so I told him to get me summer.

He said he would pray super hard to make it come faster.

I told him that I didn't think it worked like that.

He said it does, because he already did and now we are a little closer.

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Summer, we are enthusiastically awaiting your return.

Dear Craig's List Spammer,

The other day, Russ took some pictures of some musical equipment he has but doesn't use; to be sold on Craig's List.

As with just about everything listed for sale over $100, we got a spam message saying that the purchaser is leaving the country to (insert out of country location here) and he would have his assistant come and pick it up for him, AND because of the inconvenience and delay (his assistant wouldn't be able to come for another couple days) he would give us another $50.

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Russ was a little bummed that he just got spam, so I told him we should rebuttal the offer.

We told the spammer that we wanted an extra $200 and use of his personal assistant for a week. We also wanted a personal phone call from him impersonating Mr. Bean, (which; Russ noted, is pretty hard to do.)

We were surprised when we got a new e-mail notification from the spammer.

We quickly thought of all the things he could say to us, for a moment we panicked and thought this may not have been a spam, until we opened the e-mail.

it read:

go and die

......

I guess he won't be having his personal assistant come pick up the equipment.

bummer.

Meet My Sponsors!

Today I have the delight of introducing you to one of my sponsors for this month;

Emmy over at Love Woke Me Up This Morning

Emmy is a city girl, who after graduating college found herself working as a youth minister in a small town. Other than adjusting from the culture shock, you'll most likely find her reading a good novel (probably Harry Potter), writing in her blog or one of her short fictional stories, hanging out with her dog, or helping with her local community theater. 

Check her out on her blog to see how she braves this crazy "real world" one day at a time with a little bit of love, coffee and God by her side.

Keep an eye out for some guest posting this month from Love Woke Me Up This Morning!

Tagged!

So my friend over at Peace-Love-Lauren tagged me in a little questionnaire.

(You can see her original post by following the link!)

1. Where are you? I am home in my little studio apartment/converted hotel room.

2. What is your most recent "pin" on pinterest? A long (tea length) tulle skirt with a huge silky ribbon at the top (Kinda like the Carrie Bradshaw skirt Lauren is making! But without layers)

3. Dream little girl name? Boy name? hmmm I really can't set my heart on anything until I find something that husband and I both like, and we haven't really found anything that we LOVE yet, but then again we have time :)

4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? SOOOO graduated from school! Hopefully with a couple babies living somewhere relatively near the West Coast

5. When you meet someone new, how do you decide if they have friend potential? I automatically assume someone will be my friend until they prove me otherwise. I was ALWAYS the new kid and we never stayed in one place for a super long time, so I just set out to work as soon as I got somewhere.

6. Favorite blog of the moment and why? hmm, I actually don't have a favorite! I just love reading and checking in on people I know and seeing how awesome, funny, clever and great their lives are.

7. One thing that you would change if you could just one? Juuust kidding, I would have graduated already!

8. If you had to fast for 40 days & 40 nights... what food would you want to scarf first? That is so tough! This one time, when I was 16, I was out and about with friends on a long weekend and we had been so busy that we hadn't eaten anything for at least a day so we went to Chili's and split a Molten Lava Cake. Not that it is my favorite food by a long shot, but anytime I'm super hungry, I think about that cake. So I'd probably live that dream again. :)

9. Favorite thing about the state you currently live in? I was born in Idaho so it has always had a soft spot for me, but I love how many outdoorsy things there are around here! Mountains and rivers and lakes and streams and camping and climbing and mmmmm :}

10. When was the last time you stayed up past 3am and why? Last night, because I couldn't sleep. I think I did something to offend sleep a couple weeks ago because it has not been around ever since.

11. What are you looking forward to the most this week? Getting some actual pictures up for my Etsy store!

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And for this, I'm going to tag, YOU!

Post in the comments or post a link to your blog where you have filled out the survey :)

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1. What is one of your most embarrassing moments?

2. 3 Things you want to see before you kick the bucket?

3. How did your first kiss go down?

4. What is your best talent?

5. What is your favorite summer-time activity?

6. Do you have any weird ways of eating a specific food (I have to eat the center of a Reese's first, then get all the peanut butter out, then eat the edges)?

7. If you could make something really well, what would it be?

8. What is your dream job?

9. If you could pick just one, what would you say is your best quality as a friend?

10. Something you don't like that most other people do:

and!

11. What is something you are most proud of yourself for?

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Happy blogging!!! If you send me a link to your post I'd be more than happy to feature it in a compilation!

Happy March!

Hope everyone's Leap Day was amazing!

This month I have some exciting things going on! 

Including....

drum roll please.....

Sponsors!!

You can check them all out on the right there by clicking on their cute little icons.  I'll be introducing them each Saturday of this month, so stay tuned!

yay for bloggy friends!

(the month is young, if you'd like to do a sponsor swap let me know!)

Thrifty Thursdays: Buy this - not that.

I was bored the other day, so I was shopping around online and came across this cute tulip skirt from anthropologie

The price tag? Not so cute at over $100

I was then curious to find something similar for less and came across this:

From Old Navy: Less than $20

I do like the wider hem of the anthro skirt, so I would add top stitching to the Old Navy skirt to get that look.

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After my little price comparison adventure, I realized how easy it is to find affordable alternatives to more expensive items. (I'm  not saying to find knock-offs, but there are so many similar styles out there).

The key to finding what you want at a more affordable price online is by knowing the names of the clothing and some basic termonology. 

For dresses, I found this handy little guide:

My current hunt is for something similar to these anthro skinnies:

They'd be so cute for spring!