ohhhh yah

just one of the many reasons why I married this man.

some zipper pouches and a new bag

I have been working on this bag for weeks. And I mean weeks! Nothing about it went smoothly and to be honest I'm extremely impressed I even finished it. I finally got it done yesterday and I didn't even want to look at it at first. I was so frustrated with all time it took and the ridiculous amounts of times I had to use my seam ripper, that I just didn't like it. This morning I looked at it again and had to admit it actually was kind of cute. You can get the tutorial at My Spare Time. I'm a huge fan of her blog but I really struggled with the tutorial, not sure why. Probably just me but I'll warn you, I didn't find the bag very easy to make at all.

Today I decided to try my hand at my very first zipper pouch. It was so fun! Seriously, I could probably sew these all day long. The first one I didn't get the zipper very good at all, but then again I've never done a zipper before so oh well! The second one went a lot better and I decided to add a little tag, which I put in upside down so I had to fix that. The third one turned out perfect. No problems at all and I LOVE it.

Zipper pouch attempt #1... I love it except the zipper is a little too exposed for my liking. I used fabric paint and a stamp to do the dandelion.

Zipper Pouch #2

And zipper pouch #3... nearly perfect!

A Few Tips on Baking Bread

It seems that lately I've had quite a few people asking me questions about baking bread. Usually I'm able to answer them to the best of my ability but really, I'm no expert. I thought though that because I post so many bread recipes I would share my tips on baking bread.

• Give yourself LOTS of time. Baking bread is very time consuming in the sense that you have to be around. The initial rise can take anywhere from 1-2 hours and if you want a good dough you are going to want to pound it down and let it rise a couple more times before your final rise. I tend to start baking first thing in the morning, and sometimes it's ready by lunch, but usually mid afternoon.


• The main difference between Active Dry Yeast and Quick Rise Yeast is that active dry has to be proofed. That means you need to dissolve it in liquid first. Quick rise you can simply add to the dry ingredients and it will work. Apparently quick rise will also make your bread rise faster although I've never noticed much of a difference.


• Be prepared to get your hands dirty. I use my kitchen aid mixer for most of the kneading required during bread baking, but nothing works as well as using your hands. Kneading is required to make the dough more elastic and to help it rise, so don't skimp out.


• Use quality ingredients. I have found on more than one occasion that buying poor quality flour, yeast, sugar, etc. makes poor quality bread. If you are making your bread from scratch it is already going to be WAY cheaper than buying a loaf in the store so don't be afraid to spend a little bit more on good ingredients.


• Know your flours. Some flours have much more gluten than others and some flours really won't rise at all. When trying new flours I generally substitue only one or two cups of whole wheat or all purpose until I know how well it will work. You can find more information about the different kinds of flours here.


• Don't forget to add salt! Salt can kill yeast so I always suggest adding your salt to the flour and then adding it to the wet ingredients. However because I do it this way I often (yes often) forget to add salt. It will still turn out but it sure won't taste the same!


• Finally... don't be afraid to experiment!! I have one very basic recipe that I simply deviate from as I desire. It's up in my head so it makes it easy for me to just substitute different flours, fats, or sweeteners.

Well, that's all my tips for now. Remember, I'm no expert but I do love baking bread so I hope this helps!

To see some of my bread recipes click here, here, or here!

another camping trip

We finally caved (and by "we" I actually mean that I finally convinced Travis to) and bought ourselves a tent trailer! Camping in a tent has been fine, but whenever it rains or the mosquitos come out in full force it's hard to keep the kids entertained in a little tent. So, we got ourselves a little tent trailer and suprisingly that made all the difference to the kids. We took it out for the first time this weekend and considering that it both rained and we got completely swarmed by mosquitos, it was very much appreciated!

On the drive home on Sunday, Travis had just commented to me about the fact that we rarely see much wildlife in that area. It seems weird because it's in the mountains and heavily wooded. Of course, 5 minutes after he said that I yelled at him to stop the van because sure enough I saw a HUGE owl sitting on a fence post. Growing up where I have, I don't usually get too excited about seeing deer, elk, moose, bears, etc. but an owl? It's just not every day you see a large owl. I wasn't sure what kind of owl it was so when I got home I looked it up and I believe it was a Great Gray Owl. I managed to get quite close to it so I snapped a few pictures...

Car Organizer

We are planning two big trips this summer, one to Saskatchewan to see Travis' folks and one to Smithers BC to see mine. The drive to Saskatchewan is about 6 hours and the drive to Smithers is a solid 12+. I've been thinking of different ways to keep the boys entertained on both of these drives and the only thing I've come up with so far is to just bring lot's of toys, coloring books, stickers, snacks, etc. So when I stumbled upon The Mayfly blog and saw this tutorial for Car Organizers I was so happy! What a fantastic and easy tutorial. It only took me a couple of hours to make two of them, one for each seat. I think I like the way that Alicia's looks better, but I'm happy with mine as well. I think I might have to tighten up the elastic on the bottom a bit though, it sags a bit too much in my thinking.

For now I'll be using the organizers to store extra diapers and my slings.

So, thanks Alicia for a great tutorial.

first time making jam

Yogurt Rye Bread

As most of you know, I make my own bread. I tend to have to make it every other day or so, so I get bored with making it sometimes. Being bored brings me to experiement with my recipes so the other day I thought I'd try something totally new. I had some amazing organic rye flour that had been sitting in my pantry for too long and seeing as I often find rye bread too dry I thought I would try adding some yogurt to it. It turned out AMAZING. So good and so moist. I practically ate the entire loaf myself. Naturally I thought I should share the recipe so here it goes.

Yogurt Rye Bread

1 1/2 cups water

2 1/2 tsp yeast

2 tbsp. honey

2 tbsp. melted or softened butter

1/2 cup plain yogurt

3 cups all purpose four

1 cup coarse rye flour

1 tsp. salt

First off I dissolve the yeast in the water in a glass measuring cup. Once it's all dissolved, pour it into a mixing bowl (I use my kitchen aid mixer with the dough hook, but you could do it all by hand of course). Add the honey, butter, and yogurt and mix till combined. Add the flours and salt and mix till combined then knead until it forms into a nice ball. You may need to add more flour if the dough is still really sticky. I usually knead it (or let the machine knead it) for about 4-5 minutes.

Then let the dough rise for an hour or more or until doubled in bulk. Punch down and let rise again for another 15 mins or so. You can repeat the punching down and letting rise for 15 minutes a few times if you want. Knead and shape the dough into a loaf shape and place in a well greased loaf pan.

Let rise until doubled, or until it reaches a desired height, usually about another hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a medium dark brown.

Let cool for 10 minutes then remove from the bread pan to prevent it from getting soggy.

more potato printed onsies!

I did some more potato printing with my moms group last monday. I love how they turned out! For some reason blogger keeps flipping the picture of the tractor onsie so I guess you'll just have to tilt your head.

Camping Trip

We headed out for our first camping trip of the year on friday night. It went so well, the boys loved it, we loved it, and we all managed to get some sleep too!