I Live On a Farm KAL and First Communion

Our lovely First Communicant, Kierra... More on her in one minute...!
I've been away from blogging for awhile as family life has been b-u-s-y! Before I get too wordy, I just want to make a small post about the I Live On A Farm Knit-Along that I'm participating in. This way, the ladies on the KAL can see my progress without having to read through the rest of my post, if they don't want to! This is a Summer Blanket mystery kal. I'm knitting mine in a sunny yellow by Sugar N Cream. Two cones are needed to complete the blanket. We'd love to have you join us! Clue one is out and we're all awaiting clue two.
And now more on Kierra's Big Day!



Kierra made her First Communion last Wednesday! She was the only one as I prepare my children for their sacraments at home. She made her communion in the chapel with our family (Gary, me, the kiddoes and my mom) present (and Kyle's lovely girlfriend, Julia, too, -not in picture :(...) and some lovely ladies of our church present. Our wonderful priest, Fr. Tom, made it so very special for Kierra. She'll remember this special day, always.
After Mass we had a pastry buffet back at home. I was busy baking the few days before. I made a Cherry-go-round, which makes two so did another with pineapple filling, an Apricot Tart Sour Cream Coffee Cake, and Raspberry-filled Linzer Cookies. Everything was so good! We truly had a beautiful, loved-filled day!

Because the Box is Always More Fun...

than the actual toy that came in it, right?
Another couple of projects from my Homemaker's Mentor Course. This was chocolate dipped spoons to go along with a home made Mocha Mix. The mix is delicious and the chocolate dipped spoons are great fun for stirring. My little girls really enjoyed this project as once I showed them what to do they did it all!
This project was to encourage making a live centerpiece for the table. This is Montana Wheat that I normally ground for bread making. I just sprinkled grains in some very wet organic soil, covered them with more soil and squirted the top. I give them a good spray every day. This is about a week's worth of growth. Once it grows a bit more, I'll put it on the kitchen table and snip the greens to add to smoothies and salads. Nice idea, huh?

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

Who can resist home-made dinner rolls straight from the oven? Not me! These are delicious. Would you like to try them? Here's the recipe:

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
2-1/3 cups water
1 cup oats
3 TBS butter
2Tbs Yeast
2/3 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
3 cups wheat flour
2 cups unbleached flour

Boil water and add oats and butter. Cool to 110-120 degrees (very important). In mixer bowl combine water/oat mixture, yeast, brown sugar, salt and stir. Add whole wheat flour and mix. Add white flour until dough no longer sticks to the sides of the mixer. Do NOT add too much flour! Knead for 5-8 minutes. Place in oiled bowl, flipping over once. Let rest 30-45 minutes. Punch down and divide into 24 (I get about 18 nice size rolls) pieces. Place pieces in two
9" X 13" sprayed pans. Let rise until double in size, about 30-45 minutes. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, 'til nicely browned. Rub butter on top when fresh out of the oven.

Pretty Table Runner and Napkin Set

I just completed a little homework assignment from my Homemaker's Mentor course. We were given instructions on how to make a simple table runner and matching napkins. This project was perfect for a beginner sewer, useful and just plain cute. It didn't take long at all; just an afternoon to sew the runner and twelve napkins. It took a bit longer to pick the threads to make the fringe but it was an enjoyable, mindless task. I really like this little course I'm taking as it's fun and I always learn something new. The ladies on the list are also very nice and I find discussing homemaking skills, tips and everything else that encompasses the broad term of homemaking quite refreshing.

Winter Morning

Thought I would share a few snapshots from this morning. I've had these seed catalogs waiting for me to go through and order from. It's on my To Do List for today.
Ginger isn't quite as smitten with Oliver as Oliver is with Ginger. She was hissing at my poor baby... He just wanted to play a little!
Can you see my little sweetie-pie in the snow? He blends in quite a bit. Misty is much more tolerant of Oliver's playfulness.
The kiddoes are enjoying all kinds of winter-time fun, including taking a spin on the snow-mobile.
The trees are tapped! We haven't had any sap running through yet, but once we have a few warm days and then a few cold ones, the sap will be running freely! I can't wait for home-made maple syrup. Mmmmm...

It's Been a Long Time...

since I made a blog post. Life seems so full and busy and the days just ramble by. We've had a lot of snow here in the northeast and it's been a lovely winter. I'm a born and bred New Englander and it just wouldn't be winter without a blanket of fluffy snow.
My beautiful friend brought me a ray of sunshine the other night; a pretty yellow Kalanchoe. It's gracing my bedroom windowsill and brings a ray of sunshine into my room even during a cloudy afternoon!
Recently my three younger daughters had a wonderful time playing in the snow with their friend, Bernadette. It was cold but you wouldn't know it watching the girls play.
Let's see, what else has been going on? Ah, yes... Gary and I went out to dinner Saturday night with our neighbors from our old neighborhood. I haven't seen them in nearly fifteen years! You know you have a special bond when you can pick up right where you left off after all those years. I miss them so much. I hope we can keep in touch as we shared so many ups and downs of life together. It was so much fun hearing about their children and seeing pictures of little boys in my minds eye grow to strong, vibrant young men that they are today. What a gift to see that! For dessert I made a Fiddler On the Roof Cake with Marshmallow-Chocolate Frosting from the Cakemix Doctor.

During these cold winter nights I have enjoyed making the Biscuit Blanket. I used Peaches and Cream cotton yarn. The pattern is so pretty and once I got on to how to make the pattern stitch (which took me a bit to understand!) it was smooth sailing and a very enjoyable knit. I'll be sure to use it to put my warm biscuits in!
I've also been keeping up with Little Miss Shabby's Birdie Stitches Block of the Month. This is the January Block and...
this is the block for February. Are they cute or what? I'm using a Moda Layer Cake (can't remember the name) for the edge and Kona Cotton in beige for the center block. You can join the free Block of the Month, too. I'm really enjoying this one!
I hope you are staying warm and drinking in all this beautiful season has to offer. Keeping warm by the woodstove at night, taking brisk walks during the day and soaking in the sunshine and blue skies; it's all good!

BOSH, Bread, and More Scarves!

I recently purchased a BOSH Mixer from Marmeedear and have used it twice so far. The first thing I made was cinnamon buns. They were so good. I made the batter the evening before and baked them the following morning. What a nice breakfast! Today I made bread; five loaves plus rolls. I could have made six loaves but opted for some buns. The bowl of the mixer doesn't look huge but it holds a ridiculous amount of flour and making six loaves of bread at one time was a snap. I waited a couple years to make this purchase, but I believe it is well worth it and will pay itself back within a year.

Here is the bread dough straight from the mixer. I was just patting it into a round blob to let it sit on the cookie sheet to rise.

As you can see, it did rise quite a bit. I watched a Youtube video of Martha from Marmeedear making bread. The next time I bake bread, which I think will be next week, I will use her recipe from her book, "The Bread Box". I learned several things watching her Youtube video, Marmees Breadmarket, on how to successfully make Whole Wheat bread. I've been baking bread on and off for quite a few years but it was a struggle using smaller mixers. So I'm anxiously waiting to get my new cookbook as her bread seems much lighter and moister than mine. I'm always up for learning new things!

This is the finished product. It was deliciously good hot out of the oven! It browned nicely and I swiped butter over the top. We should be set for bread for the next few days. Looks like lunch tomorrow will be freshly made soup and bread!

Kaleigh recently made this pretty little scarf for a two year old little girl. Her mama saw one that Kaleigh made for the lady's nephew and wanted one for her daughter. Kaleigh crocheted a little edge on it too. She is going to do a post on her blog later today where you can find her free pattern. Please give her a visit if you'd like over here at Pixxie Sparkles, her blog, and enjoy the free pattern. She used Lamb's Pride yarn in Rosy Velvet.

This is another scarf I made out of the Red Heart Curly Q yarn. I blogged about it in an earlier post. I made this one for my friend's birthday. She works at an elementary school and stands outside during recess. I thought this would keep her a bit warmer. This is the third one I've made, Kaleigh made one for my mom and I have one more skein left to make myself a scarf. I really like the pattern because it fits nicely in your jacket without being too long, has the hole in the middle and the yarn is very soft.

I'll be back for another post soon, as I'd like to show you my completed block from LittleMissShabby free BOM. It's really, really cute!