Homemade Honey Wheat Bread

Ok, I just have to say that we have been searching and experimenting FOREVER for the perfect bread machine recipe!! There is nothing better than homemade bread fresh from the oven. However, I dont have a lot of time to spend rolling and punching dough...ha! That's why we L.O.V.E having a bread machine! And yes, it can be soft, moist, and oh so delicious! Another quick fact: We have two bread machines (I know...hahaha!) and we purchased both of them at a second hand store--DI. They work perfectly, look like new, and cost less than $10! So there you have it :) Now here is our amazing recipe!

Honey Wheat Bread-Machine Bread:

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbsp shortening
2 cups flour
2 1/4 cups wheat flour
2 Tbsp dry milk
1 3/4 tsp Active dry yeast OR bread machine yeast.

Place ingredients into bread machine in the order they are listed. Start Bread Machine using the "Regular" or "Light" setting.


Yep! That is all you have to do! Most bread machines come with a wheat bread option--WE DO NOT USE IT! I don't know if that is the secret to our soft bread or not, but we just use the Regular setting and it turns out amazing!!

As soon as our bread machine beeps telling us that it is done baking we immediately pull the bread out. Sometimes the top looks a little funky but it is just fine! 

Actually..the top is the best piece and everyone will fight over it! ;) we usually eat it right away! Then we cut the loaf in half (hot dog style) and let it sit and "sweat" for about an hour. Just let it chill on the counter (..or eat it..) and let some of the steam and moisture out. This helps it stay soft and fresh later. 

Pour some honey on and eat it while it is warm!! 

After it has cooled for awhile we slice it all up. We then store it in a zip-lock bag in our pantry for a week (if it last that long..). This is the only bread we eat. We stopped buying bread and I just make a loaf of this every week or as needed!

Enjoy!!!  

...I will need to share our easy Freezer Jam recipe, once you try it you'll never do anything else!! 

Just saying Hi!

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of posting! If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you saw that we had our baby girl! ..And I totally forgot how much work newborns are!! hahaha! So that's what I've been doing.....  ;)

Just thought I would pop in real quick and let you know I am still alive! Plus, I wanted to share with you my Mothers Day present that my hubby built! I just snapped these pics real quick, did not edit, and also realized that I did not pick up the house first so there is all sorts of clutter in the background! ..I am all about keeping it simple and real right now! ;)

Isn't beautiful!?!?!

I love how he rounded the corners..I feel like it gave the table such an amazing finish!

And of course I had to repaint and reupholster my chairs to go with our new table ;) 

The legs are from Lowes, they are actually cedar fence post!! Just turned upside down!

I love it so much! Maybe I can convince the Hubby to write up a tutorial for you! ;)

And just because every good post should end with a cute baby picture...here is our sweet Olive! She will be 3 months old in just a week and I cant believe how much she has already changed! She is so much fun! 

Quick Living Room Update

I have been meaning to take pictures of the new paint in our living room for the past couple of months and it hasn't happened.... So I am just throwing some up there that I took with my phone real fast to send to family and friends!! I didn't really even clean before I took these so no judgment, ha!

I painted our living room in a light blue several months ago and it just never really settled with me....it was too bright and a little too "minty". So after months of debating if I should paint it or not or what color I just went for it! And I loved how it turned out!

Before:

After:

 I painted the wainscoting darker blue and repainted the back wall to be bright white again.

..closer up view taken while painting... notice my sample colors painted on the white wall..  :)

 We also bought a grey slip cover for our couch! So now I can change it out with our white one. I like the white more but the grey is easier to maintain! We also rearranged for a bit to open things up during the holidays when we had a full house! We sold the coffee table (I already have plans for a new one!) as well as our Sofa table--Chad is working on building me a "custom" one! :)

Nursery: Stenciled Herringbone Wall

I am so excited to share this with you today, I LOVE THIS WALL!! But first I need to confess that this was not my original idea--I totally copied it from Sawdust and Embryos. Check out her wall HERE; her whole blog is amazing, I love everything she does!

She gives a great tutorial, so I will just quickly summarize and show a bunch of pictures :) She did five sections, I thought that would be a little too big for my small room so I divided my wall into 6 sections, snapped the chalk line and taped it off.

..and I'll go ahead and apologize for poor picture quality; I have yet to figure out how to take a picture of a wall with a window.. so most of these were taken at night.

I picked 6 different colors for this wall and each color had its own stencil. I made all of my stencils to help cut down cost! The red trellis, black triangles, and yellow polka dots I cut with my Silhouette--easy peasy. I thought you could also find a simple scrapbook cut-out/punch in the size of triangle and circles you want and use that to cut out your stencil of you do not have a Silhouette. 

The Light blue trellis stencil I made using a TP roll! :) Super easy! Just dip it in a bit of paint and stamp!

The pink wavy lines I originally intended to use Frog tape for--but it was EXPENSIVE! So I figured I could draw squiggly lines and paint them in ;) Use chalk to draw, paint it, then wipe the chalk off when the paint has dried. 

..making progress...

My last stencil was the turquoise flowers. This was a stencil that I cut by hand a few years ago. I used it in our mud room to make cardboard boxes into cute shoe storage boxes.  

This is a slow process, if you have never stenciled before you might find it intimidating! :) But it is pretty basic. I found it easier and faster to do 2-3 stencils at a time. Most of my stencils would overlap on itself so I would do one stencil and let it dry for a bit while I did another color, then switch back and forth...make sense??

..see how I line it up by overlapping it?? 

..this is two stencils widths across..

More Progress...

And the funnest part---Taking off the tape!!

I Love how it turned out!!!!!!!!

Check out my easy pom-pom back drop HERE!

I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! 

Easy {and FREE!} Heart Wreath

This is a super easy project that is perfect for Valentines Day! All you need is a bundle of sticks, hot glue and gun, and some rope or burlap.

With my new red door (that I love!), I needed a Valentines wreath that wasn't red or pink. This was the perfect solution; easy and adorable!

I went for a walk on the one sunny day we had and gathered a bunch of sticks for this project :) 

Use your sticks to form the outer shape of the heart, using your glue gun to secure the sticks together. 

Start adding more sticks, going mostly across the heart and securing with glue as you go.

And just keep adding sticks until you get it as full as you want! 

And you are done!! 

I used rope to hang mine, securing the rope on the back with glue.  If I had remembered that I had burlap I may have used that instead, but I still love it!! :) 

DIY "LOVE" Scrabble Blocks

This is a super easy, cheap, and cute DIY that is perfect for your Valentines Decor!

Supplies:
wood- I used a 2x4 that I already had out in the garage
Stain
Sandpaper
Black paint and thin brush
black permanent marker
"L O V E" and the numbers 1 and 4 Print out

Cut your wood so that each block is square.

These were easy enough that I did two sets at once

Stain the blocks the color you desire, I just used Minwax Weathered Oak, so it just barely tinted my wood. I wanted it more natural looking. 

Can you see the slight difference?? :)

Let the stain dry for several hours or even overnight. Print off the letters "LOVE" in the size and print you want, as well as the numbers 1 and 4. The font I used was Segoe UI, my letters were size 200 and my numbers were size 72. I did all caps; simply type it in Word and print it out in black. 

Cut each letter and number out, place it on the wooden block where you want it. Now use a PENCIL and outline the letter. Put some pressure on it when tracing :) When you remove the paper you should see a faint line, simply fill in the letter with black paint and a thin paint brush! The numbers were small enough that after I had traced them I just used a permanent marker to fill it in.

And you are done!!

Project Nursery: Pom-pom Backdrop DIY

I am finally getting started on the Nursery for Baby Girl #2!! Don't worry...my due date is only less than two months away.....   ;)

I wanted the nursery to be bright, colorful, and fun. A lot of my inspiration came from Pinterest (of course..) and all the pom-pom projects that are floating around!!

Link

Link

My house colors seem to be grey and blue but I wanted to add some brighter colors as well. So I started looking for fabrics with red and yellow as well and I ran into this one and fell in love!

Link

Ok, now that you have seen some of my inspiration, lets get to the tutorial for this adorable pom-pom backdrop!!!!  *side note: this is the first project I have completed so the rest of the nursery is still a mess!! Sorry :) 

Supplies:

Yarn-color(s) of your choosing

Scissors-use sharp fabric scissors is you have them

Toy ring, or other semi circle object  (see pictures)

Large Fork

Stick

Thread and large needle

Hot glue gun with glue 

For the smaller pom poms I used a large serving fork (about twice the size of a regular fork) and used This Method I found on Pinterest, super easy! 

For the large pom poms I needed to find something bigger. I found some tutorials where you just wrap the yarn around one of your hands, but I tend to need both hands ;)

I discovered that one of my daughters' toy rings would work perfectly! I wanted something circular but it also needed an opening to make it easy to get the yarn off---it will make more sense when you see the pictures! :)

Okay, here we go!

Wrap yarn around the ring, keep going until you have a pretty thick stack then cut the yarn.

Cut another piece of yarn--about 4-6 inches and tie it around the middle of your yarn bundle. Slide yarn off the ring, and tighten it with a knot. It will look like this:

Simply cut all the loops and fluff it out. Trim any longer pieces. 

 And keep going! You will soon have a nice little pile :) I just worked on it over a few days while I was watching TV at night, ha! I did about 5 big and 5 small pom-pom in each color.

 Next step: Go on a walk, ha! :) 

I wanted to secure my pom-poms with a branch, so we went looking for a nice stick! :)

Unfortunately I did not take pictures for the rest of this tutorial :(   I am so sorry! I just got going and forgot! But it is super easy!

Measure the size of backdrop you want. I wanted to cover most of the space behind the crib, my size was a 4'x4'.

Layout your pom-poms on the floor, measure out the desired width and height then start arranging all your pom poms! I did 5 rows across. 

String your pom-poms using a big sewing needle and thread.

Hot glue your pom-poms in place: I just put a dab of glue on either side of the pom-pom where the thread came out. That way when you go to hang it your pom-poms will stay in place and not slide down.

Use thread to attach each row to the stick. I tied the thread around the top pom-pom and then around the branch. 

And you are done! Just hang the branch where you want! ...to hang ours, we drilled a small hole in the middle of the stick, then simply hammered a small nail through it into the wall.

Step back and enjoy!!