~~tORtiLla fAil~~

The standard in my routine is to mill my wheat and make loaves of whole wheat yumminess for the family. I started out with making a couple of loaves at a time and have gone to FOUR now to accommodate the increased consumption. But I would like to branch out with more breads.  We use tortillas a lot so that seems like a good place to start, right?

No.

At least with the recipe that I had... It's not that they tasted bad but they were crispy and leathery at the same time - not at all pliable to make a burrito.

So, this batch went to an impromptu, made up concoction that turned out quite tasty!?

Pesto Chicken Pizzas

Spread pesto (I used my homemade goodness created with my husband's home grown fresh garden basil last summer) on the tortilla. 

Sprinkle chicken on that.

Put a few onions on next.

Slice some tomatoes kinda thin and layer them on next.

Then cheese... my husband doesn't ever like to skip cheese.

I sprinkled a little parsley flakes on top of the cheese to make it look "pretty".

Yeah. They were good. The leftover whole wheat tortillas? Not so much.

~~TipSy PotS~~

I found this tutorial and couldn't resist. Ugh! So clever! I made a minor change to it and was not disappointed. Basically all that this is is a piece of five or six foot rebar pounded about two feet in the ground and then terra cotta pots threaded onto it. Brilliant! Yes?! I even found the pots in a chocolate color to make it just a little more "mine".

Oh, and just to make it clear... I brought all the supplies home and showed the blog post to my husband and *HE* did all the labor. He doesn't mind this sort of "honey-do". Sweet man.

~~tHIs onE is *NoT* fOR thE bIRds~~

I'm chatting with a sweet friend of mine last Thursday afternoon and she was wearing this pretty necklace that I couldn't seem to take my eyes off. Then it hits me! I've seen this very necklace on one of my (voluminous) blogs that I follow and then all the questions come flying out of me...

"I LOVE that! Did you make it?"

"Was it easy??"

"You found that on Pinterest, didn't you??!?!" (She is a fellow Pinterest junkie - like me.)

I meekly looked over at my husband this afternoon and asked him if I could make a run to Hobby Lobby.

His face got that defeated look and he quietly said, "Yes." But I knew it really meant things like, "Oh no. How much is this trip going to cost?" or "Doesn't she have everything in that crap, er, CRAFT closet of hers that Hobby Lobby carries??" 

I come home with 20 gauge jewelry wire, and 8mm glass pearl beads. (Well, I brought home a little more than that but for this blog post that's all that is relative.)

And then I opened up this blog post tutorial (the same one that my sweet friend used for her work of loveliness) and went at it. 

It was just as easy as it looked/sounded and here's my sweet Bird Nest Necklace. 

~~a "tOiLE" oRDer~~

Remember this post just a little while ago? Well, again, I was going through my blogs and discovered another "gotta try" project and I used the same pretty toile as the cover up for this one...

The blog post was from Annie Get Your Glue Gun and she posted the links to this FREE (yes, F-R-E-E) pattern with instructions. Once I printed the pattern I had to figure out how the pattern-puzzle-pages (say that several times fast...) went together, taped them together, cut them out and then I was off and running.

Last night I got all my fabric out that I needed - my toile and fleece (this is the first time I've sewn with fleece). It feels so soft and snuggly... surely this will be inviting to my new babe in August!! And so this morning I put it together.

I poured over the instructions before I really began and everything seemed pretty straight forward. The only suggestion I would make would be to *not* draw all the locations of the hook and loop pieces but to wait until the snuggler is completed and then line up the pattern (using the finished edge for alignment) and tweak it accordingly. Not a big deal, really. I was fretting over drawing all the lines on the fabrics and it just wound up to make more sense to me this way.

There was only one small spot to slip stitch. I'm not a huge fan of the hand work stuff - I just wanna let the machine do all the work!! So this was not bad at all!

And as I was going to my desk to post this... I couldn't help but snap this comical grin as she ate her chicken and rice soup...

That's gotta make you giggle... a little??

~~a bUrlAP wREaTh~~

It was time to "pertify" my house with the latest craze - a wreath. 

And not just any wreath but a BURLAP wreath. 

Okay, so I'm overdoing it a tad...

I have been admiring so many of these wreaths in about every combination possible. So here's my input. Here is one of my favorites from Sweet Passions on a Thrifty Dime. And it even had the right initial.

I gathered together some burlap that I got for cheap a long time ago and picked up some floral pins at Hobby Lobby.

Then I cut some 4 inch squares. I don't know how many it took to fill the wreath in the end... I guess I should have counted. The squares don't have to be perfect or exact. And I saw some tutorials that had the corners rounded. Me? I just wanted instant gratification and omitted any extra step.

 I did a half and half kinda scheme and alternated them. This first way was simply poking the floral pin in the middle of the square...

...and then bunching it up.

The second method was to fold a square in half matching the points together (as shown) and then...

... bringing the outside corners to the pins and hooking them onto it creating a bubble kinda looking thing. (yeah, I'm all about the technical side of explanations...)

Then lay your wreath flat on the table, pin your burlap bunches and bubbles alternately about an inch or so apart on the top. Then continue the inside and outside of the ring. When I was finished I went back and filled in any gap that was showing the straw wreath. The bunches and bubbles seam to give it an extra element of texture and fullness.

I have one more personalization that I am working on so I will be back with a little embellishment in a few days. Stay tuned, okay?

~~SUgar CAne NATuraL & nUtS~~

I am the coordinator for my area for Bread Beckers Co-op. We compile our orders to save on the shipping of grains, beans, honey and a host of other items. Quarterly orders are shipped to me where I commandeer the garage organizing individual orders to be picked up by the co-op members. All those white buckets of wheat and beans, wow, you should see the huge 50 pound bags!! Last quarter a 50 pound bag of sucanat was mistakingly left with us and we decided to buy it for ourselves. I'm not all together familiar with cooking with the sweetener so I need to get with it and learn!!

We filled one and a half six gallon buckets for easier access and safer storage.

Okay - so here's where we started...

I was making some of my annual Spiced Nuts for Christmas goodie-giving and didn't realize that I had very little sugar. But wait!!! I have FIFTY POUNDS of sucanat!!! I wasn't sure if the sugar could be replaced but if it could... oh, the possibilities!

~~~~~~

SPICED NUTS

1/2c sugar (or sucanat)

1/2t salt

1t cinnamon

1/4t ground cloves

1/4t nutmeg

2T water

1/2c walnuts

1/2c pecans

Butter cookie sheet. Combine sugar with spices and water in small pan. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture forms soft ball when dropped in cold water. Stir in nuts. Remove from heat. Stir until no longer glossy. Spread thinly on cookie sheet and allow to cool completely. Store in air tight container.

~~~~~~

I had enough white sugar to do a normal batch. Then I got out the sucanat and replaced the sugar. I was a little concerned that the heat of getting it to the soft ball stage might go wrong and it was beginning to look a little darker than the sugar batch. So I took it off the heat a little sooner than usual and finished up the steps.

The top pan below is the sucanat batch and the bottom one is the sugar batch. Can you see a slight color difference? It tastes the same to me. And my husband agreed. So, how about that?

~~you'VE bEEn FramEd!!~~

About four years ago I found some reclaimed window panes for $5 each and went ahead and bought them without a specific idea in mind. I pulled one out last year and set it in the middle of my table with a lovely Thanksgiving themed centerpiece. Without much enthusiasm I hung it (slightly crooked) on the wall until this Thanksgiving when I took it down from the wall for the table centerpiece again.

I finally saw so many ideas for reclaimed windows that I decided on one project because there were just enough panes for my pains... er, children. I used the clear photo corners that I had from Creative Memories.  Now I can update the frame whenever I'd like without much trouble. I made these photos 4 inches square, in black and white, printed on card stock. I love it when a plan comes together...