A couple of layouts

This is a 2 page spread about my son who's science project made it to the State Science Fair:



{Supplies: paper: 365 kit by Cilenia Curtis of Digital Designer Shop, journalling tag, also by Cilenia Curtis of DDS; photo overlay by Cilenia Curtis of DDS; fonts: Pea Quimby and Century Gothic}

I will be using the free space on the right page to attach his ribbons and judge's forms.


This layout is about the new laminate flooring in our entry way.

{Supplies: Ledger paper from the Natural Basics pack by Cilenia Curtis at DDS; journalling tag and staples from the Fancy Little Basics embellishment kit by Cilenia Curtis at DDS; fonts: CK Ali's Hand, Bookman Old Style}

{Supplies: papers by April Staker; template by Jessica Sprague for the Type Writer 1 class}

All about me.

I'm on a roll!


{Supplies: Fonts: CK Becky & Cochin, Photoshop CS2}

Journaling:
Thirty Five things I like at age 35.
my kids, my husband, my home, my family, red, turquoise, lime green, England, the beach, camping, the smell of the campfire, TV sitcoms, creating, finished scrapbook pages with lots of journaling, being a Mom, Biolage hair gel, sunny days, taking walks in the woods, photography, chick flicks, the Twilight series (the books more than the films), Days of Our Lives, Photoshop, my online friends, my real life friends, Facebook for keeping in touch with people I wouldn't otherwise, berry sherbet, homemade cooking, plants that stay alive without much help from me, candles, reading food, lifestyle, and decorating on a budget blogs, Food Network, temperatures over 70 degrees, mexican food, Jalepenos salsa

Another easy layout...

Two layouts (and two posts) in one day!

I have mentioned before that I keep a Stickies note going (stickies is the Mac version of those wonderful yellow Post It notes that I used to keep all over my desk), for each of our family members. Once in a while I jot something down, like something they said, something that happened that day, whatever.

So once in a while I do a layout that summarizes the person. I copy and paste everything I wrote in the sticky onto a layout with photos from that time, and I have a summary layout. These are my favorite layouts after a while, because they tell so much about a person.

I'm a little behind on this one, it's from summer 2009, but it's done now! :)



{Supplies: Sketch: Becky Higgins from the Dec 2009 CK mag; Papers: A Hartline from Divine Digital (I changed the colors to match my photos, though); fonts: "A"- Pea Bev, "little about"-Pea Stacy, "Brett" & journaling-Cochin.}

Easy Layout

Here's an easy layout I made, using only one product that doesn't come in Photoshop (besides, maybe, fonts).


{Supplies: Photoshop CS2; brush: Nancie Rowe Janitz of ScrapArtist.com; fonts: Cochin, Charcoal; wordart "love": my handwriting using a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet. Tips: I used the texturizer filter to make the blue paper look like cardstock. I used the distressing brush and eraser tool to quickly "tear" the red paper. I used the rounded rectangle tool to make the journaling block, then lowered the opacity. I did not edit the photo at all. It is straight from the camera.}

Homemade bread

For a long time I've thought about trying to accomplish some of the things that our grandparents, great grandparents (and even some of us) used to do every day. I've tried milking cows. I've [sat in a tractor while my Papa] cut hay in fields. I subscribed to country woman magazine since I was 11. I think I always wanted to live a simpler life.

Except I'm a little bit afraid to.

My challenge? Baking homemade bread.



Yeast is scary! If the water is too hot, it will die. If the water is too cold, it won't work. Bread has to rise! All by itself!

I have bought those little packets of yeast at least three times in my adult life. Every time I found the packets years later, expired. In fact, I have yeast in my cabinet right now. Have I ever used it? Nope.

The other day I found this wonderful website, Chickens in the Road. The blogger is Suzanne McMinn, a romance novelist, who bought a 40 acre farm in West Virginia. She does old fashioned things that I've never even heard of! Make your own lard? Are you kidding me? Capture yeast from nature? I'd probably capture something that Osama is preparing to use against us! No thank you!

But she also bakes homemade bread. She dips her own taper candles. She makes crafts from nature. I admire her courage to give up many things I take for granted to live a more earthy life. If I tried that, my hubby would leave me. lol

She has a LOT of recipes that include something she calls "grandmother bread." At first, I put it in my Evernote and thought I'd try it someday. After seeing how many recipes she uses that dough in (cinnamon rolls, pizza, biscuits, many breads, etc), I couldn't stop thinking about it. I have the yeast, and I always have general baking supplies like flour and salt.....

Is it time to try to make bread?



So I pulled out that yeast packet, the largest bowl I could find (that's not plastic, because I remember reading somewhere that plastic is bad for rising?), and my laptop for the recipe & instructions. Her recipe has has two versions- one for one loaf, and another for a 2 loaf batch.The smaller batch uses only a teaspoon of yeast, and I didn’t want to waste the yeast, so I decided to make the larger batch. I poured the water and yeast into the bowl (making sure the water wasn’t too hot, by my guess), and then the salt and sugar. I measured out the white flour, hoping I had enough- and I just barely did! After letting the water/yeast mixture sit for 5 minutes, per the instructions, I started adding the flour and mixing with a “heavy” spoon. Soon the flour was gone, and the stuff in the bowl definitely wasn’t dough! It was floury water! THAT is the moment I realized I’d messed up! I used the measurements for the two loaf recipe for the yeast and water, but not the salt, sugar, or flour!




I quickly added the rest of the sugar and salt to the mixture, and prayed. Then I realized I was out of flour. The recipe specifically calls for all-purpose flour. There are variations for wheat on the website, but I didn’t look for those. I decided to go for it, and measured out another 3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour. I turned the gooey mixture into dough. I kneaded. (It didn’t take as long as I expected.) I re-read the instructions and realized I only have one large bowl, and I was using it, so I put the dough on the floured counter, washed out my bowl, greased it, and put the dough back in for it’s first rise. I sprayed a sheet of saran wrap with Pam, and placed it on top, set the bowl out of the way, started the timer for an hour, and walked away.

Austin pulled out the camera in the middle of my freaking out! Nice!



I checked about ten times before the timer went off, and the dough was indeed rising! THRILL! That’s when I decided I to post my challenge on Facebook. When the timer went off, I added a little flour, punched the dough (literally, because why else would they use that term) and kneaded. I pulled the dough apart into two sections.



I don’t own a large loaf pan (yet), so I decided to shape a loaf and put it on a cookie sheet, and split the other half into three mini loaves (because I do have mini loaf pans.) I covered them with sprayed saran wrap, and let them rise a second time. Then I baked the larger one for 25 minutes at 350, letting the little ones rise a little more, and baked those after.


Cutting into the loaf: Aaaaah... steamy, yummy, yeasty, baked bread.... and it was done in the middle!




Here is the layout I made about the experience last night. (The journaling is used above).


{Supplies: background paper: 365 kit by Cilenia Curtis, texture on the dark brown mat, mine; brushes used for edges of brown mat: Nancie Rowe Janitz of ScrapArtist.com, font: Bookman Old Style and CK Ali's Hand}

A male Downy Woodpecker at the Eagle River Nature Center, Eagle River, Alaska.

Unknown bird, Chugach Mountain Range, Eagle River Nature Center, Eagle River, Alaska.