New Water Pitcher

We just got home from a fabulous 10 day trip to Bellingham, WA to visit my Grandpa Pederson.  Grandpa has a friend, Donna, who volunteers at a thrift shop that helps the needy.  One day we went to visit Donna at the store and I found this cool vintage water pitcher. It really reminds me of my Fiestaware, so I brought it home.  (Thank you Southwest for your generous baggage allowance!)

 I have really been trying to drink more water lately and I found a post for Sassy Water on Pinterest, so I decided to give it a try.  Delicious! I have only had one glass this morning, but it was really full of flavor and very refreshing.  I think it will be great in the summertime.

I modified the instructions a little bit. They are so simple:

1 lemon

1/2 cucumber

10 mint leaves

1 pitcher of water

Chill overnight

I think next time I will only use 3/4 of a lemon so that the cucumber and mint stand out a little bit more.  Yum.

 

Long Week

Jeremy was gone this week. He left with his dad on Tuesday to move his sister Katie home from CA. They got to Grandma's house where Katie is going to be living on Friday night. It is good to have him home!

It was a pretty uneventful week. Pretty boring. The only major thing that I did was on Wednesday when my mom, Esther and Noah came over and we reorganized my kitchen. I got rid of a lot of things and put them in the pile for the garage sale. It feels good to actually be able to find the things that I need quickly! This is the only picture I took of my cupboards. It is of my Fiesta plates which we actually didn't even organize because I wanted to keep them all. I just love all of the colors.

I snapped this picture of Noah as he walked in the door when he still had his cute hat on.


On Thursday night I baked some banana muffins from some bananas that were almost too brown to use. The turned out to be really good! Here is the recipe I used:



Banana Muffins


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.
Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.


I also added 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 tsp of cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg.



I also got this fun picture of Noah and my mom. We were talking about taking pictures and Noah grabbed my camera and said (or "indicated") that he wanted to have his picture taken with grandma. He has lots of words, but sometimes you have to really know what he is talking about to get the whole picture. This was the best picture out of the batch. He moves so fast that most of the pictures that I took were blurry.

That's about all I have for now. We had a good weekend. I'm fighting a cold. Back to work tomorrow. I never know how to sign off on my blog posts, so I'll just say goodnight.

Busy Week

It has been over a week since I've posted! Wow, time goes by fast.

On Saturday I had friends over and we ate and crafted. I think more talking and eating went on than actual crafting, but that's what normally happens at these events. It was fun to hang out with friends.

I had Monday off for President's Day and I ended up finally meeting with my friend Lisa! She was so generous to offer to show me the ropes of selling some of my creations. She even brought me some awesome gifts! A headband (almost like this one...go buy one from her!!) and some super cute magnets that she made and also this book. I've read a lot of it already. It has lots of good advice. The thing that freaks me out the most is the tax stuff. I need to just sit down and do it and remember to keep all of my receipts and I'll be fine. The main obstacle now is coming up with a name. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! Here are some specifications I have: (I know, I'm really picky!)

• I would kind of like it to be old or vintage sounding because a lot of the things I make tend to look that way.


• It would be nice if it somehow had meaning. I was going to name it "Harriet and Lucy" because those are the two great grandmas that I remember, but those names might be in the mix for any future children we may have and I don't want my store to have my kid's names.


• I don't want it to encompass any certain craft or material. For example nothing like "Becca's cards" or "Paper Palace." If I ever decide to branch out to another medium I want to be prepared. Not that I'm ever going to make it big-time, I just want to be prepared! If I name it "Matt's Metalworks" I don't think I would be able to market my new line of patchwork pillows very well.

I've been thinking of a lot of names and I think after this weekend I will have it all nailed down...unless someone comes up with a better, more unique one!

The other day I borrowed my mom's bread machine and baked some bread. I had the bread machine do all of the work and then I put it into the oven. While it was cooking it smelled soooooo good. It was awesome when we ate it right out of the oven, but after it got cold the texture wasn't very good. I don't think it raised (rose??) enough in the bread machine. I think I'm going to try it again sometime and use some of the allrecipe tips on not using the machine at all.

Here is the original recipe I used:

Jo's Rosemary Bread

INGREDIENTS
1 cup water
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

DIRECTIONS
Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select white bread cycle; press Start.

That's all I have for tonight. If I don't post before the weekend, I hope everyone has a great one!