Rosemary Garlic Artisan Bread (5 Minute)
I decided to expand my bread-making horizons. Why? Well, duh, it’s bread! Does it need further explanation? I’m still making my Dave’s Killer Bread Copycat Recipe every 5 or 6 days. That’s our every day toast and sandwich bread and I love it more now than I did when I first started making it. Truly. However, I want to learn how to make crazy good artisan bread. The kind that transports you to a sidewalk cafe in Paris with every chewy, delectable bite. Yesterday I started Googling recipes to see what was out there and how involved this process might be. Recipes and techniques were all over the board. It was hard to keep…
Coconut Popcorn
I don’t have much to share with you today…except my latest obsession. Coconut popcorn. When my husband and I wedded in a beautiful church with wood paneled walls and burnt orange carpeting some caring soul gifted us a popcorn maker. That was 16 years ago and this bad boy is one of the most beloved, hard-working kitchen gadgets we’ve ever owned. It’s also super easy and quick to make popcorn using it. Really. Now, the reason why I’m calling this recipe coconut popcorn is that I made a little discovery. (Just nod your head and tell me I’m awesome if you’ve already discovered this before me.) If you pop the…
How to Ask Your Kids About Their School Day
Hey, hey! Is your household still basking in the glow of summer? Or are you like us and summer is a distant memory? We are in the middle of week 2 of school. How long until Winter Break??? These days, it’s a good morning if mommy only yells a few times “Hurry Up! The bus will be here soon.” Sad, but true. Please tell me I’m not the only one. I saw this really cool graphic on CNN recently that showed a sampling of when school starts throughout the United States. It seems more and more schools are moving to August start dates. Interesting, right? Here’s the full CNN article. Image below…
Hiding a Router and Modem in Plain Sight
When we moved into this house we set up our Internet connection in the easiest spot for the Charter Internet guy, which was in the basement. It worked great. Until it didn’t. Isn’t that how it always is with your Internet service? If I was into conspiracy theories… So, last weekend my husband got up early and tells me he’s going to move the router upstairs. In my un-caffeinated, still-in-bed state, that’s all I heard. Router and upstairs. He was literally moving the router 6-feet straight up. I thought he was going to leave everything plugged in where it was and run the wire directly through the basement ceiling/living room…
Painted Visor Using a Doily Stencil
If I had to choose between Team Hat and Team Visor, there is no contest. Team Visor has all of my loyalty. There is something about my hair that just does not look right under a baseball cap. Whenever I try to wear one I have a Dirty Dancing moment. “You can’t put Baby in a corner.” Same thing with my hair…you can’t tuck it under a cap! Last week I ordered a plain navy visor on Amazon for about 7 bucks. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the quality. When I ordered the visor, I didn’t intend on doing anything but wear it while lounging by the pool. It’s a rough,…
Up-Cycling a Tire into a Hanging Flower Planter
I experienced the joy of a flat tire on a freeway once. Since I was a capable, smart, educated woman I fully intended to help the roadside assistance guys out by getting the spare tire ready while I waited for them to show up. This story does not have the ending I envisioned. While I am capable, smart and educated, I do not have the strength of a grown man to extricate a full-size spare tire out from its cage underneath the bottom of a SUV. Nor do I want those kind of manly man muscles. That would look funny. All this to say, when it comes to projects involving tires, I’m…
How to Clean a Nasty Booster Seat
Here’s my advice to all you new parents out there. Never buy the light pink car seat. Ever. Don’t buy any light-colored car seat. Even if all your hormones scream you want the pretty pink flowery car seat just slowly STEP AWAY. Seriously. Stick with black. You will thank me later. Before you have kids you might make ridiculous statements like “I’m never going to let my kids eat in the car.” Okay…I actually said that. And then I quickly realized the only way to survive a car ride longer than 0.3 seconds is to have plenty of snacks on hand. Okay, I exaggerate. Slightly. On the plus side, if…
Ode to Summer Vacation
Here we are, last weekend of summer vacation. The kids are excited to start Kindergarten and 3rd grade. I’m excited for them. It’s just that the Kindergarten milestone is a doozy on a mama. Especially since his “firsts” are my “lasts.” I don’t even want to think ahead to when my daughter goes to middle school. No sirree. We spent most of July in Oregon learning how to drive a tractor… ….and teaching Grandpa that you really can jump from hay bale to hay bale. Whether or not he thinks you should is a different matter. Those hay bales did conveniently disappear one day… We cooled off at every splash…
Notebook Paper Lunchbox Notes – Free Printable
We are in back-to-school countdown mode around these parts! I always associate the start of school with fall, but in Georgia it is still 95 degrees. Definitely not fall-like weather. Maybe in a couple of months… But whether I think it feels like the start of school or not, it’s still starting! Time to get with the program. Last year I started packing my daughter’s lunch with reusable lunchbox notes. I made these day-of-the-week notes and will keep using them this year. They’ve held up great! (There’s a free printable if you click on the link to that post.) This is my son’s first time in all-day school, so he gets to…
Outdoor Decorating with Farm Junk
My stepmom has put in countless dirty, filthy hours cleaning out old barns and sheds on the family farm. God bless her. There have been piles for Goodwill, piles for scrap metal recycling, piles for burning. Then there’s the pile she’s kept. What’s in it? Old lights, saw blades, tractor seats, mole traps, springs…the usual. Why does she keep these things? Well, she’s the Junk Whisperer. This wall is on the back of the garage. A spot that nobody, but her and my dad are going to see on a regular basis. When I arrived in Oregon this summer, this was simply an empty wall with a flower bed on the…
