Congrats to Stacey!

My fellow displaced (from Indiana) and crafty friend Stacey can decorate and design like nobody's business. The first day I met her at Grace and Peace (our church fellowship) I knew I would one day raid her vintage wardrobe. Not only do I envy her vintage style but her APARTMENT! Of which has recently made it on Apartment Therapy's "Small Cool 2010" home tour! Check it out!

This is Laz (Elliott's new paw-pal)

*Notice the children's chair that holds the towels up top!*

Congrats Stacey!

Dandelions and Thunderstorms

Although I was a little frightened to experience my first tornado watch in St. Louis today, the weekend has been quite lovely. My transplants in the garden (I hope) are loving the rain and Elliott and I are loving the thunderstorms. While the rage outside subsides, I am making more bread (or rather waiting patiently as it rises) and creating a homemade dandelion liquor. I found the idea from this lovely french blog that makes me happy from time to time.

Start with some dandelions (ones that are risk-free of being tainted by dogs...)

Add your favorite vodka (I tried vanilla), some lemon strips, and sugar. Then wait a couple weeks, strain out the flowers, and with some courage, hopefully enjoy a nice spring infused treat!

Our porcelain toilet tank cracked a couple months ago (with the clumsy involvement of ME leaning quite heavily upon it) However since then, I decided to turn it into my porch planter.

And it is working quite well!!

Tea of the Week

This is my Zingiber Ginger Coconut tea. You can get this tea at Teavana. It's a great Rooibos tea that I have found can charm even the "non-tea drinkers" like my dad! It's his favorite, he stocks up and has it with his morning cigar.

The loose tea leaves before steeping.

A tea blossom. These are fun for decorations.

A Morning with Elliott

Most mornings, Elliott enjoys the leftover warmth from our showers. It's really cute, but the muddy paw prints afterwards aren't so cute.

Elliott snuggles with his dad while the coffee brews.

(This one isn't in the morning, but it's still pretty cute.) Eventually, because he was playing and moving around so much in the bag, he wiggled his way off the table! I felt like a bad mother.

This morning, we found Elliott on our bed like this... :)

My Ciabatta Loaves

Thanks to my new friend Martha, I gave her ciabatta loaves a go. With a lot of flour, salt, a little yeast and lot of TIME for rising, I think they turned out OK!

The sponge after 24 hours.

Once the sponge has risen for 24 hours, I added it to the new yeast and warm water mixture to make the final dough.

Before

After

The beginning of the 3 loaves

Before

After!

My finished Ciabatta Loaves. According to Martha, they are named for their original slipper shape, "ciabatta" is Italian for old shoe. They didn't rise as much as I would have hoped for in the end, however the thick crunchy crust and the chewy center was all I needed to love the recipe!

I was recently inspired this past month to create and sew (without the helpful means of an actual sewing machine) this pillow case. Emily, a friend from our "Auntie's" art group, created something similar and so I too attempted something like it!

Our New Blog!

Since my friend Stacey has introduced me to Google Reader and I have since then been addicted to design and DIY blogs, I've decided to start my own. (Especially for friends and FAMILY back home in Salt Lake City) I will attempt to be a faithful blogger with updates and fun new stuff. So thanks for reading!