NEW CRAFT: RAG RUGS AND KITTY TUNNEL

    We went to Quartsite Arizona to visited Rick's dad. They are snow birds and stay about 4 months to escape the cold winters in Idaho. We were there for a week. They have a big swap meet that takes up four blocks. Unfortunately they start packing up at the end of January,so there weren't many places left to shop . That left a lot of open time since, that is about all that is there. I have been wanting to make a crochet rug for a while now,so I  packed up my fabric, and needle to take with me. It was really nice to be able to set outside and visit and still have something to do with my hands.( I am not one to sit still). Cleo loved it too she would tunnel under my strips of fabric or attack the strips as I crocheted. We had a few battles over that, but I finally won. Or she just got tired of playing with them.   I am really happy with the way the rug turned out. It's new home will be in front of the bed in my guest bedroom. I will be making a set in red for my kitchen. The cutting is a little time consuming but the crocheting go's really quick. I will really enjoy making more of these.

A must have kitchen tool

This is so cool. I found it at Costco for $20. If your like me and cook a lot this is a must. I have two cabinets with spices in them (homemade and bought).  I make a lot of my own season mixes so I have a big variety of spices. Which can cause  more then a little bit of frustration sorting thru them . This one holds my most used spices. I am buying another one just for spices used for baking.
I also bought canning labels to place on the sides of the containers. The labels they give you are pretty much worthless since they are already printed with spices most of us don't use or very rarely use. The bonus is the case holding the containers makes great soap molds as you can see in the photo.

Nativity for the Church

We loaned our wooden Nativity to the Church for Christmas two years ago. Everybody loved it so much that we offered to make one.  We spent a year trying to find old barn wood. Which turned out to be impossible. My husband finally gave up and tore up some pallets to make the manger. Which is why we ended up  making it in February. He did a great job of cutting out the wooden pieces by sight , since he didn't want to take mine part.   It was a lot of fun painting and dressing the pieces. We put a light behind the star to shine on the baby Jesus.  I am very happy with the way it turned out. 

First thing I want to do is apologias.

 I want to apologias to all my followers and blogs that I follow. I have drop the ball on blogging lately.  I got into a face book page called Farm Girl Chit Chat and spent what free time I had there. It was like that new toy you just couldn't put down.  I did my ten minutes in the corner and I am back now no need for further punishment.

 This week have been a busy one. I did several  new batches of soap. I had ordered new molds and couldn't wait to use them.

I am working on a quilt for Heidi's first grand baby.

We cured and smoked a lot of bacon. We also did salmon that we got from my husbands Dad .

We finished the Nativity we were making for the Church. I will be posting later on, on how we came to be making a Nativity in February. I am right now working on a crotchet rug. I am only at the cutting part be hope to have pictures soon.

That's about all for now . I am on my way to do some long over do reading of my blogger friends post. Have a great day everyone.

Artisan Bread

My family eat two loafs in a day and a half. Every time they walk into the kitchen they grabbed a slice.                                                       

Artisan Bread

For 4 smaller or 2 large baguette:

1/4 tsp dry active yeast

1 1/2 cups water

1 3/4 tsp salt

cornmeal for sprinkling. 

18 oz by weight all-purpose flour (500 grams), about 4 cups. I use 3 cups in my mix and one for my board and flour the top of the shaped loafs..

- Mix dough and let rise 12-14 hours or until doubled. Mine only took 8 hours.

- Punch down and shape loaves on floured board, Place on a baking sheet with cornmeal lightly sprinkled on it. Wipe extra cornmeal from around the loafs. Cornmeal can smoke in the oven. let rise covered with floured plastic 1 to 1 1/2 hr or until almost doubled. Snip the top of the loafs with kitchen shears. sprinkle top of loafs with a little flour.

Place a baking pan of hot water on bottom rack in oven .

- Bake at 550 F. about 15 to 20 minutes or until well-browned

- Spray with water before baking, at 5 minutes, and at 10 minutes during cooking time

Note if you live in higher elevations you will need to add about 3 to 4 tablespoons more water. If you bread pulls away from the bowl but is sticky ,it perfect.