The only thing better

Than a great book is a great series!  My newest favorite one is by Deanna Raybourn, the Lady Julia Novels in particular.  They are history murder mysteries with a splash of romance thrown in, set in Victorian England.  I like that the main character Julia progresses from a bit of a mouse to a strong woman.  She is rather likable even though at times she can be rather selfish and annoying.  She frequently get frustrated about stuff, particularly when it comes to Nicholas Brisbane (the inquiry agent/love interest) and I can so relate.  Anyway I don't want to give away too much but I really enjoyed it!


In order:
Silent in the Grave
Silent in the Sanctuary
Silent in the Moor
Dark Road to Darjeeling

Biscuits

Dinner the other night was bean soup (yum) and since I needed something to go with it. Since I didn't have any in the fridge (ha, don't judge ;)) I checked out Food Network's website as I've had luck there before.

So here is the recipe by Alton Brown. I think the next cookbook I get will be by him, I've liked the recipes I've tried of his.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons shortening
• 1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minute

My helper mixing it up
This is how it looks after you work the butter and shortening into the flour mixture.

Add the milk (I didn't have buttermilk so I used 1 tablespoon white vinegar into a liquid measuring cup and filled the rest to 1 cup with milk, let it sit 5 minutes without stirring)

Then drop out onto the floured surface and kneed a little

Cut out biscuits.

Fresh!We ate our with butter and honey and it was delicious. Particularly with the soup!

Hand warmers for those snowy cold days

On Monday and Tuesday I have to take Sweet Pea to daycare so that I can get a guaranteed two days out of the house to work. :) Since the weather is quite cold I thought it would be nice to have pocket hand warmers on those cold mornings. I also made a bigger one that I could put at the foot of the bed.

Things you'll need:
Some scraps of fabric. I used some leftover flannel in about a 6x6in
Rice-get the cheap stuff or use leftover

So pin your fabric, right sides together.

Then sew two sides and most of the third don't forget to back stitch. Then turn it right side out. Then fill with rice. I used a funnel and put it over a bowl, it is going to be a bit messy.
Then just sew it closed tucking in the raw edges.And there you go!
Just pop it in the microwave oven for a minute (for little hands) or two for those who can handle the heat. I think next time I made some I would add some dried lavender or rosemary. The rice does have a scent but it isn't bad, it would just be so lovely with some lavender in my opinion.

Quick Valentine's Day Project

I'm thinking a pin for me and a hair clip for Sweet Pea. I just cut out the hearts free hand and then layered them and did a straight stitch down the center.

For the backing of your choice (pin, hair clip) just glue on with tacky, hot glue, or whatever you have on hand.

Appliquéd shirts

Got a shirt that that is just plain, boring or stained? Well, if you have a child I'm sure you do. This particular shirt is for Valentines' Day.

First I ironed the fabric onto interfacing, then traced the cookie cutter.Cut out the shape then pin onto the shirt.Using a zig zag stitch go around the shape. When you come to corners put the pin down and lift up the foot so that the shape stays in place.And then you are done!
I find cookie cutters are great to get basic shapes, but I also free hand lots of stuff and get images from online. Since it is for personal use only I'm not worried about copyright infringement.

Here are a few I've done on other shirts. I think they are pretty fun to do.
This one had a stain, the image came from Martha Stewart's websiteOwl is a cookie cutter the branch freehand.
Freehand
Cookie cutter with extra embroidery.

Valentine cone

I'm so not as fancy as Martha Stewart, but I sure love the ideas her people come up with. Don't roll your eyes just yet. I only have one baby, who may or may not be my only and I want to be able to spoil her once in a while.

So follow the tutorial at MS, or like me just grab some poster board at your local dime store and just roll it up.

Then fill it with all kids of goodies. I tried to get a variety of little items to cram in. Sweet Pea really liked the slinky that her cousin got for Christmas so I picked one up for her. I did get quite a few more things but they wouldn't all fit, so I just had to pick and choose.


Here she is holding onto it, so that I could get a decent background. Well, you get the general idea.

Snow day!

Except I already had the day off. I went out to shovel the sidewalk so that my mail lady could get to the door at the very least. Unfotunatly, The Mr. is off to a conference (which I had to cancel going to, bummer!) so that means I'm doing snow removal. I did not get the driveway done and it is looking like it is going to need a truck to plow it. It is also drifting so I could not get the back door open and when I went for the shovel in the garage I had to hand dig my way in. In parts it is up to mid thigh on me, so getting 3-4 feet tall.


The worst part was we ran out of milk on Monday night so I had to go to the store with all the crazy people on Tuesday afternoon. I've never seen a milk cooler so empty.
Enjoying the view.