Pendant Curtians

I was trying to find a place to store the pendant banner I crafted to decorate for family birthdays.
I couldn't think of a place that I would be likely to remember.  Out of sight out of mind.
Then I found a place in plain sight;

Spring colors! -and red of course, it's my favorite color of all.

The fabric for the pendants are from scraps I've collected from Schoolhouse fabrics old napkins and such.  I had the chair slipcovered a couple years ago.  The hand embroidered pillow is from Goodwill in Pulaski (25. cents!).  And the quilt is from my mom {>

 What do you think?  I may change the curtains again before spring gets here.

in between chasing two year olds of course :)

orange-dark-chocolate coffee and fresh wheat bread

My breakfast sang this morning.  I felt like I was in a really good coffee shop and bakery, but I was at home.  Homemade coffee creamer and wheat bread made my morning quiet time a little more divine.

Dark Chocolate Coffee Creamer

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups Dark Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• (I added 1/2 tsp of orange extract)
• Non-dairy coffee creamer

Directions

In a small pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in cocoa, vanilla, salt, and corn syrup and 1/ tsp any flavorings you would like to add (raspberry, orange, mint extracts). Whisk until all of the solids have dissolved. Reduce sauce until slightly thickened.  Pour into bottle until it is half full.  A old plastic liquid creamer bottle works great.  I filled the bottle the rest of the way with unflavored non-dairy coffee creamer.  I filled up three of these, put one in the refrigerator where it should keep for at least two weeks.  The other two I put in the freezer.  This coffee creamer also makes a great gift.  

You can see the recipe I used for wheat bread in the ingredients picture.  Here is the recipe I used.  I tried White-wheat flour and had good results.  

 It felt good to see my made-from-scratch bread rise in the oven. The fresh-baked aroma and yummy bread defiantly blessed my family today. I hope you are blessed too!

 The book pictured is an all time favorite; Walking on Water; Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeline LeEngle

eight arms to hold you

disclaimer; I stole this blog title from Veruca Salt's album title
Dorathea and I had a Valentines day party with our friends at the pool today.  I pretended to be an octopus and catch her for a Valentine hug.

Ted teases The kids that we are having octopus for dinner.  And tonight when they came to dinner this was waiting for them;

Hot dog Octopus in an underwater broccoli forest.  Her reaction;

And if that weren't enough  then came dessert;

marshmallow puppies and kitties

Not the most nutritious meal, but fun was had by all.