Bijoux by Bari J. Giveaway Winner

And the winner of 10 fat quarters is...

#73: Jenelle who said "Yeah I'd make a quilt too. ;) Man this is a beautiful and lush collection! I really like the mix of warm colors and different scaled prints. Your dress is just gorgeous Danny. It looks like it came straight out of one of those high-end children's boutique collections."

Congrats Jenelle! I will be sending you an email shortly!

Bijoux by Bari J. Launch Party and {GIVEAWAY}

Giveaway closed.

Yay! Today is my stop on the Bijoux by Bari J. Launch Party!

I met Bari at the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild. She had cute hair and brought embroidery. No wonder we were quick friends! I saw a sneak peek of Bijoux on Hawthorne Threads' site a long while back and just KNEW I had to get my hands on some of it when it came out. I had no idea she would give me some to play with for my very own! So generous.

Bijoux was inspired by the desert; by gypsy caravans and lanterns, turquoise bracelets and long, flowing skirts. To read more about Bari's inspiration for this new, gorgeous line, check out this link.

Bari gave me some yardage of one of the butterfly prints I picked out AND a pattern to make a sweet little girl dress. My friend had been hinting for a while about wanting a handmade dress for her daughter, and this line felt just perfect for her!






I made this dress using Bari's Zophia Playtime Dress pattern. It is made to be quilter friendly with 1/4" seams and binding to finish raw edges.


The back of the dress has an elastic casing. No buttons or zippers!




This fabric is vibrant and rich. Exactly the colors and hues I love! Plus, Art Gallery Fabrics are silky soft making them ideal for garments.

I also made a grocery bag holder for my mom out of one of my favorite prints in the collection:


You get my fancy cell phone picture because she snatched it up before I could properly photograph it, but you get the idea. I've been thinking about buying more of this print to decoupage onto wood, making a spool holder for my craft room wall. I've been needing one and this print has just the right amount of bright, bold and freaking amazing that I've been looking for.

I've also been planning a quilt.


I knew immediately I had to make a medallion quilt with this line. I free motion embroidered an image of my interpretation of Bijoux and added some hand embroidered touches to make her come to life. She is going to be the center of my Bijoux medallion quilt, which I will share once I complete it.


So now that you've seen all the beautiful things I've made, you should take a look at what some of the other Launch Party-ers have made/are going to make:

May 8: Melanie Dramatic
May 9: Sew Much Like Mom
May 10: 100 Billion Stars
May 11: I'm Doing Stuff
(mother's day, no stop on the 12th)
May 13: Imagine Gnats
May 14: Jona G.
May 15: Mommy for Reals
May 16: Olive and Ollie
May 17: Pile O' Fabric
May 18: Sally's Angel Works
May 19: JM Maxman

Bijoux has now shipped to stores, but if you would like to join, I have a 10 fat quarter bundle to give away to one lucky commenter!


How To Enter

This giveaway is open to everyone. If you are a no-reply commenter, please include your email address in your comment. The winner will be chosen randomly and I will need to be able to notify the winner via email.

Leave a comment letting me know what you would like to make with Bijoux. That's it! This is a quicky giveaway that will close 12am Arizona time TONIGHT (15 May 2013)!!! Tell your friends and have them enter here too. You don't want to miss out on this awesome collection!!

Giveaway closed.

Also, don't forget to check out the Flickr group to see what other people are making with Bijoux.

Thoughts on Tastebook?

I have a huge collection of recipes I love that I have been collecting and archiving in a binder I keep in the pantry of my kitchen. This works well for me because it gets my computers away from the kitchen (I get lots of recipes from Pinterest!) and because I store them in clear, plastic report covers, it keeps the recipes clean of cooking spatter.


My family has a collective Tastebook.com account. Basically, it's an online database that allows you to store, sort and share your recipes online. I absolutely love having all the family recipes in one place and it has made it easy to just pop into the account to copy/paste a recipe into an email for a friend.

I use far more recipes than can be housed on this little blog. Every so often I try to share one with you all, but the truth is, I could have this blog just be a food blog and probably have a new recipe every couple of days without duplicates. I really love to cook (and eat!) but I can't just bombard you all with food posts everyday for the next year just so I can get them all on my blog, so here's my thought: I could create a personal Tastebook.com account and post my library of recipes there.

The only problem with Tastebook.com is you must also have a Tastebook.com account in order to see my recipes. We become friends, a la Facebook, and then we can share our recipes with each other. So my question is this:

Would you do that?

Oatmeal Molasses Bread

It's been a lifetime since I've posted any recipes on the blog! The truth is, I have terrible lighting in my kitchen and I don't know how to take nice pictures without natural light. Winter means it's dark by the time dinner is ready to be photographed, therefore, no recipes in the winter. Now that the sun is staying out a bit later, I can finally start sharing with you some of the yummy things I whip up for my family.

Today, I am starting with one of my favorite breads, Oatmeal Molasses. I make my breads by hand, so I will share with you the hand kneading directions.


Ingredients:

2 1/3 cups (19 fl oz/580 ml) water
1 cup (3 oz/90 g) old-fashioned rolled oats, plus some extra for topping the loaves
1/2 cup (4 oz/125 g) unsalted butter
1/3 cup (3 1/2 oz/105 g) unsulfured molasses
2 packages (5 teaspoons) active dry yeast (You can also use Bread Machine Yeast)
5-6 cups (25-30 oz/780-940 g) all-purpose (plain) flour, plus extra for kneading
2 teaspoons sea salt

Recipe:

In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Put the oats into a heatproof bowl, and pour the water over the oats. Add the butter and molasses, and let the mixture cool to warm (105-115F/40-46C).

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm oat mixture and let stand for 5 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in 3 cups (15 oz/470 g) of the flour and the salt, mixing well. Add the remaining 2-3 cups (10-15 oz/315-470 g) flour as needed to make a soft dough. Using a plastic pastry scraper, scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a floured work surface. Knead until it is smooth and elastic, dusting flour to keep the dough from sticking, 5-7 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until it doubles in bulk, about 1 hour. (I place mine on top of my fridge.)

Butter two 9-by-5-inch (23-by-13-cm) loaf pans. Punch down the dough and, using the pastry scraper, scrape it out onto a clean work surface. Cut it in half with a sharp knife or a bench scraper.

For each half, evenly flatten the dough with the heel of your hand. Roll the top third down onto itself and seal it by pushing it gently with the heel of your hand. Continue rolling and sealing the dough until you have an oval log. Place the loaf, seam side down, in the prepared loaf pans. Press on them to flatten them evenly into the pans. Cover loosely with a kitchen towel and let them rise in a warm, draft-free spot until they double in size, 45-60 minutes.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 375F (190C). Mist the tops of the loaves with water. Sprinkle the tops with a generous handful of oats. (I have gotten to the point where I skip this step because it's just messy and doesn't add to the flavor of the bread.) Bake until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on top, 40-45 minutes. Carefully remove the loaves from the pans and let cool completely on wire racks before slicing.

I got this recipe from a book I borrowed from a friend. It is absolutely amazing and I want to buy it for myself. Not only are the recipes tasty, the pictures are delicious in themselves!

Essentials of Baking: Recipes and Techniques for Successful Home Baking. Williams Sonoma.
ISBN: 0-8487-2779-7
Here is a link to purchase the book on Amazon.




Making bread is relaxing for me. I relish in the fact that I cannot do anything else with my time while I'm kneading a new dough. I am a busy person, constantly multitasking and filling every moment with as much as I possibly can. Making bread for my family gives me time to slow down and just... be, if only for a few minutes. Knowing our bread is made with healthy ingredients is just an added bonus. This recipe makes two loaves, which we go through in about two to three weeks. Sometimes I find myself giving away loaves just so I can make more! It's healthy to have stress relievers, and this is mine.

If you have a yummy bread recipe you would like to share, I would love to try it! I have been trying to branch out a bit but I'm having a rough time finding recipes that a) can be made without a bread machine or standing mixer, or b) actually have a review to let me know whether they are good or not!

Bubble Party

I like to do fun things with Clara and I've decided to invite other kids over to play along with us. It started with a Valentine's Day Party where we made Valentine's for daddies. I was busy playing hostess and forgot to take pictures at that one, but this time I was ready!

To celebrate the first day of Spring (and our amazing weather lately) I threw a Bubble Party. It was scheduled over Spring Break. I thought that meant more people could attend, but as it turns out, it means more people are out of town! Who knew? Anyway, it was a small gathering, but lots of fun for the kiddos, and the mamas, who got to have some real, adult conversations.

One of the lovely mamas who attended is a photographer who, lucky for me, wanted decent pictures of the party! Here are some of her shots:





Isn't Val BEAUTIFUL?!




















I will be planning more play dates, especially as summer hits and we can no longer be outside with the kids. I'll be sure to share what we do. I know I am inspired by other blogs and what those mamas do with their children!

My Contributions - Stitch Tease Bee

I don't have great pictures of these blocks, mostly because I was down to the wire while making them and had to snap a pic quickly before getting them ready to mail out!! But here they are, none-the-less:

Di asked for words. I chose "read" because we like to talk about books we've read whenever we get together. The text is meant to look like typewriter font.




Annabella wanted something with curves. I'm awful with curves, so I appliquéd circles onto the block. They look a little like bubbles. I like it!

Dianne asked for pinwheels in pink and green. This block admittedly gave me some trouble. I don't like planning things out. I'd rather just go for it and that just wasn't working out with this block!! It turned out great, though, and her quilt top is beautiful!

Hadley had a laundry list of dos and don'ts, but basically she wanted squares and rectangles in bright colors and random white pieces interspersed. I loved this strip. It was easy for me to put these colors together and the finished product was great!

Katy gave us a fabric to base our appliquéd blocks on. I chose to do a little robot standing on a planet. I totally forgot to use my signature fabric on this block so I had to quickly add some buttons to the robot with my fabric!!





Susan asked for scrappy background with white stars. I didn't take a picture of my block alone since I put together her quilt top. I was lucky to have a playdate the day after I finished it so I had someone to hold it up for me!!



Helen asked for bright, wonky stars on a Kona Ash background. I LOVED this one too! I lost the pictures I took of this block, but here is the teaser picture I sent Helen. You can see the whole quilt top on her blog. It's pretty dreamy.

And that's it. I had so much fun getting to know these ladies over the past year. I'm sad I won't be able to continue with them onto round two, but I can't wait to see what they make!

It's kind of refreshing to show you all this! It's proof that all that time I was quite, I really was sewing!! I just couldn't show you.

Meal Planning 4/15 - 4/19

This is another short week for us.

Monday: Sunset Blend Juice. Brent and I have decided we are going to do a 10 day juice cleanse starting Friday! We are super excited to get started. We will be following the juice regimen from here, which is where you can find the recipe for this juice. Since I am writing this after having finished my juice, I can tell you it is good, but I double the recipe, making far too much for Brent and I. The juice was very earthy, although that was to be expected with all those root vegetables. I think next time I will add some more orange or apple, to sweeten it up a bit. And the beets stained my hands.
Tuesday: Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce. Since we are doing the juice cleanse this weekend, we need to eat up some things we have, and pasta I have!
Wednesday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and asparagus on my homemade bread.
Thursday: Dinner out for date night!! We are going to see The Postal Service play for our anniversary so we are going to make a whole night of it. Well, until we have to pick up Clara from her Yaya's (Grandpa) house.
Friday: Day 1 of the 10 day cleanse! Wish us luck!

This week I decided to try someplace new for my produce. I heard from a friend on Facebook about a local market that sells cheap produce. It's not locally grown or organic, so that was two strikes against a local market, but I decided to try it out anyway. The prices were amazing! Four cartons of strawberries for $1. Three bunches of celery for $1. Peppers for $1/lb. It was well worth the trip, which was only a little farther than I usually travel for my groceries.


I bought everything except the carrots and spinach at the new place, Superstition Ranch Market. My total grocery bill for all this produce was $45. $45!!! I got loads of produce, including:

apples
oranges
ginger root
onion
jalepeno
strawberries
yams
broccoli
pears
pineapples
lemons
limes
celery
cabbage
beets


and loads more I can't even remember.

I also ordered my bountiful basket today, just a friendly reminder to do so if you haven't yet.

So tell me. Have any of you every tried a juicing cleanse? Thoughts? Recipes?