Another Awesome Blog! And a Recipe!

So, once in a while I'll mention a website or blog that I have fallen for, and I feel the need to give a shout-out to this one.  I can't remember how I found it--probably looking for a whole wheat bread recipe--but I have gone back to it day after day for recipes and information.  It's great!  We have been "naturalizing" our house for quite some time, and continue to work toward eating food and using products that are free of artificially-created ingredients, and this is an excellent site for that. 
Okay, okay, already!  Here it is:

heavenlyhomemakers.com

And no, you don't have to be a Christian to glean tons of awesome information from it.  

And while I'm chatting about whole wheat bread, I'll give you my whole wheat waffle recipe!  It is newly discovered (one of the thousands of recipe sites--can't remember which one--and no doubt tweaked in my own kitchen) and Hubby even likes it, which is a big step.  I use white whole wheat flour, but the original recipe called for regular whole wheat flour.  To make it dairy-free, just use milk substitute (almond, soy, rice) and vegetable oil.  It's great!

[White] Whole Wheat Waffles

1 1/2 c (white) whole wheat flour
2t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2T sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 lukewarm milk (mine's usually cold--that's fine)
1/3 c melted butter or vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients together well, and cook on a prepared waffle iron. Enjoy!

My Subconscious Crafting Prayers are Answered!

For a long time now I've been wanting to start woodworking. That is, I've been wanting to personally make a couple of only mildly challenging, functional pieces for my home, since I'm WAY too frugal to spend the $$ that furniture stores charge and not allowed to buy damaged pieces from our local discount shop (which are STILL overpriced, if you ask me--or Nick, which is why I'm not allowed). However, my woodworking experience is limited to the bench I made in high school shop class. It was good, but it was done under supervision of an experienced instructor, someone who would answer my (many) questions and not try to take over the project and do it himself. I do not live with someone who would do that, and I'm not interesting in starting a project, only to hand it over to my dear husband when he sees me doing something "wrong". That dear, dear, neurotic man. ;D Anyway, what I've really been needing, and keeping my back-of-my-mind's eye open for, is a step-by-step, visual, detailed, illustrated source with just the right information and designs to motivate me to go ahead and do it myself. I found that motivation today at http://www.oneprettything.com/ (I'm telling you, that site is awesome!!). And that motivation is http://www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com/

Things I hope to build sometime this spring:

I'd really like a box with storage (kind of like a chest, but really just a long wooden box) to put under the window in my bedroom, but I have a feeling that the first thing I made isn't going to be great, so I can absolutely use this bench. According to Ana, this should be pretty easy. Here's hoping!

AND for my kitchen/dining room, which is really small and cramped: the perfect sized table!! This will not be the first project I do.

This is actually an image from West Elm. Let's hope I can do something similar.

Similar is all I ask for here. Not better--heck, not even as good as!

One of the many great things about this blog is that she gives a time and cost estimate, which is super useful. I'm so so so so psyched!! I plan to get the wood for a project Monday.

I. AM. SO. EXCITED!!!!

I love this blog!!

I Just Hafta Share...

If you haven't noticed by blog list (to the right), you should. If you have any creative inklings, ever, you should go check it out. When I'm short on motivation and searching for ideas or inspiration--or, by some stroke of miraculous luck, I just have a "free" moment to peruse the web--I go thru this list. They are all on my blog list because they've provided a source of inspiration and/or information that has been invaluable to my creative process at least once or twice.

So anyway, I've spent most of my late-evening (kids are in bed, of course) browsing a blog that I found today. It's called Make It and Love It, and it very well may be the mother load of all fun DIY projects that are right up my alley. I want to let the creator know just how clever I think she and her site are, but I feel like, with 2500 followers, she probably gets a mad amount of emails saying just that.

If there's a blog or a site that does it for you, let me know! I LOVE finding new ones. I know that, if there were no internet, I'd still find plenty of creative inspiration (and it might even be more original, due to the lack of dependency on the convenience factor), but seriously--what would we do without the internet?? :D

Meet Picnik

http://www.picnik.com/ is a free photo editing site. This is perfect for photographically challenged people like me! Here you see some original, run-of-the-mill photos (the first ones), and then some edited versions. Go try it! It's fun! They also have an auto-fix button if you just want your picture to look better in a normal, non-artsy way, and pre-set effects, like 1960s, if you don't have a knack for editing.