Oy! How bad is my creative block these days? So bad that, even though the kids are ever busy with their daily creations, I don’t have it in me to take note and capture the moments here. Instead? I’m spending time over at Huset, ogling the beautiful things they have for sale that I can’t afford just now. (bust still… I’m happy to know this online store exists for when my wallet is a bit thicker).

A couple good things are going on that will certainly help. First, I’ve won a spot on Pip’s Blog Tour. Pip of Meet Me At Mikes, one of my all-time favorite blogs, will be stopping by here with a guest post in early February. Hurrah!

Secondly, I’m taking part in Ali’s Seven Days of Specialness project, and I have the best swap partner ever. You will love Kristin’s blog, Kleas.

Have any suggestions for overcoming blogger’s block? Share ‘em here! I could use all the help I can get

1. Make sparkly heart ornaments
2. Make easy heart toppers for red and pink pencils
3. Make  Snow Globes with cupids and heart-shaped confetti
4. Make magnified gem magnets with Valentime images
5. Make a sweet-heart amulet with bits & pieces that remind you of your love
6. Sew lavender sachets
7. Make paper heart garlands
8. Sew a holiday pennant with — just use heart patterned fabrics
9. Sew a holiday quilt to snuggle under (another easy one is here)
10. Make a Valentine’s Day book
11. Make festive votive holders — just glue heart shapes
12. Make embroidered pillows
13. Make, and decorate, a pillow
14. Make finger puppets in reds and pinks
15. Bake a sweet Mazarine pie
    
16. Make a memory box to capture all the ways you love
17. Make a paper bead bracelet for your love

Ingredients:
3 cups of water (mix half hot from a kettle and half cold from tap)
1 tbsp active dry yeast
6.5 cups of flour
1.5 tbsp salt

In a large bowl, add the 3 cups of lukewarm water. Stir in 1 tablespoon of yeast. I usually buy the yeast in a jar, most supermarkets have one or two brands in the baking isle. If you have the yeast packets, use two of those.

Now add all the flour and sprinkle the salt on top. Now the fun part. Make a claw with your mixing hand, and dip it right into the middle of the flour, to the bottom. With your fingers spread apart start mixing in circles. It’ll be rather gooey. Continue mixing and scraping the sides with your fingers for about a minute until all the dry flour is incorporated into the liquid, and the dough comes away from the sides. That’s it! You’ll need to scrape the remaining dough off your fingers.

Now wash your hands (cleanliness is next to Godliness) and cover the bowl either with a damp dish towel or plastic wrap. Put bowl in a non-drafty place. Let rise for at least one hour or for as long as you wish.

When you’re ready to bake, if you have a pizza stone, put it in the oven, and pre-heat oven to 450F.

Flour a large cutting board and pour the wet yeast out onto the board.

Sprinkle some more flour on the dough and flatten it. Fold in the sides, flatten again and repeat a few times until it feels a little firmer.

Shape it into a ball or a long loaf.

Cut the dough into two pieces and place on a well floured cutting board or a pizza paddle and cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap.

After 20-30 mintues, the oven should be pre-heated and the dough should have risen a bit.

Open the oven and slide the dough onto the pizza stone. You can also try to lift the dough with your hands and dump it on, but that can be a bit tricky. If you want you can slice some gashes into the top of the dough at this point, though it’s not necessary. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

You know it’s done when you lift the bread up and knock on the bottom and it makes a thunking sound, like when you bonk the side of your skull. If the bread is getting too dark or burnt, you can cover it with aluminum foil or lower the heat to 350F. Every oven is different.

For Pizza
I just use my bread recipe and sometimes add a tablespoon or two of honey to the dough.

Divide the dough in two, and cover one with the cloth. Now divide the remaining piece into eight, for individual size pizzas. Knead and pinch each one until it forms a little ball. Cover. Repeat with the other half. If you need to save these, you can store them each in plastic wrap that’s twisted shut, in the fridge. When you’re ready to use, just roll them out on a well floured pizza paddle.

That’s it!

Maggie had a friend over the other day and the girls and little Tor had a blast covering my kitchen & stoop with fabric glitter. They decorated aprons and pillow cases with festive stars, birds, and wild abstract shapes. What they made was fabulous to my eyes.

Until I followed the instructions and washed them 72 hours later. I was so sad I cried.

If you’ve had better luck with fabric glue and glitter, please share your tips here. I’d love to get this right one day.

Maggie is eleven years old and an avid reader. She’s offered to share her favorites here.

I thought Wereling was absolutely spectacular. It was full of action and adventure. The only warning I have to readers is that the Irish man, Tom says hell a lot.

It’s about a fourteen year old boy named Trey. When an odd man comes to his orphanage claiming to be his uncle he becomes suspicious. The one question nagging him the most is who is friend and who is foe?

I thought all the characters were great and that they all had great personalities that fit them perfectly. I would rate this book five out of five. I am a fiction lover though so this book is perfect for anyone who loves fiction. I thought the plot was very good and it left me begging for more.

I recommend this book for 5^th grade and up. This is just a sort of personal fancy of mine but I really liked the fact that the author put an excerpt of the story on the front cover. It shows a moment of action and drama, perfect for people who take a book off its shelf and judge it by its cover. As another personal thought, I think that this book would be good in a trilogy. This book makes the top-ten book list for me and I hope there’s a sequel.

Disclosure: Wereling was sent to us by the publisher.