Bread Machine Gathering Dust?

When I got my bread machine for free from Freecycle over a year ago, I was delighted. It was practically brand new. The original owner said that she only had used it once. I couldn't help wondering why someone would invest money in an appliance and then only use it one time. What I found out when I made my first loaf even after following the directions to a "T" is that the bread comes out resembling a piece of petrified wood, which is wonderful if you need a new door stop or a paper weight. This is probably what happened to the poor lady who shelled out perfectly good money for the machine. The secret I found was ignoring the recipe that came with the machine. I searched some of my favorite frugal type blogs for information. It turns out that buying wheat gluten and adding extra water are the key. You can buy bread machine flour, but really, it's just flour with wheat gluten added. It will cost you less to buy regular flour and add your own wheat gluten. Another big key to success is buying a bread slicer. Until I found one at a yard sale for 2 dollars, I never knew how easy and uniform it made slicing the bread, I'd never even heard of a bread slicer before. I would probably still be struggling with weird sizes of bread slices if I hadn't come across that particular yard sale. Now I'm able to make really healthy high fiber whole wheat bread with no preservatives for pennies anytime I want to. I recycle produce bags to wrap the bread in and keep it refrigerated. Here is my recipe:

Whole Wheat Bread

(Add to the bread machine in this order)

1 teaspoon if salt

2 tablespoons of sugar (it has to be sugar for the yeast to work)

2 tablespoons of oil

1 1/2 cups of hot water.

3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour, sifted, then mixed well with-

3 tablespoons of wheat gluten

1 1/4 teaspoons yeast

Before adding the yeast, make a little hole in the center of the flour with your finger and pour in the yeast.

Choose the whole wheat settings for a regular loaf of bread according to your machine. Enjoy!

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Vintage Spring Dishes

This week, I'm using some more family heirloom china.
I love the colorful floral bouquet in the center of these plates.


I added my lace tablecloth and the cute little shoes I found recently at GW.

Another fun find at GW was this white rose center piece.

I added a few other small touches, do you see the bird in the nest of moss?

And my sweet angel, I received as a wedding gift long ago.



You can see a close up post of my vignette in the background in my recent Table Top Tuesday post.

The smaller glasses are vintage Fostoria handed down to me.

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Swap-Meet Bargain Treasures

I love going to the Swap-Meet.

I found this working, vintage wind up clock for 3 dollars.

These vintage rhinestone pieces will be great for future projects and were only 2 dollars for all of them.

A white shell shaped votive holder for 50 cents.

And finally this glass cloche for 4 dollars.
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White Wednesday

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Nope, still not tired of displaying my Audubon book......

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Home Depot Drop Cloth Slip Cover For My Couch

This is my second (and probably not final) post about a project I finally
finished. I wanted to share it again in case anyone missed it. I've seen people make drop cloth curtains, which I really liked. It got me thinking about using a drop cloth as a frugal, beachy type of sofa cover.

I knew I might be a little over my head on this one but, I totally took my time and referred to several other blogs on the subject of making your own slip covers. I didn't use any one particular tutorial, they were all basically the same.

My couch is "L" shaped and 18' long! So there just aren't any pre-made covers available that would fit it, or I would have gladly invested in them. If you think that a few of these pictures are confusing, just picture me trying to figure out what I was doing without a pattern!

I pre-washed the canvas then, tuck, cut, pin, cross your fingers!

This is a close up of the old and new fabric.
We bought this couch before we had kids and four cats so,my household is now too busy to live with out a couch cover. I found it too challenging to keep my off white couch clean. But the couch has good "bones" so I didn't want to get rid of it.

By some miracle, the humongous slip cover turned out pretty well, I think. I'm really glad now that I didn't spend a lot of money on a new couch or expensive pre-made slip covers. Sometimes it pays off to try something new.

The fabric is surprisingly soft, yet durable. And I like the color a lot.

It now looks and feels more casual and cozy.

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Crate And Barrel Votive Vignette

I found these four Crate And Barrel glass votive holders at a thrift store and the peacock feather tips from a yard sale. Click on the image to get a better view. I love the colors in the feathers and they completely match the votive holders, which I didn't even plan. Love it when that happens!

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and.....

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