Leaf Pins and Sandwich Bread

For the last few months I have been on the hunt for a great sandwich bread recipe...and I think I finally found one!  It is from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  And it is delicious.  I think the hardest thing about making homemade bread is finding a place to let it rise.  Luckily, our apartment has huge old radiators that provide the perfect warm environment for rising bread dough...who knows what I'll do once summer hits!

This is the resulting golden brown loaf of bread.  Mmmmmm.  My favorite way to eat it is toasted with hazelnut spread.

Well, baking bread is not the only thing I did this weekend.  I also did some crafting with a few things from my "leftovers" box.  After finding these fabric leaves I tried making months ago (the original project didn't work out...but oh well, it happens!), I thought they would make great bases for some new pins.

The first one I made using a crochet chain stitched flower, some buttons, and two of the green leaves.

The second one I tried using an orange leaf as the base for some beautiful buttons.

I love digging into my scrap bucket and figuring out fun things to make from things I didn't think were much use anymore!


Do you have a "leftovers" pile that you create from?

Valentines for my Valentines

Last year I made my parents a Valentine at our family program at work.  It was not my best card, to say the least.  But, as parents always do....they loved it!  I was reminded of this funny Valentine when I was home for Christmas and saw it proudly displayed on the refrigerator.  So, this year I decided I had better make it a good one.

I ventured forth to make Valentines for my parents, and both of my sisters...but I cannot tell you whose is whose because I still want them to be surprised when they arrive in the mail.  First I had to gather up supplies: paper flowers, doilies, stamps, and some cute little birds I cut from a scrap of fabric.

Each Valentine got a super special touch.  One recieved a carefully crocheted garland of flowers using embroidery floss.  It was hard to do it so small, but since I just used a simple chain stitch, it did not take too long.

The end result could not have been more adorable.

I used a combination of bits and pieces for the next one: a snippet from an old button paper, embroidery floss, and a couple of buttons...

(Don't tell the others, but I think it turned out to be my favorite)

The final Valentine got decorated with a bit of stitching, pieces of a paper doily and two little love birds.

I think they all turned out pretty cute!  Any one of these would make a nice addition to the refrigerator. 

I hope the recipients enjoy getting them as much as I enjoyed making them!


Are you making anything special for Valentine's Day?