Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful.

And here we have SnobbyDog looking stunning in Teri's fall line.
She carries herself with such grace, such poise, such...je ne sais quois.
And of course, by "je ne sais quois", I mean that "why do you insist on humiliating me for your own amusement?" look.

You can find the debut of both Maggie and the scarf here.

Card-making tutorial

{{{This is a repost of my video from November 21. Thanks for letting me know about the problems with the videos, Mandi! I think it's all fixed up now.}}}

Hello, world!

This morning, I put together this little card tutorial as I was making a get-well card for dear, sweet, sick friend. A while back, Mandi from Tidbits from the Tremaynes asked me to put one together, and here it is.

By the way, if you haven't read Mandi's blog, you are dead to me. Go. Go now.

It's, uhhhh, a little long. Apparently I like the sound of my own voice. The first part is basic preamble about making cards, and the second part (starting at ) is the actual creation of the card. The last part is putting it all together.




Please excuse the craptacular lighting. Ahem.

Also, just for future reference, do you prefer video or written tutorials? I made a video this time because I forget to take "during" shots...and it would take me forever to write all this stuff out. I'm lazy like that.

A little video of me scarfing.

I'd like you to watch this little video I've made for my dear friend Adrienne from Happenscraps, etc., starring my dog Maggie, my slippers, and my scarf-in-the-making.



If you'd like to see the tutorial for the spool knitter, the video tutorials of how to use it, or if you'd just like to check out a great craft blog, you can find Etcetorize here.

De-fuglified sewing-machine table

So I've had this retro sewing machine table since I was in college. My mother gave me one of her old sewing machines that came in this lovely candy-coated shell:
Oh wait...did I say candy-coated shell? I meant to say poorly-painted-this-awesome-baby-poo-colour shell.

And not only was it an awful colour, but as you can see, the paint was all flaky. As in, chunks-come-off-all-the-time, Pillsbury-pie-crust, told-me-she'd-meet-me-at-the-mall-but-then-that-trollop-went-on-a-date-instead flaky.

So then we were having company. And I thought to myself, "Self? You surely should fix this fugly specimen before introducing it to your friends."

And then I chuckled for talking to myself that way. I mean, let's get serious here. I don't call myself "Self". I call myself "Queen Consuela of Craftopia."

But I digress.

Anyway, I figured I couldn't possibly make it any uglier. So, I took a sander to it...
This paint came off way too easily. Seriously. It's like I did the original paint job myself.

Anyway, I had neither paint nor time to paint (everyone was about to show up, remember?). So, I sanded off the flaky parts and then sanded a little more for good measure and then scuffed up the edges and then put down the sander because the whole process of de-fuglifying was starting to make me a little lightheaded.

Then, I mixed a few tablespoons of acrylic craft paint in teddy-bear brown with a few tablespoons of water and glopped the mess onto the table with a rag. I rubbed it all over, especially in the sanded areas, let it dry for a few minutes, and then topped it all off with a coat of spray sealer I had lying around.
Now of course, it does help that my living room has low light. But, it's better, right?

Total elapsed time: 10 minutes. Total effort: minimal. Total cost: free. Total reduction of ugly: infinite.

Nice buns, Betty. Err, I mean, this post is about cinnamon-raisin bread.

Hello, world!

I've been busy.

On the one hand, I've been so busy preparing new units for my English students that I haven't had time to post.

On the other hand, I've found a wonderful distraction from preparing new units for my English students.

TaDa!
I have made my first foray in to the world of breadmaking, and it's been a success!

Ok, so I didn't knead the dough myself. But I did borrow the breadmaker that did it from Adrienne at Happenscraps, etc. (Thanks, Adrienne!) And that counts for something, right?

Ok, fine. So it's a lazy foray, but it's a foray nonetheless.

A lazy foray. That sounds like a really bad dance move, doesn't it? (Copyright Teri2010)

Ok, so anyway, I have made two loaves of white bread, whole-wheat cinnamon rolls, and a loaf of the best cinnamon-raisin bread I've ever had.
I'm even going to tell you how I did it, because I'm all generous like that.

First, I made a dough recipe I found on Food.com. (You can find the original post here - thank you to the talented baker who posted it!) Here's the recipe:

Put the following ingredients into your breadmaker on the "dough" setting.

• 1 1/4 c warm water
• 2 tsp butter
• 3 c white flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp powdered milk
• 2 tsp yeast
  

*****Editor's note: The breadmaker peeps insist that you have to add the ingredients in the order listed...but I may or may not have twice forgotten to add the little paddle that kneads the dough before I added the ingredients...and then I may or may not have had to dig down to the bottom of the bowl-thingy to put it in, thereby stirring up the ingredients and messing up the layers. May or may not. We can't be certain.

By the way, I didn't use breadmaker yeast - I was just guessing that you only knead that if you're baking the bread right in the breadmaker.

Get it? Knead?

Snort.

Anyway, I added all those ingredients, then turned that sucker on. Then I tried to find something else to do because I am oh-so-patient that way.

Oh look! A kitty!
Ok, so this is where it gets a little creative, because I've never done this before. After looking up some recipes for this stuff, I determined that I wanted to use the bread recipe I had tried and liked, and then just experiment with the raisin-cinnamon aspect.

This was truly an experiment, because everything I read said that add-ins make it rise more slowly, and that the sugar content, etc. causes all sorts of changes. I didn't have any issues, though.

Anyway, when it let out that if-you're-gonna-add-something-add-it-now beep, I added half a cup of raisins.

***Editor's note: Do not add "two scoops" unless your scoops are around a quarter cup. I'm just saying...if you want some bread with your raisins, do not let Kellog's clever marketing put you on auto-pilot.

Then, I let it go through its first rise in the breadmaker.

And then I waited again.

Oh look! A puppy!
Alright, so then it beeped, and I removed the dough and rolled it out to around 10" by 16".

Ok, so I actually froze the dough because I had to go out, then thawed it and rolled it out. Gosh, you're nosey.

I melted some butter (maybe 3 tablespoons) and slathered it all over the surface of the dough. Then, I used some leftover brown-sugar-and-cinnamon-concoction from the cinnamon buns of the other day, sprinkled that on, and rubbed it in a little for good measure. It was about 1/3 c of sugar with perhaps 1 tsp of cinnamon mixed in. Then, I took the cinnamon shaker and added a little more all over.

Next, I rolled up the loaf from the narrow side, pinched the ends closed, then tucked them under, and put the loaf in a greased loaf pan.

After letting it rise for 35 minutes, I baked it for another 35 at 350...

Et voila!
The most scrumptious cinnamon-raisin bread I've ever had!
Mmmmm.
"Noooo, don't eat me!"

Shut up, bread.