Bread, Glorious Bread

I've had a hankering for a Reuben sandwich lately and decided to do a bit of searching for a gluten free pumpernickel recipe. I stumbled upon a great one that I modified slightly (because I didn't have all the ingredients). I'm super happy with the results. I've already made this bread a couple times and plan to make it again soon. These directions are for a traditional mixer method. This should also work in a bread machine.

Gluten Free Pumpernickel Bread
1 1/2 C Milk
2 1/4 t Active Dry Yeast
3 T Molasses
3 T Sugar

1 C White Rice Flour
1 C GF Baking Mix
1 C Corn Starch
1 T Xantham Gum
1 T Caraway Seeds
1 1/2 t Salt
1 T Cocoa Powder

3 Eggs
3 T Vegetable Oil
3 T Vinegar
1 t Lemon Juice

Heat milk to 110°. Mix in yeast, sugar and molasses and let proof about 10 minutes (it should start to get foamy). Combine dry ingredients. Add remaining wet ingredients to yeast mixture. Combine wet and dry mixtures. Place mixture in greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Let rise up to an hour. Bake at 375° for 30-60 minutes. Enjoy!

Another dress?

I'm on a clothes kick lately and have been looking for more ideas (not really what I need right now).

I saw this dress on Anthropologie

and this dress from Vogue.

Close enough? I think so. The real obstacle would be finding/choosing a fabric. Any suggestions (that won't break the bank)?

Finding inspiration

I requested a Toast catalog recently and it arrived promptly a couple days ago. If you're not familiar with Toast, well, you need to migrate away from this post. Their catalogs are filled with lovely photography and printed on great paper. I love nice catalogs. I've been poring over the catalog and filling my head with way too many ideas. The thing that most captivated me and got my wheels turning was, oddly enough, padded hangers. Their version is particularly sweet. I've been hunting for a decent pattern online this morning, but might just try to pick up some hangers and wing it. I'm not sure if single bar hangers are readily available though (might need to raid my mom's hall closet). Anyone know of a decent pattern out there?

Two new dresses

I've had sewing fever lately and managed to finish up a dress that's been sitting waaaay too long and start and finish another. It's been nice to have something nice to wear. I still have 15 baby pounds to shed (which is a feat considering the inordinate number of pounds I put on), so I'm scrambling for some summer things. I've been diving into my mom's stash which I've been housing since December. She recently got a gorgeous craft room face lift, so she'll be reclaiming what's rightfully hers. I gotta run... I want to have a last look at all that fabric!

The first party

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of my daughter's first birthday party. This was really fun to put together. We just kept it to family and did relatively simple food. I did cupcakes instead of a big fancy cake (they're chocolate and mini cheesecakes). I made a couple heart garlands with miscellaneous pink fabrics I had in my stash, and some pink grosgrain ribbon. I cut the hearts freehand and stitched them onto the ribbon in random order. I also made some big tissue paper flowers to hang from the ceiling. The birthday sign was a quick little craft project too. I grabbed the artwork from a favorite fabric designer and screened it back, then I added big letters and printed, cut and punched. The banner is also strung with grosgrain ribbon. The rest of the decorations came mostly from the Valentines Day clearance at Target.
On a related note... Where did the year go?!?!

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Well, I intended to share a recipe with you today, but alas, 'twas not to be. I purchased a great new GF baking mix recently and tried out the recipe on the box (with a couple mods), but my new box has blueberry muffins in place of the cookies. Ack! So I'll be doing some hunting. In the meantime, aren't they pretty?

A little hiatus (and some reinvented curtains)

I've been up to a host of crafting projects in the last month, but have been much too busy (or sick) to post. I'll try to get caught up in the ensuing days/weeks. We had a first birthday and a bout of intestinal flu and I'm finally getting the house under control again.
I did a bit of surgery to a set of plain cream curtains from Ikea in an effort to "complete" the wee one's room. The curtains were 56 inches wide, so I cut a straight line (about 3 feet long) at 7 inches from the edge, then another 14 inches over for the remaining 3 cuts. I inserted a triangle of fabric to create a pleat and then added some ribbon and vintage buttons to finish them off. I'm super happy with how they turned out, kind of Land-of-Nod in my opinion. I've been wanting to get better pictures, but between nap time and dead batteries it's just not happening.
So what have you reinvented lately?