2 Things I'm Really Excited About Today

1. My new cast iron bread pans, which have been my faithful companions over the last two weeks or so as I experimented and finally found the perfect recipe for 100% whole wheat sandwich bread (see previous post for the recipe). I became a cast-iron convert several years ago, and these bread pans are a wonder! I don't even have to wash them after baking sandwich bread, because nothing sticks to them. And that is what I call perfection.

2. My new American Lawn Mower Company reel mower. Yes, I said that I'm EXCITED about a lawn mower that is powered by nothing but ME!

When I was a teenager, I was often on lawn duty at home, and always found it to be a bit cathartic. When I married and moved out here to the country, where we have LOTS of lawn to be maintained, I again, was most often the mower, but this time on a riding unit, which was much less enjoyable to me, but I still liked mowing (yet I hate doing laundry... go figure).

When Jack was born, my lawnmowing duties came to a screeching halt. There is just no way to be on a noisy, gas-guzzling lawn mower while watching little ones.

This Spring, with the wonderful coming of a season in life with children who are old enough to play happily together for long periods of time, with only distant supervision needed, I had an idea... maybe, just maybe, I could regain my mowing abilities with a reel mower. I could get some much-needed excercise, keep an eye on the kids, all while improving the quality of my lawn and helping the quality of the air that we breathe as well.

And, after the first test run last evening, I am even more in love with my new mower. Granted, what used to take 5 minutes, now takes closer to 40, but it is good, solid, hands-on hard work in the fresh air and sunshine.

And this good, solid, hands-on kind of girl couldn't be happier.

100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Recipe

After 4 failed attempts at making a sandwich bread that was both 100% whole wheat, but also light enough that it doesn't stick in my gullet, I finally have the right combination of ingredients.

Based on this recipe, but with adaptations from the past week and a half of experimenting, here is my very own highly-recommended recipe (if I do say so myself!) for anyone who is wanting to give up their dependency on store-bought whole wheat bread (which all-too-often is full of unneccesary preservatives and not-so-wholesome ingredients).

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 1/2 Tablespoons molasses
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups 100% whole wheat flour, plus more for kneading

Measure yeast into a large mixing bowl. Add the warm water first, then the molasses (you could also use honey), oil, and salt. Gently combine, then stir in the flour until just combined.

Let this loose, shaggy dough rest, covered for 20 minutes.

Adding a sprinkling of whole wheat flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to fingers and countertop, knead for about 10 minutes, until it is fairly smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil the inside of your mixing bowl (I don't even bother to clean out the dough scraps, unless there is quite a lot left in there), form the kneaded dough into a ball, and let it rise, covered, for 1 to 2 hours, or until it is puffy and doubled in size.

Gently deflate the dough, shape it into a log, and place it in a lightly greased 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch bread pan (I can't recommend cast iron enough). Cover with a damp, lightweight towel or lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for about 1 hour, or until it has crowned about an inch over the rim of the pan.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

$25 Dining Room Facelift

I like my little dining room. It is full of light, with mustard yellow on the walls, and has bay windows that look out on the barn and orchard. It is small, and has a silly Tiffany pendant light shade covered in fruit that I picked out when I was dating the house-building Matt (my first contribution to the decor of the house, and we had yet to acknowledge that we were meant to be together for life). My dining room is the place where the four of us gather the most often, and where I attempt to nourish their bodies with my home-cooked foods (the younger two are still often reluctant, but they WILL learn!)

But for all of these years, there is one thing about that room that has continued to haunt my dreams. I have clenched my teeth almost every time I cleaned in the dining room, because no matter what I did, or how hard I scrubbed, those horrid, ugly, outdated chair pads would never, ever look good. The dining set itself has great bones- nice, solid, classic and simple design, with the perfect medium wood tone. And I have known for years that it would be an easy fix to make the last remnant of ugliness in that room disappear. But with no quick, easy access to a decent fabric store, and two young children to care for, somehow the project has been put off, and put off, and put off, for way too long.

But... NO MORE! Yesterday, in the company of a good friend who volunteered not only to feed us a yummy breakfast, but to also play with the kids while I shopped, we made the excursion to Fabric Depot, a place well-worthy of an excursion (click the link, you won't be sorry).

While browsing the decorator fabric section, I instantly fell in love with this:

Way more modern than my usual taste, but somehow reminiscent of flowers on an old Fraktur certificate, with just the right amount of whimsy to make me happy, and the most perfect balance of colors to suit the dining room. But at $25 a yard, I was a little hesitant, knowing that I would need at least 1 1/2 yards to cover all four chairs. As I was tugging on the fabric roll to pull more out and more accurately measure what I might need, a large remnant piece fell off of the roll... a remnant? Oh glory be! I raced it over to the cutting table, and sure enough, it was 2 yards, and they would let me have it for 50% off! Thank you, Jesus, for that nice little surprise.

And now that you have stuck with me for an unneccesarily long story, here are the before and after shots:

The only before picture I could find of the dining room, with very purposely inconspicuous chair cushions, and a baby Katie cleaning the floor with her belly.

Not a super dramatic transformation, since most of the room has remained the same, but facelifts are supposed to be subtle, right?

Uh-Oh

Look who has been spending time around here lately...

Four male Blacktail Deer hanging together... so peaceful and serene...

See that dirt in the foreground? That's my vegetable garden.

Time to hook up the Mattinator 8000!

A New Baby in the Family

On May 7th, we were very happy to add a new cousin to the growing collection.

Born to Matt's sister, she is a "surprise" baby, and has been much anticipated. She kept us in suspense, too, waiting two whole weeks past her due date (fashionably late?) before finally putting in an appearance.

The kids were very happy to meet her...


And her big sister is positively smitten.

New Pattern Release... Great Grandma Ida's Birth Sampler

Read more about Ida's life.

Because this is an alphabet sampler, you will be able to easily customize it to honor the life or death of someone you love. If you wish to represent any country of the world, other than the already included American flag, I will chart it for you and add to your sampler pack by request.

There is also an instruction sheet telling you my method of inserting a photograph into the finished sampler.

Stitch Count: 110 x 170
Model stitched on Weeks Dye Works 35ct. Linen-colored linen
Using flosses from The Gentle Art: Dried Thyme, Pomegranate, Blackboard, Endive
And flosses from Weeks Dye Works: Havana, Red Pear, Sand, Teal Frost
Conversion to DMC provided inside.

You may purchase the pattern through my etsy shop, but if you aren't an etsy user, you can contact me directly via email: beth@heartstringsamplery.com

You can also wait and buy from your local needlework shop. My distributors will receive their shipment early next week. If your LNS doesn't carry my designs, ask! I am still so new to the market that there are many out there who don't know about my work, and I am counting on you to help spread the word.

My Great Grandma Ida

Ida Mary Walz was born in 1882 in Chicago, the only child of a short and somewhat mysterious marriage. There are few records from her early life, and she never wanted to speak of it. It is known that she attended school until about the 8th grade, and in 1894 she moved to Washington state with her Grandparents, who apparently were raising her. It isn’t known what happened to her Mother, other than records of a later marriage and children followed by an early death at 53 years of age.

In 1903, at the age of 21, Ida married George Whittaker, an English immigrant. They helped work the farms of two of George’s uncles until 1909, when they were able to buy the 150 acre family homestead (for $6000!).

They had 10 children, the first born in 1904, the last born in 1928; 9 of them survived into adulthood, but one, a little boy named Floyd Jeffry, died when he was just a year and a half old (the following photo is not of Floyd, but of George, her firstborn).

According to the memoir of one of her daughters, “Mother sang beautifully. We would always beg her to sing to us when we were sick or feeling badly. She helped us with our harmony and we’d often sing together around the piano.” And, “If we had a problem we would sit on the woodbox and talk to Mother while she was cooking. Somehow this seemed a good place to bare one’s soul. Many a heartache was soothed in that old kitchen.”

The boy in the middle of the above photo is my Grandpa.

As was the case with most farming families of the time, they were very self-sufficient, raising almost all of their food, even the wheat for flour. There were always large stores of canned, dried, and cured food put away for the Winter, as well as piles of wood for heating the house, and lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs and milk in the Summer months.

Ida died in 1975 at 92 years of age. She was survived by 6 daughters, 3 sons, 20 grandchildren, & 22 great-grandchildren (one of the 22 is me, but sadly, I was too young when she died to remember her, the only one of my Great-Grandmas whose life overlapped mine... and no, that isn't baby-me in the photo, it is my older sister).

My Great Grandma Dagmar

Marie Dagmar Nielsen was born in 1875 in Denmark. Her mother died when she was 11 years old. When she finished her required 7 years of school at the age of 14, she was apprenticed in the delicatessen trade, learning to make sausage and cheese. She later had several housekeeping jobs and helped care for people who were sick.

In 1907, at the age of 32, she met Niels Gregers Nielsen. An excerpt from a letter written to my Grandmother by a cousin tells the story of how they came to meet. “Your father were home in Denmark for christmas 1907. He stayd by his father, and a couple of days he go to visit my parents. And there he said: “I must find a girl, I can take with me to USA” My mother said: “Your uncle have a housekeeper. Her name is Dagmar and she is a handsom girl.” Then your father said: “Well let’s go to take a look at Dagmar” !!! —and shortly they were married!”

A family legend tells the story of their engagement: “During their courtship, Niels & Dagmar walked to visit friends. They crossed an icy lake that was partially thawing. They slipped and Dagmar fell on top of Niels. “Dagmar wouldn’t let me up until I agreed to get married” he never stopped teasing her about that.”

One week after their marriage in February 1908, Niels and Dagmar departed for the USA, where Niels had previously worked for several years. They first lived in Wyoming where there was work for a blacksmith in the coal mines, and Dagmar took in boarders. Three little boys were born to them there, but the first two died in infancy.

In 1913, they moved to Washington State and tried their hand at farming, but Niels much preferred the work of a blacksmith, so Dagmar, who had some experience with animals, would milk 30 cows each day. She said that her arms would ache badly from the chore. As a gesture of appreciation, after delivering the milk to town one day, Niels brought home 6 flats of peaches, which she then had to can.

Their fourth child, my Grandmother Clara, was born in 1915.

They were somewhat successful on their farm, selling milk for high prices during WWI, and being able to pay off their mortgage. Then, during the Depression, when milk had little value, they sold eggs and chickens as their main source of income.


Dagmar enjoyed photography, knitting, and liked to play cards. She was known for her cooking skills and was a very good seamstress. She was a quiet person with a fun-loving personality, and always enjoyed a good joke.

She died in 1945 at 70 years of age.

What is Wrong with This Picture?

My lilac tree one month ago...

My lilac tree today.

Yuck.

O Happy Day!

I won! I won! I won! I really so rarely every win anything, and can't tell you just how happy I am to win this particular giveaway on Paulette's blog... a $60 gift certificate to csnstores.com. I had never heard of CSN before, so was curious, and spent some time looking around. I would compare them with a company like amazon.com for their variety (although they don't seem to have as much to offer), and the prices seemed to be very competitive. Want to know what I bought?

2 cast iron bread pans, which I can hardly wait to use... a coffee grinder, which has earned top ratings as a spice grinder (which is exactly what I will be using it for- I am so happy to not have to keep scrubbing my coffee grinder out when I need to grind spices, then drinking contaminated coffee the next time, because no matter how hard I scrub it, the spices never seem to wash out well)... and a little saucier that goes with the pot set that I already have, perfect for small batches of sauces, syrups, and glazes. I'll make sure that my three new toys are featured in future blog post recipes!

In other news, I'm really happy with how my new dryer balls are working. I still have static cling issues when drying anything with polyester in it, but I can't say that I'm surprised. Overall, the dry time seems to be slightly shortened, and they have held up well through several dry cycles, including a couple of batches of denim. My favorite part... the low, quiet, steady thump, thump, thump as they go round... I find the sound soothing... is that strange?

And probably your most favorite news of all... I have finished framing the final two samplers in my Birth Sampler series. Here are all four of them propped up together on my mantle.

TA DAAA!
(cue choir music)...