Heather's Handmade Life

40 days + 40 nights

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Heather Laura Clarke

1 Comment

I’m giving up chips — of all types — for Lent this year, guys.

It’s going to be hard! They’re my No. 1 vice!

Any suggestions for what I can snack on at night, to keep my mind off of them?

I know what you’re doing this weekend …

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Heather Laura Clarke

2 Comments

It’s no secret that I have a breadmaker — I heart convenience — and that while I use it all the time, I never, ever use it to make bread — helloooooo Pizza Friday!

I made bread in it exactly one time, and I wasn’t impressed. It makes an oddly-shaped load that is a bitch to slice, and doesn’t fit properly in a toaster. (I have this Black and Decker one, in case you’re in the market for one)

But I do use it for lots of other things! Pizza dough (almost weekly), breadstick dough, cinnamon bun dough, dough for rolls, dough for hamburger buns.

Hi, my name is Heather, and I am a carbohydrate addict — with the behind to prove it!

So even though I really do like my un-bread-breadmaker, I never had homemade bread in the house. Until! I opened my Bloglovin one day and read a post by Living on Love (Hi, Lacy!) about an amazing bread recipe.

I’d never tried making “real” homemade bread before, because of the OMG THE KNEADING, and the WHO HAS TIME FOR ALL THAT KNEADING drama.

But Lacy promised that this recipe doesn’t require any kneading at all, and …

… the best part? …

… it only uses FOUR INGREDIENTS.

Seriously! I will make you go see Lacy’s blog for the recipe itself — because caring, sharing, ectetera — but I will give you a spoiler and tell you what the four ingredients are. I know they are things that you have in your cupboard/fridge, so you’ll be intrigued enough to go get the recipe …

Ready? …

Flour
Water
Yeast
Salt

I’m serious! That’s it. Lacy’s recipe actually says “kosher salt” — at which my face looked puzzled, because I am not a kitchen-y person who has anything other than regular table salt and sea salt (for cupcakes). So I have used sea salt instead of kosher salt, and it works great.

Anyone want to fill me in on what kosher salt it? Regular salt? No idea.

The reason why you don’t knead this dough — other than PURE MAGIC of course — is that you mix all four of the ingredients together, cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap, and leave it on your counter for 12-24 hours. That’s it.

Then you dump it on the counter, flour it up, shape it into a ball(ish) lump, and pop it into one of those expensive ceramic oven pots (I used my Deep Covered Baker from Pampered Chef).

When the bread comes out of the oven, it is an amazing ball (AMAZEBALL) of crusty, delicious bread. It’s sort of a dense bread, but soooo soft at the same time. Plus, your house gets that homey, superior smell of freshly-baked bread, and you feel very Laura Ingalls-y — a feeling I aspire to as often as possible.

So this weekend! This recipe! Do it! You won’t regret it.

Your skinny jeans, however, WILL REGRET IT).

xoxo

Instagram love for my first-ever loaf of no-knead bread

Reader giveaway (NOW CLOSED) Vicks Starry Night Cool Moisture Humidifier / Braun ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Heather Laura Clarke

10 Comments

Who has kids?

*pretty much every single reader raises their hands*

Who has kids who are sick ALL THE TIME because of day-care/preschool/elementary school germies?

*Aforementioned parents heave both exhausted arms in the air*

Guys, this is a goodie. I’ve teamed up with Vicks and Braun to offer a super-useful giveway, because TRUST ME — I know how this whole winter/sickness thing goes. (This is Canada, amiright?)

In the interest of figuring out how to combat this never-ending parade of sickness (*cough* I blame preschool), I got to try out the Vicks Starry Night Cool Moisture Humidifier and the Braun ThermoScan Ear Thermometer.

Let’s star with the thermometer …

We had an inexpensive ear thermometer back when D was a tiny baby — I won’t say the brand, but it rhymes with Fray-co — and I was really disappointed with it. It stopped working after a year, and when I finally tracked down the itty-bitty replacement batteries, it didn’t help.

So we moved on to a “regular” thermometer, and bought the Vicks Age Smart Thermometer (coincidently, one of the products I was offered to review, but I already had it). I’ve been really happy with it. It changes colours — which the kids love — and lets you choose between babies, toddlers, or older children to get an accurate reading.

The only downside was that both D and C (age 3 and 1) usually REFUSED to put it in their mouth, so I was stuck wrestling them for an armpit reading.

Fevers are one of those parenting situations where I get kind of antsy, because the idea of a febrile seizure scares the whatnot out of me. According to a Canadian health survey, I’m not alone — 64% of parents are scared by their child’s fever, and 70% call a health advice line (like 811 here in Nova Scotia).

D and C never have a problem getting their temperature taken by ear at the doctor’s, so when I got the chance to try another ear thermometer — the Braun ThermoScan — I was excited. No more wrestling feverish kids!? Really?!?

Of course, luck would have it that the kids weren’t actually feverish during my “test time” — which is good news, really? — but we tried it out anyway. It comes with a package of those cool disposable covers (that look like clear witches’ hats, if you ask D) so it really feels like you’re at the doctor’s office.

I popped on a cover, showed it to the kids, and they had no problem with me checking their temperatures. They actually started fighting over who got to be next. Darling Husband and I tried it, too.

I love the little “docking station” (well, storage case). Is it just me, or does it look like a tiny iron?

Little Miss C sitting quietly to get her temperature checked? Uh, MIRACLE! You just press the button, wait a second or two, and it beeps to let you know it’s all set. I’m so relieved to know I won’t have to battle with them during the next fever.

Now onto the humidifier …

We have the original Vicks Cool Mist machine — we registered for it when I was pregnant with D — and we’ve been happy with it. But we keep it stored on the top shelf of the linen closet, so when the kids are sick, we usually don’t even think to bring it down. Are we terrible parents? Maybe?

So what I love about the Vicks Starry Night Cool Moisture Humidifier is the fact that it’s worth having out ALL the time: because it’s also a light projector. It projects stars and a moon straight up onto the bedroom ceiling, and cycles through different colours in this pretty rainbowy haze.

We tested it out first in C’s room, since I’d already really wanted to get her a projector for her ceiling. I thought maybe it would keep her in her toddler bed, but of course that isn’t going to happen any time soon. I also thought the soothing white noise might be good for her — she already has a sound machine, but LIGHT SLEEPER OMG.

We ran it in her room for two nights, but she didn’t seem too impressed. I was all “Ooooohhhhh, look how pretty!” and she was all “Whatever, Mom. Let’s talk about how you got rid of my climbing apparatus of a crib.”

But D, of course, had been totally enamoured by the projection. So we moved it to his room, and that’s where it’s remained …

It’s got a place of honour on his desk …

I like that you can turn the projector on separately from the humidifier, so you can use it strictly as a projector in between sickness — or keep the moisture on all the time.

The projection doesn’t show up too well during the day, of course, but at night? It’s totally awesome …

D is in love with his new humidifier/projector, and I love that it’s helped with his occasional night-fears about the cleaning products “getting” him (thanks to preschool for the fearful lecture on bleach and Windex).

Now it’s your turn! Fellow Canadians, want to win a Vicks Starry Night Cool Moisture Humidifier, Vicks Age Smart Thermometer, or a Braun ThermoScan Ear Thermometer?

Leave a comment telling me what you do to get through your child’s illnesses — tips, advice, anything — and mention which product you’d like to win.

One winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday (March 5) and have the product of their choice mailed directly to them. (Canadian residents only, as per the rules). You can also pop on over to the Mommy Knows Best sweepstakes for more chances to win products.

Good luck, and stay healthy!

Disclosure: I received product to help facilitate this review, but all opinions expressed are my own.

******************

This giveway is now closed, and a winner has been contacted. Congratulations to “ELYSEES” on winning the Braun ThermoScan Ear Thermometer. Here’s her sick-kid tip:

“Humidifier in the bedroom, oil of oregano on the feet and lots of emergen-c (vitamin). Puffers usually make their rounds here too! 🙂 I’d loooove to win the thermometer. It’s something I always thought would make my life easier!”

*****************

The two-year mirror

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Heather Laura Clarke

My daughter is a marketing genius

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Heather Laura Clarke

1 Comment

In my nearly four (FOUR!?) years of this parenting gig, we have tried a lot of sippy cups. (Oh dear, this is sounding like an infomercial already)

Wait, let me start over.

I got an email a few weeks back from the good people at Tommee Tippee, asking if C would test out one of their new sippy cups: the Explora Truly Spill Proof Straw Cup.

We’d never had a Tommee Tippee before, so I was interested to see what they’d be like. Surely they’d be better than the cheap Take-and-Toss things that are soaking my floors in water and juice every day. SIGN ME UP!

I thought, great! We’ll get a cup in the mail, C will use the cup, I’ll write about the cup, maybe we’ll really like it …

… What I didn’t expect was for C — at 21 months old — to market the hellz out of that cup!

She started off by having a tantrum — get this — because I got mad about her yanking apart her crappy disposable cup and dumping water on the floor (on purpose). She timed this tantrum perfectly, so she was sitting in her chair at the EXACT MOMENT the FedEx guy rang the doorbell.

I can’t make this up. Here’s the proof …

I ripped open the brown box, and saw a two-pack of the Explora cups. I couldn’t believe the timing. The kid is good.

I retrieved C from time-out, discussed the importance of NOT THROWING WATER ALL OVER THE FLOOR BECAUSE YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD, and then told her she had mail! MAIL!

She squealed when I showed her the special cups that were just for her, and I asked if she wanted the white or the purple. “Puh-pull,” she requested. Remind you of anyone?

(I made a tutu for the first time that morning. It was epic)

I gave it a quick wash and filled it with water, and then C trotted off with her cup, happy as a … as a kid with a new puh-pull cup?

It was a lovely moment … tutu and all …

… until she rushed back to me a minute later, mad because she’d shut the top — leaving the straw trapped inside!

The cup was a little stiff from being brand-new, I think, because I had to work it a bit to get it to open up again. I opened it for C, handed it back, and she returned about 20 seconds later having done the same thing again. Oh dear, I thought, what shall I tell the interwebz about our cup?

But you know what? It all worked out within the morning. She figured out that maaaaaybe it wasn’t a good idea to shut her cup every two seconds. And the cup loosened up and figured that maaaaaaybe it was OK to let the crazy one-year-old open and close it. And since then, it’s been a beautiful friendship.

From a mom’s perspective, it’s been a VAST improvement over our cheap regular cups. It doesn’t leak, even if it’s lying on its side and the lid isn’t closed. I watched it tip over on D’s bed during storytime, and it didn’t drip at all.

It’s been four days since C was introduced to her new cups, and she’s in love with them. You can often find her toting them both around, actually. D has sneaked a drink from them here and there — because, let’s face it, glasses are totally boring — and C shrieked indignantly at him.

In the name of true brand ambassadorship — or whatever it is when you review a sippy cup on the internet? — I took a sip from it myself. I was pleasantly surprised by how the water had stayed cold (it’s insulated!) and that’s as far as I got in my observations before C grabbed it back.

Tantrums, shrieking, grabbing. My, this post is making her sound like a peach, isn’t it? Good thing she’s a marketing genius.

xoxo

*** Tommee Tippee provided us with two Explora Truly Spill Proof Straw Cups to review, but all opinions (and grabbing/shrieking issues) are our own. ***