Chicken Makhani

I just wanted to make a quick post to say that *everyone* needs to try this Slow-Cooker Chicken Makhani recipe! It's amaaaazing. We had it for dinner last night over brown rice.

I did do a few things differently. I started with all the wet ingredients in the crock pot, and added about half a cup heavy cream. Then I added all the spices in the wet ingredients so I could just mix the chicken in.

I also added a *lot* more garam marsala, cayenne, and curry powder. I didn't have any cardamom though, so I added a tsp cinnamon....and added in about a tsp salt.

It was so good already, that I just skipped adding the yogurt (even though I bought yogurt especially for it!) It was super flavorful and creamy, and was definitely not meant to be a healthy meal! But brown rice is healthy, right?

So glad we have left overs :)

I'm also going to do a test run on some truffles for the baby shower, and hopefully finish up my shrug pattern today.

My Etsy Purchases

I've mainly bought crochet patterns on Etsy, but I have a soft spot for earrings...and here are a few that I have bought :)

These are the first things I ever bought on Etsy, waaay back in 2006! They are just cute little starfish beads and pearls...but they are adorable. I dont think the seller is active anymore, but they are made by EclecticaFinch.



Here are two pairs I just received from Beaded Iris. I LOVE all her jewelry, I'd buy it all if I could! My favorite out of the two pairs are probably the one's with the palm fans and tiny bell flowers.



I've only participated in one Etsy Sneak Attack but here are the earrings I received. They are nice and casual and can go with anything :) They are made by Sandra and Dan.



These aren't earrings, but I desperately needed some stitch markers! So I went on a hunt to find super cute clay ones....and I found Kishcrafts! Now I don't have to use a safety pin as a stitch marker, it always ended up catching on my yarn.



I've also finished all 40 clay peapods for the baby shower, all they need are magnets on the back now. I'm also working on a new shrug pattern which should be done in the next few days! :)

Cupcake Beanie

I finally finished my cupcake beanie pattern! It took a little longer then I thought it would since it's crochet from the bottom up. Now that I've made one...it will be a breeze to make more. I want to make a blue one with a dark brown bottom...I think that would look cool. I wonder if Craig would let me put it on the baby haha. It's blue, that's a boy color :P





I was supposed to go to the store earlier to get the ingredients for truffles, but I spent way to long finishing this oops. I still have time, but I really wanted to start them earlier since you have to let them refrigerate for a few hours before you finish. I better be off then! :)

Crochet Valentine's and baby shower planning!

I play World of Warcraft. It's not a dirty little secret, I tell people honestly how I met Craig when they ask. I do sometimes get raised brows....but I don't care. I have fun, and it's cheap :)

Even when I play World of Warcraft I craft though, and it drives Craig insane haha. I made these this weekend when we were raiding.

This is not normally my style of crochet, but I saw the pattern in this issue (Jan/Feb '09) of Crochet Today and I fell in love. They are perfect to use as coasters, or to attach to cards as Valentine's. The only crochet thread I had on hand was a lot smaller then what the pattern wanted, but that's ok...it just means smaller coasters :) I made half of them with the edging, and half without; and I think I like it without better...you can see the hearts more. These were also super fast to crochet, maybe 20 minutes each? It was kind of hard to get a shot of the lacy detail, but I tried!



Here is a close up of one of the red ones:



The other day I went to Michaels in search of a flower arrangement for my baby shower. I'm looking to do something like this...but with sunflowers instead.



So I bought a fishbowl shaped vase (it was like $20 cheaper then the square...wtf?) and some of those green marbles in the floral section. The hardest part was the find the sunflowers! They had some, but they are giant....like I'm going to have to cut off 6 inches to a foot of stem off. They will work, but I was really looking for smaller bushels of sunflowers, so I could also put 1 in singular vases for other tables. I have until February 21st, so today I'm going to check out a local craft store to see what they have.

My plan is to also make 2 different types of truffles as favors. I cant decide which ones, but I do have recipe's for strawberry shortcake truffles and green tea truffles. I'm not 100% on the green tea truffles though because not everyone likes green tea....but my shower is peapod themed and I though they looked like little peas :) I could also do coconut lime truffles which look delicious AND green! I'll probably make a batch of each to try them out, then bring the rest to my parents house so I don't eat them all haha.

This site has boxes that hold 2 truffles for $0.54 each. Which is a great deal...but it was $18 shipping to ship 40 boxes and 1 package of candy cups to hold the truffles. $18!? Really!? They cannot be that heavy. So today I am going to check out a couple of places to see if it's any cheaper, or if it about equals the same between retail or shipping. They don't have green boxes, but they have Tiffany blue boxes which I think would look neat with either lime green or brown ribbons. I'm pretty sure that craft store I'm going to had boxes....and ahhh I just thought of something, Michaels just had a 20% off your entire purchase coupon, it probably would of been best to just buy a bunch of boxes there :( Oh well.

I was also thinking of crocheting little peapod magnets to go along with the favors, but I think I'll need about 40 (I'll have to check), so I'm not sure I want to crochet that much lol. I'll probably make 1 to see how long it takes though.

Pink Ninja Turtle Beanie

I just wanted to share a custom ordered Ninja Turtle beanie...a pink one! I really love the green and pink color combination, it reminds me of a watermelon. She needed it shipped ASAP since it was for a birthday present, so I only took a really quick picture....but I swear everything is nice and even on both sides :) I should of taken a picture of it on a balloon so you can see what it looks like on, but ahhh timing.



Tonight for dinner is pulled pork, I hope it turns out ok! I cannot imagine how these ingredients taste together, but we'll see....if it's gross we could always grill up some burgers haha.

Tea Embroidery and Strawberry Banana Muffins

Here is the tea embroidery that I mentioned on Twitter yesterday. I realize this is not a very good picture, but it took me forever to put in the frame last night....so I wasn't about to take it out and do it again :)

I just drew a mini version of my crochet tea set, and embroidered "Tea is Serenity" under it. I used all six strands of embroidery floss to try and make a nice thick outline, but I didn't realize that it doesn't work like that if you have a small image! Ah well, I know for next time :)



I also made some yummy strawberry banana muffins from The Crepes of Wrath! You have to try them, they are super easy and delicious. I think I slightly undercooked mine, but they still are fine.



I need to go run some errands, but when I get back I'm going to start on a cupcake beanie pattern for toddlers!

Oh! I forgot to post about these Blueberry Peach Sour Cream Muffins from Coconut&Lime. The recipe doesn't call for peaches, but I had some frozen ones that I thought would be good. I really liked these, the sour cream keeps them from being to sweet and the peaches were nice and soft. The batter is SUPER thick though, I thought for sure I did something wrong, but nope! They came out perfect.



I don't know why I make muffins every week, Craig might have one of them....then it's just me having one for breakfast. I need to start bringing stuff to my brother or something.

Please bare with me while I change layouts for Valentines Day :)

Edit:

After I spent all the time creating a layout, I find this one from thecutestblogontheblock.com that I like better. Ah well!

Shaman beer cozy and Etsy avatar

Today is Craig's 34th birthday! We aren't doing anything special yet....just in case he doesn't have a job come Saturday.

But of course I still had to make him something :) It's a beer/glass cozy of a Shaman (his World of Warcraft character) symbol. I wanted it to look a little rough around the edges...to help it look a little more masculine. Of course after uploaded this picture I see stray fuzzies haha.

I also have been working on a new avatar for my Etsy site, and so far I have this one....which I'm not entirely happy with. I tried shrinking down some of my ami's to place on it...but you have to shrink them down so low that you cant really tell what they are. I think I am either going to lighten the background, or just make a whole new one.



I'm also trying to work on a Valentine's theme for my blog...but making backgrounds has never been my strong point. I'll keep working on it though!

Teapot and Saucer

The ultrasound on Wednesday went great, they checked everything (for about an hour!) and the doctor came in and rechecked everything real quick, and said everything looked great! Yay!

I also finished a new pattern...a little teapot and saucer! I should of straightened the trim out more on the teapot before I took the picture though. Oops.

This is just a quick post because I have to run....but I couldn't wait to share it! :D