Collage

Collage

Friday, March 30, 2012

Buffalo Birthday!

This week was the hubs birthday, and he wanted to go out for dinner on the night of his birthday, so I hopped over to Restaurant.com to look for a new restaurant to try. I like being able to get cheap certificates from here when trying a new place because if our meal isn't stellar I don't worry about all the money we spent.

I picked out Buffalo Chophouse because I figured it was a guy-friendly place and it looked really nice. I love when I can scope out the menu ahead of time on the website! I'll apologize now, my photos turned out really dark. The restaurant was really neat inside but the lighting wasn't great for photo taking. Since it was a Wednesday night the place wasn't super busy, but I had made reservations anyway. Our waiter was really friendly and they bring you rolls and a small tappas plate while you are looking at the menu.

On that plate are olives, feta cheese blocks, and banana peppers. There was more food there, but we had already started eating at it before I remembered to take a photo! We placed our order and had the perfect amount of time to snack on the food on the table before the hub's soup came. He got a lobster bisque that was pretty good.
The presentation was great. The soup tasted a little sweet to me, but he finished the WHOLE bowl! 

Our entres came just moments after the hubs finished his soup. I ordered a half portion of lamb chops because I LOVE lamb, and its one of those things I never make at home. This photo turned out especially dark, sorry!
Hubs got a Delmonico steak, which he said was decent, but what really made it for him was the sauteed mushrooms I ordered as our side. Their sides come a la carte and family style, and I knew that was one side dish that he would really like. He ate almost the entire dish by himself! The mushrooms apparently made the steak :)

Since we were celebrating we decided to get coffee and dessert also. I got the Profiterole, which I had never heard of before and actually asked the waiter what it was. It is a pastry filled with vanilla gelato and strawberry sauce. YUM!
This one is dark AND blurry. Photo fail!

Anyway, we had a lovely evening, and if you're ever in the Buffalo area I suggest trying this place out!





Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Mystery Dinner

The hubs and I had a quick but yummy dinner last night. Here's a clue as to what it was:


Doesn't look like much, does it? Its actually one of our favorite quick dinners. Its loosely based on fried rice, but I normally refer to it as "refrigerator rice" because any number of leftovers can be thrown in!

Last night we had the usual (rice, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, hot sauce, eggs, ground ginger) minus onions because we were out. In addition to the "usual" we had broccoli, green onion, garlic (I actually had whole cloves instead of just ground) and mushrooms. It was delicious as usual and only takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. If you already have cooked rice its about half that!


Its warm, satisfying, and helps curb that "I need Chinese takeout" feeling you get every once in a while :)

Today is the hub's birthday, and we're going out to a restaurant we haven't been to before. I'm hoping to take photos, so stick around to find out how it was!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Finishing Up

For the first time in a long time at the end of this month I will only have 2 WIPs. Really its only one because the crochet blanket is a long term WIP. Its a nice feeling but its also a little odd. I'm really enjoying the thought of starting and finishing projects in the time I set for them (which is getting more realistic the longer I've been knitting) and buying yarn for specific projects. I know that I will occasionally find the lone skein or skeins of yarn that I buy just because they are pretty, but for the most part I feel much more in control thinking of my stash and my knitting in that way.

All that to say, I have knitting progress! First, some finished objects.
This is the Lacy Baktus scarf, complete with kitty butt for scale. Its about 5.5 feet wide, and I really like it! I have yet to wear it, but I think it will be a nice addition to my wardrobe :) I knit this with Knit Picks Stroll Hand Painted yarn in the Make Believe colorway and size 3 needles. I was surprised at how SOFT this yarn is! Stroll has definitely become my go-to solid color yarn for socks! I may even try out more of the hand painted colors.

I also finished this pink hat:
I'm pretty sure that this will end up in my Etsy shop at some point. Don't get me wrong, the pattern (the Robin's Egg Blue hat) is really cute and I may make another, but this yarn is SO not my color. I'm not a big pink person anyway, and this is bright, bubblegum pink. I used Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Chunky in the Dried Rose color with size 10 needles. The color looked more tan-ish pink than bright pink when I ordered it a while ago. Lesson learned, and hopefully someone will appreciate it!

The last finished object is a preemie hat.
After finishing my Lacy Baktus I had a small little ball of yarn left, and I thought it might be enough for a preemie hat. A lot of the video podcasts I am currently catching up on have mentioned making these and donating them, so it seemed like the perfect thing to do with my leftover yarn. I knit it on size 3s since A) they were what I had with me after finishing my scarf and B) I knit tightly, so it turned out only slightly bigger than the pattern called for. Its SO tiny, and I hope to make more and send it off to a hospital where they can use them. I used the Preemie Baby Beanie Pattern, and I will definitely be using it again. So cute!

Here's a progress pic on the second Christmas stocking:
I know its sideways, its just how I uploaded it, and I didn't want to go back and change it :) I'm making good progress. My goal is to finish the actual knitting by Thursday so I have 2 days to do the duplicate stitch and block them. Maybe I should go ahead and block the other one now! Anyway, this is the New Ancestral Christmas Stocking from the Mason Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines book. I'm using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes since it was cheap :)

I've also got some spinning in progress that I'm hoping to finish by the end of the month. Here's a photo:
This is the new spindle that my husband made me. Its not perfect, but its lots lighter than the one I learned on, and I'm enjoying how much easier it is to spin thinner! This is a Teal Corriedale that I got from Curly C'ewes shop on Etsy. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of the month, but we'll see!

The other work in progress is a secret project that I might be able to blog about tomorrow. Teaser!


Monday, March 26, 2012

Dinner Inspiration

I owe you tons and tons of posts (especially with knitting progress) but the problem is everything I'm working on is big, involved, and will all be done right around the same time. I do have one small object I finished, so I'm going to try and photograph everything later today so you can see where I'm at. In the meantime I'm going to share two of the blogs I subscribe to. I love these gals and their ideas, and I think you will too!

The first one is Iowa Girl Eats. Kristin is super sweet and has great ideas for mostly healthy food. I really like that she cooks for only herself and her husband, because I feel like most recipes are written with a family in mind. Even though you can halve them or just eat them for leftovers, its nice to have things tailored to only two people :) I've bee following her for a while, and so far I've tried her Buffalo Chicken BLAT Wraps and they were really yummy! I have lots more of her ideas waiting for my next shopping trip. In fact, her Mushroom Cap Pizzas are on the menu for a certain person's birthday party this weekend! Kristin's meal ideas are great, and I like how they are really customize-able. You should really check her out!

The other food blog I recently started following is Sweet Tooth Sweet Life. Courtney has some good healthy meal ideas and also some work out/ training posts. She has in her profile that she just became certified as a Personal Trainer, so I think her exercise posts would be really helpful! I haven't had too much time to browse back posts, but I'll definitely be looking forward to future ones :)

I'm hoping to make food and cooking a bigger part of my blog because I feel like the knitting sometimes takes over, and I haven't been reading or watching movies as much. Heck, I'm looking just to blog more often! March kind of got away from me- we have a couple family celebrations this month and the weather was GORGEOUS for all of last week, so its hard to believe that its already the last week of March! Hope you were able to find something yummy to try for dinner this week :)

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Poor poor blog

Let me catch you up on what has been going on!

I got this from a friend in the mail:
Its Wollmeise 100% and its amazing. I can't wait to figure out what I'm going to knit with it!

I also ordered this from another friend's Etsy store.
Its simply beautiful- the photo doesn't do it justice! You can get your own (or any of her other awesome colorways) here. The Dawn-touched Falkland is really calling to me!

I finished a detention project:
Its a baby bunny that I made for my cousins son. The hubs and I went to go see him today and he is SO cute! We had a gerat time holding him and playing with him.

I'm working away on Danny's vest- I have one side seam to do and then all I have to do is weave in my ends! I'm also working away on my OWL stocking, the Phoenix shawl, and a mini sock. My poor self-designed shawl is on a back burner for at least a little while longer until I get more of these things finished up!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Agenda

I have an agenda for March, and its a little crazy, but I think I can do it. First up, I have some sewing I'm finishing. That's right, I said sewing, Did you know I could sew? Well, I can't. Not very well anyway. But a friend needed some simple curtains for his closets, so I obliged. They're all cut out, and one is mostly sewn, so hopefully I'll have them finished in a few days.

Next up I have some projects that need finishing, namely Danny's teaching vest and the Baby Bunny. They NEED to be done in the next two weeks, the sooner the better! I also need to finish the second Christmas stocking and my Lacy Baktus scarf. The scarf is more than half done, the stocking was just started last night :)

Last but not least, I have a few new projects I'm hoping to cast on and finish this month: some baby socks, a hat, a sweatband (requested item!), a shawl, and maybe some earbud covers.

Like I said, a little crazy, but I have some good knitting stretches coming up, and as long as I can balance them with house cleaning we'll be all set!