Our Valley of Happiness

I am one of those people who are extremely lucky to have the love of their life with them. I always look forward to his birthday, the best husband ever deserves the best birthday he possibly can get! This is the time of the year i invest most of my time and thoughts on how to make it special. This year I am giving him a crocheted scarf with some simple monogram and baking an Opera cake.Super excited! The cake of the day was one of my favorites, Opera cake . Though its such a time consuming one i think its all worth it. I love the different layers of colors an textures with spongy almond cake. Needless to say it was a super hit with my hubby ;) For the scarf I started with a chain of 340, its 70+ inches.The basic pattern i followed is from here . I modified the pattern to add new colors and to make it symmetric. I love the chain spaces stitches and the x stitches and the texture it creates. Even before i completed the scarf i was so in love with the textures i was getting:D ...

This year My sweetheart received a handmade card. The card had an opening at the front which will display a photo, and once you open the card, the photo is replaced by a second photo. Inside of the card: The cake for the year was black forest.

This was one of the best birthday i could ever do i believe. I started planning for this months back and was so excited the days before his birthday. I planned a grand treasure hunt with 12 gifts(since 12th is his birthday) and added clues. The grand prize was the lemon curd cake i baked and he had an amazing time :D One of the sample clues😀 the answer is supposed to be - Television The wine was homemade and i picked a custom label. We are planning to open the bottle on our 10th year anniversary <3 Some of the goods which he found ;)

This year i had been so busy cooking tons of food for his birthday. I got personalized M&Ms and a watch as a gift. M&M got one of his favorite photos on them ;) And the delicacies: All these were sides of rice.

This year my man's birthday was a food fest :D Appetizer: Parippuvada Appetizer : Achappam  Chicken Biriyani Gravy Fried chicken And dessert:

Birthday gift for hubby, knitted hat and a shawl, with crocheted heart. This was my first time using a loom for knitting. For a basic shawl and a hat, this seemed not bad! The cake was Black forest cake- Thanks to joyofbaking.com. It came out so well! I waited until 12 AM pretending to be busy and when the clock struck 12, got him to the living room to this: