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 ;)

Done at an artbarn by my hubby and me. We had great time making it :)

A pair of smocked pillow!

Pillow done with small level of  smocking and fabric flowers! Pillow done in honey comb pattern.

Skewers painted in silver and gloved together on a mirror. Didn't turn out as i hoped, but still worth the time.

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:

This is one of my absolute favorite! Painted pine cones!

This is done by spiraling the magazine pages and painting on it. Its rolled into circles after.

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: