Taken Over by Yarn

February 23, 2012 nk330Leave a comment

Well, I have been neglecting my blog lately… sorry, guys! Most of you know that I have been a crocheting machine for the past month or so! What started off as a few harmless baby hats has turned into a mini-business for me. I didn’t see that coming at all!

This can all be blamed on my sister, Kelsi, by the way. She wanted a few hats for baby Braxton (he should be here in just a few weeks now!), and I was pleasantly surprised by how quick and easy they were to make. So I thought I’d see if any of the local military families (I think of it as the Tri-Base Area, haha) would be interested too. Well, they were! I suddenly found myself scrambling to think of prices and get some photos up on Facebook. I haven’t had a day without an order to fill since. No complaints here… I’m making some money by doing one of my favorite hobbies, while sitting in my pajamas watching movies. Yeah, the chore board has been a bit neglected… oops. Good thing we don’t have pets or kids to make a real mess of the house!

But the house has been taken over. By yarn.

I usually manage to corral all of the yarn in bags and baskets. Sometimes I even bring some of it upstairs to the craft room. Although, when I do, I end up needing a color I just brought upstairs, so it all ends up back in the living room. I find scraps of yarn on the floor (which are now being collected in an empty Wheat Thins box), yarn fuzz on all of my clothes (sometimes I remember to use the lint roller before I leave the house…sometimes), and finished projects lining the back of the sectional. Man, I must have a very tolerant husband. 🙂 He DOES get to use all the throw pillows now, since I rest my arms on skeins of yarn.

I’m up to 22 completed items now, not including the ones I made for Kelsi. I can’t wait to see those little hats on my nephew-on-the-way! Here are a few of my other customers though:

little puppy hat — Just in time for our snow day!

blue puppy — A windy day -- the ears were flapping in the wind!

Want to see more? Find me on Facebook at NK Crochet! 🙂

Chicken & Cheese Quesadilla Pie

February 12, 2012 nk330Leave a comment

Looking for something with a little spice to it? This recipe has just enough bite to it, but it’s creamy and cheesy to balance it out!

Serves: 4

1 large flour tortilla (my pie plate is really deep, so I overlap 2 tortillas)
3 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 c. finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 c. drained jarred pickled jalapenos, chopped
2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt & pepper
2 large eggs
1 c. whole milk
1 c. flour
1 t. baking powder

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and hat oven to 450F/220C. Grease a 9″ pie plate. Press tortilla into prepared pie plate and spray lightly with cooking spray. Toss chicken, cilantro, jalapenos, 1 cup of cheese, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper in a large bowl until combined.
2. Spread filling over tortilla. Whisk eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a bowl until smooth. Slowly pour over filling, then sprinkle with remaining cheese.
3. Bake until surface is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve. Serve with sour cream and salsa, if desired.

Daily living

First Day of “Winter”

February 7, 2012February 7, 2012 nk330Leave a comment

We have had a very mild winter here in our area of England. We got the occasional flurry of snow (once or twice), and we even got a dusting on our patio one morning!

Once in awhile there was a prediction of snow flurries, but if we got them during the night, they were gone by morning. They were getting snow back home (Wisconsin), and I was very jealous! Andrew is not a fan of snow. Snow = cold. And slippery roads. But I adore snow. When there’s no snow, winter just seems depressing. A nice blanket of white snow everywhere makes winter pretty. Plus I love bundling up in scarves and gloves!

Well, it finally happened. After a snow-less January, we got a prediction for snow again this past weekend (first weekend in February). I was skeptical. Then I looked at a more extensive weather forecast for our area, and saw that 13 cm was predicted. I looked it up…that’s about 5 inches. I was practically jumping for joy!

We were dog-sitting for friends of ours that weekend, so I actually did have a reason to look outside every few hours. We were getting very light flurries by 7pm, and then when I took the dog out again around 10pm we had this:

When we went to bed, we had about 3-1/2 inches! I only knew this because we had a measuring tape in the utility room right next to the back door. 🙂 Very handy when you traipse out in the snow in your pajamas to measure snowfall! Takoda, the dog we were watching, likes to go outside and then have breakfast around 6am, and by then the snow was done falling. But we had a whopping 5 inches covering the ground!

It was perfect snowman-making snow: wet and packable! No, I didn’t go out and make a snowman, but I did make a few snowballs (with my bare hands, brr!) to toss to Takoda (she wasn’t interested). And our yard looked absolutely beautiful with snow!

Since it was a Sunday, it was a pretty lazy day for us. We were hoping to have friends over for dinner, but the roads weren’t well plowed, especially by us out in the country. They didn’t get our road plowed until Monday afternoon! I did a lot of crocheting, Andrew did computer research online (he desperately wants to improve my old desktop from 2003…), and Takoda snoozed between coming by us for attention.

By now, a lot of our snow has melted, but I’m really hopeful for another snowfall or two before spring. At least I finally got my first day of “winter” weather in England!