cookin' and craftin'

A crazy thing happened the other day—I went to work! Just a catering job but it was nice to actually make a bit of money again and meet some new people. And I have a few jobs lined up for next week, so things are moving along :)

The past couple days have been full of cooking and crafting. We had an enormous pack of chicken to cook so we decided to split it up and each have a stab at it. Since it was Sunday, and well, Sundays are made for crockpot meals, I made this recipe. Just substituting the whole chicken for the halves that we bought.

spice rubbed and ready to go

It took about 4 ½ or 5 hours to cook but mmmm mm it was worth it. Like a Publix rotisserie chicken. And super simple. Luckily Shawn was working that day so it was allowed to cook long enough. He doesn’t exactly have patience for slow cooking methods. (Which is what led him to proclaim “I’m never cooking Indian food again!” the following night when it was his turn.) But the curried roasted chicken he made with spicy slow simmered chickpeas was well worth the wait.

Meanwhile, the living room and dining area have become enveloped in crafting clutter. I finally dug out the sewing machine to hem a dress and try out an Easter card design similar to this one:

found on pinterest of course

My machine had no love for sewing on paper though, so I had to bust out the trusty needle and thread. Not exactly the neatest stitches (I guess I’m more of a Laura Ingalls than a Mary..) but it got the job done. I also constructed Laina’s birthday card and then Shawn and I had a grand ole time making Laina and Andrew's Easter present. Don’t want to ruin the surprise with pictures of that yet.

And finally, since I had my sewing goodies out, I whipped together this little barrette out of extra buttons I had.

Yes, I do always keep the extra buttons they give you with shirts and pants. No, I have not ever needed them other than maybe once. Maybe. But you know, just in case :)

I also managed to motivate myself to go for a run. My first mile-high run. And wow, it was a doozy. I’m pretty sure I must have stopped about 5 or 6 times to walk during my 3 mile loop. The fact that I haven’t actually run in quite some time wasn’t helping my case either. Never enough oxygen.