Sun Halo

Last week we were blessed with 3 days of sun, in-a-row!  Ok, I know that that is normal for all you Eastern Washington folks but over here on the westside it is a rare occurance.  Friday was beautiful, but according to the good ol' weather man we would be experiencing increasing clouds in the evening - bummer!  Anyway, I stopped at Target on my way home and just happened to look up at the sky while walking to my car (random I know).  This is what I saw...

I thought I was losing my mind and with all the hoopla about the end of the world on Saturday, I REALLY thought I was loosing my mind.  I called Adam who was at home and had him go outside and look up to verify that I wasn't seeing things.  He saw the same thing and quickly took pictures before it dissapeared.  Neither of us had ever seen this before so we logged on to komonews.com and discovered this was called a Sun Halo. High clouds made of tiny ice crystals just happened to be in the perfect spot to make a halo around the sun that looked like a circular rainbow.  It was so cool - and who knows when will see it again.  Lets hope the sun decides to come out to play again soon. This rainy, cold weather is for the birds!

Living Room Transformation

I was getting a little sick of our living room decor.  The space hadn't been fully put together since we moved in (over a year ago) and it just looked really unorganized.  Plus, Adam despised the rug.  I wanted to update everything but on a small budget.  With the help of my amazing sister-in-law I made it happen!  I am so happy with how it turned out.  There are still some empty wall and shelf space but I will work on that in time.  So, he are the before pictures:

I knew I wanted a new rug as this one was so old and always wiggled it's way under the couch.  I also thought we needed some curtains and something tall in the back right corner to balance the room.

I was also not happy with the DVD stand as well as the TV stand.  The TV stand has black glass shelves that attract dog hair and dust like nobodies business!  The stand to the right of the TV also looked totally out of place.
 
Here it what it looks like today:

I love it!  We bought the book shelf at Target for about $160 (a little more than I wanted to spend - but it is good quality) and the rug we got from Walmart (I think it is perfect with the spiral statue).  We decided to keep the TV stand mainly because we couldn't find one we liked for a reasonable price.

Here is a close-up of the curtains - giraffe print! Thanks Lindsay for inspiring me!  I found the fabric at JoAnn's and made these panels without using a sewing machine!  They were super fast and easy!  The toughest part was hanging the darn curtain rod - I couldn't hang them as high as a I wanted becuase every time Adam tried to drill into the wall he kept hitting some sort of metal plate.  So frustarting - for both of us!

As for the DVDs, we went through the entire rack of them and decided which ones we never thought we would watch again.  I typed up a 'for sale' list and posted it on the intranet at work, selling them for $5 each.  What a success - we have sold over 30 of them and people keep showing interest.  This allowed us to get rid of the huge DVD stand and make a little money!  I found these wicker baskets at Target that were the perfect size for the TV stand - they hold the DVDs nicely and may even cut back on the dust collection!

Globetrotters

What a fun weekend!  Justin & Grethe came to visit us this weekend and we had a great time!  We love it when they come - never a dull moment! Our weekend consisted of watching the embarrassing Cougar loss, shopping and getting great deals at the outlets, enjoying a fun dinner and then laughing till we cried (ok maybe that was just me) at the Harlem Globetrotters.  The Harlem Globetrotters were in town and I have never seen them so I was super excited!  We ended up getting good tickets and then getting even better seats (sadly, there weren't very many people at the show).  We ended up sitting just right of half court and only four rows up!  Aside from the Nazi usher at Comcast Arena, we had a blast!

 Big G was by far my favorite (see laughing till I cried comment above).

I got 2nd!

I placed 2nd in the Chocolate contest today with my delicious Oreo Truffles!  I love doing this kind of stuff...maybe a bakery is in my future!  I would love to own my own business and make delicous treats for everyone to enjoy - one day....

One year ago today...

Adam popped the question!  Ok, so it was actually on Valentine's Day last year but we decided to celebrate tonight.  I made one of Adam's very favorite meals - bbq ribs.  This was actually what I made last year too but this year we actually got to eat it while it was still hot!  To add a little festiveness to the meal, I stopped at the store on my way home and grabbed some sparkling cider - our favorite!  I also decided to make the mashed potatoes pink!  I have to admit I thought I was pretty creative on this one (too bad they look really un-appetizing in the photo - they were delicious, I promise!). 

The cider wasn't cold when I got it at the store so Adam made a make-shift, yet festive ice bucket!

(And yes, we eat at the coffee table - if you saw our dining room table you'd know why...)

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Chocolate Contest!

Tomorrow at work I will be participating in a Chocolate contest for Valentine's Day!  But, before I show you the details of my festive chocolate goodness I wanted to share some photos of the Cake Balls I made for a co-workers birthday a couple of weeks ago.  Now, this was my first attempt at cake balls and I definitely struggled enjoyed making them!  My co-workers devoured these things - I'm sure they'll be asking me to make them again...if only I could figure out an easier way to dip them in the chocolate.

I had some almond bark that I didn't use for Christmas baking so I dipped some in that and the rest in white chocolate that you can buy at Michael's or JoAnn's.  While the chocolate was still wet I sprinkled them with multi-colored sprinkles to make them a little more festive.  Thanks to LeAnn for the adorable blue and green polka dot cupcake papers! 

Now, on to the the competition.  The rules or the competition are fairly vague.  They state that it has to be a chocolate creation and that there needs to be enough for three judges to sample.  Over Christmas my Aunt made Oreo truffles which are now commonly known as 'crack balls' in our household.  These things are amazing and so easy to make!  I decided these would be perfect for the competition...

Wish me luck!

Sunrise

I am really loving how light it is in the morning on my way to work!  My drive was so beautiful this morning that I couldn't resist taking a picture.  Here is my attempt at taking a picture while driving (probably not the best or safest way to do this but still pretty).