Blue Swirl

A friend called last week to ask if I'd do a painting for her new office! I was thrilled, as I've had an itch to paint lately but don't have room for another painting in our apartment. Here is what I came up with:

Pure Deliciousness

I came across a recipe for Red Velvet Cake Balls and just HAD to try them out!

They were pure awesomeness! It was like eating a glorified Zebra Cake.

Here's the step by step to making these little balls of yumminess:

First, you will need:

-Red Velvet cake mix (unless you want the challange of making the cake from scratch)

-16 oz whipped cream cheese frosting

-almond bark (white or chocolate, your choice)

1. Bake a red velvet cake like normal and let it cool

2. Once the cake is cooled, crumble it in to a large bowl and add 16oz whipped cream cheese frosting - mix it all up

3. Roll the cake in to small balls. I used my hands because I don't have a cookie scoop, but a scoop would work great as well.

4. Chill the balls: I put mine is the freezer for a little over an hour.

5. Melt the almond bark and dip the balls in to the almond bark. I found it easiest to use a toothpick to hold on to the ball while dipping it.

Final Product:

ENJOY! :)

Tis the Season

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! This year has somehow gone incredibly fast, yet seems like it lasted forever, at the same time! Before we left for SD for Thanksgiving, we put up the few Christmas decorations we have! I also had some time to wrap the first round of gifts last night. I'm pretty proud of myself, as my Christmas shopping is almost complete!

Here is our cute little tree - that fits perfectly in the corner. It's a little crooked and missing a tree topper - but it doesn't fail to put me in the Christmas Spirit!

Our entire apartment has white walls and white carpet. Since Dan and I tend to move a lot - I decided not to decorate our place this time around. I'm ok with this place not feeling like home, but during the Holidays, I needed a *little* something to spruce it up! The dinning room table was the lucky winner that got a decorating "make-over".

Christmas will be here in a few short weeks. Happy Holidays!

Martha Stewart

I am super excited about this! A design I did, while working at Spark Stationery in Sioux Falls, has been published in the Martha Stewart magazine! It's just a small photo - but knowing it's mine makes me excited!

photo credit of Spark Stationery

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?!

I can't believe Halloween has come and gone already, it means 2009 is winding down - where has time gone?! For work on Friday I dressed up as Carmen Sandiego...Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?!?!

At this age, it seems most people's form of entertainment involves drinking or a bar scene - which is fun in most cases, but sometimes it's great to have good ole fashion sober fun! On Friday night, we did just that. We went to Valley Scare and had a blast! It was almost cinematic being outside in the cold and rainy weather, late at night and going on rides. The first ride we went on was the scrambler and I don't think we've giggled that hard in a long time. I've forgotten how fun rides can be! It was rainy and cold, but our many layers kept us warm.

I am terrified of rollercoasters, but I bundled up my fears and went on not one, but TWO rollercoasters that night. I screamed and grabbed Dan's arm so incredibly tight that I'm surprised it's still attached to his body - but I overcame my fear of rollercoaster. Well, kind of :)

Along with all the rides, they had about five haunted houses that all had differenet unique themes! The evening was fun, but by the end we couldn't wait to be warm again!

Saturday's events involved dressing up at a mobster and heading to the Subsidies last show as a cover band. It proved to be another fun night!

Retail Therapy

Findlaw doesn't seem to be following the trend of business being down this year. In fact, we're insanely busy at work! We're busy enough that for a month, they offered to pay us for working Saturdays. Along with these extra hours, came extra work and heightened goals. And with all of that, we have some fun incentive ($$$) drawings going on if we meet our goals. Five weeks passed and I had no such luck winning any of the drawings (there are 3 each week). Then, in the 6th week, I FINALLY WON! Not only did I win, but I won the drawing worth the most!

Extra cash is certainly nice right now, aferall, we are a one income household for the time being. But, the great thing about our incentive money is that it only comes in a gift card. This means this extra money could not be spent on bills....darn, huh?! After tossing around ideas of where to get my gift card to, I decided on Target. All households always need to take trips to Target, so I figured this would be the smartest way to go! Then I had the internal debate of using the card to purchase household items, groceries and other not very fun to buy things OR spoiling myself a little bit. With a little encouragement from a good friend and the ok from my husband - I compromised on a little of both and boy am I happy I did! It's always fun to walk in the door, bags in hand, after making FUN purchases!

Here's what I got: a dark teal wrap dress, a funky thick black belt, tights (never thought i'd buy those!), a cute graphic t-shirt, a vest (that Dan refers to as a cape) and a simple aqua long sleeve t-shirt. (.....and some groceries, but a list of those isn't exciting). And my checkbook is still smiling because it was all "free" to me! :)

A weekend to relax....finally

Dan and I finally have a weekend with no major plans, except for some relaxation! Since we've moved to MN, we've been busy busy busy.

Last weekend we traveled back to Mitchell for our good friends Matt & Lacey's wedding! It was a BLAST! I was especially honored to be a part of their big day. They looked overly happy! It was so great to be back and to see them, as they live in Chicago and don't get to visit very often. Cheers to Matt & Lacey and many years of love, laughter and happiness! :)

Happenings Lately

I'm already falling behind in my blogging :) Since we've moved to MN, we've stayed pretty busy! Over Labor Day weekend Anne came to visit - we made last minute plans and ended up having an extremely fun filled weekend! Here's a snapshot while we were over at Randy's playing some yard games and grilling.

We also attended Dan's cousins wedding that same weekend. It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding and they had perfect weather for their big day.

Prior to Labor Day weekend, our weekend was filled with a trip to the MN State Fair to see the Kid Rock & Lynard Skynard concert.

Other than that, life in MN isn't much different. Work is going well for me (as I assumed it would since I've worked here before) and Dan is still hunting for a job.

We've moved!

We are back in MN. After a short 10 months in SD, we've just decided MN is a better fit for this Hall duo. I've started work back at Thomson, some things have changed but it almost feels as if I never left. In a matter of 4 days we managed to find someone to sublease our townhouse in Sioux Falls, find a place in Burnsville, load up a moving truck, drive from SD to MN, unload the moving truck and nearly complete unpacking. Needless to say, we're exhausted! Hopefully we'll manage to get the last few boxes unpacked in the next few days and get to the grocery store! Unless you consider ranch dressing and ketchup a meal, we're in desperate need of goodies to line the fridge shelves with!

We decided before our move to MN to forego anything fancy, in hopes of saving up a nice lump of cash so we can buy our first home in the next year! So we've moved into a cozy little 1 bedroom + den apartment in Burnsville (pictures coming later).


We'll be settled in in no time! The last task on our big "to-do" list is to find Dan a job that he'll enjoy. He's been hard at work sending out his resume and attending interviews, so we're confident it'll all work out soon!

Let the packing begin!

Yesterday my mom came to town and we started the packing!  We got the whole kitchen packed, along with a closet and some other odds and ends.  This move has to have a little more strategy than those of the past, because we'll only be unpacking certain things.  The great thing about moving is sorting through everything and throwing out or donating the clutter and unused things we own.  We're crossing our fingers that one of the interested parties follows through and sub-leases from us.  That's another challenge, as we pack, we are trying to keep things tidy for the people taking a peek at our place.  It's going to be a busy week, filled with "what-ifs", but I pray every night it will all work out!

New Painting

My good friends bought their first house back in November and shortly after gave me 3 canvases to work some magic on.  Those 3 canvases sat, with a can of paint, in my hallway for months on end.  I FINALLY got the painting finished - not sure I'd call it magic, but I like the way it turned out.  I had a few panic attacks along the way, but the beauty of paint is that you can just paint over your mistakes.  Here's the finished product:

I envision it in their dining room, sitting on a floating black shelf with some vases or candlesticks along side!

Date Day

With all our pending excitement about to happen in the next few weeks, Dan and I needed a day to relax and not think about finding Dan a job, who's going to rent our place in SF, where we will live in MN, when we will move, how we will go about the move and all the other minor details. Our house really needed to be cleaned as well, but instead we had a fun filled Date Day to relax ourselves!  First we started with a delicious breakfast: strawberry smoothies and blueberry muffins! 

After breakfast, we went out for a bike ride around the neighborhood.  But first we stopped to do our "sexiest" pose on our bikes (:

And there is always time to stop and pick a pretty flower!

Then it was off to the golf course!  For our birthdays we got a golf punch card from my parents, but with a dwindling summer and what seems to be crazy busy weekends, we haven't had a chance to get much golfing in. Much to our surprise, we both played fairly well!  I got my first ever par 5 and Dan got 2 birdies! 

It was hot!  But we certainly didn't complain because the warm weather seems to be sparse this summer!  After golf

 we came home to have a fun little "candle light" dinner...Dan's favorite, French Dip!

And to finish off our date day, we took a little road trip to the Drive-in.  The Sturgis Rally is going on right now, so we saw a fair share of motorcycles,

 this guy was my favorite. 

It was a crowded night at the drive-in but we managed to find a good spot and enjoy 2 movies: The Proposal and Hangover.  The best part was that it only cost us $5 a person to get in and enjoy both shows!

We got home about 1:45 in the morning, but it was a day well spent!  Exciting times in life generally cause a little stress and being stressed is never easy, but it's always great to be able to forget about life's stresses for one day and just enjoy the company of your best friend!