There is a First Time for Everything

I am excited to share with you two very fun things that I have tried in the last two weeks.

1. I had Sushi for the first time...unless you count the California roll...This was my first raw sushi experience. I loved it! I always thought I would get the gag reflex as soon as it hit my mouth so I never would try it. As years have passed and I continue to meet more and more people who really like it I decided that next time we went to a Sushi place I was going to try some no matter what. Last weekend Jordan and I went out to a place called Mimosa's. There I ordered the Vegas roll which had salmon, cream cheese and avocado; Jordan ordered the Mimosa roll which had tuna, eel, a few other things and topped with caviar. I ended up liking his more but they were both really good and so fun to eat!


2. This past weekend we went Cross Country Skiing!! It was so much fun! Before this weekend the only snow activity I had ever experienced was tubing. For several years I have wanted to try Cross Country Skiing but it has never worked out. We went with Jordan's parents who have gone 4 times this season and love it; so they showed us the ropes. The whole day was gorgeous, full of sunshine and beautiful views. We can't wait to go again next season.






It's so fun to try new things!

Spring Time Here I Come!

We enjoyed a small glimmer of warmer weather this weekend and it got me thinking of Spring! I am very excited for Springtime. This year I am going to get a few rectangular hanging flower boxes to place on our porch railing. This will be my first outdoor growing attempt so I am very excited. At the present time our porch is completely empty accept for a strand of Christmas lights we still have out. So it will be so fun to have some pretty flowers and plants to look at. Also this weekend I ventured out to Pier 1, a store that I love. For my birthday my husbands family gave me a gift card to this wonderful store and I was very excited to use it. After walking around the entire store not wanting to make a rash decision I stumbled upon a beautiful outdoor chair in a weathered dark teal/green color and then I saw the price tag and got super excited...this chair was normally $100 and is now marked down to $24.99!!! It so happens that it is from last year's collection how awesome is that!! I was a little nervous cause there was only one on the floor but after asking someone they had six in the back!!! Jordan and I have been looking for outdoor chairs for a couple years now, but the ones we actually liked were are always way out of our price range so we have just stuck with our camping chairs. Now we have chairs for our porch that are something we actually find attractive! I'm so glad we never settled :)
Here they are


Also I updated my wall sconce flowers for spring. The past 4 years I have had the same red Gerber daises in my sconces and I was ready for something different. So a few weeks ago I found these beautiful spring green hydrangeas; it's a fresh new look for our dinning room and I love them!

Then while I was grocery shopping I found these beautiful orange baby roses. I love bright baby roses they always brighten my day.


Happy almost Spring to you all. Please let me know if you have any growing tips for my new growing adventure.

Valentines Day Celebration

I love days of celebration! Since Valentines day is just a couple days after my birthday it has become our tradition to stay in because we usually go out for my birthday. I love coming up with a special menu for dinner. This year I decided to crack open a cookbook we received as a wedding gift. It's called the "Newlywed Cookbook", and I found some scrumptious recipes to use. I made Roasted Chicken with Apples and Dried Fruit and then Scalloped Potatoes with Gorgonzola Cheese. It was simply delectable....mmm. We ended the meal with Chocolate Lava Cakes...also quite scrumptious.

We also gave each other sweet gifts
Jordan got me this beautiful Sugar Jar that I had my eye on. It's made with that pretty green opaque glass I love, and on the wrapping he wrote "Because your sweeter than Sugar"...Too cute, Thank you my Love :)


I gave Jordan a drink mixer. Often times for our celebrations we like to make special drinks and up until now we have been using Jordan's travel mug to shake the drinks in. So I found this in the Valentines section at Target and knew it would be the perfect gift. Also it has about 12 different drinks listed around the rim and in the circles below it tells you what goes in for the drink, how cool is that!


So we toasted to our Love with a Sea Breeze drink :)

Snowed in at the Watkins

We have been getting a fair amount of snow which has caused our regular schedules to be put to a halt. Jordan has not been to school since last Thursday! He is becoming stressed as he is seeing the work piling up. Luckily he has been able to study with a classmate a few times. As for me; in the last 3 days have only been able to work 6 hours because of the snow. Today I was told not to come in at all because of the weather. I can't complain the time off has been fun, but today I was feeling especially snowed in... My loving husband gave me the brilliant suggestion to make a list of things I wanted to accomplish today. What an amazing idea...why didn't I think of this? Lucky for me I have Jordan in my life to give me these wonderful ideas. So I did just that. I made my list and have had a great time checking things off. It truly has made me feel super accomplished and not so snowed in :). Jordan and I are not at all prepared for the snow, neither of us even have boots!! Needless to say there has not been much exploring the outdoors as of late. The only time we have gone outside is to un-bury our cars :). This has caused us to feel rather unhealthy and because of another brilliant idea from Jordan, we have been using our kitchen stool to do step ups, running in place, running laps around our apartment, push ups and sit ups it has been pretty funny that is for sure.

I will leave you with a picture of our parking lot. This was taken on Saturday, it has been plowed and then we got more snow last night/today so now it looks similar to this again but not quite as bad
Well back to my list!!

Sweet and Sentimental

When Jordan and I were planning our wedding a few years back we decided to write our own vows. So ever since our wedding back in 2006 I have wanted to do something special with our vows and put them on display somewhere in our home. This past summer I purchased a decorative glass frame and it has been on our dresser ever since we moved here in August with the store bought insert included. I was not wanting to put in a picture because I felt it would take away from the pretty design and then it dawned on me that this was the perfect frame for our vows!!! It had a somewhat small opening so I had to write our vows super small but I think it turned out beautifully!!

Take a look....

Sentimental projects are the best and just in time for Valentines day!

Painting Pottery Again?!?

Yes it's true I went and painted more pottery :)

This time I went with a group of girls, only one of whom I knew. It was a fun evening for sure. Becki, who works with me, invited me to a girls night which is called G.N.O.M.E and stands for Girls Night Out Monthly Extravaganza. Each month they get together and do some thing different and they make it fun. She told me the event was started because they were getting married and having babies and it was becoming tough to hang out together. So one night a month they hang out just girls no husbands or babies. Becki told me one time they went bowling and I think she called it "Crazy Bowling." Instead of just bowling they would add different things to it each round the only one I remember was bowling with an oven mitt on. I thought that was a clever idea. Well she invited me this month and although I was a little nervous not knowing anyone but her I decided to go. Seemed like a good way hang out with some people and the added plus painting pottery which as you can tell is something I love to do. She rented out the party room and we enjoyed pizza and drinks while we painted it was a lot of fun! I ended up painting two things. They were smaller pieces so they were quickly done.

The first piece is a flower pot. I was really excited about this one because I just recently got a pretty pink African violet and I knew it would fit perfectly in this pot. I am not in love with how it turned out. I think I should have done the darker blue speckled color that is on the tray also on the rim on the pot, but oh well my flower still looks great in it.


The second piece I am in love with! It's so cute. It is supposed to be an ice cream dish but I'm using it as a little candy dish for now. It is a fun bright blue color with white speckles all throughout, it reminds me of tropical water. The speckled paints they have are super fun!

Stew by the Fire

Friday's I get to enjoy a half day at work. Often I will do the grocery shopping and run errands before returning home, but I always make sure to get home in time to watch Giada De Laurentiis. Two Friday's ago on her show she made "Hearty Tomato Soup" and "Beef and Butternut Squash Stew". Both of which looked amazing and I knew I wanted to try. So yesterday I made the soup for lunch and it was so yummy (we will be having the left overs tomorrow)!! Tonight I made the stew and it too was delicious. It is a thiner stew but the melody of flavors was simply wonderfully delectable. Many times on Giada's cooking show she makes a meal for a certian event this time it was after her and some friends had spent the day skiing and had dinner by the fire. While Jordan and I didn't eat this after skiing we did have it while in front of a warm, cozy fire Jordan had prepared. It sure was a fun dinner.

Here is a picture so you can join in the fun with us.

Let me know what you think if you make either of the recipes!