Kubota Garden

Today was another lovely day in Seattle. My sister and I planned to venture to Good Will and look around, but with the amazing weather we decided to take a quick detour to walk through the beautiful Kubota Garden.  There are so many birds, flowers, tree and different pathways... it's a beautiful little escape in a rather industrial part of town.

 The next couple weeks should lead to a lot of blooming in the garden which is something I'm looking forward to. I'll have to make sure I put another visit on my calendar so I don't miss it.

Rattlesnake Ridge

 Rattlesnake Ridge will always be one of my favorite hikes. It nearby, pretty short and super rewarding.. it was such a beautiful day for a hike (everyone else thought so too) but it was great to spend an afternoon outside, have lunch on the warm rocks in a cool breeze, and then stroll along the river...FANTASTIC. it really made me want to stick to my goal of hiking once a week. Gotta make it happen. It's easy when the weather is good.

oh how they grow!

When I was a little kid there were these videos in my house that were a "see how they grow" series where you could watch animals and plants grow and develop... anyway... that thought just sort of crossed my mind after typing that title. Anyway, I'm not sure if I mentioned that I started growing sunflowers inside...

They were cute and tiny... I used plastic cups that I poked holes in and put in a shoe box... well with a little love and some beautiful days they grew... and since its been 3?weeks since they were planted.... they have made quite the progress. I didn't expect this to go as well as it did... and now I find myself wondering.. what on earth am i going to do with all of these sunflowers...Earth day is tomorrow. Maybe I'll celebrate!

Work is never over

 I'm still loving work. It is awesome. I'm so thankful for this opportunity. I mean really... who care's about waking up at 5:30..

 Sometimes... it looks like that in the morning.

Plus, I enjoy starting the day early... it makes me feel productive... I like being productive.

 

And I mean, that's the view from my desk. I love all the windows and the view of the train... we have fantastic plastic flowers. :) 

 

AND I can hang out places like this on my lunch break. Its really rather charming. <3

It's keeping me busy and I'm still working out that balance thing... but it's going well I'm figuring it out... and I've gotten quite a bit done in the last couple weeks.

its been a while..

YIKES!

I'll let you all take a moment to guess which part of my awesome life I've been neglecting recently....

you got it! my blog!

Mind you, there needs to be a balance between working, writing my blog and actually doing things I can write about. Obviously I'm still struggling to find that balance so.... this weekend I'll be doing a massive update... I've had a lot going on in the last two weeks and really fell through on keeping anyone updated. 

I really think everything is worthy of its own post though, and I didn't entirely forget about blogging... I've got pictures! GOODIE! 

okay... so I'm gonna get to my updating... I just thought I'd let you know I'm still here... and still doing this thing. :P

Orange You Glad I Made A Cupcake?

We all know how much I love my job right?

Well, I decided I'm gonna be "that girl" in the office... the one that brings cupcakes for people's birthday's and makes cute things to up mood at work (or at least induce temporary sugar highs)

So what's my plan? To be consistent... I've decided the first Friday of each month would be the day to celebrate birthday's for the month. ya know, make a little card with everyone's names on it... put it next to some goodies, call it a day. 

This week seemed like people were definitely needing an extra boost... it's been rainy and cold... I've been grumpy and tired... so when I found THIS recipe for chocolate cupcakes with orange cream cheese frosting (and amazing blog) I was unbelievably stoked. It looked simple enough, but rich, I loved the use of coffee in the cake batter and... honestly... orange and chocolate is a favorite flavor combination of mine. 

I made up my grocery list Wednesday night, so I could swing by the store on the way home from work Thursday and get right to my baking...I, of course, grabbed a couple things that weren't on my list and in doing so... skipped right passed the powdered sugar... which I needed to make the frosting, but luckily already had at the house... talk about mushy brain. 

BUT after a frazzled start, a broken glass, and a messy dress... I had 24 big kid cupcakes and 20 mini's

Oh did I mention I forgot to take pictures of them when they were ALL there... These got GREAT reviews. I'll definitely be making them again sometime in the future. 

The Word of the Night is Authentic

Happy Friday!!!!

Today was the last day of my first official week! yay! 

what better way to celebrate than going for sushi with my best friend?

I cant really think of one. 

Kind of a funny story though... we left with the intention of going to the local sushi place... but being Friday night, the place was packed...So the bestie whipped out her smart phone, punched in some magic catchphrase and pointed us in the direction of yet another sushi bar. 

I can honestly say I've never had such a good time in Fife... 

I'm not gonna lie... I'm a little skeptical of Fife... which made the idea of sushi in Fife a little less than appealing... but after sitting down at our booth and admiring their "authentic" decorations...I was feeling pretty confident about this place having delicious food. Everyone eating looked really happy, that's gotta be a good sign. 

the food took a while coming out but it gave me time to read the very high quality newspaper review they had posted on the wall next to me. Speaking to the authenticity of the place, there was actually a quote from the owner/chef that mentioned not "taking shortcuts" and "doing things the old fashioned way"

Boy did I have this place pegged. You could totally tell from their lanterns. :P

 The ordering system was a little crazy... it wasnt very descriptive...they had you jumping around between different cheat sheets and random pictures and everything was named funny... again AUTHENTIC. I was definitely confused, this was no Americanized sushi restaurant. Thankfully KB took care of the ordering for us... but I'm gonna be honest the chopsticks, and they're "good luck" message were far more fitting than I originally realized.

 What we anticipated being a "good" amount of food, turned out to be more like a gluttonous amount. And while I'm busy making confessions, I can't deny that we had most of it gone in less time than it took them to prepare it! It was so much better than I expected (I mean I'm posting about it in my blog despite the magnetic pull I'm feeling from my pillow!)

 Such a good end to my night.