over it

At the office working for 12 hours on a Saturday=awesome. __ hours on Sunday. Hate my life.  

mirror mirror on the wall

Adorable!! I won't mind one bit if my little quarter asian baby looks like this ^

what day is it?

Last night I had absolutely NO idea what day it was. Today I'm not positive either. Thursday doesn't mean a single thing when weekends don't exist. Pushing through busy season... next week can't come soon enough. 

caffeine please

This whole working until 10 pm every night is really starting to get old. Is it March 15 yet?!?!

happy birthday mom!!

Happy Birthday to the best mom in the whole world!! We love you so much!

             xoxo, your peas! 

girls just wanna have fun

Yesterday, me and the sis, 2 girls from high school, and all 3 of our moms went to see Grease at the National Theater. Our moms have become great friends since high school so it was great getting us all back together again. The play was pretty good, and Taylor Hicks from American Idol was in it as the Teen Angel! So we got his autograph, took some pictures (coming soon), and then proceeded to cause a ruckus (like always) at an early dinner. It was a fun girls day out, and hopefully we will make this a monthly event! 

i wish...

So the boyf and sister went skiing together today, I wish I could be with them. But instead I'm stuck at work because it's busy season... FML.  (and NO, i DO NOT do taxes). I need a new job :(


I wish I could blog, play on photoshop, and bake cupcakes as a job! I'd be extremely happy (oh, and it wouldn't hurt to get paid for it). 

story of my life

double stuffed please

OMG, I want to make/eat these SO bad!!

top of the morning to ya

So now that Valentines Day has come and gone, it's on to the next holiday. At my friend Jessi's request, here is my Saint Patrick's Day collage! 

(click to enlarge, then save as desktop background)

ENJOY!!

s'more lovin'

So since the boyf wasn't here for V-day, I had a baking date with my friend Faith. We made delicious s'more cupcakes and heart-shaped cakes! 

How awesome does the icing look? Piping marshmallow fluff makes cupcakes look amazing and it's super easy! You better believe all my cupcakes will look like this from now on. So it's basically a french vanilla cupcake with graham crackers mixed in. A Hershey's kiss for the middle, and marshmallow fluff frosting! I'm so proud of myself, I love them!!

S'more Cupcakes

Found: here

Cupcakes:
1 package French vanilla cake mix
2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 cups water
3 egg whites
24 milk chocolate candy kisses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.
In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, 2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs, water and egg whites. Beat for 2 minutes at high speed of an electric mixer.
Divide batter evenly among paper lined cups, filling about 2/3 full. Place a chocolate kiss in each cupcake, pressing in lightly. (I pushed mine all the way to the bottom and they stuck to the paper wrapping, so keep them in the middle?) Spoon 1 teaspoon graham cracker crumbs onto each cupcake. (optional, I didn't want it to mess up my frosting)
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 18 to 25 minutes

Frosting:
2 sticks of butter, room temperature (I forgot, but def is important)
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
16 oz. tub of marshmallow fluff

Cream the butter (I love my Kitchenaid*, thanks Ang!) on high until it's light and fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, and beat until fluffy each time. Beat in the vanilla until incorporated. Then dump in the fluff and mix it up until its all creamy. Transfer to pastry bag and pipe onto cupcake! (You can also use a ziploc), but the boyf got me piping bags and tips for Christmas, so I finally used them!! Top with more graham cracker crumbs and a piece of Hershey's chocolate.

*I was a little worried since I used the butter straight out of the fridge that it wouldn't ever get creamy enough to pipe. I had just about given up, and was going to ice them regularly. But the next second, it was like magic, the mixer completely changed the icing into this creamy, light, fluffy icing!!! I'm in love.

While I made the s'mores, Faith made super cute cakes with her heart-shaped pans! She was a great Valentine!

I packed up the cupcakes in their little home (my awesome carrier I got for Christmas from the best mom ever), and took them to work! They were a huge hit and hopefully they will stay fresh until the boyf gets home tonight! 

Dear Boyf, i miss you

Boyf, please come home to me soon.

But he has a good reason for not being here on Valentine's Day.  One of his best friends from high school, Alex Gilmer, was killed in a tragic mid-air collision over Boulder CO on Feb 6. Alex was a professional pilot who towed gliders (basically an airplane shell with no engine) to the right height before releasing them for an unpowered flight to the ground. The glider he was towing at the time of the collision was able to cut loose and land safely but unfortunately, all 3 people in the 2 powered aircrafts were killed upon impact. The glider pilot and passengers told their story on The Today Show last week. Here's an article for more details.

As devastating as this has been, it is comforting to know that Alex left this world doing what he loved most, flying airplanes.  As a tribute to Alex, here is a video documenting boyf and his friends rock climbing, rope jumping, base jumping, and hanging trampolines off of stuff.  Enjoy. 

The FRASCA Story by SINE Innovations from Calvin Hecker on Vimeo.


Check out the boys entrance for the funeral here!! 

be mine

So the boyf just left for Colorado (more on that to come), so we won't be spending Valentine's Day together. But that's ok. I don't need anything fancy/special. I feel so lucky everyday just to be with him.

total eclipse of the heart

cupid missed- 4th annual

So the past 3 years, my best girlfriends and I have gone on a Cupid Missed bar crawl for Valentine's Day. We made T-shirts with different designs every year. The first year (before I joined in on the fun, and apparently before digital cameras) was a cupid crossed out, the second year was candy hearts that said "Be Mine, I'm Yours... NOT", and last year just a plain cute design that said Cupid Missed. We had a bar crawl today but it had a different theme for a friend's birthday. And surprisingly, a lot of us have boyf's this year. But we'll always remember our awesome tradition. 

xoxo

sick of snow yet?

I know everyone is sick of the snow by now, but these are too adorable. 

l o v e

snowy Arlington Cemetery

snowtorious BIG

Snow weekend 2 was a success! Since everyone had time to prepare we had a potluck with lasagna, chili, meatballs, and fajitas. We played band hero, rummikub, and everyone got to pick their favorite drinking game. We got over 20 inches of snow which took forever to dig out. It was a great snow weekend and we are in the middle of another crazy snow week. Schools are closed for the entire week. The government has been closed since Monday, and today we got another 11 inches. Looks like we'll be snowed in for a couple more days! Hope everyone is safe and warm.   

"February Fury"

haha I love how news people make up the randomest titles for things... Snowmageddon, February Fury, really? 

Well the DC area got 20-30 inches over the weekend, and another 10-20 is on the way for tonight/tomorrow. This is crazy! Hope everyone is having fun in the snow. 

lovey dovey

forecast: snow and more snow

So the forecast for tomorrow through Saturday is 12-20 inches in the DC area. We are getting all the necessary arrangements in place for Snow Weekend 2!! This time we'll be prepared with more food, a keg, snow clothes, and more people to join in the fun!!! I'm so excited. 

Pretty in pink

Panda Express

So the National Zoo is losing it's baby panda today. Tai Shan has been at The Smithsonian Zoo for 4 years. He was only supposed to be on loan from China for 2 years, but his stay was postponed. And today he will climb aboard a FedEx plane and fly to China. Which is pretty sad, pandas are a major attraction. There are only 13 pandas living in 4 zoos in the US right now. And only 1,600 living in the wild in China. Wow, I did not realize how endangered they are until just now! How sad. They are adorable too!! 

UPDATE: According to my sister, my grandpa actually suggested the name for Tai Shan! (He's pretty much a big deal in the Chinese community here in DC). Following a Chinese tradition, panda cubs are not named until they are 100 days old. In fall 2005, the National Zoo announced that the cub's name would be chosen through an Internet poll. And apparently, my grandpa suggested Tai Shan which means peaceful mountain, and it won! I'll confirm and possibly re-update later! haha

wear your heart on your sweets

groundhog day

I feel like Tuesdays are hands down the hardest days to get out of bed. This would be a great start to the morning. Oh, and today Punxatawny Phil saw his shadow. 6 more weeks of winter...

And apparently we are in for more snow tonight! 

February

is here people. The month of love. If you haven't brightened up your desktop yet, what are you waiting for?

let it snow

This weekend was a little rough. Attempted to come into work at 10 on Saturday, chickened out after seeing a flipped car, stopped for coffee on the way home, my car got towed in the 5 minutes i was "off the property", waited for an hour for the boyf to pick me up, drove up to rockville, $140 later, got my car, drove a stressful hour home and witnessed 2 cars slamming into the guardrail right next to me. 

But there were a lot of positives about this weekend as well. Didn't have to work due to the stressful events, got a campfire mocha (culprit of car towing, but decided it was worth it), went to b-dubs in rockville (since we were there!), bought band hero and jammed out with about 10 friends on Friday night. Discovered the best lasagna I've ever had! Recipe to come soon. Got really good at the drums in our band hero group. And then watched a Lost marathon all day Sunday. So altogether it was an adventure of a weekend. 

What's up with all this snow? Don't get me wrong, I love it! But this is crazy for DC.