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Friday, January 15, 2010

An original steak marinade


I have done it! After many other recipe tries and never finding the 'one,' I concocted a new favorite for Gus and me's culinary adventures: my own steak marinade. Since I like to share the awesome on this blog - here it is for you, in case you're planning to make any delicious steak over the holiday weekend!

Ingredients (enough six small boneless tri-tip steaks):

1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Worstershire Sauce
1 tablespoon garlic cloves
A dash of dried red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon of dijon mustard (I like Trader Joe's Garlic Mustard Aioli)
1 entire packet of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix


Directions:
Combine ingredients above in a cup or other pourable container. Place steaks in a deep pan. Cover steaks with marinade and refrigerate for at least an hour before grilling them. Marinating for 24 hours is the most yummy way to go.


Happy cooking!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Lovely Day for a Picnik


While making my recent paper portraits, I stumbled across a lovely site - picnik.com. It's like a junior version of Photoshop but free and super easy to use. You don't even have to register if you just want to play around with one or two photos. 


Remember my post on Mickey & Minnie Cake Pops? Thank you Polaroid feature on Picnik! In about a minute I took this...

and made THIS!


Spend some time playing around with it - I think you'll fall in love with this great little online site. They have premium features for $24.95 a year but don't worry, there's plenty of bells and whistles to keep you editing for quite sometime even if you only use the free ones! Happy Blogging!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Getting down to work



Yes, as much as I might want to dance around my follower-ness, I have jumped on that "New Year's" resolution bandwagon when it comes to a lot of things in my life. I'm trying not to see these things as resolutions, which to me are normally things I wasn't very good at in years past and want to rededicate myself to.


Instead, I'm seeing the new year as a chance to breathe more life into my life. More passion, more open-mindedness, more craftiness... more, more, more awesome! One of the things I'm kicking my own butt to do (other than the always obvious, exercise) is to get back into screenwriting. I started this blog in October as a baby step in that direction. The goal was to get myself writing and creating on a regular basis. I'm proud to say I'm just a few posts away from 100 total and still adding here! It's giving me the push I need to get back into my original writing passion - writing for the screen.


With that goal for the year in mind, I've decided that my dining table aka work desk solution is just not cutting it. It's time to have a real desk - a place to store my inspirations for my script, my apartment, and my life! I've got a bit of a plan forming but I'm interested in your thoughts. I'm limited by the space of my apartment and the fact that I know I can't put this office space in my bedroom cause I'll never go in there.


Here's the deal and some inspiration from the intra-net... Give me a shout if you've got some great ideas, links, tips, etc. for me as I embark on this quest!


THE SPACE
I'm thinking the only logical place to put the desk would be my entryway (directly across from the kitchen). Any other place in the main room might get in the way of eating/relaxing/playing wii/attempting to do my Jillian Michaels Fitness DVD).


This could work out just fine but my CD Jacket mirror and Suitcase Table may need to live at Gus's for the time being. He is a sweetheart to be cool with babysitting my furniture until I have a bigger apartment or dare I say, house, to put it in.

I'm on the hunt for a desk from anywhere and contemplating customizing a boring piece from Ikea (yay before and afters for the blog!). The space limitations are 42" max wide, 22" max deep and I just have a small mac laptop- not a large, bulky, loves-to-freeze-up PC.



Here are photos of the space -



THE THOUGHTS


 Spotted this on Little Bit Funky yesterday and snagged it for my inspiration file (an open Word Document I keep for all things amazing.) The color is bold but I'm kind of digging it, especially with how everything's been pulled together. Also majorly in love with the two picture ledges. Great stuff and pulled together in a small space.



Grabbed from Houzz.com (a great place to pull together tons of home decorating photos and make your own ideabooks aka inspiration files). I like the use of the beige (any soft color really) contrasted with the white furniture. I have so much dark furniture that I'm thinking it'd be fun to do something different/lighten things up. Also not opposed to some shelving like this, making my office area look more built-in.



Also from Houzz.com, loving the shape of this desk with the x's. Also enjoying the shape of the lamp and the use of the memo board to frame out the space. The backdrop (i.e. the dark brown) is way too dark but still, loving the other details here.



I have always really liked the idea of having a series of clipboards. I'm always thinking about and working on several different projects so I think I'd really enjoy having some cute order to my crafting and writing mania. To boot, I've totally spotted clipboards at the dollar store. Score!


In addition to these photos, I'm also toying with the idea of doing some chalkboard paint and/or incorporating beadboard in some way. I may go to Ikea tonight and surrender 3 hours of my life to perusing the shelves. It's okay- it's all the in name of New Year's and new beginnings...


Chime in with your thoughts, please and thank you!

xo Annie

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Paper makes it possible



Recently, I've gone on a blog following-rampage of sorts (don't worry, not violent in the least). In my quest to discover all the awesome that's out there in the home decorating, baking, and crafting universe, I discovered Paul Overton's DudeCraft. It's a very entertaining read and includes lots of tutorials, including one for Paper Portraits. I loved what Paul created and decided- yes, this will be a great present for Gus!


The above paper portrait (2nd photo) I created as a tester for the one I did for Gus. I made it for a friend of mine at work who worships Angelina Jolie. The original photo came from a snapshot of her looking at a photograph at the MOMA in LA.




The process for doing paper portraits is fairly simple and straightforward - just make sure you have a great x-acto knife and re-positionable spray mount. I encourage you to check out Paul's blog and tutorial linked here to make your own magic with paper. As you'll see from the one I did for Gus, the cutting can become complex if you use a complex photo - so be careful when choosing your first subject.


Without further adieu, may I present the actual present for my Gus Gus on his 24th birthday - a salute to our song, "You've Got a Friend in Me."


ORIGINAL PHOTO



POSTERIZED PHOTO (thanks Picnik)



BEAUTIFULLY AWESOME PAPER PORTRAIT 
Framed in a 12" by 12" Record Album Frame




Yay paper portraits!

Linking up to

Monday, January 11, 2010

A-Flix - My Top Movies of 2009


I work in the 'biz and am a bit of a movie buff so I couldn't resist making a great list of 2009. Mainly I'm doing this for my own benefit, but I hope it inspires you to check out some wonderful movies from this year.

ANNIE'S TOP 10 (in order, best first)

Up
Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince
The Princess and the Frog
The Brothers Bloom
Up in the Air
Avatar
Away We Go
The Proposal
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Sherlock Holmes

In making this list and perusing EVERYTHING that was released this year, I realized a few things. 

1) There weren't a ton of notable movies, for example, I never thought I'd put The Proposal  on my list but really, it was a lot better than most of what was released this year. 
2) There are still several films that have major buzz that I've yet to see and are therefore not included above: Invictus, Precious, and The Hurt Locker just to name a few. 
3) I think it's kind of funny that I thought Sherlock looked terrible but ended up seeing it AND liking it enough that I added it.
4) Avatar is only on the list because it was too important to filmmaking visually not to include it.

5) Probably the most important lesson of all, while Princess and the Frog is a Disney classic in my eyes and particularly special since I was working for Disney when it was released- Up is most definitely the best movie made in 2009. Not just animated movie, but movie overall. One of the most heartfelt, genuinely funny, and captivating movies ever - Up has convinced me that Director Pete Docter is truly onto something brilliant and I can't wait to see what he does next.


So how bout you? What made your list this year?


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