The art of the heart

Houzz.com

I'm sure most of you are in the midst of your Valentine's Day planning (or planning to avoid Singles Awareness Day all-together). Personally, Gus and I are planning a day trip to Santa Barbara and probably skipping the presents this year in favor of the gift of spending time together and reflecting on our relationship.


If we were doing physical gifts, I think I'd want to do some kind of Valentine's-inspired art or make something "from the heart." I found some great projects/inspiration across the web for this so if you're looking for that idea light bulb- hopefully I can spark it today! Enjoy :)

Rose Petal Art

You could do this on a ceramic plate, a plank of wood painted white, cardstock, whatever ya got

Also Houzz.com

EcoBites has a long alphabetized list of DIY Valentine Gifts that are worth investigating
Check out Chocolate Lip Balm :)

Hand-sewn Valentine's Postcard
Featured at Curbly.com

 I've also done a number of projects that I think would be fabulous as Valentine's / From the heart gifts. Here are a few links if you're interested. Please send me photos if you make anything - I'd love to showcase your projects on the blog!

Paper Portraits
Vector Paintings
How to make your own board game
Personalized Wall Collage
Thinking of You Puzzle Postcards (Great for long-distance Valentines)
 Easy Framed Art Project
 

Home Decorating... by the numbers

from Houzz.com

I've been contemplating doing some DIY decorating projects involving numbers. If you've been in Pottery Barn recently or drooled over their website, you may have noticed a large influx of numbers being used in design. Today, I'm pulling together some of my inspiration and maybe soon I'll be posting a great project or two involving seriously awesome numerals. 

Plates with Numbers - Easy peasy!

 from the Old Painted Cottage at Houzz.com

I forget where this is from but how gorgeous and simple are those plates?

Pottery Barn Pillow Covers - $29-39 available now in stores

Queen of Numbers DIY - Lisa @ Pickles and Cheese
Drawing major inspiration from everything Lisa has dreamed up! Check out these projects and more on her blog - Pickles and Cheese.   

Have you spotted any Number/DIY greatness in the home decorating world? Please share.. I'm brainstorming as we speak!

Living with Annie featured on Better After

I'm back and better than ever from my short vacation. Today's post coming shortly but to tide you over, just a heads up that I was featured on BetterAfter! Click the button or the highlighted text to check out the post.

Stay tuned!

Living with Annie Update

Hello friends. Starting early tomorrow morning, I am going home to visit my family in North Carolina for a few days. As a result, I will be away from the blog until bright n early Monday morning. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

xo Annie

The Internet for Bakers

Those of you who read this blog often, may have noticed that I really enjoy baking. I've even considered opening up my own side or full-time business devoted to it. I love how relaxing it can be and the deliciously creative results it can yield. All of the recipes for the above photos can be found on the right-hand sidebar, just go to "Living with Annie Recipes."

For today, I'd like to share with you some of the best internet baking inspiration I've found. I highly encourage you to follow these sites if you share my passion.

Tastespotting and FoodGawker

Like Google for food, but fantastically better. These are two visual search engines that usually contain links to great blogs and recipes. You can even submit your own!

Bakerella

Cake pops, cake pops, cake pops (see Mickey and Minnie versions of mine above)! Her photos are just as gorgeous as her innovative baking and decorating ideas. She never fails to amaze. Follow this one if you aren't familiar, you'll be very glad you did.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ree Drummond, aka Pioneer Woman, is on the rise as an entertaining cook that posts fantastic pictures and equally fantastic recipes on her food blog. She also just released a cookbook.

Cupcakes take the Cake

One of my passions is the universe of cupcakery. A trio of bloggers on this site works diligently to keep you up to speed on cupcake trends all across the country.

How bout you guys? Any great baking sources I should start following?

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards

Congratulations to Disney-Pixar's Up for being nominated for both Best Animated Feature, Best Original Screenplay, Best Score, aaaand Best Picture!

To view the entire list of nominees, click here. They were announced today by Anne Hathaway in Los Angeles. I must say it's also great that Princess and the Frog was nominated for Animation and for two of its amazing songs. The winners will be announced on Sunday, March 7 at the ceremony hosted by two equally incredible actors- Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

My picks for the top 10 films of the year can be found here - though as caution, I haven't seen all of the films nominated for Oscars today. I'd also like to add (500) Days of Summer to the list because I saw it recently and it really impressed me. Definitely worth a netflix!

Make these cookies

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies... nom!

I spotted this recipe over at Artful Food Blog and knew it was something I had to do on my Sunday morning (Brunch, you are so last year.) I was pleasantly surprised when the "browned butter" tasted and smelled almost like caramel and gave these chocolate chip cookies the most rich and incredible taste!

I highly recommend you giving the recipe a try. The author suggests refrigerating 24-36 hours but I baked almost immediately after a few minutes in the fridge. They looked too good. I think this is probably why they have flat edges but hey- they tasted amazing!!

The only other substitution I made was omitting the walnuts. These babies were great on their own. Happy Baking!