Chocolate Dipped Valentine Brownies

I adore brownies and my hubby made me some last night. What a great guy. So this morning I'm looking at the pan thinking I bet these would be really yummy with a little something on them. With my heart cookie cutter at the ready I dove into the pan and came out with this cute and significantly sized heart-shaped brownie. I warmed some red chocolate and dipped one side in then added a few candy hearts for good measure. This makes a plain brownie a bit more sophisticated and a great finish to a lovely dinner party. Don't you think?

Banana Bread with Mini Chocolate Chips

Instead of the design table we are in the kitchen today making banana bread with mini chocolate chips. Serve it warm with butter. Yummy

2 mashed bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup margarine
1 1/3 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x13 inch pan, or two 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. Combine banana and sour cream. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and banana mixture. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; stir into the banana mixture, finally add chips. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan or pans.
3. Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.           

DIY Headboard

So we're living in a rental house until we find a home to buy and doing without some of our furniture since it's in storage. Katie was without a headboard so I did some looking around Pinterest for some ideas and saw something I liked and thought, I think I can make that! I made a trip to Lowe's, bought some wood, nails, sand paper, paint and stain and got to work. And did you know that Lowe's will cut your wood for you if you have your dimensions ready? Pretty cool since my power tools are not at the ready and who really wants to cut wood, right?

Katie's room is doubling as a guest room and I think it fits both she and our guests great. Sweet dreams, Katie. 

here's the inspiration from House Tweaking. Thanks!

http://www.housetweaking.com/2010/11/30/diy-fence-board-headboard/

Photos in to Note Cards

I've been taking photos for a while but still have a lot to learn. I took these at these photos at the Dallas Arboretum a while back and with the help of Kodakgallery.com I made prints that look amazing. If you haven't uploaded or used kodakgallery.com before you should. I added a couple effects, like frames and a metallic finish and love the result. I took the 4x6 prints and added them to card to stock, bundle them with some envelopes, and finish with a ribbon and clear package and they look great. Made a great gift for someone special.

Heart Garland

I'm in the midst of decorating the table for Katie's Valentine tea party. This was a super easy way to jazz up the lighting over the table as well as the center of the table.
Easy Peasy Factor of 1/10.

Valentine Yarn Wreath

I'm not much for Valentines day or at least since my husband started boycotting the holiday. (He thinks it's too commercial and he would rather exchange niceties throughout the year. How can I argue that?) But now that I have kids it's taking on a new meaning for me. I get excited for them to exchange Valentines at school and wear cute little t-shirts that say, "Heart Breaker" which my son is BTW.

So to make something festive for the door I created yet another yearn wreath, but this time I added some alternating hearts. 

Photo Peeps Valentine

So, I posted a tutorial on how to make chocolate dipped heart Peeps and wanted to show you what I ended up doing with them. These are for my daughters class Valentine exchange. She signed her name on the back of all 23 of them. I wish you could see her cute little tights but I had to make them smaller and had problems with the photo sizing. Next time I'll know.