Heather Ann Melzer

Meant for each other

As if chocolate chip cookies and brownies weren't good enough on their own, right? 

We were at the grocery store on Saturday and Tom was picking up all kinds of stuff to make dinner for my father/brother-in-law and us that night and I decided I wanted to make something new for dessert.  So, I started searching the backs of dessert mixes for good recipes.  I packet of chocolate chip cookie mix and found this:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

INGREDIENTS
1 box Betty Crocker Original Supreme Brownie Mix
1 pouch Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix
Vegetable oil
Eggs
Water

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9 pan. 
2. Make brownie batter as directed. Spread in pan.
3. Make cookie dough as directed on pouch. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons evenly onto brownie batter; press down lightly.
4. Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side of pan comes out almost clean. 
5. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Frost if desired.

Super easy to make, it just made a ton of dishes.  I started out evenly spacing the cookie dough balls, but there are so many that they end up covering almost the entire top of the brownies.  The recipe is actually called cookie "dough" brownies, but the dough cooks completely, so I don't think that's an accurate description.  They're brownies and chocolate chip cookies baked together.  A match made in heaven - ahhh.  We've been snacking on them since Saturday and their still super moist.  I have to make another batch for my family tonight - Dylan's gonna flip, I think.

Oh - and I wore my beautiful apron while baking them on Saturday.  My friend, Brandi, sent it to me for xmas - isn't it adorable?!

And, yes, I cut my hair super short.  I actually got it cut and then went back the next day to have it cut even shorter (and then I think she cut too much behind my ears).  I love it short, although I already feel like the top is way too long.  I had it shorter than this in art school and remember having to get a trim every 2 weeks.  Not exactly the best haircut for a college kid living on next to nothing.  It's a breeze to dry and I never have to mess with it, which I love.

Time to jump on my third conference call of the day (goodness).  Hoping to have some new jewelry pieces to share tomorrow :)  Until then!

City of Ember

Katie and I teamed up to put together last Friday's movie night and we managed to really surprise Dad, Kenzie, and Jack.  The movie was really good and after watching the trailer I knew that we had to string lights overhead just like in the movie.

 

Their reactions coming up the stairs were so funny, and Katie loved getting the first peek since we teamed up on it.  The people of Ember ate only canned vegetables, so we had ice cream sundaes in vegetable cans.  I cleaned them out really good earlier in the day and then put the ice cream/Magic Shell/whipped cream in paper cups that fit right inside.  My total spending was $3 for 4 cans of veggies, which Tom said made me the winner (although I didn't realize we were in competition - lol).  I guess out-of-season coconuts are not exactly cheap - bad Dad!

This would be a great movie to start with if you've never had a family movie night before.  Just dig up some xmas lights and empty some veggie cans.  The kids had such a blast with this one. 

My kids are also amazingly good about watching movies.  I had to sit back and take it in during this one because it's very strange.  They are wild animals until the show comes on and then they're glued.  Tom and I are huge movie watchers, so maybe it's in their DNA.  I love that this tradition could continue our entire lives.  You never get too old to enjoy the movies and they never stop coming.  Yeay for movie nights! :)

I'll be sure to share my new favorite dessert recipe tomorrow, once I'm able to get my pictures off my memory card.  My computer is wonderful most of the time, but the built-in card reader has always had a mind of its own.  Ah, technology.

PS - Thank you for all of the WONDERFUL advice you all gave on my dining room.  My head is spinning now and you've definitely made me think of some new things, which I really appreciate.   Hopefully by week's end things will slow down enough for me to start working on some things in there.

Congratulations, Jenn Denmark!

 

I had such a hard time choosing between the fabulous blinkie entries that were submitted.  You guys are so creative and I really appreciate you taking the time to put something together - soo, I'm giving everyone that entered a $25 gift card to my shop!  :)

Jenn's blinkie really made me smile.  I love how she used so many elements from the kit and had the sweet birdies flying in from the sides.  I can't wait to see what else she comes up with as new kits are released!

We had another nice, relaxing weekend.  We got hit with snow and single digit temps again, so we had a good excuse to stay inside and chill a bit.  We had an awesome movie night, Tom cooked for his Dad/ brother/us on Saturday night, I tried a new dessert recipe (yum!), I played around with awesome new jewelry pieces, Kenzie and I fought bad guys together in Lego Batman, and we watched most of the Oscars last night (although we haven't seen any of the movies up for nomination).  I'd love to see every movie nominated one year and throw a big Oscars party where everyone has to dress up (like really, really dress up) and roll out a red carpet and everything.  Anyone ever do that?  Feel free to send me an invite if you ever do - ha!

I'll update on all of that tomorrow - until then, I have so many things to get crossed off today.  Mondays seem to be getting tougher and tougher for me for some reason.  Here's hoping yours is productive, too!

The dining room

 

Our dining room is really more of an eat-in kitchen, which is how we designed it.  We found a house plan in a book and then reworked it to suit our needs and this space was originally a sunken-in family room in an octagon shape.  Sometimes I really wish we would have left that in, but then our current family room would have been a strange space and we wouldn't have an eat-in kitchen or dining room.  Give and take, I guess.

So, it's been an army green color for the past 6 years and now it's Benjamin Moore Brewster Gray, and I absolutely LOVE it.  It feels so fresh in there now - more updated and modern.  And didn't Tom do a great job?  He had his own painting team in college and freehands all the cutting - even along the ceiling.  Well, now that my paint is updated, my accents are feeling stale.  Here's my wish list for this room...

I'm ready to move our wedding photo to the basement, to eventually hang down there, and replace it with some art.  I'm looking for a 36x36" white gallery frame that I can fill with a photo or some art that I make myself.  I love the Ikea Ribba frames, but the biggest square is 19.75", and that just isn't big enough.  I love the idea of something square in that space, so I'm kind of stuck on that.

Lighting - hoo boy.  This one is making me completely insane.  I want 24" white/off white drum pendants - similar to this, but bigger.  They also need to have a satin nickel or dark bronze/black ceiling mount - chrome just wouldn't work.  I cannot believe how much these things cost.  I'd make them myself, but I think having the diffuser really finished it off.  Ugh.

It's hard to see in the picture, but my dishes are feeling a little too Victorian now.  Maybe just some smooth white plates instead?

I also had Tom take the curtains that I made down - can't take them anymore.  I want something like this in Antique Ivory, but I want to order our family room curtains at the same time and those need to be 12' long.  I'm sure JCP could come out and do a custom order for them, but I'm terrified at how much that would be.  Plus, I know the kids will use them as giant napkins.  With the ceilings being as high as they are, though, I feel like we need the height in there.  Hmm...

Last, I want to put some bamboo shades on the patio doors to match the ones that I want to put on the front doors.  Our kitchen/dining/living room is actually one big giant room, so you can see every other room from each other, so they need to coordinate.

I'd love to hear your suggestions on where I can find a 36" square white gallery frame, drum pendants, dishes, curtains and shades, or any other suggestions you have.  Like, should we paint the hallway next to the dining room the same color, or the beige color that's in our kitchen?  It needs paint badly.

Oh, and we bought the giant vase/twigs from Ikea last weekend.  We desperately need height and that really helped.  Love my new branches!

Katie-bird has strep throat, so we're doing our best to keep everyone away from her.  She was home sick with me yesterday and Tom took today off to take care of her.  You know it's bad when they refuse chocolate, and she let one of my Fannie May's from Valentine's Day sit next to her for several hours (before I ate it).  We spent almost all day on the couch watching cartoons, and I was able to put something pretty together when she fell asleep watching Barney...

Ah, birdies :)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  Remember that submissions for my Blinkie Designer position are due by midnight tonight!

Natural beauties

 

Lots of new goodies in the shop today!  I've been falling in love with natural brass and put together a gorgeous leaf accented necklace and some dainty czech glass earrings (that are my new favorite - SO easy to wear).  Then I put together another long link necklace in gorgeous shades of green (not that anyone needs an excuse to wear green, but it would be great for St. Patty's Day).  Then I have a sweet natural brass and aqua quartz glass necklace.  I wore mine to the office last Friday with a white fitted turtleneck sweater and it was the perfect little accent piece.  And then I have a new necklace/earrings set made of gorgeous vintage glass beads.  I haven't been able to get anymore in this same color/size, so this may be a one-of-a-kind set.  The beads were in the same vintage lot as the coral beads I used for this choker.  They have such a soft texture and the color is so beautiful in person.  Beads make me so happy - can you tell?

I picked my nephew up from school this afternoon, and of course we had to hit Starbucks, so now I'm typing faster than my brain can keep up with - whew!  I'm making pork chops for dinner and I just realized that I forgot about the chocolate chip banana bread I had in the oven - urghhh!!!  Man, do I hate that.

Speaking of things that urk me, I was recently in the spotlight at The Daily Digi and had to share 10 things that I loved and 10 things that bug me - you can read all about it here.

And while you're there be sure to check out the hot photography tips in Janet's last 2 posts - really great information.  She's doing such an amazing job over there -  a wealth of information.

Allright, I'm off to cook some chops.  I'll be back later tomorrow with my dining room pics and wish list.  I'm hoping you guys might be able to help me find some things I've been searching for for way too long.  The transformation has begun and I'm dying to see it through.  Until then!

2x2

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day!  Tom's family came over and his brother, Jon, cooked up a ton of really yummy food and we all hung out.  The kids ran in circles, I worked on some jewelry pieces, and my father-in-law helped Tom with a new power tool that we'll be using on some new jewelry creations soon :)  Then we had the first of two sequel movie nights...

 

We didn't have a treat planned for this one, but Tom offered to cook up something, so he worked on this masterpiece while the kids and I watched the movie.  Then he came up and gave everyone a fork and revealed his creation - strawberries and bananas drizzled in chocolate and vanilla sugar crystals.  They loved it.  Katie said, "Mom, Dad really has some ideas!"  LOL  His closet creativity has finally come out - he's in trouble now.  And the heart worked because the whole movie was about Elliott getting married (and saving their lost friend).

Sunday was a work day.  I finally decided on a paint color, so Tom spent most of the day transforming the dining room while I made jewelry and chased the kids around.  That night was Dad and Kenzie's turn to come up with movie night ideas, so they went to the store and came home with all kinds of stuff.  Dad snuck in the garage with some produce and his drill and we ended up with this...

Tom drilled holes in coconuts and let them drain.  Then he filled them with chocolate milk using a funnel.  Kenzie and Dad's combo idea was flattened vanilla ice cream (to look like ice) with Oreo penguins secured with Magic Shell (because Kenzie had to work it in somehow).  Katie had to have her buddy Alex join us for the movie and thought the movie was called "Alex 2" - ha.  We started this one early enough that Jack was able to watch the whole thing.  I think the Madagascar movies are my absolute favorite animated movies.  They are so funny and this one was just a funny (if not more) than the original.  It's PG for crude humor, but I didn't hear much of that (or it went totally over the kids' heads).

While watching our Family Movie Night movies, we always come up with a treat that would have been perfect, but without seeing the movie it's impossible to know ahead of time.  Open Season 2 has a scene where Boog is explaining how Elliott and his fiance are like a S'more - those would have been perfect.  And in Madagascar 2, there's a part where they talk about a chocolate lion, which was really funny and would have been a great treat, too. 

As much as the girls love to be surprised with the movies/treats, Kenzie really liked planning this one with Dad and keeping it a secret from Katie, Jack and I.  Katie and I have the next movie, so that should be fun.  I'm sure our little motor mouth will have plenty of ideas for whatever Netflix/Blockbuster delivers this week.  We're about to dump Netflix because they have us on a "watches too many movies/month" list and takes over a week to get us new movies sometimes.  We're still in the honeymoon period with Blockbuster, so we're getting new movies almost every day,which hasn't happened in a long time.

Tomorrow I might have to share some pics of our new dining room and the list of things I'm trying to find to finish it off.  I'm in LOVE with the new paint color, but now I'm dying to change the lighting, curtains, and artwork.  Thinking I might try a stab at that last one myself (in my free time, of course). 

Help Wanted

Heather Ann Designs is looking for a talented blinkie designer (or a creative person who hasn't yet realized their blinkie-making potential!).  You will be responsible for creating a 468x60 pixel blinkie for each new HAD digital product that is released. 

Compensation: Receipt of all new HAD digital products (to create the blinkies with, and enjoy for yourself!).  Blinkies will displayed in the HAD idea gallery and elsewhere for site promotion. 

How to apply: Interested parties should submit their application in the form of (1) 468x60 blinkie promoting an individual HAD digital product (scrapbook kit, quick fill set, calendar kit, etc.) by Friday, February 20th at midnight CST.  Blinkie submissions will be reviewed and the new HAD Blinkie Designer will be announced here on Monday, February 23rd, along with their blinkie submission (yeay!).

Terms: Each applicant should submit only one application (blinkie) by email to heatherATheatheranndesigns.com by next Friday, the 20th. 

Good luck!

Hot off the press

The kids' valentines are currently printing (on my favorite Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte) and I'm about to head out to pick up candy supplies so we can put them together tonight.  I'm telling you, last-minute QUEEN!  Katie decided to go with the heart lollipop covers with Jolly Rancher suckers and Kenzie is doing the lovebird candy wrappers with Hershey bars.  Jack's class is making their own valentines, but I think I might send him with some lollipops, too :)

I also picked up some 4.4oz Hershey bars for the girls and plan to use the large candy wrappers on those to give to them on Valentine's Day.  The last thing they need is more chocolate, but it's a holiday, right?  The girls have been in big trouble for sneaking candy out of our pantry lately and throwing the wrappers under the shelves in there.  I also found a wad of chewed gum under there one night (and promptly lost my mind).  Just confirms that I WILL be putting a lock on the pantry door that I hope to have in the near future.

I've been up from 2am-4am the last two nights in a row thinking of all the things I need to do.  I've already crossed 7 things of my to-do list today and I have 15 more left.  I do feel really good about updating my photo-a-day's, though.  I've been taking them, it's just hard finding time to upload them.  How is everyone else doing - are you hanging in there?  Post a link to your pics if you have them online, I'm sure we'd all love to see!

Speaking of sharing, I can't help but share some amazing things my team has done with my new Lovebirds Kit & Treat Set this week.  They are such talented gals.  Like, blow me away talented.  Check out this layout Laura put together...

Wow, right?  32709 makes me smile :)

And this super sweet Valentine by Jenn...

Too stinkin' cute!!

And these by Teresa, Maegan, Gemma...

   

and Brandi, Raven, & Robin...

   

Beautiful stuff. 

Be sure to take some lovey shots this Saturday - no matter what your plans!  I think I'm way overdue for a photo shoot of my kiddos.

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

This was a fun one.  Tom has read all of the books in this series (no surprise there), so he was really excited to see this one.  I thought treats/props were going to be easy, but wow - it wasn't.  I wasn't going to spend $15 on a real Prince Caspian sword at Party City, so we improvised.  Movie nights are supposed to be fun and not break the bank, so we got creative.  I found some plastic swords for $1 and made chocolate covered marshmallows with sprinkles on top.  They were a HUGE hit.  I don't know what it is with kids and marshmallows, but mine love them.  I just melted chocolate chips (Ghirardelli milk chocolate are my favorite) in a coffee cup in the microwave in 30 second intervals (stirring each time).  Then we added some milk to it to make dipping the marshmallows easier.  I stuck a sword in the marshmellow, dipped it in the chocolate and then used a spoon to sprinkle the sprinkles on top until covered.  Then I put them in the freezer to let them harden.

Jack was so funny sitting on the futon all by himself watching the movie - lol.  The last pic is of the girls being carried to bed because it was a 3 hr movie that didn't end until 10pm (way past bedtime).  The second to last pic is of Mommy's movie night treat ;)

The kids really liked the movie, but Katie was totally freaked out by the wolf, bird, and Ice Queen that are about 3/4 through the movie.  I was pretty freaked out by them myself.  Other than that, it was thumbs up.

You're probably wondering what the heck Katie's dressed for, too.  We decided to try something different this time around and let the girls dress themselves for the movie.  We told them it was about a prince/kings/queens and sent them to their room to get dressed (thinking they would pile on the princess gear).  This is what transpired...

Me waiting in front of the hallway with the camera (please excuse my walls that SEVERELY need to be painted).

The girls emerge wearing robes and Kenzie has a shirt on her head (huh?).  Ok, I just noticed that her shoes are in her pocket - lol!

They start to disrobe (oooo k).

Mom is totally thrown aback by seeing Katie in the famous dance recital outfit of 2006.

Sebastian tries to sneak in the pic while Katie poses very proudly.

More posing.  Kenzie said she wore her nightgown so that she wouldn't have to change into it later.  Mom thinks efficient or lazy??

A very entertained Jack watches from a barstool nearby.

Tom came up with the idea to have us pair up for the next movie night.  Kenzie and Dad are going to plan the treats/props and Katie and I will do the next one.  I think he's more creative than he lets on.

Let's see, I also highly recommend the movie Wanted.  It had some crazy CGI that normally bothers me, but didn't in this movie.  Good storyline, awesome action, and a twist - love that.  We also saw Burn After Reading, which Tom renamed "Burn Before Watching", because he wished he'd had.  Brad Pitt and George Clooney are amazing, but I still have NO idea what the point of that movie was.  One of those where you keep hoping the end is going to tie it all together - and it absolutely did not - at least for me/us.  Taken was a good one we saw on a date afternoon - very good action and not nearly as horrifying as I thought it would be, given the subject matter.  People were clapping in the movie theater - kinda wild.  Another action flick I gave a thumbs up to was Death Race.  I normally HATE Jason Stratham movies, but this one I liked.  I could definitely have done without the gore, but it had a good story line and was cool to watch.  I liked Waitress, too.  That one was a Saturday afternoon flick I watched by myself while Tom napped on the couch next to me.  It was much better than I expected.

That's all the movie talk I have for today - until tomorrow!

Pinch me

Did you have a nice weekend?  It was heavenly here in Chicagoland, let me tell you.  Sunny and 50 degrees on Saturday - wow!  We ran out for our weekly Wal-mart/Starbucks/family lunch out trip around noon and before getting in the car I stopped, held my arms out and directed my face right at the sun and soaked it up for a good minute.  Being cooped up in the cold this long has made me a little delirious.  It's supposed to hit 50 again this week - craziness (that I'm loving every minute of).

Yesterday was a nice stay-at-home day.  Tom did some plastering and lots of video game playing, the kids ran around in circles playing with toys and tearing my house apart, and I made jewelry - yeay!  I have new Crystal Briolette Necklaces in stock and matching earrings are now available (in your choice of 6 colors)...

They're just about an inch long - so, dainty and sweet.  I also have a couple of newly designed Silver Lining Bracelets and another Custom Photo Necklace in stock.

I'm having a totally insane day at work today, so I'll update tomorrow on our movie night last weekend and a few movie reviews of recent flicks we've seen.  I honestly don't even bother turning the TV on anymore unless the kids are in bed.  They are so unbelievably loud that we cannot hear ONE WORD that is being said, which frustrates me, so I don't try.  Except for American Idol on Wednesdays when my parents are over.  I've also tried to watch the new show Lie To Me the last couple of weeks (because my parents were over) and the 1/3 of the show I did catch, was amazing.  Someday TIVO, someday. 

I do think I'm going to have to find a way to watch the new season of Dancing With The Stars, though - have you heard the lineup yet?  So many I'm dying to see dance.  Lil Kim, Steve-O, Jewel - Belinda Carlisle!  Wow!

And speaking of dance shows, does anyone else out there watch America's Best Dance Crew on MTV?  I caught it during lunch last week and was tearing up it was so insane.  I saw it about a year ago and it was good, but not nearly as good as this episode was.  They were dancing to songs from the 90's and one crew did a routine to "Too Legit to Quit" - it was crazy.  Then there was the all girl group with a that did a full minute long headspin.  I get so crazy watching stuff like that - total goosebumps.  I never could spin on my head, but I did have my own piece of cardboard.  Lol!