sweet surprises and tasty treats

I know Valentine's Day isn't until tomorrow but I just couldn't wait to post. I'm such a sucker for anything lovey-dovey that I've been listening to too many love songs and planning some cute surprises for my valentine all week.

Unfortunately for one of my favorite holidays, it landed on a Monday this year and I have an MKT exam the next day so not much celebrating will be going on the day of. On the bright side, my sweetie planned an adorable early surprise for me.

On the menu: a sensational home-cooked meal (one I didn't have to lift a finger for!) followed by a slice of my favorite dessert, the chocolate tower truffle cake from Cheesecake Factory (he knows me too well). My surprise even came complete with a box of chocolates and some gorgeous orchids.

Could I have asked for anything better? Don't think so...

As usual, I had to document it all in pictures so check these out!

 {the beautiful dinner table}

 {my valentine pouring me a delicious glass of white wine}

{the perfect dinner that looks like it might as well have come from a restaurant}

 {the greatest cake ON THE PLANET (it's so rich we had to finish the other half of this slice as a midnight snack) }

{and can't forget about the flowers...}

Hope you all have some sweetness coming your way tomorrow too <3

loving lea's looks

Aside from the fact that I love her on Glee, Lea Michele is quickly climbing to the top of my list of Red Carpet fashionistas to watch. She seriously knows the meaning of the word "Glamour", or at least her stylist does!

Here are some of my favorite Lea looks:

{2011 SAG Awards in Oscar de La Renta}

{2011 Golden Globes in another Oscar de la Renta}

 {2010 SAG Awards in Catherine Malandrino}

 {2010 Golden Globes in Oscar de la Renta (yet again) }

{2010 Grammy's in Romona Keveza}

Needless to say, she looks stunning every time and I would kill to wear any of those dresses. 

Keep it up, Lea!

unnecessary necessities

For those of you with a photography/camera obsession like me, Photojojo is the website for you! I currently have a wish list a mile long, from little trinkets to much more expensive ones. Here are some of the ones that are at the top of my list (even though I pretty much want everything on the website) Make sure to click the pictures for direct links to the site!

 

 {dslr shaped USB. ok, adorable!}

 

{the tokyo dreamer camera strap in baby blue to make my nikon an even cuter accessory when I wear it around my neck}

 

 {the cutest scrapbook kit i've ever seen}

 

{the gorilla pod, to make sure my camera can stand up anywhere and avoid the occasional shaky shots}

 

{and these's tres tres cute photo stickers}

As for those stickers, they're slowly climbing to the top of my list so I can jazz up all the pictures I take with this beautiful baby... which came in the mail this past week!

 

I've been dying for a polaroid camera FOREVER and can't wait to take mine out for a spin!

Expect to see a few of my snap shots up here soon :) 

sweet thing

I discovered my obsession with banana nut muffins a few months ago when I was looking for a snack at the c-store on campus. Once I took my first bite, I was hooked. Curious to find out if they were easy to make at home, I looked them up on the Food Network website, found a recipe by Tyler Florence and decide to make them. 

Let me just start off by saying that the most difficult part of this recipe is waiting a week to let the bananas get ripe, especially in a house where we eat them all the time. Once the bananas are ready though, everything else is a piece of cake. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, pop them in the oven for 20 min and they're good to go. I do swap the pecans the recipe calls for walnuts, but thats pretty much all I change.

Here are some pictures of a few of the steps and one of the the scrumptious finished product:

{bananas and sugar... I could eat this as is}

{chopped walnuts... some for inside the muffins, some for an extra special pretty topping}

{a stick and a half of melted butter makes these muffins not as good for you as the name makes them sound but boy, does it make them delish}

{an ice-cream scoop makes perfect sized muffins every time}

{a decorative little sprinkle of walnuts on top}

{the gorgeous finished product... they flew in less than 2 days haha}

As usual, I can't do anything in the kitchen without music playing so heres a little taste of my muffin playlist

john mayer-heart of life

norah jones- come away with me

dave matthews band- if i had it all

ingrid michaelson- the way i am

michael buble-home

bon appetit!