Pieces of Anna

I wrote this post a while back as part of an application for the APW intern position. Some other lucky lady got the job, so I figured I might as well post what I wrote here on the blog. Yup, that's my engagement ring! I have a confession to make: I didn’t really want to have this wedding. A year ago, my then-boyfriend (now fiancé) and I were in the pre-engaged state, and we were working hard to earn the status of an engaged couple. We bought marriage books and spent many evenings discussing the hard questions: do we want to have children, how will we support each other and balance our careers when the babies enter our lives, how will we combine our vegetarian and bacon-loving food habits to create healthy lifestyles, how will we incorporate our different family traditions into our own baby family. We self-counseled ourselves into a place where we were comfortable and confident with our coupledom. We were ready to take the next step. I did not want a surprise proposal, ...

If you read this article about fungi discovered in the Amazon that can eat plastic, you might get the idea that the happy science accident happened yet again, and all our pollution problems will soon be resolved. Just like penicillin was accidentally discovered in a moldy Petri dish, you may form an image of clueless undergraduates poking around the Amazon rainforest, collecting random plant samples, and fortuitously stumbling upon an all-important discovery. Perhaps, when the samples make their way back to the lab, a student notices that the Ziploc bag in which one of the samples was transported seems to have developed some holes, as if it was eaten from the inside. Oh happy day! The undergrads discovered a fungus that eats plastic - an answer to our pollution problem ! From here . Originally adapted from here . That's not exactly what happened. The truth behind this somewhat misleading article was uncovered in the originally published research paper . Research into biode...

While D was away for a conference, I decided to do a little furniture rearranging in the house. The truth is, I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but never made time for it. With D gone, I suddenly had all this free time on my hands. The living room was first on my redecorating list. Here is what it looked like before: The living room, before. This was the view from the kitchen/hallway. It really wasn't a bad arrangement (although this photo makes it look better than it was in real life!). But I wanted to experiment, and figured the risk is quite low - I could always put the furniture back the way it was! One of my biggest complaints was that when I was reading a book on the couch, by the white floor lamp, there was nowhere for me to put my tea mug. There was no end table on the other side of the sofa, and the coffee tables ended up being too far away to reach comfortably. And the empty corner behind the couch became a dumping ground for all our wedding-rel...

Amanda of Poppies and Ice-cream had a lot of ricotta left over after a Christmas cooking adventure, and she reached out to the blogosphere for advice on what to do with all that ricotta. I immediately thought of a recipe for "syrnichki", delicious pancake-like things that I've enjoyed eating all my life. So I shared my grandmother's recipe with Amanda, and she tried it out! I was very impressed that she made the perfect syrnichki on the first time - it certainly took me many failed attempts to get the recipe just right. Syrnichki made by Amanda. From her blog . For illustrated step-by-step instructions, the origin of syrnichki, and for the original recipe, check out Amanda's blog .

Since I wrote this post some time ago, I had to follow up. Because this photo almost made me spill tea all over my keyboard. Yes, that is a cake. Found here .

I have been doing a lot of thinking about centerpieces and my plan to DIY them. The thought of having to make about ten centerpieces AND four bouquets the day before the wedding was kind of giving me a mild panic attack. The idea of having non-floral centerpieces that could be made ahead of time was beginning to appeal to me more and more. As usual, I did lot of research on the blogosphere and added more ideas to my Pinterest wedding board than I know what to do with. Although all the different options were overwhelming, it was a good brainstorming exercise. And as a result, I now have a plan for our non-floral centerpieces! Behold, the inspiration. I wanted to take those mason jars that I bought a while ago (on the cheap!) and wrap them in jute part of the way, with the same method I used to make the wine and beer bottle vases . Basically, they would look something like this: Mason jars wrapped in jute. Found here . Then, instead of flowers, I would make pom-poms (also known...

When it came time to design our wedding invitation ( DIY , people!), I knew it would help to feast my eyes on lots of pretty pictures before I got started. So I scoured the internet and collected my favorite invitation designs. Take a look (and note that I was only interested in the design of the invitation, not its wording): Black and white text color scheme, color added in the border and background, one simple image. From here . Black and white text, color added in the background, flowers but not "flowery". From here . Again, tight color scheme, a bit too "lovey-dovey" for me (literally!). From here . Love the font (same one I used on the STDs), colorful text, white background, cool flower graphics. From here . By YoungHouseLove (awesome people!). Simple, DIY, graphics represent their wedding colors. From here . This one was my favorite design. Cool font, borderless, repeatable graphics (printer friendly!). From here . Judging by t...