Cupcake Heaven

I have the unpleasant task of creating an illustration for Tattoo Flash Magazine involving cupcakes. I am totally kidding. About the 'unpleasant' nature not the illustration. So I went to Google image search and up pops this:

Brilliance and deliciousness all rolled into a tasty hand-held package. These wonderful creations are done by Hello Naomi. She makes cakes, cupcakes and cookies and each one looks better than the next.

Peruse her site and partake of her sweet goodness :D

Kick Ass Stitching

I was going to do a little entry about Ernst Haeckel and feature some pics of other artist's interpretations of him. Then I got to talking with Penny Nickels and well, this is just going to be about her!

I saw her work below on Flickr and just about shat myself. Not only is it of one of my favorite E. Haeckel pieces (Siphonophorae) but it's just so...impressively large!

What a long way we've come from the days of only having needlework patterns that involved eagles or kittens or winter snow scenes. Now we have brilliance such as this:

Penny Nickels -- work in progress, 200 hours in and barely halfway done (dear lord it's...amazing!)

A close up

What I loved most after chatting with Penny is that she was looking to challenge herself (and hopefully other artists will take a cue from her) by not doing the 'usual' needlework patterns.

"I just felt like, if we're going to stitch someone else's work, let's pick something that's beautiful and unusual." -- Penny

I agree, Penny, I totally agree! Keep on going - you're doing great!

Visit her blog that she writes alongside Johnny Murder -- Donkeywolf, their Etsy shop and enjoy!

Everything is Relative

This has been a very hard winter here in the northeastern US. In fact, it's been pretty hard for the entire US. Record rainfall in the west, snow in the south and blizzards up here. Two blizzards in one week, in fact. We're complaining and cold and tired of shoveling. Just went out today to buy a new shovel or maybe even something gas powered to help with the ol' back and there's patio furniture out! Ugh. Not one shovel in any store here.

So to help myself feel a bit better and not think to much about the snow piling up on our roof, I searched out some photos of Yuki-no-tani, or 'snow corridor' in japanese. The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route sees snowfall near the 20 meter mark and allows for snowplows to create these corridors which attract tourists the world over. I wouldn't mind seeing it in person some day myself.

The Doodlebug

I'm not big on taking on commissions involving people's pets, but only because I have no self-esteem when it comes to my work. I've got my set shape and pose and trying to capture someone's beloved pet is too much for me to handle.

Then along came The Doodlebug. Andrew Moore contacted me about doing a commission for his wife, Pamela, of their dog, Felicity. But she's not called Felicity, she's called The Doodlebug. She's even got her own blog, It's the Doodlebug!

After seeing this pic of her when she was a pup, I had to try and do something.

I hope I did justice to the Doodlebug as she seems like a lovely pup. Many thanks to Andrew and Pamela for believing in my work. Enjoy!

Beautiful Tea

Some wonderful friends of ours came over this weekend and brought some tea from Tea Forte. It was the most beautifully packaged item I've seen since Vosges chocolate. The tea bags themselves are little works of art and after looking at their site they also have wonderful accessories to complement that design. Their Cafe Cup was just one of those accessories.

Start your morning beautifully, enjoy!

Street Anatomy

I've just found my newest, favoritist website -- Street Anatomy via my long time favortie site, Ektopia. Street Anatomy was "created by Vanessa Ruiz, (and) obsessively covers the use of human anatomy in medicine, art, and design." This nugget of goodness was just one beautiful thing I found:

Amazing porcelain sculptures by Kate MacDowell.

Enjoy and have a safe, happy, healthy, prosperous New Year everyone!

Finally!

Pet portraits that I can get behind.

Lili Chin has been so wonderful to me in the past, it's finally my turn to reciprocate. She has been drawing pet portraits and donating 20% of the proceeds to Boston Buddies, a Boston Terrier rescue in Southern California.

But maybe you would rather have your portrait money go to another rescue, you say? She'll donate to any rescue you want and her drawings are amazing. Her prices are extremely reasonable and she shows you step by step how she makes each portrait and what you will get for your money. I mean, for one pet, her price is $100! and you get an 8" x 10" signed print and the high-resolution file for more printouts! You won't find a better deal than this, I'm telling you :D

 

So go over to Doggie Drawings and order up a portrait of your pet and your $ will go to the shelter of your choice.

Happy New Year!