FOOD.

So I decided to drown my sorrows in the most stereotypical girl way. EAT FOOD.

But first I had to make food!

I was using my new KitchenAid mixer and Martha Stewart's Cupcake book. The topping recipe made SO much streusel that I was like "Oh crap, I did something wrong!" Each little cupcake was under a mini sandpile of topping!

But I soon learned that the recipe was fine. The cupcakes (muffins?) puffed up and they smelled amazing. Drizzle, drizzle with glaze and TAH-DAH!

YUM. I made a tray of big huge fatty cupcakes and a half tray of teeny little cutey muffins. They were so good, but so freaking messy! There is streusel topping fallout all over the apartment.

Here is the recipe online if you dare make these badboys. I even used my awesome cupcake papers I purchased on Etsy from The LayerCakeShop. On all the ones I DIDN'T photograph. OOPS. Trust me, they were adorable and stripey.

So my mixer is awesome, my cupcakes were awesome, and I even got myself to finish and list the painting I sneak peeked in my last post... Which is awesome if you ignore the general laziness.

Its listed at my blackforestcake shop. Duh.

So its Friday, and miraculously there are TWO cupcakes left. I must avert my eyes, so I can have cupcake and coffee while watching cartoons on Saturday morning.

Do not read if in a good mood.

Ok, stuff sucks. Phew! At least I got that out of the way right away.

Its summer, Toronto garbage strike, Etsy problems, wedding screw ups, traveling, job hunting, sensitive skin, people being idiots, my computer imploding...GAH!!! I could go on and on. WOE IS ME.

Here is a painting that has been sitting unfinished for weeks...

Its currently wet with its first coat of varnish and its at its most screw-upable. Little fuzzies, blobs, smears and bubbles stay the heck away from my varnish. I am SO not in the mood for it!!!

If it wasn't for the nightly baby raccoon party directly outside my window, I would be kicking puppies and slapping old ladies.

Can't all be sweetness and cakes can it? :-P

FREE SHIPPING SURPRISE!

Yep! FREE.


I have never offered free shipping in my shop EVER before!

This is a surprise sale, and it won't last for long. So if you have been holding off getting that spooky special something, now is the time!

EDIT: My free shipping promotion is now over! Thanks to all those who took part.

Friday. Yesss.

The two new sticker sets for blacklilypie are in the shop!



Monogram Sticker Set (Customizable!) and Gothic Girl Set.

I received my birthday gift a day early! Mostly because it was in a big box and my dude had no where to hide it...Ok, and because I was bouncing around asking for it constantly like a spoiled child.



KitchenAid mixer! Isn't it cute? Even with my greasy fingerprints all over it and photographed lazily at night... I was just complaining that many of the dessert recipes I want to make need a mixer. It looks small in the photo, but in reality its a monster to someone with 2 square feet of counter space.
I teased dude that it was sort of a weird and "wifely" gift to get for your birthday. He said it was this or a gift certificate for an expensive tattoo. Both gifts will last forever. ;-)

I will have to buy myself something immature with my birthday gift spoils. (Thanks Mum!) Makeup! Clothes! OOh, or maybe some imported good from the chinese mall next weekend. *Drools*

Cake and Pie

I have been focusing on adding new products to my cutesy shop, blackforestcake. But I have not forgotten about blacklilypie!

This is a sticker set that is waiting to have its photoshoot. I just snapped this one as I was re-shooting some other items. *EDIT* They are now listed here. I have a few other sticker sets on the board too.

I designed this topper to be used with multiple sets, making it easier and faster to produce with just a few elements that change. I am working on a monogram set this afternoon. :-)

I have been posting links to some books I am in love with on Twitter, but I don't want anyone missing out, so here they are:


..

-Martha Stewart's Cupcakes-I liked the Cookies book she did so much I had to have the cupcake one. I can't wait to try some of them. Plus there is vampire bat cupcake. I pretty much squealed. Love her or hate her, she has good people working on her books.

-Gothic and Lolita by Phaidon-There is just something so awesome about seeing real people wearing clothes like this with all their little DIY additions and attention to detail. I just get a fuzzy feeling when people are weirdos, and they go to weirdo bars and cafes with their weirdo friends and don't care if you think they are silly. I also love seeing peoples rooms.

-Japanese Goth-Illustration,fashion,dolls,bands, and everything in between. Would have made a really great huge coffee table book. I just eat up some of those beautiful pictures. Here is an interview with one of the authors and some examples from the book...

I like books. There are stacks of them I should mention here. Maybe I should try to keep on that. ;-)

blackforestcake!!

SOOOOO....

My new shop is live!

The idea behind opening a new shop is so I can eventually separate my items into cute and kid friendly items and spookier and darker items. I know many peoples cute and spooky axis cross, but many peoples don't. So instead of limiting myself to create things that ride the middle, I can feel free to be as sweet or as dark as I like. Ahhh, thats better! :-)

This new shop will focus on animals, cakes and sweets, items for kids (and big kids.) I will be adding lots of affordable paper goods, some prints for kids rooms, original art...

The new shop will never be as large as blacklilypie, which is my true love. But its nice to have more space to stretch, and bouncing back and forth between dark and light will be great for fighting creative fatigue.

Thanks for looking! Now everyone go eat some cake.

Mini Trip

Zoomed home to my parents on the weekend. It was a crazy fast trip, there and back powered by ice cream, Tim Hortons and chocolate mini eggs.

Zip! I saw a moose but I was too slow.

I spent my weekend lounging on the deck with my parents, soaking up that tiny sliver of time in Northern Ontario that you can be outside when its warm and the bugs are not biting you yet. I even ate a hamburger from the BBQ, which is the thing I pine for the most each summer. I don;t even care about meat at all, but the BBQ smell and the summer feeling just makes me so happy.

Their lawn is a mass of these tiny flowers. They look so organized in batches of colours...Love them. I think everyone agreed it was a shame to mow them, so no one did.

So you can see that I obviously didn't get any work done.

I am continuing to work on my second Etsy shop items, I keep having to push back my shop opening date and its making me grumpy. But it will happen soon. I will finally commit to a day and start sneak peeking items. Just not today. :-)

Now if the delivery man would arrive with the supplies I ordered, I can get to printing cute creatures!