New on Thursday

I am super lucky, and was chosen to be interviewed on a blog!

To check out my interview, go on over to To Paraphrase, or click here to go right to my interview...

Its always nice to have someone be interested in your work, especially other artists. (And especially ones who understand when you take forever to do the interview!) I think she made me look good, choosing really nice images of my work. Thanks so much!!

Also new today, added a item to the shop.

Meghan is now a bookmark!

I worked on how to crop this painting for quite some time, trying many different shapes. I think the slender oval with a border suits the image and I am very happy with how it came out. And the glossy lamination really makes the colours look rich. :-)

Its so close to Halloween I am vibrating with spooky happiness. I started making cookies (multiple kinds!) and I might get to visit with foster kitties on Halloween too. *Plus* I might even get to go to Ikea to feed my buying-jars-to-put-baking-ingredients-in fetish. Busy!!

New print!

A new matted print in the shop today.

Meghan. A 5 by 7 inch print in an 8 by 10 mat.

There are parts of this painting I looove, and parts I haaate.

Her face in the original is so pretty with such subtle layers, and some of the background splotches are so perfect...But she has major proportional problems. Haha. I don't feel bad about tweaking her a bit in Photoshop, because I like the final outcome. I think the print looks great. The colours look really rich and warm in the off white mat.

I am also assembling some bookmarks this afternoon with this image on them, and they look really nice so far. Will probably post them later today.

And, I started a winter/Christmas/Holiday project! It was hard to do it before Halloween, but I am responsible like that. ;-)

Friday is not a day for stress

Sewing sucked my will to live.

So I moved onto something else.

Sometimes your plans change. I was struggling with sewing, and everything was going wrong. So I just put it all away for another day and started something new. Much better!

We shall see how this goes...

Sock thing.

This is a sock creature being born in my studio.

What will he be? His little personality is forming...Life as a pair of pink socks can't be easy, he might be a tough-ass. haha

I will see what he wants to be tomorrow morning.

Sparkle.

Sparkled!

A little painting in the studio getting its final touches...Notice a similarity in someones hair colour? HEE HEEEE.

Black Sparkle.

This little painting has a hand painted frame too. It has been hanging around in my studio for months and months! So I thought I should actually get around to filling it. Adding the little black sparkle necklace and bow on top of the varnish was fun. I know the idea of adding sparkle to anything could make it a cheap piece of junk so it was a gamble...but I think it looks cute. Cute junk!

Its available in the shop right now...

Ok, now to clean up a billion tiny sparkle flecks from everything...

New in the shop...

I have two new little items for my shops today!

This is "Little Kay"

This little original painting is on a handmade polymer clay ornament. I am always experimenting with painting of different surfaces. I haven't decided if I am going to do more of these or not, it was fun, but sometimes fun isn't a good business decision. haha.

I made this little fox for my Blackforestcake Etsy shop. Aw, isn't he sweet?

And...

I got my cookie cake for 1500 sales! That baby was eaten so fast. Sure, I like to make real homemade cookies from scratch, but sometimes an overly sweet mall-made treat is just what you need. JUNK! :-)

I somehow hurt my back like a sad old woman, and sitting in my studio chair is killing me. Hopefully I heal and can get pack to work, because the next two weeks are a basically the best time of year. I have so many plans for things I want to make!! CakesCookiesDecorationsCostumesCoffins! :-D Can you tell I am excited?!

Montreal

I went to Montreal!

And ate poutine.

Won a trip to POP Montreal, a music festival all over the city. Went by train! I put some pics as a Flickr set.

Here is a quick description of the trip:
-So many screw ups by the newspaper we won the trip from, they sent us someone else's train ticket, then only sent one ticket instead of two! UGH.
-SO bloody cold.
-everyone was super nice, even when I was like "Pardon me?" when they spoke French to me. (I kept feeling so rude!)
-gorgeous architecture *whimpers*
-one billion new bands, one billion indie kids
-booze at supermarket and gas stations (so WEIRD!)
-should have brought a black towel for my hair (sorry hotel!)
-Want to go back.

Sweet!

Ok, important stuff first.

I made sweet lemon poppy seed cakes.

YUM. I used a recipe from The Martha Stewart Livings Cookbook: The Original Classicsbut no one tell Martha that I added poppy seeds to the cake. Like really, lemon cakes are supposed to have poppy seeds in the cake, not just on top. Really!

They are super good, with a blast of lemon syrup that is supposed to seep through the cake but just really stays on top just under the sugar drizzle. Trying hard not to just scarf down both cakes in one day.

Next sweet thing..

Two paintings that I have been slowly finishing for the last few days. I might have to do one hundred more of these, as there are so many cat faces that need representation. They are available in my Etsy shop.

Third super sweet thing is:

Won a trip to Montreal!

Going to Pop Montreal on a TRAIN. Can you tell what part I am excited about? Haha. I lived in a "train town" most of my life and never went on a train. It just sounds fun to me. I don't know any of the bands at this festival, but there are so many i am sure I will like some of them. Never been to Montreal before, it will be *so* interesting.

AND

1500 sales at my Etsy!!!! SWEEEET.

Thanks to all my customers, you guys are big buckets of sweet sugar and stuff. Big thanks to Lynds the Crazy Cat Lady for the purchase that put me over the top. :-) YAY.

Oh yeah, and last sweet thing is that its getting colder and I can wear coats. YES. This is a big deal to me. Coat addiction activate! :-)

Halloween fever.

They are back!

Halloweeeeen Pins!

I decided to bring back my two little halloween pins again this year. I am just offering them until Halloween (duh!) I think I am more excited about Halloween than usual, maybe I am just embracing my dorkiness earlier than I usually do. :-)

Halloween is great.

New black things...

New things in my shop this week...

Glittery bat! A hanging clay bat covered in the finest black glitter. He has little orange glitter eyes too. Black glitter is EVERYWHERE!

Glittery Coffin! This little clay coffin has both silver and black glitter. Its really quite tiny in real life.

And this new Bad Black Cat Bookmark. I had another black cat bookmark, but since that has been sent off to blackforestcake, I thought I needed another one. This one is a bit more of an evil little black cat. Not that black cats are ever evil. No. Never....

I have a few more things that I am editing photographs for too!

I will raise it from the boneyard.

Its kind of dead around here...

There comes a time in every blogs life when they sit un-updated and boring. Its inevitable! I can't help it! So its not even my fault or anything... (haha, I think they bought it.)

Ok, so I have made up a bunch of little sets of mini gravestones. I already listed a set of four, and a set of two. I could have made them all day, its so FUN.

I have been keeping busy doing nothing. Buying books, making terrible cookies, trying to eat veggies and nerding out over halloween. This weekend my neighbourhood has a street festival, so much food and drink will be had. I will have to try to make more of an effort to take pics and post them. Its a cute festival.

Blog entry! Hah. I did it!

Socks

I made a sock creature for a friends birthday, then got a great idea to make...

Haha! He is cute! I listed him at blackforestcake.

There is a quirkiness built into sock monkeys. Judging from every one I have ever encountered, there is bound to be some interesting flubs, lumps, and weirdness that makes each sock monkey its own. They naturally have that kind of unique wonkiness that people who make hip, handmade stuff often try to fake. haha! I think I will make more. Its fun!

The one I made for my friend is a prototype, and is still secret. Its a little less "cutesy" and a little more "evil." I am working on the design a bit more before revealing it.

Now I have to go lay in a wilted puddle on the floor. Melt.

Lil clay things

No, I haven't died.

I just took a mini-vacation.

Maybe it was a bit longer than I expected, but circumstances called for it. I guess its finished now and I am working on a few projects all at once...

This is one of the things I am trying. Sculpey!

Its a really easy product to work with. It feels a lot like plasticine, but bakes hard in an oven. I am experimenting with building little wire armatures, and baking each little item more than once, building up layers. Its fun. I think I could use a few more tools though...

The real purpose of making these wonky little things is so I would have something cute to paint. Sculpey actually comes in tons of colours, but since I was going to paint everything, I just used the normal artists "Super Sculpey."

You can see my little items are in fact little.

I know some people get REALLY good at making tiny objects, and it can take years. While researching it I saw a ton of amazing creations... I have a lot of ideas for things to make, but they all revolve around the idea that I will paint them, so I have to do this test batch of little things to figure out the mechanics of that. Making little clay items is super fun, but if they look like a kid did them after they are painted (like they do now) then I am abandoning the experiment.

So the first watery coat of primer is on (that is what you see in the photo) then I will probably sand them a bit, then paint and seal with varnish. Crossing my fingers it will alllll work out. I might declare this weekend a "working weekend" where I just watch movies and drink tons of coffee and make stuff.

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!