Greetings from the Produce section

Produce greetings. I have more to come, but these vegetable cards are the newest addition to the great opus that is my greeting card line.

Love this origin poster!

I want this poster. I love this site.

Spring and fermenting

New this week! Plants are looking bright and excited. I do love my succulents and air plants.

My first Kombucha making experiment. That white stuff on top is a new scoby growing. This after 6 days of growing. I am going to try a little tomorrow, day 7. I have read a little and I think I will let it go for 14 days if its not tangy enough. Then you can do this cool thing where you put it in a plastic bottle that is sealed and it can become carbonated. I also plan on trying a few different juices to make it interesting. Its all very new, but I am excited to start the experimenting!

Brewing Methods

This is a little project I have been stewing over for awhile. I wanted to make a little coffee brewing lab of different manuel brewing methods. I put the La Marzocco in the image because its always in brewing labs even though its not a full manuel method. I know that a less crazy coffee person might wonder why there is no mr coffee. The answer is a manuel method is something you can fully control and adjust quality of as you. Mr. Coffee has so many variables that are outside of your control that is makes for the least ideal brewing method. Some of the methods represented here have fancy new styles, bodies, and colors. I wanted to choose the models that these methods are recognizable by. I also included an extract mojo, scale, hand grinder, and an scaa flavor wheel. 

I am really happy with how this turned out and I plan to make some accompanying "how to's."

Athenian Shrimp

This is a little something I did tonight for a wedding present commissioned by a friend. I have been itching to try something new for awhile in terms of illustrated recipes. I finally got my chance. It seems that these days I find excuses not to do illustrations unless I am given an assignment. I feel really dumb about that especially because I have had this in my head forever. I have been thinking about Andy Warhol a lot and his really influential illustrated recipes. I am really happy I tried this and I think I needed to do something different to feel like I could. I have been a slump in coffee work and in my art work. I feel like I have been going through the motions. I am happy with this solutions. I hope I can do more work that makes me feel like I'm changing.

merry-go-round

I have been in a rather substantial funk lately. Its hard to shake depression because there is not reason for it so there seems to be no solution. I get this way when the weather goes from winter to spring, which seems odd but apparently I am not alone in this. Seasonal affective disorder happens in spring more than winter for me. I get this feeling of blah where I cannot really muster the energy to start big projects. I have been having a hard time wanting to draw at all. I am making myself engage and do small projects, but I feel uninspired. I know this feeling goes away and for now I am trying to go through the motions until it passes. They say spring is the renewal season, but as JJ and many of our favorite sitcoms point out its also the season where you realize you are starting the same cycle over again and nothing has changed. I know the cycle has changed a bit, but sometimes I just want to be knocked off my axis.

Speaking of which, I bought something very exciting! (Another side affect of this depression is the desire to purchase things in leu of happiness) I decided it was time to get the Barefoot Ted shoes! If you have read Born To Run then you will know that this crazy guy wears thongs running and has created a thong line. I have vibram five fingers and I wear them every day of the year except when its snowing/raining/below 40, and I love them. I really want to try the thongs for the summer. They can be run in and I can wear them out and about with JJ without being as embarrassing....maybe. I have always loved doing things that seem a little weird or maybe insane and this seemed both. I saw this guy who runs in the park (we call him running man) and he either wears these thongs or runs completely barefoot and I thought how awesome it would be to have them as another way to run barefoot without being completely exposed to the dirt/glass/who-knows-what. AND to matters crazier I bought the do it yourself kit. Yup, I am going to MAKE my own shoes...mind blown.

I will, of course, document this weird endeavor in photo or illustration or both. Also, in equally mind blowing news I ordered a skoby (kombucha mother) for making kombucha. I am excited and nervous for its arrival. I want to do a series with my best friend where we explore the do-it-yourself culture. There is apparently a book about this, but it would be fun to do an series anyway because I am ever optimistic/naive and she is forever skeptical. I kind of want it to be a show...like a cooking show, but or just a video series. I think artisan culture is everywhere and sometimes its worth the effort, but sometimes its not. I recently heard a great planet money podcast where they discussed the issue of artisanry and how its not a fad, but actually the future of business and our generation. I am curious if its actually something we can keep up or if it will slowly kill us...like the internet.

I am going to try try try to start one of the other project monsters I have created for myself. I need distractions that are productive until I hear from my agent. I hate this game.

Puzzling Case of the Shrinking Pants

There are those days where the world does not make sense. I hate doing laundry.

IF: Puzzled

(website has been updated! finally!)

baby brain

The babies are coming! And I should really have greeting cards to welcome them. So here are the first of many new cards to come. I am trying to fill in the gaps in my not-so-free time. I also have some large illustrations that I am putting off.

Note: these are not gender specific. I get real tired of the girl/boy cards. Not that expect boys to wear dresses if they don't want to I just get tired of pink and blue.