Hearts, Sweets, and Steaks

I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day! There are people out there who truly believe that this is a made up holiday, but am not one of them! I love Valentines Day. I love the candy, all the red and pink everywhere, the time spent together, the little things are the things that really matter. It’s not about buying gifts and spending money. It’s merely about taking a day to fully celebrate the person you love. That can be your mom, your significant other, your best friend, the love is endless.

This Valentines Day was very low-key and spent at home, just the way I like it. I made some sweets, I made some steaks, and I made some art. That is all, that is just the way Elliot and I like our holidays. Elliot had already given me my Valentines day present of the Sam Adams Tour (I thought!) but yesterday I received these lovely flowers at work.

Ah! They are so gorgeous and really make my workspace smell amazing. What a guy huh? He also gave me a bag of Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids, my favorite. Last night, as my presents, I made him some homemade whoopie pies and a big steak dinner!

The whoopie pies I made out of a box of cake mix. The trick of making them in to cookies I learned from The Crepes of Wrath. Like I have said many times, I am no baker, and these were easy and they tasted delicious! I put vanilla frosting in between the two cookies and smooshed them together and rolled the edges in red sugar.

Now the steak dinner, oh the steak. I bought two large rib eyes, potatoes, and some red peppers. I made a dry rub for the steaks with seasoning salt and lemon pepper and threw those puppies in a pan with some melted butter. I cooked them on medium low for 5 minutes on each side. This depends on how you like your steak. I like mine medium and Elliot likes his medium rare. The potato recipe is one I have used many times from The Pioneer Woman. These Crash Hot Potatoes are a favorite among everyone I serve them to. The peppers I just roasted on the same pan with the potatoes at the same time. I splashed from EVOO on them and bam!

One last thing I did was a little painting. While I love painting, and I’ve shown some of it on here, it’s not my strongest suit. Elliot is really in to traditional tattoos and tattoos in general so I thought that I would paint him a traditional Sailor Jerry inspired painting, again, just inspired. I could never recreate those! So I put this on here with this being a no judgement zone.

I hope every one had a great Valentines day as well. What did you do on that special day? And who is that special someone in your life?

KAWS Two

Remember when I posted about KAWS? Well my friend from work found this Vimeo video and I couldn’t help but post it. It’s shot so beautifully and I can’t wait to go back and visit to see this sculpture. It is going to look amazing in the spring.

FFFFOUND Friday 12.17.10

Etsy Holiday Finds

1. Floating Star Beeswax Candles 2. Christmas Macaroons
3. Green Berry Wreath 4. Seasons Greetings Deer
5. Wooden Snowflake Ornaments 6. Dove Letterpress Tags

Holiday for the Honeys Day 5

There is nothing better then being able to fill up your empty wall space with a unique piece of art. These prints from Brainstorm are fun, colorful, and will brighten up any room in your honeys house. Frame them and write a little note on the back for your honey to remember when and why you gave them such a special gift.

Holidays for the Honeys Days 3 and 4

I apologize for missing Day 3 of holiday for the honeys! I was enjoying some holiday time myself in New York City with my mom and sister.

Day 3 for your honey

Simple! Airfare! Vacation!
I recently signed up for New Flashes and deals on Travelzoo, and they have some serious deals. A vacation can be one of the best presents anyone can recieve.

Day 4 for your honey

For the design/art honeys like me. An AIGA membership. An AIGA membership is crucial for designers in training and even designers who have been in their line of work for years. The membership gets them access to meetings, opening design jobs, and new information.

Lovely ladies

The thing that I love most about illustration is that not one piece can ever be duplicated. Even by it’s own artist. There will always be a different stroke, or a heaviness to the hand that wasn’t there before. While it will come close, illustration is always true and organic. Some of my favorite illustrators happen to be women, and all three have such different qualities that I could never compare them.

Marguerite Sauvage

 

Gemma Correll

 

Kris Atomic

KAWS

Yesterday during our lunch break, a few of us decided to head down the road to Ridgefield. To be honest, there is not much there but large houses, cute dogs, and The Aldrich. I was alway curious to check out this contemporary museum, but have hesitated since it is a pretty good distance from where I actually live. But from work, it was only about a 20 minute drive. And the drive was well worth it.

The exhibit that was on display that we went to see was the KAWS exhibit. For those of you who are unaware of who KAWS is, I’m almost sure you have seen some of his paintings or sculpture somewhere. They are unforgettable and once of a kind.

From his sculptures

To his pop culture work with Kanye West

Brian Donnelly, aka KAWS, is a Brooklyn based artist and designer who started in the graffiti world and quickly progressed to a more recognizable artist through his street art. Taking the culture and characters that we know and love universally and twisting them to make them humorous and witty.

All that I had on me yesterday was my iPhone, so I snapped a few quick shots of the exhibition myself. Apparently to take pictures, you have to have somebody be in them as well.

If you live in Connecticut, please don’t pass up the chance to see the KAWS exhibit, it is by far one of the best and most interesting exhibits to come to this state in a very long time, and it shouldn’t be missed.

Jacqueline Pytyck

Two months ago I contacted Jacqueline Pytyck of Jump Illustration about a tattoo that I asked her to help me create. Her illustrations are gorgeous. They are feminine and delicate, and her attention to details amazes me.

We worked back and forth, me taking her advice and her taking mine. We worked very well together and I got more then what I expected. From my tattoo Jacqueline submitted the artwork to Threadless. The scoring is over, but you should still check it out! I don’t want to show off (not just yet!) what she created for my tattoo because I would rather show it when I have it all completed. The process will be a long, and expensive trip, but I cannot wait to have a piece of Jacqueline’s artwork on me. She was so great to work with and it an amazing artist. Everyone should check out her blog as well as her website.

Eliana Rose

When my cousin Jami announced that she was pregnant with her first child, myself and every one that I talked to was so thrilled! Nine months  later, Eliana Rose was born on November 2nd (her exact due date) at 1:46 am.
As a present to bring to Jami for her gorgeous little girl, I wanted to make her something that she would love and appreciate. I spent just a few hours working on this piece and I am so happy with the outcome! Jami and Eliana love it as well!

(I apologize about the awful photography, my camera is very old and I plan on purchasing one as a nice Happy Hanukkah present to myself .)
Click to see the steps that I went through to make this personalized name frame.