I cooked rainbow pancakes!

This morning I somehow awoke 30 minutes before Petra. Since I've been playing on Pinterest with much of my free time, I decided to put my new found inspiration to work over breakfast! I wanted to make a rainbow cake, but rainbows seems more like a breakfast treat!

'Twas a pretty simply concept to execute, all I did was added food coloring (about four drops) to 3/4 cups of pancake batter and víola! Instant breakfast party!

I found out Adam Wallacavage has a show at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City!

My heart is pounding and I can barely type...

I love Adam Wallacavage's cooky, turn-of-the-century-turned-tentacle chandeliers (I had another post on his earlier work and, myself am working on some sculpture) and I am enraptured and flabbergasted that his newest works are down the freeway from me in Culver City's Corey Helford Gallery!

His latest is truly breathtaking. I cannot appreciate enough how elegantly Wallacavage traverses the line between macabre and quirky. There is nothing cute about his work, so I don't mean to make light of the otherworldliness of his cephalopodian sconces and lamps - they are impressive, ostentatious, and striking. Subtle in their absurdity.

Since my last encounter with his pieces, it much has changed - the composition of the chandeliers seems to take precedence over his previously trademarked gaudy embellishments. The design is much more three-dimensional, as well, with multiple angles and breadth in mind whereas previous works featured specific intersections. Even his colors are handled differently (and wonderfully); he hasn't relinquished tawdry contrasts and saturated tones, but he's given more attention to the transitions between his generally two-toned palettes. The shades move over the pieces in a more organic form, giving fleshy depth to the skin of his meandering tentacles despite the outlandish hues.

The fact alson that I get to use this dusty vocabulary excites me! When I look at these pieces, it seems almost that some words were created for aesthetic encounters such as this:

Ashley Made me a Happy Birthday!

A month ago I sent Ashley a cigar-box birthday package full of wax-paper wrapped goodies to remind her of home and of her passions - instant snow, multi-flavored local honey sticks, a tree, and - the crowning piece - a prism! (Ashley loves triangles and colors - how could she not own a prism?!)

What I got back for my birthday package was even better!! Beautifully illustrated sea-creatures rendered by her own hand, exotic candies, and even pearls! Here are some snap State-side snap shots from the grab-bag goodies and CD & card illustrations.

More photographs as taken across the sea can be seen on her blog or in the quoted segment below:

The Sea is Laced with Gold

Here's a little calendar I made for my dear friend, Danica. It was her birthday in December, and I was a little late. Hence the multiple year thing. There was also a mix CD, as there tends to be with gifts given as of late, but I'll let her post those pictures.

I made a biscuit wreath.

I love biscuits and I love wreaths so this was a ridiculously and easy joyful craft for me!

I first saw the idea on A Semi-Homemade Thanksgiving, but after scouring downtown San Luis Obispo for leaf shaped cookie cutters, I settled on some fun shapes that the Sheean household already had at hand.

The only ingredient needed for this quick n' easy, pretty biscuit wreath is Pillsbury/Trader Joe's pre-made grand biscuits.

I made a cuttlefish!

Dear reader,

If you are not Casey Fay, you may read on.
Otherwise, you are going to have to turn back now because the following post is about the incredible Christmas present your girlfriend got you.
If you stumbled upon me because you were Googling yourself and found your name and illustrations on my blog, then you should be totally embarrassed that I caught you!! And that I'm going to tell Ashleyanne of your narcissistic tendencies.

Love,
Danica

P.S. It's ok for you to look at da pie stuff. But nothing else!

A dear friend from my favorite moments of high school put in a custom order on Etsy with me last month after having shared via facebook our mutual of cephalopods. As it turns out, she - like me -is in cahoots with a super nerdy wonderful illustrator! Casey Fay is the author of the should-be/soon-to-be renowned children's book Wonders of the Sea: Cephalapods (currently sold out - DANG IT) and the illustrator of many awesome quirky, colorful, animal adventure pieces (I want this one so bad!)

For this Christmas, his lovely lady wanted to bestow upon him a gift celebrating his affection for these wonderful invertebrates of the sea. She enlisted my services - seeing as I manifest my own love for cephalopods by crochet hook - with a special request for a brightly colored cuttlefish. I hope my handiwork reflects Mr. Fay's whimsical imagery justly:

I learned to make Japanese water balloons!

A few weeks ago, Ashley put up a series of lovely blog posts what engendered great feelings of whimsy in me. One of the things she mentioned was sending a birthday package to a friend (I would venture to guess it went to mutual friend currently featured in Ashley's blog) that had a bag, with instructions, full of folded origami balloons. I decided I must learn this for myself! And then put these little balloons in an emergency party kit a long with some other goodies (mentioned below) - you can, too! With these step by step photos, I did my darnedest to depict how pictorial instructions for you (mouse over the image for step instructions):

At the same time as discovering Ashley's balloons, Hollin visited and photographed the 6th Annual Puces Pop DIY Craft & Fair where equal amounts of celebratory decor dotted the church's basement and merchandising displays of crafters' booths. A particularly lovely and simple decoration Hollin captured were the pom-poms strung up above the entrance:

Apparently, though, you can purchase something similar for $65 from anthropologie (while these pom-poms are felted, they do NOT make this project worth that hunk of change in my humble opinion):

I finally got myself to Michael's where I was able to purchase a HUGE bag of brightly colored pom-poms for $5 and string them together myself with some magenta embroidery floss - it was very therapeutic:

(Yes. Our hallway is pink.)