June 30, 2013

VERY BERRY CAKE






Yesterday my mom came back from the garden with a comical amount of berries. There were at least 12 cups of blackberries and another 8 cups of blueberries.  This is definitely not a problem. But what do I do with all these beautiful fresh berries is the question?

I decided it was time to make a cake. I used yellow cake and put it in four different pans so I could fill each layer. The first layer is blackberry, second is raspberry, and another layer of blackberry for good measure. I also added whip-cream to every layer. Because I can. I topped the cake with more whip-cream and blueberries. It's almost all gone less than 24 hours later.

June 27, 2013

FIGURE DRAWING SERIES







This was a composite anatomy series I did a year ago for a figure drawing class. I finally fixed it up so it would be presentable for the web. If you like this project please go to my Behance and click the appreciate button! That would mean so much to me.

The project criteria was very basic. We just had to incorporate the figure in some way and start with a basic set of media and find new techniques to use them. There was a lot of trial and error. 

June 20, 2013

BEFORE & AFTER NO. 1








Before: This was my mothers shirt from back in the day. I have always liked this shirt. The cobalt blue stitching is all lovingly done by hand. However the shirt is much too bulky for me and the sleeves make me feel a little frou-frou. 

Plan: To make this into a more modern shirt and slim down the figure. 

Action: Undo all the hems. Take off the sleeves. Undo bunching around bust. Iron and resew bust. Undo bottom hem. Take off unnecessary fabric on sides and resew. Hem the sleeves. Resew bottom hem. Wash with a lot of oxiclean to remove yellowing. Iron and wear!

After: Very happy with how this turned out! When I'm wearing it the shoulders have a really lovely lift. The shirt feel much more modern now that all the unnecessary fabric is removed. This is going to be a great shirt. 

June 19, 2013

WEEKEND TRIP













30 years ago my crazy parents had a dream to build a cabin. So they did. They bought some property in the mountains and a log house kit. After five years of hard work they were finished. We still have the cabin but rarely find the time to go up there. My dad has always loved going to the mountains, getting away and enjoying nature. So I figured this was the perfect place to spend fathers day weekend.

Everything was in green and luscious. The flowers were in bloom painting the field yellow, orange, and white, with flecks of purple. A Willow Flycatcher had built its nest in the eves of our cabin. We could watch it feed its four baby birds while we ate dinner. A snake was found taking a nap above our front door, which we lovingly asked to move to another location. A skink sat soaking up the sun on a rock. Besides getting bitten to death by bugs it was a lovely trip.



June 18, 2013

BIRTHDAY PACKAGE





My sister lives over seas and her birthday is around the corner. Sadly, I can't be there to help her celebrate with her usual favorite peach strawberry pie. But I wanted to make her something extra special to let her know we still remember her...And of course to make her get a little teary eyed and want to come visit us again.

I filled the packaged with tasty treats from Trader Joe's, nail polish, and some makeup. I ended up going a little crazy wanting to make it look extra special but it was fun. I folded strips of news paper and made my own paper filler. To wrap every thing I added colorful tissue on the inside and white on the outside.

For the card, I decided to make it more of a book. I wanted to let her know she's getting older. Usually I just blatantly say "DANI YOU ARE SO OLD". This time I made it a little more one of a kind. I went back through her life and found fun moments from different ages all eventually leading up to age 25! The very last page I tell her happy birthday.

Happy Birthday Sister!

June 16, 2013

HAPPY FATHERS DAY







Too bad I made you this card.

I don't know about you but when any holidays roll around my dad tells us not to get him anything. He hates buying into the commercialism. That is why I made this card. Usually I adorn my cards for my dad with planes because it's his hobby. After the eighth time I think that might be getting a little old.

This started out as a pencil sketch and then I thought what the heck lets put it in the computer for fun. So I did. I just wanted to play around and experiment with photoshop. For the final card I got this crazy idea in my head that it would be a lot of fun to cut it out by hand.

June 13, 2013

FLOWER FIGURE NO. 2





I decided to do the second flower drawing on the computer. Something different. The beauty about working on the computer is everything is up for change. Nothing is permanent. However this can also make a simple sketch turn into a four hour drawing. Either way it was a lot of fun to do.