catering

here is the website i made for myself. for my catering... uh... business? i don't know that i'd call it a business. i'm not sure what else to call it though. so it's pretty much 2 pages. the landing page has all the details and contact info and a link to the second page, which is the different outfits i can wear. that page is fun because you can click on the color options on the right and the outfit on the left changes to match. fun. also i used the illustration of casey for the outfits page. made her a little heavier and blonde - and there i am ;)

business

i ordered new business cards from moo and they came in today!!!! yay!

there's about 38 different images on the front, with my contact info on the back. i also added the recycling info (the cards are made of 100% recycled post consumer waste, 100% recyclable and biodegradable, FSC & Smartwood certified paper, and manufactured using wind power) because that's very important to me and the city i currently live in.

(note: i just went to moo's website to try and find all the recycle info, to be lazy and not get out one of my cards to find them all. but for some reason i couldn't find all of this information anymore. hmmm... was i just not looking in the right place? or might they have taken this info off their website. because when i was originally designing my cards i took that info word for word from the website. the conspiracy theorist in me wants to think that not all of this info is true and that when they saw my cards come through with all of that info on them, they realized they were falsely advertising it and changed their website. that's probably not what happened but what if?! to the right is the original screen shot i took for reference)

i just had to add share these images. they're beautiful examples of animated .gifs. apparently they don't have to strobe! or have flashing hearts and stars. or look like they just came out of a rave hosted by myspace.  ; )

(blog post where i found them)

casey klein

from the starz series party down. someone at my part-time catering job suggested i watch this show (since it's about a catering company). it's pretty funny! all the characters are so weird and quirky and lovable.

so i've been thinking about doing an independent contractor thing with catering / serving. i like the jobs at people's houses and i've decided i don't really need a middleman to get those jobs for me. and i definitely don't need them to take over half the profits! i decided i'll try to make a website and see what comes from that. on the website i'm planning on having a page that lists the types of outfits i can wear. what better way to show these off than with one of my illustrations. i plan on using this illustration and adjusting it to look a little more like me. and voila - outfit page done.

raspberry lemonade

i had a fun time baking today! we're having a potluck at work on sunday and that's just the excuse i needed to try out a new recipe. i decided i was going to try out a fun summery raspberry lemonade cupcake. i googled for a recipe but none were just what i was looking for so i mix and matched. here's the recipe i ended up with:

Raspberry Puree: 12 oz raspberries  • 1/4 c granulated white sugar  • 1/2 t fresh lemon juice
Cupcakes: 1 (18.25-ounce) white cake mix, plus any add'l ingredients called for on pkg 
• 3 T lemonade drink powder  • 1 t finely grated lemon zest
Frosting: 1/2 lb confectioners (powdered) sugar  • 1/4 c (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened 
• 2 T frozen lemonade concentrate  • 1/2 t vanilla  • 1/2 t finely grated lemon zest
Directions:
Raspberry Puree: Place raspberries in a large fine meshed strainer suspended over a large bowl and force the juice from the berries by gently pressing the berries with the back of a large spoon. All that should remain in the strainer is the raspberry seeds, compost these. To the strained juice, stir in the lemon juice and sugar (add more if needed). For extra flavor, add a little raspberry liqueur.
For the cake, in a large bowl, stir together the cake mix and lemonade powder. Prepare the cake batter according to the package directions, using any additional ingredients called for (eggs, milk, water, oil, etc…). Stir the lemon zest into the batter. Fill baking cups about 1/3 full, then add a teaspoon(ish) of puree (if there's some leftover at the end it can be used on top of the 
cupcake as a drizzle). Swirl puree into cake mix with a toothpick. Fill the rest of the cup (3/4 full) with cake batter. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until cake is springy to the touch.
For the frosting, beat together the confectioners’ sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in the remaining ingredients until combined.

that seems like a lot, it's not too bad though! i did work on this for a long time today but that's because i had a few hiccups. the first is that i don't have a zester. so i had used a veggie
peeler and knife. another (and the biggie) was as i was finishing my second set of cupcakes i ran out of batter and they were all tiny (see pic). since i'm bringing these to work i wanted them to be sort of impressive so i ended up going back to the store and getting another box of cake mix and making another set. finally i really needed an electric mixer for the frosting. i built up some muscles mixing that by hand!

niece

my niece justice was visiting this week from nebraska. she's going to be a senior in high school (starting today!) so we took some senior photos while she was here. i'm very proud of how some of them turned out. it all comes down to great locations, good photography and a cute model!

"just give me all the bacon and eggs you have...

I was inspired by this trader
joe's "recommendation"

wait wait, i worry what you just heard was 'give me a lot of bacon and eggs.' what i said was 'give me all the bacon and eggs you have.' " ron swanson is the best. parks and rec is a great show - but more than the plot or storyline, the best part is the characters. ron. leslie. tom. april. jerry. all wonderful, amusing characters. 

"What's a not gay way to ask him to go camping with me?"

the doctor

i've been streaming a lot of netflix stuff lately - i'm canceling that portion of my membership soon because the price is more than doubling. boo. anyway i'm trying to get through my queue and doctor who is a tv show i've been halfway interested in for a while and am just now getting around to watching.

i haven't watched any of the older versions, just the one starting in 2005 (i think). i'm currently in season 3, which is the doctor shown here. i actually liked the first (9th) incantation better - the actor wasn't very good looking but he was extremely charming. and i loved the smile that would just take over his whole face!

with this illustration i debated including rose tyler. i really like her (and her actress). but i left her out for one main reason: it's a quarter after 11, i'm tired and have to work tomorrow ;)

chrome

i just learned how to create my own "themes" for google chrome. it's amazing what a lack of options can push a person to figure out!

cowboy structures

some freelance work - this is a website i just worked on. it was good and also really awful to do web work (design & coding). good for the practice and experience and portfolio possibilities. bad for the complicatedness of html/css. bad for how my brain doesn't work that way. bad for how long it takes me to complete a page.

nachoooooooooooooo

jack black's character brother ignacio and his alter-ego nacho the luchador, from nacho libre.

Hug hug, keess keess, hug hug, big keess, leettle hug, keess keess, leettle keess.

"you lie down with the devil...

[long pause as glasses are either put on or taken off] ...you wake up in hell." horatio caine from csi: miami is an amusingly predictable character with some great one-liners. "so an accident... [sunglasses] ...is not an accident at all" YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH

i'm in a glass case of emotion

the members of the channel 4 news team have very nice suits. they deserve to be remembered in vector for that fact. brian fantana, ron burgundy, champ kind and brick tamland from anchorman.

bigger than my body

i love this photo of john mayer. i've had it saved on my computer for a while not knowing what i wanted to do with it. illustrating it was fun. all the detail in his tattoo(s) was intense but it was good practice with the wacom tablet that i got recently.

tea garden

i went to the japanese tea garden this morning to see the cherry blossoms. san francisco is an amazing city, they have this tour group called city guides. they're awesome! they give free tours of sf sites and neighborhoods every day of the week. incredible.

why so serious

this guy was hard. it's amazing how much his face has to do with the character. i had to decide how much to include without adding too much and making it super different from the rest of the pieces in this series / experiment. anyway this is heath ledger's joker from the dark knight.

in the neighborhood

mr rogers is awesome. there's not much else to say about this amazing guy, besides trying to find some dvd's of the show that i can re-watch...

scuba squad

"you mean i can be in the schkooba schkwad?" julian / frankenstein from big daddy is so freaking adorable. this is scuba steve. well, it's actually scuba sam, scuba steve's father. okay technically it's adam sandler as the character sonny, dressed up as scuba sam, scuba steve's father.

smoochy

i've run out of types of suits. there's no plan from here. i watched death to smoochy last night and i couldn't get over rainbow randolph's fantastic sparkly suit so i decided that he would be my next v.i.p.

united words of america

an illustration i thought would be fun and challenging. the fonts don't really have anything to do with the state that they represent. i was going to attempt to match them up, but i realized that there are too many states that i don't know enough about to personify with a font. so i decided to just go with interesting and varied fonts. some states were really easy (colorado, new mexico, the dakotas), some were more difficult (michigan, hawaii, alaska, pretty much all of new england) and some ended up fitting better than i had anticipated (west virginia, mississippi, florida).

baywatch

stephanie, mitch and cj from baywatch. do you get it? swimsuits!

also please take a moment to look at the full size picture. i worked hard on that chest hair and i wouldn't want you to miss it!

playhouse

a classic suit wearer! pee-wee is making his comeback and for this i honor him in vector.

dumber

are tuxes suits? for my purposes today they are. harry and lloyd from dumb and dumber.

i'm with coco

i've been trying to think of more types of suits. or just people who wear suits. i watch conan's show and he is always in a suit so he became my next illustrated person.

threadless/ops design #2

i submitted another tshirt design to the threadless / ops design challenge. this one plays more with the "1/2 of all animals will disappear by the end of this century" idea. the planet is half empty. sad!

track suit

continuing with the "suit up" theme comes sue sylvester from the tv show glee. jane lynch is a great actor and amazing comedienne. if i didn't already love musicals and cheesy teen shows i would still watch this show just for her.

the way of the dinosaur

i submitted some artwork for a threadless and ops (oceanic preservation society) challenge today. the challenge is in anticipation of ops's new documentary the singing planet. the theme is listening to the planet. "scientists predict that we may lose half of all species on earth by the end of this century."

my design has to do with the extinction of the polar bears. they're one of the first animals to feel the pressure of global warming and are definitely in danger. the dinosaur is sort of escorting the polar bear off into the sunset, perhaps never to be seen again.

UPDATE: the voting just ended on this challenge. this design was number 6 (/134)

third birthday

i made this cake for my car's third birthday. last year i threw a huge party, but this year i wanted to keep things more subdued (also i only have 3 friends in this city). i'm happy with the way it turned out. plus it tasted great!

suit up

this is the first in a series to come. i think i'm going to call it v.i.p., vectorized iconic people. barney stinson from how i met your mother has some very iconic catch phrases, "suit up" is one of them, and the inspiration for this illustration.

illustrated for fun and to keep my skills sharp. made with adobe illustrator cs5.

chinese new year

i went to the chinese new year parade today with my friend jack. it was raining at first but stopped in time to enjoy most of the parade without umbrellas.

happy valentine's day

i handed out these valentine's today. i've never cared much for v-day but at work they make a sort of big deal out of it, so i tried to be intentional about making cool cards to handout. i got these postcards printed with moo. they turned out really well! i mailed some to friends and family. king's has a drop box that you can put valentine's and they'll mail them from loveland. yup dorky ;)

dolls

this is pretty random but i came across these awesome repainted dolls today. all of these were done by noeling - view his deviant art page or website!

this is the most recent works i think. anne hathaway and meryl streep from the devil wears prada. they're currently on ebay for $660-$750!

he had quite a few twilight dolls. apparently the kind of people who like sparkly vampires, are also the kind who like dolls.

the pirates of the caribbean dolls were amazing, I had to snag a few of those! shown here are johnny depp's captain jack sparrow, naomie harris's tia dalma and orlando bloom's william turner.

portfolio redesign

i've just finished updating my website / portfolio. it had originally been made in flash, as a school requirement. i disliked it for a long time but hadn't had time or energy to put into changing it. after finishing the website for my sister, i decided i was capable of taking on the challenge of my own website. i like the way it turned out. i wanted something simple (opposite of my old flashy, complicated site) that would let the artwork shine and speak for itself. i ended up making the original a bit too large (a result of disliking how small my old version was), and ended up creating a second smaller version of the whole thing. i figured out how to detect screen sizes so that hopefully the optimal version shows up.

wedding invitation

i've been on craigslist a lot recently trying to get a job. yesterday i came across a freelance gig that wanted someone to design a 70's fillmore-theater-style-psychedelic-poster themed wedding announcement. it was for a couple who live in the haight and are hippies. that's super awesome! i wanted to reply right then and there, but they wanted some examples of work so i created the picture to the left. i used the names of some friends who recently got married, a random date and a nice haight-ashbury hotel for the venue! this is definitely not my style, but it was a lot of fun to do.

wizard of oz

a freelance poster project. the idea behind this poster is to include the entire text of classic novels into one graphic / literary poster. i did this (chosen) and a version for alice in wonderland (not chosen. boo.)

UPDATE: after accepting my wizard of oz design and asking for a final to be sent to them, the people at novel poster have told me they are going a different direction and that i won't get paid for my work. i'm pretty steamed about this but they're pretty good at ignoring me now.