As I mentioned on earlier post, I had to entertain a friend while she was in town visiting me last week. We both LOVE dessert, chocolate, and basically anything sweet… just as portrayed on Love Ardently’s 2010 Calendar! *wink* So anyway, I took her to lots and lots of bakery and pastry shop… every single day. Here are some of the sweets we tried :)
The famous Sprinkles cupcake from Beverly Hills. I tried their Red Velvet and my friend tried their Chocolate Marshmallow. I would say both are just okay. Not as awesome as what I heard through words of mouth, but it’s not bad either. I thought the cupcake could be more moist. The Red Velvet is quite tasty, but I thought the cream cheese in the frosting could be more apparent. I love their wooden utensils :)
And then, there is Asian Mint. I love their Green Tea Layer cake and their Jasmine Crème Brûlée from the very first bite. Yum. The creamy frosting on the green tea cake was just right. The hint of jasmine smell on the crème brûlée was what really had me on the start. I really love it with the strawberry, too.
My friend loves fruit tart, so I got to take her to La Madeleine, a country French cafe, which is pretty rare to find in Oklahoma (shocker?). I haven’t tasted a lot of fruit tart, but I think La Madeleine’s fruit tart is just so, so divine. The fruits are ALWAYS fresh and taste great. We also tried their Chocolate Almond croissant which was delicious, too.
A while ago, I blogged about Tart Pastry on my first visit there. This is my second visit and it looked just as adorable. This time, I’m not loving my french macaron that much, though. I really, really like it when I had it on my first visit, but this time, I could almost taste that it was just coming out of the refrigerator. The triple layer chocolate cake that we had was good. Very creamy and delightful.
December 23, 2009
My good designer friend, Jeanelle, finally open an Etsy store. Her whimsical illustrations are featured in her products, which has Latin American themes & stories. I’m loving the Latin American flair she often brings to her design style. Go check her etsy store out! :)
December 22, 2009
I’m sorry to be MIA for the last couple of weeks! My bestie from Oklahoma came to visit me and I held the responsibility to entertain her all week long. It turned out to be an adventure for myself as well since we went to places I’ve never been to before. She’s majoring in interior design, so I knew I wanted to take her to places related to design and art. Here is a recap of the artsy/design-y part of our adventure.
Fort Worth Water Garden, designed by architect Philip Johnson and John Burgee. Ever since recommended by a friend, I fell in love with this place. This picture doesn’t do justice to how cool the experience is stepping down to the bottom of the water garden. Absolutely one of my most favorite spot in DFW.
Bass Performance Hall, located at Downtown Fort Worth. When I first saw it, I couldn’t believe that this beauty actually exists in Texas! It has the classic European opera house feeling to it.
Fort Worth Stockyard. The true Cowboy Town. I didn’t even know that there is a Cowboy Santa :)
Sky Lobby, located in JP Morgan Chase Tower. Stunning lobby with view overlooking Dallas.
Dallas Museum of Art. Can’t believe this is the first time I’ve been to this museum. Apparently, they have FREE admission every Thursday evening (although this will end starting next year), along with live jazz band playing at their Atrium Cafe for Thursday Night Live. The museum was quite okay. I love the Charles Rohlfs furniture exhibition a lot.
Design Within Reach. Most things here are not exactly within my pocket’s reach, but definitely an amazing store to go to.
December 21, 2009
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I can’t believe it’s Friday again. School has been (unexpectedly) busy this week. I’m glad everything is all over next week and then we can move on to revamping our apartment a bit. It’s been a long time coming and this time we really can’t postpone this anymore due to my best friend coming from Oklahoma and sleeping over for a week *so excited*. I’m pretty sure starting this weekend there will be lots of early Christmas parties everywhere, so I hope you have a good one! Here’s my favorite five this Friday:
. New covers for old books by Mikey Burton (via Oh So Beautiful Paper)
. O’Keeffe Necklace from Anthropologie. It was clearly love at the first sight for me.
. Merry Christmas library card from Simple Song. Perfect for a library or book nerd, like me :)
. Stitchy Octopus christmas tree ornament from Anthropologie. Very near and dear to my heart.
. Christmas Ornaments by Erin Jang (via Design*Sponge)
. (i know this is the 6th one but…) don’t forget our 2010 Dessert Calendar is up for sale on Etsy! ;)
December 4, 2009
I’m so in love with these hand-drawn illustrated typography by Katie Daisy Lombardo. She works mostly with watercolor and acrylic. I love her style and the colors are just delightful. Things like these really inspires me to learn more things to become a better designer. That’s why I’m taking Watercolor and Printmaking next semester :) So excited!
Back to Katie’s work, aren’t you just so blown away? I’d love to have any of her print on my studio wall one day :)
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December 2, 2009
The first day of the last month in 2009! Oh wow, time flies so quickly! I know I’ve been MIA on the blog for days. One of the reason is of course the Thanksgiving holiday. Then, the final week is also coming and I’ve just been busy with school stuffs along with preparing for more stuffs for my Etsy store. Right now, we do have the 2010 Calendar in wall format and desktop format (with acrylic jewel case), so check it out! :)
In the midst of all this, today I managed to (finally) pick up my library book orders. I was tempted to spend more time in the library, and i did (even though I was supposed to go straight home). My favorite section is the children’s books where I usually just sit on the aisle and start to just picking books and read. I was really intrigued by this particular book by Maurice Sendak. I knew about Where The Wild Things Are, of course, but didn’t know that he also wrote and illustrate this book. I just love his unique story line, wittiness, and illustration style!
I really, really like this particular “kitchen town” illustration, where the buildings are in form of kitchen utensils and stuffs like mixer, funnel, milk carton, etc… I want to live there! :)
December 1, 2009
So, I finally took the plunge and went ahead to create the 2010 Calendar. Although it may be a tad late, I’m still proud of at least being able to finish it :) The concept was inspired by my recent obsession of confectioneries, cakes, or pretty much anything sweet. The calendars are printed on beautifully textured Mohawk paper via Felt.
Without further due, here we go.
(click to enlarge)
I just wish I can photograph it better. I rely on the natural sunlight for my photography since I don’t have a fancy SLR camera or expensive equipment and lighting. The sunlight today wasn’t so great when I was going to photograph it, but I really can’t wait to get the words out! :)
Here is the desktop calendar, which comes with acrylic jewel case:
And there’s also a wall calendar version:
November 24, 2009
My calendar swap buddy, Barbara, sent me a letterpress calendar from Lark Press. I think the concept of this calendar is so, so great. Each month takes me to a different story. I really, really love the concept for January–a lovely poem by Robert Frost, “Stars” with simple illustration of constellation. Letterpressed poem is my new obsession now!
Each month’s concept and story are so wonderful and so well thought-out. I think a well designed calendar should represents a journey. This one definitely makes me look forward for the year of the tiger and start my new journey soon! Also, I’ve never had any letterpress calendar before in the past, so I’m definitely excited for this one. Thanks, Barbara!
Check out what I got Barbara on her blog.
November 20, 2009
These tiny paintings by Cool Ranch Studio on Etsy would make such a great Christmas gift. It would look great on someone’s desk. Don’t you think?
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November 19, 2009
I can recall that I learn to do some paper quilling back then in elementary school. However, I’ve never known that the art of paper quilling can be a DIVINE beauty. Yulia Brodskaya made it happen. These images below worth a thousand words. Here’s the black and white design from her portfolio.
How lovely are those! And the typographic treatment too! And here’s some more in color. So, so inspiring!
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November 18, 2009
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