shoreline

this is a little sketch/collage something that is sort of a mess but there's something I liked about it...so I Ieft it alone.

there's something to be said about the moment when you know when to stop working on something...you can work it to death and you end up "ruining" the essence of what it was in the first place. does that ever happen to you?

french navy

stuck in my head and perfect for this weather...

recipe: classic mac 'n' cheese

I had a really lazy Sunday yesterday, and with the mild, back-to-school weather I started thinking I might actually be ready for fall. I love love love fall but am still clinging to the little shreds of summer that remain. We don't have air conditioning, so for the last few months I haven't made anything that required the oven to be on for more than a few minutes. Now that it's cooled down I was ready for some comfort food and made my mom's mac 'n' cheese. I got a few requests for the recipe after I posted a picture, so here it is. I normally don't post recipes since I'm no Michael Symon, but it's too good not to share. (And yes, thanks to a particular pizza at Danny Boy's, I have discovered that potato chips and mac 'n' cheese is close to heaven).

I N G R E D I E N T S :

2 cups elbow macaroni
2 cups milk
2 cups land o' lakes sharp american cheese, cubed (you can get it at the deli, I usually ask for them to cut a 2" thick chunk)
6 cups water
salt
pepper
paprika

D I R E C T I O N S :

1 | Preheat oven to 350.

2 | Boil 6 cups water, salted very generously.

3 | Pour macaroni in water and stir constantly for 3 minutes. Then cover, remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

4 | Drain macaroni and rinse in hot water.

5 | In an oven safe dish, layer macaroni, cheese, and milk in alternating layers. Top with a little salt, pepper, and paprika.

6 | Bake uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour. The mac should be bubbling and browning at the top, and not too milky underneath the top layer. It will thicken up upon cooling, so I usually allow mine to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

And that's it! It's my ideal lazy workweek dinner, as long as you can wait an hour to eat.

You can see other things I make (food and otherwise) by following me on Instagram, which I am completely addicted to.

better things

Here's the song (it's the first line):

DIY: tissue paper flowers

My mom is starting back to school (first grade!) in a couple weeks, and is having a garden theme in her classroom. I learned how to make these tissue paper flowers at work and offered to make her some for her bulletin boards and activity tables. I thought I'd share how to make them since they're easy and you can use them to decorate for basically anything.

Start with tissue paper, whatever colors you'd like. I got a multi-pack so I could make a lot of different color combos.

Cut the paper into squares and sort by color.

Choose three colors for a standard size flower (my squares were about 8x8"). You can do four or two if you're doing a larger or smaller flowers (I also made some that were 5x5 but still used 3 layers...it's really up to however you want them to look).

Stack the sheets and start accordion folding. My folds were about 3/4", you can fold smaller if you'd like more/tighter petals or larger folds for a bigger, less defined shape.

Keep going until you reach the end of the sheet.

Fold the paper in half.

Cut a rounded edge along the open side.

Wrap a piece of yarn around the fold and tie in a knot. You could also use garbage bag ties or wire if you plan on attaching a stem and making a bouquet.

Fan the flower out

Fluff the three tissue layers apart from each other until they start to make a flower shape. Decide which layer you'd like as the bottom color, and hold the flower there, where the yarn is. Pinch the center and form the layers away from where your fingers are. You almost want to make a "nub" at the center base of the flower so you have something to attach the flowers with.

Keep arranging and fluffing the layers until you fill in the gaps. Repeat as you'd like!

workshop at zygote press

This week, myself and a small group of my co-workers got to take an all-day screen printing workshop at Zygote Press. I had never been to Zygote before and...it was awesome. I felt totally transported back to the KSU art building (ah yes, the beautiful dilapidated warehouse...fond memories).

I brought a couple images to print and ended up just printing a one-color silkscreen of my bow design.

It took a while to mix the perfect orange, but it came out awesome. Some of us had issues with the tub of white ink that we mixed our colors with, so some of our inks got a little fluffy and thick and we could only get about 8 prints out of it.

Here's the inside of the work room. Anthony is helping with the registration of Kelle's print (in the foreground).

Using your head comes in handy.

Kelle's 3-color print of Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty with squirt guns...she used a pink shimmer ink for Faye's. One of my favorite things about printing (any type) is the array of inks you can use. Neons, shimmer, metallic, opaque whites—it's really wide open. You can't get impact like that with digital printing. There were a lot of other awesome prints but only got a picture of these two.

It's not often we get out of the office to do something fun and free-form like this (for work!) so I'm really glad we went. And for anyone interested, Zygote has a ton of workshops and open studios with different rates available, so it's a great place to even just go and use their facility and tools. Now that I've been, I know I'll be going back and will be doing a little giveaway with the bow prints I have. Yay!

splash pages

When we have clients who are thinking about Flash splash pages, we tell them to go to their local supermarket and bring a mime with them. Have the mime stand in front of the supermarket, and, as each customer tries to enter, do a little show that lasts two minutes, welcoming them to the supermarket and trying to explain the bread is on aisle six and milk is on sale today. Then stand back and count how many people watch the mime, how many people get past the mime as quickly as possible, and how many people punch the mime out. That should give you a good idea as to how well their splash page will be received.

—Jared Spool

the big 2-5

So I turned 25 on Thursday (cue sad violin) and even though I had mixed feelings about reaching this particular milestone it was still just as nice as every other birthday. If not nicer! I took two glorious days off work so I could enjoy a long weekend with family and friends.

I did some shopping on Thursday, which is how I wound up with this striped dress...I had been drooling over it since I saw it on the cover of last month's J Crew catalog—as if I need any more stripes—but while waiting for it to go on sale, they were all snatched up. Then they came back, but still full price. So when I was out, I popped into JC to see what they had, walked to the sale section, and sticking out like a sore thumb, there it was. I went over to it, and did that close-your-eyes, please-please-be-my-size prayer to the gods, and flipped over the tag—and it was. Oh my goodness. To top it off, it was marked down and they were offering an additional 30% off that markdown price. So I tried it on, it fit, I did a happy dance, and walked out feeling like I stole it. It was a birthday gift I was meant to give myself ;)

After I left, I spent the day with my mom, who gave me these awesome sunflowers and made a really nice lunch. I got a couple good gifties too...thanks mama.

A card from my sister, signed by our dogs, of course.

Got this rose gold beauty from Jim :)

Love this card too from Brigitte, which is fresh from AG's new line justWink.

We had some friends over for celebrating on Saturday, and I paid for it yesterday. At least I don't mind spending the day on the couch, watching bad TV. Now that the week is starting I am getting back into some personal projects that I'll be sharing soon, and I just finished an illustration of my friend's two Siamese cats which I'll post once it makes its way into his hands.

For everyone who sent birthday wishes, thank you, and I hope to have a very happy, not-too-grown-up year 25!