Today I was fea­tured on the Inter­net Sends Me Cake! Check it out!

If you want some of your own tasty baked goods to enjoy from my kitchen to yours, a few of my more pop­u­lar items are listed on Etsy.

Spe­cial thanks the Jes­sica His­che for her orig­i­nal idea behind the Inter­net Sends Me Cake Web site and for plug­ging my work/site as a result. I’m so delighted she and the Stu­dio 612a crew enjoyed their goodies.

Liv­ing in the Balto/D.C. metro area and look­ing for some­thing to do this week­end? Well then head down to D.C. this Sat­ur­day (19 Dec) for the fourth annual Hol­i­day Booty Mar­ket! Fea­tur­ing the work of twenty regional artists and crafters, the mar­ket is a great chance to find last-minute hol­i­day trea­sures for your loved ones all while brows­ing among the beau­ti­ful fur­ni­ture avail­able at Design Within Reach. A few of the ven­dors fea­tured Sat­ur­day include:

The event will be held in Wash­ing­ton D.C. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Adams Mor­gan Design Within Reach show­room. Check­out the event Web site for more details.

Images: 60 bugs, De*Nada Design, Mary Ellen Doran, Gosh­darnknit, Red Prairie Press, Jaime Zol­lars

For what­ever rea­son, I’ve been look­ing at a lot of let­ter­pessed work lately. I’d like to share the work of an Austin-based cou­ple, Heather & Thomas hol­li­field, also known as Let­ter­press Del­i­ca­cies. The pre­ci­sion and clean lines of their design style is exciting.

Tak­ing a peek at their charm­ing work avail­able for pur­chase online via Etsy.

Images: Let­ter­press Delicacies

One thing I will admit to miss­ing about Swe­den is the con­cept of Fika. Here it is, barely three o’clock and I’m crav­ing an after­noon pick-me-up of a mag­i­cal warm cup of cof­fee. Win­ter was bear­able with a warm mug of the life giv­ing black elixir and a tasty, fresh baked good shared over laughs with a friend or col­league. This was hon­estly my favorite part of the social side of life in Swe­den. It is a cul­tural rit­ual, com­pa­ra­ble to the tra­di­tional Eng­lish tea; and it is a rit­ual of which I am glad to take part.

I always appre­ci­ated the pop­u­lar­ity and avail­abil­ity of fikabröd that fea­tured car­damom as a chief fla­vor or ingre­di­ent. Many cof­fee shops, at least in Göte­borg, would even include a shaker of ground car­damom along­side the sugar and cream in lieu of (or some­times in addi­tion to) cin­na­mon or nut­meg to add a lit­tle zing to your cof­fee, cap­puc­cino or respec­tive fika bev­er­age.

Per­son­ally, I could go for an espresso-based hot drink and a hearty cardmom-flavored baked good right about now. Sound good to you too? Card­mom cake is avail­able for pur­chase online in my Etsy bou­tique if all this talk of cof­fee and car­damom has you as hun­gry as I am.

Hon­estly, an after­noon in a cozy café with a snow storm out­side and a tall mug of cof­fee sounds per­fect about now. Think I need to go home and bake some­thing tonight…

Images: Me

Today I would like share the work of Port­land based, Mex­i­can illustrator/designer, Alberto Cer­riteño. Inspired by the pop sur­re­al­ism move­ment, his work is densely packed with dream­like whimsy.

Prints of Alberto’s beau­ti­ful illus­tra­tions are avail­able for pur­chase online at his Etsy bou­tique. And for those as enam­ored of his work as I am, he has a blog here.

Images: Alberto Cerriteño

Lately, I’ve been in the mood for a new bag and I’m always a fan of a good clutch; so I couldn’t resist putting together a hand­ful of beauties:

1. Bloom­ing Dan­de­lion on Aqua clutch by Shakuyaku
2. Large Birds on a Yel­low Branch frame clutch by Bri­ana Edel­man Designs
3. The Flower Chain Audrey by Lib­erty of Lon­don
4. The Shop­per by Cecil and Co.
5. Shell Shocked clutch by Lilly Pulitzer
6. Sloan con­vert­ible clutch by Lorelei
7. Marina clutch by Hobo Inter­na­tional
8. Oil­cloth Clutch by Njoy Designs
9. Gemelli by Raven Kauffman

Today I have the plea­sure of shar­ing the work of Lana Lam­bert, also known as Pis­toles Press. For­mally trained at the Cor­co­ran Col­lege of Art and Design in Wash­ing­ton D.C., Lana pro­duces del­i­cate Japan­ese moku hanga (wood­block) prints. I love the level of detail she achieves in her work and the majes­tic crea­tures she cre­ates. Her work is avail­able online at her Etsy bou­tique.

Gor­geous, don’t you think? I’d love to see her explo­rations of other creatures…

Images: Pis­toles Press

Ever since I spent far too many hours Christ­mas shop­ping online last year, I have been nuts for the jew­elry of Rachael Vic­to­ria Adams, also know as Nou­veau Mot­ley. Ever the fan of decon­structed objects from the past, my love for her work should be no sur­prise. Based in the San Fran­cisco Bay area, Rachael’s jew­elry is avail­able at Dark Gar­den Corsetry in Hayes Val­ley and Juniper Tree Fash­ion in Oak­land. Her wares are also avail­able online at her Etsy bou­tique.

A sam­pling of her gor­geous jew­elry:

Images: Nou­veau Motley

Since I’ve been post­ing about jew­elry lately, I thought what the heck, let’s share some more…

So today, I’m wish­ing I had a gar­den. I’m miss­ing the lush sum­mer growth I remem­ber as a kid in the humid south­east and want to smell the fra­grant flow­ers out­side my stu­dio win­dow. So I thought I’d share the work of Jade Gedeon, also known as, We Dream in Colour. Her jew­elry makes me think of sum­mer nights with light­ning bugs and walks along paths over­grown with vines… brows­ing Jade’s Web site and Etsy shop make me want to add a few pieces to my collection.

Don’t you just love Jade’s jew­elry? Check out her Web sites for more sam­ples of her beau­ti­ful work.
Images: We Dream in Colour

Recently, my dear friend, Wendy, pointed me in the direc­tion of a mutual friend from col­lege. We stud­ied together at Carnegie Mel­lon with far too many tal­ented peo­ple to count in a sin­gle post. Among those tal­ented folks who I call friends and class­mates is Ms. Laura Wet­zel, the designer behind Cerca Jew­elry.

Work­ing with mod­ern mate­ri­als like cop­per, glass, rub­ber, and sil­ver Laura’s work catches the eye with a crisp design edge that can only be described as con­tem­po­rary. Here is a peek at some of her beau­ti­ful pieces:

Her work is avail­able online through Etsy.com, go check out her shop!

Images: Cerca Jew­elry

For some rea­son, I’ve always been drawn to tex­tured and seem­ingly well-loved objects. Let­ter­forms and typog­ra­phy were also early draws for my atten­tion… as a kid, I’d spend hours trac­ing old ini­tials and alpha­bets from art books. So it should come as no sur­prise then when I state my admi­ra­tion for the work of Geor­gia jew­elry designer, Lau­rel Hill.

Ever the win­dow shop­per, I dis­cov­ered Lau­rel last year while brows­ing for a gift on Etsy.com. Since then, I’ve been look­ing for an excuse to treat myself to a piece of her care­fully crafted jew­elry. Here are just a few sam­ples of Laurel’s work avail­able on Etsy:

I just love this last piece and have been day­dream­ing of my own ban­ner cuff since last win­ter… but what to have her inscribe…

Images: Lau­rel Hill

For as long as I can remem­ber, art has been a pro­found source of joy and is some­thing for which I main­tain a healthy appetite. The por­tion of my brain rel­e­gated to art is no doubt the major­ity which might explain my dis­taste for all things trigono­met­ric or vacuum-related. Any­way, I tend to spend a lot of time seek­ing out new work, artists and sources of inspi­ra­tion. While I visit muse­ums and gal­leries as much as pos­si­ble, there are so many online sources from which to derive inspi­ra­tion these days that it is almost staggering.

Lately, I’ve been look­ing at illus­tra­tion more and more. Today the work of Iveta Abolina, also know as OneSwee­t­Or­ange has caught my eye. I tripped over her by way of Etsy.com and imme­di­ately found a num­ber of her pieces that I would love to hang in my home. The graphic qual­ity of her work and the organic flow of the com­po­si­tions excites my eye. Here are a few of my favorites from her Etsy shop:

At $20-$50USD, most of her work is ter­ri­bly afford­able; the only ques­tion is, which to buy? Take a look at Irena’s Etsy Shop and more of her illus­tra­tions and design work at OneSweetOrange.com.

Images: Iveta Abolina/OneSweetOrange

Check­out the lat­est “street mar­ket” over at Pop­pytalk Hand­made. Run­ning through July 10, this month’s theme is “here comes the sun.”

If you haven’t checked out the site before, Pop­pytalk curates a monthly online show­case of inter­na­tional design tal­ent; beau­ti­ful hand­made items are avail­able in this fun and diverse arena. If you haven’t already taken a gan­der at all of this month’s good­ies here’s a peek at some of the things that caught my eye:

Stock­holm by Stephanie Levy.

What a fun col­lage! This piece reminds me only too well of my old apart­ment in Stockholm.

Pink Lemon­ade by Roll and Tum­ble Press

Whis­per Neck­lace by Mama’s Litt­tle Babies
I have been a fan of Mama’s Lit­tle Babies for ages! I tripped over her work on Etsy.com last win­ter and have been tempted time and again to treat myself to some of her delight­ful jewelry.

Cus­tom Mono­gram Sign by Signs by Diane

Ever the sucker for ran­dom let­ter­forms and typog­ra­phy, it’s no sur­prise that I’m drawn to Diane’s signs.

Sim­mer by Yel­lena

Yel­lena is another artist whose work I dis­cov­ered on Etsy some time ago and have delighted in her work ever since; I love the den­sity of her work.

Golden Plover print by Sarah Ahern