Filed under: collaboration, design by ramune

This year my brother decided to take on the challenge of running the Chicago Marathon. The last time he planned to run it he broke his ankle several months before the race (ouch!). I had only been to a marathon once before and had a great time supporting not only my friend Ashley but the other runners as well. This year since a whole slew of my family members were planning on coming out I decided to design shirts and print them myself. I figured it would be fun for everyone involved.

The first step was to get the design done. After talking to Ashley about it she suggested I do something with cowbells since she had bought cowbells for her support team when she ran the Philadelphia Marathon last year. I had worked on several ideas along the Christopher Walken SNL skit theme (if you haven’t seen it, you are missing out on a classic), talked to my brother about it and he [being the excellent artist/illustrator/(insert other creative things here) that he is] came up with the idea of a cow coming at you with a bell bopping it over the head. He is a much better illustrator when it comes to things like this so he did the sketch and sent it to me (last minute).

My brother’s sketch for the t-shirts

As much as I loved the sketch of the cow that my brother sent me, I wanted to sharpen it up and smooth out the lines. I have come to realize that I really love vectorizing (don’t think that’s a real word) files and making all of the lines nice and smooth, point by point. It’s probably something that other people find tedious and time consuming but I find it calming and therapeutic in some strange way. Here it is below all cleaned up. The screen-printing project will be coming up next . . .

My vectorized touched up version of the t-shirt design (notice that is says MMVII and not MMVIII . . . a mistake I almost missed too late)

Screen shot of the vector points

Filed under: baking, collaboration, food by ramune

This past weekend I was in Chicago (for oral surgery and to see my family) and made cupcakes at my aunt’s house. I wish I had set up the camera to take photos of the process as it was quite unique. I am used to baking by mixing the wet ingredients and then adding in the dry. This recipe started out with the dry and then I had to add butter (a bit messy) and then the liquids. Either way, the cupcakes came out fantastic! When it came time to decorating them my aunt made the frosting and then we decided to add some color. Three of my cousins, one of their friends and I all contributed to the decorating as you can see below.

Collection of Buttercream Frosted Cupcakes

One of my decorated cupcakes

Detail of the buttery buttercream frosting

My cousin/goddaughter cleaning up the leftover cupcake dough (one of my favorite pastimes!)

Filed under: collaboration, photography, silliness, travel by ramune

Eeek, I am late late late. In fact as of today I owe three projects! Here is one that I meant to post last weekend but then the week came upon me and before I knew it it was Sunday again and I missed my deadline. So here we go (and with 9 minutes until September) . . .

My sister (being the amazingly talented book binder/conservator/master of all things book and paper related person that she is) has agreed to make me a portfolio case. So the other week I went up to NYC for a few days to pick out leather from Talas and approve the mock up she put together. I am looking forward to having it all done and ready for interviews since all I have now is my online portfolio. Once it’s all put together I will be sure to post it, however that is not what this post is about. This post is about what happened after I bought the leather from Talas.

After Talas and a tasty sandwich, we drove up to Storm King (an hour or so north of NYC) and walked around the park. It was a beautiful day (is anyone else amazed at how mild this August has been?) and although we did not have enough time to bring a picnic, relax and draw, we did have time to walk around half of the park and take some silly photos. A lot of the sculptures are not necessarily my favorite stylistically but it’s great to be surrounded by massive pieces of art out in nature. My favorite was probably the Andy Goldsworthy wall, but I am not as thrilled about the photos I took of it. I guess I will have to go back and take more some other time when the lighting is not quite as harsh.

Below are a few highlights from the day. As usual you can see more here. If you are in or around NYC I recommend packing a picnic and spending some time there. It’s also not far from Dia:Beacon, which I have not visited yet but hope to soon(ish).

With my bare hands I was able to hold the massive steel sculpture “Pyramidian,” by Mark di Suvero.

Balancing “Pyramidian” in the palm of her hands

This is what happens when the tram drivers get out of control. Casualties occur.

My head hurts

Filed under: baking, collaboration, food, friends by ramune

My friend Elisabeth got married a few months back and for her wedding shower I gave her a cookbook called Cupcakes! and a muffin pan. Because the cookbook looked so good (yes I judge a cookbook by it’s cover and the pictures in it) I bought myself one as well. We had talked about getting together to bake cupcakes and finally did so this past weekend. After flipping through a number of pages of delicious looking (and sounding) cupcakes we narrowed it down to the Mississippi Mud cupcakes.

While I was at Fresh World buying the Oreos for the crusty bit, I picked up a few Asian snacks for Elisabeth and Ben (her husband). If you have a Fresh World near you and haven’t been yet, I suggest you check it out, it is a cultural experience. Fresh World is half regular grocery store, half Chinese/Korean/Indian/Hispanic grocery store (I won’t say world market because there is a lot missing from that list). I have seen a few stranger things there than I saw when I lived in China. Some of my favorites are “American Coffee” (Japanese version, in a can), pig uterus (among other strange animal parts), and the aisle full of Asian candies and snacks. I picked up some tasty chocolate/cookie goods for Elisabeth and “Fried Chicken Snack” for Ben . . . mmm. The greatest part about “Fried Chicken Snack” is that when you look at the ingredients there is nothing chicken about it.

That was a bit of a tangent, but I thought I would share. I am currently without a tripod and the lighting was not fantastic so I didn’t get quite as many good shots.

Crushed Oreo cookie crumbs makeup the bottom of the cupcake

3 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate in Elisabeth’s great measuring cups ready to be melted

Chocolate sour cream batter on top of crushed Oreo cookies and a few chocolate chips

Mississippi Mud Cupcakes! They are not the most photogenic but they sure pack a sugary chocolaty punch!

Bonus: Elisabeth with the Fried Chicken Snack pack

Filed under: animation, collaboration by ramune

While I have been at my sister’s place in New York we have accumulated a variety of candies, most of which have been strange Japanese chocolate/cookie mixes. Today we decided to make a wee stop motion animation using the Swedish fish and these little ice cream cones. It’s not my finest piece of work, but it was fun to do a bit of animation again since it’s been years since I last did any. Hopefully I will make some time to do some more animating in the future. In the meantime, here is the very wee animation (only 19 seconds).

Filed under: collaboration by ramune

Filed under: collaboration, food, holiday by ramune

First off I would like it to be known that this post is brought to you from my lappy on the Bolt Bus somewhere on I-95 in Jersey. The Bolt Bus is the best thing since sliced bread. Prices start out at $1 a ride between DC and NY and they have free wifi! Insanity! I haven’t seen the pigs flying out my window yet, but I am keeping an eye out.

As promised, here are photos from this year’s margučiai (Lithuanian Easter eggs). Unfortunately this year was a bit rushed and I did not get to spend all day and night on them as I usually do. My sister, brother and I started a new “tradition” (we’ll see if we do it next year) of doing an exquisite corpse Easter egg between the three of us. We each started with one egg, would put a design on it, and then put the egg in a dye. Then the next person would add to the design and so on until each of us had worked on each egg. The bottom margučiai on this page are from that little experiment.

My signature Easter egg . . . a ramune (wild daisy)

Another egg

Another egg

Exquisite Corpse #1 – Collaboration between my sister, brother and me

Exquisite Corpse #2 – Collaboration between my sister, brother and me

Filed under: collaboration, friends, photography, silliness, travel by ramune

I am later than usual this week because I was skiing north of Quebec City at Le Massif! I had a fantastic time with my sister, brother, his girlfriend and my brother’s two friends. We skied for four days and for the most part the weather was nice (by nice I mean really cold but sunny with a great view). Here are a few photos from the trip. You can see more here.

The crew at Le Massif and the Saint Lawrence Seaway

Knock! Knock!

The crew at Le Massif and the Saint Lawrence Seaway

Happy Birthday Crème brûlée

Filed under: collaboration, doodle by ramune

After going to see Sweeney Todd with my sister and mother (who was covering her eyes during the red gooey portions of the film), Vasare and I decided to do an exquisite corpse type drawing in which we alternated drawing parts of a character. This is the result and my final posting for 2007! Have a fantastic New Year!

Vasare’s and my character . . .

Filed under: collaboration, costumes, friends, silliness by ramune

After the Turkey Trot (and after someone vomited on my costume and I threw it out)
Thanks to Kristina for the photo

Vaidila, the creepy 80s tennis player

Uberathelete Linas

Vasare, the swimmer

The uberathelete couple