Rockstar Sponsor: The Cupcake Bar

Get this guys: we've got not one, but TWO amazing local bakeries sponsoring our Grand Opening! Trust me, you don't want to miss out on all this deliciousness! In addition to those amazing bourbon bites from Blue Note Bakery, we'll also have a gorgeous spread of mini-cupcakes from The Cupcake Bar.

The Cupcake Bar is a full-service cupcake catering company that's always a hit at parties. They're a new fave of ours since meeting them a couple of weeks ago when we hosted an Austin Cupcake Meetup. It was so much fun! Jackie, the fearless leader of the cupcake meetups, wanted to combine cupcakes & crafting. What could be better?



So we led the guests in a cupcake-themed sponge-painting craft, and Rachel from The Cupcake Bar was our fabulous bartender. She was so sweet & helpful & the cupcakes were super-tasty. You can see all of the pics from this event in our Cupcake Meetup set on Flickr.



The Cupcake Bar offers 12 delicious varieties of cake, fillings, icing and an array of toppings that is simply astounding, including cotton candy, Pop Rocks, mini Oreos, and even pretzel Goldfish for those who like a sweet-salty mix.



It's so fun to choose & create your own custom cupcake. I had the Tres Leches cake topped with Rice Krispie Treats & silver shimmer dust. Yum!



Don't miss your chance to sample the delights from The Cupcake Bar at our Grand Opening!

Rockstar Sponsor: Blue Note Bakery

Blue Note Bakery has agreed to sponsor our Grand Opening event and we couldn't be happier about it! They also sponsored us out at EAST and fed our sweet tooth all week! I'm now obsessed with their deliciously rich Burbon Bites, not to mention how quickly the Pistachio Cake disappeared! Just last week I got some beautiful cupcakes for my cousins' birthdays, mini ones for the 1yr old, and big ones for the 14yr old!


Blue Note Bakery began in April 2004 in a small shared catering kitchen. Since then, thanks to loyal clients to whom they have become their “family bakery,” Blue Note opened their own shop at 4201 South Congress.

Angela Jiles is the “Confection Composer” at Blue Note Bakery. She is a Professional Pastry Chef & a 1993 Graduate of Johnson & Wales University. Over the years she has been the Pastry Chef at Dell, Moose’s in San Francisco, Vespaio here in Austin as well as a Pastry Instructor at The Culinary Academy of Austin. Angela has been in the Pastry profession since 1990, loves what she does & believes each cake & dessert should be a work of edible art.“I love the Austin music scene & how diverse & unique the Austinite palate is for food & the arts,” says Angi.

Well put! We love being a part of the small business community just as much! And of course our favorite cake is her latest Austin-ish creation: the Airstream Cake!

Loving Buntings!

I've been seeing buntings everywhere lately! There are some super cute ones available on Etsy, and I've seen some good tutorials on the Craft Blog, this one is my favorite for a greeting card! Inspired by all this I made one for Valentine's Day and hung it before my husband woke up, he was impressed.


I created the design in Illustrator and added some special touches, like a message along the bottom that was sweet and personal. I then just printed it out on regular 8.5 x 11 in. cardstock and cut them in half. Got a red gros grain ribbon and used my sewing machine to sew the ribbon onto the cards.It was super easy and looked really nice on V-day, I've kept it up all week! Since it was a surprise I couldn't publish this post til after V-day, so keep it in mind for an idea next year! Or for any occasion, birthday, anniversary, mother's day, or just as a surprise to brighten your day!

Come Tie One On at our Grand Opening!

For all the vendor & sponsor links, see our handy-dandy clickable poster.

This is going to be a blast, y'all! We hope you'll come out to craft with us, peruse the awesome handmade goods in our lovely little Airstream boutique, and learn about our craft classes & parties. We'll also have some of our favorite local makers vending at the event, so you won't want to miss all of this amazing handmade goodness!

While you're there, you can enjoy tasty treats from our fabulous sponsors, including Blue Note Bakery, Apothecary Cafe & Wine Bar and The Cupcake Bar.

We'll be posting features on each of our sponsors & vendors from now up until the Grand Opening, so stay tuned. Be sure to check out the write-ups we've done recently on Squid Ink Kollective and Merritt Gade if you missed 'em!

Artist Spotlight - SquidInkKollective

Last night I met the lovely and super crafty Lynnea 1/2 of SquidInkKollective at our monthly EtsyAustin team meeting. So naturally I had to check out her goods this morning especially since she'll be joining us for the upcoming Grand Opening of our WonderCraft boutique location February 25th 2010! Come check out her beautiful and unique screenprinted shirts, linens, and accessories.

The Squid Ink Kollective was founded in the fall of 2007 by Brian Maclaskey, who has been studying printmaking since his early teens. Brian was drawing his own cartoons from the age of 5 and grew up on a healthy diet of Robert Crumb, Propaghandi and anti-circus protests. When he's not screen printing, he's working on his own art (see http://conybologna.etsy.com), playing the drums, or making food with Lynnea.

Lynnea Edwards, the other half of the Kollective, was groomed to be a professional musician but decided to learn a more important skill than composing for whenever the apocalypse occurs. She is an entirely self-taught seamster and loves nerding out about fabric weight and different types of interfacing.

Squid Ink Kollective consists of a great team, Brian and Lynnea along with their simple set up of 1 six color manual print press, 1 exposure unit, 3 sewing machines, a whole ton of ink, screens, squeegees, thread, fabric, rulers, scissors, some trusty computers and a printer.

The mediums they have chosen to pursue our artistic creativity in allow them to share their passion with the general public as an accessible alternative to mass production. This company represents the hard work and commitment of artists dedicated to a creative-based living.

To learn even more visit their website at http://www.spiralloop.com

Awesome.

Glazed Happiness

I'm not sure why it took me so long to fire my first batch of ceramic pieces. I've had my kiln for 2 years, fired PMC (Precious Metal Clay) in it and for my birthday last year, bought myself a block of clay. I stayed in my studio for days playing with the clay, re-familiarizing myself the texture and work time. I made some really cute stuff and rediscovered my love for basically playing in the mud.

And then all the work sat there. For almost a year.

As my dear friend, NJ would say, I had THE FEAR.

Not sure why I was afraid of running the kiln. I mean really? What was the worst that could happen? A few pieces explode? I've had that happen before, no big deal. So, I kept looking at the fragile greenware in my studio day after day. I moved them around, sanded down some edges, shuffled them from place to place when they were in the way, but never bothered to put them in the kiln. I used every excuse I could come up with... the garage was too messy so I can't get to the kiln, I should make other pieces just in case these break, I shouldn't be playing with these at all because I should focus on my resin pieces, maybe they aren't dry enough yet (because 8 months isn't enough time, LOL).

Well, 2 days ago, I got over it. I now have several bisque fired pieces with glaze drying on them, ready to be loaded back into the kiln for their final firing. Yes, I should have photos but it is the middle of the night. Give me a break. Taking almost a year to get this far has been work enough :) (UPDATE 02-04-10: added a pic at the bottom.)

Instead, here are some of my favorite ceramic inspirations. I'm looking at them with new eyes and a braver creative heart. We all get THE FEAR. Sometimes you just have to jump in and do. Stop thinking too much and do it.

Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Lyn Power

Jill Taylor Clay & Magic


Magnolia Pottery

************************************************************

Yes, not very refined pieces but apparently getting back into pottery is not like riding a bicycle. I need more practice. At least I have a good idea how the glazes react now. But I couldn't justify keeping the results to myself :) Along the top of the photo are some mini pots for my succulents, I also tried a little owl and mushroom sculptures to decorate some of my other potted plants and a few pendants. Enjoy!

Glazed Happiness

I'm not sure why it took me so long to fire my first batch of ceramic pieces. I've had my kiln for 2 years, fired PMC (Precious Metal Clay) in it and for my birthday last year, bought myself a block of clay. I stayed in my studio for days playing with the clay, re-familiarizing myself the texture and work time. I made some really cute stuff and rediscovered my love for basically playing in the mud.

And then all the work sat there. For almost a year.

As my dear friend, NJ would say, I had THE FEAR.

Not sure why I was afraid of running the kiln. I mean really? What was the worst that could happen? A few pieces explode? I've had that happen before, no big deal. So, I kept looking at the fragile greenware in my studio day after day. I moved them around, sanded down some edges, shuffled them from place to place when they were in the way, but never bothered to put them in the kiln. I used every excuse I could come up with... the garage was too messy so I can't get to the kiln, I should make other pieces just in case these break, I shouldn't be playing with these at all because I should focus on my resin pieces, maybe they aren't dry enough yet (because 8 months isn't enough time, LOL).

Well, 2 days ago, I got over it. I now have several bisque fired pieces with glaze drying on them, ready to be loaded back into the kiln for their final firing. Yes, I should have photos but it is the middle of the night. Give me a break. Taking almost a year to get this far has been work enough :) (UPDATE 02-04-10: added a pic at the bottom.)

Instead, here are some of my favorite ceramic inspirations. I'm looking at them with new eyes and a braver creative heart. We all get THE FEAR. Sometimes you just have to jump in and do. Stop thinking too much and do it.

Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Lyn Power

Jill Taylor Clay & Magic


Magnolia Pottery

************************************************************

Yes, not very refined pieces but apparently getting back into pottery is not like riding a bicycle. I need more practice. At least I have a good idea how the glazes react now. But I couldn't justify keeping the results to myself :) Along the top of the photo are some mini pots for my succulents, I also tried a little owl and mushroom sculptures to decorate some of my other potted plants and a few pendants. Enjoy!