snowy day stamp making

KC and I are up in Idaho for our winter vacation, and since I'm a little tired of skiing (or attempting to learn how to ski), I was ready for an art day inside.

Thanks to Gennine's wonderful art blog, and her stamp tutorial, I was inspired to make a few stamps of my own. I used to love the steps involved in printmaking (waaay back in college), and was hoping this would be a nice, bite-sized, dining-room table-friendly art project.

The original drawing. Yes, it's a paramecium.
The stamp mid-carve. I used a #1 and a #3 cutter. I wish I'd bought a u-shaped #1 instead of the V-shape I did buy. It was harder to make curves with the V shape...
Negative and positive...

A procession of parameciums!

(Don't ask why I made a paramicium for my first stamp, it just happened.)

cupcakes, east coast edition

Despite the danger of sounding like a list from Stuff White People Like, my idea of a perfect day involves any combination of the following:

brunch

cupcakes

modern art museums

naps

good friends

coffee

apple fritters

moleskine notebooks (#122 on SWPL)

While in Boston shooting for The Phone, my friend Adri (I was her camp counselor once upon a time) and I had brunch, and then went searching for a cupcake store. And we found it!

Sweet Cupcakes near lovely Newbury St on Mass Ave. The cupcakes were pretty darn tasty; I especially liked the mound of buttercream frosting that wasn't so sweet that it hurt my teeth, and consequently (and also because I was raised by wolves) chowed the whole thing much faster than Adri did. She was kind enough not to mention it.

So...many...choices...

The store was well-designed, with cute touches like a container of birthday candles by the register for last-minute gifts.

Oh the carnage - avert your gaze.

And if anyone is listening: please bring a cupcake truck franchise to Los Angeles. Thank you.