


Photographer Amy Stevens celebrated her 30th birthday by buying herself a cake decorating kit, fulfilling her longtime fascination with the artistry and precision of beautifully made cakes. She dreamed of creating the perfect cake.
After many failed attempts, she realized that cake making, like any art form, requires practice and great patience. Though disappointed, she didn’t stop baking. Instead, she decided to bake cakes that were uniquely her own. The cakes are visual experiences meant to be photographed, not eaten.
The cakes are intentionally humorous, posed in front of colorful patterned fabrics (from reprodepot). The layers are often off-center, sometimes crumbled, with icing that has been applied hurriedly and obsessively.
In her own words, from Eye Buy Art:
“The Confections Series started as a response to turning 30. It was a celebration of birthdays, cake, color, pattern and obsessive absurdity. My original intent was to bake 30 birthday cakes for myself and photograph them. I didn’t quite make it to 30 cakes in time for my first show. I ordered a cake decorating kit from MarthaStewart.com and watched the instructional video that came with the package. I quickly discovered my cakes were never going to look like the ones in the video and the pamphlet, and I was free to make them as grotesque and amazing as possible–my little rebellion.”


The Chandler Lane Small Town You-Build-It-Kit ($24) is the first in a series of diorama sets from Etsy seller 1canoe2. The kit is designed and sketched by hand, the sketches are turned into letterpress plates, and finally everything is printed on a Chandler & Price Craftsman press. The kit includes 9x12 sheet for background and 12x7 sheet for 3 houses, 7 trees and 2 corner tabs.
Everything in 1canoe2’s fantastic shop is printed on a letterpress in a old red barn in Missouri. How cool is that?
via aesthetic outburst


I found this wonderful sneak peek of Heath Ceramics’ summer collection while browsing {wit + delight}. The picture gallery features other beautiful ceramic pieces as well, including several cool behind-the-scenes shots of the production process. Very inspiring–makes me want to fire up the kiln that’s been lying dormant in my garage for so long!
If you haven’t already, you should definitely check out Heath Ceramics owners Cathy and Robin’s house on Design*Sponge. It’s filled with their wonderful ceramic tile (I LOVE the green bathroom!).

I found this fun & simple kids craft project on Made by Joel, a great blog with lots of cool homemade stuff for kids. He created the building discs by scanning and printing collage circles he made, gluing yellow construction paper to the back for sturdiness.
They fit quite nicely in an old round candy tin, too!
You can download and print the circle templates available on his site (or create your own). Have fun!


I always enjoy checking out the latest from Etsy shop Ladies & Gentlemen. Now they’ve officially gone retail with their Chalk-It-To-Me piggy banks, offering these delightful little piggies through New Seasons Market in Portland.
It’s great to see an Etsy seller successfully transition into the retail market, it’s not an easy step to take. I wish them all the best, they definitely deserve it!