Hotel Mulherin

It's going to be hotter than Hades these next few days so yesterday I made some Jasmine-Honey Sherbet. It's everything you would think a green tea sherbet would be, light and refreshing. I am so pleased! And it went over very well with our dinner guest last night. Jeffery, however, "In all love and honesty, darling" didn't like it at all. I won't hold it against him. He doesn't like jasmine green tea anyway (too jasminey) so I am not surprised. I am seriously loving my Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment. It's one of the best gifts I have ever received. Thanks Carrie! Up next is a Nectarine Sorbet I think. I love nectarine. Sunset has two recipes, a Nectarine-Gewurztraminer and a White Nectarine, I can't decided which one to try.

I've been trolling the Craftster.org forums recently. After the Get Crafty boards went bust I sort of lost interest, but I should check these out more often. I got a REALLY good book suggestion from there: Dorothy Moore's Pattern Drafting and Dressmaking.

I have been having "issues" with my sloper, (which I am sure you are all aware by now) and this is the first book I found that makes the scary art of pattern drafting seem not that scary at all. I feel pretty confident that I can now figure it all out.

We are about to do some serious entertaining. J has a friend from Santa Cruz coming to visit this weekend, then as soon as he leaves my parents arrive. Busy, busy.

Also, just a note, my hosting site has been having technical issues, especiallyy in regards to email. I haven't been able to send or receive this past week except for a little bit yesterday and today. It seems to be "hit or miss", sometimes it works and then it doesn't, so hopefully it will be up and running soon.

Progress

I haven't posted new illustrations in a long time here so I thought I would post some illustrations I am going to use for promo. I started this website with the intent of sending illustrations for promos, and five years later I have YET to actually SEND anything. Some of you may recognize elements of the long skinny ones. They are old Currently banners I have remodeled. When I was thinking about what to do for a promo, I started looking back into my old files and found that I had a lot of good stuff just languishing on a harddrive, so I dusted some of them off and gave them a new coat of paint.

I have had a serious case of burned out artist's block for the past few years really. I think I am finally busting out of it, thank god, and am feeling a renewed sense of purpose and drive. I have even applied to the school of my dreams (the Academy of Art University in San Francisco) to finish my degree. It'll be slow going as I am only going to take a few classes at a time online. But hopefully in a few years I'll have a degree in Illustration. It's also going to be expensive, but I have decided to take on that expense for the sake of my future. I hope the gamble pays off!

Fungi Perfecti

I got the new Anthropologie catalog in the mail the other day and aside from the many clothing items I highly coveted, they had the coolest mushroom theme going on.

I am drawn to antique botanial drawings (reproduction) , especially large ones with black backgrounds, and they have a beautiful one of mushrooms. Too bad it's a million dollars. Sometimes I wonder who can actually afford to buy the stuff they sell. Anyway, they also have these SUPER cool papier mache toadstools (here and here) which I am seriously digging.

I found some botanical reproductions on allposters.com and I think that framed and grouped together they will go nicely in the living room.