The Late Afternoon

I managed to escape the evil monster named Work on Sunday night and baked a birthday cake and cupcakes for the boy’s birthday yesterday. The bf wanted chocolate and sprinkles, so I ended using my mom’s Chocolate Sour Cream Cake recipe. I remembered it because of the richness of the chocolate (9 tablespoons of cocoa powder and chocolate pudding!) and the moist texture that results from the sour cream.

I cut out this peppermint candy shaped sign using my diecut machine and the template shown above. The “toothpick” is made from rolled up foil. I almost like the look of the shiny foil better than a wooden normal toothpick. I then piled on the sprinkles since the boy would eat them plain if he had the opportunity. The result was a deliciously moist chocolate cake and a colorful sugary top. MMM!

Chocolate sour cream cake recipe coming soon!

Happy Birthday Mike!

Its a bit cheesy in appearance, but I present you one of my newest addictions: the Sizzix ‘Big Kick’ die-cutting machine. The die-cutting machine cuts out shapes, embosses paper, folds all kinds of cards, and creates a variety of boxes using templates.

I purchased my diecut machine a few months ago, but with moving apartments and just a general lack of time, I finally brought my machine to my apartment and spent a few hours pouring over die cut templates. I ended up with lettering, birthday shapes, holiday shapes, and the scalloped rectangle shape above.

Templates, like the scalloped rectangle above, are sandwiched between two plastic cutting boards with pretty paper and rolled through the die-cut machine, resulting in consistently punched out shapes every time. Now that I finally have diecuts, I’m excited to make all sorts of paper goods and share them with you!

{Thanks to my sister for taking these photos!}

{Pillows by Alice Rebecca Potter & Little Beehive}

For the first time in what seems like forever, I spent the night completely work free. What does that mean exactly? Ignoring the cellphone, ignoring the work computer, eating copious amounts of homemade mac ‘n cheese (thanks bf!), attempting to work out, and searching the web for cool little findings…today’s was Envelop, an online shop dedicated to turning independent designer’s patterns into cotton home goods.

{Pattern by Lydia Meiying}

The site features all different styles of design – I’ve just included bits and pieces of designs that I liked. Envelop offers only eight cotton goods: aprons, oven mitts, tote bags, pillow covers, napkins, place mats, table runners, and pot holders. Patterns are printed onto your item choice upon ordering. This gives you a little bit of flexibility in your shopping since your favorite patterns can be turned into all types of items.

I found Envelop at Apartment Therapy and couldn’t resist sharing (and also posting to remind myself of the site…). I spent quite awhile browsing the site and just kept scrolling page after page through the printed patterns. Its very Urban Outfitter-esque, but more original and offers a wide selection of different styles.

All images from www.envelop.eu.

I attended the ever-so-delicious San Francisco Chocolate Festival at Ghirardelli Square this past weekend. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the chocolate was even better! On a side note, I also love the chocolate festival’s logo – the bright pink spoon drizzle with abstract chocolate syrup.

{Buttercream Frosting ‘Shots’ by the Frosting Queens. The rainbow sprinkles add a cute touch.}

For a sweet $5, we were free to sample 15 different chocolate masterpieces – Kara’s adorable mini cupcakes, chocolate stuff marshmallows, a light and airy crème brulee, chocotinis in plastic glasses, homemade frostings, rocky road candies, and chocolate pancakes.

 {Mini sweet chocolate cupcakes from Kara’s Cupcakes and a quick glimpse of the "’Karavan!” The “Karavan” is a marriage of the increasingly popular food truck and the trendy cupcake shop. Also, the huge, long line for this one tiny cupcake was totally worth it.}

{Chocolate covered Oreos. Who knew that such a simple idea could be executed in such pretty, classy manner? I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to try these, but they look almost to perfect to eat.}

  {Please excuse the awful glare on this photo of GudFud chocolate stuffed marshmallows. I just couldn’t resist the cute marshmallow characters. I’m a sucker for cute packaging…}

Let’s just say, after only making my way through 8 of my 15 samples, I was pretty much chocolate-d out. The festival was absolutely delicious and it was fun to just completely stuff ourselves with chocolate until our stomachs hurt. Yum!

I couldn’t resist -  I have to show off the beautiful San Francisco Saturday weather we were so lucky to have!

To view the list of vendors or get more information about the festival, visit the SF Chocolate Festival website.

The only constellations that I can point out are Orion’s belt and the Big Dipper…sometimes. Despite my lack of constellation seeking skills, I still find the idea of turning random stars into dot-to-dot pictures.  I came across the Vegetable Zodiac, a funny little seed packaging concept, and thought it was a creative spin on constellations.

The seed packets, found at Mieke Willems blog, each contain a vegetable constellation outlining an abstract version of your favorite vegetables. Its simple things like creative packaging that can give a whole different spin every day objects. I never thought about seed packets until now.  The diagram below shows all the different veggie constellation seed packets. Maybe on the next clear night, I’ll search for these vegetables in the sky…

Its with great pleasure that I present you a “before & after” from my longtime friend, Jillian. Not only has she been a super supporter of this blog, but she also always has creative ideas and executes projects to perfection. Jillian sent me photos of her most recent project, in which she reupholstered a pair of chairs, after I begged to see pictures of them. Once a pair of aging chairs from her mom’s first San Francisco apartment, Jillian revamped the chairs, coincidentally, for her first San Francisco apartment.

Jillian’s first step to reupholstering her chairs involved sanding away multiple layers of paint with coarse and then fine sandpaper for hours. According to Jillian, as she sanded down the chairs she discovered the many layers of paint her mom had previously painted the chairs – blue to red to pink to green. I thought this was particularly cool because it shows how a person’s style and color preference can change over time.

The chairs are painted in a dark navy blue oil paint. Jillian chose to use oil paint because of the smoother finish the paint would give. I never thought to use oil paint on wood before, but thinking about it now, it makes perfect sense.

Jillian searched throughout the Bay Area for the perfect navy and white striped fabric and found exactly what she wanted at…iKea. I agree, iKea has a pretty great fabric collection. I love the nautical navy stripes because it gives the chairs a classic feel without being too conservative.  Using, as Jillian described it, “ the confident voice in a YouTube demonstration and a staple gun,” the chairs were transformed into a perfect, brand new addition to any apartment.

The details:

Navy oil paint  – Tamalpais Paint and Color

Navy and white striped fabric – iKea

Chair Reupholstering Demonstration – YouTube

Thanks for sharing Jillian!

{Do you have a Before & After project you’d like to share? I’d love to hear about it! Say hello at thelateafternoon@gmail.com}