kathyphantastic

Earlier this fall, I had the opportunity to make hand-lettered chalkboard speech bubbles for a event photo booth at the University of Texas at Austin's Division of Housing and Food Service's Mexican American Cultural Dinner. Cool Frijoles! Here are some of my favorites from Marisa Vasquez Photography

Under my creative direction, Marisa created that larger than life avocado. Haha.

Logo design by Corey Marquart

Hello? Anybody there? It's been a long time, I definitely didn't keep my end of the promise about posting more often.

I've been busy, but I'm always busy, so I guess that's not a good excuse. Shout out to patient reader Allison who kindly reminded me to post this weekend.

I hope you'll welcome my return, because I've got BIG news. In August, the redhead asked me to marry him. Well, he brought me up a mountain and gave me a ring, and forgot to ask me to marry him, but I reminded him...

I am in love with this fuschia bag from Kate Spade. It would look amazing with my fall greys, black, and other neutral.

Kate Spade New York Primrose Hill Goldie, $277

I am designing two dozen Austin, Texas themed cake pops for Austin Food Bloggers Alliance's Cupcakes and Cocktails event benefiting Bake A Wish. Bake A Wish is a non-profit providing birthday cakes for children in need. Tickets for Wednesday's event are available online for $35.

My fancy cake pops will in the silent auction and will be made with chocolate cake balls from Objects of Confection. There may be a few other flavors here and there.  Be there and bid high. ;)

Jessica Forkner from Objects of Confection will be participating in the Cupcakes and Cocktails Challenge in which she will be baking up cocktail-inspired cupcakes and facing off against some of Austin's most talented bakers including Sugar Mama's Bakeshop and Amity Bakery (she distributes my fave almond croissants to La Boite). Man is this going to be tasty.

Cupcakes and Cocktails
Wednesday, July 27, 2012
6:00 - 9:00pm
AT&T Conference Center, Tejas Room

Find out more on the Cupcakes and Cocktails Facebook event

It's National Fried Chicken Day! I promise I didn't make this one up. Check CNN's Eatocracy for more details. To celebrate this obscure holiday, I bring you a fried chicken-related post. 

Lucy's Fried Chicken is yet another place that seems like I, as a vegetarian of many years, might not go to. My friend Meagan chose this as her first Doodle Dining Club adventure. You might remember the other adventure at Justine's, or the many trips to Franklin BBQ - I seem to go to plenty of places a veggie might not make their first pick.

As the name and the menu suggest, Lucy's specializes in fried chicken.

We started off with drinks. All the ladies had Juicy Lucy water melon margaritas. I somehow ended up with multiple limes.

To start, we shared the cornbread muffins with tequila butter. Yum! Meagan wanted the calf fries (others refused), and the chicken eaters got a big bucket o' chicken.

I had the fire kissed vegetable skewers. they were surprisingly good and thankfully came on top of a bed of greens.

There was some sort of issue with our order, so we got a table full of complimentary pie. The waiter said there was pie in our future. He was right. There was plenty. We had shoofly, s'mores, key lime. We had high blood sugar for the rest of the week.

Big news: I recently branched into a new medium - chalk art.

Here is a video of my largest piece to date from Austin handmade boutique, Burlap Bag.

Owners Lauren and Josiah Lowe curate a collection of handmade items from makers around the US including several Austin designers. They also have a cute and helpful DIY blog with tutorials like how to make brown sugar or branch jewelry holder. Their site goes straight to the blog.

Here's Lauren's post about the Austin Texas I Love You chalkboard on the Burlap Bag blog. That's a mouthful -- or a bagful.

Stop by their store and see all their amazing handcrafted finds, and check out my chalkboard art while you're there.

502 W. 30th St.
Austin, TX 78705

Not in Austin? Lucky you, they just launched their online store. Unfortunately, you won't be able to see the chalk art in person.

Here are some in progress shots.

Thanks Burlap Bag for letting me fill your window with chalk.

My friend Danielle is one of the busiest people I know. She's into fashion, fitness, e-commerce, advertising, and social media. She's just a general go-getter. Now she's got to get going to Jacmel, Haiti to film a documentary about Jean Baptiste Dessaix Music School.

Danielle and her Students of The World Professional team are a mix of filmmaking, producing, fundraising, and photography professionals.

 

I designed some Students of the World logo cake pops for their SOW Pro on the Patio fundraising event held on Launch787's patio.

Look closely and you can see a donor chomping on a SOW Pro cake pop full of Objects of Confection's signature red velvet. He looks pretty content. I wasn't able to attend the event, but I heard the pops went fast.

Lucky guy.

Today marks my first trip to Barton Springs this summer. The redhead and I saw not one, but two French bulldogs on an island on the dog-friendly portion of the the springs. They didn't look to happy to be on that island, and we decided they were playing Lost.

What would make my next trip to even better is this pretzel float from Urban Outfitters. Does anyone make beer cheese or mustard floaties as accompaniments?

If I get the chance to bring this inflatable pretzel to Barton Springs Pool, I hope to see a German shepherd on the puppy island.

Pretzel Pool Float, Urban Outfitters, $18