{photo from Oh Joy!}

*remember the day* the hintze wedding

8×10″ fine art print

typeface: Skitch | color palette: aubergine

2 designs – the client chose the 2nd (portrait orientation)

Which one do you like better?

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I found this recipe on Whole Foods’ website and modified it for my tastes … the result are absolutely delicious peanut butter balls that make a great protein/energy bar alternative or you can pop on as dessert. John loves them because they are (minus the chocolate) Paleo-friendly and high in protein. I love them because they are peanut buttery.

{photo from Whole Foods}

chloe’s most delicious peanut butter balls

Ingredients:

• 1 cup organic peanut butter with NO palm oil  ( I like to use crunchy!)
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup honey (depending on your preference; I use closer to 1/4 cup)
• 1.5 teaspoons unsweetened organic cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons organic unsweetened shredded coconut + more for rolling balls in
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I like Enjoy Life’s semi-sweet chocolate mini chips that are
  dairy- , soy- and gluten-free!)
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds + more for rolling balls in
• 2 tablespoons uncooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup finely chopped nuts (your choice: walnuts, pecans, etc.) for rolling balls in

To Make:

Before measuring the peanut butter, stir it up well.

Mix the peanut butter, honey, cocoa powder, coconut, sesame seeds, and quinoa until combined. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.

Place the remaining coconut, sesame seeds and nuts into 3 separate bowls. Scoop small heaps of the peanut mixture from the bowl; roll into 1 1/4-inch balls. Rolling is easier if you form a rough ball, roll in the coconut, and then continue rolling into a more perfect shape. (Remember how you used to make a ball out of Silly Putty? That’s how you want to roll these little suckers.) Roll each finished ball in coconut, sesame seeds and chopped nuts. I like to do some with all three (coconut, sesame, and nuts) and some with just one or two toppings.

Arrange the balls on a plate or in a container, cover loosely with plastic wrap or container lid and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Makes about 15-20 balls.
And just for fun… a nice neutral palette:

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So, as I mentioned you can select any color palette from design-seeds for your remember the day print or canvas. Well, I wanted to share a few of my favorite palettes that I came across on design-seeds:

Goodness! Any of these would be absolutely GORGEOUS as part of a remember the day!

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I am excited to announce that I am not offering a practically unlimited number of color palettes on my remember the day prints and canvases! What do I mean by “practically unlimited”??? Well, when you purchase a remember the day, not only can you pick from my selection of 27 color palettes, but you can select any color palette of your choice from Design Seeds. Design Seeds is the color inspiration blog of designer and color-lover, Jessica Colaluca. Her blog is similar to my Everyday Palette blog entries, only she posts color inspiration at least once, but often multiple times a day!

Head to my *hello there, design* etsy shop to purchase your own remember the day. Then head to Design Seeds to view the endless, beautiful color palette options!!!

I have been noticeably absent from the blog lately, so instead of prolonging the silence I wanted to report that I will be taking somewhat of a blog staycation. I will still post, but with less frequency than previously and my posts will be smaller (quick little snippets of design, pet, products I love, etc…). So things may look and feel a little different!

photo from creature comforts via Sweet Paul magazine

(photo source)

photo from mint via tastespotting

Citrus Cake with Lemon Curd Filling and Orange Lemon Icing

inspired by Stella McCartney’s Spring collection,

baked and photographed by Apollinas

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Hoping everyone had a very nice Father’s Day, whether you spent it with your Dad, someone else’s Dad, or your significant other. We spent the day driving home from Phoenix, but I did get to talk to my Dad on the phone. And, in his honor, I had changed my personal Facebook page profile picture to this bad ass photo of him taken in 1969 in San Francisco:

I mentioned a design I was working on that was a Father’s Day gift in this post which I had to wait to share until the gift was given yesterday. Well, now I get to share it and I am excited to do so!

First a little back story… some very good friends of mine, Lance and Leslie, adopted a son from Taiwan last August. Lance was also adopted as a small child (although he was born here in this country). Lance was in a foster home and his foster parents fell in love with them and decided to adopt him. On the day of his adoption he was about a year and a half old and his Mom had taken a photo of him on the courthouse steps wearing a t-shirt that said, “Finally I am a Kirk!” (Kirk is his family’s last name).

This photo of Lance, taken in 1981 was framed along with a poem called, “Legacy of an Adopted Child”. Lance’s Mom framed the two and they have hung in Lance’s room/home ever since.

For Father’s Day, Leslie wanted to take the photo of Lance, the poem, and a photo she took of their son Caysen wearing a very similar shirt and turn it into a piece of art for their home. She wanted something modern and more graphic.

Leslie presented me with some examples of pieces of art that she liked and I set to work on her project. I started by focusing on the type involved – the poem. I played around with typefaces/fonts and layouts for the poem until we found a font and layout we liked. Then, I worked with the photos, which we decided to turn into silhouettes with the letters on the t-shirts showing.  Finally, I played around with the layout of all the elements, text and silhouettes. I decided to add in the name, birth date, and adoption date information, and Leslie loved the idea of incorporating that, too.

The last thing we did was play around with color by applying different color palettes to the design. In the end, Leslie decided on a gray and yellow color palette, which I think looks absolutely fabulous. It was definitely the best choice for the design.

Here is what the final design looks like:

The design was printed on fine art paper as a print suitable for framing in an 11×14″ frame. Lance and Leslie plan to frame it and hang it somewhere in their home.

Here is a photo of Lance and Caysen after Leslie presented Lance with his Father’s Day gift:

I cannot wait to see this framed. I am so happy that Leslie loved the final project so much, as I truly enjoyed working on it and was thrilled with how it turned out myself!

A quick little note: I am always available for custom projects such as this one or something else you may have an idea for. Please contact me if you would like to discuss a special project of your own!