This post is dedicated to Shark Week: for inspiring the pirate in us all and the movie Sharknado.
{a handmade card is such an easy alternative to the grocery store offering}
In lieu of flying to Texas during my friend's 8th month of pregnancy to decorate the nursery for her, I pinned pirate themed ideas to my pinterest board and mailed her a gift box full of the cutest pirate themed items I could find...
{Pirate Booty}
Here's what I included:
Scull and Crossbone Hand-knit Baby Booties via Etsy here (the woman was super nice and even included an eye patch)
Pirate Nap Book (about learning colors) via Target here
A couple brightly striped outfits found at Target and Old Navy...
And a bag of my favorite snack for the Mama, Pirate Booty!
{Treasure Box made out of a plain white mailing box drawn with markers to look like faux wood grain}
{tiny booties}
{my pirate box ready to ship - I used black tissue paper + skipped formal wrapping paper}
She picked a pirate themed nursery based off of the bedding she had selected, but I could imagine this working for many other baby room themes: farm animals, the alphabet or flowers for a baby girl?
Sometimes you just can't be everywhere you would like to be, mailing a care package makes the distance more bearable. Seeing a picture of little Luke two months later in his eyepatch wasn't bad either...
{Baby Luke as Blackbeard Baby "Shiver me timbers!"}
Due to Mr. RaeChild's birthday this past week, I found myself in SoHo/Little Italy trying out the restaurant Peasant, which I'm happy to report back is excellent. It was recommended to me by a good friend who owns a restaurant upstate, he tries out all the latest + greatest restaurants in the city to find new inspiration for his place. Serving creamy ricotta (instead of the usual butter or olive oil) with freshly baked bread was a good start to the evening, but an even sweeter prelude was my find just a few blocks away at Little Cupcake Bake Shop.
It's not often I find the occasion to spend $3.50 on a cupcake. When I do, I not only expect the little deliciousness to be delightful, but the shop decor to hold it's weight as well. This one had all the tricks - neon outdoor sign, crown moldings galore, adorable Feed Project bags being sold, and dainty chandeliers to boot. Above and beyond the shop decor, I loved their hot pink takeaway boxes. Though, I suppose, while shopping for treats in and around SoHo I should expect nothing less than a sexy little box.
Onto the cupcake taste test...
{Little Cupcake Bakeshop: Dreaming Princess}
The Dreaming Princess:
a dollop of light billowy meringue on buttercream frosting with a drizzle of raspberry sauce with almond flavored white cake.
Verdict: Balanced. The raspberry sauce added a touch of tangy-ness, the toasted almonds brought it back down a notch, the meringue gave it the cloudy lightness of any deserving princess. Loved this featured cake, it won the show in both looks + taste.
{Little Cupcake Bakeshop: German Chocolate}
The German Chocolate Cake:
light chocolate cake topped with a condensed milk, coconut, pecan frosting.
Verdict: Not often offered behind the cutesy glass cake case, this one doesn't carry the same curb appeal with it's globby, nutty-textured, cappuccino-colored topping - however, it holds a place in my heart as it was served every year for my Dad's birthday growing up. Although not always a favorite amongst me and my sister as young girls, it is now an endearing addition to my cake vocabulary. This one was an excellent example, one my grandmother would approve and so it earns the no. 2 spot.
{Little Cupcake Bakeshop: Carrot Cake}
The Carrot Cake:
spice cake below, lightly sweet frosting up top.
Verdict: The spice was nice but perhaps it was missing that extra little bit of "healthy" texture in the form of shredded carrots or more raisins/nuts that I've come to expect in carrot cake. No. 3 place for not holding up to the bunny rabbit in me.
{Little Cupcake Bakeshop: Red Velvet}
The Red Velvet:
brightest red cake I've encountered followed by a classic vanilla buttercream on top.
Verdict: I must be a hater because I just don't get the red-velvet craze. It's supposed to be chocolate cake dyed with so much red food coloring that it overrides the natural chocolate hues to create a deep red cake... Yikes! Seems like Red #40 overload to me. Red #40 aside, this was an all around yummy cupcake. The proportion of frosting to cake was just right and the buttercream not too sweet but nothing outstanding here, so I rate it no.4 on today's list.
The world is a wonderful place thankfully filled with many people I can call my friends and family. One of these friends happens to be circumnavigating the world. Not the first of my friends to do this, but none the less daring. He has been hard at "work" filing for visas, arranging flights, building itineraries, documenting, photographing, and blogging back to us all at home for the past 9 months (give or take) via JustCuzItsRound.blogspot.com It's been a wonder to see some of his national-geographic-like shots of such places as:
1) India; Varanasi at the Ganges
{photo credit Parker Barnum}
2) Indonesia; Gili Islands (Mt. Batur, an active volcano, on Bali in background)
{photo credit Parker Barnum}
3) Bolivia; Uyuni Salt Flats (largest salt flat in the world)
{photo credit Parker Barnum}
His website, in my opinion however, isn't holding up to his venture. It has a bunk graffiti-style heading font called Rock Salt for starters (sorry Parker). So when he saw my RaeChild site he was all, "Whoah I'm jellin!" He actually didn't say that at all. I went ahead and conjured up a logo for him anyway:
{my initial thumbnail sketch}
It was then that my two other besties were heading to meet up with him in Buenos Aires so I decided to take action and have some t-shirts made as a surprise for the three amigos.
It took about 10 days to go from logo idea, to sketch, to t-shirt idea, to computer finessing, to t-shirt printing, to shipping. The shirts arrived on my friend's doorstep five hours before their departure flight.
It was a lot of fun waking up two days later, after they had landed and settled, to see this photo on Instagram:
{Jon, Jill, + Parker sending RaeChild love from Buenos Aires}
...and then two days later another Instagram of the three of them sporting the shirts in the streets of Colonia, Uruguay. I somehow didn't expect they would actually walk around like a traveling band wearing the shirt together! I loved it!
Parker seems happy with the shirts and I'm looking forward to making them available for all his followers. So if you happen to have the opportunity to surprise a wandering backpacker sans address with a t-shirt sporting his dot-com, I highly recommend it. If you don't have a wandering backpacker in your life, I suggest sending your mom some mail.
