today i am thrilled to share a special in the kitchen with: sarah magid. i’ve been a fan of sarah’s work for a while now and have been dying to work with her on a cooking project. and thankfully, she agreed! so yesterday i visited sarah’s beautiful home in greenpoint, brooklyn (stay tuned for a sneak peek of sarah’s home in the coming weeks) and watched as she baked delicious dark chocolate cupcakes with espresso whipped buttercream and hand-sculpted sugar flowers (the cupcake is vegan-friendly!). normally i’m more of a cook than a baker, but sarah’s work really inspires me to get in the kitchen and try out a simple recipe like this. the steps take hardly any time at all, and produce incredibly tasty results (so tasty i ate them in the car on the way home) so i hope you’ll enjoy sarah’s recipe as much as i did. and if you’re looking for a bit more a baking challenge, sarah also teaches you how to make hand-sculpted sugar flowers in the video- so you can decorate your treats like a pro.
thank you to sarah and her adorable daughter ruby (you can meet ruby at the end of the video) for welcoming d*s into their home on such a dark and rainy day.
also, many congratulations are in order for sarah on the release of her new book: organic and chic: cakes, cookies, and other sweets that taste as good as they look- a wonderful, approachable guide to organic baking. i spent the last hour drooling over her recipes for cakes, cookies and updated junk food, so if you’re looking for more sarah magid in your life, or just a visual and baking treat (the book photos were shot at saipua, with flowers styled by weeder’s digest’s sarah ryhanen!) click here to pick up a copy- i guarantee you’ll find at least a recipe or two that make you want to drop what you’re doing and start baking (or at least eating).
CLICK HERE for the full cupcake and frosting recipe, and links for buying gumpaste and decorative baking powders online!
brooklyn designer lindsey adelman, will be at the icff this weekend (booth# #1942) and several other shows this week- and i’m currently swooning over her ‘knotty bubbles’ and ‘agnes candelabra’. can’t wait to see them in person. click here for more info on her show schedule this week.
i also wanted to start this morning with a beautiful short film that i thought would set the tone for the last day before design week kicks off. icff starts tomorrow, followed by the stationery show, surtex and all the off-site shows (stay tuned for coverage of everything staring this monday on d*s) so i’m enjoying this beautiful, calm chalk animation video by lucinda schrieber of sydney, australia. “autumn story” is a beautifully animated short and i love the way the birds fly from chalkboard to chalkboard. it’s pretty with or without the sound (if you’re stuck at work and can’t listen). [thanks, liz!]
i’ve been watching a lot of stop-motion films lately and i’m completely smitten with this short piece commissioned by the AIGA in maine for use as an interstitial between speakers at their compost modern conference in maine this month. the film is less than two minutes long, so if you need a sweet visual time-out for the afternoon, this is a great excuse to pull on your headphones and watch something lovely for a minute or two (i love the way cupcake liners turn into growing flowers). thanks, brooke!
i spent two full days at bklyn designs this weekend, but if you have 10 minutes (or some time to browse a photo set), you can get a great tour of the show and its highlights right here. the first video today introduced us to a handful of fantastic artists showing this year, and in this video, we’ll meet the talented students of pratt* and some other favorites from the show that didn’t fit in the first video installment. artists featured in this video include:
this year’s bklyn designs was the best it has been in years. i was fortunate to be on the judging panel this year and i really felt like the show as a whole listened to those of us calling for newer, edgier and more innovative design. this year’s show was smaller than previous years but i spent a good two days walking around, takingpictures, and filming video clips with my favorites from the show.
so today, in addition to sharing images from the show, i’m kicking things off with two videos of my favorite pieces. and just to save everyone some typing, i’ve included links below to the designers featured in the video above. want to watch things full sized? click here to watch the bklyn designs part 1 video on youtube.
thank you to the clear tigers for lending one of my favorite songs, igloo, to this video. click here and here to check out the clear tigers online (you can buy clear tigers music at itunes as well)
this week, i thought it would be fun to watch sarah ryhanen of weeder’s digest arrange flowers- rather than just write about them (even though i’d give my right arm to be able to write like her). so today sarah is sharing her how-to tips for creating two beautiful floral arrangements: a sweet, hand held bouquet and a simpler, ikebana-inspired arrangement. in addition to sharing her floral design tips throughout the video she also shares tips for creating a tape lattice- a trick i’ve often relied on to create more sculptural arrangements. i hope you’ll enjoy getting to spend some time with sarah in her beautiful brooklyn shop, saipua. and i also hope you’ll excuse my first-time filming and editing skills. i obviously have a lot to learn. (if you’d like to watch this video in larger form, click here to watch it on youtube)
the music from today’s video belongs to one of my favorite bands (our wedding band!)- the corduroy road of athens, ga. click here and here to check out their music. you can also pick up their cds at itunes.
today is the day that i’m chopping my hair off (you can listen-in on my pre-cut freak outs right here) so i’m trying to calm myself with some soothing videos this morning. sarah’s weeder’s digest how-to video is coming up later this afternoon, so i thought i’d kick things off with a beautiful video tribute to one of my favorite areas of los angeles, silver lake.
this video, produced by pamela berger, is dedicated to the art, design, architecture and culture of silver lake. there is a great interview with barbara bestor (of bohemian modern fame) and tons of beautiful homes to check out. just click play to watch the show. [thanks, pamela and john!]
