sesame street illustration posters

almost every kid in america grows up watching sesame street (hahaha, except me! for some reason i never did care for it. it was shows like reading rainbow or mr. rogers that i preferred). but i figured now that i've got two little ones and we do have a few collection of sesame street board books, why not?! little miss v loves her sesame street books. she knows just about all the characters. i don't think she's seen the show yet or if she has, possibly only a couple of times. it's so cute watching her go through her books and letting you know who's who.

so i guess it's only fitting that my second design post is of another series of illustration posters. i know i don't have all the characters from the show. i'm missing ernie and bert, as well as count dracula and mr. snuffleupagus, plus some others. but regardless, i've been wanting to make these sesame street posters ever since i did the mr. men series posters. next on my list are the little miss. i'm not sure if i will do them in the same style, simplified, etc... but i guess we'll find out sooner or later. i also know i want to add to my mr. men poster collection. c's got a few more favorite mr. men he'd love to see down in this style as well.

okay, that's all i have for now. we'll see what else i have in store the next time i post something design-related. :)

mr. men illustration posters

i guess you can say this is my first official "design" blog entry. okay, sure... there's not much design here, more illustration than design, but it works?!

we love the mr. men/little miss book collections from roger hargreaves. the poster illustrations above are just some of our favorites. c loves all the books and often times tell us which mr. men he is depending on how he's feeling. for examples, there are days when he's mr. bump or he's usually mr. grumpy when he wakes up from his nap. sometimes, he says he's mr. (little miss) contrary because he can't seem to get things straight/proper.

these books are great! if you don't have any in your household or haven't heard of them, you should definitely get a few to start. so, which little miss am i? i am for sure, no doubt, little miss chatterbox. i know it doesn't come through on here, but ask anyone in my family/circle and they'll agree. ;)

happy birthday, america!

last night i baked a small batch of vanilla cupcakes and finished it three ways: vanilla cake with strawberry jam filling + vanilla buttercream, vanilla cake with lemon curd filling + lemon buttercream, and vanilla cake with nutella filling + chocolate ganache. as you all know, today is the fourth of july. you've gotta have some kind of cake, so why not cupcakes?! anyway, this vanilla cupcake recipe is delicious. it's one of my favorite go-to cupcake recipes. you can make it as is or dress it up a bit like i did by adding in filling, changing up the frosting, etc. try it out yourself and let me know what you think! pretty good eh?


vanilla cupcakes
makes 12, from amy sedaris

3/4 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cups milk
your choice of buttercream frosting

turn oven on to 375 degrees F.

put butter in mixer and beat at medium speed until somewhat smooth. if you don't have a stand mixer or a hand mixer, mixing it by hand will do too. just make sure you warm up your butter if it's not at room temperature already a bit in the microwave so it's easy to mix with the sugar. if your butter is already at room temperature, then that should be fine. you can skip the microwave part. pour in sugar and beat well. add in the egg. i usually just crack my eggs right in. i know some don't do this because you can have a bad egg and have to start all over again, or drop egg shells in there and have to go fishing for it, etc but hey, i guess i'm a daredevil like amy sedaris too! we take chances here. mix well. add: vanilla, baking powder, salt, flour, and milk. beat until it looks like it is supposed to and pour into individual baking cups, until they are about 2/3 full. bake for 17-20 minutes or until golden brown. should produce 12 cupcakes.

frost with your choice of frosting. and that's it, you're done! now... go enjoy them. :)