Hello! I know I haven’t been posting very much this month, but I promise that it’s for good reason and you’ll soon know why.

My friend, Ximena, had a birthday on Saturday and I had an appointment at her shop on Sunday. She is the vegetarian tattoo artist and shop owner (vegan tattoos!) who also made the nom! buttons, and she is a serious cat lover. I used recipes from Damn Tasty! to make her a kitty birthday cake, fit for the feline-friendly.

img_04491

The chocolate cake recipe from the Black Forest Cake, covered with Peanut Butter Frosting and I did some detailing with melted chocolate. Everyone wins when you make a cake where you need to cut out elements of it- they get the cake and you get to eat the scraps. The result was this cute, playful cake that was a cinch to make. Yum!

I presented it to her at my appointment to get some long-awaited tattoos. These have been several years in the making: my bees!

On my left shoulder:

000_0029

And on my right:

000_0031-1

These pictures were taken less than 24 hours after, so I’m still a little pink and swollen. Don’t them look great?! They turned out even better than I expected, Ximena just rocks.

Why the bees? Well, there are a couple of reasons. One, I just like bees. I think they are beautiful and their complex language is so fascinating. An important thing about bees is their contribution to agriculture around the world. Bees are responsible for much of the pollination needed for our crops to grow, but the bees are dying. This is a real concern because it is affecting food crops worldwide and no one can figure out why the colonies are dying off. Everything from watermelon, broccoli, to my furry friend the kiwi, they all rely on bees to grow, so this decline has far-reaching effects. In the past few years this problem has been attracting more attention, but the mystery is still there. Bees are just as important as the water, sun and soil used to grow crops. So, with that in mind, I pay homage to these amazing little creatures, so essential to our world.

Thanks to the bees, I was able to make this delicious salad:

img_0453

Mixed baby greens, spinach, cucumber, baby heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers and some sliced up carrots, the perfect spring time lunch salad!

I hope spring is in the air for you all. I can see some bees buzzing around the blooming tree outside my window right now.

Tagged with:
 

0 Responses to bzzzzzzzzzz

  1. shellyfish says:

    I love your tats! they are awesome. I love it!! And that is one groovy kitty cake!

  2. bex says:

    The cake is adorable and I love the tattoos! I keep thinking I might like to get one eventually but can’t decide what to get. I like to hear about what a person’s tat means to them, it’s so interesting! Congrats, they look great.

  3. Courtney says:

    That cake is too cute! I love it!

    Courtney

  4. Vaala says:

    They are beautiful tattoos (and that is one gorgeous-looking cake).

  5. DJ Karma says:

    Cute cake and Nice tatoos! Sad to know about the bees.

  6. Celine says:

    Kris!! it’s good to hear from you again. the cake looks absolutely fantabulous, and so do the tats. I’ve been wanting to get one for so long, but still haven’t managed to figure what/where.
    poor bee-bees. I’m a wuss and am a wee bit scared of them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel awful that they’re disappearing at such an alarming rate.

  7. Vegetation says:

    Awww I love your bees!!! And I want kitty cake!! Too adorable!!! (PS. I finally cracked open that jar of Chockie PB and am so unbearably in love I just know I’m going to cry when it’s finished!!!)

  8. Adorable cake and great looking tattoos!

  9. Sandy says:

    When I am in a pinch, I buy a salad sans cheese from Papa Murphy’s. They are huge and only 5 bucks! Your cute arrangement of your salad reminds me of theirs.