Empire State of Mind

This passed June I travelled to New York for one of my cousin's weddings. On the plane I literally listened to Glee's cover of Empire State of Mind on repeat for the entire flight (only an hour). While jamming I started to sketch out the lyrics- to keep myself busy and pass the time. I really loafted on finishing the lettering when I got back home (3 months to be exact) but better late than never right? Since they are so iconic I thought it would be fun to incorporate the logos from The New Yorker, The New York Times and New York magazine. This is an appropriate day to blog this piece since the Yankees are playing their first post-season game against Detroit tonight, GO YANKS!  And of course, long live New York :)  

Thanks to Amy for her beautiful photo!

Chicken Stew and Plantain Foufou

Two weeks ago (with the help of my mom) I attempted my very first chicken stew! I saw Roger Mooking make a Trinidadian Chicken Stew a while back and really wanted to give it a try. I consulted my bible of Guyanese food (Cynthia Nelson's Tastes Like Home cookbook) to find an appropriate side for the stew. I remember my Mom told me how her grandmother used to make foufou, which they would eat with saucy curries and stews and thankfully Tastes Like Home had the recipe we were looking for. I must say both the stew and foufou came out really nice! My sister (who loathes chicken stew) licked her plate clean! Making the foufou was a pretty cool experience, I never met my great grandmother but through cooking I now feel connected on some level- gotta love food!

Salutation Nation

On September 10th I participated in an outdoor yoga event put on by lululemon athletica- Salutation Nation. At 9am (your local time)  thousands of people practiced yoga outdoors on four continents across the world! This was my very first outdoor yoga class (scratch that off this year's goals list!). It may have taken all summer but I finally managed to move my practice outside. We practiced at Coronation Park in Oakville and man it was REAL nice! Holding postures while breathing in fresh air with a view of the trees and lake was a really great experience (and I didn't sweat like a mofo!). I need to make more of an effort next year to do more outdoor classes, I had a lot of fun :) 

In savasana with a view of the sky? I'm down! 

Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies

Dearest Cousin Flo (aka Mel) said bon voyage to the Bronx and is spending a week with us here in TO. Like me, she is also a huge carrot cake fan, so we decided that we MUST make time for some carrot cakey goodness during her stay. I remembered I made these carrot cake sandwich cookies a long while back (13 years ago to be exact!) so now was an opportune time to dig up that recipe and get to baking. For some reason we have plenty of vanilla pods around (thanks to Dad and his love for Costco) so I added the seeds of one pod to the icing recipe. These sandwich cookies are over the top delicious! Although a fraud at times, Miss Martha certainly does know her way around the kitchen :)

type treatment + food pic = good times for Anil!

I've got the moves like Jagger...

Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger has been stuck in my head for, let see- about a week now, but instead of being annoyed, I'm loving it! I really like the guitar riff and can't help but move and groove when the beat comes in after the first verse. Since I tend to think in type, why not doodle some lyrics!

Patterns up on Threadless.com!

To all the readers and followers of this blog, I put the patterns up on Threadless.com! SHOULD you see something you like (not trying to coerce people into voting for stuff they're not into) PLEASE VOTE!!! The only catch is that you have to sign up on Threadless.com in order to vote, but don't worry, it's a great community to be a part of AND it will be well worth it :) Thanks in advance, I really appreciate your help!


Vote right here, right now!!!

VOTE FOR CANAVAL!

VOTE FOR EATS!

VOTE FOR HEART-HEALTHY!

VOTE FOR PIECES!

VOTE FOR TYPE!

VOTE FOR VANCITY!

Hand Drawn Patterns

Wow! Quite some time since my last post- let's blame summer, shall we? For Christmas last year I got Mike Perry's 'Over & Over', a collection of hand drawn patterns done by some extremely talented illustrators and designers. I was QUITE inspired to say the least, and began working on my own pattern concepts here and there. The concepts finally materialized I really like how the patterns came out! I think I would like to do some kid-inspired patterns, so many ideas, so little time!

GRAPH

GRAPH-Reversed

PIECES

PIECES-Reversed

ME

ME-Reversed

TYPE

TYPE-Reversed

EATS

EATS-Reversed

VANCITY

VANCITY-Reversed

HEART HEALTHY

HEART HEALTHY-Reversed

CANAVAL

CANAVAL-Reversed