Sticky Fingers on Cupcake Wars!

My buddy Doron Petersan who founded Sticky Fingers Bakery in D.C. will be competing on Food Network's "Cupcake Wars" tonight! We dirty vegans sometimes get tired of defending vegan desserts, so it's always nice when our peeps reap mainstream accolades (did I mention that Sticky Fingers is all vegan?). Sticky Fingers keeps winning all kinds of awards, and another vegan chef won a previous episode of Cupcake Wars, so I have no doubt Doron will bring home the gold.

Way back in the late '90s I designed Sticky Fingers' logo, the mischevious raccoon bandit. They've recently expanded into a restaurant and rebranded themselves as "Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats". Sadly (for me), the old logo didn't fit the new streamlined look, but it had a good decade-plus run so I can't complain. Anyway, be sure to tune in and send good mojo Doron's way!

UPDATE: Doron won the $10,000 and the chance serve 1,000 vegan cupcakes at the IceHouse Comedy Club's 50th anniversary party. I believe this kind of exposure is invaluable as "vegan outreach" in that people with no experience with vegan food may realize that it's not all about sacrifice and asceticism once they taste well made food.

As a bonus (to us, anyway), Doron was wearing a piece of my wife's jewelry (Anomaly Jewelry) and they briefly flashed my old logo!

Flurry of coverage

For some reason, this week has been choc full o' media coverage for both Karen and I. Kind of weird timing since we'll both be essentially closing up shop for a bit once baby Lulu makes an appearance.

Modern Dog did a one page feature ("Art Attack") on my pet portraits in their winter issue (on the newsstands now!). A very nice push just before the holiday season. I don't think the article is on their website, so you'll just have to be all luddite-y and pick up the actual magazine if you're so inclined.

The fantastic Kat Irannejad did an interview for Brooklyn The Borough (click to read it) in which I don't come across like a rambling incoherent imbecile (no small feat!). She managed to rein in my stream of consciousness anecdotes and such into a readable piece. The interview also got picked up by The New York Times 'City Room'!

Matthew Brady of Warren Peace did a short n' sweet review of my 'Tales of Good Ol' Snoop Doggy Dogg' mini-comic.

Karen's kind of freaking out because she got a wonderful opportunity that she can't pass up just before she was planning on wrapping up work at the Anomaly Jewelry factory (our living room) for a while in order to concentrate on Lulu. The Golden Globes Award ceremony contacted her to participate in their celebrity gift bags. It's a tremendous opportunity, but also a TON of work. I'm trying to help out in any way I can, but unfortunately I don't know the first thing (well, maybe the first, but definitely not the second) about making jewelry. Add that to holiday orders and being 9 months pregnant, and you can understand her sense of being overwhelmed.

On that note, there's a great feature on Karen on Shana Logic, a blog that promotes indie creators and retailers.

Shout Out: Karen Yost

This may be just a little bit biased, but my next shout-out (really it should have been the first, but I didn't want to appear THAT biased!) goes out to the best artist in the world: Karen Yost (Anomaly Jewelry). We first met at an illustrator's conference, but she has since (wisely) turned her attention to making jewelry. I say "wisely" not because she wasn't exceptionally talented, but because trying to make a living from illustration is a pain in the ass.

I usually don't really notice jewelry unless it's either incredibly tacky or incredibly large. Anomaly Jewelry, however, is like tiny interesting sculpture. She mostly makes tiny intricately detailed sculptures in wax, and then has them cast in silver or gold. They're visually rich and often funny or clever while being simultaneously beautiful. That's hard to pull off!

Since we both feel the same way about blogs (disgusted), we decided that if we both have one for business purposes, then neither of us could think less of the other. So, with that inviting introduction, her Anomaly blog is here. She will be posting sales and new jewelry lines on it, so keep checking back in!