Erin Cheyne

Fresh Strawberries & Scottish Shortbread with Homemade Whipped Cream…

Posted by Admin 05 Apr 2013 No Comments »

My mom is an absolute goddess of the kitchen, and taught me from an early age that butter and margarine are NOT the same thing, and if you don’t agree, you’ve either a) got a brain tumor that prohibits your taste buds from functioning properly or b) you eat way too many commercial, prepackaged imitations of good food. Take it as an insult. Take it to heart. Learn to love and appreciate butter for all of it’s magical qualities that are simply impossible to imitate.

The butter is what makes this entire dessert so perfect – don’t waste the rest of your ingredients by throwing in any form of imitation, it isn’t worth it. Butter is just another incarnation of cream, and the combination of the shortbread (instead of shortcake) with cold, fresh whipped cream (with just a tiny bit of sugar and vanilla – no chemically ready-whip aftertaste) really ties it together.

Anyway, I was feeling grumpy the other day and some good old strawberry shortcake sounded like the perfect pick-me-up. I had an ADD moment, mixed up the words shortcake and shortbread when I was looking at recipes, and it was one of those serendipity mistakes that made things turn out better than originally planned.

Scottish Style Strawberry Shortbread Recipe

(For two, with enough left over for a midnight snack…)

Take a pound of strawberries, rinse them off and chop off the tops, then slice them up to whatever size you want them to be. Throw them into a small tupperware container with about two tablespoons of white sugar and put the lid on – stash it on top of your fridge until you’re done with everything else.

***Throw a medium sized metal bowl into the freezer now so that you can make whipped cream later***

1 Cup butter (softened)
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar (packed)

2 1/4 Cups flour (whatever you prefer, I use unbleached white flour)

Preheat your oven to about 325 and cream the sugar and butter together thoroughly (if your brown sugar hardened in the bag, either throw a few damp paper towels in the bag overnight, or put it in a bowl with a few damp paper towels, cover it and microwave it for 30 seconds and then in 10 second intervals if it’s still too hard to break it up…) once the butter and sugar is thoroughly mixed, throw in the flour and mix it by hand for about 5 minutes. Flatten it out into a circle on your pan (I just used a pie pan) and poke a few holes here and there with a fork. Use a knife to slice it up like a pizza (all the butter makes it pretty crumbly once it’s cooked so it’ll come out prettier this way, trust me.) Throw it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

While the shortbread is baking, grab a pint of heavy whipping cream (or more if you have more, there’s no such thing as too much) and throw it into the bowl you’ve had chilling in the freezer. I don’t have an electric mixer, so I actually did this all with a wire whisk – it sounds intimidating, and your arms WILL get tired, but in reality it took less than 5 minutes and it was absolutely worth it. If you have an electric mixer, go for it. Whip it up until it starts looking like whipped cream, throw in a bit of sugar – two teaspoons should be good, but it’s a matter of personal taste. I also put in about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Keep whipping for another minute or so and you’re done! You should have about 10-15 minutes left until the shortbread is out of the oven, so take that time to wipe down the counters, rinse out the bowls and pick a few cups to put your dessert in. I used mugs but a bowl or a teacup is great too. Make a pot of coffee. Pull the shortbread out of the oven, slice AGAIN over the cuts you made in it before you put it in the oven. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and go chill out for a few minutes and flip through a book – about the time you either finish your coffee or it starts cooling off, your shortbread will be cooled off just enough. Layer the shortbread wedges, cream and strawberries in your mug of choice.

And never. Use. Margarine.

Grocery Shopping Without a Car: Finally fell in love with grocery delivery!

Posted by Admin 31 Mar 2013 No Comments »

So we’ve been sans-car since December, and moved to the middle of nowhere about two months ago – we’re loving it but it was definitely a science project at first. I have about a three mile walk to work, and for the first few weeks, I’d just stop at the grocery store across the street from my office and buy as many groceries as my backpack could hold. That’s a long walk home with a full backpack, but the real frustration was the variety – when you’re relying on backpackfulls of food, and you’re trying not to buy anything heavy (bye, canned soup!) it gets really annoying trying to come up with good, homemade meals based on the random assortment of stuff that I’d wind up stumbling home with. Plus I mean, if I’m shopping at the end of the day when I’m tired and hungry, there’s a good chance the stuff I pick is going to be even more random. This is how we came up with fried cucumbers (fried in butter and garlic, breaded with fresh herbs and coarse black pepper, topped with Parmesan shavings.) so I guess it wasn’t all necessarily a bad thing;)

Anyway, I was looking around online a few weeks ago and found out that there are actually multiple grocery delivery services in the area – I figured it would cost a fortune but it wound up saving me about $80 when I got to the checkout and took out the impulse buys I would’ve been stuck with if I’d actually gone to the store. The first grocery delivery service we ordered from, GoGet, was awesome and they only charge $10 for delivery regardless of your order size. The only downside is that they only shop at the local grocery store, their fresh meat selection is pretty limited and we have a high end cheese habit that it can’t support. I wasn’t home when they delivered, but Will said the delivery guy was really nice and got there exactly when he said he would – we’ll definitely be using them again for the basics.

This week, we’re going to try out Edible Eats Online – they got my attention because they’ll go to any grocery store you want them to, including Target and Costco (Costco muffins!!!) and you aren’t limited to selecting your products in an online shop – you give them a list of what you want, tell them if you want them to buy generic or brand name, and really just specifically tailor your grocery list. They are a little pricier than GoGet, $12.95 plus 10% of your total grocery bill, so it’s not that bad but would definitely add up on bigger orders. Will update on how it turns out soon.

Has anyone else tried any grocery delivery services around here? Any recommendations?

How Craigslist Changed My Life: An Open Thank-You Note to the Founder of Craigslist

Posted by Admin 19 Mar 2013 No Comments »

Dear Craig,

I owe you a major thank you for where Craigslist has taken my life. Over the past 7 years, I’ve had some amazing adventures, incredible experiences and finally found my own little niche in life, and a lot of that never would’ve happened if it weren’t for Craigslist.

I got my first car on there, a 1988 Volvo 240 (still my all time favorite car) and I paid for that car using the money I earned at my first “real” job for a trade magazine, a job that I found on Craigslist, and a job that ultimately helped me realize I wanted to be a designer. After that I moved to Detroit to attend art school, and found my first apartment on Craigslist. About 6 months after I moved out of Detroit, and a friend and I started a band (http://www.myspace.com/borogovesband) that did pretty well, and we found a ton of great gigs on Craigslist. When that fizzled out, as bands tend to do, I went back to doing a lot of freelance design work and brought in a lot of work on there over the years.

Fast forward to last June, I was looking for some kind of more stable, consistent work and found a job at a marketing agency (http://www.mousetrapmobile.com) in Royal Oak, Michigan, and then in the rentals section, found a little house within walking distance to work (complete with an über-creepy landlord…I guess everyone gets one of those once in a lifetime…) In September, I got laid off and pieced together a few little part time jobs and freelance gigs to keep the lights on (again, thanks Craigslist!) and found a giant staffordshire terrier named Kilo in the pets section of Craigslist that we immediately fell head over heels in love with. In December, two things went haywire: My boyfriend wound up in the ICU for a while with diabetes complications, and the house we were renting went into foreclosure. When he was able to come home, we were both worrying ourselves sick since we knew we’d have to move soon and there was no way we’d be able to pull it off with scrappy little part time jobs. Then we got a letter from the bank offering us their cash for keys program – if we could move out within two months and leave the place in ship-shape condition, they’d write us a check for $2,000.

In mid January, we watched Craigslist Joe and it reminded me so much of the amazing connections Craigslist has brought into my life, and the gears started turning. I put an ad on Craigslist basically saying “Hey, this is what I’m good at – I need a job ASAP!” And immediately got a response from an organic dog treat & food company called Healthy Dogma. It was a perfect fit! The only issue was that we didn’t have a car, and the job was almost an hour from where we were living. The morning of my interview, I found an ad online for a house on an island just under three miles from my new job – and the price was a fraction of what the house in Royal Oak cost. I called, but someone had already claimed it. I was offered the job the same day, and accepted but wasn’t sure how we’d pull it off, and the next morning, I got a call from the landlord – the other tenant backed out and the island house was available. We went and looked at it, and it was absolutely perfect – AND they were ok with our dogs. We had a lot of help lined up to make the move happen the weekend before I was supposed to start, but we had to bump the move back a day and everyone that was planning on helping had plans for Sunday, so we were once again in panic mode. About 16 hours before I was supposed to start my new job, I frantically posted on Craigslist – “I’ll give a hundred bucks to the first person that can get here with a truck and drive us, our dogs and a few boxes of clothes to our new place!” And about five minutes later, my phone started ringing. Jay, a guy with a heavy Bronx accent and a great sense of humor saw the ad and came over with his work van right away and helped us pack it to the gills, dogs and all and drove us up to our new home.

We’ve been here for exactly five weeks as of last night, and things are going great. I love my new job, we love being out of the city and we’re loving this great adventure. It never would’ve been possible to get this far with so little to work with if it weren’t for your crazy, wonderful website and we are beyond thankful for what you’ve done for the world.

Thanks:)

Erin

Winky Boo – Latest & Greatest Project Update

Posted by Admin 27 Feb 2011 1 Comment »

If you follow me on twitter, you’ve probably heard more than a few shoutouts from yours truly for Winky Boo. I’ve been working with them since early November 2010, and it has been nothing short of an absolute delight. Amy Fiedler, CEO of Winky Boo, is an absolute riot and an all around great person to do business with.

Their t-shirts are downright gorgeous, and when you look up close at any of them, there’s usually some hillarious detail you never noticed before. And I swear, their beanies are magical… I’ve got one of those heads that just look gosh darn silly in most beanies, but these are comfy, warm and don’t make me look like I’ve got a shrunken head.

Anyway, I love their stuff, and have been doing their web design & ad graphics for a few months – go check ‘em out!

http://www.winkyboo.com

http://www.twitter.com/winkyboo

http://www.facebook.com/WinkyBoo

Hovarter Custom Vise | Site & Branding

Posted by Admin 09 Dec 2010 No Comments »

Somehow I forgot to add this one. It’s a branding and web design project I worked on in late summer/early fall this year for Hovarter Custom Vise. My favorite part was the logo design end of it – I was two skips away from scrapping what is now the final version of the logo, and late one night, I was just tinkering around with it for fun, and all of the sudden…poof! It looked pretty sharp. A few more tweaks followed that one, and it finally morphed into the current logo for Hovarter Custom Vise.

For the site, Len wanted something that would convey the classic & modern fusion of his product. I definitely leaned towards the classic side when choosing colors for this; I figured the fact that it’s a web site would pretty well convey the “not-stuck-in-the-1600′s” end of things, as long as I didn’t decorate it like a cathedral.

Going into it, I had steampunk on the brain. You know, those weird kids that go to ComicCon and dress like victorians, but with all kinds of crazy stuff that you’d see reviews on in Wired if it weren’t cased in mahogany, canvas and brass. I didn’t want it to be obvious that I was thinking about steampunk when it came down to it – just have a little bit of the asynchronous charm. So the “vibe” I aimed for with this one was along the lines of a steamer trunk style case for a macbook. Nerdy, and totally the most artsy-fartsy description of a project you’ll ever get from me, but yeah, that was the idea behind the styling on here. And no, I didn’t tell anyone about this vision going into it. When you have that dorky of a vision, you wait until it looks cool to explain where it came from. Otherwise, people get scared.

It was a fun project, Len is a great client, and if you have any inkling of an interest in woodworking, you should definitely check out the vise he’s developed. In a few short months since launching it, he’s been featured on Popular Woodworking’s site, along with a slew of others.

I’ve got to go sneak a few hours of sleep before it’s time to get back to it again, but keep your eyes peeled for a post on the site I designed for Winky Boo recently. They make some pretty sweet shirts, and honestly? Just following their twitter feed is pretty entertaining.

Because my About Page is Lame

Posted by Admin 30 Nov 2010 No Comments »

I just realized that for all of the artwork I put on here, there’s really not anything personal or human about yours truly other than my slightly-lame bio on the about page. So. Have some random info:

1. When I decided to go to art school, I emailed a lot of my favorite animators and concept artists and asked them where to go. Those that responded suggested either CalArts or CCS – unfortunately, there are two art schools called CCS and I went to the one in Michigan. The admissions office didn’t bother to set me straight on some very specific details I mentioned about the CCS I’d heard about, which at least makes me feel less idiotic for mixing them up. Moral of the story: Colleges want your money – beware of misleading admissions counselors. And if you’re looking for an education in traditional animation, look up CCS in Vermont, not CCS in Detroit. All of this aside, Brooke Keesling, who is now at CalArts, was one of my professors at CCS – She’s a brilliant teacher, and an absolute riot. Check out her work here. If you ever have the chance to take one of her classes, make it happen.

2. In an age of relationships becoming official via Facebook (lame!) Matt and I marked the start of our couplehood with a spit handshake. Also, our first kiss? Yes, we definitely counted to three and said go. He keeps me lighthearted, inspired and ambitious. I’ll keep him.

3. I have a dog named Walter. He is named after a pig we had when I was a teenager. When we got him from the humane society, he was cheery, smelled awful and had a curly tail. It only made sense.

4. I paid for my first year in college writing for Andre Ross’ website for the Hong Kong boutique.

5. Growing up, I always wanted to be either a midwife or Nancy Drew. I even called the local police department to see if they had any mysteries I could solve. Eventually, I realized that I’m absolutely no good at being sneaky (I’m way too loud and will never be graceful or stealthy enough to be a sleuth/spy/Nancy Drew,) And I faint at the sight of blood, and even at the sight of someone considering bleeding. It’s really an annoying habit. Finally someone pointed out that I spent most of my free time kicking out illustrations of things that I wanted to do, and suggested I go into some form of art. I spent my first year at Lansing Community College studying Graphic Design, and it sucked – except for one professor, Dale Johnson, who really pushed my creative abilities and encouraged me to continue polishing up on my traditional illustration as well as the digital stuff. I left community college after that year so I could get a job, save up, and go to an art school. Which is exactly what I did. I started out as a secretary for The Engravers’ Journal, and when their Art Director moved on, she recommended me for the spot. So I saved up as much as I could, and went to school for animation.

6. Every single time I’ve ruined a car had something to do with me forgetting to check the oil.

7. I hardly ever watch TV, but if I do, my favorite shows are Chowder and The Big Bang Theory.

8. I love spending time outside, and spent quite a while living in a tent while I was with the Renaissance Festival and then The Borogoves, but I started growing those root thingers and saying farewell to my gypsy ways, and now I occasionally catch myself working on the computer and gazing out the windows like a first grader realizing what it’s like to sit at a desk and pay attention on command. When I get to that point, I usually print out my notes and css sheets for whatever website I’m working on, and run out to the woods with them. I feel like a little kid when I do that, but seriously – every time I come up with something a client absolutely loves, the idea usually happens when I’m sitting in a tree or something.

9. I’m a total night-owl. I’ve always been like that, and it drives me nuts. I want to be one of those morning people, drink my coffee and watch the sun rise. I’ve tried a million different ways to make that happen. Without fail, at about 10:30 P.M., I start having all these crazy creative ideas, and I can’t stop working, and then all of the sudden the sun is coming up again. But I can’t drink coffee if I’ve already stayed awake all night, because otherwise I’ll never go to sleep. So if you get an email from me at 4 in the morning, don’t be weirded out – just remember that it probably means I’ve had an idea that I’m really excited about for whatever it is you’ve got me working on.

10. I don’t make New Years Resolutions. Ever. They’re just a terrible idea. I do set one random goal for the week every Sunday. Sometimes it’s something like “Drink 50% less coffee this week” or “Post a sketch on my blog every day this week.” It just about always works – give yourself short-term goals – you can handle just about anything for seven days, so every weekend, you give yourself a nice pat on the back. If you do the whole New Years Resolution thing, it’s usually with a “rest-of-your-life” mentality, so you don’t have a finish line or a success meter. That’s just a sick and twisted way to live.

Anyway, that’s my “me-me-me-I-I-I” monologue for the day. It’s really weird for me to talk about myself that much, like typing in the mirror or something. So don’t get used to it. I am going to start posting my weekly resolution here every Sunday, with an illustration of said resolution. So keep your eyes peeled.

Have a happy week!

Erin

HAACH Jerseys!

Posted by Admin 30 Nov 2010 No Comments »

I finally have a photo of the finished HAACH Volleyball Jerseys – I did the graphics, the awesome guys at Jeveg took care of the screenprinting! A million thanks to Marissa F. for the photo:)

Playing in the Woods

Posted by Admin 27 Nov 2010 2 Comments »

My new Treeface shirt from WinkyBoo – Check out their stuff at www.winkyboo.com

(yours truly is working on a brand new site for them at the moment.)

Let’s hear it for a holiday! I finally got a chance to hang out with my lovely sister Emma.

This is photodocumentation of our adventure in the woods this afternoon. Amazing day. Far too cold.

KV Wedding Photography – Playing with Colors

Posted by Admin 24 Oct 2010 No Comments »

KV Wedding Photography - Playing with Colors I’ve been working on the website for KV Wedding Photography. This is just the sheet where I was playing with colors, and then got distracted toying around with patterns. It’s a little sloppy, and too busy to use on the site, but it made me happy to look at.