New Year Sweets <3

During the holidays time isn’t something you have a lot of…so here are some quick and easy sweets that anyone would love!!

~Monkey Bread~

Ingredients you will need:

• 2 cans of pre made cinnamon rolls
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts, if desired
• 1/2 cup raisins, if desired
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1) Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a bundt pan with shortening or cooking spray. In large -storage plastic food bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon.
2) Separate rolls; cut each into quarters. Shake in bag to coat. Arrange in pan, adding nuts and raisins among the roll pieces.
3) In small bowl, mix brown sugar and butter; pour over roll pieces.
4) Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate; pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

~Buñuelos~

Ingredients you will need:

• a dozen of pre made tortillas (not cooked yet)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Vegetable oil

1) Heat oil in a frying pan; mix sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

2) place uncooked tortilla in the pan cook until brown; once cooked quickly sprinkle cinnamon sugar on it; repeat on the rest of them and serve warm.

Hope you liked this quick and easy recipes!! ^^

This post was written by:

KAT VERA - (view all posts by Kat)
Kat is a lead pastry chef. When she isn’t in the kitchen she’s traveling space and time with Doctor Who and solving mysteries with Sherlock. Email her at kat@mind-speaks.com

Hughes Hangar

I freelance under the name Domo Box with my dude. We were hired to come up with different concepts for their Halloween bash. I just wanted to posted the collaboration. I did the print, and flyer work and my dude did the illustration work for both concepts.

First concept is art nouveau style to mimic an old wine label.

The second concept we provided was to have a more playful style. The club is adjacent to Howard Hughes’ graveyard so we played the graveyard theme up a bit.

Which concept do you like more? Option A or Option B?

This post was written by:

MIJA VERA - (view all posts by Mija)
Mija has been a designer for the last 15 years. She is a paper obsessed fiend and loves working on new projects while listening to her kids and Maine Coon cat chatter around the house. You can email her at mija@mind-speaks.com

Creep Show

This Halloween my roomies and I decided to host a Halloween party. And I was in charge of costumes this year.
Now I didn’t make full costumes. Mostly just accessories, we were on a budget this year. So I bought fabric for each of our costumes. This year my sisters and I dressed as the non- princesses in the fairy tale world.

Mija went as Alice. Now for her costume I learned how to make these adorable Anime style bows from here. I used this tutorial to make her head bow and also the bow in the back. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the back of the apron but it turned out so to be awesome. I also made her Alice apron, and I stitched a little red heart in the right side corner. Her skirt was actually a strapless dress that I bought from Taxi Taxi and I converted it into a skirt with an elastic band. I felt like the skirt really pulled the costume together and I’m glad I was able to make it work. And look how adorable she looks in it.

I was Little Red Riding Hood. I made myself a cloak but only I didn’t even take any pictures with the hood up. >.< And I made myself a little skirt with a white apron attached to it. I also made the big teal bow, and the mini hair bows. I had a lot of fun making the costumes. Kat was Little Bo Peep. I only made her a purple apron and the purple bow for her shepherds staff. Jody did a terrific job on making the staff, it came out perfect. As for Jody’s costume, he bought most of the pieces. Since Mija was going as Alice we thought it would perfect if Jody went as the mad hatter. All I had to make was make a giant bow tie. I found the perfect fabric for a Mad Jody. And he bought the rest of his costume at Taxi Taxi and substituted a magician’s hat for his mad hatter hat.

I think every ones costume came out just amazing. And I had a lot fun learning new techniques. I hope I can top it next year. XD I hope everyone had  a safe and Happy Halloween. I know I did.

This post was written by:

KIM VERA - (view all posts by Kim)
Kim works as a museum Copywriter and helps out with events from time to time. When she isn’t working or blogging, she is probably off taking a nap. Feel free to email her at kim@mind-speaks.com