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Have You Checked It Out?

Have you checked out the Ambear Art Etsy site yet? Well it's up and running and has available prints to ship plus some made to order prints too. I have more prints I will post once it starts to take off and I'm hoping by the end of the year to have button pins, a few enamels and totes available. I'll post most of my progress here but also feel free to follow Ambear Art on Instragram with iambeart

Little Marble Cake

  For my friends birthday I wanted to make her something special. So I let her know I would make her a cake but the flavor and style would be a surprise.
   I had been wanting to play around with a marble style cake with buttercream and decorate it with sweets! So I made her a little six inch vanilla cake with homemade Italian buttercream and strawberries between the layers. I melted white chocolate and did a pour over on the side and added vanilla oreos, white chocolate bars and white chocolate cover strawberries.
   Everything with the cake went well despite not having all my tools with me. I'm excited to play around with more cakes like these!

It's been a few years since I've really been committed to the blog and really kept up with it. I've popped in from time to time and tried to make my way back into the blogging world with no success. However this year I've set some goals that I kind of had in motion and I feel I need some way to keep track of my progress. I have business ventures I want to push harder on and a lot of learning that will help me get closer to my ultimate goals. I'll try to keep things fun again with a few weekly post but starting out I'm just going to document my thoughts and progress. Some of the things I'm hoping to achieve within the year or get further on are:

• Growing my businesses (The Calm Collected and Ambear Art)
• Baking more at home and working on recipes
• Being healthier and exercising more
• Improving my coffee knowledge and latte art
• Involving myself more in the community

I know these aren't really big things, but they are important to me and I feel by opening this space back up I will be more likely to do them. What are some of your resolutions or goals that you want to pursue this year? 

Life || The Baking World

Photo Credit Stefanie Haviv Photography

I work as a Pastry Chef in Charlotte and had the honor of doing a Baker Backstory for the bakeries blog page. No glamour shots in a fancy white chef coat but the real work it takes to run a bakery open 24 hours (of course with the help of my other coworkers!!) Anyway it was fun to answer the questions and I was a little embarrassed the only animal I could think of that a baker would be is a cat. Click here to read the article and see one of the cakes I decorate for work :) 

Art || Ambear Art

Here is a preview on my newest little business venture! Just fun digital art doodles with my lamest talent I possess...word play!

I'm in the process of printing them and have plans on doing other fun things with them like pillows, t-shirts, and mugs. I would really love to do some enamel pins but that would be more ofun a future project. Feel free to like my etsy shop (link to come) and follow my progress and get sneak peaks on Instagram at iambearart or look me up at Ambear Art on Facebook!

Memorial Day Deals!!

Click image to link to page!

Life || First Wedding Cake

My friends finally tied the knot on Friday May 13th and I was honored when they asked me to do their wedding cake. It was a real challenge due to the fact I was making it at my apartment (that I share with two other roommates) and I was part of the bridal party. I could only bake a day ahead and had to assemble the cake at the venue. Of course things went wrong because this is real life and not a bakery but in the end my friends loved it.

 

Though I vowed never to make a friends wedding cake again I learned from this experience as a baker trying to work from home. I didn't let the cake stress damper my wedding fun and I had a fantastic time. Now I just need to have my own place with a few massive ovens and a fifty quart mixer! A baker can dream right?

Decor || Up and Coming

Via Domino

I know it's been a long time coming, but I just saw this as an opportunity to slowly make my way back into blogging or casual blogging as I call it. So I was very excited when I read on Laurel & Wolf about the newest trend of banana/palm leaf print and couldn't stop thinking of all the possiblities. With them being an online interior design company I was inspired to create a virtual room that reflected my first thought of this fun pattern...retro!

$650 | Rockwell Sofa | Charcoal Heather | Target.com

$18 | Pillow Cover | Tommy Bahama Swaying Palms | KathleenAnnHome

$9.99 |  Velvet Throw Pillow | 18" Spicy Orange | World Market

$89 |  Plum & Bow Tia Mark Making Printed Rug | 5x7 Gold | Urban Outfitters

$4.68 | Banana Leaf Digital Print | 11x14 | TheHomeGirlsEtsy

$31.50 | Ampersand Hand Embroidered Hoop Art | Flamingersand | MCreativeJ

$39 | Wilder California Beverly Hills Banana Tree Art Print | 8x10 Black Frame | Urban Outfitters

$80.99 | Chester End Table | Gold Metal Hexagon | Target

$18 | Small Dinosaur Planter | Rainforest Parasaurolophus | TwoTreesBotanicals

$59.99 | Ceramic Lamp with White Shade | Pink | Hobby Lobby

This pattern really lets you explore your wild side and not just with color, but with patterns too. I first found the pillow though after putting together a "room" I didn't feel a pillow alone did it any justice. I thought outside of the box and went for a retro funky feel with the pattern and brought it up to the wall. From there I pulled colors from the print to bring together the accessories. By going with this style I feel I can represent the print in multipule pieces within the room without it seeming like too much. 

Hope you all like what I put together and become inspired to add this retro pattern into your design plans!

Confusion

I've been getting a lot of emails lately inquiring about doing some work with the blog. It's exciting and a few I've had to decline just because I haven't been as active but hoping to be once I get a bit more settled into the city. Though almost everyone has said they found me in Raleigh blogs searches and I just wanted to clarify that I'm not in that area. I'm living the baker life in the Queen City of Charlotte! I'm in no way saying you can't collaborate with me and the blog I just wanted to make it clear that I'm a good ways away from Raleigh. However, if my job ever asked me to help open shop in the State Capital I'd be 100% on board but as for now my new home is Charlotte.

I also have some post to well...post. I have a lot going on, but honestly who doesn't. I'm trying to get comfortable in my new home, plus I've my been on budget since the move so I'm trying to think of creative things to do when having to adult. Never fear you'll hear or "read" about me!