The one where Aaron gets a title and is quoted

Followers of Live and Active Cultures have gotten pretty accustomed to Emma's colossal presence on the LA blogosphere as one of Squid Ink's finest, but this time, it's yours truly who's making his own tiny-but-mighty foray into internet stardom. Yup, I just got one of my photos featured in LA Times' food and culture mag, Brand X, in an article about non-alcoholic summer drinks. The cafe where I work, Espresso Cielo, was featured because we serve some of the best iced coffee around and happen to use one of the coolest-looking ways to make it, Kyoto-style cold brew drip tower. Anyway, Brand X emailed the shop and asked us for pictures of it, which is, naturally, where I came in. And to boot, the piece also included a little something I said about what coffees make good cold brew coffee.

If there's one thing I've learned working in coffee, it's that coffee people are obsessed with two things: great tasting coffee (duh) and gadgets they use to make it. For me, the Kyoto process is both of these things, the perfect marriage of amazing taste and crazy-awesome-doohickeydom. Room temperature water drips through coarse coffee grounds over about ten hours. Every coffee, of course, tastes different, but the process tends to yield a really smooth, sweet, and bright cup. The best ones taste almost like fruit teas or pure cocoa. Plus, since there's no heat or pressure to break down caffeine molecules, it's a real kick in the pants. Really, it's the perfect drink for those long summer days of grab-ass at the beach. 

Also: weird to be referred to as "Barista Aaron Stein-Chester." Like, who is that guy?

business card, draft 1

Remember these? I never had them printed. Turns out I suck at Illustrator. Instead, I made it into a stamp. I carved the design into a linoleum block using a Speedball Linoleum Cutter and printed with Speedball ink.


The screenprinting ink left a nice texture on the card stock, but was ultimately too unpredictable to be time or cost effective. There was always too much or too little ink on the stamp to give the utensils a clear edge. The uneven surface of the card stock didn't help either. They were just a bad match. For every five cards I made I ended up with only one usable for professional purposes. I like them looking crafty, but you still need to be able to make our the shapes.

I'll use high end stamp pads for my next trial. I imagine they'll give a cleaner, more even and consistent silhouette. Fingers crossed!

josie's dresses

I realize the posts this month have been more peripherally food themed than usual. Never one to break a trend, here's another.

My new favorite cousin, Josie Rose is going to turn one next month. I made her a pair of pinafores from a pattern I bought on etsy. Each is reversible and fairly easy even for a novice seamstress, such as I am. I wouldn't do it if it were too hard. The most pleasurable parts of sewing for me involve handling textiles and combining patterns, the moment they begin to resemble something. This teapot fabric is one of the sweetest I've found. Meant for quilting I assume, but the print is just large enough for a child's garment.

the butter to my bread

As promised, here is the fruit of my Valentine's Day crafting. Paul Child is quoted as saying this to his wife Julia. "You are the butter to my bread and the breath to my life." But my Valentine is more of the visual sort. Literal too. And "breath to my life" has an almost macabre undertone, so this suits us best.

I have a deep love for the folk aesthetics of paper cutout, or scherenschnitte, to the Germans, and to other people who can pronounce scherenschnitte. I've been playing around with paper cutting for about half a year, mostly holiday cards and monogrammed gift tags from black card stock. Clearly, I need a new Xacto knife. It's too dull for precision lettering but I'm still pleased with the general look of this one. It's my zero dollar Valentine.

tea, love

This morning, Design Sponge posted a tutorial for DIY tea bags, heart-shaped for Valentine's Day. I've been working on my own Valentine's crafts, which I'll post in a few days. But I'm going to keep this one tucked under my hat. I imagine I'll one day be the woman in the office who gives everyone small homemade gifts on holidays. Though I can't imagine myself actually working in an office. Weird.