Cupcake Fondue for Twenty

Early in 2011 a conversation with the duchess took a turn for the ridiculous. We were giggly in that way that is tearful.

"You know what I'm tired of?!," I crowed. I'm tired of fondue. What's so great about it anyway?! I mean if it was less about cheese and more about cupcakes, I could maybe get behind the trend. You know what I want? Cupcake fondue, that's what I want!"

In hindsight it was really just a spoiled Verruca Salt declaration of sorts.

Then the Duchess' 27th birthday rolled around. In essence she stood on top of a golden egg chute and hollered, "Amber I want cupcake fondue! I want it NOW!"

So I threw myself into the creation of this pipe dream of possibility and cake.

This baking invention consisted of both dark devil chocolate cupcakes and rum cupcakes. The rum baked out of the cupcakes a bit too much for my liking and so the spray bottle upon the table is a 'rum spritzer'. In these situations, it's really important to step back and think WWLillyAllenD?

I decided on three base fondues, one was a lemony sugar explosion, by the end of the evening it was dubbed liquid death for it's ability to take a healthy person to a type 2 diabetic in under an evening, another was a liquidy banana pudding, and my favorite was old school dark chocolate. After that I just went crazy and came up with as many small dishes of things to top the fondue off as possible. Since we're in Brooklyn that ranged from bacon to basil, strawberries to skittles, pretzels to pop rocks. It was pretty rad. Plus, it was fun to push myself creatively.

The inagural run of cupcake fondue happened on a beautiful albeit freezing day in the midst of a pretty bitchin' 80s party. I couldn't have asked for a better unveiling. Here are some of my the merry revelers amongst the throng.

In this photo Sean is wearing the world's most amazing velor track suit top of all time. There is an awesome Olympic story that goes with it and for that he wins best true 80s attire of the evening.

Jen Mo models a blue jean bow earring and matching scrunchie,
a commentary on socio-political undertones in the NKOTB era.

Oh the tights! The tights!

My favorite birthday girl of all time. I'd rather rock with the Duchess than Jessie Spanno, and if that's not 80s love, I don't pretend to know what is.

This is a boy from another life. He slammed into my Brooklyn existence John Cusack style this year. Yes, that's a lightning bolt earring. It's bright orange. I wish I were wearing it right now.


Here the duchess blows out candles on three of the worlds most beautiful mini cupcake fondue offerings as invented by Ashley and Rachel. I wish we had a better picture of them, but right after this happened 'You Can't Touch This' came on over the speakers and you know... less important things were neglected.

It's officially impossible to have an 80s party with out a sexy ginger.
Meagan made sure that Molly Ringwald would have felt dowdy at this par-tay.


Hmm... needs more Aquanet.

Ashley not only had full command of the hairspray,
but she rocked my favorite pants of the evening


AND she designed this!

Is it not the most 80s-riffic invite you have ever seen?!
I'm glad I live in Brooklyn, where important things get done.

30x30 - Theme party. Thrown.

Off With Their Heads!!!

Whaaaat issss thisss?

(You're supposed to say that part like the chef in 'The Little Mermaid'.)

After a particular bad run of lameness at last year's Hell-o-ween in Manhattan I decided to return to my roots this year.

I believe three Halloween things to be self-evident:

1. Dressing up is mandatory
2. Store bought costumes are lame in a bag
3. Funny, Glamorous or Smart always beat Gorey, unless it's Edward

If you know anything about me you're well aware of my Alice in Wonderland obsession.I was drumming my fingers against the table in my studio a few weeks trying to conceptualize this year's Halloween get-up when my eyes caught the vase of white roses on my windowsill.
Mike private joke - Fed Exed them to me a week or so prior to this bought of sketchiness. The first thing out of my mouth as I broke the seal on the box was, "Off with their heads!" Duh. I whipped out this fashion sketch in about ten minutes.
I called my personal seamstress/buddy ol' pal Emily of the Balcon'.Before I knew it we were combing the Fashion District looking for checkers and scarlet reds.
Emily put together the final touches on the gown - her dress making genius is mind blowing. She added the idea of transparent sleeves from elbow to wrist. We did a final fitting on all Hallow's Eve.
I spliced and wove an exhausted set of playing cards to fashion the collar I'd sketched. This dress was design on the fly and while the collar wasn't going to stay up and was a tad overkill - the cards made the perfect crown atop my head - only queens get to use 'atop'. I wanted to make sure I used it for this one royal post. My hair and face were done up courtesy of the Duchess of Justice. She's my personal make-up artist these days. I have always known how important it is to have friends, but in the last few years I've been awoken to how important it is to have talented friends. Haha.
Once I'd been primped and primed I hit the streets of New York and a few Halloween parties of magic and wonder and glitter, always glitter. I actually met a Mad Hatter - we have a date on Thursday. I took pictures with four different little girls dressed like Alice and held some lady's poor tabby. He'd been painted with purple and pink stripes. The costume was a smash and the perfect end to this year's Rock-tober.
Plus it rekindled my Louis Carroll Illustration frenzy.
Here's to genius, mine and others.

Prilly's Petals

My kid sister is in town for the week. April flew in to have a fun filled New York vacation, but we get to call this a business trip because we're branding her new company while she's here. We tried to get a logo drafted in Montana last month but the designs I did while we were there were "stupid" (her words, not mine). At 22, as a first time entrepreneur, she's not looking for advice but for a minion. She knows what she wants and she wants it now.

After fighting back and forth between her vision and my expertise I decided we'd do best to stow the pencils and head out for some inspiration.

Autumn might be better somewhere other than Brooklyn, but then you wouldn't be in Brooklyn and that be a shame.

Sister time found us on the B71 headed for Grand Army Plaza, where we jumped off and tiptoed a block and a half to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Sunday was a pretty fancy day for the Gardens.

We're gearing up for Halloween here in Brooklyn, and the gardens weren't to be out done.

April and I found ourselves face to face with Ghouls and Gourds and costumes and roses and enough inspiration to fill our cups that they runneth over.

We spent all day walking and walking and chatting and making masks and running and eating apples and shutterbugging.
Sissy-time hasn't been this good since long beachy days in Hawaii. Finally! We found the perfect place for our powers combined - April's flower arranging genius and my sketchiness finally met middle at the BBG, and a perfectly harmonious day ensued.
When we got home I decided to treat Prilly like a real client. I gave her my "this is good design" lecture. I reminded her about everything we saw all day. Then I handed her some 120 pound and let her try to explain what was in her head. Here's some April Alvarez drawings, making their debut right here.

A set of April Alvarez originals:

After taking a look at what the client drew up I stole this swatch from the upper right-hand corner. This is the picture of potential my friends!

Yay for artsy little sisters who are stubborn enough to win their battles!

The Garden variety was just what we needed!

I made her spell it Prillies, because I think it looks cooler with the double is. She has spelled it Prilly's her entire life. Now I realize I am being "stupid," (my words, not hers). So the next step is taking this back down to the way the poor kid spells her name.

I'm in development mode. Check back to see this new break-out flower designer's star in lights or at least roses later this week.

listening to right this second: "Jai Ho! " -- Pussycat Dolls

Scribble Drawings

I've mentioned my scribble drawings in the past, but I've never shown you them. They're my own personal version of the Rorschach inkblot test. While they're not scientifically backed up by any research or scientific finding, I swear by them, as do many of my friends and several random middle school kids who ride the F train with me in the mornings. Whenever I'm having trouble jump-starting my imagination I'll do a scribble drawing.

I prefer someone else do the scribble, as it keeps me honest. I want the scribbles to be wild and not at all driven or coerced. The best way to do that is to have someone else create one. I have friends in Spain and Australia who will actually email me scribbles from time to time. They love seeing the end result. Growing up I did them as parlor tricks for company. In college I sold them for a dollar a piece in Union Square.

I squint at a scribble and twist it around a bit, and then go in for the kill. After a few of them are sitting side by side, I'm back in creation mode. They get me ready to draw like mad again. They work like a charm and never fail.

Here are a few of my faves done in a scribble drawing binge with friends at Two Boots last Monday.

The red line is the scribble, the black the scribble drawing:

This one below was a collaboration with Garrett Rose. When everything was said and done, a few people could actually tell that it was a whistling beatnik. One of the great testaments to the bliss of scribble drawing is that most people watching get excited and eager to try their hand at it. Garrett jumped in on this one and started getting his sea legs.

This fun little frog guy was done by Rachel Micheal. I provided the scribble ;)


I highly recommend a scribble drawing a day. I kind of binge scribble draw these days. They will make you forget yourself, and in this crazy art world that's never a bad thing.

If you have any random scribbles lying around you want me to take a stab at,
remember I'm only a click away: info@amberalvarez.com
Afterall, I could use the help ;)