We have a roof over our kitchen. Yes, you read that right—a roof.  It’s one of the first things you see when you walk through our front door. I’ve never shown you the roof before, because it’s not necessarily my favorite part of our house. At first I hated the roof with every ounce of my being and had big plans to get rid of it, but it has grown on me over the past (almost) four years. I recently strung some lights around it, and I think it looks a bit better now. I fell in love with this house because it was unique, and what is more unique than a kitchen roof? I might as well learn to love it!

I’m glad I got that off my chest. Does your home have any dirty ugly little secrets?

Daniel’s parents are missionaries, so he grew up in Zaire and Kenya (by the way, don’t ask him if he speaks “African” or if he rode an elephant to school—he gets mad). He saw firsthand the constant struggle many Africans faced just to acquire basic necessities like food and clean water. When he shares his observations of what life in Africa is like for many people, I feel so guilty for having a refrigerator filled with food and a faucet that gushes out clean water.

I want Wit & Whistle to be the kind of business that makes a difference in the world, however small that difference may be. A good friend of ours works for ICDI, a non-profit organization that does all sorts of great things in the Central African Republic like drilling wells to provide clean water, assisting with agricultural development to alleviate malnutrition, and more.

So, here’s my plan. I added two new art prints to the shop. For every Germinate print sold I will donate $10 to ICDI’s agricultural program, and for every Droplet print sold I will donate $10 to ICDI’s water program.

Germinate >> available for purchase here

Droplet >> available for purchase here

Happy 2012 everybody! I’m glad I took last week off, because it gave me time to finish crossing everything off my Twelve by 2012 list! YES! I did it! (Well, I’m only half way through Anna Karenina, but technically my list only said to read it by 2012, not finish it, so I still get to check it off.) Just to recap, here are the twelve things I accomplished in the past 2.5 months. Thank you Danni for the challenge to get things done. Some of these completed projects I’ll be sharing with you in upcoming posts (not the toilets though, because that would be weird).

I’m taking a break from the blog next week, but I’ll meet you back here in 2012.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Just one more chalkboard porcelain paint project, and then I’ll give it a rest. I promise. How about… a chalkboard serving platter? It’s perfect for serving cheese, cookies, or any other goodies you might need to label.

you’ll need:
a porcelain platter (mine is from CB2)
painter’s tape (optional)
Pebeo Porcelaine 150 Chalkboard Paint (available at Dick Blick or Amazon)
(Don’t use regular chalkboard paint. This only works with porcelain paint.)
a soft bristle paint brush (a watercolor brush works well)
a regular kitchen oven

how to:
1. Make sure your platter is clean and dry.
2. If desired use painter’s tape to mask off the edges of the platter, otherwise skip the tape and freehand it.
3. Please note that this particular porcelain paint says it’s not recommended for surfaces that come in contact with food. Consider yourself warned. It’s water based and non-toxic, so I don’t see the harm in placing some cookies or cheese and crackers on it. I guess I’m just a daredevil! The folks at Dick Blick suggest painting a dinner plate with it on their website, so they must live on the edge too.
4. Apply the paint with a soft bristle brush. You will be able to see the brush strokes after the paint dries, so be careful and keep your strokes even. I ended up applying two thin coats of paint (allow the first coat to dry completely before applying the second). 
5. As soon as you are done painting carefully remove the tape if you used it. If you remove it before the last coat of paint dries, the tape will be less likely to peel up the edges of the paint.
6. Let the paint dry for 24 hours. Then, bake your platter following the instructions printed on the back of the paint bottle. After baking turn off the oven and leave the platter inside until it has gradually cooled to room temperature. After you bake it the paint is dishwasher and microwave safe.

A while back I started reminiscing about this awesome rubber dinosaur I had as a kid. I’m not sure why it was so memorable, but I could recall every bump of its reptilian skin and the strange rubber smell it emitted. Sure enough I found one on ebay. I got it into my head that I wanted to buy it, spray paint it gold, and put it on display somewhere around the house. I waited a few weeks for this strange idea to pass, but it never did. So I went through with my plan. Tell the truth—do you think I’m good crazy or bad crazy?

If you’re a slacker in the holiday card sending department, don’t feel bad. This is the first year I’ve mailed out Christmas cards since… I can’t even remember, that’s how long it has been. I don’t even have a good excuse either, since I make and sell holiday cards! Usually by the time I finish shipping out all my holiday orders I don’t even want to look at another holiday card if I can help it, but this year I did it! They’re all signed, stamped, licked, and adorned with washi tape. In your face, Christmas!

Now that I’ve licked 20+ envelopes in a row, I realize that I need to add flavored envelopes to my inventory…

Naturally when I discovered porcelain chalkboard paint I had to grab some. The inventor must be some kind of genius. Now I have the most amusing coffee mug ever, and you can have one too. This is a much easier version of the hand painted mug project—no drawing or painting skills required!

you’ll need:
a porcelain mug (mine is from CB2)
painter’s tape
Pebeo Porcelaine 150 Chalkboard Paint (available at Dick Blick or Amazon)
(Don’t use regular chalkboard paint. This only works with porcelain paint.)
a soft bristle paint brush (a watercolor brush works well)

how to:
1. Make sure your mug is clean and dry.
2. Use painter’s tape to mask off the part of the mug you don’t want to paint, 0r you could skip this step and paint the whole mug. Personally, I think it looks snazzy only partially painted.
3. Apply the paint with a soft bristle brush. If you mess up just wipe the paint away with a wet paper towel and try again. Please note that this particular porcelain paint says it’s not recommended for surfaces that come in contact with food. (Although it’s water based and nontoxic, so I don’t understand what the problem would be.)
4. As soon as you are done painting carefully remove the tape. If you remove it before the paint dries, the tape will be less likely to peel up the edges of the paint.

4. Let the paint dry for 24 hours. Then, bake your mug for 35 minutes at 300 F.* After baking turn off the oven and leave the mug inside until it has gradually cooled to room temperature. After you bake it the paint is dishwasher and microwave safe.
5. I recommend chalking up your mug before you fill it with a hot beverage. (I learned this the hard way!)

*If baking instructions are not printed on your paint bottle, you are probably not using the right paint. Please do not bake regular chalkboard paint—who knows what kind of crazy fumes that would release into your home—you should only bake the specific porcelain paint this tutorial calls for.

(Check out that extra large marshmallow floating in my hot chocolate. Oh yeah!)

I added a couple new prints to the shop today!

Hive
Inspired by our awesome yellow hex tile bathroom floor from the 70s.

Love Triangles
Inspired by my current infatuation with triangles. (Remember seeing the pre-color illustration in my sketchbook a few weeks ago?)

Here are some of the sketches I did while creating this year’s holiday cards. Maybe I should work on my 2012 holiday cards now, that way I won’t have to get into the Christmas spirit in July again!