Introducing Shani’s Sweet Art – By Shani Christenson

OK here I go!  I finally decided it was time to jump into this whole blogging thing (for real).  Hmm, so where to start?  I guess I should start from the beginning and give you a little background on how I got here.  "Here" being a professional cake decorator (and now blogger, eep!).

I have always been obsessed with being creative and making things.  Always.  I remember as a kid going out in nature and collecting sticks and grass and fashioning dolls and critters to play with out of whatever I could find.  Yea, and I'm still kinda weird like that.

Don't get me wrong, I had "real" toys.  But I had more fun making things than playing with toys.  One of my favorite memories is of my grandpa giving me a box full of junk jewelry he bought at a yard sale and I spent countless hours taking everything apart and re-creating jewelry out of the parts and pieces.  Pure artistic bliss.

Another contributing factor to my obsession with being creative was my grandma Diana.  She is also a cake decorator and a crafter/artist extraordinaire.  I loved watching her create beautiful cakes and so many other awesome things when I was a kid, from Faberge` style eggs to beautiful paper quilling to chocolate candies and sugar diorama Easter eggs. I remember doing so many fun projects with her.  So yea, I think the creative bug might run in my genes.

In high school I actually started my first creative business.  I fell in love with a beautiful pair of beaded earrings in a local shop.  Of course there was no way I could afford them, so I bought a packet of beads instead and taught myself how to make the beaded earrings.  Within a year I was selling my beaded creations to the very same shop and others in town.  This kicked off a thriving jewelry business that eventually led to my husband and I both learning metal smithing and traveling the country selling our jewelry at Arts and Crafts shows.  Our jewelry business has evolved over the years and we now own and operate a wonderful jewelry studio and gallery in our hometown of Mendocino, California.  Our shop Celtic Creations overlooks stunning Mendocino Bay.

Actually, I had another food blog once upon a time... at the beginning of my "Food Art" career. My Bento Art.  I made bentos for my boy's school lunches and I blogged about it.  I refer to my bento making era as BC (a.k.a "Before Cake"). A Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine.

I did a lot of Kyaraben or character bentos.  It's basically creating cute cartoony characters with food.  Here are a couple of my Kyaraben.

Then I discovered cake decorating.  Cake decorating was something I had always "tried"  to do for my kids birthday, and actually I didn't suck too bad (thanks to watching my grandma make cakes when I was a kid).  But I didn't really know what I was doing.  Then I came across a Craftsy class by Jacqueline Butler on making sugar flowers. Once I started working with sugar there was no stopping me.  I had definitely found my passion and my preferred medium for creating beautiful art.  There was no looking back.  My cake business Shani's Sweet Creations took off and I have been having such a blast learning and doing everything cake!!   And that is what this blog is about.  My adventures in Sweet Art.

I hope you will join me on my sweet adventures!  My goal for this blog is to share my passion (read: obsession) for creating sweet and beautiful things.  I will be sharing my creations as well as tutorials, tips and tricks, recipes and tons of other delicious debauchery!  Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on any of the sugary fun!

I'd love for you to comment and introduce yourself. Let me know who you are and a little about you. And feel free to let me know what you would like to see me blog about.

~ Have a Sweet Day!