The first day of April is one of those I don't look forward to - April Fool's Day. Despite being full of (mostly good-natured) mischief myself, I still don't like a day dedicated to tricks. As frequent readers know by now, I much prefer treats to tricks.

On this day of deception, The University of Texas' School of Information hosted the Austin Edible Book Festival. It sounded like an April Fool's, but it was no joke.

Having attended a few years back, I was happy to see there would be another one. I was even happier to know that working on campus, I'd probably be able to attend, and maybe even enter.

Colin Walsh suggested Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. There's a reason I keep that guy around - he's brilliant!

I used Objects of Confection's signature red velvet cake balls to make Max, Moishe, Tzippy and Bernard.

Spike Jonze, eat your heart out.

The talented Aimee Wenske took these great pictures.

Fun WTWTA connection: Her boyfriend Josh was very popular Max for Halloween a few years back.

There were a few great entries and some rather strange ones. Next year, I might aim for something punnier.

The treats provided at the Festival also gave me the perfect excuse to eat Amy's Ice Cream for lunch. Mint Chip for the win.

Aimee Wenske and I (mostly Aimee Wenske) made this little stop motion movie for the Austin Bakes for Japan Bake Sale .

I can't get over the Aimee Wenske Chococat photographer fully accessorized with chococamera.

Hooray for Sanrio cake pops from kathyphantastic and Objects of Confection.

Come to Austin Bakes for our cake pops and cake balls among many other bloggers' and foodies' baked goods Saturday, April 2nd at Hotel San Jose between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm and The Shops at Mira Vista between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm.

You might have heard that Objects of Confection and kathyphantastic are making Keroppi Cake pops for Austin Bakes for Japan Bake Sale benefiting AmeriCares.

It's true, Sanrio Keroppi cake pops will be available at Austin Bakes for Japan. But that's not all!

We're proud to offer the cake pop versions of other Sanrio characters such as the Hello Kitty cake pops I made for Sharon Loves This' bachelorette party.

Oh and there's more. There's also Pekkle and Chococat.

Badtz Maru and Pochacco just stopped by for the photo opp. They won't be available at Austin Bakes.

Our Sanrio Cake Pops will be available at Hotel San Jose and The Shops at Mira Vista. Jessica from Objects of Confection will be volunteering at the Mira Vista location, so be sure to stop by say hi and get a few of their delicious cake balls.

And to let blog readers in on a little secret: those Keroppi pops are red velvet inside.

Huge thank you to the amazingly talented Aimee Wenske for photographing these Sanrio cake pops and Kathryn Hutchinson of Austin Gastronomist for organizing Austin Bakes for Japan. We hope to raise a lot of money for Japan through cuteness.

Last month Objects of Confection and kathyphantastic teamed up to teach a Christmas cake ball and cake pop workshop. We're happy to announce that it was a success (despite some bizarro background music) and there's a Valentine's class scheduled for February.

Photos by Aimee Wenske

Sweet-toothed students including blog followers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, a few friends, and some kids got their hands dirty (or rather, sugary) learning the ins and outs of cake ball how-to and cake pop decoration.

My good friend Aimee Wenske and my sister Tina Phan took pictures and some video.

Photo by Tina Phan

Fellow blogger and crafty friend Monica made some of the cutest cake balls. Her penguins are darling. Check Monica's food and craft blog Sugar Stitches.

Thanks Monica for the Cake Pop Decorating blog post.

See the little girl sneaking a bite of cake pop? I love it. Yum!

Photo by Aimee Wenske

This is a simple penguin of my own. I need to get used to wearing these blue gloves. Luckily, I found out I only need to wear them when touching students' cake pops and not my own. Manual dexterity increased a hundredfold!

I am the Michael Jackson of cake pops (one glove).

Thanks everyone for coming to our class! I can't wait to share more pictures.

PS Thanks to the red head for getting me the layer cake apron I'd blogged about for my first class. :)

Here's my first attempt at a custom puppy mug. I tested the dog portrait idea on my friend Christine's dog Shipley. Christine is getting this mug as her Christmas present. She already knows and subscribes to my blog, so no surprises there.

Here's the original photo:

Here's my mug version:

Just for fun, we added astroturf for texture.

Thanks to my fabulous friend and photographer Aimee Wenske for taking these pictures for my kathyphantastic Etsy store.

Custom Personalized Dog Portrait Mug, kathyphantastic on Etsy, $42

Woof is right. More doggie mugs to come.

FYI I drank all that hot chocolate and probably ate all those marshmallows today.

This summer Leite's Culinaria ran a food photography contest on their recipe and food blog site. Aimee Wenske and I decided to team up and submit joint work. We had to use a recipe from the site, make the food, style the food, and then photograph it.

We went with this recipe for strawberry shortcake, a. because that's something we'd want to eat and b. we could easily assemble more if needed.

Luckily strawberries were in season, because we used a lot of them. Aimee's boyfriend Josh was a huge help not only baking the shortcakes, but making whipped cream, and cutting up dozens of strawberries. Thanks Josh!

Unfortunately, we didn't win, but we did end up with some more pieces for our portfolios. The pieces that did make it to the top five had a different aesthetic.

I wish the stem was prettier on the strawberry on top.

Congratulations to the Leites Culinaria food photography contest winners. We'll try again next time.

New on kathyphantastic Etsy: you can't give me a "you're fired" banner, I give you an "I quit" banner.

After hearing all those quitting stories - Whiteboard girl, JetBlue guy, and the sweetest way so far, resignation cake, you could put in your two weeks with an I Quit banner.

Here's to the abrupt end of your choosing.

You're Fired Banner, kathyphantastic on Etsy, $27

I Quit Banner, kathyphantastic on Etsy, $25

Thanks to Aimee Wenske for taking these pictures and for blogging about these banners.

Hello everyone! I'm excited to finally announce that I've launched my Etsy store!

I've been working patiently and sometimes impatiently over the past few months on starting my own tiny business. I've been crafting, styling, writing, and doing a lot of paperwork. I'd like to give a huge thank you to Aimee Wenske for helping me with photography, Colin Walsh for editing my copy, and Chris Cain for general support and assistance.

Whenever you have a few minutes, please stop by kathyphantastic on Etsy.

Here are few examples of what you'll find:

Yeah Baby! I'm selling Paper banners and garlands for celebrations.

I made my first sale last week, before announcing my launch. I was so incredibly excited that a stranger wanted to buy something I made. My first sale was to Cora in Nevada. She bought the Bon Voyage Banner. Thank you so much Cora.

Custom hand drawn plates (pictures NOT by Aimee Wenske, but expect some new photos soon). These plates were made for my friend Jessica's bridal shower.

I'll be adding a product a day this week, so check back to see what else I've got crafting.

Last week, Amy B, an old friend of mine from college, triumphantly returned to Texas. To celebrate her all-too-brief return to Austin we had dinner at Foreign & Domestic.

We had 7 desserts, with only one being a repeat. I ordered the carrot cake sundae, tasted both the chocolate parfait and the chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream, and with sugar-glazed eyes, I stared at the bacon root beer float. Sugar coma aside, my favorite dessert, compliments of the chef, was pomegrante ice cream with apple and fig streudel. It seriously tasted like I was eating magic. I felt a happy tingle on my tongue. Shouldn't magic feel like a happy tingle? I want a secret stash of Foreign and Domestic's pomegrante ice cream for stressful workdays.

Oh yeah, we had entrees, too. Interestingly, we had fewer entrees than desserts. We also had fewer people than desserts.

It was Austin Restaurant Week, so there was no reason not to order off the three course prix fixe restaurant week menu. Half of our table ordered from the ARW menu but we also snagged some gruyere popover appetizers - the redhead has decided that we need to go back and just have popovers for dinner.

Woo hoo! Aimee Wenske and I got a cover this month. Go Team! Our photography and styling efforts are featured on this month's TODO Austin.

TODO Austin is a FREE monthly newspaper that focuses on ethnic communities in Austin. The site says it's "multicultural."

I'm sure not about all the distribution locations for TODO Austin. I am sure that you can pick up copy of the July 2010 issue at the laundromat next to Quack's Bakery.

Aimee and I made a bunch of bread flags with white bread and condiments.

I don't think I can show this to mommy Phan, she'd be ashamed that I replicated the current Vietnam flag.

Here are some non-flag outtakes that didn't quite make it.