A Fan’s Virtual Babyshower

The Airborne Toxic Event has some pretty devout fans all over the world. I’ve been able to meet a few in person during my concert travels last year and others I’ve gotten to know over emails and chats. A lovely lady, Colleen, wrote me out of the blue one day with the title “We’re twinsies!” And we’ve ended up talking about TATE, writing, and the never ending questions around doubt ever since.

Colleen has shared how TATE helped her move through tragic sadness when her first son passed. The beautifully written and strikingly painful piece is shared on her blog, These Stunning Ruins. The experience weaves TATE’s music throughout her moving forward and then into to her exciting news this year when she discovered she was pregnant again.

With only a few weeks to go before her newborn son makes his debut, it only seems fitting to throw her an Airborne Toxic Event themed virtual baby shower. Several other fans with many talents have put together some things to celebrate Colleen and Andy’s new addition while paying homage to the music that helped them get there. Here are their links so you can check out the other awesome things created in Colleen’s honor.

Of course I wanted to do the cake. Inspired by the band’s albums, I created a three-tiered cake highlighting their three releases. Each layer is decorated with cookies to showcase their album covers.

At the top is their most recent album Such Hot Blood renamed for our guest of honor with “It’s A Boy.” When I took a hard look at the cover to make sure I got the red splatter in the right place, I realized the bird icon is faintly seen in the background. After a bit of panic, I managed to incorporate it onto the cookie. I hope you can see it because that became one of my favorite elements.

The second layer is three painted cookies mimicking the people on the All I Ever Wanted album. Since I have ZERO artistic ability, this part was pretty painful. You’re worth it Colleen. 😉 Let’s hope you can tell they’re people. If you’re still not sure, check out the band’s album cover to see what I was going for.

Lastly the bottom layer holds up their debut album. I wanted to get it just right since it was the album that introduced us all to the band. I airbrushed the cookies edges to give the dark shadowing from the album’s cover and I tried to put every branch in the right place. I hope it captures the moment where this all started.

Others may wonder why in the heck I would make such a thing for a baby shower. “Where’s the baby blue blocks and ribboned rattles?” I’m sorry people, this mom is way more rock and roll than that. Hopefully TATE fans will get it. But when it comes down to it, there’s only one person this cake is for. This is for a mother who built wonderful things out of her stunning ruins and hopefully will have all she’s ever wanted.

Congrats Colleen and Andy! Here’s a piece for you.