Thursday, August 14

A Lilac Shoot









A few weeks ago I got to be a part of a project with some amazing ladies in the wedding business: Sarah Winward, Rylee Hitchner, and Martha Hatfield. I met Sarah Winward a long time ago before she was doing flowers, and met up with her again last Fall while doing the desserts and cakes for the wedding of her little sister and a good friend. I wanted to do a project with her, and when this one came up I was super excited.

This shoot was a big collaborative effort with some talented people. I had a great time, and loved seeing how they all worked. It's fun for me to be involved with these types of things because the outcome is always better than what you expect. I realized I don't like to plan too much. I like to have a general idea of the concept, and then see what happens as it unfolds.

The pictures speak for themselves, so enjoy these beautiful photos. Check out Once Wed if you'd like to see more.

























Wednesday, May 21

A Shoot with My Little Belleville and Kate Osborne

One thing I love about where I live, is you can find a lot of very talented people. These two ladies are just that. I approached them because I thought it would be really cool to use Michelle's art, and Kate's photo skills to create some great pictures.  Michelle paints on ceramic dishware as part of her repertoire,  and I thought, "Her dishes, my sweets? Perfect pair." I met Kate a while ago while doing some cakes for a friends wedding where she was the photographer and loved what she did.

The shoot was great. Michelle has a great studio space with perfect light, and when I showed up it was even better in person! It's a 100 year-old mansion with great ceiling height and windows, and lot's of original details in the architecture and decor. We really just worked together here and there to create each shot, and I thought it would be really awesome for Michelle to draw on some macarons. They're perfect for that! I also LOVED the backgrounds and drawings Michelle did. Feast your eyes on cake and tea time with My Little Belleville and Kate Osborne Photography.

Sweet Treats: Noisette
Art and Ceramics: Michelle Christensen, My Little Belleville (she just had her Etsy shop featured!)
Photo: Kate Osborne Photography





















Wednesday, March 6

Happenings


Time always escapes me in the weirdest ways. Just last week it was October, I swear. I'm trying to clean house a bit, and came across these pictures of a few things I've done over these last several weeks. It's nothing particularly exciting, although I do have to say my favorites are the robot cake and those chocolates.




I was at a Farmer's Market last Fall and found these amazing Plums. Elephant Heart, is what they're called, if my memory serves me. I hadn't seen these since my days living in St. Helena, CA, when we went on a small field trip to the local Farmer's Market there. I picked them up by chance back then, and realized I had found the most delicious plum I'd ever eaten. So when I found these I grabbed them. Aren't they pretty? I decided to make jam so I could preserve them, and potentially have them longer than just a few days.




When I was asked to do these Red Velvet cupcakes, they wanted something simple but fit for a, ahem, more middle-aged woman who was having a birthday. I wanted something sort of classy, but fun, but not too young... So I thought the red sparkles and silver sugar dragees would fit. I got black and white hounds-tooth cupcake wrappers to put them in. I guess you could say I thought of my own mom when I did these. This is something she would like.




 




Robot! I had so much fun doing this. Some good friends of ours have a little boy who turned 1 last fall, and they wanted a fun birthday party. They asked if I could just make it colorful. They built the base for me (how nice!) so I wouldn't have to worry about it. The cake is vanilla with vanilla buttercream, and the cupcakes are vanilla with lemon curd filling, and chocolate with caramel filling. Each have vanilla buttercream on top.







These are graham crackers. I'm sure you guessed that, but these were for handmade s'mores. Some good friend of mine own Big Cartel, and they had a party so celebrate their 250k store. They asked if I would make s'mores that they could torch on site as guests wanted them. I made the marshmallows, chocolate, and these grahams. For some reason I don't have any pictures of anything else (boo), but at least I got these. I couldn't go that night, but I hear they were a success.






These macarons were for Elase Spa. They were having an open house and wanted some macarons to give to guests as they left. This blue is their color, and I made them raspberry buttercream.





On a whim, I decided to make our families some handmade gifts this year for Christmas. I found myself annoyed with the constant struggle of what to get, so we tried something different. I thought food gifts would be something everyone could enjoy. I got some fresh rosemary and olive oil and infused them together. It makes for a really pretty piece to put on the kitchen counter, or on the table when eating. I also got some fresh vanilla beans and plopped them into some sugar. I found these jars and World Market and West Elm. I thought it would be perfect to keep it fresh, but also show off the bean. Vanilla sugar can be used in so many things!





Christmas time was busy for me. I was fortunate enough to get some projects in that gave me a little extra money for the holidays, but one in particular was especially nice. And friend of mine owns a business and wanted to give her employees and nice gift for the holidays. She asked for 6 half pound boxes of assorted chocolates, and 3 dozen dark chocolate hand rolled truffles with almonds. Whew! That's a lot to do when you have so much going on, but I was so happy to do it. And it was such fun! I made a dark chocolate cherry cordial, milk chocolate covered caramel, and a milk chocolate vanilla buttercream.




*If you'd like any recipes, email me. With the time that's passed I'd have to do a little digging... :)

Tuesday, December 4

Thank you

You guys, thanks for coming to the Beehive Bazaar this weekend. If you couldn't make it, hopefully you can make it next time!
I did pretty well, and sold about 3/4 of my stuff. It's always tough for me to put myself out there like that. SO-I hope you enjoyed it! If you didn't, tell me what you hated and I'll make it better next time :)

Thank you!





Monday, November 12

Smilebooth-West Elm

Welcome to the people that couldn't take a decent pic. We went to an opening party for the West Elm that opened last month. There was fancy food like fruit juices and mini sandwiches with beef. We walked around and looked at the goods when we stumbled upon the Smilebooth in the back corner. We found ourselves in the line, and since there were bars on the sides and people in front and back, I figured I might as well not fight it and risk spilling my fancy drink and embarrassingly having to go back and get another one so soon (it's all about preserving the food people).  Have you ever been to a party with one of these things? It's really a great idea. There's props, shiny things, and a window of 10 seconds to get a good picture. We took on the 50/50 rule: only 50% of the picture has a normal person in it at any given time.


Thursday, November 8

Beehive Bazaar Christmas 2012




Hello everyone! I'm going to have a table at the Winter Beehive Bazaar from Thursday Nov. 29- Saturday Dec. 1. The Winter show is always a good time. You can buy unique and handmade gifts for your fam and friends! Even if you don't go for my stuff, you should go check it out. You never know what you'll find...

Here's the menu!


MACARONS:
Caramel
Chocolate Mint
Cranberry
Gingerbread
Hazelnut
Pumpkin Pie

MARSHMALLOWS:
Chocolate
Vanilla
Peppermint

SEMI-SWEET HOT CHOCOLATE STICKS
MILK CHOCOLATE TOFFEE BARK
S'MORES* I haven't decided if I'll do this one yet... Does is sound a like a good idea? They are super duper gooey...

Wednesday, November 7

Craft Lake City 2012


So it's been a while. Let's start with Craft Lake City.


As you know I'm a big fan of CLC because they are so simple to deal with, and I always have a lot of success. This year was really good. Really hot, but really good. I thought I'd make the same amount of everything because I didn't sell out last year, and I was hoping to at least do what I did last time. I should have made more! I was sold out by 7:30 and it went to 10pm. I'm so flattered to all that purchased some. I hope it was yummy! I felt more prepared this year because I knew what to expect and what I wanted to get out of it. Next year they are doing CLC for two days... I'll be making a lot more next year. 

I made these super cute pom pom things from this tutorial.  I found that the tighter I wound them the more full they were, and then I just cut them down to the size and shape I wanted. I also grabbed some sticks from my mom's yard and glued them in. I wanted something that was different, but still said 'summer'. They were so simple!