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Cookies Are My Lucky Charm

Posted by melissa on Mar 15, 2013 in Blog, Cookies | 15 comments

Cookies Are My Lucky Charm

What’s your lucky charm? Do you even believe in lucky charms? Some people wear their socks inside out because they think they will play better and some people wear the same shoes on a certain day because they believe it will give them good luck.  There are athletes who listen to music and do a routine in a certain order believing that it is the magic to their game.  Then there is me. The fun sucker. You know the one who believes the closest thing I have owned that would be considered a lucky charm would be cereal.  Then my son reminded me that it would be his “lucky” day if there was a sugar cereal in the house.  In fact, this was my son’s reaction upon walking in the pantry, “What on earth, you bought a sugar cereal?”  ”I thought we were detoxing?”  He totally believes the box of marshmallow goodness is taunting him while we are detoxing the sugar out of his system from his birthday sugar palooza. {Try to say that sentence 5 times fast}

When Melissa, from Simply Sweets by Honeybee asked me to be a part of this blog collaborative I was so excited. I am a huge fan of her blog and wanted to be a part of the collaborative.  I jumped in with both feet. But then it hit me about a week later, I have never had a lucky charm.  What on earth am I going to do?  Am I going to be the wet blanket of the group? Should I drop out? But I decided not to. Do you know how those “lucky”  little marshmallows came about?  I sure didn’t.  Did you know they represent stuff?

Lucky Charms was created in 1962 by John Holahan. He came up with the idea when he decided to mix Cheerios with bits of Brach’s Circus Peanuts.  Originally the cereal was not sugar-coated and sales were low. Once they added sugar-coated oats the sales increased. Imagine that? Here is the line up of marshmallows in the box of lucky charms and what they represent:

• Hearts – power to bring things to life
• Shooting Stars – power to fly
• Horseshoes – power to speed things up
• Clovers – luck, but you will never know what kind of luck you’ll get
• Blue Moons – power of invisibility
• Rainbows – instantaneous travel from place to place
• Balloons – power to make things float

Now all I need them to do is add a piping bag marshmallow for when I am having a bad decoarating day.

Have fun popping over to some of my friend’s site’s and reading about their “Good Luck Charms” and the story behind them.  You might find some fun surprises and a some cool ways that people view luck.

Spring Training Cookies

Posted by melissa on Mar 8, 2013 in Blog, Cookies | 4 comments

Spring Training Cookies

It’s that time of year. Spring has arrived and that means Arizona becomes a very fun place to live. There are so many amazing activities in Arizona between February and May.  Teams and their fans from all over the country come down to Arizona to enjoy watching their teams during Spring Training. One of the best parts about Spring Training is getting to watch the games in smaller stadiums.  You can bring your beach towel and sit out on the grass or you can buy seats close up to watch your favorite players. The lawn seats are my favorite and they will only cost you about ten dollars. You can’t beat that price for a family outing.

The pitchers and catchers begin to arrive mid February but the games start at the beginning of March for Spring Training.

If you are not familiar with Spring Training there are two leagues. The Cactus League and the Grapefruit League.  On the west side of the country you will find a dry heat, rocks, cactus and beautiful blue skies for the Cactus League. On the east side of the country you will find humidity, gorgeous palm trees, beaches and balmy temperatures in the Grapefruit League. Most New Yorkers end up in Florida, while most Chicagoans end up in Arizona.

The Cactus League in Arizona hosts the following teams:

One of the best parts about Spring Training is the stadium complexes. While the stadiums are smaller; the sports complexes are huge. It is fun to walk around the practice fields and cages and watch the practices. One of my favorite things to do with my son is to take our towels and go sit on the grass and people watch. People watching is always fun.  My favorite field complex is the Peoria Sports Complex.  There are great restuarants on every corner in the area and the field is gorgeous. I know, I know, I probably shouldn’t call the field “gorgeous”, but it is! This field is home to the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres.

If you live in Arizona, or close by you should definitely take advantage and get out and see game! Enjoy!  Here are some more links if you need more information about games around the valley:

• Spring Training Guide
• The Cactus League
• AZ Central

Food Photography Setup

Posted by melissa on Mar 4, 2013 in Blog, Cookies, photo challenge, tutorial | 15 comments

Food Photography Set Up

I think food photography can be quite challenging.  A few of my baking buddies have asked me about my food photography setup at my house. Then in my email this morning, I received the latest blog post  from Lilaloa and she is having a photography challenge for the month of March.  What a perfect time to share my photography setup?  My food photography setup has evolved over the past year. Slowly but surely I am starting to have my own style and way that I photograph my food. There are so many fun an innovative ways to arrange your food photography setup.  Let’s get started.

This is my lovely Wal-Mart garment hanging rack, that I picked up for $14.99. Some photography background stands can cost anywhere from $50.00 to $150.00.  I decided to go the cheaper route for now and it totally works for what I am taking photographs of my food.

Lisa, from The Bearfoot Baker brings out my inner McGuyver.  When I read her blog posts she helps me think outside of the box. I am very talented at thinking inside the box.  I will explain what these bungee cords will help with in just a second.

I love Ink and Elm. Their photo backdrops and floor drops make food photography set up really easy.  It helps you change the mood and setting of your pictures.  You can order their vinyls with something called a grommet.  A grommet is a ring inserted into a hole through thin material.  I was feeling very adventurous one day when I decided to order a backdrop with grommets than the normal floordrop.  When I received them I realized I did not have hooks to hang the back drop. I ran off to Wal-Mart and bought some bungee cords. The reason I chose bungee cords was so that I could lower the back drop if needed.

The picture above is my normal food photography setup. I am really fortunate to have floor to ceiling windows in our dinner room.  I simply put the garment rack behind my table, open the windows and choose which vinyl “table” I will be using that day.  One of the benefits of vinyl floor drops for your food photography setup is that they can be cleaned. You can wipe them down after you are finished or before the next time you decide to use them. One time I had posted a new picture and one of my dear friend Nicole asked me, “where did you get your dining room table?” Well, it was actually one of the vinyls. How fun is that?

The picture above shows you another option for a back drop. I love using fabric backdrops. I grab a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby and then search through their fabrics. For backgrounds I have learned to stay away from busy patterns. You want your food to be the center of attention, not the background.  The great thing about fabric is that you can just lay it over the bar and now you have a beautiful backdrop.

The shot above is the grommeted back drop from Ink and Elm. It makes such a lovely back drop against the dark natural wood of my dining room table. Now that we have talked about my food photography setup, let me share with you a few tips on props. Food blogging or taking pictures of your beautiful creations can become costly, but it does not have to be. Each item above except the flowers came from Goodwill. Those gorgeous antique dessert serving plates I got for $6 for the whole set. I have used them in quite a few shots. The fun lemon plates and vintage ball mason jar as well. It is always worth popping into to your local thrift shop to see what they have in stock.

Things to look for at Goodwill:

• tablecloths
• table runners
• vintage plates
• silverware
• old china
• mason jars

Here are a few of my favorite pictures using my food photography set up.

Can you see how the different backdrops change the feel of the pictures? I used the black ruffle fabric from Hobby Lobby and the Old White Wood Planks floordrop from Ink and Elm.

“Oh Henry” floordrop from Ink and Elm. This transforms the picture from a cooler color look like the Parisian set to warm tones.  Plus, I thought, “Oh Henry and St. Patrick’s Day donuts went together perfectly.  I own 4 different floor drops which allows me to own four different tables! It helps keep my photography fun and fresh by changing the backgrounds.

If you would like my resources on food photography, here are just a few links:

• Poster Board Backgrounds:  The Bearfoot Baker
• DIY photo board: The Bearfoot Baker
• Photo tent:  Cookie Crazie
• Background color makes a difference: Cookie Crazie
• My Photography Setup: Simply Sweets By Honeybee
• Cookie Photography for Dummies: Adventures of Sweet Sugarbelle
• Food Photography Basics: Sally’s Baking Addiction

Alright, now for my submission to Lilaloa’s March Challenge.  I was so bummed that I was unable to finish my cookies that went with my sketch for last months challenge.  Let me share a secret with  you. I am scared of shooting photos outside. I have become so accustomed to my indoor shooting spot that I don’t like to shoot anywhere else. I know just how to set my white balance and I know just the right aperture setting. Take me outside and I feel a little lost. But I braved the outdoors for this challenge.

One of the nice parts about being outside is all the natural light. Even though I get plenty of light by the dinner room table I have to shoot at a much lower f-stop than if I am outdoors.  Normally, by the window my f-stop is set between 2.8 and 3.2. While I was outside I had taken shots between 5.6 and 7.0.  That is a big difference.  One of the things I noticed about shooting outdoors is that my straight out of camera shot came out sharper. I am going to have to look into why that would happen.  Well I am off to begin investigating. What do you struggle with when shooting food? What are tips or tricks you have learned along the way? I look forward to hearing about your journey.