Four

Buttercup Days is four years old today. It's changed quite a bit over those years and good things have come from it. When I typed my first blog post I had no idea what my goal with it was: I still don't really. I started it while at home pretty much full-time with my then one year old son and five year old daughter. The blog served as a creative output in those stay-at-home days. Blog posts tended to be family centred. It was about being a mother to two young children, while also looking back at my own childhood. It documented those tiny but significant milestone and occasions that make up life. Food was always part of it and recipe posts were a fairly regular thing back then.

Every now and then, I have to stop and see where I am going with this blog. With both of the children very much settled into school life, I work those school hours 5 days a week. There's my daily task list for Seen and my Shopping Editor role at The Simple Things to fill the hours. The blog gets squeezed in as and when time allows, which isn't nearly as often as I would like, which can be frustrating. If only I had thought of doing this before having kids, back in the day when I had something called 'spare time'.

With the vast majority of my posts being recipes that I make, style and shoot myself, I couldn't have chosen a more time consuming blog to write. To keep a blog going it has to be about a subject you are passionate about, that much I've learnt. My passion extends further than just the food itself and I plan to share that with you in the form of content that won't require me to cook up a storm in the kitchen in order to achieve a blog post. I still want the recipes to be very much the core of the blog; these new elements I hope will support and compliment the recipes.

Over the coming weeks I will be introducing a few new elements to the blog as it enters its fifth year.  I will be posting about inspiring cooking and eating spaces, beautiful kitchenalia and simple ideas and thoughts on the act of cooking, sharing and connecting over food.

No matter how I write up and plan my posts in orderly subjects, there will still be a few random posts (probably children related) that will pop up. I've got to keep it real, as they say.

To all my family and friends, the people I've met through Buttercup Days, and those who may have just stubbled across this post today - thank you so much for your support. It means the world.

The Simple Things

We've just come back from the most amazing family holiday in Finland. I've lots to share with you about our time there, so watch this space.

In the meantime, I wanted to share my first official / credible / national piece of Buttercup Days press. My Blackberry, Almond & Cardamon Cake photograph is featured in the new (September) issue of The Simple Things magazine. The Simple Things is one of my favourite monthly reads. It never finds its way to my recycling bins; back issues live on my bookshelf as I like to dip into them from time to time.

I was bowled over when they contacted me to ask if they could use one of my food photographs from this blog to illustrate a recipe and as if that wasn't a big enough scoop for me they also asked if I would like to feature in their regular 'My day in cups of tea' feature - the pictures used in that article are mine too. 

Seeing this new issue the day I reluctantly flew back from our holiday certainly made returning home a little easier.

Thanks, The Simple Things - you've made my month.

Leiths School of Food and Wine

Ten days ago I attended a two day course in food photography and styling at Leiths School of Food and Wine. For a while now I have been taking my own images for this blog, broadening my limited knowledge with online tutorials. It has taken me so far, but there is nothing that can match being in the company of someone who has made a success out of food photography. 

Food photographer William Reavell, who has worked on books with Mary Berry, Rick Stein, Antonio Carluccio, Sophie Grigson and Gizzi Erskine, to name but a few, led the course. Every aspect of food photography was covered; from the technical, which covered exposure, composition, lighting and angles, through to the creative side that tackled styling, plating up and propping images.

It was largely a practical course, which is frankly the only way to learn. The class worked in pairs taking it in turns to both style and photograph the food. On the first day we worked on salads and brownies and on the second day it was stir fries and meringues. We worked in one of the Leiths kitchens with a fantastic range of both produce and styling products at our disposal. I was like a kid in a sweet shop.

This post shows just a selection of the images I took during my time at Leiths. I must say, I did feel more at home styling and photographing the cakes, particularly once I saw that edible flowers were on hand. One thing that this course did unexpectedly provide me with was a definition of my style of work. Talking through my photography and styling with Bill, it became clear how I want to take my work forward visually. He provided me with lots of valuable advice which I intend to follow over the coming months. I can't wait to put it into practise now.

Over On Heart Home ...

I am delighted to announce that I am going to be making some regular appearances over on the lovely Heart Home blog. I am combining my passion for food with my love for design to produce a series of product focused posts. Alongside my selected products I'm sharing some of my favourite food photography and recipe links. My first post is up today and you can see it here, if you fancy a peep. I hope you'll enjoy it. 

Cakes & Cherries

 

Just a post to share some photographs I took earlier this week when the sun came out and I managed to carve out some time for just me and my camera. To make the most of this window of me-time I bought in some food, rather than prepare it myself. The props were kindly loaned to me by Keep It Vintage, a gem of a shop up the road from me in sunny Hove.