It’s Friday?  Mon Dieu!  This just may have been the fastest week of my adult life. I had no idea it was Friday already?! I have been busier than usual with my freelance work and setting up the shop, it’s hard for me to be my usual self and get distracted by something shiny. I wanted to pop in and wish you all a happy weekend and also to sing the praises of my Iphone.  I love my Iphone, but I love the camera feature even more.  I used to carry around a Canon Elph with me everywhere and thought I was so cool to own such a sleek + compact machine, but the Iphone is so much faster, smaller and discreet. Dare I say I love it more than my DSLR?  No, like children I can’t have favorites now can I?  My mom didn’t (okay, we all knew my brother was her favorite). I shot a lot with the Iphone when I was away on business last week and my most favorite captures were the ones that were not planned and on the spot (I am usually not known for my spontaneity, photography has given me that luxury). I worked a lot with finding the right light for my cameraphone and playing with reflective surfaces to create the double exposure effect I love with my toy cameras.  I know there’s an app for multi-exposures but I have to always do things the hard way, it’s my nature. I have tried some alternate printing techniques to get the images from my phone to print. I am quite happy with the results but it’s time consuming and I would love to know if anyone has a resource that they love for printing their cameraphone shots in a click or are you not printing them out (I am guilty as charged for not printing out a lot of my digital shots, I have a baptism, Christmas party and 60th birthday that have not seen the light of day). 

I gave the Fancy my first Iphone when I upgraded our contract and I have many, many anecdotes that I will share with you about that.  The Fancy, ahem ‘Ace’ as he prefers to be called on my blog is basically Larry David trapped in a young, hot guys body, so you may be able to garner what kind of rhetoric he has been spewing.  Fancy/Ace is good at everything he tries, so his Iphone photo’s already surpass mine, but I don’t want to feed his ego (or crush mine) so I tell him, ‘yeah, I guess you’re getting the hang of it’.  How’s that for support? If you lived with a Larry David clone you would do the same thing too, trust me….

I can not believe I haven’t gushed about this sooner because I am  truly coo coo for Coco Puffs over  the Cup of Jo’s hair tutorial series.  It is written and styled by the talented Joanna, her unbelievably gorgeous jewelry designer friend Caroline is the model (I have such a girl crush) and shot by one of my fave photographer’s Jamie Beck. The whole series is win-win, I tell you.  Bonus, the tutorials are easy enough to follow that even I of the instruction/tutorial challenged have actually been able to accomplish some of the hair feats.  In fact, I wore my hair in Heidi braids all week when I was in NYC, inspired by these cute tutes.  If you are looking for some style for your long locks, get over there now, you won’t be sorry, plus you can peek at Joanna’s cute boy Toby if hair isn’t your thing.

Yes, yes, I will be offering prints in the Besotted Brand shop, indeed.  I wrestled with this decision to offer my photographs because I didn’t feel I had a cohesive body of work, once I felt comfortable with what I was going to offer I had the daunting task of finding a professional printer that would put up with my compulsive nature. I couldn’t leave it to just a big business printer, I needed a master printer that understood why I needed to try different papers and be willing to experiment.  I found a small shop that is as obsessive as I am and we will happily be driving each other crazy through this launch (and hopefully beyond).  When I had my Etsy shop, I did offer my art prints (never photographs) and I have had many requests to bring them back. I was weary to, worried about quality and end price but my solution is to offer limited edition pieces for budding art collectors to assist in building a collection.  I will also be working with a handful of artists on collaborative projects, but of course I will need to go through the rigorous test prints to make sure that the limited edition prints hold up to the Besotted Brand fine standards and meet my discerning clients highest expectations. Many of the artists I’ve chosen don’t even consider themselves artists which makes the project even more special and dear to my heart. The prints may not be included in the soft launch, but they will be there shortly as I stock the shop.

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I have said on many occasions I have more of a savory tooth.  I do like a great granola though to sprinkle atop my Greek yogurt in the morning. Something about the nature of granola makes it feel less like a treat and more like a ‘it’s good for you’ food.  The problem I found in the past with homemade granola has been that I was never able to achieve clusters, what’s a great granola without crunchy clusters?  It might as well be muesli. Not to knock muesli, but if you wanted to make muesli you wouldn’t be on an obsessive hunt for crunchy, clustery granola recipes now would you?

I am happy to report that the buzz amongst the internet food cognoscenti about cluster rich granola being achieved via a recipe from the Baked cookbook is no fallacy. The granola came out crunchy, golden and with the perfect balance of sweet + salty.  I daresay that it is the best granola I have ever had the pleasure hit my taste buds  As you can judge from the photographs the granola does not last long in ones household, so be prepared to bake a batch a week or don’t make this recipe at all (as the family will go through major withdrawals). Here’s the recipe for those that are insistent on getting hooked and the rest of the Baked book looks like a winner as well. I’ll have you know that the oil I used was grapeseed, it was what I had on hand (it’s great at high temps), I don’t know if it made a difference (I’d like to believe it did).  I also substituted dried cranberries for the cherries because I am no dried cherry fan.

P.S. The ‘handmade’ stamp featured above is part of the Besotted Brand line up, it’ll be perfect when you bake so many batches of granola that you won’t know what to do with yourself except put them in vintage glass canning jars and dole them out as gifts, you gourmet you.

Ah,  I am feeling in rather good spirits, you? The Besotted Brand shop is nearing its opening date and I think I may implode with anticipation. This week I shall reveal some of the offerings and I am hoping the soft launch will happen very soon.  I want to work some of the kinks out before the official grand opening, you do understand don’t you?  Those kind enough to sign up for the launch announcement will be privy to a little treat, so what are you waiting for?  I promise I won’t send you unwanted emails and you can unsubscribe at your whim, there’s nothing to lose and only loveliness to gain…