CAD on a Rainy Day

It's raining cats and dogs outside today, so I made some delicious French toast with lemon curd, and then sat down to model one of the peelers I sketched in November. 

[ Modeled in Solidworks | Rendered in Luxion Keyshot Pro 5 ]

 

Thanks for reading,
A :)

Tu Vuò Fà L'Americano

Welp. The holidays have come and gone, and then some. I got to go home for a ridiculously short vacation for Christmas, where I got an awesome present: a vintage-design Imperia pasta machine!

The downside: that baby weighs about twenty pounds and couldn't make the trip in my suitcase to Cayman after Christmas, so it's hanging out in Alabama for a little while.

The solution: frantically purchase ingredients and force feed your family copious amounts of pasta on your last night in town.

The result: behold! My first fancy-edited GoPro video. As if I don't look nerdy enough standing on chairs to photograph almost everything I bake or consume, I jerry-rigged a camera to my head with a backwards headlamp. No one was at all surprised. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading, 
A

Little Figgy Pies and a Frootshoot

My best friend got married this past September, and had an awesome honeymoon in California. With all that CA has to offer, they basically got four vacations in one.  For a few days, they stayed at a little bed & breakfast where there were trees abundant with figs.  She raved about these figs; how they grew in this adorable, peaceful little garden, and you could just pick 'em and eat 'em right there, as many as you wanted! 

As I listened to her tales, I realized, "I've never had a fig," and then suddenly I had a mission.

I decided, then and there, that the next time I saw figs for sale I was buying those things, pronto, no questions asked. 

But fig season was over.  

For nine months, all I saw were weirdo dried figs and taunting Fig Newtons. But then! There was shipment to the sunny shores of Grand Cayman all the way from California, and with it came fresh figs! This called for a celebratory frootshoot of these strange, Humpty-Dumpty-meets-Cone-Head-shaped, beautiful things. 

I don't think that I've yet mentioned that I've made it my mission to read all of Beth Kirby's {local milk} blog from start to current (and also watch Breaking Bad, and eventually Friends).  Her blog and writing and photography have been fueling a lot of my inspiration/motivation.

My plan, if I ever crossed paths with some figs, was to make her Fig Balsamic & Rosemary Hand Pies. And so I did.

*Note: the only change that I made in Kirby's recipe was using Pepper Chevre Goat Cheese, instead of plain, to add a delicious little kick.

*Another note: I used the leftover juices from the filling as a salad dressing. It was definitely corn-starchy.  In hindsight, I should have added more balsamic and honey to mask that.

Fig Balsamic & Rosemary Hand Pies, copied almost verbatim from {local milk}
Yields about 18-22 4" hand pies

1 recipe of Buttery Pastry Shell from smittenkitchen (or the pie dough of your choosing)

For the Filling
2 cups of figs, cut into 1/2″ size pieces
2 Tbsp sugar
1/8th cup good balsamic vinegar
1/8th cup honey (raw sourwood)
2 tsp finely chopped rosemary
pinch of kosher salt
2 Tbsp cornstarch
goat cheese (optional)
1 egg, whisked
sugar for dusting (turbinado, sanding, or regular sugar work for this)

First prepare your dough which should then be divided in two, shaped into flat discs, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, and chilled. Allow it at least one hour to chill in the fridge, or pop it in the freezer to speed up the process.

Mix figs, sugar, balsamic, honey, rosemary, and salt in a medium bowl and let macerate for about 15 minutes (it can sit longer, even over night, to no ill effect).

Heat oven to 425°F.

Carefully pour off about 2 Tbsp of the liquid from the figs and mix with the 2 Tbsp cornstarch. Stir this back into the figs to thicken.

Roll out half your dough to about 1/8th inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface. Rotate the dough and flour as needed to keep from sticking. Using the cutter of your choice (You can use 4″ and 2″ biscuit cutters to make tiny pies and tinier pies, but you could do shapes or whatever you like.), cut the dough out. If making double crust hand pies cut an even number, if making half moon hand pies then you needn’t worry about it. Lay cut-out dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in the fridge to chill for about 5-10 minutes. Again, you can just put them in the freezer for a couple of minutes.

Fill a small bowl with cold water and set to the side. Whisk your egg in the bowl to use as a wash. Remove dough and fill with a scant table spoon of filling for half moon pies and a heaping tablespoon of filling for double crust pies. If making 2 inch pies, use about a teaspoon of filling. If you wish, use a little less filling and top with a small dollop of goat cheese (or Pepper Chevre Goat Cheese!).

To seal the pies, dip your finger in the cool water and run your finger around the rim of pie. Either fold over or top with second crust and press carefully but firmly to seal all around. Seal with the tines of a fork if desired.

Once pies are filled place them back into the fridge or freezer to chill for 10 or 3 minutes respectively. Remove from fridge and cut vent holes in the tops of the pies. Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Chill once more before baking.

When ready to bake place the pies on a parchment-lined baking sheet on the middle rack and bake for 5 minutes at 425° F. Reduce heat to 350° F, rotate pan and bake for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown, rotating the pan every five minutes to promote uniform browning. Place pies on racks to cool.

Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading, and be sure to browse over at {local milk}!

A

Pot-Luck Pop-Tarts

About a month ago, I had brunch (not alone, but with friends, gasp!) at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink.  We sat in the restaurant for no less than six hours.  I felt quite European just wasting my day away with food and friends and Mimosas. (Appropriate.)  In our six hours of conversation, it came up that we should have a pot luck get-together. "We'll call it Ladies Who Lunch!...at nighttime..with miscellaneous foods!" It took place last night, and it was a splendid evening.

When we were divvying up who was bringing what, I was basically like "Dessert, ya'll.  I got this." I made 3 dishes: Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts (recipe below), and Florentine&Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches (Well, that's a fib. I really just assembled these. I purchased the cookies in-store, and then melted chocolate and pressed them into sandwiches.)

I'd been wanting to try making pop-tarts for a while.  I had pinned at least 6 different recipes about 3 months ago, and just hadn't gotten around to following through with it.  The recipe that I based mine off of called for 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour.  However, I like pastry flour because I feel like I'm doing fancier things when I use it. (...a logical reason...right?) I went to the Google to find out if the chemistry wizards of baking would allow for such a thing.  I didn't quite get an answer, but I did gain some good ole' knowledge. I never knew why we had so many flour options. Sure, you want bread flour for bread, and pastry flour for pastries, but I now know that the reason behind it is that newly-popular buzzword gluten. Flours with low protein contents will generate less gluten and flours with high protein contents will create more.  The more gluten in a baked good, the more structure and density you'll have (bread), whereas a small amount of gluten will yield light and airy products (cake and pastries).  

Here is the approximate protein content of all the common types of flour:

Bread Flour: 14 - 16%
All-Purpose (AP) Flour: 10 - 12%
Pastry Flour: 9%
Cake Flour: 7-8%

I decided that it was safe to use equal parts pastry flour and all-purpose, because I prefer crumbly, airy crusts more than dense ones. PS - it was a good decision. I think that these can be voted my best tasting pastry to date.  Their look, however, was definitely more on the rustic side. 

By the way, before I get into the Pop-Tarts recipe, if you'd like the Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Recipe, it can be found from The Butter Queen herself, Mrs. Paula Deen. 

Pop-Tarts, adapted from The Candid Appetite
Yield: 9 toaster pastries, or 18 miniature pastries

For the Pastry
1 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cups Pastry Flour
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks (1 cup) Unsalted Butter, cold, cubed
4 Tbsp. Ice-Cold Water, plus more as needed

For the Filling
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1 Tbsp. All-Purpose Flour
Egg Wash
1 large Egg
1 Tbsp. of water 

For the Glaze
3/4 cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
4 tsp. Milk, plus more as needed
1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Vanilla Extract
To make the dough, in the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour and salt; pulse a couple times to combine the ingredients. Throw in the cold, diced butter, and pulse 10 more times or until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about the size of peas. (I don't have a food processor, so I did this with a hand mixer and large bowl; I had to occasionally help flatten the butter by squeezing cubes between my thumb and index finger. It was a messy task.)

With machine/mixer running, add ice water through the opening on top of the lid, in a slow, steady stream, one tablespoon at a time,  just until dough holds together without being wet or sticky. It should form a ball and come away from the sides. It is very important not to over process the dough. A way to test the doug is by squeezing a small amount of dough together; if it is still dry and doesn’t come together, add a bit more water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Divide the dough in half, and place each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Shape into disks and tightly wrap in plastic. Place the disks in the refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour or up to overnight. (I did overnight.)
To assemble the toaster pastries, remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and allow it to thaw for a bit. This will help you roll out the dough, and make it easier to work with. (Note: If you live in the Cayman Islands and keep your apartment at 80°, turn your AC down a touch, or else your dough is going to become incredibly temperamental.) Place one piece on a lightly floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. Trim the sides of the dough so that it measures 9×12 inches in size. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Cut each piece of dough into thirds and then each third into thirds again. You should end up with 9 rectangular pieces, each measuring 3×4 inches. Using a ruler will make this process easier.
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Beat the egg with a tablespoon of water and brush it over the entire surface of the first dough pieces. This will be the “bottom” of the tart; the egg will help glue the lid on. As I was going to an event with more than 9 people, I needed more than 9 tarts.  Instead of the traditional top-and-bottom assembly, I actually folded each 3"x4" rectangle in half to make smaller tarts. The result is more bite-sized, but just as delicious! Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, making sure to leave about 1/4 inch of space on the edge. Brush the second dough pieces with egg wash as well, and place a second rectangle of dough atop the first, using your fingertips to press firmly around the pocket of filling, sealing the dough well on all sides. Crimp the edges with a fork all around the edge of each rectangle. This will ensure the tarts do not open up during baking.  As I was going to an event with more than 9 people, I needed more than 9 tarts.  Instead of the traditional top-and-bottom assembly, I actually folded each 3"x4" rectangle in half to make twice as many smaller tarts. The result is more bite-sized, but just as delicious! If doing smaller tarts, place a heaping teaspoon of filling more toward one half of the rectangle. Fold in half, and then proceed with pressing the edges firmly and crimping with fork. (I crimped the folded edge as well for continuity's sake.)

Gently place the tarts on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each tart five times with a skewer or tooth pick; this will allow the steam to escape, so that the tarts will become light and airy instead of flat pop-tarts. Brush the tops with extra egg wash. Refrigerate the tarts, uncovered, for about 30 minutes (or pop in the freezer for 10ish). This will allow the butter in the dough to chill and firm up causing a flakier crust.
Remove tarts from the fridge and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until they’re golden brown, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Let the tarts cool on the pan for about 5 minutes, and then transfer them to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before glazing.
To make the glaze, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until it reaches a spreading consistency; it should be thick but not too thick. Use a butter knife or offset spatula to glaze each tart. Allow the glaze to harden before eating. Store them in an airtight container. To reheat, place in a 350° oven and heat for 10 minutes. Or you can pop them in a toaster to warm them for a few seconds. 

Thanks for reading!
A

A Grilled Cheese of Manliness

All of these goodies that I’ve been baking lately have been quite feminine; sweet and darling. That’s not to say that a dude wouldn’t eat these things.  (I know for a fact that there is one guy in particular who is very disappointed that he’s not here to enjoy them.) It is to say that there is always a need for balance. I needed to make something macho and manly. Rub some dirt in it, all that jazz.

On average, it requires about a five minute conversation with me to realize that I’ve got a thing for cheese.  I’m pretty vocal about it.  On my first date with Brian, I asked if we could order the cheese plate appetizer, and then proceeded to talk about cheese for the next 20 to 30 minutes. A few weeks later, because he is the gift-giver to end all gift-givers, he gave me THREE cheese journals to document the various cheeses that I try, so naturally, I’m required to always buy all the cheeses, right? Right! My most recent purchase was an Italian cheese called L’ottavio, otherwise known as beer cheese.  I repeat: beer cheese.

L’ottavio cheese contains flecks of malted barley.  During the curing process, the rind is brushed with brown ale and more malted barley. The result is the smell of a local pub and the taste of a nice pint of beer. Let me emphasize that "smell of a local pub" isn't a very pleasant smell.  You're going to want to triple or quadruple bag this block of cheese to contain the smell in your fridge.

In my cheese-journal, I noted that this cheese is kind of “unpairable." I usually like to pair a nice fruit or jelly or meat with the cheeses that I try, but this one really seemed to want to stand alone.  But then, "ah HA!" This is a manly cheese here. It needs manly compliments, not fru-fru things like fruits and French jams. 

It needs manly compliments like BACON.

What followed is the macho-est, manliest grilled cheese you’ll ever eat.

Behold, the Beer & Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich.  (Note: I did not rub dirt in it.)

The Beer and Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich 

2 slices of your bread of choice, I used Buckwheat

Sliced L'ottavio cheese 1/4" thick to cover one slice of bread

3 to 6 slices of natural bacon, depending on bread size

• Heat deep cast iron skillet to medium heat, then turn to low. Throw on your bacon and cook it low and slow, constantly moving around so it doesn't stick. (It's best to use a grease shield if you have one. I don't...womp womp.)
• While your bacon cooks, cut necessary slices of cheese and spread butter on the two outer sides of your bread slices.
• Once bacon is cooked, remove to a paper towel. Drain all but one teaspoon of the grease. The remaining grease will make your bread crispier, and will give your sandwich more taste.
• Set a slice of bread butter-side down. Top with your cheese and cooked bacon, and top with your other slice of bread, butter side up. 
• Once the cheese begins to melt, flip your sandwich so it begins to melt through the bacon. 
• Continue flipping until both sides are crispy and golden.
• Slice into halves and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

A

Frootshoot in the Caribbean

A refresher course:

Fruit-shoot (/fro͞ot - SHo͞ot/) noun :: Amanda's term for a photo-shoot during which she dissects/murders various fruits for photographic analysis.  This process often advances to hours of editing before creating a graphically-pleasing collage.

As any new culture does, moving to the Caribbean has exposed me to new foods.  Here are some tropical goodies:

Breadfruit 

A food staple throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, the breadfruit emerges on flowering trees that can grow up to 85 feet tall.  The fruit's name is derived from the texture of the cooked, moderately ripe fruit, which has a potato-like flavor, similar to freshly baked bread. It is high in starch and is traditionally eaten as a substitute for rice.  There are tons of ways to prepare breadfruit, whether roasted and sliced as a nice side dish, or made into breadfruit chips (better than potato chips!), or boiled and served as a main dish with scraped coconut and chilies. 

Fun fact: When you remove a breadfruit from the tree, you have to set it top-down because there will be a fair amount of sap that needs to drain out first...or else your cutting board and knife will be forever sticky. *eyeroll*
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadfruit

Passion Fruit 

The passion fruit is widely grown around the world.  It is round to oval in shape and can be either yellow or dark purple - a fact that I did not know.  I took photos of a purple-skinned fruit, and the next week, our selection was yellow! There aren't many things that you can bite into for the first time and have your eyes spring wide open causing you to immediately dive in for bite #2.  The passion fruit is one of those rare things. I had never tasted one before, and the taste and texture blew my mind.  It's like a ball full of candy, really. 

Fun fact: Passion fruit is so called because it is one of the many species of Passion Flower, the national flower of Paraguay. 
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_edulis

Otaheite, Jamaican Apple
First, a little back story.  When I studied in Taiwan for 3 months, I discovered that one of my favorite fruits is a Wax Apple or a Bell Fruit - it has two names.  Then! I found out that it actually has 3 names, or so I thought.  I've not been able to find once since; I pick through every farmer's market I go to - I thought for sure I'd find it at one of the two international markets in Atlanta - nope! Then one day after moving here, I was talking about this fruit with my coworkers, and showed them a picture, and they all exclaimed "Otaheite!" "...Oh, whatawhat?" They all got so excited that they had helped me track down this fruit at long last, and that all along it was actually a Jamaican Apple, or in Jamaica, an apple. 
Sadly, I have to report that, though it is yummy, this is not the same as the Wax Apple and Bell Fruit that I had in Taiwan.  They look exactly the same, so they have to be relatives! The Otaheite has a very light and fluffy texture inside with crisp, mild apple-like taste. The Wax Apple packs a punch with apple taste, and has a crunchy, airy texture like a pear. *mouth waters and the search continues*

Thanks for reading!
A

Lemon Poppyseed Muffin Frustrations

You know how something can happen one way, and always happen that way, and then when you try to point it out to someone, it doesn’t happen that ONE time, and you just look ridiculous? That’s kind of what has gone down here.  Over the past 6 months, I’ve been taking on baking projects and photographing their results with seemingly no effort, no trouble, only deliciousness.  When I blogged about how I was doing these cooking things, and proceeded to bake my next recipe, it did not go as planned.

I had some lemons leftover from a sudden craving of lemon shortbread cookies last week.  I thought I could make some sort of lemon roasted fish or chicken, but lacked both. When you work for a grocery store, the last thing you want to do on the weekend is go grocery shopping, so I decided I’d use what I had on-hand.  I'd make another sweet – this time more on the breakfast-y side of things: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.

I pinterested and compared quite a few recipes, and decided to go with this one.  You’ll notice it calls for sour cream, but you see, I did not have any sour cream. I know from baking cakes that this is to add moisture, so I didn't want to skip it, thus began a painstaking search for sour cream substitutions. I watched this video with wide eyes, and I ransacked my pantry and refrigerator for anything on the line up. I had lemon juice, and I had milk that was dated 4 days prior, and I had half-and-half and butter, and that was it.  No buttermilk, no whipping cream, nothing that anything actually called for. I decided I’d try two options: first, I’d try the whipping cream with lemon juice method…except I only had half-and-half.  After 5 minutes, I gave up on that ever thickening. So, I decided I’d use the ridiculous amount of butter with aged milk.

I carried on with the recipe.  When it came time to add the "sour cream," I realized that I didn’t know how to add it.  Did I need to melt the butter? Cream it? Softened or chilled? In a very split-second decision, I put the milk in a bowl and then put the whole softened stick of butter in the milk and turned to mixer up to full speed. What the heck was I thinking? I know what I was thinking. I was hungry, and I had stalled for far too long regarding the sour cream already. The result was a clumpy weird cottage-cheese-looking liquid, because duh, fat doesn't mix into liquid like that. I dumped it into the batter anyway. It didn’t seem to matter much. “It’ll just make clumpy pockets of butter if anything!” Into the muffin tins and into the oven they went!

While they were baking, I was getting creative. I always like to jazz up a recipe. Sometimes something is perfect just the way the recipe card says, and if you tweak it, it doesn't taste like Momma's, but always doing everything by the book would be quite dull. Usually, if a lemon poppyseed muffin is topped, it’s with a simple sugar lemon glaze. That is so last week (...literally, I put lemon glaze on my shortbread cookies last week). I had some mascarpone that was dying to be used up, so I decided to make a vanilla mascarpone glaze – a delicious stroke of genius! I used this mascarpone icing recipe, (again with the whipping cream! I used the half-and-half, but I'll have you know that there is now whipping cream in my fridge, sheesh) and put it on the muffins as they were just out of the oven so that the icing would melt immediately, making a glaze instead. I set them back in the oven for the icing/glaze to get a little crunch to it (and I didn’t want the muffins getting soggy). It worked!..with one set-back. Side story:

At home in Alabama, as with anywhere, Spring bounces into season and with it, a not-so-thin dusting of pollen. You suffer through the yellow coating on your car, your shoes, your porch, because there is no other option, and when the dusting has passed, you hose down all the things.  Whenever we hose down the back porch, the waterproofing causes the water to bead up on the planks of wood, and each liquid bead holds up this gross, thick film of yellow.

The muffins were so yummy and delicious with this slight crunch from the glaze on top, but the combination of colors of the yellow lemon muffin with the black/gray poppy seeds and the tan icing, had given the muffins this look like they were topped with that weird pollen-water from the back porch.

Ok, so they don't look that bad, but you're talking to a perfectionist here. I thought I’d just broil them a tiiiiiny bit longer to give the tops a toasty brown color to mask the yellow. 

And then I forgot about them.

Dinner starvation was creeping up on me. While cooking a delicious Niman Ranch Apple Gouda Sausage, those would-be adorable creations were getting quite black. I tried to mask the black with my mascarpone icing-glaze that had now gotten to be a weird mashed-potatoes consistency. 

I really gave up at this point, and I messaged my coworkers that they were going to eat a lot of burnt muffins in the morning. The mascarpone is really what burned, so the muffins below were fine. Nonetheless, this perfectionist apologized profusely to each coworker as they took one to eat it.

All of that being said, I promise to deliver inspiring kitchen stories at some point, but you have you start somewhere! I'll usually include recipes at the end of my posts, but I don't really feel like I have the right to instruct you on this one, so follow the links if you wish.

Thanks for reading!

A

A Big Move to Island Life

Oh, hi!

It has been far too long of a while since my last post. Remember when I ended by saying that I had "a busy couple of weeks coming up," and I wasn't sure when you'd next hear from me? Well, I wasn't kidding. Here's a really quick, get-up-to-speed rundown of events since Aug. 22 of 2013. 

• 8 days later :: I flew from Atlanta to Milwaukee, and finally let this wonderful guy steal my heart :) Sappy, I know, sorry...ish. Commencement of long distance relationship!
• 5 days later than that :: I flew to Grand Cayman and interviewed for a design job. 
• 4 days later :: I had the job...and then onset anxiety and stress because holy doodoo I was moving out of the country any day now.
• Two weeks passed and my best friends got married and there was a whole lot of "EVERYONE IS GROWING UP AND DISAPPEARING" running through my head.

I moved my things from Atlanta back home to Birmingham while awaiting Cayman Islands Immigration clearance (an absolute nightmare), and then I waited. And waited. And waited some more. 

"Good things come to those who wait." All I got were migraines. 

Finally, I became a resident of the Cayman Islands on Nov. 15 and started my new job 3 days later, and it's been busy! I've had a lot of visitors and then was spoiled to get to spend almost 3 months in the Caribbean with my guy :) I've probably logged at least 48 hours of snorkel time, and my freckles have multiplied (my tan, not so much -____- ).

      

I've also been taking a lot more pictures, mostly on the subject of food. Food is a big thing here, especially on Sundays.  Sundays become a weird brunch-ghost-town. Nothing is open except restaurants, and almost every restaurant on-island has a Sunday Brunch event where you eat fancy little things and drink bottomless mimosas, and then you go to bars and keep drinking to ensure hatred of yourself on Monday morning.  I can't keep up with all that.  I eat the fancy little things, usually at a table for one, and I photograph every single cup and plate. 
It started as an Instagram restaurant-journal-of-sorts, but then I needed more. I started actually READING my cookbooks. Seriously, follow along with your imagination here: hot Caribbean sun in the sky, waves crashing, toes in the sand, cookbook in hand << that dork is me (and sitting next to me is some hunky nerd tinkering with a million GoPro gadgets).
So, I'm learning how to properly roll dough and fold ingredients and pair flavors, and SOMETIMES I'm not EVEN using a recipe. I'm also around food all day at work (this is a terrible, terrible thing). Every time I think about buying something, Lemon Shortbread Cookies for instance, I decide that I'd like to learn how to bake them instead. My new motto :: BAKE, COOK, AND EAT ALL THE THINGS! or something like that.

So anyway, what do I plan to do with these new-found interests? I don't know. I know that I'm pretty dang good at taking pictures of food, and that my food is delicious, if I may toot my own horn. I'm still sketching clocks and doodads, though materials for prototyping are too expensive when you live on a speck of dirt in the ocean, and I'm still doing Frootshoots. To hopefully not sound super cheesy, you could say I'm still Designing Amanda. I'll make an effort to post more often, and we'll just have to see where that takes me! If you'd like to follow along in real-time, follow me on Instragram @amandapandamania and you can accuse me of eating too much and constantly making you hungry :)
I've got three tropical Frootshoots locked and loaded, but we'll save those for the next post. 

Stay tuned!
A

A Birthday Party

As promised long ago, here are the long-awaited pictures of baby Ward's 1st birthday.

  

There was a "red wagon" theme.  It was adorable.

Little ones were all over the place.

It was a big weekend of reunions and anniversaries as well.

Mom got all her decorations from an awesome Etsy shop.

Look at him just workin' that camera.

The big sister, runnin' the show with lollipop in-hand.

We had quite a little photo-shoot with the balloons.

What a cutey-patootie.

Baby blues   c:

And, of course, there was traditional, messy cake-smashing!

Until next time. And as always, thanks for reading,

A

Coming Soon :: A Birthday Party

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Portfolio, Photography and Resume|Bio tabs.]

This past weekend, before high-tailing it down to Auburn University for one last roll of The Oaks, I shot pictures for a cute little 1st birthday party.  Here is a little preview of my next post.

One of my previous shots of little Ward was used on this very well-designed invitation; I was so flattered! [For privacy, I had to butcher the invitation a little, but the general idea is there.]

This is the first time I've specifically taken pictures of little babies.  Let me tell you,  it makes for some ridiculously big smiles on my face while editing.  :)

Stay tuned for more in about a week!

A

Ounces and Cups and Spoons

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Design Portfolio, Photography or Resume/Bio tabs.]

April is here! Hopefully you all didn't fall for any ridiculously obvious April Fool's jokes. (I know I did :: Google Nose posting before US midnight - C'MON!)

Today's post is short an' sweet.  

I have seen a few graphically pleasing kitchen conversion charts, and decided to tweak one of my favorites to make it my own.  I call it "Ounces and Cups and Spoons."  Take a gander below, and let me know what you think!

As always, thanks for reading!

A

Fysh Eyewear :: A Product-Packaging Review

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Design Portfolio, Photography and Resume/Bio tabs.]

Way back in October, I needed new glasses.  My prescription had not been updated since 2008; driving had become scary.  I purchased my new glasses from a really cool UK-based company, Fysh.  My glasses are really modern and neat with their blue anodized aluminum frame and partially-frameless lenses, however, being the design nerd that I am, I absolutely raved about my glasses case.

First up, here are some detail shots of the the overall product. The case is lined with in-your-face, bright blue felt with an exterior of a soft, black raincoat-like material. As mentioned above, the frames are made with lightweight aluminum with even lighter plastic temples.  The temple-tips are easily adjustable (wire is visible), and the nose-pads correspond with the brand.

So, just what's so awesome about that case?  The Fysh glasses case can lay completely flat to allow for flat-pack shipment!  Why is this so beneficial?  Think of the wasted space inside that case when they are on their way from manufacturers. Ok, I'll just tell you. When they are not housing eye-wear, 18.75 cubic inches are wasted inside each case.  Now, just think how much money those manufacturers save in shipment simply because they are able to lay the cases one on top of another, packed tightly in a box. Mind-blowing, yeah? Yeah.

The two-dimensional case is made three-dimensional with a series flaps of that same in-your-face, bright blue felt. 

Overall, this packaging solution is really great.  It looks neat and modern, saves the manufacturer money in gas and boxing in shipment, and is just unique in a "Hey, look at my cool glasses case!" kind of way.  As someone who cringes when people don't recycle, my one complaint about the case is that it doesn't seem recyclable. I can't be sure unless I dissect it, but I believe that the felt is glued to the exterior.  If it isn't recyclable, it could be up-cycled for a new use. 

Check out their company website! 

Thanks for reading! 

A

A Bathroom Door

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Design Portfolio and Resume/Bio tabs.]

Good evening!  I hope you are all staying safe and dry on this rainy, gross day.

Today's blog post branched off of my Cafe Interior post from Saturday (below).  As I was picking out my cafe colors, textures and furnishings, I began to imagine what sort of a brand I would want throughout my cafe/shop.  Would it be a cute polka-dotted strategy of whimsy? A modern streamlined approach? Ponder, ponder. 

[If you are unfamiliar with exactly what branding means, here's a definition:
Creating a unique name and image for a product/company in the consumers' mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.]


For some reason, my mental journey of "branding" for the cafe started with the signage on the restroom doors.  I began to sketch different graphics, but this sketch-session strayed further from the cafe to more of a "what would this bathroom door say about the establishment?"-session.  

Here are my concepts, their applications and what kind of an establishment I think they may be seen in. [Click each to view larger.]


 




Modern Twist :: laser cut from stainless steel; mounted onto dark-stained wooden door. 

Where :: a trendy, modern office/studio or restaurant.

Unique/Artsy :: bright-colored decal applied to a funky door that has a bold pattern.

Where :: a hip local clothing store or cafe/coffee shop; comic book shop or record store.

Metaphoric :: sand-blasted (deep) on frosted glass window set in a dark-stained wooden door in a mood-lit bathroom hallway

Where :: classy lounge bar/restaurant

Whimsical :: wooden door; laser-cut bright-colored acrylic bows; face circles are set in the wood - stained a different color than the rest of the door.

Where :: a cafe/coffee shop/hangout where customers have wide-rimmed glasses, and dress like Zooey Deschanel.

Minimal :: laser-cut from numerous materials - metal, wood, plastic, etc.

Where :: an easy placement in many trendy places.

Realistic :: decal printed to contrast door color

Where :: classy spa/wellness center or gym; where there is focus on the body

Also, I love this branding experiment, and felt it was relevant. Click, and enjoy! 


Thanks for reading!
A


Source: www.businessdictionary.com (definition of branding)