10 BOOKS TO READ THIS FALL

Posted by kait / August 15, 2014

I always seem to have endless stack of books next to my bed. I’ve either got a mind that cannot be satiated by one or two good books per year or I have a serious book buying addiction. It is actually a combination between the two. I’ve always been a bit of a bookstore junkie and I can blame this trait completely on my book-loving parents. My Mom and Dad have always expressed the importance of a well-rounded home library and I’ve since curated my own to be a reflection of my personality and interests.

As much as I love a good used book (finding the previous owner’s margin notes are one of my favourite things about picking up a pre-loved book) there seems to be all sorts of amazing authors launching new books all of the time – essentially forcing me to add them to my Chapters shopping cart and wait patiently for that new book smell to arrive on my doorstep.

As my third trimester will be taking up the entire fall, I’m designating my spare time to spent indulging in some great new books as opposed to the Netflix marathons I’ve been subjecting myself to all summer. I’ve narrowed it down to a couple of different categories so I can keep things interesting in case non-fiction or fiction isn’t doing it for me 100% of the time. To be honest, I always have a couple of those books on my bedside table bookmarked or dog-eared – I am terrible for starting a new book before I’ve finished the last one.

My list is lengthy but a worthy one, full of precious literary gems (and some serious pop culture thrown in there for good measure) that will keep both you and I busy and away from the TV. Any books I should be adding to my stack? Please send me any recommendations! Like I said, I have an addiction, so please feed it!

Creative Block by Danielle Krysa (aka The Jealous Curator)

Rookie Yearbook Two by Tavi Gavinson

Creative Confidence by David and Tom Kelley

The Wes Anderson Collection by Matt Zoller Seitz

The Vacationers by Emma Straub

Friendship: A Novel by Emily Gould

One More Thing: Stories & Other Stories by BJ Novak

Sister Mother Husband Dog by Delia Ephron

The Mr Porter Paperback by Jeremy Langmead

Mastering the Art of French Eating by Ann Mah

COMING THIS FALL: Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

GET 10 CENT TO SHOOT YOUR PHOTO!

Posted by kait / April 16, 2014

My good friend Lori Andrews aka The 10 Cent Designer is offering up a sweet iPhonography session right now. Yes, that means she does a professional shoot with you – using her iPhone! The deal is pretty sweet – $125.00! You get a full hour of her time (including in-phone editing) at her home studio. The photos are emailed or texted the same day. These are great photos perfect for personal use or for your professional work like a LinkedIn profile pic. Makeup artist is available for an extra free with notice. And Lori will give you wardrobe, set design and props advice in advance of the session at no charge. She can also upgrade you to professionally photoshopped images for a small fee (i.e. pimple be gone!).

She is starting to book up but still has room for more shoots. At only $125.00, you’ll get amazing photos – check out mine above! Send her a note and get shot by the 10 Cent too!

6 BEST RESOURCES FOR CREATIVES

Posted by kait / February 25, 2014

Just like having a kid, there is no one manual or guide for starting your own freelance business. This can be incredibly daunting to anyone considering making the big move to pursue their work full-time, especially for folks who are incessant planners. If you are like me and you just jumped into freelance life with both feet and not much planning, you probably found that you had to get organized – and quick! Luckily, if you are like me and you are just getting started in the world of freelancing I have already done some of the legwork for you. I have pulled together my top six tools or resources that I use that make my life THAT much easier. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.

FreshBooks: Math isn’t my strongest suit so I quickly found out that trying to do my own accounting via Excel spreadsheets wasn’t going to work for me. I came across an ad for Freshbooks on the Swiss Miss site, did a little bit of research and realized that it was a Canadian company. I signed up for the free trial and the rest is history. It is by far the most intuitive cloud-based software I have ever used. I send all of my invoices and estimates through it, track GST and report on income. It tells me when my clients log-in to check the invoices which means no more invoices getting lost in inboxes. I can even track my monthly business expenses! Let’s just say, it makes tax season a lot easier for me.

unsplash: Writing takes a lot of my daylight hours so I don’t always get to go out and shoot as many photos as I would like to. unsplash saves the day when I need a compelling (yet vague) photograph to use for an upcoming blog post. Basically, a small database of GREAT images that you can use for whatever you want, for free. The photo above? From unsplash. Not only will you save a bit of money from buying stock images, you’ll have a fantastic image to go with your words.

Stocksy: In some cases, however, stock photography is an absolute godsend! I was so happy when Stocksy launched last year. Curated with only the best photographers in mind, this stock photography site weeds out the crap that many other sites leave in. What you are left with is stunning images that will only enhance your storytelling.

Contently: I am totally new to Contently but I am already quite happy with it’s easy to use format and visual representation of a writer’s CV. It quickly aggregates any online content you’ve written which you can then edit down to your best work. You can also add PDFs of publications that are not online – making it easy to show what you are all about in one link. I love seeing how it tallies up the social shares as well – great to see ways you can improve on your numbers.

Adobe Creative Cloud: The Creative Cloud is kind of a lifesaver for anyone who needs to use the Adobe Creative Suite for work. I use Photoshop and Illustrator on the daily so being able to access all of my files and any of the programs anywhere/anytime is a massive convenience for me. It works on a subscription basis meaning you pay a monthly fee to use the service as opposed to shelling out thousands of dollars for the full creative suite software. The best part is? When the programs update you don’t have to worry about buying an upgrade – it is all included in your membership.

Skillshare: Continuous education is the best way to keep your ideas fresh and your mind youthful. While going back to school full-time might not be for everyone, there are so many ways you can pick up new skills or improve on existing ones whenever you have time. My favourite resource is Skillshare. I have recently taken writing and social media classes on there, amongst other fantastic workshops. The greatest part? Most classes are under $20 making it super affordable to learn something new.

photo via unsplash

100 Scoopsies

Posted by kait / February 20, 2014

I am so excited to share a super yummy ice cream recipe (hello, white chocolate raspberry lavender?!) + Q&A with Chloe Jankowitz, the writer and ice cream queen behind the 100 Scoopsies blog. I loved reading through challenge of creating 100 original ice cream recipes in only a year. Everything looks absolutely delicious! It is so inspiring to see her create such masterpieces and I cannot wait to see what she does next! Summer is coming so get scoopin’.

White Chocolate Raspberry Lavender Ice Cream – (yields 1 quart)

White Chocolate Lavender Base:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbl dried lavender
3 egg yolks
8 oz. white chocolate, finely chopped

Raspberry Swirl:
1/2 cup raspberry puree
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp vodka

Directions:

1. Combine milk, cream, sugar and lavender in a saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir frequently until mixture simmers.
2. In the meantime whisk egg yolks in a medium sized bowl.
3. When the cream and milk mixture starts to simmer, take about 1/8 cup of the batter and pour it into the bowl with the egg yolks to warm them up. Whisk quickly. Slowly add a few more spoonfuls of the heated mixture to the egg yolks, whisking the entire time.
4. Pour the heated egg yolks into the rest of the cream and milk batter and continue to stir. Remove from heat.
5. Add in finely chopped white chocolate pieces and stir until the batter is smooth and thick.
6. Let the batter cool to room temperature and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least eight hours.
7. To make the raspberry swirl: mash up raspberries with a fork or a whisk in a small bowl. Don’t crush the raspberries completely–leave a few bigger chunks! Pour in the sugar and vodka and mix thoroughly. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
8. When the base has chilled for at least eight hours, take it out of the fridge, pour it into your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions.
9. Take a container and put in a layer of the freshly churned ice cream. Put a layer of the raspberry swirl on top. Continue layering the ice cream and raspberry swirl until you’ve used all of the ice cream.
10. Bon appetit!

Chloe, tell me a bit about what you do.

I run a blog called “Scoopsies.” I just finished a challenge to make 100 ice cream flavors in a year and now I’m working on launching a homemade ice cream brand in Boston, MA. I’m always coming out with new ice cream flavors–the possibilities are endless!

When/why did you decide to follow your dream and do this ice cream challenge?

Soon after I bought my first ice cream maker, I was feeling a little unfulfilled making flavors every so often. I knew I eventually wanted to open up my own ice cream shop one day, but I had so much to learn. So I thought up a challenge that would allow me to experiment like crazy over the course of one year. That’s how “100 Scoopsies” came about!

What is your favourite place to get inspired for new flavours?

More than anything, I love frequenting the loose herb and spice section at the “Naturals” store around the corner from my house. That’s actually where I got the idea to make the White Chocolate Raspberry Lavender flavour.

What city have you travelled to that has inspired you exponentially?

I have to say Paris! I love that there are desserts everywhere you go in the city. Crêpe carts, gelato shops, pastries in every window–that’s the way it should be in every city. Just thinking about Paris makes me want to bake all day!

What is your favourite way to spend a Saturday?

I love spending my Saturday afternoons alone, with a cup of black coffee, music, and my beloved ice cream machine!

Where can people follow you?

You can follow along on the journey at: www.100scoopsies.com! My Instagram () is updated every day with scrumptious ice cream photos, as is my Facebook: . I also share flavors and take suggestions through my Twitter ().

photos via Chloe Jankowitz

WORK LIFE: THE SWEET ESCAPE

Posted by kait / February 12, 2014

Sharing a bit of love today for one of my sidebar sponsors, Melissa DiRenzo of the blog, The Sweet Escape and blogger workshop series, Happy Blogger Studio. Hailing from Toronto, Ontario, she is a multi-faceted creative that is working hard to foster a sense of community amongst Toronto’s design bloggers. I almost met Melissa in real life in San Francisco last summer when we both attended Alt Summit SF. I was asking one of the keynote speakers whether he thought you could stay in Canada and be successful as a blogger or not, and Melissa hollered out “Yay, Canada!”. I never found her that day but I made sure to track her down on social media! Excited to share this little Q&A with her about inspiring other bloggers, working for herself and travelling the world!

Tell me a bit about what you do.

Sometimes I wish this was a simpler answer, it would be easier at parties. I’m a art director, graphic designer, blogger & dabbling stylist. I currently take freelance jobs in all these areas as well as use all these skills and more to run my blog, www.thesweetescape.ca, which is updated 5 days a week.

When/why did you decide to follow your dream and go freelance?

I started the blog just under a year ago and took the leap of faith 6 months ago. It definitely wasn’t an easy decision. I was earning a great salary, had full benefits, 5 weeks vacation and rarely worked past 5pm. But the reality was that I was extremely unhappy (and unhealthy) and I knew there was no opportunity for change or growth in that role. I have tiny moments where I miss some of those positive elements but have never regretted the decision. Ironically I am working wayyyyy harder than I did even though I’m not making even a fraction of the income.

What is your favourite place to get inspired in Toronto?

I love Toronto. If you live here long enough and really get to know the neighbourhoods, I guarantee you’ll fall in love with at least a couple of them. It’s no coincidence that after almost 15 years of living here I now live in one of my favourite areas, Kensington Market. It’s really a unique little pocket in the city. It’s full of character and characters. There’s lots of coffee shops & restaurants, a ton of vintage shops, great food and the streets are busting with eclectic arts & music in the summer. Every Sunday from May – September they close the streets to cars so it’s a real pedestrian market.

What city have you travelled to that has inspired you exponentially?

This is tough because I’ve done a bunch of traveling (24 countries and counting!) but I can think of three cities that had this creative ‘vibe’ that just really inspired me and I could envision myself living there. Amsterdam for the classy-cool factor, New York for it’s creative buzz, and San Francisco for it’s creative and entrepreneurial “anything is possible” vibe.

What is your favourite way to spend a Saturday in Toronto?

I don’t have routines, it’s just not in my DNA so there’s no such thing as a typical Saturday for me. But I would say one of my favourite activities is to go hunting for treasures, either garage sales, vintage shops or even the odd estate sale. It’s a bit of an addiction.

What is Happy Blogger? How can people get involved?

The Happy Blogger studio is a side project I started to give bloggers or creative small biz owners who manage their own websites/blogs the creative skills (think photography, design, styling, etc) to make their sites look beautiful & professional. Being a designer puts me at an advantage in that department but not everyone has those skills. They have great ideas but may struggle to bring them to life visually. We just had our first successful photography workshop and I really felt great about people walking away feeling way more comfortable with their DSLR cameras.

We really want to offer workshops that people want and would love any feedback – even if you don’t live in Toronto. We would be super grateful if you took a few minutes to fill out this short survey and if you are in Toronto you can get a discount promo code for your next Happy Blogger studio workshop.

Where can people follow you?

You can follow our website, www.HappyBloggerStudio.com, or check in on () or or if you’re not really active on social media you can sign up for our newsletter for updates on upcoming workshops.