Time for an installment of Weekend Things
This week’s installment has lots of tips, tricks, and food-for-thought for food bloggers, authors, or anyone in this space, or thinking about entering this space.
I didn’t plan it, but kept coming across great articles and posts that I think are spot on. And that made me chuckle and nod in agreement.
1. But first, Tori Spelling featured my Peanut Butter and Nutella Snack Mix on her site here. That was pretty cool!
2. She also pinned my Healthy Fudgy Brownie Bites (no-bake, vegan, GF, grain-free/Paleo, soy-free, no added sugar or salt) the day after I posted them. I was so flattered!
3. Lindsay’s 5 Time-Saving Tips for Food Photography – I found myself nodding in agreement to all, including her rant where she said props don’t make food photography, skills do:
{Soap box side note: I love props, but can I just say this? Don’t overdo it with collecting food prop stuff unless you are the White on Rice couple. When your photography is your livelihood and you are just generally that cool, you’re allowed. But for most of us, we simply do not need 29 styles of cake stands. In the Philippines I had a total of about 10 dishes, I swear, TEN, to work with all year. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. Props don’t make food photography – skills do. End rant.}
4. I guess I didn’t get the message about collecting props.
This is just a little of what I’ve accumulated after nearly 5 years of blogging and a shooting a couple cookbooks.
And there’s plenty more where that came from.
We haven’t even talked wood boards, linens and fabric, stemware, silver, platters, vintage pieces, vintage bakeware, it just goes on and on. I love dishes and hunting them down, the thrill of the hunt, is so much fun.
5. Russell is at it again, hitting the nail on the head with Kitchen Loiterers, part 3 to his Day in the Life of a Food Blogger series. Honest and hilarious, and spot on.
As much as I love my family, the minute I start a photo shoot, why does everyone suddenly need to be in the kitchen, open the fridge, get water, make a sandwich, or want a bite of something I just made when we have 17 dozen different flavors of cookies in the freezer that I could give them.
As food bloggers, our kitchens are our offices. Glad that I’m not the only one a little protective of my office as Russell pointed out.
6. How Food Stylists Make Food Look Delicious – A look inside their toolkits from Bounty Select-A-Size paper towels to tweezers for moving an errant sesame seed.
7. The Food Network UK featured 4 of my recipes in their Things to Make with Boxed Cake Mix story
8. Think you want to write a cookbook? Read this first. I was nodding in agreement to most of it. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows and fluffy Peanut Butter all the time.
It’s worth it in the end, but if you’ve ever wanted to write one, just make sure you go in eyes wide open. Like parenting, you can’t possibly know what you’ve really said yes to and what’s all involved until you’re there and in the thick of it, but the author compares birthing a baby to being easier than birthing a cookbook. I concur.
Here she details taking photos for the cookbook shoot. If your photography skills aren’t good enough shoot your own cookbook, the rate for 32 recipe shots was $16,000, payable by the cookbook author from their advance, to a photographer.
9. Jen’s post on 8 Things They Don’t Tell You When You Start a Food Blog – Everything from spending half your life on social media to needing to be able to understand the technical stuff, it’s all spot on. Like Jen, I thought that if you were a reasonably decent cook, and had recipes to share, that was enough. Wrong.
You better become a photographer overnight as well as learn computer programing if you want to make your blog something more than just a ‘hobby’ and be taken seriously.
10. We’re in the process of moving this weekend and my life has been insane. I have been living out of boxes for a couple weeks and am so ready for it to be done. I spent Thursday carting stuff over to the new place and Friday movers came for the big stuff. We moved all of 1.5 miles away, but whether you’re going one mile or 500, it doesn’t matter. It all has to get from Point A to Point B.
I will not sleep until everything is unpacked. I hope by Monday. Or Tuesday. And I love my new place already!
My posts are pre-cooked and pre-written so stay tuned for your regularly scheduled sugar fix while I unpack in the 90F heatwave. You won’t miss a beat while I sweat it out over here.
Thanks for entering the two giveaways going on: $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway and the Crock-Pot Hook Up Connectable Entertaining System Giveaway ($140 value)
What are your Weekend Things?
If you’ve made anything, done, seen, or bought anything fabulous recently, feel free to link it up in the comments.
If you’re a blogger, author, photographer, or wanna-be, feel free to share your tips, tricks, thoughts on anything you’ve learned along the way, things you wish you’d known, things that have really helped you, things you wish you didn’t ever come to know (like what HTML code is) or things you could do without, leave your wisdom below.
If you have thought about doing any of the said things but never have, what’s stopped you?
Enjoy your weekend!
Oh my gosh, I’d love to come over and have fun browsing all your fun props! Kudos to your mention from Tori…so awesome! I was a huge BH 90210 fan. :)
Thanks so much for mentioning me, Averie! I can’t wait to check out everything else you mentioned. I love Russell… everything he does is so fantastic! Good luck with your move!
good luck with the moving!! you are so right about the things they don’t tell you when you start a blog, so much more involved ;)
We’ve all been at it about the same amount of time and the things you learn as a blogger in 5 years will just make your head spin, won’t they! :) Stuff (both good and bad) that you could never see coming!
I love your Weekend Things! I hear you on moving–I am sure you are ready to be unpacked and in your new home…then you will feel relieved that the move is over! (that’s how I feel when I’m moving). Weekend things for me? Last night I had a date night with my husband and got some amazing sushi and then went to Tupelo Honey for pecan pie. #winningsohard :)
Not familiar with that restaurant Tupelo Honey but sushi and a date nite and pie all sound great!
Good luck moving and getting settled into your new place! Some day I will have a website to sell my jewelry. I stay busy with my career as a physical therapist, so turning my hobby into a part time business right now makes me nervous because I don’t want it to take over all my free time. (I still have to cook yummy things, get in some running mileage, practice my guitar, and sleep…..and spend some time with my husband)! I will probably be starting a semi retirement phase in my life in the next 5-7 years and would probably feel ready to do something then.
When I started blogging I didn’t intend for it to be an all-encompassing thing. I expected it to be a ‘hobby’ but as I quickly learned, it was all or nothing – so I gave it my all and never would have dreamt the twists & turns things have taken. It’s been a crazy and fun ride! And your guitar, jewelry as a hobby, day job as a PT, running, and your hubs, yes – that’s PLENTY. But as life changes in 5-7 yrs, nice to know there’s a plan B for things on the horizon! How wonderful!
Love your prop collection and good luck with the move! Now as a blogger, I have to say it is way harder than I anticipated. I thought I would love it and people would flock to it. But I don’t and they haven’t. I know that I don’t want to be a food blogger forever and I question whether I would want a cookbook or cooking show, I’d give it my all if given the opportunity though. I really never thought my life would be this complicated!
It’s always hard to predict what will happen when people start blogs or have blogs – there are some blogs I honestly don’t know why they’re wildly popular and every.thing.they.post has people flocking to it. And other blogs with people who can genuinely cook and are super creative but their blogs don’t get much attention. The ‘it factor’ is such a wild card!
I love al the food blogging links!! Headed to check those all out now and congrats on being featured on Tori Spelling’s site and Food network UK! That is awesome! Good luck with all the moving and unpacking! Still do not now how you get it all done with barely any sleep. You are a rockstar!
If I get 3-4 hours a night, I am happy lately. It won’t always be this way, but for now it is. And it’s fine! I’d rather be busy than not!
Good luck with your move, Averie!
Happy weekend, Averie! I have such admiration for the talented food bloggers like you. It really does take so many skills. My husband is my savior when it comes to the technical, coding, and design stuff- I wouldn’t have a blog without him!
Oh, and totally jealous of all your props- I’m always admiring your dishes in your pics :)
My husband is sooooo far from being able to help me with this stuff that my 6 yr old knows more :)
what a great list of weekend things. my props are probably the saddest of them all, all I have are a couple of white plates a few colored ones and then I use whatever I can get my hands on to fill in the blank spaces in the back of the picture haha. that’s totally awesome that Tori Spelling pinned your recipes
Thanks, Angie! Your photos always look yummy to me so it’s workin!
Such a big week. Good luck on your move. I have one coming up. We are packing this weekend.
Excellent and helpful post, Averie! Appreciate the links related to blogging and photography. Read each article. Also, read the post on the Toronto Star Cookbook and all the work that went into it as well as how the financial side works in publishing. Doesn’t surprise me a bit as I’ve read so much from Dianne Jacob (Will Write For Food). Anyone wanting to write a cookbook needs to be enlightened a bit as to the realities. Fab news about Tori featuring Averie Cooks! Good luck with your move, girl. Glad to know you are so happy with your new place! You’ll be settled in no time. Have a great weekend! xo
Dianne J and I worked together a few years ago and I’ve met her in person. Such a wonderful resource! And yes, being enlightened – so true! Most people think you just eat frosting all day long and then go write about what you made it with and do that 50 times and you have a book. Reality is just a wee bit different :)
Congrats on being featured by Tori Spelling. That’s exciting.
Man I need all the tips I can get! I am so not up with the HTML, web hosting and domain things…. I am so confused it is not funny…
I love Pinchofyum’s tips, I have already change my space and it is so much easier! Great links Averie!
Lindsay’s post was great and anything to make life easier, I am all for it!
Thanks a lot Averie, this post is going to be so helpful! And oh, your props collection, I’m so jealous ;-)
Have a great weekend & good luck with the move x
thanks!
Good luck with the moving! My weekend thing is the kcrw pie contest-I jut made two pies for the vegan category of which Moby is the head judge!
After all that stress I’m thinking I’ll deserve a drink;)