A Gingerbread Village

When it comes to Christmas time one of my favourite things to do is make a Gingerbread house. You can see last years 'Stitched up' house here and two other houses I made here. Each year I like to try something a little different. This year I went a step further and made an entire gingerbread street. Although you could argue that this is actually a much easier approach because it skips the 'construction' step which is where most people fail.



Each 'house' is decorated with piped royal icing, silver ball and some holly and berry sprinkles. I like to go with the flow once I start piping and each house is a little different to the one before. Once I had piped each house we displayed them on a shelf in the living room. We are planning to redecorate in the living room any way next year so I took everything off a shelf and spray painted it white (this again is something I was going to do any way, I wouldn't repaint furniture just for a gingerbread house, I'm not THAT crazy.) It made the perfect setting for the scene.

The ginger bread houses on their own were really cute but I decided to add some colour with the paper trees. Then I thought I'd go all out and made the snowflake and pom pom garlands to make it a perfect white Christmas. It's a great addition to the Christmas decor and hardly cost me anything, we had the ingredients int he cupboards already, I used yarn and paper we already had for the garlands and even the spray paint had been sitting around waiting to paint these shelves for about a year. The only thing I bought was the holly and berry decorations. Bargain.

Now I know I said that I would share last week some capsule wardrobe outfit ideas but I came across 2 problems with this. Firstly I was distracted by all the christmas activity going on and I would be lying if I said this gingerbread street wasn't part of that. Secondly when I was writing the post it was really boring. I mean so boring I didn't even know what to say. Nobody wants to read boring blogs so I decided to give up on that post idea. I will be writing more about capsule wardrobes in the new year but for now I will just be doing a couple of christmassy posts and taking it easy for a few weeks.

I hope you're starting to feel the good Christmassy vibes too. Do you do a gingerbread house? I'd love to see. Zoe xx

Tadpegs Birthday!

Happy Birthday Tadpegs!  Today marks the one year anniversary of my very first post. I know that I am probably the only person who is particularly excited about this birthday but you can celebrate along with me but drooling over this pavlova. Nom Nom Nom. My first post included a pavlova picture so I thought it would be an appropriate birthday treat.

I have loved my first year in the blogging world and I have learnt so much! I will share with you my lessons from my first year another time in case you're thinking about starting a blog. I have also learnt so much about so many different crafts. Photography, sewing, crochet, baking and others.

This year has also shown me that my real passion when it comes to craft lies in sewing. Slowly over the last twelve months the focus of this blog has shifted towards being a sewing blog rather than a general handmade blog. From now on you will probably see even more of a focus on sewing. My intention is to have a sewing focus with occasional other posts about topics that also help create a handmade life.

Another thing I need to tell you all is that Cassie has decided to stop writing regularly for Tadpegs (insert sad face here). I love her recipes and I know readers do too but Cassie wants to focus on other things instead of writing. She has a few posts she had been planning for a while that you will see so make sure you come back for those.

One year in to my blogging adventure has left me just as keen we when I first started, I won't be stopping just yet. Keep your eyes pealed for the start of sewing school soon. Now I'm off to eat some pavlova. Zoe xx

P.S For this pavlova I used Jamie Olivers pavlova recipe for my mirangue but halved the quantities, it is foolproof and delicious. The just whipped the cream and added the fruit. x

6 Tips for Taking Scrumptious Food Photos

Do you take photos of food? Once upon a time I would have thought you were mad if you photographed your food. Since starting this blog and joining instagram I have seen the light. Getting good photographs of food is now not only fun but its quite important for me, there isn't much point sharing a recipe if the photos of the final meal (or more likely cake) don't look scrumptious. Here are my tips for improving your food photos:

Find The Light

As with any photography you will get the best photos if you take your photos in natural light. Turn the flash off your camera, place your plate near a window during the day (or even go outside) and then take your photo. If you normally eat later in the evening then you will have to decide if a good photo or hot food is more important!

Think About the Whole Photo

The last thing you want in the background of your photo is the mess you made in the kitchen when cooking. You need to think about everything that is in the photo. Clear your worktop, pop your food on a different clean table or even use a makeshift background that isn't going to distract from your scrummy make. It can add interest to the photo if you pop something pretty in the background but its important not to over clutter it, practice at this until you find a good balance.

Have a Look at Other Photos

Obviously it't not a good idea to copy someone else's idea exactly but you can study what you like about other peoples work. Pinterest is a great place to browse other photos, think about which photos your eyes are drawn to and which photos make you want to eat their food. Then look at the photos which aren't so great and what mistakes you think they have made and learn from it.

Choose a Shallow Depth Of Field

Since learning about aperture I am a little obsessed with choosing a shallow depth of field. If you haven't already read it, see my post on aperture to learn what I mean. Choose a small f-stop number to achieve this effect. Focus your camera on the most delicious looking part of your food and let the rest blur and even you will start drooling over the results.

Photograph Your Ingredients

Sometimes it's fun to line up your ingredients and take a photograph of that. It comes in handy when you want to share a recipe but also looks cute and can be artistic. This looks particularly effective if your ingredients have interesting colours like citrus fruit.

Eat Some!

Food looks more eatable if you can see that someone else has enjoyed it or is enjoying it. Stick your fork it, take a bite and then snap away again. Similarly make it look appetising by add your favourite garnish or drizzling it with oil. Snap some before and some after just in case you prefer the before ones though!

So what are you waiting for? Get in your kitchen, bake something yummy and then take a photograph that looks just as delicious. Zoe x

PS most of these photographs are form recipes we have shared on Tadpegs so if they're making you hungry have a look at our food section to find out how to make your own. x