Photography inspiration - Krista Keltanen

You may be aware that I am an avid but very amateur (ie I just wing it and have had no formal training - yet) photographer. I am in the early stages of learning about the craft that is photography, and am inspired every day by beautiful images. One photographer who has caught my attention is the very talented Finnish photographer Krista Keltanen. Oh my stars, just look at her dreamy photos!

{Images courtesy of Krista Keltanen}

You can find more of Krista's beautiful images on her website and blog, and you can follow her on Facebook. For your daily glimpse of whimsy I suggest you head on over there, stat! 

Sidewalk escape

Upside down mushroom tart

I am so very fortunate, I get to manage the social media for a small business that I adore. The Lettuce Shop are purveyors of fresh fruit and veg, delivering quality local and Australian produce to appreciative foodies of Perth. As part of my very fortunate role I get to take photos of food. Photos. Food. Match made in foodie heaven.

On the weekend I decided to try an upside down mushroom tart as featured here, with the intention of sharing it in this week’s newsletter for The Lettuce Shop’s customers. It was so good I just HAD to share it here. You’re welcome.

Ingredients:

1 tbs olive oil

1 leek, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

8 large button mushrooms, stalks cut

6 sprigs thyme

100g soft goats cheese

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed

Wild rocket to serve

Preheat oven at 200C. Heat oil in a medium sized ovenproof frying pan over medium heat. Fry leek and garlic for 3 minutes until soft. Add thyme and mushrooms stalk side down, cook for a further 5 minutes.

Cut both pastry sheets into a circle shape big enough to cover the contents of the frying pan. Stick both sheets together, spread half of the goats cheese over one side of the pastry.

Remove frying pan from heat, place pastry sheets, cheese side down, over the top of the mushroom/leek mix in the pan, tuck edges under to resemble a pie. Transfer the pan into the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden in colour and puffy. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes.

Place a board or pizza peel over the top of the pan and invert, turning the tart upside down on the board. Crumble the remaining goats cheese over the top and garnish with rocket. Season with pepper and serve.

Gorgeous served with salad. 

Self-love soiree - photography love

Whenever I talk about self-love I often mention that the act of self-love does not necessarily involve material things. It is my belief that self-love is more about taking responsibility for yourself and making time to do things that bring you most joy, rather than spoiling yourself with material possessions. Although I do know acquiring material possessions can also bring one joy.

A lot of girls I know get very excited about shopping trips. I personally don’t get my kicks from clothes shopping, in fact I loathe it. I hate the time it takes and I hate being stuck inside a mall when I could be outside enjoying the fresh air. I also hate the idea of having to try stuff on, for me it is more a time-wasting chore that I avoid. I do however find joy in grocery shopping – I look forward to my Saturday morning supermarket aisle time. I think it is more about the way I spend it not rushing and can just be alone with my thoughts and my shopping trolley. Odd I know.

A material possession which brings me great joy however is my camera. I find myself propelled into a happy space when I am behind the lens, for me it is a wonderful outlet for my creative side. I can spend hours, literally hours, setting up props and tweaking the lighting to take photos of food. Putting aside tasks and chores to spend an entire Sunday morning taking photos is my little bit of self-love. And one I thoroughly enjoyed this week.

I decided, after many months of deliberation, that I would spoil myself and get my hands on a macro lens. I knew it would make my photos pop, but I had no idea just how much. I am still in the very, very early learning stages of photography, I need many lessons and experience yet to be anywhere near ‘good’ enough in a technical sense, but I love the way it transforms me into creative me. I was anxious about spending money on a new lens, I know this hobby could get very expensive. But I used the excuse that it is my birthday this week. And so the guilt of spending that money on a lens gradually diminished. And then the first (unedited) photos propelled me into self-love bliss.

Sometimes I need to remind myself that splurging on something that isn’t necessarily ‘useful’ but more something I ‘want’ is okay. My husband and I are both very focused on paying bills and reducing debt, mostly what we earn goes towards our mortgage and practical things for our home. We drive very old cars as we’re reluctant to commit to car finance. In some ways I am proud of that, but very occasionally I need to remind myself that we work our butts off and we deserve to spend on ourselves too. So this week I did.

And damn it feels good.

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And so another linky for my self-love lovers. It's super easy - do something wonderful for yourself and write about it. Or group some photos of small moments that have brought you joy this week, whatever has made you smile. Add my button (code is below) to your post and pop your link in below. Then head on over and check out another self-love lover and share in their joy. Let's spread the smiles!

<a href="http://cakecrumbsbeachsand.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g384/cakecrumbsbeachsand/Selflovebutton-3.jpg " border="0" alt="cake crumbs and beach sand" /></a>

High Tea at Koko Black

Today my favourite girls and I went to high tea at Koko Black in Claremont. If you live in Perth and like chocolate, I suggest you get yourself down there STAT!

You're welcome.

My new Tuesday

Last week I mentioned that I have reduced my working week from five days to four and a half days. I love it. Not only do I get to drive my son around in the morning to and from his school program, I get two hours to do with what I please. And I have decided to use those two very much appreciated spare hours wisely. Thank you Self-love. "You're welcome" says Self-love, "you deserve it."   

A lovely little lass recommended I try the Pickled Fig Cafe in South Fremantle as it is minutes away from the school. With two hours spare I thought why not. As I was sitting at the Pickled Fig this morning, laptop within reach, camera in hand, I decided this might just be the way I spend my Tuesday mornings for awhile. 

I'd already had breakfast at home but I went for the Eggs Benedict (my favourite) - poached free range eggs, smoked salmon, spinach, cassalinga and tangy hollandaise. And a very good cup of coffee. Very good. I may just have to visit there again next week, just to see if the coffee was really that good.

I have to say I was very impressed with South Beach too. I am a tad biased when it comes to our beaches, my heart is devoted to Cottesloe Beach. I haven’t seen a beach as beautiful even in Broome or Thailand. Big call I know, but the soft white sand and beautifully clean, clear water at Cottesloe is truly breathtaking in my opinion. We’ve been frequenting Cottesloe for a good decade (actually I used to spend my summers there as a teenager), we clock up many hours on the sand come summer, and yet I still swoon over its beauty. We don’t venture further up the coast to any other beaches as we're happy with Cott as our stomping ground. I didn’t walk down onto the sand at South Beach but from where I was standing it looked very serene. There is a dog beach there too, I saw many wet doggies trotting around smiling, it was a very peaceful environment.

So this is what some folks who don’t work on Tuesday mornings do. I like it.