D*S book signing & Asheville

Libby, Jen and I made the trek to Asheville, NC for the Design*Sponge book signing, and boy, did we have fun.

 Grace was perfectly sweet and a joy to meet.

Her new book, Design*Sponge at Home, is a treasure trove of lovely design and great content.

Design Sponge at Home (Official Book Trailer) from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo.

Blurry photo, my eyes closed. 

"Cute!"  proclaims the picture-taking-bystander.

Before the signing, we spent a lovely afternoon wandering around Asheville, making sure to take in some sweets at The Chocolate Lounge...

... and sampling some amazing chips at The Gourmet Chip Company. 

Go there! And get the kettle chips with Belgian dark chocolate and the caramel dipping sauce. Or get the Parisan. Or the Americana. Or anything on the menu, 'cause it's all awesome.

It was a good day.

Food Photography

One of my goals for this year is to improve my food photography skills. I love my camera, but I mostly sit back and let it do the work without any clue what is going on or how to make things better.

This is where Hélène Dujardin's new book, Plate to Pixel, comes in. One look at her marvelous food blog, Tartlette, and it's clear she is a master of food photography. Besides creating scrumptious recipes, she styles and shoots them perfectly. I haven't had a chance to start reading the book yet, but if it helps me to gain even a smidge of her talent, I will be delighted.

Check out this lovely video about Plate to Pixel...


Plate to Pixel Promo Video from Taylor Mathis on Vimeo.

Also! PW announced a FREE online food photography class for this weekend by the fabulous Penny De Los Santos. Penny is a very experienced photojournalist for Nation Geographic. Here's a couple shots from her extensive portfolio...

The class will air this May 13 – 15, 2011 from 1:00 - 8:00 pm EST each day. It's free to watch live, just register here. (If you can't watch live but still want to see the class, you can order a DVD for a fee.) I'm so excited about this, I'm going to try and catch as much of the workshop as I can.

Gifts Given: Heather's Book

I wanted to post this separately, so I could properly show it off. Remember Heather's surprise birthday party? Part of the reason I hired Oliva to photograph it is so I could make a book with the images to give to Heather.

Here it is!

 I used photos of Heather with the girls, and included a note from each of them. I also included photos of the actual party time and some gorgeous images Olivia took of Heather with her beautiful baby belly. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and it's such a special gift to give.

I used Blurb for the book printing. Their BookSmart software was so easy to use, and I loved the flexibility of editing the page templates. The only slight issue I had was that the colors seemed to print a little hot. But other than that, I am completely happy with their service. I had a ton of fun making it, and the process was kind of addicting. I can't wait to make more photo books!

Harry

Come to the Doctor, Harry is a delightful story. But what really made me fall in love with the book are the illustrations. That little cat is too cute, prancing around holding his hurt tail!

Cory and I love children's books, and this was the perfect addition to our collection. Pick up a copy here for yourself or your child. If you don't have a child, give one to someone else's child!

And in case you were wondering who this cat is, his name is Little Harrell, and he is almost a perfect replica of our real live cat, Harrell Whittington. You will meet him eventually.