Happy Birthday to MEEEE!!!!
And, incidentally, happy birthday week to Purple House Cafe!
Yup, I will have been cooking and writing and baking and typing and tweeting and facebooking and pinning from this little corner of the internet for a year on Thursday. So much has happened in a year. First of all, my photography got a bit better.
THEN:
NOW:
The biggest changes to my photos happened after I took an amazing food photography class from the talented food photographer and stylist Beth Dunham.
I became a member of Halifax Food Bloggers, and entered some cool contests where I got to make these doughnuts, some nachos, and some scones and jam.
I published 138 recipes. And recently, a lot of those have been originals.
I collaborated with Kelly Neil and Cait Redmand on this article in Eat In Eat Out Magazine. I also contributed a couple of original recipes to an ebook, coming out soon!
I started doing some food writing for Local Connections Halifax, beginning with a really fun article on Local Tasting Tours. And, of course, I guest blogged for Taste of Nova Scotia throughout the year. This afforded me the opportunity to attend all kinds of fun hullabaloos, including Halifax Gold Medal Plates:
I had some pretty popular posts, including these pumpkin spice latte popsicles that pretty much went viral:
For a while there I thought these lovely little ‘sicles were going to be the Mmmbop of Purple House Cafe – you know, the recipe that was incredibly popular and that, five years from now, I will be wishing I’d never created…
I met some pretty fab internet friends (and feel not-too-loserish for saying that I have internet friends), including Lan, at More Stomach, and Movita Beaucoup. I got to meet some of the bloggers whose recipes, photographs and writing I drool over too, like Bryan of The Bite House, and Nicholetta, whose brilliant blog, Pepper + Paint, you must check out.
And there’s some really exciting things on the horizon, too.
For one, I’ve been asked to be a regular contributor to The Creative Mama, a visually-stunning, photography and creativity-focused blog for likeminded mamas. I’m really excited to be a part of this team, and I hope you will all join me over there too!
There’s this other big project I’m working on too. It’s so exciting and terrifying and up-in-the-air and stuff-that-dreams-are-made-of that I really just can’t tell you what it is right now. But I will. Oh, I will.
For now, I hope you enjoy journeying through the coming year with me, starting with a solid week of celebratory recipes and round-ups!
Thank-you for reading, thank-you for commenting, and thank-you for coming back for more.
Congrats Jessie! Thanks for the shout out, pretty dramatic before and after shots there.
Haha, Beth, dramatic is certainly one way to put it! Thanks for your support…I still have your little voice in my head as I’m setting up shots and playing with props!
Um, now I feel lazy. You’ve done more in a year than I have since I started blogging in 2004. What a lovely little corner of the interwebs you have here!
Aaaaaaaaand now I have to rest on the couch. Just reading about your adventures has made me tired…
Wowee, Movita – you’ve been blogging since 2004? Holy crap. That’s a really long time. What’s changed for you over the years?
happy happy happy birthday! i hope you have great things planed the celebration of your birth.
as for your blog, congrats on one year! the food and blogging community is so wonderful, yes. the things we learn and share with each other is something i didn’t expect when i started.
Thanks Lan! I spent my birthday writing, snuggling my baby, opening gifts, and eating southern BBQ take-out. Could not have been better!
Congratulations on a glorious year Jesse! You deserve all of these accolades and more! Can’t wait to hear about the next chapter for Purple House Cafe! all the best! xoxo Nicholetta
Thanks Nic!
Happy birthday! And lovely Year of the Horse 2014.
Thanks Janet!
What a year! Congrats and Happy Birthday!
Thanks Clair! I’m so excited to be a part of The Creative Mama team in 2014!