TVE's First Photo Shoot

Here are some of the pictures of the photo shoot yesterday! Tell me what you think!

Ann-Marie's Birthday!

Yesterday, July 16th was a very special day. It was Ann-Marie's (my roommates) 30th birthday!!! We had a small get together at our house. Julie (Ann-Marie's sister, my other roommate) planned the entire thing. She decided on a mexican fiesta theme. The house was decorated beautifully! For dinner we had chicken tacos, guacamole, salsa and chips, MARGARITAS, margarita pie (so good!) and my Tres Leche Cupcakes! I have never made them before, but they turned out great. I thought I would share with everyone the recipe because it is so delicious!

Tres Leche Cupcakes (translates into 3 milk cupcakes)

6 large eggs (separated)

¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup of sugar
½ cup of unsalted butter melted
1 cup of all purpose flour sifted

Milk Mixture:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Whipped Topping:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Whisk together egg whites, baking soda and salt until they form soft peaks.
Add yolks and sugar and whisk it until it is completely combined. Fold in the melted butter.
Add the flour in small batches and fold through until it is all combined. Divide batter evenly into lined muffin trays.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown (turn pans half way through).

After baking the cupcakes, poke several littles holes in the them with a toothpick. Mix together evaporated milk, condensed milk and heavy cream milk. Slowly pour mixture on top of the cupcakes until all the mixture is absorbed. (The best way is to pour one tablespoon on the cupcakes, let it soak in, pour another tablespoon over the cupcakes, let it soak in, and then pour another tablespoon over the cupcakes, repeat. FYI: It may take awhile for the mixture to soak in so it is best to make them the night before)

For the topping, whisk together whipping cream and confectioners sugar. Top cupcakes off with whipped cream and dust with cinnamon. Let them sit out 2 hrs before topping them with the whipped cream. Serve immediately and enjoy=)

Catalog Pictures

Here are some of the products pictures Molly and I took yesterday!

Photo Scenes

The past two days at work Molly and I have been working on the scenes/pictures for the catalog. On Wednesday, we drove all around Indianapolis looking for places to shoot some pictures. We have actually scheduled our photo shoot next week with Julia. We want to make sure everything runs smoothly, therefore we are scoping out the places beforehand where we think will be the best shots. Molly took several practice shots of the all the places so we could see what they would like. She wanted me in a lot of the pictures--just to see what it would be like with a person (of course they did not turn out so well---I'm not a photogenic person by any means lol).

We found some beautiful places in downtown Indy such as the James Witcomb Riley House and Lockerbie Street. Lockerbie Street is amazing---you don't really feel like your in downtown Indianapolis. It has cobblestone on the street and the trees curve inward, similar to what you would see in Savannah, GA. Many of the houses are very old with beautiful architecture. There are several old run down buildings, which is will be great for our catalog. Our concept is a beautiful dressed up model with an old vintage look in the background. The rough/pretty contrast I guess. Yesterday, we actually went back to downtown to take some pictures of just the products. We are trying to get this catalog finished by the first week in August. We do not want to waste time when we will be with Julia, therefore we decided to just go ahead and take somes pictures to get the ball rolling. I'm going to run to Cosco today to get some of the pictures printed---I'll post some of them later today!

Along with the pictures, Anne and I are still working on the pricing. I brought in my scale today to weight the products. We are trying to come up with an average at how much something will cost per pound. Once Anne comes in, we will continue to work on the pricing.

Pricing

With a new business comes along many trials and errors. Before I left for the weekend, Anne and I have been working on the pricing for the wholesale line. The line is not complete, however we do have a good start. As I have mentioned before, working with underdeveloped countries is a process. Trying to establish our mark up, rate of duty and shipping costs is a trial and error. It's hard to "guess" what the shipping will cost. The shipping depends on what is the in the box, the rate of duty, how much it weighs and the dimensions of the box. When your not entirely sure on how much the products will weigh or the dimensions of the box, it is difficult to establish a shipping cost.

There is about 10 or so items from our wholesale line that we need appoint a wholesale price. The first step is to figure out how much it costs to make the product. Then, we have to figure out the rate of duty (which is what I will be finishing up tomorrow.) Next, we have to figure in the shipping cost. As I previously mentioned, this will consist of some trial and error until we feel we have a good prediction. Anne has been sharing with me some detailed and imperative information about the business side of the store. It's funny because most the time when I ask how she got that number, her response is always, "I just guessed!" When running a new business and/or starting up a wholesale line, you have no previous numbers to go off of. Therefore, when constructing a cost calculation sheet many of the numbers are peer guesses, which will be altered and adjusted as time goes on.

Article

Please check out my article from Indystar.com!

http://newsfromyou.indystar.com/posts/thailand-mission-trip

Update

I just wanted to update everyone on how the fundraising is going. So far I have raised $420.00. only $2080.00 to go---Thanks again for everyone's support! xxoo

CarmelFest

This past Sunday and Monday were spent working at the annual Indiana Carmelfest. We had our booth in a great location, facing Ridgeline Rd. right by the big fountain. It was ungodly hot the both days I was there, just over 100 degrees with the humidity. Therefore, I was sweating profusely---not pretty. CarmelFest has all sorts of booths varying for arts and crafts, kids games, food and music. It wasn't as busy as we hoped. Compared to last year, we didn't make out that well. The festival seemed to be targeted more towards kids than anything else. If we decide to attend next year, hopefully it will be much busier.

Monday morning was the parade for the festival. I was able to join the Grannan family and watch it. I can't even remember the last time I watched a parade. Above is a picture of some of the group walking to the parade. It was really fun to be with my adopted family and enjoy what Indiana has to offer=)

Traverse City

Alright, there were 3 highlights to my trip in Traverse City:::

1. Morsels

Sarah List told me about this bakery awhile ago. We had written this down on our "Places to Visit" in Michigan, however we hadn't made it up there. I remembered when we were looking through all the T.C brochures in our hotel about this bakery called, Morsels. I figured out where it was and told my mom we had to go there.

Morsels bakery is unique in that all the treats are bite-sized. Their motto is, Too Bites, Too Good, Too Share. Cute right? And, ohhhh so true. All of their products are made from scratch, baked fresh and preservative free. They have all sorts of delicious flavors. We tried the Velvet and Satin (my new obsession), Ninja Turtle, Devil's in the Details and Rhapsody in Blueberry. We also had some of their coffee, which complimented the treats very well:)

Their website is: morselsbakery.com

2. Wine Tour

After our Morsels Bakery adventure, we decided to do the wine tour. We started at the end and made our way down the Old Mission Peninsula. I am a big wine fanatic and have never had the opportunity to do a wine tour, so I was very excited. The first winery we visited was 2Lads. This winery was just built in 2008, and actually ended up being my favorite winery that we visited. My mom and I really liked their Rose, which we ended up buying. It wasn't as sweet as most Roses'. Their website is also great, you can check it out at 2lwinery.com

My other favorite winery was Brys winery. This was a nicer winery, similar to 2Lads. Their Pinot Noir was incredible (of course we bought one)! It was one of the best Pinot Noir's I have ever tried. I believe it was around $25 or so. A little bit pricier, but worth every penny. Their website is, brysestate.com.

I enjoyed all of the wineries we visited, although these two really stuck out to me compared to the others. I would definitely recommend these two to anyone traveling to Traverse City!

3. Higher Grounds

Higher Grounds is one of the fair trade products we carry in the store. I remember looking at the package when we got the shipment in and seeing that it was from Traverse City. It took us awhile to find the place. It is actually located on the old Northern State Asylum (kinda creepy---my mom says she could feel them there haha oh rose). I had their Mocha Latte. They make their own syrup and whipped cream, so I just had to try it! I loved it there--I can't wait to go back and try something new. Oh...and they don't use paper, plastic or styrofoam. The above mug is what they gave me "to go". They take mug donations and use them as their cups, nice way to recycle old mugs huh?

Well, that's all I have time for right now. I need to be to my next job soon--lata folks.

Busy, busy, busy

Well, it's been over a week since I last posted. Life has been a little crazy…..kind of. Last week I had traveled back up to Michigan for a bachelorette party, but then traveled to Traverse City with my mom for a few days. I had a little bit of vacation so I took some time off of blogging, except now I feel so behind on all the things that have happened since then. Nothing really important, just things I think are fun to blog about (i.e. my food adventures).

I'm going to try and catch up with my blog and post about a few different topics. Hopefully, I can get them finished in the next hour because I have to run off to my second job. This may be new news to some. I decided that I needed a another job to generate some income. Living down in Indianapolis isn't cheap with all the restaurants, shopping and entertainment. Therefore, I thought if I had part-time job that I could explore more of the exciting things in Indy a bit.

So...I was hired by a restaurant/bar called, The Northside Social. It's a fairly new business to Broad Ripple. It is considered to be an upper class restaurant with great drinks and amazing dinner options. Seriously, the food looks phenomenal! More gourmetish food---I'm dying to try the Beer Brisket. Their website is still in the works. I'll post it as soon as it is done for you to check out! I kind of got side tracked for a second--but this is another reason why I've been slacking on my blogging. I worked there last night @ 4:30pm (after the store) and I have to work there again tonight at 6pm (I'm writing this while at work). After next week my schedule will have calmed down and I won't have as many to do's on my list. I'll be able to focus more on my blogging!

I'm going to end this post and start a new one about my trip in Traverse City--