Hasta La Ideas

The weekend before the last saw baking and photography dynamite, Elodie Bellegarde, teaching our Cook.Bake.Shoot Bloesem class on food styling and photography and here's a quick recap of how the class went! 

Both classes on saturday and sunday began bright and early at 9.30 am and all the students were rearing to go, of course after they had their morning boost of coffee or tea. Elodie began with the basics and everything you need to know when getting into food styling and photography. Students picked up the tricks of the trade, simplest tools you never knew about that makes life a whole lot easier and pictures and food look way more beautiful.

Of course since it was a food styling and photography class, our catering had to look nothing less than amazing and our caterer, Siny, definitely rose to the occasion and did not disappoint. For a mid-class snack we all sipped on fruity smoothies and lunch was a beautiful platter that included quiche, beetroot and goat cheese as well as a tuna salad on crackers.

Well, we could not be spending the whole class eating, though all the class materials looked so yummy it was hard to resist. After Elodie explained the basics, it was time for the students to try their hands at food styling and photography and we have to say everyone did so well! The pictures that came out were wayyy beyond expectation. If you are interested, have a look at the hashtag #bloesemclass on instagram, you can find some of our student's amazing works there.

Other than a goodybag, students left with a booklet with all the important details they picked up during class. Very handy and great for class revision and post class practices.

One thing we noticed is that props were very important in achieving a certain mood and look to the pictures and Elodie was well equipped with a wide selection to choose from, all from her own collection. Woah! 

Of course we could not let our new friends leave without getting connected on instagram. Overall, it was a great weekend, I mean how could it have not been with all that good food. We definitely picked up a few things from Elodie and can't wait to give our new skills a go. Here's a pre-apology to friends and family who are going to have to wait while we take pictures of the food before we can actually eat it.

If you think the class looks fun, maybe you can join us at one of our up coming classes! Have a look at what's coming up here. 

Dear All…

You will just have to bear with me while you read through this somewhat lengthy post…, yes, you are right, quite out of character for me to be this longwinded…but there is so much to tell! Where to start…

Often people ask me how it is even possible to make a living writing a blog and I see their jaws drop when I tell them I am actually writing two blogs … what, how, wait, how do you do that?

Well, I could give you some hints and tips but I feel these questions should really be answered by someone that I believe has truly made it BIG online.

So I invited Erin Loechner who you will know from design for mankind, design for minikind and Clementine Daily to come to Singapore and host a number of Bloesem Classes. And the enthusiastic person she is, she immediately said YES!

Of course, I was thrilled Erin accepted the invitation to come to Asia with her family. It is absolutely fabulous to finally meet her in person; something I have been looking forward to professionally but also to finally meet a very good on-line friend.

Erin and I go way back to 2006 when we first made contact online and we had an instant connection… we exchanged blog posts, sharing the same interests for crafts and arts. Connecting, sharing and making the world we live in smaller was and remains our passion.

Erin is known not only for her blogs but also for the way she communicates with her readers and fellow bloggers… every single email she writes is positive, uplifting and friendly…perhaps this is “Lesson 1” when you want to be succesful online 🙂

But I’m sure there is so much more we can learn from her! Erin is a highly sought-after conference speaker and her appearances at Alt Summit, Richie Ace Camps and The Hive, have inspired many already and encouraged people to start online ventures of their own. BUT with this Bloesem Class you will get the very rare opportunity to meet Erin in a small group of people, not a big conference but an intimate gathering instead, where all of you will be sitting front row, listening, asking questions, absorbing and, simply, talking to this amazing lady!

I'm absolutely sure you will be mesmerized by her appearance, her words and ideas …just to give you a little hint of Erin’s own on-line journey…according to her:

"In 2001, I blogged to find myself.
In 2002, I blogged to find people like myself.
In 2003, I blogged to find people unlike myself.
In 2004, I blogged to become a writer.
In 2005, I blogged to avoid therapy.
In 2006, I blogged to research.
In 2007, I blogged because I was obsessed.
In 2008, I blogged to share.
In 2009, I blogged to hide.
In 2010, I blogged to create.
In 2011, I blogged to teach.
In 2012, I am blogging to discover.
In 2013, I traveled the world"

And in 2014…  she is coming to Singapore! So mark your calendar for the week starting [insert] May. Erin will be hosting two different type of classes :

BLOG, BETTER, BEST! THE SECRETS TO BLOGGING SUCCESS BY ERIN LOECHNER

– OR – 

ONE STOP #SOCIALMEDIACLASS BY ERIN LOECHNER

visit the links and find all the details, dates and how to sign up

Erin will be sharing with us her secrets on how to grow an audience, engaging a community and building traffic to your corner of the Internet; if you live on-line, want to start on an on-line venture or just have an interest to learn about the on-line world, you don’t want to miss this opportunity and sign up right away! (or if you don’t live in Singapore but in a neighboring country and don’t want to miss Erin’s classes, please let us help you find a hotel or a place to sleep!).

As said, we only have limited seats available for these classes and we expect demand to be great!
And of course, Bloesem will make sure the ambiance, the food and all other goodies are going to be top notch too!

{'choose to be content' artwork by Samantha Hahn} 

ps. to be honest, while I know Erin is going to be teaching us blogging and online world, I might just throw in a few questions about fashion and style too … isn't she the coolest girl in town!!

And, finally, she is not coming alone … she is bringing her talented husband… yes, Bloesem Class is indeed very lucky to have Ken, an Emmy-award winning filmmaker, and he will be teaching what? Well… we will tell you more about his Bloesem Class tomorrow in a new post.

.. Clementine Daily 
..  design for mankind 
.. design for minikind 

Bloesem Class: BLOG, BETTER, BEST! THE SECRETS TO BLOGGING SUCCESS BY ERIN LOECHNER
Bloesem Class: ONE STOP #SOCIALMEDIACLASS BY ERIN LOECHNER

Thank you Nathan Michael and Kit This for the images!

*New Bloesem Class: Screen Printing with Lisette Scheers

You have all heard of screen printing. It's the beautiful process and printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image * thank you wikipedia*. Basically it's the patterned pieces we see everywhere, from art prints to t-shirts to pillow cases. 

We have been long time admirers of the process and would love to learn the skill ourselves so we invited Lisette Scheers, wonderfully talented lady and business woman behind Nala designs.  (many of you would have seen her stationery products in the Bloesem shop). She also has her own design and advertising company, L.Inc! How does she do it?

We can't wait to get our hands on the paints and get our favorite prints on all kinds of products! Students are urged to bring in cloth items they would like to print their patterns on.

Though in this class, we will be printing on cloth, Lisette will be teaching us the basics of screen printing which can be applied to many other materials including paper, so not to worry!

Due to the overwhelming responses from the first 2 Bloesem classes, we have opened 4 screen printing classes. 2 on Saturday 17 may at 9.30am to 1pm and 2.30pm to 6pm, and 2 on Sunday 18 may at 9,30 am to 1pm and 2.30pm to 6pm. Each student only attends one class, choosing whichever time slot they prefer. For all other details about the class, do check out Bloesem.co! We hope to see you there! 

 Inside Lisette's studio, you can see all the beautiful patterned products she has designed. As well as the tote bag (pictured below), very chic and practical, even comes with a matching pouch!

Class catering: For every Bloesem class, quality catering has become a priority, because we know good food is definitely part of a complete and good class experience. So look forward to more yummies in the screen printing class too!

 .. Sign up for Screen printing class here

It's been a very rewarding two weeks here at Bloesem's Creative Studio. We kicked off with our very first Bloesem Classes! ABC's of Calligraphy and Decorate like a Pro and after 5 days of workshops we are more convinced that inviting international teachers to Singapore is what we LOVE to do. It is so much fun to learn from these experts in totally different fields and getting to know so many interesting and friendly students from Asia.

Today we would like to share some highlights of the ABC's of Calligraphy, with the wonderful Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls. It truly feels like the first step of an amazing journey. We couldn't have asked for a better way to start off this new Bloesem venture!

Maybelle came to us after spending a few days teaching in Japan. We are lucky that Maybelle is a very experienced teacher. We definitely picked up a few things while watching her during the class itself. 

Her impressive calligraphy portfolio is enviable … wedding invites for stars, projects for Martha Stewart's magazine, have all been checked off Maybelle's to-do list. We got a glimpse of her projects which she talked briefly about during the class. Our favorite was one of her first projects for Martha Stewart, a beautiful map for her magazine editor's wedding. Maybelle shows us calligraphy is more than just pretty writing for wedding invites, she even had some tea towels screen printed with gorgeous calligraphy. The potential for calligraphy is extensive! 

 Maybelle brought along personalized kits for every student (all 3 classes!). In the kit you can find a bottle of ink, a pointed tip pen, a special Maybelle-designed practise book and the best part, a pen and ink holder made personally by Maybelle's husband.

We realized that we were getting alot of enquiries about the kits and whether we sold them, so after some discussion, Maybelle kindly agreed to send over some kits. We will soon be selling the kits right here at Bloesem!

Along with the class, our students enjoyed some snacks and drinks while they were busy practising their new skills. Maybelle demonstrated then walked around and helped everyone. It was fun to see everyone enjoying themselves, talking and getting to know each other. And when they needed a little break, they stood up, walked around and looked at all the Bloesem.co merchandise in our showroom. Or they could grab a piece of lemon cake and some coffee or tea. 

Doing calligraphy feels as relaxing as practising yoga … we noticed ourselves when we got a private session one night after clearing the studio and making sure we were all set for the next full day of classes. 

Of course a class in Singapore isn't a complete experience without good food … I sometimes joke how Asian people talk about food like we talk about the weather … so it was a must for Bloesem to make sure we catered delicious food for our guests.

After class, we all sat down for some homecooked nasi lemak lunch and prosecco. So yummy and a great way to end the class. It was a nice relaxing thursday morning and some of our students even made their way back to the office once the class was over! All the catering, from cookies to cake to lunch, was courtesy of Make my day Zoet. Definitely one of the best parts of the class was the scrumptious munchies we had through out the day. We know it's not just us who have fallen in love with the food because everyone was reaching for the fudge spoons and lemon cake, so that's feedback enough for us!

We hope everyone who came had as great a time as we did organizing it. We want to thank Maybelle for being such a joy and being an awesome first teacher, you for joining us for the class, and thank you to all of you who were here in spirit, supporting us through instagram! All you kind words really put a smile on our faces after all the preparation and planning paid off.

Fun to see how much instagragm became a part of this class everyody wanted to share … So do continue to keep up with us on our instagram feeds, Irene at @bloesemblogs and Zara at @zaaras to see what we're up to! It's always great to hear your feedback and hopefully you get to join us in one of our future class. We have so many plans for classes already!

We are so sorry to everyone who couldn't get a space in the 3 classes and to everyone who emailed us hoping to get a space. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We have some very good news for you … We will be organizing more classes with Maybelle here in June and probably in Amsterdam in October.. so make sure you stay tuned!

 .. Bloesem Class