Real Business: Sugar Pine Cakery

This past year I had the pleasure of working with a fantastic baker, Allison Sayles, to help develop her logo and brand for her cake and sweet treats business, Sugar Pine Cakery. I haven’t yet had the pleasure of tasting one of her creations because she lives in Tahoe City, but hopefully I will someday soon. One of the unique aspects about Allison Sayles and the cakes that she creates is that she uses all natural and organic ingredients.

I was able to help Allison create a brand for her company that represents what she is about.

Quality, organic, delicious, and rustic cakes and sweets.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Allison has been cooking and baking for as long as she can remember. Her mother was a great cook and always made everything from scratch so naturally she did the same. After working in many kitchens and bakeries she decided to go to culinary school and discovered that not only did she love to cook but she REALLY loved to make cakes and other sweets. Allison has been a Pastry Chef for many years and also worked in a busy restaurant kitchen. She has always made wedding cakes and special occasion cakes for friends and family. Soon people she didn’t know were calling her for cakes. By word of mouth she had become quite busy with wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and also cupcakes. She has always loved to bake and thought it was about time she started on her own in 2009.

ORGANIC

It was a natural progression for Allison to start Sugar Pine Cakery. Eating mostly Organic and living in a very health conscious Lake Tahoe area, she automatically started to bake with organic and locally grown ingredients. She purchases all her berries and fruit for the cakes and sweets from local farmers’ markets when they are available. In a few months this coming summer she plans to have a booth at the farmers’ market to sell all her tasty treats. Allison describes the style of her cakes as "Rustic".  She uses wholesome ingredients and never freezes her cakes. Allison says, “There is something about a good old-fashioned cake that you just can't resist”.

WHAT IS HER FAVORITE?

Well, there isn’t just one. She loves all the cakes, sweets and treats she makes.  But, she especially loves anything lemon or citrus. Allison says, “It feels great baking things that people feel good about eating. I love seeing the cakes finished and decorated and knowing that they are part of some ones special day. I am very excited about incorporating gluten-free, dairy free and agave sweetened cakes into my repertoire. No one should go without some thing sweet to eat!”.

ON THE HORIZON

For Allison, starting Sugar Pine Cakery has so far been very exciting. She is looking at a very busy wedding season and hopefully adding a booth at the farmers’ market with lots of yummy organic sweets and treats. Her hope for the future is that people will be able to one day purchase her baking in local establishments and be able to taste the  love, devotion, and quality ingredients that goes into her baking.











Allison has been a great client to work with and I feel proud to have helped her in the development of her brand. I wish Sugar Pine Cakery the best of luck with it’s future adventures.

If anyone is interested in contacting Allison, you can email at: sugarpinecakery@gmail.com

Rainy Day

Even though it is raining, today it is turning out to be a very productive work day for me. I am working on quite a few projects right now including logo design revisions, a 50th birthday party invitation, a program for a wedding that is rapidly approaching (15 days Crystal!!), and gathering print quotes for new projects. I love taking Ponzo for walks on Friday's but it's raining out and he doesn't like going out in the rain. The rain started to get me thinking about the things I love about winter and I realized that spring is almost here so I should enjoy this rainy day as much as I can before the season changes. In addition to enjoying my cuddly pets, my coffee, and Pandora on this rainy day, here are a few more things I love about winter!


Umbrellas - http://www.thelilbee.com/2009/06/cute-brellas.html

Baby Beanie - http://www.etsy.com/shop/malindi

Hand Woven Shaw - http://www.etsy.com/shop/SRdesign

Winter Wedding -http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/02/11/winter-wedding-by-jessica-claire/

Personalized Stationery - www.redstamp.com

Grilled Cheese Sandwich - www.foodgwaker.com / http://userealbutter.com/2009/11/17/grilled-steak-sandwiches-recipe/

Family Silhouette

I have been inspired lately by a recent trend of beautiful silhouette designs. Silhouettes have become a popular design technique that you might find popping up in vintage wedding themes or a classic twist on home decor. Here are a few images I've seen featuring silhouettes.


I found the gorgeous vintage silhouette wedding theme above featured on Style Me Pretty. I also found a great post from Country Living that shows how to get the classic silhouette look in your home with a fresh twist. There is blog I stumbled upon called Simply Silhouettes which features all things silhouettes and they have a shop with adorable silhouette products.

All of these beautiful pieces of art inspired me to create a silhouette display of my own family.

1. First I used Photoshop to turn images of my husband and myself from our wedding, our cat, and our dog into silhouettes.


2. Next I added the silhouette images to a frame and used a yellow background to match the sunny yellow color of my basement/soon to be studio.


3. I printed out the three silhouette images if Gino and I, Sam, and Ponzo on linen cardstock to give it a nice texture.

4. I had previously purchased three 12 x 12 art canvases to use for another project that I never got around to so they came in hand for this project. I could have also framed the 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper.

5. My studio will feature yellows, greys, black, white, and maybe some soft greens. I decided to use black fabric over my canvas squares to make the silhouettes pop on the yellow wall.


6. I found out the strangest thing today, I don't have a stapler at my house! So I used zip dry to attach the fabric to the canvas and to glue the silhouettes to the fabric. I think a stapler would have been much easier. Note to self: my office needs a new stapler.



7. Finally I attached three equal size black satin ribbons to the back of the canvas squares and they were ready to hang.


Here is the finished product, proudly displayed in my studio!

Basement Studio Transformation

My husband and I purchased our first home in November of 2008 and we are fortunate enough to have found a home with a finished quarter basement. It was built in 1930 and the previous owners turned the basement into a second TV room/laundry room. When we moved in, we went back and forth about what we wanted to use the basement for and settled on the idea of a studio/office for my work. I currently have a lot of paper supplies and tools, etc. in our second bedroom and the basement is a perfect place for us to turn into a studio and permanent home for my invitation work. We kept the space relatively empty over the past year with the intention of transforming it into a studio so it is almost a clean slate. We started work to transform the space and I will continue to add pictures as the studio progresses. I hope to have the project complete before summer time.

Here is a picture of the basement from the top of the stairs. While I was cleaning the room up, I did fall down the stairs. Not fun, so I have to continue to remind myself to be careful on those dang stairs.


Here are pictures from the corner looking into the basement. The wooden doors are what closes the room off from the laundry room. We are in the process of repainting and putting new fabric on the doors to give a fresh modern look the room. I will post an inspiration board to show what style I am going for in the studio soon.




This photo is looking towards the stairs from the other side of the room. We have already repainted the railing.


I found an antique desk with pull out sides for extra table top space at the antique fair under the freeway for $40 and it is already painted. We also painted the walls "Sunny Yellow" and the floor is next.

I can't wait until I have a little more time to keep working on the Studio. Very excited for a space for Sarah-fina work!

Happy Valentines Day!

I like to think of Valentines Day as a day to celebrate love and a time of the year to let your friends and family know that you are thinking of them!

There are so many adorable paper crafts, tokens of love, cards, and sweet treats exchanged during this time of year. Here are a few of my favorites.

X O Necklace


Letterpress Cards


Sweetheart Pops


Red Ruffle Scarf


Valentine's Day Cupcakes by Sara Jensen Hart


Heart Tote Bag

Wishing you all a lovely Valentines Day!

Moroccan Bridal Cocktail

One of my very best friends is getting married in March and two weeks ago we threw her a Moroccan themed bridal cocktail. I had the pleasure of creating her bridal shower invitations and her wedding invitations. Crystal is a fun and stylish girl so the bridesmaids decided to throw her a non-traditional bridal cocktail on a Saturday night. We got dressed up, ate wonderful appetizers, enjoyed cocktails in our festive cocktail favor glasses (created by Crystal's sister and sister-in-law) and had a great evening with good friends all there to celebrate Crystal and Zach's upcoming wedding. The night was a huge success so I though I would share a few pictures.

New Web site~ www.sarah-fina.com

Good Morning and thanks for stopping by.

I found it fitting to post my first blog entry on the same day as my Web site launch! I am working on the final touches for my Web site and will send out a launch announcement later today. Here is a preview of what is to come on this blog. I run a custom design and invitation business and I am drawn to all things paper and design. This blog will give a little insight into the work I do on a regular basis. Some things to look forward to:

• Pictures and stories from clients and designs projects


• Wedding industry and invitation trends


• Beautiful designs and unique ideas from other blogs and designers


• Updates about my business as it grows


• A small insight into my day to day life

I have a lot of new and exciting projects on the horizon so come back soon to see what's new!