Cooking In The Kitchen With Love Plus Color

Today marks the start of a weekly series with Love Plus Color. We recently spent some time cooking in the kitchen together, we had so much FUN!  Join us as we share recipes, health tid bits and splashes of color that makes everything look almost to good to eat 😉

After we ate all of the delicious food we made, I sat down with Jessica Skafo to see what inspires her and what her secret is in making everything she creates so colorful and lovely! 

You share so many beautiful photos of food, what is your favorite treat to make?

Thank you, I really love colorful food. My favorite treat to make is a really yummy and healthy smoothie. My go-to is bananas, kale and almond butter and I finish it off with a colorful straw to add a little extra happiness. I also REALLY love avocado toast. I don’t know if that’s a treat, but I consider it one.

How did you start your creative design business and your love plus color blog?

When I first graduated college, I got a job managing an e-commerce department for a fashion company. To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing managing a whole department at 21 and felt extremely overwhelmed. There I learned that I could make a change in the company’s online sales by giving their website a huge branded makeover and that was the moment I fell in love with graphic design. It was so incredible to see that I could use my creativity to produce success and I was really passionate about doing that for small businesses and entrepreneurs. I ditched my corporate job and started working freelance through a couple different ventures until I decided to completely go on my own. I recently started my blog LOVE PLUS COLOR as a way to inspire my followers further than the content on my Instagram feed. I love reading and following design blogs, so I felt called to do my own.

I so admire your creativeness, share with us how we can create a beautiful meal that is almost too pretty to eat.

I so admire your recipes and fabulous business you run. #lovefest but the most important part of creating a beautiful meal to share via photo is good lighting! No matter what your food subject is, good lighting can make or break a picture. I like to take a majority of my food pictures from an above eagle-eye perspective. I strive to create a mood or theme with photos which starts in my arrangement of the food. I like to think of each set-up as a painting that needs balance and good design fundamentals. I finish it off with editing and my favorite app for this is VSCO cam.

What design tools do you suggest a small business person use tocreate beautiful marketing and branding?

Best tool is a graphic designer! Invest and understand the importance of good visual branding. Well developed and consistent branding is like gold and it will pay for itself, in the long run. I see many people that go into business and feel like they need to do their own branding, but if you hand the job over to a professional graphic designer you’ll have time to run your dream business and utilize your skills unencumbered. I love the opportunity to work with brilliant people and let their online space shine with beautiful branding.

As a women entrepreneur your days are pretty full, what are some ways that you add in self-care and fun into your day?

Yes, but I feel like in the past year I have realized the importance of a work-life balance. I have made it a priority that I move my body every day whether that is a full-on workout, yoga, or a long walk with my dog. Unless I have a pressing work situation, I make sure I finish work no later than 7 so I can have fun and relax for the rest of the night. I feel blessed to be able to live in a neighborhood where I can walk to everything, so I get a little walk in before going to get coffee, happy hour, or seeing a movie. Breaks are my best friend during the work day and they usually include a dance break or two.

I know that you create so many beautiful do it yourself crafts! What is one easy craft that we can make that is totally instagramable?

Yes, I love DIY crafts! My favorites are easy home decor DIY’s that add a little more beauty to my space. I just made color-blocked clay succulent planters on my blog here. It was so fun and anything that involves succulents is instagramable in my opinion. They were small, but completely added life to my outdoor space. PS I love the word “instagrammable”, totally using it now!

 

We are all ready to add a little more color into our life. How can we do that more in
all areas of our life?

Welcome to the Color Club! In the past year, I have realized the importance of just being creative. Even if you aren’t in a “creative” industry, as humans I believe we all have it in us. There is an art to everything we do. To add more color in all areas of your life, I believe you must create just for fun whether that is painting, dancing, singing, etc. I believe there is a colorful calling in all of us to express ourselves through some form of art. Once you allow creativity to flow through your life, it is like turning a light on in your mind. You see the world with a little more color.

Where can we find you on social media?

Instagram  Twitter  Pinterest  Facebook I share different things on all platforms and am most obsessed with Instagram.

Stay Tuned for the next post in our Cooking In The Kitchen Series! 

Big Hugs & Health, 

Katie 

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