I’ve been blogging for nearly six years, if you count my first blog, and have LOVED it! Blogging allowed me to do so many fun things and learn so much. It allowed me to share glimpses of our life, it challenged me to develop my photography skills, it served as a portfolio to do freelance photography and writing for print magazines and online publications and it gave me the opportunity to partner with some incredible brands. It served as an incredible creative outlet, particularly when my kids were little and because of this blog I have new friends that I never would have met otherwise.

But all things do come to an end and for this blog the end is here and now. I’m no longer drawn to it and just want to do some other things. I will still be on Instagram, and I’d love it if you followed along there.

Thank you all so much for following my blog for however long it’s been! I’ve enjoyed getting to know you and I’m sure I’ll be staying in touch with quite a few of you!

Cheers, Giulia

Here I am with a little post and a few links to some favourite recipes on this blog.

• To make lemon cupcakes like above – use this cake recipe and this frosting recipe, adding lemon instead of strawberries.
• Pink ombre cakes are very popular – people like to pin and share this pretty pink cake.
• The most popular post though, is Nutella and french toast  – baked. I guess people really like Nutella!
• Some of my favourite comfort foods were this savoury bread pudding and these cheesy waffles.
• My most popular summer recipes were these seafood sandwiches and this Café Frappé.
• We also celebrated birthdays here, here, here and here, and traveled to New York, Switzerland and Spain.

It was a good year, a fun year. A year filled with adventures, firsts and  a few challenges. Again, thank you so much for stopping by my little space, taking time out of your busy day and making it a wonderful place for me to share pieces of my life – be it the sweet or the savoury.

Wow – already 1 year since I decided to blog in this space exclusively! At the time I wanted to focus on my food photography, to share recipes and goodies with you guys twice a week. I learned a new blogging platform and am now able to showcase my images larger and in a much more professional manner. I’m really happy how things are working out here – I get to share some of the food we made and other things I’m creating for Style Me Pretty Living, Clementine Daily and Classic Play.

In addition, I got to share our travel photos, such as Disney, or Cape Cod and Montreal. I’m creating an online album for myself and my family and I’m happy that all of you have joined the ride. It’s a lot of fun and I hope to continue to share with you here at Audrey’s.

This give-away is now closed. Congratulations Nataliya – your number was chosen by random.org! I will contact the winner by email.

Blog Birthday Give-Away!

To thank you for continuing to stop by this corner of the web I have a little birthday gift bag for you – a chance to win ‘My little Paris Kitchen‘ by Rachel Khoo – a lovey cookbook concentrating on French classics cooked in a tiny Paris kitchen. You’ll also get the Bakerella Cake Pop book – a book full of inspiration on how to create the most amazing cake pops. To top it all off, you’ll also get a package of rainbow cupcake liners, a box of colouful birthday candles, colourful paper straws and a $25 Chapters Indigo Gift Card! How’s that for a nice little box of goodies?

Anyone with a North American mailing address is eligible for this gift pack, except Quebec residents (see why here). This give-away is open until February 10, 2014 at midnight EST.

1. Please comment below for a chance to enter.
2. For a second entry, tweet this give-away making sure to mention @GiuliaDoyle
3. For a third entry mention the give-away on Instagram and make sure to include @giulia_doyle

Winner will be chosen at random and will be notified by email.

Disclaimer: Gift card provided by Chapters Indigo. All other items sponsored by Audrey’s.

After attending ALT Summit in January I put down a couple of goals for myself. Rather than comparing myself to other bloggers in relation to my readership (still very low) or my comments, I wanted to achieve things for myself and I wanted to collaborate with some of the talent out there.

I don’t want to use this post to brag, but I find it very important to remember successes we’ve had, and there’s no better time to do this than right before year-end.

Here are some of the highlights for me in 2013:

• I set up my photography portfolio
• I was a speaker at Blogpodium
• I appeared in print in HGTV mag and Ottawa Magazine
• I collaborated with six bloggers for my Be My Guest feature
• I contributed to 11 sites
• I worked with 5 brands
• I worked as a freelancer on several projects

It’s been an exciting year and I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family and some of the kindest and most talented bloggers out there. I’ve got a couple of great things coming up early next year and I can’t wait to share them with you.

But now I’ll take the next two weeks to spend time with my family from near and far. My kids are off school, my mom is visiting from Switzerland. There will be gifts exchanged, food prepared, sleepovers organized and even a little get-away.

Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday season and Happy New Year!  Thanks for stopping by my little space and making it a wonderful place for me to share pieces of my life – be it the sweet or the savoury. Cheers and I’ll see you back here on January 6, 2014!

Last week I did this little branding exercise. Inspired by House of Brinson’s Styling class I wanted to figure out the colour palette I was subconsciously using in my photographs. I had consciously decided on my actual blog colours (logo, titles, text, sidebar, social media), but I had not paid specific attention to my photo colour palette.

So, this little exercise was taking it a bit further – stepping back and looking at my work for the past 11 months. And this is what I saw – a colour palette of neutrals, blues, some dark purples and occasional pops of green, pink and yellow. There is a theme going on!  Also note that I had no purple until I did an upcoming holiday shoot, which will go live in December and then I used purple for a recipe that’s going live on Monday, so this is a little sneak peek for you.

Sometimes it’s worth the time to go back and look at your work as a whole – making sure that things are cohesive, well branded and tell a story.  Have you looked at your work recently?

Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• Talking about colours.
• Aran and Sarah make Cranberry and Quinoa Scones
• Purchase Make Your Day – the craft ebook. Some lovely ideas there.
• Spinach and Egg on small pizzas? yes please!
• Personalized wrapping paper? Awesome!
• Herb and Fruit Pairings