5 - Creating the Product

Hi again! 

Wow, it has been a long week. I have put in a lot of time finalizing my cookbook, but I am so happy to tell you, that it is done! Here is a little sneak peek from when I was editing...

But you can find the link here, or visit my Product Page through this Blog. 

The Process

My digital skills were challenged for sure this week. Prior to this week, I had only mapped out what I wanted to include (see pictures for an idea). I really took advantage of mind mapping but did it all on paper instead of using some of the amazing resources we have utilized in the course (ex: Popplet). I always navigate to pen and paper, which made it difficult to want to create this book completely online. Although I am not sure I would have liked scrapbooking the entire thing either. 

                                         

Using Canva was a great decision. I was not sure about it at first because of how new it was to me, but after navigating through all the buttons and accessories it is now my favorite tool! With pre-made templates, I was able to create something well structured. I was even able to link my Instagram account to easily upload pictures instead of importing them.

Let's talk a bit about editing

I like to think of myself as a little bit of a perfectionist, so I am constantly editing my work and changing things. This is not necessarily a bad habit, but I kept remaking pages and it got a little long and tedious to do. This made me take a step back and analyze what I was doing. I then decided to create the pages how I had first layed them out on paper, and go over them like I would if I were writing a paper. This tended to work a lot better. Once I was happy with my work, I sent the document to friends. Individuals that would be able to find any grammatical errors, pic up on the layout, or validate what I created. I made sure they did not sugarcoat it, as I am planning on sharing this with everyone so they can benefit from what I put so much effort into creating. What also helped during this process, was the aid of the chrome extension Grammarly. I found myself sitting for hours working on this book and small grammatical errors like punctuation, and spelling be difficult to point out without the resource. I very much benefited from this tool. I will be the first to say, that my grammatical skills need some work, but knowing where your strengths and weaknesses are and are able to access this to help yourself succeed is very important. 

Planning

My plan was to use as many pictures as I had of items I have previously cooked so that I would not have to go through making a substantial amount of dishes for myself to eat. I logged into my food page on Instagram (@_chez_agnes_), and took advantage of the many pictures I already had until I ran out that is... So here I am writing this blog with a pile of dishes waiting for me. Putting the final touches on this cookbook meant I had to cook a handful of dishes today. If meal prepping was not my thing prior to today, it is now! For future reference (If I ever decide to create another cookbook) I shall plan ahead a little more and organize my dinners and picture taking so that I am not left with all this food for one person to eat. To stay up to date on any cooking I may be doing, or the potential release of another cookbook... Please follow me on Instagram!

What I Learned

This was such a fun activity, that taught me not only more about cooking but more about my peers and about myself. I was able to reach out to friends and colleagues to see what they wanted out of my project and assess what I was willing to put into it. As well, I worked on my planning, organization, and time-management skills. I learned how to use Canva this week, which I can now use for much more than creating a cookbook. I could definitely see it used for creating tasks and assessments (posters, presentations, infographics). I also learned that the research part was very important for this process. I was able to use all the information I had learned about creating problem well thought out recipes, as well as organization, and what to include or not. Even when I was plating my dishes, I learned a great deal about lighting and exposure and what kind of pictures are beneficial to capture one's attention. 

Next Steps

Now that my cookbook is done and uploaded, I will be sharing it with those who asked for it when I was collecting data. I will also upload a link to my Instagram account for future reference. Although this was all done for a project, I did really enjoy the journey and the time to accomplish something like this. I probably would have never sat down to create a cookbook. So what's left then... Well, I will be creating a Ted Talk to share with you exactly this, the story behind the process. You'll be able to find it on my Ted Talk page once posted. There is still much more I need to reflect on from this process, and I cannot wait to share it with all of you. 

Until next time,

Piper :)