I'd like to confess. I have an addiction. I have a problem. Well... I actually have two problems and two addictions. One - cook books. Two - food photography props. I guess both of those things go hand in hand together. It's getting a little ridiculous because I literally don't have any more places in my condo to put any of these things. I mean I have a choice, I either buy more props and books or I have a comfortable place to sleep.

But the thing is that there are so many wonderful cook books that I'd like to have. I love just leafing through them during long dark winter evenings. I like discovering new recipes that I missed the first time around, I like remembering my favourite ones when I look through the books again and again. It's a journey through time. I look at the pictures and I remember what I was thinking and feeling the first time I looked at them. I remember how I felt when I cooked some of the things. It's my life, my love, my memories and I can't deny myself the pleasure of discovering new books, new recipes, new authors, new wonderful pictures. How can I?

And what about the props? I can't shoot food using the same plate over and over again. It's not even about using the same prop, it's about which foods go well with which dishes. Yes, I need different flat plates for salad and yes I need multiple bowls in different shapes and colours. I need all of them and more. Each time I go to a store, I see possibilities. This little dish would make a perfect creme brulee vessel. And this colourful bowl would go so well with risotto. And this... and this... Pictures form in my mind and dance around filling me with joy and eagerness to go home and cook and take pictures. Yes, I've never used this plate which I bought a year ago, but I will, of course, I will.

The pictures are terrible. It was overcast outside and it's quite dark in my apartment, and I had no choice but to use the internal flash. But if you'd like to see my food photography props, my cook books... my treasures, then

My book shelves

All of the books don't fit in there, so they are on top of another unit

To the left of it, there was a little space where I wanted to put some floor vase or a lamp or some kind of decoration, but it now has a lot of different rolls of papers for backgrounds. There are two levels of those rolls.

Also, I have more papers hanging on the door

To the right of the bookshelves, there's my desk. Underneath it I keep lots of my cooking magazines and some of my textiles used for backgrounds and napkins.

There's supposed to be a big 24 inch monitor on the desk, but I still haven't received it, so there are some props there right now. Don't know where to put them once the monitor arrives.

There's a small shelf above.

It's small, but long

And there's a lot of empty space on top of the bookcase and the desk unit. It's high, it's not really easy to get items from it, but it's empty. I mean it used to be empty.

And a little bit more of the ceiling shelf.

All those things were in my "office" and now let's go to my living room (yep, there's more).

In the living room I have another shelving unit dedicated to even more props.

More textiles, napkins and backgrounds.

More props

More

And the last one