[greyeaglem]

I'm no lawyer either, and laws vary from state to state, but normally an employer would "own" things developed by you only if you signed a document stating that anything developed by you in the course of your work for them belongs to them. It seems to me that the designs you brought back from a class that you paid for yourself would belong to you rather than your employer. I doubt they would pursue anything legally, especially as it seems you signed no ownership contracts relating to concepts and designs. Even if you did, everyone knows you only have to alter it a little, such as changing one ingredient in a recipe to make it no longer proprietary. Very hard to prove "ownership". I don't think I'd worry about it if I were you. As for the magazine pictures, the best thing to do would be to contact the magazine for permission. They own the photos they took, and you probably could not use their pictures without permisssion. However, if they took a picture of a cake, and you took a picture of the same cake, you could use the picture you took, unless the magazine commissioned a particular cake for their shoot and paid for the making of it. Good luck with it.