love letters.

I just came across moreloveletters.com, and it is pretty lovely. It is a community of people that write love letters to someone who needs one. You can nominate someone in your life who is having a rough time, and within a few days, they will be getting a huge dose of love from people all over the world.

They also have a section called "found love letters". Apparently there are people out there sneaking around hiding love letters in nooks and crannies all over the place, and maybe when you need it the most, you can find one.

People take pictures of their found love letters and send them in to the website, and describe where and how they came across it. Some of the reactions are so sweet, and it's nice to think of someone who is struggling finding one of these notes and knowing that somewhere in the world there is somebody who cared enough to take the time to hide a secret love letter.

Maybe this weekend I'll give up a few minutes of soaking up the sun, and take the time to spread a little love around.

cauliflower cream

I've been seeing recipes for "cauliflower substitutes" for a few months now, but I've always been very skeptical. The other day I saw this recipe for cauliflower Alfredo sauce, and I had no choice but to try it.

A frighteningly large percentage of my life is spent wishing I was eating Alfredo when I'm not, so I figured if there was even a slight chance this would work, it was worth a try.

Let me tell you, it was delicious. It was a bit lighter than alfredo sauce obviously (which is probably the point) and a lot less thick, but it was super creamy and delicious. It was a bit time consuming, and there is a real risk of 3rd degree burn as you transfer the cauliflower and broth into the blender, but once you're past that part it's a breeze.

I only used about half a head of cauliflower and it made tons. We had enough for a huge batch of alfredo for supper that night, and enough to save in the fridge for supper later in the week. I made it with quinoa pasta, but any pasta will work.

One tip, do not skimp on the black pepper, it's very important.

please sir, I'd like some more

where you lead.

Totally obsessed with this. Photographer is led around the world by his girlfriend.

Original link here.

favourites

Here are some things that are making me happy right now:



Leonard Cohen Chelsea Hotel#2 cover by Lana Del Ray. Her voice, and his lyrics.

"I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, you were famous, your heart was a legend you told me again you preferred handsome men, but for me you would make an exception"

"I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best, I can't keep track of each fallen robin. I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, that's all, I don't even think of you that often". 

Love.

Daffodils make the whole house smell delicious and brighten up the table.

my weekend uniform. I see ripped jeans in stores all the time for tons of money, these are perfectly ripped and broken in, and also free, aka stolen from my sister

This recipe for salmon. I was so excited about the delicious salmon I had in Aptos that I wanted to try to make some at home.  It was ridiculously easy, and seriously delicious.

I used olive oil instead of vegetable, and fresh squeezed lemon juice and black pepper instead of lemon pepper, and marinated it over night. We ate it with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli, and it was an amazing supper.

banana cream.

My parents came to visit a few weeks ago, and it was my dad's birthday. I wanted to make him a birthday "cake" but I wanted to make him something he would really like, and he loves banana cream pie.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and made it for him. I really don't like bananas, they are one of my most hated foods, my mom told me even as a baby I wouldn't eat them, so I wasn't really expecting to enjoy this pie, but it was amazing.

The crust has a hint of cinnamon which is absolutely essential, and really adds a lot to the overall flavour. The creamy filling was cool and delicious, and it wasn't super banana-ish. Even after a huge dinner at Texas Roadhouse, this pie was so good that I had to have a second piece.

Yummy

tonight will be fine

Last Friday night I was lucky enough to see Lucero in concert at the Fillmore again, I saw them last year too. We had a great night, stopping for tacos and margaritas at Tacolicious beforehand, and the concert was a blast.

Lucero was awesome as usual, and I really enjoyed their opening band Langhorn Slim and the Law, especially "Do You Believe in Past Lives?" and their Leonard Cohen cover "Tonight Will be Fine".

I love going to the Fillmore, it has so much musical history, and such a neat vibe, it just feels like a really special place.

The Fillmore: Heart and Soul of the City

I'm still not sure why they give out apples, but I bet it's a good story

soooo many band posters

and signed pictures

Langhorn Slim and the Law

Lucero

Date night

the red balloon

A short film made in 1956. I saw it a few years ago, and it's kind of stuck with me ever since. There are always going to be people who try to make you feel bad to make themselves feel better, or who try to kill your dreams because they are too afraid to try for their own.

Just watch it, and see if it doesn't brighten your day.

green police

I was asked to be part of a a shoot for Earth Week at work. We had a blast filming, we got to be silly and the crew was really fun. Here is the finished result, there is an intro video, and then a different Earth Week video for each day this week.

Yes, I still have the vest.

pixar's 22 rules of storytelling

Here are the 22 rules of storytelling, according to Pixar story artist Emma Coates. I like numbers 2 and 11.

1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
2. You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
3. Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
8. Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
9. When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
12. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
13. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
14. Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
21. You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
22. What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

 Link here.

adventures with my parents

My parents came in to visit us for a couple of days last week, and it was really fun showing them around. I tend to try to pack as many things as possible into when they visit, I figure if they have lots of fun they are more likely to come back and visit sooner, right?

It was my dad's birthday so my mom got us all tickets to the Sharks game (they lost, damn you Burns) and then we went to Capitola and tried almost every margarita on the boardwalk. We had supper at a really great restaurant in Aptos called Cafe Rio, I highly recommend it. I don't even eat seafood, but I ordered salmon (since I'm trying to be more adventurous) and it was A.MAZ.ING.

After that we went wine tasting, had lunch at BJ's and did some beer tasting, and then did some sight seeing before we went to a little town called Port Costa and went to The Warehouse Cafe, which is now definitely top 5 for my favourite bars in the world, and is certainly my favourite bar in California.

It's a very eclectic mix of people and decor, they have a life sized polar bear, a bartender named Gina who is a crazy Italian in the most endearing way possible, and beers from over 450 different countries, and they ONLY serve doubles. All of this located right on the bay, in a run down old shipping warehouse that you can wander around in for ages and continue to find something cool around every corner. As my Dad said, "It's like a place from a different time."

We finished up with supper at Texas Roadhouse and then went home to eat the banana cream pie I made for my dad's birthday cake. It was a really wonderful couple of days, and I can't wait until they come back again. Sadly, my phone broke right before they got there, so I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked, but I did get a few.

ominoussss

love them

I don't know if I could drink all of that, but I would like the opportunity to try

derek's new buddy

sketch artist

This is very eye opening. We are our own worst critics, and we judge ourselves so much more harshly than we deserve. It would be very interesting to try this and to see the difference between how I would describe myself, and how a stranger would describe me.



Find out more, here.

temptation.

My first year living in Hawaii, I was introduced to the South Shore Grill by my boyfriend at the time. The relationship didn't last, but SSG and I have been an item ever since. One of the best things they have there (although everything is delicious) are their desserts, especially their peanut butter temptations.

Now that I'm not living on the island, I don't get these delicious treats every week, and it's quite sad. When I went back to Hawaii in January we took my mom to SSG so that she too might know the joys that are peanut butter temptations. I'd never even thought about trying to make them myself, since I couldn't fathom the wizardry that would be necessary to get the Reece's into the cookies without baking them into a melty disaster.

My mother took one look at the cookies and declared "They probably just push the peanut butter cups in right when they come out of the oven." I'm pretty sure that's why we have parents, for exactly such moments as those.

I was able to find a recipe, and made them last week and they were amazingly delicious, and so simple to make (literally 15 minutes from when I started to when I took the first bite) that I was kind of embarrassed I'd never thought to make them before.

basic peanut butter cookies in a mini muffin tin, bake about 8 minutes

push in peanut butter cups once they come out of the oven

One final tip is to make these on a night when you are home alone, so you don't have to share with your husband. Not that that's what I did. I would never do something like that, especially knowing how much Derek adores these cookies. Obviously.

behave.

Love this.

lucero.

Tonight I'm going to see my favourite band, Lucero, at the Fillmore. I bought tickets in February, and have pretty much had to forget about it because whenever I think about it I get too excited to do anything else.

I don't remember the day, but I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard them. I was sitting on the chair at my desk in our first apartment in Hawaii, and my roomie's boyfriend was downloading random songs, and came across one of their albums.

As soon as he started playing Here at the Starlight, I got a tingle from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I loved them immediately. By the time I had listened to My Best Girl, and Night's Like These, it was over for me. That was about 4 years ago, and since then they have gotten me through every sadness, every heartbreak, homesickness and sleepless night, and every rainy day.

When I moved to California, and I had no friends, no job, no family and I missed the island so badly that I couldn't sleep at night, I would put Lucero on my iPod on repeat, and let Ben sing me to sleep. It's kind of funny how much of an effect you can have on someone else's life without even knowing it.

Here are some of my favourite Lucero lyrics:

"She had a weakness for writers And I was never that good at the words anyways"- Night's Like These

"And I've only got this one wish, that I was good enough to make you forget the only boy who ever broke your heart"- Night's Like These

"The light from the disco balls surround us with stars, and I looked like trouble right from the start. you told me so, yeah you told me so."- Slow Dancing

"Life is short, in spite of your plans, so tell the girls they're pretty while you can."- Drink 'til We're Gone

"Well it's plain to see you're a dangerous thing, with those hips, those lips, and those eyes, and it's lucky for me that I like being free or I might try to make you mine."- A Dangerous Thing

"well I'm a sucker for some pretty eyes but they're going home with some other boy tonight hell, i guess I'll be fine 'cause there's one girl whose all mine."- My Best Girl

"Now we got to the game just a little too late, spent our early days, we spent our early days just fucking up. We ain't nobody's darlings, we ain't nobody's boys."- Nobody's Darlings

good at things.

I spotted this book online a few days ago, and I think it's super cute, and would make a good gift or stocking stuffer. You Are Good at Things: A Checklist by Andy Selsberg helps you to realize that even though you may not be a famous artist or concert pianist, there are plenty of ordinary, everyday things you are basically a master at.

I personally excel at getting the gas pump to stop on an exact amount, remembering quotes from movies and painting the nails on my right hand (I'm right handed). An area that I need work on, apparently, is thinking of things I am good at. I may have to invest in a copy for myself.

You can buy the book here.

favourites

Here are a few of the things that are making me happy right now:

Cruising down an empty highway on a beautiful day with the sun shining down on your arms, and good tunes on the radio.

Red velvet. Anything. Always.

Currently reading Just One Day by Gayle Forman . Loved this:

"You know, one day one of these might be in the Louvre," he says. He touches an elliptical white sculpture that seems to glow in the darkness. "You think Shakespeare ever guessed Guerrilla Will would be doing his plays four hundred years later?" He laughs a little, but there's something in his voice that sounds almost reverent. "You never know what will last."

And this:

FASHION FILM from Matthew Frost on Vimeo.

Lizzy Caplan is the best.

the battle we didn't choose

This story will break your heart, just like it broke mine. I don't think there is anything harder in life than watching someone you love in pain, and not being able to help them.

His photos are amazing. You can feel the bond they share, and how hard she was fighting, and he doesn't need any words to tell their story.

My mom, sisters and I are doing the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in September, if you would like to sponsor us, you can do so here.

twirl

I bought this Billabong dress a few weeks ago, mostly because I loved the colour, but also because I secretly suspected it was one of those dresses whose soul purpose is to be twirled in.

It turns out I was right, and I had lots of fun twirling around on the beach the first time I wore it. It also happened to be an extremely windy day so I spent not an insignificant amount of time with the dress blown up over my head. Luckily there were no children around, just one little old man flying his kite.

land of the free.

It seems like there is a lot going on politically and culturally these last few weeks. Not that there isn't always, but the last few weeks with the sequestration, cutting funding to some military programs, the Supreme Court hearing arguments on Prop 8 and the DOMA, new arguments on gun control, and new restrictions on abortion, it's been kind of crazy.

But I also discovered something pretty neat amidst the chaos, in the form of the Whitehouse Petitions website. I had heard of it, but I never really knew much about it before. Basically, someone introduces a topic, and it can literally be anythinggggggg. Here are some examples:

• Require Congressmen and Senators to wear logos of their financial backers on their clothing, much like Nascar drivers do.
• Repeal the sequester's cuts on NASA's spending in public outreach and it's STEM programs.
• Create a national "R2-D2" day whose motto is "selfless not selfish" and commemorates under-appreciated heroes.

You just make your petition, and share it. If enough people sign on to the cause (usually 100,000, but sometimes more depending on the issue) the White house will review it, send it on to the appropriate policy makers, and issue an official response.

Even though people in this country are always going to disagree and complain about the way things are done here, I think it's pretty amazing, especially when you consider how people are treated in other countries by their own governments, that we are lucky enough to live in a country where we can actually petition our government for things, and if enough of us want it, they have to at least consider it. Some people aren't nearly so fortunate.