black bass hotel
In exploring Pennsylvania, we were brought to The Black Bass Hotel in Lumberville. In an area rich with revolutionary history, this hotel sided with the British and still boasts a decor reflecting this. The bar held giant displays filled with china and memorabilia dedicated to the royal families through the years. It was beautiful.
2011 in Review
Here I am, snuggled up on the couch, with my little cats, and the sun shining in over my shoulder. I’m welcoming 2012 with open arms. I feel as if there is a new hope and openness with the turn of the year and I am trying to embrace it with hard work and creativity. In moving forward, I also think it’s important to look back and to find your current place. So here is a glimpse at all the wonderful things that happened in 2011.
January was filled mostly with wedding planning. I sent out our handmade book wedding invitations. My mother and her friends threw me a beautiful bridal tea party filled with exquisite china and scones. We also celebrated vegan pizza day. Yum!
February was the month we got married. So that was the best ever.
We started March on our honeymoon in New Zealand. We hung out with alpacas, went camping and hiking and had an amazing time. When we got back, I introduced you to these little creatures in our home and we made toadstool terrariums. I also shared photos from our rehearsal party with Seabirds Truck and took you all on the adventure of making our wedding cakes.
In April I finally was able to share the beautiful photos from our wedding. We found a new place to live, packed, moved and then had a huge, wonderful, fancy Easter brunch.
In May I did a lot of cooking. I made fresh bread, chocolate chip cookies, and mint infused vodka. I also finally got my own camera. We celebrated Memorial day with BBQ and s’mores.
In June a tragic thing happened, our favorite restaurant, Pure Luck, closed its doors forever. We went to the second Vegan Beer Fest, ate awesome food and sampled a ton of great beers. Kim and I launched A Moveable Feast, a vegan secret supper club. I started making our wedding quilt, even though I’d never made a quilt before. I started writing a little bit more about films I love like The Piano and A Woman Under the Influence.
July was filled with fun events. We attended the Renegade Craft Fair in downtown Los Angeles. Plant Based Parties had a kickoff dinner and we sampled some great vegan delicacies. To top it off, we threw a Batman birthday party for Shawn’s brother, Kyle.
August was exciting because I performed my first aerial silk routine since I was a teenager (and even posted a video). I made possibly my favorite pizza ever. There was a little glimpse into our home and some of our collections. Not to mention, Kim and I pulled off an amazing Spanish style secret supper.
In September, I finally shared a few rooms of our home, including the bedroom and dining room. I made some more crazy dishes like fried green tomatoes and vegan nutella.
October was huge. To start it off right, we went to the horrorthon at the New Beverly. Our film, Brainwashed Love, was in the LA Femme Film Fest. I made lentil loaf. I decorated the mantle with smiling pumpkins and made cute bat cupcakes. Then of course we had our 4th Annual Halloween Horror Movie Marathon, which was crazy and a huge success. Plus, I made Shawn his very own black velvet cape.
November held some life-changing experiences. We had a fantastic Thanksgiving at Madeleine Bistro. I turned 28. We went to AFI Fest and saw some of my favorite films of the year including Snowtown, Oslo August 31 and Kill List. It was so inspiring to see such well crafted films. Then, we went to our dear friends’ wedding in Ojai, which I attempted to dye a dress brown for.
And finally we’re in December. This past month was full of celebrations for holidays and friends. I finally finished our wedding quilt. We went on a really nice little trip to Palm Springs. I got a surprise delivery from a new friend. Last, but not least, we spent the holidays on the East Coast with Shawn’s family and had quite the adventure. I’ll get to share some tidbits from that over the next few days including some fantastic restaurants we went to.
Looking back, this past year has been filled with wonder. I feel truly lucky and fulfilled. I can’t wait for what this year brings, as there is so much in the works. I’m nearing the finish of writing our second feature film, a psychological thriller set in the woods, that I’m so excited about and honestly really proud of. Both Shawn and I have a few short projects that we’re going to put together as our major goal of the year is to make more films. We’ll be going to at least two film festivals in the next few months and in just a few weeks I’ll be attending Altitude Design Summit. Major stuff. I love it. Hooray for 2012!
farewell 2011
The end of the year is truly upon us and only a few hours remain of 2011. It seems everyone is excited about the new year and things to come as am I. 2011 was a major turning point for me as it is the year that Shawn and I got married. A lot of other cool stuff happened too. I see a little roundup of the year coming in next few days.
I’m sure that 2012 is going to hold many magical things as we already have a few things planned, and after our little winter vacation I’m feeling inspired and content.
Generally speaking I’m not much of a resolution type of girl, but I do have a few this year, both big and small. On the small end, I want to keep track of the films that we watch this year, so I can look back at the end of the year. On the slightly bigger end, one of my other goals is to live life more simply.
Many things will be happening on the blog in the next few weeks. I have lots of lovely photos from our recent trip to share and hopefully there will be a bit of a redesign in the near future.
Wishing you you all a wonderful new year!
Much love,
Alix
palm springs
With the last few posts having their fair share of words, I thought it might be nice to balance things with some photos. We spent the weekend with my dad in Palm Springs on a mini vacation for all of us. We walked around, took lots of photos and ate some surprisingly good food. It was good to have a change of pace and get away from home even if just for a day or two. It was quiet and relaxing and I hope we’ll get to go back in the future for a longer stay. Shawn discovered that we were staying at the hotel where Frank Capra wrote It’s a Wonderful Life. Wouldn’t it be lovely to spend some time in such a tranquil setting, just writing? I think so.
Q & A
Happy Friday everyone! It’s almost time for the weekend. Kim and I are hosting one of our dinners on Saturday so it will be filled with lots of cooking for me. I’m excited though because we’re doing breakfast for dinner, which is pretty much the best.
So I said I’d answer questions and a few of you had them so here goes!
When did first decide to go vegan and what prompted it?
Well, it’s not really a short story but you can read it here. I’m closing in on six years being vegan, which makes me happy.
What’s your favorite breakfast, lunch and dinner?
This question is a lot harder than one might think. Let’s start with breakfast. I eat the same breakfast nearly every day: sourdough toast with earth balance and nutritional yeast. So I guess you could say that is my favorite. On the other hand, I do seriously love some tofu benedict, but that is sort of a special treat.
Now lunch is pretty tricky. I’d have to say some kind of sandwich. I am a big fan of extra creamy tofu salad sandwiches. I eat a lot of tofu banh mis as well since there is a Vietnamese place near where I work. I also love vegan reubens.
As for dinner, I’m gonna go with pizza. I love nearly all kinds of pizza. I’m still dreaming about this one. I particularly like thin crusts with exotic toppings.
Obviously this is not a very balanced diet in combination with each other…but you did ask my favorites.
What exactly is it you do for a living?
I’m a Post Production Accountant. Sounds boring, huh? Basically I do accounting for films and TV shows after they’ve finished filming when they’re editing and just wrapping up different aspects. It’s definitely more interesting than regular accounting and I’ve learned a lot about the finance side of film production so I appreciate that. Oh, and I’m good at it, so I’ve got that going.
What do you want to be when you “grow up?”
Gosh, I don’t even know if I have an answer to this. I want to be a filmmaker. I guess in some ways I am already but I’d like to actually get paid for it.
The truth is though, I just want to have the opportunity to be creative and make things.
When do we get to see more of a sneak peek into your new house?
What if I say Monday? I think I could make that happen. I hope. In the mean time, here are some details and other things to hold you over.
How did you and Shawn meet? 🙂
The short version is that we met in a 7/11 parking lot on a bike ride. The longer cuter version is here.
Miss Alix – why does Mochi look so shell-shocked? What has she seen that she cannot unsee?
Oh I hope we haven’t traumatized our cat by watching too many horror movies around here. Most likely she just caught her sister eating the last of the cat food.
