Fangirl Friday: Cynthia Von Buhler

This particular edition of Fangirl is over someone I admire a great deal and wouldn't mind being a little more like her. She's a vegan artist who rescues animals. Her name is Cynthia Von Buhler. She's a gorgeous painter, writer, illustrator, producer, etc..seriously there's not much creatively she does not do. She's kind enough to have  added me to her Facebook page and has on occasion even commented to me on there. I would love for her to someday illustrate one of my story books. She travels the world and encourages people to be kind to one another. For her 50th birthday she wore a dress that was an actual cake! A CAKE! I mean honestly, how awesome. I might add her apartment and other home is gorgeous. She's very much a DIY person which I really love.

I have a Pinterest board dedicated to her. Her next venture after doing a show the last part of 2015 is to host The Illuminati Ball and oh how I wish I could go. 

Here are some pictures of her in her cake dress, her paintings and other projects. I encourage you to look her up, she's lovely.

*images from her blog, Amazon and Pinterest

Art, Sort of.

Massive house clean out which happens every January is underway. It never fails to lead to some funny rediscoveries. My 5th grade art project I made when I was bored. Won 1st place in the Art Fair at my school. Noah's Ark. The following year in 6th grade I was president of the dinosaur club and a library volunteer wherein I read every book in the library. Also, secretary of the Model Rocketry Club. Noah lost, Science won.

2015 Favorite Vegan Foods (Twin Cities)

One thing that certainly stands out about last year is a lot of really great things put into my face hole known as a mouth. Eating vegan has never been easier and the Twin Cities especially Minneapolis is turning into a haven for good vegan food. This is a picture heavy post because well, there's a lot of good stuff around now!

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My favorite breakfast in town is hands down at the Modern Times Cafe. It's kale, tempeh, tofu covered in garlic tahini sauce. They also have a solid soy mocha.

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My favorite new discovery is Nico's Taco Bar. I love the cactus tostada! Make sure to get salsa trios as well.

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A dish at my favorite fine dining restaurant, Jasmine 26. The Basil noodles are light and flavorful. Make sure you also start with the Salt-n-Pepper Tofu, you'll be glad you did.

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Truth be told, my love for Glam Doll Donuts has been tested this year. The maple vegan bar (shown above) is amazing but more than once I have gotten terrible vegan donuts there. Tiny, undercooked, dry. I am trying to cut them some slack as they learn to adapt because having a donut shop I like is fun.

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The mind-blowing food revelation in town this year was learning you can get vegan gelato at the Mall of America. Paciugo has a fabulous Limoncello gelato as well as many other soy and water based flavors. What a great surprise!

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This completely amazingly yummy waffle dessert comes from Kitty Corner Cafe. I can't decide whether I wish I lived closer to it or further away. I want to go here more often. I shouldn't. You should.

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I love veggie sushi and Japanese food but most places are terrible at the vegan versions. This year I found two places I liked. The first is Masu. This is the veggie caterpillar. It's cute, delicious and the wasabi is actually strong. Often it is not. I like it ass-kicking. I wouldn't say it's that strong but it's better than most.

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The second Japanese place I liked this year was Midori's Floating World Cafe. First, the name...lovely. Second, the food was fresh and perfect. Third, the service was pretty dreadful. It took forever to get our food and we didn't get to eat together. There are pretty decorations to look at as you grumpily wait so there's that.

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Honorable mention Japanese is Unideli at United Noodle. The tiny spot in the store has great Vegan Shoyu and there's tons of it.

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Favorite new fast dinner spot (or lunch) is Hot Indian Foods in the Midtown Global Market. The Vegan Channa is surprisingly delicious. I say surprising because Indian food is such an art and I don't expect too much from a tiny stand. My bad. You can get it in a fried bread wrap which is insanely decadent(or without like pictured here) but it melts in your mouth. The Indi-frites have a unique spice on them. The sauce they are served with is not vegan but ask for hot sauce with them instead, they make their own and it's out of this world.

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This thing of beauty is an artful vegan pizza from Pizza Nea. My newest pizza discovery lead me to a long time spot that is perfect for a date with wine and romantic lighting. They teamed up with local vegan butcher shop The Herbivorous Butcher to make most of their pizzas available in vegan versions. The faux mozzarella is the best I've ever had.

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I had two rediscoveries this year. The first being Harry Signh's. This simple rice and beans dish is so good and so hot you would not even believe it. There is a lot of vegan options here and I will warn you: my tolerance is very high and I find this food spicy as hell. It's really AWESOME.

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My second rediscovered spot is Sen Yai-Sen Lek. I love the Tofu Peanut Satay. They are a community minded place with a seasonal menu and lots of good intentions. The Tofu Basil dish is also worth having.

There are plenty of places I could add but these were the new stand-outs this year for the most part. 

As the new year starts and lots of people try out being vegan especially here: There's tons of places to go out.

2015

2015 was a very mixed year for me. I cannot say that everything went super great by any means. I know that blogs are supposed to be fantasy filled things but the truth of a fairy tale is there are plenty of challenging tasks before you get to the balls, pretty dresses and parties. You can walk through the magic garden but get stung by a bee or pricked by a rose. The fae forest is  beautiful but treacherous and filled with your tasks you need to survive to get to your happy ending for that chapter. That is what a real fairy tale is: filled with gorgeous gowns and difficult days. 

I lost both my cats in 2015. That had a big impact on me as they were both sick and one especially was unexpected. 

I did complete writing two novels including one during the November NaNoWriMo Challenge. 

I got to see the Grand Canyon for the first time and hike the Gunflint Trail in Northern Minnesota. I also visited the Wisconsin Dells which is a place I’ve always been curious about. We went close to the end of the season so it was not quite as lively as it gets but it sure was surrealistic while I was there. I spent a week living in non-reality in Las Vegas where I got to see three Cirque Du Soleil shows in one week and eat amazing food everyday. 

There were a lot of house projects. They were tiring and trying but now my kitchen is beautifully updated and it was not planned for it to be for some time yet. It’s such a pleasure to look at it now. All the exhaustive weeks of dealing with it have yielded a rich, warm place. 

I went out to a pizza farm in Northfield, MN. I liked doing that as well as visited a few more wineries around the state. 

A handsome black kitty broke into my house which was funny.

There were foxes overtaking the neighborhood much to my delight. 

I spent 30 days in a row giving something away every day. I ended up giving a way quite a lot of stuff this last year and starting in on my Wear What You Own project (more on that later). Car loads of things were given away. I don’t even know half the time where all this stuff comes from but it was nice to recycle and find good homes for things. 

I did start a couple of clothing consignment accounts as well. I gave away half my wardrobe before it occurred to me I would probably need things in the future so getting a little money back here and there wouldn’t be a bad thing. 

I had my first garden on my deck this year. It started off really well and then I left someone else to tend it. Well, it ended up ruined and I was pretty frustrated but I am going to try again this year with a bit of a better plan. I did see lots of bees, birds and butterflies out there so it succeeded for a while. 

I got in one round of snow tubing with friends. That is always fun plus, I adore my friend’s 9 year old daughter. She cracks me up and is quite the daredevil. 

I took lots of walks in the fall and attended NerdCon here in town with the Green brothers, Maureen Johnson, Stephanie Perkins and a lot of other great writers. It was so inspiring it got me to do the NaNoWriMo challenge. 

I had my second book release party in July at CONvergence and adopted three cats who are driving me nuts. So much so the kitten’s name has officially been changed to Trouble.

Those are a few of my notable moments. There was also lots of good food and books but those are separate posts!

New Year's Eve

For 7 years (at least) (maybe more) I have been putting on big (200-300 people) NYE events. This year it didn't work out to do so and I find that I am a little lost with what to do with my time. Anyway, as I miss it I also get to look back on some of our awesome events:

Movies

I am going to Star Wars tonight and I had not really planned to see it anytime soon. I haven't been too excited about it as it seems to me that movies are constantly the same these last ten years. Well, I guess I am caught in the snare as well. I did watch a few trailers of continuing franchises this morning and this is the one that caught my eye the most.

Christmas Trees for Weirdos

I am not putting my tree up this year for a few reasons but the biggest being the three new cats in my life. They would surely bring it down at this point. They're not very well-behaved yet. I'll just say we're working on it. 

As such, I've found myself exploring trees on Pinterest. I, of course, like the odd ones the best. Actually, the ones hanging from the ceiling are my favorite. I wonder if I can figure out how to do that one year. All of these pictures are from different places but I pulled them from the magical land of Pinterest.

A Fairy Tale for Planned Parenthood: The Unicorn Visit

To quell my frustration over the continued attacks on women's health rights, I've taken to writing fairy tales about it. We'll start here: 

 

The girl came into her room after being out all night and was surprised to find the unicorn standing by her bed.

“Good morning,” the unicorn said in a clipped British accent. “Did you have a good time?”

Unsure what to say, and feeling a blush creep into her cheeks, she stood awkwardly by the door and shifted around in stocking feet.

“My, my! It must’ve been a good time if you can no longer speak,” the unicorn teased her. 

“I don’t mean to be rude,” she stammered. “I’m just quite shocked to find you in my room. My father said unicorns only visit pure girls. Girls who’ve no sexuality or sexual relationships with anyone. He told me I am not a good person, as I’ve a boyfriend.”

The unicorn raised its eyebrow skeptically. Well, it would’ve raised its eyebrow skeptically if unicorns had eyebrows to raise.

“I beg your pardon, Miss, but I must say, your father is a bit of a judgmental creep. And not just a small amount of a hypocrite,” it finished, muttering to itself.

“What? I’m sorry, Mr. Unicorn, I didn’t hear that last part.” The girl stepped a bit closer.

“Nothing, dear. If you don’t mind, please do not call me ‘Mister’. I prefer to be a non-gender-specified creature so I can visit anyone I wish and not make them uncomfortable. A side note, darling, ask your father what he gets up to on Tuesday nights down at the tavern, and we’ll see how judgmental he is then.”

“Okay?” The girl cocked her head to the side and, sweet as can be, tried to puzzle out what that meant. “What is that on my bedside table?” She pointed past the unicorn.

“Ahh, yes. The reason for my visit. Now, I most assuredly do not presume to judge you for having sexual relations with anyone who is a consenting adult. However, I’ve made it my job to visit people of all shapes and sizes and preferences and make them accountable to their safety and their partners’ sexual safety. One can be fun, but one must also be wise. That’s what we really do, us unicorns… Educate. Honestly, I am quite tired of these silly, faux tales of us running around judging everyone. We enjoy a good romp as much as the next beast. That said, go ahead and open your gifts.”

The girl set her smashingly cute high heels on the floor and wove over to the table. She unwrapped cheerfully festooned boxes full of condoms, birth control, dental dams, and many other things to make life a bit easier.

“Do you think you might find those useful, milady?” the unicorn asked in a silly voice, trying to ease the girl’s discomfort. “Really, you’ve nothing to be ashamed of. And most importantly, you should be taking care of yourself. Never mind what these ridiculous people try to tell you to control you.”

“Why, yes, I think I would find them useful.” She turned and looked at the unicorn. “Truthfully, I do get a little tired of hearing the crap people say when I know they are full of b.s. They’re always telling us to look to the princess for virtuous leadership.”

“Believe me when I say, when she gets her chance the princess will speak out, as she enjoys a good time as much as anyone. Now, dear, I also left you a daring little number in the closet. I must be on my way. The princess in question has asked me to visit her ladies-in-waiting. Waiting for what, I always wonder?” The unicorn laughed and strutted out the door, but not before turning around and reminding her, “Being sexually active is a great deal of fun, but do not forget your annual exam.” With that, the unicorn disappeared into a puff of glitter. 

Since we don’t have unicorns, we need Planned Parenthood.

 

Visit Planned Parenthood to donate or get access to healthcare.

Scathingly Brilliant

As I continue on with my current house projects, I am recalling other spaces I've found so charming through the last few years. I think it's funny that I get a kick out of so many pastel rooms when I don't want to live in that myself. One such pastel princess is Kate Gabrielle of Scathingly Brilliant. Her blog and work are adorable. She's a girl who is close to her family and self-admittedly had an apartment briefly and then decided she wanted to be back with her parents. Now this is something I cannot relate to but I do think it's sweet. 

She has a bedroom it seems in the family home but in her brief stint in her place she did do some pretty unique decorating and I've included pictures. You should take a look at her blog, it's cute.

It's the Great Pumpkin!

This time of year always reminds me of one of the oddest coincidences in my life. Even more so with the Peanuts movie coming out in November. When we would go visit my grandfather as children we would always beg him to order us pizza. He would tell us that he could not order us pizza because no one believed who he was...he would call a pizza place to prove it.  We would hear him order pizza, have an argument with the person on the phone about who he was and then hold the phone up dramatically so we could hear the person yell and hang up. My siblings and I would laugh and laugh.  Like magic, the pizza would appear in a half hour. My grandfather died the week Charles Schultz retired the Peanuts comic. His name was Charlie Brown.

House Snaps

Since my life is still being taken up with some house stuff, here are some pics. The sad part is that this is only two rooms being worked on. Too bad the whole house won't be painted and floored. Someday I can be this woman: Hardwood Floors.

The other room we are working on is our Rumpus Room as I call it. The bar/theater room. Despite the fact that we live in a town house we are managing to do mini versions of luxury projects. We have a theater screen, projector and bar in one room. We just added these toy shelves for my little movie toy collection. I'm not one for a McMansion and my brief phase of wanting a Victorian to restore disappeared when I realized I actually wanted to have a life outside of taking care of a house. As I will not ever be wealthy enough to pay people for projects and I won't be having children- a townhouse has suited our needs quite well. Much to my surprise. I thought I wanted a giant dressing room and craft room but my walk-in closet has worked fine as it turns out. I actually get tired of having clothes I don't wear so I give them away. And using my landing area for my jewelry making has been just great. It's funny how you learn things about yourself. Often what we think and what we are is different.

I'm sure this won't be the last of the pictures even if we still have a ways to go. 

Things Made

My house has been distracting me a great deal and keeping me from making a lot of new things for my ETSY shop. Though I have made a few bits and pieces here and there as well as some more elaborate pieces that I will be posting soon!

Steampunk Fashion: But what do you wear to work?

To go along with the Steampunk lifestyle you must be appropriately attired. As you can see this look often means people are dressed to the hilt. I am not sure where these clothes come from as I would love to tell you but the problem with Pinterest is the sometimes lack of sources. I only ever see people dressed this way at special events so I don't know what they do for work but I am curious...

Friday Fandom: Guillermo Del Toro

I thought I should start with Guillermo Del Toro on my Friday Fandom since the movie I am most excited to see this year is Crimson Peak. Seriously, I love his movies and adore his book. His Bleak House work/storage/art museum is somewhere I wish I could go. Also, I certainly wouldn't mind my own extra house filled with my own whimsy. Hellyboy 2: The Golden Army is pretty much perfect. If you don't think so, I don't know what's wrong with you. If you're not familiar with Mr. Del Toro's work you should look him up. You will not be disappointed. The house in the trailer for Crimson Peak looks like somewhere I wouldn't mind living and the costumes! ::SWOON:: He's so good at telling a scary story without an overabundance of gore. Sans, possibly the show The Strain. But I've even watched some of that and will likely finish it. 

You can get his book for endless inspiration. As someone who has no truly deep imagination and who struggles to create anything, I greatly admire people who are deeply gifted with such talents. Especially when they use it to make marvelous things.

Pictures from the Legendary movie site as well as Pinterest. Though I can tell you some come right out the book. LOOK HIM UP!!

Design Ideas

As I have been looking for paint ideas and such for the kitchen, I have been perusing home tours on Apartment Therapy. I have a love/lukewarm feelings relationship with AT for a few reasons. It is a site I have been reading for a long time. Realistically most of the design on there is just not that interesting to me. But fair enough, that could be said for a lot of people. If everything was your taste then you would have no actual taste. But really I definitely fall in the minority of people in the world who look to decorate their homes. I do not like white, beige, bright, yellow, orange, brown. I do not like mid-century modern, modern and I use IKEA as a tool store not a lifestyle store. As it is I feel like I have too many shelves from there but the size and prices make it pretty easy to shop there. I am a weirdo. I have always been a weirdo and I will continue to get odder as I age. It can't be avoided. So the carefully styled rooms and "strategically" placed yellow vases against bare white walls do not interest me in the least. Mostly they look like offices to me. Or if someone had no real idea what to do with the place. Whatever, just my own opinion. 

That said, there are tours that they post that I really like. The majority come from New Orleans. Not all of them but most of them. Although, something I've noted about the tours in New Orleans is that it seems as though none or very few (though I could not locate any) do not feature any families or people of color. Which is baffling to me. One of the best things about New Orleans is it's rich diversity. At the moment, I am not sure what to think about this, though I find myself troubled by this as I do about many things that don't seem truly representational of our country and the cities within it. Or honestly, come across as racist or demonstrating the troubling economic inequality that plagues our world. I will write more about this at a later time as I sort my thoughts and besides this post is about decorating for the time being. SO! I have pulled a couple of pictures and tours from Apartment Therapy that I really like and I will also post more in the future. I tend to bookmark the ones I like to get inspired later on.

Here's the home of an artist and her partner. Two pictures and the link. I really like the collection of original art and the collection of natural wonders. 

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I should say flat out I do not care for taxidermy and leather furniture. They are both trends that I hope go away honestly. Anyway. I really like the use of color in this tour, especially the gray and the unusual backyard. Miranda Lake's beautiful New Orleans home.

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I think the truth is that artists tend to have the homes I like the most. Strange and full of their own bizarre and unique minds.  I also find myself envious of the access that people who live in New Orleans have to history, antiques and rich culture. 

I am not crazy about fashion icon items as decor. However, I love the green in the bedroom and the disco ball. Valorie's New Orleans home is a unique place.

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I can only hope to be as cool as these people someday. I'll show you some more stuff I like from good ole' AT soon. For those of us who shiver at the words "mid-century modern."

HAIR!

About a year and a half ago I got my hair done for the first time in a dark blue color. I wasn't too crazy about it at first and truth be told, my experience at the salon I went to left a lot to be desired. That was a bit frustrating at first as the place I went had the best reputation for unusual hair requests. And I might add, this type of service is very expensive. It certainly falls into the luxury end of expense as far as I am concerned. Be that as it may I was getting my hair colored for the release party of my first book. I was nervous but excited and at that point had only ever done box colors. I was not about to bleach my own hair. My hair may not be perfect but it is healthy and people spend a whole lot of time learning to care for your hair. My using a box bleach was not about to happen. Some things I just don't think are very smart to do on your own if you have no experience. Hair for me, is one of those things.  SO I made an appointment at Hair Police and went in the first time. Like I said it wasn't a great experience but I will say I am still going to the same place and seeing the same person because it did get better. There was just enough good about the first couple of experiences for me to weigh it against the bad and give it another go. Plus, when you finally find someone who can actually do your hair, it makes you pretty happy. It's such a personal thing and is one of the first things people notice about you. That said my hair is currently blue though faded from summer with silvery blue tips and I have enjoyed this very much. I am going in for a new color this week and I have been scrolling through a million ideas from Pinterest looking to see what I want. The first couple of pictures are my hair from earlier this year and the next few after are some of the ideas I really like. I am fairly certain I've settled on a color but you never know. 

One of the things that made me go back to my current stylist was her total honesty about caring for my hair. She gave me really good advice about how to take of the color. And even though it fades as this is unavoidable it does so gradually and usually fades to a fairly nice color. I am not someone who runs in for a touch-up immediately as I don't think the bleach is a good idea all the time. She has mentioned that this keeps my hair pretty healthy despite all the abuse. 

First and foremost she told me, no hot water. Barely even warm. This isn't a particularly easy thing to deal with in a cold Minnesota winter but it is great for your hair in general. I usually pin my hair up and don't wash it till the end so it's quick and I can still have a warm shower the rest of the time. 

Second, do not wash your hair everyday. This is also good advice in general because it dries your hair out unless you have unusually oily hair. I used to have a very dirty, dusty job so I did wash my hair everyday out of necessity but no longer.  I wash it every 2-3 days depending how dirty it feels and based on activities. The days in-between I either condition it or just leave it. My hair is pretty much healthier than it's been in a really long time.

Third and this is probably one of the more important pieces to this is: only use salon quality products. You may think, yeah right you can use cheaper things. Well, let me tell you, sure you can but they are going to strip your hair no matter what the bottle says. No alcohol, no sulfates. Absolutely paramount in maintaining your color and not even the pricey things at Whole Foods are as good as the salon products I buy. I've tried dozens of them. I mean seriously, even if you do the color yourself it is a huge time and money investment, why not make it last as much as possible. I personally use Kevin Murphy products because they are also not tested on animals and use vegan ingredients which is important to me. My color as well is cruelty-free. (Another reason I decided to stick with my current stylist was her commitment to finding and using cruelty-free products)

There are other things as well to think about such as wearing hats when out in the sun for long periods of time and minimizing exposure to heat styling tools without some sort of oil to protect your hair.  But those three listed above are the most helpful. The only thing I haven't tried is having a bit of color added to my conditioner and I may ask her to do that for me this time. 

There's tons of hair advice out there and some of it is even useful but if you're going for an unusual color you have to know it requires a fair amount of extra time and care. And money. No way around that. Blue especially is difficult to maintain and it can run forever. But well, it's pretty great when little kids freak out over your color and think you're a mermaid.