MoMA

"Greetings, my friends! You are interested in the unknown. The mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing you the full story of what happened. We are giving you all the evidence based only on the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, faces. My friends, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Can your heart stand the shocking facts of the true story of Edward D. Wood Jr.?"
(picture from:http://www.brightlightsfilm.com)

Okay, so if you have ever seen the 1994, movie of the year (at least in my mind), Ed Wood, you would know that Tim Burton is a film making genius. If you have not, then I am sure that you have watched, or at least eyed those little figures from his prior year's film, The Nightmare Before Christmas (and please let's forget the overly growing products that are readily available at Hot Topic, it's a touchy subject).

I have pretty much been in love with Burton and his visions since I was about 8 years old. I remember watching Frankenweenie with the fam. So glad that I have the coolest mom ever, and those were the type of "movie night" movies that we'd watch. Later, I went to see Nightmare and just was over the moon with everything that movie had to offer, mind you I was nine when it came out. I could not get enough! Beetlejuice, Pee-Wee, Edward, that is all I wanted to watch, well and maybe some Are You Afraid of the Dark, and Clarrisa..

Luckily on our way to LA last spring, we got to stop and see the dinosaurs from Pee-Wee, Ch'en could not wait to make them his!
Okay, so anyway, right now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, they are holding a Tim Burton Collection exhibition, and it looks freakin' amazing! These people have reconstructed lawn creatures from Edward Scissorhands, made entry ways in the shape of customary Burton drawings, and created giant blow up balloons that are about 2 stories tall in the shape of Balloon Boy.

(Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times)

They took every detail into account. for example, they were really wanting to use the original moose topiary from Edward and have that on display, but after the movie was done shooting, Tim had had it in his hard, and with the bright sunny days of SoCal, that poor little animal did not hold up so well. They put it in storage, but it has seen better days. The crew at the museum found all the original materials used, and made a new one that looks identical. Why am I not in NYC now?? And of course, when I am going it will be all gone. Oh well...Ce la vie.



Here are a few photos from Abduzeedo of the exhibition:




So if you are in New York, pop on over to MoMA and be amazed by this Burbank native and all is awesomeness. Oh, and make sure that you are wearing striped socks. You'll feel more grounded and calm.

Pandoras Box

Yeah, so this week has pretty much sucked to the high heavens and no amount of cookie dough consumption or hours of cupcake porn that I look at will make anything feel normal or better. It's been the hardest week that my husband (still so weird to say or write) will ever have to go through, and my heart just breaks for him and his family. I truly have no idea what he could possibly be thinking or feeling, luckily though, we have some of the most supportive friends out there (thank you Absola and Anna for all the foodie love!)

This blog, however, is not suppose to bring people down, so I wanted to spread a little cupcake cheer by letting you all know some things that I discovered lately.

First of all, if I could have been in my 20's in the 1920's or 30's and live in Paris, sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes (cause we're too stupid to know what they do to you, so they just look cool then) and be dressed in buckets of pearls and black satin, I think I could be a happy girl. So in the love of Louise Brooks (no, not because she has an awesome last name) I went and chopped my hairs a little shorter and lot blunter. It is still a little bit of a shock, but I am sure that people with a sense of style, and some knowledge of all things cool, they will appreciate my hair cut too.
(photos from:www.leatherockhotel.com and eutund.wordpress.com)

Also, I am so excited for the new Tim Burton movie, that unless you've been under a rock-which I guess could be kinda cool-then you would know that Alice is taking on a whole new feel. It's not the 1950's classic one where you want to go play, or the horrible 1980's live action one, it's a dark and creepy typical Burton movie. Can one really think of a more twisted childhood novel to recreate though, from a Tim Burton perspective?? The story plays Alice as being 17, and after attending a party at a Victorian estate where she gets proposed to in front of snooty society types, she runs off following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland. She had visited here before, but for some reason she cannot remember.

The part I am most looking forward to would have to be the Red Queen, played by, who else? Helena Bonham Carter. With the favorite retort of "Off with their heads!" Tim decided to capture the creepiness with a nice serene moat filled with floating heads of those who disobeyed. Don't worry kiddies, it may sound dark and demented, but you will be able to sleep afterwards. You might just have to check the closet a few more times than normal.
So, in the anticipation of the movie, Urban Decay (an amazing make-up line that is vegan friendly) came out with a "Book of Shadows".

Open the palette to reveal a pop-up scene of Alice in the mushroom forest. Her “drink me” bottle discarded, she staggers past towering mushrooms, only to cross paths with a very peculiar, hookah-smoking caterpillar. A large mirror rests behind the scene – you feel as if you are transported into the film itself. Hidden inside a secret drawer are 16 best-selling Eyeshadows, given topsy-turvy names like White Rabbit, Jabberwocky and Oraculum. Alongside them lie travel sizes of Eyeshadow Primer Potion and two 24/7 Eye Pencils. From smoky neutral eyes to flashes of hallucinogenic green and purple, the looks you can create are as endless as the rabbit hole itself. Anyone who loves Urban Decay, Tim Burton, Disney, or Alice in Wonderland absolutely MUST have this palette. Even the Mad Hatter would say this Book of Shadows delivers it all.

Ah, I cannot wait to get my palette! Hopefully you all will get yours too! Well, have a fantastic evening and day and week !! Eat lots of cupcakes and cookie dough!

Normalcy ? Never heard of it...

Uhg, so this past week has been pretty crazy. I can't believe it has already been two weeks since we got married, but there has not been anytime for celebrating life as newlyweds. Well, I take that back, we did go to get veggie burgers the other night, however, I think that was a bad idea since they made us a little ill. Tasty though!

Since Brandon's been by his moms side 24/7, it's been a little tough, and there have definitely been some moments when I thought my heart strings were going to be ripped out from inside of me.

A couple of nights ago we were able to have a little Wii party with some tasty vegan treats, and even better company. Anna, Justin, Josh, Abby and Michael all rendezvoused over at the House of Ch'en for some white bean and sweet potato stew, zucchini muffins and bread, homemade hummus, hurricanes (complimentary of Abs), and some midnight vegan strawberry cupcakes in celebration of Josh's birthday.

Since Monday's are my Fridays, I was very ready to play a little tennis and then beat Abby in the face with my awesome KO moves in boxing. She likes being reminded of who is stronger and better when it comes to virtual Wii remote flinging and spasm arm movements. So with fruit juicy drinks in everyone's hands, food passed around, and Ch'ens tail being omnipresent, some games were ready to be played. There was of course the traditional Wii Sports that started off the night, a little tennis, a little boxing, then some righteous bowling. The boys went off to Best Buy to get another game for the PS3. Dante's Inferno? Really, there's a game about a poem over 800 years old? Well, at least those boys are getting in some classic literature, even if it is by ripping out spines and then mutilating demons with a new spine sword..very classy.
Around midnight, we decided that cupcakes needed to be made.Luckily for bellies, Abs had her tips with her (frosting tips that is). We whipped out an Oh-My-God-I'm-Going-To-Die-From-Food-Awesomeness batch of strawberry cupcakes from the Joys of Vegan Baking and then did not hold back with the frosting. For Josh's birthday cupcake we loaded that sucker up with about twenty gazillion tasty calories on top. Oh, and some heart sprinkles. Good times, good times.
So here whip these up and amaze your friends! Or give them to random people and make some friends!!

Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes (from The Joys of Vegan Baking)

Ingredients:

Unbleached All Purpose Flour : 1 and 3/4 cups

Sugar: 3/4 to 1 cup

Baking Soda: 1 teaspoon

Fresh strawberries, pureed or crushed 8oz (I used strawberry pie filling, cause that's what I had)

Vanilla Extract: 1 teaspoon

Canola Oil: 1/2 cup

White Distilled Vinegar: 1 tablespoon ( I used Apple Cider, still awesome

Yield: 12 tastetactical cupcakes

Procedure >>

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/ Grease/line a muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl combine together the flour, baking soda and sugar.

3. In another bowl, mix the oil, vinegar and vanilla. Add the pureed strawberry also to the oil mixture and stir to combine.

4. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir together but do not over stir.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins.

6. Bake for about 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. When cool, frost the cupcakes and top each with a whole strawberry!!

A Beetlejuice Bride

That's right people. I got to play the wonderful role of a bride last Tuesday and marry my best friend ever! Everything was pretty last minute. We knew that we were going to get married, and were originally planning on doing it on Halloween of this year, but with wanting to make sure that certain people would be able to attend, we decided last Saturday night that we would plan for it on Tuesday, uh huh, a full two days in advance. What was I going to do with all this extra time that I had on planning a wedding? Luckily, I have some of the most amazing friends in the world, and so I had major help. Saturday night, right before Helzberg closed, I was able to go and explain to them that we needed some rings ASAP and to hook a girl up. Brandon picked up his ring the following morning, and since he has uber small fingers, his ring is about 3 sizes to large, so we're still waiting on his real ring to arrive. Monday morning, before work, we went to go get a license at the courthouse. Then I had to go prepare and present to my first big clients at work, which lasted well after the time I was suppose to get off. After, I went home and told my mom and Anna, that, "hey, think tomorrow at three o'clock would work for you?" Luckily they were able to get out of work and make that sacrifice for us! Absola, being the super woman that she is, and never sleeping, spent the day constructing flowers for my bouquet, corsages for mine and Brandon’s mom, and Ch'en, along with a beautiful center piece and flowers for the gents. Marie Antoinettes favorite flowers inspired all of the arrangements, since she knew that I loved the queen of fashion! Yeah, but she didn't stop there, she also pulled out, from who knows where, dozens of our favorite vegan cupcakes, so German chocolate with toasted coconut for me, and some mint chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache and little pink heart sprinkles individually placed on each one for Brandon. Just after midnight she stopped by with the loads of wedding goodies.

I knew the next day was going to be a doozy, so I made sure to get a full four hours of sleep . Grammy Hammy and Meh ventured down and met me so that I could look for a dress, shoes, and veil, a good three hours before the ceremony. We headed over to Nordstrom’s, where I found a nice little black dress with a big, bright red flower head band that had some cute little netting on top. Tim Burton would have been so proud, since it was all paired with some nice red little satin shoes and black lace.


Getting ready was about a thirty-minute process, and then I headed up to Brandon's moms for the ceremony. Anna, Justin, Chris, and B's family were all already there. Anna took plenty of photos for me and even brought a wedding cake from Taylor’s (drool). The little bride and groom on top were so cute! They are now proudly displayed on my refrigerator.







Everyone have his or her corsage on? Okay, let's do this thing! Five minutes later (seriously, five minutes) our Kurt Cobain and Courtney vows were said and it was time for some a new kind of rush (I was shaking the whole time!), bring on the cupcakes!

The coconut cakes were gone in a second, along with most of the Taylor’s cake. People! Come on! Eat up! A new bride can't be taking this stuff back to the house; my biggest fear is being a fat wife! Oh well, I guess he's stuck with me now. Of course, Brandon is one of the sweetest guys any girl could ever meet. Even if I weighed five hundred pounds, he would still tell me I'm beautiful everyday. He's a keeper.

A nice big reception, aka, cupcake party, will be in the future, so that way we can actually plan it and have all of our friends there. For now though, I am just happy to be a Beetlejuice Bride.