My Seed Experience

I’m back from San Antonio!  While I had a great time getting to meet up with all my colleagues, customers and vendors I always feel better once I get back to NYC.  I’m such a big city girl it’s not even funny.

So I got back on Friday, just in time for me to prepare to speak at the Seed on Saturday.  The event was beyond my expectations.  I had a great time not only visiting all the vendor tables and trying lots of food, but also getting to meet and listen to many of the other speakers.  I also finally got to try that Cinnamon Snail truck everyone raves about and OMG was it amazing.

If you missed it, I talked about how to transition to a cruelty-free wardrobe, which I had previously posted about here.  To my surprise, during my talk the room completely filled up and was standing room only (aside from the few chairs in the front row, which you see in the photos below).  Cruelty-free fashion is apparently a hot topic!

For those of you who attended the Seed and came to see me speak, it was so great to finally get to meet you in person!  I loved getting to meet everyone and hope to get to participate in similar events in the future.

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Come See Me At the Seed This Weekend

If you are in the New York City area this weekend, be sure to check out the Seed Expo.  I’ll be speaking!

The Seed is a huge vegan event being held from May 18th and 19th here in NYC at 82 Mercer. There will be lots of delicious vegan food, products, services, world-renowned speakers, films, and more. Best part about the Seed is it’s designed around a more “veg-curious” crowd, meaning if you are not currently vegan but are interested in the lifestyle, it’s a great place to come on out and see what it’s all about.

To my surprise, the organizers of the event have invited me to be a featured speaker! I’m on at 4:15 on Saturday, and will be talking about how to successfully transition to a cruelty-free wardrobe.

Will you be attending the Seed? If so I’d love to meet you so let me know!

Inside Out in Times Square

WHAT I’M WEARING // YASO Faux Leather Jacket // H&M Blouse // MAVI Jeans (Old) // CHINESE LAUNDRY Leopard Loafers (old, via Delia’s) // HURLEY Backpack // JUSTFAB Sunglasses

Last Friday, Jim and I took our friends Gina and Mark to MOMA and then headed slightly cross-town to Times Square.  The street artist JR currently has the Inside Out Project set up there and we wanted to check it out and hopefully get to participate.

JR is best known for his portraits, so as part of this project he’s taking portraits of New Yorkers throughout the 5 boroughs and installing them in areas around the city.  To make the process crazy efficient, they have a fully outfitted photography studio truck, so they’ve been moving the truck from neighborhood to neighborhood.  If you visit their Facebook Page, the portraits done around the Rockaways and other Sandy stricken areas are so powerful it makes me well up.  I highly recommend checking it out.

We had heard the photo truck was in Times Square so we took a quick walk over to see if we could participate.  Sadly, they weren’t there due to a 10k race being set up for the weekend.  But we still had a great time enjoying the incredible weather and checking out all the portraits pasted to the sidewalks.

Gina and I also wanted to take the opportunity to take our own portraits amongst the portraits.  How meta, right?

The Inside Out Project is supposed to be in Times Square through May 10th. Jim and I are still hoping to make it there one day after work to get ours done. If you participate you have the option to either have it pasted at the site, or to take it home with you. We’d love to have the portraits for our apartment, so fingers crossed we’ll be able to make it happen!

My Weekend According to Instagram

This past weekend Jim and I enjoyed an extended one, getting to show my college bestie Gina and her boyfriend Mark around town. We covered a lot of ground in three days, and I’m still getting through the few hundred photos I took over the course of the weekend.  Next time I need to learn to stick to one camera and not three!

Here’s some of my favorites I managed to snap on my iPhone and post to Instagram as we were out in about.

We enjoyed coffee from Caffe Capri EVERY morning.  They seriously have the BEST coffee in Brooklyn // Stopped for brunch at Champs Diner

We did some serious art gawking, especially at MOMA // Spotted this book at Poseman’s Books in the Chelsea Market and am convinced I need a vegan version of this Mondrian inspired cake for my upcoming birthday this July

Enjoyed beyond fantastic weather this entire weekend, especially during our visit to the High Line, where I spotted this fantastic mural // There were some new installations along the park that weren’t there during my last visit.  This one in particular was stunning, the mirrored glass made the side of the building blend into the sky

Are you on Instagram?  Hit me up!  My Instagram handle is @BrooklynBliss.

The Big Chop

At this point in time it’s no secret, I chopped off all my hair!  It happened last Wednesday at Adelaide Salon here in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  It’s not that often I make a drastic hair length change like this, so to commemorate the event, photographer Joel Stigliano tagged along to document it.

My long time stylist Casey (who also did my dip-dye) did the honors.  I wanted to donate the hair to Locks of Love, and I had so much hair it resulted in two ponytails we chopped off.  All in all I think it was about 10 inches we took off.

The style I wanted was an inverted bob, which is longer in the front than it is in the back.  Casey took her time really perfecting the shape and when it was done, it was perfect!  Very flattering to my jaw line.

Also, for anyone wondering, the best way to cut curly hair is when it’s dry so you can see the natural curl pattern.  That’s why Casey’s cutting my hair prior to us washing it.

During my entire appointment, we had this adorable guy watching us.  Can you believe he’s just a puppy?!  Probably the most well-behaved puppy I’ve ever encountered.

Once my bob was pretty well-shaped, it was then time for color.  I decided I wanted to dye my hair back to my natural brunette.  While I loved the red, it was too high maintenance for me.  Adelaide Salon carries Organic Color Systems which is a vegan line, so I was all set!

After the dye set it was then time to wash, set and dry the curls.

I often get a lot of questions from readers on how I style my hair, so stay tuned next week as Casey walks us through a curly hair styling tutorial!

PHOTOGRAPHY  BY // Joel Stigliano

Los Cabos / Sunset Cruise

While in Los Cabos, in addition to deciding to get a professional photo shoot done, we also purchased a sunset booze cruise excursion. It was a great excuse to get out of San Jose de Cabo (where our hotel was) and go into the main tourist area of Los Cabos.

Our cruise was on the Cabo Escape. While we waited to board the ship, the crew did a great dance number for us!

Once on the ship, Ariel and I picked a prime table and staked our claim. We weren’t alone for long, we soon made friends with a group of guys who were all friends and from both NYC and LA, as well as a nice couple from California who all joined us at our table.

From there the ship’s crew served what seemed to be a never-ending stream of margaritas. And later the nice couple from California started buying our table tequila shots. Lots and lots of shots. I actually lost count. I think I had around 5 shots and at least 3-4 margaritas on the ship alone. I swear I’m really not a lush, I just handle tequila really well.

See the guy in the photo below on the bottom left? He was one of the guys from LA at our table. We later after our Cabo trip learned that this is the same guy. Seriously. We had no clue at the time, he was actually very nice and didn’t mention a thing about his famous girlfriend. Neither did his friends.

Once the drinks started pouring and we were served our taco buffet, the cruise set off and we got to see some gorgeous Los Cabos sights! Lucky for us, even though it was overcast when we boarded the ship by the time we got out to sea it had burned off, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

We also got to see some seals. This little sad guy cracked me up.

Towards the end of the cruise, we even saw a whale! Below is the best shot I managed to get of him. He was magnificent. Swam right alongside the boat dancing along the water.

After the cruise came back into port, Ariel and I said our goodbyes to our new friends and decided to check out some of the other nightlife in Cabo. We wound up at Cabo Wabo where we spent the last few cocktails of the evening. Yes, there were more, we were on vacation after all! Cabo Wabo had a great band that evening.

After we had finally had our fill of sunsets, good music and margaritas, we headed back to our hotel with the intention of watching the Oscars.

We didn’t make it past the red carpet before we both fell asleep. But at least we had a memorable time!

Single Fare 3

On February 13th, Jim and a slew of other artists had work featured in the Single Fare 3 show at RH Gallery in NYC. Jim and I attended the opening and afterwards went out and grabbed a bite to eat. It was a fun, weekday date night in the city.

Single Fare 3 is unique in that it’s an open call art show. The only real criteria is whatever artwork you submit has to you the NYC Metrocard as the basis for the piece. It’s a really interesting show concept and as a result this is their third year holding the show and several well established artists submit pieces.

At the opening, during the first hour pieces sell at $200. After, everything sells for $100. We arrived during the first hour and were surprised at how many pieces we already sold during the first choice hour.

There were thousands of entries and each and every one of them as unique as the other. People painted on the metro cards, made sculptures out of them, or re-purposed them. These are some of my favorite images from this fun evening out.

Jim’s pieces at the show.

All this art talk makes me so bummed I missed Armory in March!

Gwynnett Street

Last Thursday evening, Jim and I participated in Dine Out Williamsburg for Sandy Relief. Gwynnett Street was a participating restaurant, and we’ve been dying to try it out for a while. What better way to try out a fancy new bistro than a night when 20% of their gross profits are going to provide relief to Sandy victims?

This meal totally impressed me.  Gwynnett Street is very vegan friendly.  So much so, they always have a vegan appetizer, entrée and dessert on their menu at any given time.

Jim started out with their Whiskey Bread, which wasn’t vegan but vegetarian.  It came with cultured butter and looked delicious.  I wish it was vegan, it looked so yummy it was torture looking at it.

For my appetizer I had the winter squash with bell pepper, szechuan pepper and peppercress.  Holy moly this was delicious.  Textures were great.  The squash had a nice bite to it, the herbs were flash fried, and it also had what I believe were pepitas throughout it which gave it additional crunch against the soft vermicelli noodles.  The sauce was delicately sweet and had a hint of citrus.  It was also probably one of the most gorgeously plated vegan dishes I think I’ve ever had.

For my entrée, I finally got to try their tofu.  This restaurant like Roberta’s was awarded a two star review by the New York Times, and the reviewer raved about their house made tofu.

This night it was prepared crusted in pistachio with avocado, celery and celtuce.  The texture was more reminiscent of a pate to me, and it had a great pistachio crust.  Very light and tasty, perfectly paired with the raw avocado, celery and celtuce (which I think is a combination between celery and lettuce?).

What absolutely made my night is when the waitress told me the chef was going to come up with a specialty vegan dessert for me.  She later came back out with what I believe was a sorbet with poached pears, fall spices (lots of cinnamon), a nut cream sauce, and fresh berries.  This was as delicious and seasonal as it sounds.  Isn’t the plating beautiful?

I was extremely pleased with my meal at Gwynett Street and will for sure be back.  It’s now one of my favorite restaurants in the neighborhood.

Have you tried the vegan options at Gwynett Street?  What did you think?

Robertas Pizza

Last Saturday, Jim and I dropped off a load of Sandy Relief donations at Roberta’s Pizza in Bushwick. We had never eaten there, and figured we’d stay for lunch. That’s not to say we haven’t tried to eat there before. Last time we tried it was closed down due to these folks eating there.

If you’re unfamiliar with Roberta’s, the restaurant somewhat pioneered the Brooklyn food scene and has given Brooklyn a rep for having restaurants just as good as Manhattan, if not better. In fact, the New York Times awarded them a two star review.  I don’t know they’re entire history and story but do know that they actually grow a lot of the produce they use on site.

There was of course a wait when we arrived.  They have an additional bar outdoors in a heated tent, so we sat out there for a bit while we waited for our table.

All the seating is pretty much shared.  So we were sat with another couple on one side and a family of four on the other, all at the same table.

I informed the waitress I was vegan and asked what she recommended, and she was very accommodating. I was recommended the Delicata Salad minus the cheese, which was roasted delicata squash with pea shoots and what I’m guessing was a pumpkin seed dressing.  It was absolutely phenomenal.  After the first bite I understood why Roberta’s was awarded those two stars.

They also made their hash brown potatoes minus the pork hash for Jim.  It wasn’t vegan due to butter, so I couldn’t have it.  He ate the entire thing so I know it must have been delicious.

Can’t go to Roberta’s without trying the pizza.  The Rosso pie is on their standard menu and is  vegan.  It’s very simple with a flavorful garlic tomato sauce.  This pizza was by far the best pizza I’ve ever had in New York.  The crust was perfection, light and crunchy, not too heavy.  I wouldn’t even think of bastardizing this with a layer of daiya.  And I LOVE daiya.  It was that good without it.

The food is just too good not to go again and again.  I’m really looking forward to my next visit.

MooShoes Fashion Night Out

Last week for Fashion Night Out I got to catch the very last hour of the MooShoes event.  I had a business dinner I couldn’t cancel, and I rushed like a madwoman to get there.  What’s amazing is I made it from Long Island to the Lower East Side of Manhattan in about 20 minutes.  It was pretty insane.

I’m so glad I was able to attend, because they had some fantastic vegan vendors there.  In addition to meeting some of the vendor owners, I also met some Brooklyn Bliss readers, which made my day like you have no idea.  When I wasn’t gabbing my face off, I was checking out the huge array of vegan shoes, handbags, accessories and books. That’s the reason I was there, right?

When it came to doing some shopping, I had been searching for a sleek iPad sleeve for a while, and found a perfect Matt & Natt version while there.  I also finally after years of wanting one put in a pre-order for a Vaute Couture Belden coat.  I can’t wait to get it!

Were you at the MooShoes FNO event?  What were some of the shopping scores you went home with?

Also, speaking of vegan accessories, don’t forget to enter the GUNAS Milla Wallet giveaway.  It ends on Thursday so if you haven’t entered yet,  get your entry in today!