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

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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!

Los Cabos / On the Beach

While in Los Cabos a few weeks ago on my quick girls weekend trip, my friend Ariel and I decided it would be fun to hire a professional photographer and get some “glamour” shots on the beach. When we made the decision and booked the deal with Sam the photographer, I think at that point in the evening we had already had way too much tequila.

We scheduled our photo shoot for the very last day of our vacation to ensure we were bronzed enough. No point in getting glamour shots in Mexico unless your tan to boot.

The shoot itself was a LOT of fun.  It was kind of weird and awkward at times in a “this reminds me a little too much of my wedding photo shoot” but we ran with it and got a lot of fantastic images.  My favorite part was when Ariel got photo-bombed by a Cabo local walking his adorable dog on the beach.

Best part is before this shoot, we didn’t have any photos of the two of us on the trip together.  They were all of us separately.  So now we have some really great quality shots of us and the beach we enjoyed on this memorable girls weekend.

I think I may make a habit of getting a professional photography shoot every vacation I go on now.

Have you ever gotten a vacation photo shoot?  By the way, if you are ever in Los Cabos I highly recommend contacting Sam the Picture Guy.

PHOTOS // by Samir Benyettou, the Picture Guy.

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!

Iceland

As you may know, this past November I went on a weekend “girls” trip with my Mother, Aunt and my Aunt’s friends to Iceland. To be honest, I went to Iceland with ZERO expectations. I basically knew it was going to be really cold, and that it was one of the few places in the world where you can see the Northern Lights. The Northern Lights was the primary reason we were visiting the country to begin with.

Let’s just say Iceland FAR exceeded my expectations. I’d absolutely love to go back sometime I enjoyed it so much. I was blown away not just by the beauty of the country, but also its people. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. Another thing that surprised me was the shopping in Reykjavik, the country’s capital. I came home with so many awesome, unique pieces from the many independent designers who all had boutiques in town.

Though I took over 300 photos while there, these are some of my favorite images during my trip. Knowing I was going to try to catch the Northern Lights, I brought all my good camera gear with me so I got some pretty amazing images to remember this trip by.

I had a few readers ask me about my experience eating vegan while in Iceland. All in all, I was pretty lucky. We stayed at the Hilton and right across the street was a fantastic raw/health food restaurant called Glo that the locals recommended. I also accidentally stumbled across a health food store behind the hotel that was chock full of vegan goodies, including soy milk and cookies. Funny thing is I got some soy milk to have with cereal at the hotel, only to the next day find the hotel had gotten some to put out at the buffet since I was asking for it the day prior. Talk about great service!

All the staff at most of the restaurants knew what vegan meant and guided me to appropriate items I could order. There was only one place I think accidentally served me butter, which I knew due to me being allergic to dairy and getting really horrible stomach aches. Otherwise pretty much everywhere I went, even including local coffee shops in Reykjavik had vegan options, many of which were clearly marked with the universal V sign.

If you have any questions on where I ate and specifics on what I visited and did, please feel free to message me!

Reader Feedback Needed

As I prepare to get the blog up and running again, I’m really curious as to what topics and posts my readers enjoy the most. I’d love your feedback!

What are your favorite posts? In general over the years I’ve tended to stick to below categories.

• Veganism (including how it fits into all the categories below)
• Lifestyle
• Fashion/Styling
• Shopping  (Vegan Versions)
• Restaurant Reviews
• Tutorials
• Organization/Household
• Personal Posts (What’s Going on in My Life)
• Health/Fitness
• Travel
• Photography
• Recipes

Some ideas I have for future posts I wanted to run past you guys include:

• Ask Corrie– Ask me anything! Can be fashion related, veganism related, etc.
• Compassion Fashion– Featuring my readers and others who love compassionate fashion.
• Link Roundups
• Interview Series– I’d interview important vegans you’d like to hear from.
• Vegan Crossfitting- We’re a minority in the sport, and since I’ve been in the community for a few months now I have enough knowledge to start to write about it.

Let me know what you’d like to see in upcoming posts in the comments section below. If I didn’t cover something above that you’d like to see, be sure to let me know! I’m open to all suggestions.

What’s are your favorite posts on Brooklyn Bliss?

Wild Ginger

My BFF Nikki and I have been finding it’s pretty tough to get together lately. We’re both so busy with work, and she’s living in Manhattan while I’m obviously in Brooklyn. That may not seem like it’s that far, but it’s far enough not to be super convenient to get together, especially being such over-career-achievers.  So what we’ve been doing lately to make it a priority to see each other  is doing dinner every few weeks, and alternating between new places to try in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Last week, the dinner spot we chose was my absolute favorite, Wild Ginger. If you’re vegan and have yet to try them out, make sure you stop by there while visiting NYC. There’s several locations ranging from Manhattan to Brooklyn. We decided to meet up at the Williamsburg one in my neighborhood. I’m not ashamed to admit I order take out from here waaaay too often.  We gorged on some of my favorites, including their miso soup, fried spinach and “cheese” wontons (the sauce is to die for!), general tso’s soy protein, and finished up the meal with a good ol’ peanut butter bomb!

Old City Philly

As mentioned in my post yesterday, Jim and I took a quick detour to the Old City District of downtown Philly on our way home to Brooklyn.  Here are some of my favorite shots from our quick, hour long walk.

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{Blazer: Calvin Klein (thrifted); Tee: dollar store find; Skirt: Ecoture (gift from husband); Platforms: Cynthia Rowley (thrifted); Sunglasses: Husband’s (from a street fair); Cuff: H&M}

I’ve been learning a lot recently about taking my own outfit photos. My hubby will occasionally help out with taking my pictures but I always think I look kind of awkward when he takes them. Strange thing is I feel much more natural posing and taking photos on a tripod with a wireless release, which probably looks weirder to folks passing by in my busy neighborhood than my husband taking photos of me.

I went to art school and photography was one of my favorite classes, and I knew my way around a DSLR pretty well. Now that I finally have a new digital one, it’s kind of like riding a bike. I’m getting used to it again.  Yesterday, I originally was kinda meh about this outfit, but after seeing how my photos were coming out totally fell in love with the outfit.  I thought “Hells yeah!  I have tons of great photos today!” while looking at the screen on my camera reviewing the images I shot while outside during the shoot.  I was way pumped up about it.

Fast forward to editing my photos later on in the evening, and I learn that all of my photos are super blurry.  Only these two were remotely clear.  So much for being a pro photog.  I forgot the most important thing when taking self portraits… set the auto-focus!  That and never trust the viewfinder screen without first zooming in to check that it’s crystal clear.  Dur!  Lesson learned.

Armory 2011

Saturday this past weekend my husband and I attended the Armory Show in Manhattan. We luz our art!   If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s basically an art gallery expo.  Art galleries from around the world bring works from the artists they represent and display them in sort of gallery booths.  There are two sections to the show.  The Modern section featured works by more prominent artists as well as some older pieces (say 1930’s on) and the Contemporary section featured art that is “in now”.  We enjoyed the Modern section much more than the Contemporary one.  Highlights of the day included walking right past Robert DeNiro as well as tons of great people watching.  

I wish I had known in advance it was totally acceptable to bring photo equipment in to photograph the art, otherwise I would have brought my DSLR instead of my little point and shoot.  Here  are some of my favorite shots from the show.  As a disclaimer, there was so much art I really did not record or even attempt to catalog all the artists names of the pieces I took photos of.  If you see something posted here that I didn’t provide credit for, please let me know and I’d be happy to cite the artist/medium/gallery/whatever.