11 Facts About Me + Liebster Award!

I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award, which is passed from blogger to blogger, to show appreciation for newer bloggers and introduce them to the community. Thanks so much to Meredith at Unexpectedly Magnificent for the nomination! When nominated, bloggers are asked to post 11 random facts about themselves and to answer 11 questions. Read on to find out more about me and see who I nominated

11 Random Facts

1. I went vegetarian “for health” and I went vegan “for the animals.”

2. One of my favorite quotes is “When you come to the edge of all that you know, you must believe one of two things: either there will be ground to stand on, or you will be given wings to fly.”― O.R. Melling, The Summer King

3. I have two cats named Gus and Miles. Gus is a little older and his favorite thing to do is lay around all day and cry for food. Miles is hyperactive, constantly chases his tail and eats any food that gets left out. 

4. I’ve been obsessed with music my whole life. When I was little I used to wander around our neighborhood singing to myself and playing “The Little Mermaid” on my recorder. I played piano and clarinet in elementary then switched to choir in middle school, where I also performed in musicals like The Wizard of Oz and Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In High school I took voice lessons and sang in choir and taught myself how to play guitar in senior year. In college I started performing songs that I wrote at local coffee shops and when I met my husband over 7 years ago, we started a band together. Since then we’ve form a few bands and still perform occasionally around Los Angeles!  

5. My favorite season is autumn because I love it when there is a chill in the air and I can wear sweaters and jeans everyday! It’s funny because I live in Southern California, but dream of moving to Portland, where there is actually real weather. I also love making my favorite treats in the autumn like pumpkin bread, chex mix, apple cider and caramel corn.

6. When I was little I wanted to be an astronaut. These days, I’m scared of flying in an airplane!

7. My sister and I are both web developers. We work at the same company, doing the same job and right now, we’re working on the same project(vw.com)! I feel like it’s a pretty fun and unique situation.

8. I majored in film production in college and my first job after school was in online marketing for a record label. I began learning how to create websites and ended up landing a job at the Oscars, working on their website. This was a really fun opportunity for me because it combined my newfound interest in coding with my long-time love of film.

9. My husband thinks I’m crazy because I am always a busy-body. When I’m not working overtime at my job, I’m doing freelance or working on this blog or cooking up a storm!

10. I’ve always dreamed of being a writer, but never had the guts to admit it. 

11. I’m been learning about food photography recently and having a lot fun remembering some things I learned in college and experimenting with new cameras, lenses and lighting is really exciting. I’m super pumped about getting better food photography up on my blog.

11 Questions

1. What is your earliest childhood memory?

My parents used to have so much fun on the weekends when my mom would make a bunch of food and we’d all hang out and listen to music and play games. One of my earliest memories is of me dancing around my house on one of these occasions while listening to Love Shack by the B-52s.

2. If you could travel anywhere you haven’t been before, where would you go?

There are so many place I would love to visit so this is a really hard question! I would love to visit Spain and practice speaking the language, which I studied in high school.

3. What is your favorite food?

Another hard question! I love many different cuisines but I think Italian food might hold a place closest to my heart. My mom always made family-style italian food and it was always so good. I find the food to be comforting and really conducive to bringing people together. Who wouldn’t be happy with marinara sauce on everything with a side of garlic bread!

4. What is your least favorite food?

I suppose the easy answer to this would be anything that’s not vegan! Though, even before I went vegetarian, I would recoil at processed meats that I would see in delis such as “head cheese” – ew!!

5. If you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Well, I’ve been listening to “Strawberry Fields” by The Beatles pretty much my whole life and I still love it so let’s go with that one.

6. Whom do you admire most?

I admire anyone who has learned to put their true self out there and to let creativity and imagination be their guide rather than social pressures and insecurity. I work on a daily basis to try to achieve this and I’m so lucky to have so many wonderful role models in my life.

7. What is your idea of happiness?

Being surrounded by friends and family(this includes my cats), with good music on and good food to eat. 

8. What is your biggest regret?

Not going vegan sooner! Knowing what I do now, it’s hard to think about how long I was contributing to a system that does not line up with my values. Though I sometimes feel regret about this, I’m glad I finally found my way.

9. If you won the lottery, how would you spend the money?

First I would do boring, but important, things like pay off my student loans and mortgage and also helping everyone in my family feel more secure by buying them homes or helping them pay off any debts. Then I would have a little fun and probably do a lot of traveling and spend more time building my business. I would also use some of the money to help causes that are important to me.

10. What accomplishment are you most proud of?

I’m proud of what I’ve achieved in my career. Even though I studied film production in school, I taught myself web development on the side and created a career which is both challenging and rewarding. 

11. What would you still like to accomplish?

Even though I love my current job doing web development for an advertising agency, I dream of owning my own business where I can help others pursue wellness. I want to keep blogging, release an eBook, produce videos and teach workshops – all with the goal of empowering people to live healthfully and deliciously!

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My nominations:

Beth @ http://eatwithinyourmeans.com

Becky @ http://veganbeckles.com