Where I come from, dessert is a meal reserved entirely for itself. It would be no special occasion for my mom, a humble baker extraordinaire, to have 4 dozen cookies, a cake and a bar cookie freshly made, waiting in the kitchen to be devoured. As a matter of fact, it would just be another Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday) night. Dessert is sacred in the Fava family, that’s for sure. When I first started dating Mark, I of course tried to win him over by baking him a batch of cupcakes – “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” my mom – but all too quickly learned that he was just “Not a dessert person.” These people – who ARE they? (I still don’t believe they exist.) I mean – come on. We are all dessert people hiding inside healthy/stubborn/depraved/naive bodies. If you aren’t a dessert person – you clearly have not had enough dessert in your life :) I say this because Mark is a dessert loving convert who has seen the light (thanks to enough time spent around me and enough desserts passed his way via my mom’s kitchen).

Eating dessert has always been a big part of my life, but over the past few years, baking has become equally as comforting. There is something so rewarding about baking (or even cooking) something from scratch that ends up being not only delicious but sometimes beautiful, too. For whatever reason – I mostly blame it on our previous tiny kitchens designed for people who eat microwaveable everything – I haven’t ever attempted a layer cake. Until today. Maybe it’s that Valentines day is right around the corner (doubtful) or maybe it’s

because we finally live in a place with a big enough kitchen (yes!) OR better yet – maybe it’s because we have enough people to share in the layer cake eating (you need at least 3 people, I say, otherwise every night would end in a sugar coma – my studies have shown, anyway) – but today was THE day it finally happened. And of course I went all out. Why wouldn’t I? Every big moment in one’s life needs grand gestures (and grand documentation, I believe, too)!

I got my recipe for the chocolate cake and various buttercreams from my favorite food blogger, Sheena.
Please please please visit her site! It is a daily source of inspiration in my life :)

Chocolate Cake with Buttercream & Strawberry Buttercream

Chocolate Cake
2 ounces semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup boiling water
6 TBS butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Buttercream Frosting
1 cup Crisco (vegetable shortening)
1 stick (1/2 c) butter
3 cups powdered sugar
5 TBS milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Using a mixer, cream the Crisco and butter in a bowl and set aside. Using a mixer, cream the sugar, milk and vanilla in a separate bowl.
Slowly add the sugar mixture to the butter mixture until the consistency is even and fluffy.

Strawberry Buttercream
1  cup fresh strawberries
Leftover Buttercream Frosting (about 1/2-3/4 cup)

Puree the strawberries in a food processor. Strain the strawberry puree with cheesecloth, removing as many seeds as possible.
Using a mixer, blend the strawberry puree into the leftover Buttercream Frosting.

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Line bottom of three 8″ pans with a round of parchment paper. Butter paper, and sides of pan.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with boiling water and cocoa powder. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

In a bowl add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat butter and sugar until combined. Add eggs (adding one at a time) until thickened slightly and light colored (about 3 minutes). Slowly add buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture, beating until combined well. Add flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.

Spoon batter into pans, and bake two at a time until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.

Repeat with the third cake.

Cool cakes completely before frosting.

Disclaimer: All three ladies who tried this cake ate TWO PIECES. Survey says, it’s dangerously good. Enjoy!

This has easily been the most life-changing year of my life to date. I am constantly learning with my business endeavors and realizing things that I never thought possible are soon possible (like hiring employees! what?! and actually enjoying living in PA. DOUBLE WHAT?!). 2011 is my investment year, but we can talk about that at the end of the year. (Invest in yourself, people.) (Especially you, dreamers & entrepreneurs.) Birdhouse has leaped to such great heights in just one year of going full-time with it and I couldn’t be more stunned. I decided one night this past winter that I was going to start hosting a series of wedding shows for creatives. So now there’s that, too. And then my forever-hanging-on dreams and projects like this mini-comic for NEW TERRITORY (sorry, Alex) and THE YELLOW BIRD. And the children’s books. And the list goes on. (YEESH.) But what I never planned for this year, that became the biggest and most important investment, was our engagement.

Mark Wallace. I knew it was you since the moment I first talked to you on the phone, when you interviewed me, long-distance in Italy, for an internship at WITF-TV. Amy warned me about you, said I would like you… a lot… and she was right. (Like you, she is always right.) (I should just listen to the both of you, always.) The old sentiment is true that real love presents itself when you least expect it – when you are finally ready for it, and not searching. I must have been the world’s worst intern, because I avoided you like the plague, knowing you and I both had serious relationships. I didn’t want to like you for that reason alone but liking you wasn’t my choice. It was just written that way. Somehow, it worked that when we actually did start talking to each other, we were no longer in those serious relationships. Somehow, after years of approaching guys and getting turned down, I still had the gusto in me to give it one last shot with you… because I knew – I just knew – you couldn’t turn me down. It wasn’t even possible (in my mind), because even without knowing you, I knew that there was no one in this universe better for you than me (and better for me than you). Somehow, it only took one phone call for you to see it, too. It is possible to fall in love on the phone and to know your path before it has even begun. (For some us, the more intuitive, almost cosmically aligned ones, this is just natural.) Anyone else may have found it weird/odd/IMPOSSIBLE to share dreamworlds, secret hopes and be another person’s muse from states away. November 2008 was easily the most magical month we will probably ever live and there is no other way to explain it than that.

See, a month before we started talking, you met a woman who told you you were going to meet a fish who would change your life forever and make you happier than anyone has ever made you. And I had a dream about losing the single-most important person in my life and then you were there… around the corner, waiting for me, reading poetry for me… and then a woman in a wedding dress came over to me and gave me a ring, from you. All of this before we even actually had a date. (For some, the stars just align because we are driven by them.)

My entire life has been preparing me for the person that you are and the person that you make me. It is beyond my wildest dreams to say that I am going to marry someone with such an open mind, so creative, so music-oriented, so fair, so honest, so focused, so supportive who pushes me to be me… someone with such a fantastic family… the list is just endless. Mark Wallace. Man of my dreams. Because of you, life IS sweet.

Lately, we’ve been oversleeping,
ignoring the sounds of thunder and the radio calling
us every morning for an early rise and shine. (We know
the snooze by heart and how to turn a broadcast into a lullaby,
programmed, like the rest.)
The only good remnants about waking up
late, aside from being next to you, are the moments
when headlines dissolve
into dreams and really, there is no deciphering
life from make believe.
(Reality is relative.)

Lately? This:

In late March, my family traveled up to Massachusetts to celebrate my niece, Emma’s, 1st birthday! (My brother is such a great dad!)

George, Christina and I pitched in and got Emma a pink baby grand piano! (She’s a music lover, already. Must be the genes.)

Loving it!

George & Bo, zonked out.

I’ve been spending all of my days with Mabel and Riot. It’s pretty much the greatest.

March is a big birthday month in my family. George and I turned 24 on the 5th and celebrated our elderly-hood in Killington, VT, snowboarding and fooding it up. I am convinced I belong in VT. Someday, it’ll be permanent.

(We stayed in the Snowbird. Birds follow me everywhere.)

(My snowboard matches my spirit to a T.)




[All above photos taken on my new Diana F+ Mini - thanks to my great lady friend/film editing soulmate, Taylor, and the Killington ones, a disposable camera.]
THIS IS MY FAVORITE PICTURE OF MABEL & RIOT, EVER. Because it’s totally representative of who their owners are – Riot, the guy who hates being in front of cameras and Mabel, the crazy child. (Me.)

We filmed an event in the pouring rain. Ha.

Mabel keeps me laughing. She’s totally bonkers but I love her so darn much.

And today, I made blueberry muffins for breakfast. Sometimes, I do that.

It’s great to be alive.

The thing is, in the pursuit of creativity, in the quest for memorable storytelling, you have to KNOW who.you.are. You have to trust in yourself and allow yourself to gather inspiration and weed out too much influence. Influence is an interesting term. I’m influenced by my parents, by Mark, by my closest friends… and that’s about it. Influence, to me, is beyond inspiration. It’s trusting in another source enough to let it change or mold you. With my creative life, I find it so easy to be inspired but so difficult to be influenced – and at least I am proud of that. But I could be better with this, and all of us creatives could (especially in the wedding industry).

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of inspiration vs. influence. Do I even need either? What would my work be like uninspired? Uninfluenced? I’ve been pondering letting go of social media – as much as possible – and not letting myself watch other wedding films. Judging by my college days, I think it could only help me. I’m on a quest to bring real cinema back into weddings, to bring my directorial perspective to my films, no matter what I am capturing on the other side of the lens. I think the world is getting all too cluttered with copycat creatives and wannabe workerbees and it’s time we all decide one thing: do I want to sail? Or do I want to soar?

Here’s to soaring.

— My watercolor teacher says I have my own “style.” I say, I just can’t leave the kid behind. (More of these to come.)

Before I go off on a tangent about what is really going on in the world right now and what else really fills up my brain’s extra space, (save this for a later post) let me just say that life is too short to waste. With stressful jobs, meaningless jobs, SLAVE-LIKE jobs (which too many people have these days because of the way most businesses function in this “economy”), bad food, unhealthy food, UNSAVORY food, repetitive music (like what’s on the radio, even you XPN, cough), horrifyingly tasteless music (okay, my opinions about music are serious), little sleep, too much time in front of a screen (GUILTY.) and not enough time spent with those we love and couldn’t live without (both near and far).

This is my life, lately, in photos. And the way I see it is – we take pictures of the things we want to remember (the things that are too good to lose to a failing memory and we (I mean – I) write about the things that are so terrible we want to forget them completely. Call it untrue, call it strange, whatever it is, I know what’s below is a testament to my statement:

So… “Now what?” you ask. NOW is what I have been waiting for since September – a chance to put into motion the 1,000 ideas/projects/stories/films/secrets/dreams/hopes that I have piled up since… since even June 2007. That’s right. For nearly four years, mind-melting ideas have been locked away in my ever-expanding brain. Most of what I am now finally working on has dawned on me in the last 4 months, but some of what I am hoping to accomplish has been sitting around, collecting cerebral dust for far longer.

Before I reveal too much of what I have in store for myself (and the world… the world, people), I want to post a few other things that have been happening as of late.

Last night, Mark and I trekked out to Johnstown, PA – a 2.5 hour drive (one way) – to see his good friend and filmmaker/artist/creator extraordinaire, Brent Green, perform a live screening of his short films. It was quite a journey, filled with sleepy delirious statements (since we were out wayyyy past our bedtime) and odd performances involving men in white suits making loud noise and a “top 5 most depressing” porn TV show (yes.) but it was unbelievably worth it. You can’t dig up inspiration this good (and I’m not talking about the porn, folks) if you tried to, especially on the Internet. Or in books. This is what happens when you venture out to a small, cold, dark church where two dozen or so people are gathered to play music and screen their films. Real life, real inspiration, right before your eyes. I was captivated.

So. For your listening + viewing pleasure, Brent Green’s “Hadacol Christmas,” performed with live narration, score and foley at VOMA (Venue of Merging Arts, Johnstown, PA) on February 22, 2011:

(I haven’t listened to this album but I can’t stop loving) This album cover:

The (bonus) acoustic tracks on this album:

Photos (such as the header) taken by my dear friend Jillian McGrath:

The Spring 2011 Collection from LelaRose:

Obviously BHLDN. (The shoe selections are 100% perfection.):

Mad Men Season 4 (because it’s undeniably cinematic):

Mark’s Keurig. I seriously underestimated the greatness of these. (Thanks, Stephen & Holly!):

GLITTER. (I never was into it but seriously. The way it catches the light? Ah! Jilliannn.):

—2012 will be full of surprises…!

Whether you are an evolutionist or a creationist, whether you believe in science or God or not, we are all connected. I’m serious. And if you don’t believe that, you’re a pessimist and well, you should read my other blog (coming soon). Religion aside, think about science for a moment. According to science, we are all made up of atoms – atoms containing some particles that did not exist when Earth was first created. Essentially, the first two elements were hydrogen and helium and the rest? The rest came with a supernova – an exploding star. We couldn’t be human without elements like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, iron, calcium, etc etc etc. And we couldn’t have elements that make up the human body without a supernova. (The way science defines us, anyhow.) According to science, we are literally, physically late descendants of stars. (And according to other theories, we could someday become stars after human life.)

We have arrived at Act 2 of our program, Act 2. Today we’re talking about those specks in space that seem so unreasonably distant but may actually be as connected to us as a strand of hair on our body. Stars. What do they mean to us, if anything? What do they mean to the world and its fate? Is Astrology all a load of wishy washy pseudo-God-like garbage? Today I’m going to discuss these things and maybe by the end, you will become a little bit closer to the person underneath your own skin – did you even think that was possible?

Enter me, into this world some 23+ odd years ago. A world where I was brought up in a devoutly Catholic family, with close Jewish friends, where I spent 11 years of my life learning in a Catholic setting and 5 years letting loose, educating myself with the rest of the world. I was a pretty straight up kid. Never questioned a thing outside of what I “knew,” never even let my mind wander to the possibilities of so many other life theories. Until somewhere in my last two years of college, I started to wonder what I even knew… about myself and about the rest of the world. What did I know about who I was? I knew I was creative. I knew I was intuitive. I knew I had an unmistakable musical ear. I knew I wasn’t good at talking about serious things, so I wrote people letters, which my parents hated. I knew I had the craziest dreams. I knew that I could influence other people’s dreams. I knew I gave people a lot of chances. I knew I lived for change and that people could change me. I knew I loved to play hide and seek (even when I was 20+ years old and had a few brews in me) and loved hiding in general. I knew I was unfortunately emotional. And that I had an unending love of shoes. These are seemingly stupid notes to make about oneself but as it turns out, it’s this belief that any of our own “little, pointless” characteristics are “meaningless” that is the stupidest sentiment at all. I knew all of these things about myself and knew them for so long. So many of my own characteristics I wrote off as wasteful to even mention – Who cares about my dreams? Who needs to know that I write people letters instead of talking? This is where I was totally wrong. At one point in my life, after living in a bubble of naivety and dating a person equally as traditional thinking as me for over 3 years, I took a leap of faith and jumped over board into the dark abyss that was the rest of the world around me. I had met this guy, whom my intuition told me was the person I’d been searching for, and we reconnected. And then. He pushed me in – in the best way.

My journey into Astrology began with his anecdote: About a month ago, I visited this mystic whom I had met with a few times before, who always made accurate predictions and analyses of my life. She told me my life was going through great change but that I shouldn’t be concerned because, “You will meet a fish who will make you happier than anyone has ever made you and she will change your life forever.” Upon our reconnecting and learning about each other, over and over again he kept saying to me, “You are the most Piscean Pisces I have ever met.” I didn’t ever think about what that meant, until he finally told me the story above and I understood that I was that girl and that he was right and that I had a lot of learning to do.

Suppose you are very traditionally religious and all of this is sounding pseudo-bogus and evil to you. No worries – you may stop reading here. (No seriously, I warned you.)

But suppose you are curious. Curious about uncovering truths about yourself and your relationships and had no idea the answer to unlocking these mysteries was written in the stars. Keep reading, if you’re one of the latter:

Here’s what we’re about to discover through Astrology:

1. The Jewish Perspective: Astrology for personal enlightenment (- not prediction or luck)
2. Astrology can help explain our tendencies towards certain emotions, actions and even ways of dress (enter Sun & Moon signs)
3. Astrology can help explain why we like certain people – and mesh with them – and why we butt heads with others (over and over again)

Let’s begin:

1. The Jewish Perspective. It isn’t defined in Jewish tradition that Astrology is condemned or accepted, but studies have shown that Hebrew scholars have used astrology to help aid personal understanding and growth – and some studies even report that the Jewish Calendar is linked to the Zodiac. Though Christian religions firmly reject Astrology for the sole basis of its ability for people to “play God,” which Jewish tradition also does not reportedly agree with, Hebrew studies tend to look beyond the surface, uncovering the truth in God’s astronomical design. In one study, a Rabbi reported, “In order for us to have a close ongoing personal relationship with God, we need to keep the perspective that He is involved with every aspect of life. Even though He designed the heavens to have a complex system of influence, He did not set it up and walk away.” Think about that bold statement. If you are a creationist and disapprove of the science of how we came to be, then this is obviously true. Step one of exploring Astrology (for me) was this route: learn it from a Rabbi: (Below are 1 hour video programs on Jewish interpretation of each sign of the Zodiac. Enjoy. )

• Aries
• Taurus
• Gemini
• Cancer
• Leo
• Virgo
• Libra
• Scorpio
• Sagittarius
• Capricorn
• Aquarius
• Pisces

2. Sun & Moon Signs. In basic Astrology, we all know about our sun signs – the basic Zodiac signs – determined by our date of birth. For some, the Sun sign is the most prominent defining sign, and for others, its their Moon sign. Your Moon sign is determined by the hour of your birth. (For me, this is a complicated thing because I was born at midnight. This means, my true moon sign puts my birthday a day later – but since I’m a twin, no one splits us up. Thank God.) You can determine your moon sign here. (PS Sorry for the unfortunate looking websites. Tends to be the case with this kind of thing.) Sun sign resources are here: Resource 1, Resource 2, Resource 3. (<-- this is more a better resource to calculate and learn about your rising sign and houses. Both of which I haven't mentioned in this article...) If you haven't taken much time in your life to read about your astrological signs and often find yourself wondering why you act/think/feel/believe a certain way, I highly recommend researching into your personal signs as much as possible. (That is if your mind is open to it.) (So I make myself clear: These blog posts are strictly geared towards learning about yourself. I’m not condoning anyone stray from their religion just because I say so. Do what you want and not what I say, please!) Not everyone’s sun and moon signs will be as important to them as they are to me but I would place a heavy wager that by digging deeper into your own signs, you will learn at least something new about yourself. It’s not a crime to be over-informed.

3. Astrological Compatibility. More than any of the above topics, this one is a bit more muddied water (for me), but nonetheless, this is still an important note. In Astrology, star signs have compatibility and lack-there-of with other star signs. I have read numerous conflicting articles on what signs work well with each other, so this isn’t the most defined thing I can write about. Regardless, the best thing anyone can do to better their relationships with people on a daily basis is to learn and learn and learn as much as they can about each and every star sign. Let me explain via example: I have found, over time that there are a few signs I cling to and a few I steer clear of. I’ve always had a thing for guys born in October. I could never explain it until I read about it. The Libra man is just the kind of guy I am drawn to – creative, romantic and fair. I’ve always had closer relationships with water signs (Scorpio & Pisces, mostly), found great friends in Tauruses and happy, outgoing people (Aries & Gemini) and have had difficulty dealing with Virgos (my sign’s polar opposite). You could say it’s just what you are drawn to in a person, in general, but in general, every sign has distinct characteristics. I am drawn to people who are positive, open-minded, loyal, creative and go-getters. Aries are uber-positive go-getters, Scorpios and Taurus are loyal, Geminis are open-minded, and Pisces and Libras are creative… to name a few. It never quite hit me until I dove head first into it and discovered why my previous 3 year relationship really didn’t work out. It came down to the fact that we were destined to be great friends – as that was in our nature – but not serious companions because on a serious level, we were operating on 2 different spectrums. I can’t recommend a good enough resource for this aside from doing your own personal research – In my opinion, there aren’t any clear, solid articles out there about true Zodiac compatibility and incompatibility. My best discoveries have been in reading about the other signs and taking better mental notes about who I choose to associate with and disassociate with in my own life.

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This is easily the most serious post I have ever and probably will ever write but it’s an important one to me.
I hope it helps in some way. After all, knowledge is power.