HAPPY THANKSGIVING, everyone!

It's Thanksgiving, and even though I am living in France right now, I have decided to celebrate. I have a vegan pumpkin cheezcake in the oven and two artichokes on the stove. My sister and I tend to eat artichokes every Thanksgiving together. And so even though she's not here with me, I'm having one in her honor. With margarine and nutritional yeast! YUM! Aside from that, I'm not really doing anything special. In the past, when I was teaching English, we made turkey hands, and I made my students write something they were thankful for in each finger. That really reminded me that it was Thanksgiving, and that Thanksgiving is special. This year, I am jobless (:-( ) and broke, so I've got to find ways to remind myself.
I hope all of you guys in the U S of A are having a fantastic time with your friends and family!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!
Just try to tell me you don't feel sorry for that poor turkey.

And since it's Thanksgiving, I've been reading some great lists of things that other people are thankful for. I decided that I needed to make a list of 10 things of my own.
So, what am I thankful for this year?

I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1)The fact that there are more and more vegans out there every year meaning that more and more turkeys survive this holiday.

2)All of my friends and family who love me and care about me (and whom I love and care about) and who support me through all of the crazy things I decide to do, be it write a novel in 30 days or move to Japan for 9 months (Normally, this will be happening soon) without a job or a friend in sight. (And who take care of my cat, Zedster, while I am off doing said crazy things.)

3)Guillaume aka the greatest, most wonderful boyfriend a girl could ever ask for.

4)Discovering the book blogging community and all of the wonderful people in it.

5)The store Thanksgiving, in the Marais, which, I am convinced, is the ONLY place in all of Paris where you can buy grits and canned pumpkin. Even if they are ridiculously expensive.

6)Organic farmers.

7)Starbucks venti soy classic hot chocolate with peppermint syrup and no whipped cream.

8)My stuffed dog, Eva, who has lived with me through thick and thin since I was 4 years old, who was there for me when my real dog, Eva, a Brittany Spaniel, died. I had had her and loved her since I was 7.

9)Courage and the odd places in which I often find it lurking.

10)And, of course, no list of things I am thankful for would be complete without BOOKS!!!! I will put being able to see and knowing how to read along with this one as well.

X I am cross-posting this to Brizmus Blogs Books. X

Paris Vegan Day

I am RIDICULOUSLY excited!!!! Why, you might ask?
Well, first I am excited because tomorrow is my three year anniversary with Guillaume. That's right - THREE years!!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Audrey and Guillaume!!

Paris, because sometimes it can be nice, has decided to do something to help us celebrate. TOMORROW is Paris Vegan Day. I know, I know - it sounds crazy. A vegan day. In Paris, France. But it's true, and it looks like it is going to be MEGA fun!!!!

There are going to be food demonstrations and cooking lessons. I'm especially excited about the demonstration "Dix façons de remplacer l’œuf" = 10 ways to replace eggs. I've been lazy lately and just using a mixture of silken tofu and ground flax seeds, instead of actually picking something that would actually be good for the recipe. So this will be good for me.

Plus, there's going to be a skincare demonstration by Lush!! Do you hear me squealing with excitement? Well, I absolutely am! I love Lush and all of their wonderful vegan products!

There's also going to be a vegan pizza party at the end of the day. Can you say AWESOME?!? I will DEFINITELY be hitting that up! I love me some vegan pizza, even moe so because I actually hated pizza before becoming a vegan - so now I get to love it all the more.

Anyhow, if you're in the area, I hope you'll be hitting it up!!

HAPPY PARIS VEGAN DAY!!!!

Lights, Camera, Action

I just realized that I never posted this video in here. I'm part of a Philips forum, and there was a video contest. We had to make a video saying why we loved our favorite Philips product that we own. Or why we can't live without a Philips product that we don't own.

I decided to test my video making skills for the very first time, and despite the fact that my Windows Movie Maker has a bug that made this take hours and hours on end to put together, and despite the fact that I only had my crappy digital camera to film with, and despite the fact that I know nothing about cutting and putting videos together,. . .well, despite nothing. It turned out badly.

Still, it won me third place!!!!
The other videos weren't that fantastic, either.
Enjoy! and let me know what you think.

And a long time ago, I promised you guys a New Kids on the Block music video. It's coming soon, really it is. . . I just have to find the guts to work with Windows Movie Maker again. Glah!

Also, you guys perhaps remember last November,. . .when I was participating in NaNoWriMo. I kept you updated pretty regularly.



Well, I'm participating again this year, and I'm actually writing my life story. It didn't start off that way, but somehow that's what it's turned into. I started off with a bang, but for the past week, I have had trouble making myself write at all. Apparently the years of my life between 5th and 8th grade are just, well, boring. And tragic. Uninteresting and yet I still don't want to have to dredge up all the horrible memories that I had during that time period. I'm at 35,700 words despite the fact that I can't have written more than 5000 words in the past two weeks.

Aside from that, sorry that I haven't updated in AGES. I've been sort of busy working on Brizmus Blogs Books and writing my NaNoWriMo novel. Before that, I was working on another novel, to which I actually find myself very attached, that I had to set aside for NaNoWriMo. Still, I'll try to update more often. :-)

Ooh, and I've also been working on veganizing all of the recipes in "Chocolate: A Love Story," the chocolate cookbook from Max Brenner, the bald chocolate man. It's a project that I'm very excited about!!!! So far I've made some incredibly delicious chocolatey scrumptiousness! I'll be posting about it in Brizmus Blogs Books. Yay!

Hope everyone is well! Let me know what you think of the video!