Bonus points if you know what movie my title is from!
How has your perspective shifted over the past five months? How have you grown? : I feel a lot more relaxed about the present and the future. In the past I’ve always felt a need to be in control of my life and the way it’s unfolding, but realizing that the best things happen when I’m not obsessively plotting my life out, I just don’t feel the need to be nutters about it anymore. I’m never going to be a uber skinny chick, who has everything figured out, I don’t care what people think about me, and I’m okay with that. I’m happy with who I am, in my skin, and with the amazing things that are developing in my life.
What do you wish you’d known before you started your QLC journey? : That everything is going to be okay. Everything susses out, and usually, it’s better than I could have imagined. As a type-A control freak overachiever, you think that you can control everything through sheer will…yeah, no. But life seems to get easier, the more you loosen your death grip on controlling it. Also, adding crème de menthe to my oreo cupcakes frosting was an amazeballs idea I’d wish I’d known sooner!
What are you going to continue to work on after Season 6?
: I am going to work on my own blog and really accepting that I have something valuable to say. Putting myself out there. And then, building my business.
What little things in life right now make your toes curl with happiness? Big things?: Building my business, Pistol Whipped Pastry, and finally being in a place where I am able to do so. My lovely boyfriend, Mr. Paul Child. Writing and photographing food. Having flour all over me as I squish bread dough between my fingers. Talenti fresh mint chip gelato. Living two hours from San Diego, so I can hit up delicious farmers markets and vintage shops. Color me rad 5K run I’m doing in San Diego next month. Coffee first thing in the morning. Getting paid to create a farm bakery program. Bad reality tv shows. Good Arizona wine. Amazing food. The hilarity of my niece, Buggy.
In the movie of your life, who would you want to play YOU? : Kate Walsh or Sandra Bullock.
What goodies (books/music/travel/quotes/ideas…) have you found over the past few months that are helping your inspiration and creativity? : Stratejoy Fierce Love course (I am seriously in this mode of “why the hell has it taken me this long to realize how amazeballs it is to truly love yourself”). Danielle LaPorte’s The Fire Starter Sessions (making my thought process expand and contemplate all different things in my life right now). Kristin Kimball’s The Dirty Life (to inspire my new farm venture). Stuck iPad app (this is an awesome way to start to think about your problems in new ways, to get unstuck).
If you were able to start over and start blogging for Stratejoy right now, what would your “Goals” post look like? What do you hope to accomplish by the end of 2012? How is it the same/different from your “Goals” post from earlier this year? : I honestly think that my goals would be the same, or pretty close to it. Mr. Paul Child and I are living together now, so that wouldn’t be a worry, but the rest, I’m still working on. I gained so much being a blogger for Stratejoy.com. I promised myself at the beginning of this to be brutally honest with myself and in my posts, and it’s definitely helped me start to work my mind out of the process of extreme censoring myself and worrying what people will think.
By the end of 2012, I want to have my blog running on a schedule, so that I am posting often, and to build up my followers. I have had some articles published in magazines but I’m working on expanding and getting some new freelance work. Plus, I’m still working on my Fierce Love course. I’m in a place now where I can start my online business, and I’m so excited to get it rolling! Plus my new job running a farm bakery and shop…yeah, I’m going to be busy!
I think my goals are still in the same stroke as when we began blogging. I feel like my biggest change is just relaxing into my life and my own skin, and it feels amazeballs.
Name 5 things you absolutely positively could not live without.: Mr. Paul Child. Coffee. Camera. My recipe/journal notebook. Butter.
Who are your top 3 celebrity crushes of the moment?: Vince Vaughn. Anthony Bourdain. David Chang (chef at Momofuku in NYC).
If you had to dedicate your life to one cause for your life, what would it be? Why? : Teaching people how to cook amazing, simple foods. With obesity and so much processed food in the world, we need to get back to real food that has been touched by human hands.
What is one of your favorite memories?: My friend Christina had a bunch of us over to her house, where her mom who is Vietnamese-born, cooked an amazing meal for us. We just sat around for hours talking, drinking, eating…those are my favorite times with my friends. So relaxed and intimate. And, hello, our favorite things, food and drinks! I’m missing my friends and those moments right now, being in a new town, so they have been on my mind a lot lately.
What’s your hidden talent? : Procrastination, and then utilizing that procrastination to my advantage, as Procrastination Girl, who turns out better work with a deadline looming and while sporting a pink bejeweled cape!
What was the last book you read that made an impact on you, and what effect did it have? : The Fire Starter Sessions by: Danielle LaPorte It totally rocked my world and made me realize that I have to keep plugging at it, even when it feels like people, circumstances, things are against me.
What quote best represents you or motivates you in your current place in life? : “You time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” ~ Steve Jobs Basically, this sums up what I’ve been working on…being who I want to be instead of who everyone else wants me to be.
What are three things that you are totally obsessed with right now?: The shabby chic chicken coop currently being built on the farm. All my bread tests. Gearing up to start writing and cooking/baking for my blog Croissant in the City.
What is one thing you’d like to change about the world? : I’d like to have people be more open-minded. I live my life a certain way and everyone else has their own unique version of how they choose to live their life. We don’t have to agree with each other, but I’m so sick of people saying that they are open-minded, and then turning around and bashing my beliefs in public (sorry, facebook, sometimes you do actually suck!). And, please, use your damn turn signal, please?!
If there is one gift you could give to a stranger, what would it be?: Kindness. There have been incredible moments in my life where I haven’t known the person, but they have shown me such kindness that I always remember it and try to do the same for others.
If super heroes are real (and they are), what super power would you have? : I would want to fly…then I would never have to go to the airport, wait in line, be herded into tiny spaces, or pay $15 for a soggy sandwich ever again!
What do you see when you look into your own eyes?: A wild west pastry queen.
What songs are you loving right now?: Damn, Jill, I’m right there with you, loving “Call Me Maybe?” It’s so wrong but so right! UGH! However, it makes me think of 4th of July with all my cousins and my sister, before my incredible cousin, Seth, left for the Navy (GO NAVY!) and we were all together, singing this song, drinking vodka and lime-aids…good night!
“Takin’ Pills” by: Pistol Annies.
Anything by Puscifer or Clutch.
“Good Feeling” by: Flo Rida
“Perfect Kiss” by Marie Hines
What 3 lessons will you take with you from over the last 5 months?:
- Be yourself. Always. You are unique and special (not in the I eat paste kind of way).
- Who cares what other people think? There is no point to worrying about it. They do not care about you and they do not worry what you are thinking about them.
- Just take a fucking step! Don’t sit and wait forever, wanting to plan every step before you even take one step. Take a step and the next step will become apparent, but you have to make an effort.
What’s turning you on right now?: Arizona coffee. Baking things and then feeding people. Taking photos. Writing. Traveling all over Arizona for my writing position with Arizona Vines & Wines, so I can profile Arizona artisan producers. My bread making experiments. Ordering the chickens for the hen house that is being constructed on the farm where I am the executive chef. Being an executive chef. Molly Mahar, Katie Colihan, and my season 6 sisters (I’m so grateful and proud of you all! Xoxo). Reading books on my iPad. Drinking wine on the porch with my love, Mr. Paul Child.
