So here are some pictures that actually came out.

More to follow, hopefully.  I want to send all of my artsy friends all a lomography camera and see what kind of stuff they'd come up with.  Specifically, Tara and Holly.

I also got a Diana F+ camera from my mom, and bought a Diana F+ flash for it with 12 color filters with my Christmas money.  The flash has a hotshoe adapter, so I can fit it onto my black Holga and finish up my roll of Black & White film.  My mom (so awesome) also bought me an instant back for the Diana, so when I'm done with the current roll of film in it, I can try my hand on some instant photographs.

I'm slowly trying to learn the art of lomography.  It's pretty hard since I'm used to looking through a viewfinder, setting up a picture, and taking it.  Getting to see things instantly are what kill me.  With lomography, you don't look, just shoot, and do it.

The next cameras I'm looking at are the lomography fisheye 35 mm camera (about $29.95 on Amazon) and the mini Diana, which takes 35 mm film.  It's about $50 though.  Ambitions will have to wait.  I think I'm okay though, since I have about 3 cameras to play with now.

I'm so freaking excited.  This website inspires me.

Also this, for my XTi:

Love love love!

Oh and I went up to New York with Brady to see Tara for her birthday.  I got to meet her beautiful and lovely friends and her man again.  Everyone is so nice.  I wish I had more friends in Delaware.  Also Tara inspires me to be awesome.

Lastly, but not least ~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALSO TO HOLLY my best friend, all the way in Texas.  I wish she was just a drive away as well, because I'd love to come see her more often.

I'm thinking about saving up to fly to Texas.

I mean it could be.  No more crappy foods.  I certainly didn't lose any weight, so that wasn't it.

Anyway, to this, he told me he used to be vegan for a few years.  Wow!  I never guessed that Kevin would have been vegan before, but it kind of makes sense.

I dunno, just something that I thought was cool and made me happy.

Now, for the topic of the post.  My first batch of vegan cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World was a hit.  I'm not sure how it went with the other boys, but Brady especially loved them.  They were peanutbuttery with chocolate drizzle on top, and chopped peanuts.  They were subtle enough to eat with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and as a snack.  I'd have to say Brady probably had the most of them.

So I had to make another batch of a different kind of cupcake, and test those on him.  I definitely have to say that vegan cupcakes are among the tastier cupcakes I've had.  They've got healthier ingredients (the peanutbutter ones had flax seed in them) and are lighter and more moist.

So today's cupcake of choice was the S'mores Cupcakes with Vegan Buttercream frosting.  I'm not sure how they came out yet, since I kind of screwed up the idea of "graham cracker crumbs."  Essentially I was supposed to grind some graham crackers into practically dust, and mix that in with the batter.  I got large crumbs, just not bitty pieces of graham dust.  Next time, maybe, but I suppose these will be a bit chunky.

The batter was very runny, as I suppose it should be, since the directions said to fill each cupcake to the top of the paper.  The buttercream is essentially shortening and margarine, with confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and soy milk.  Yummy!  It was fluffy enough before I put the soy milk in, and I'm afraid the soy milk may have made it runny, but we shall see.  I'll send an update with what Brady thinks as soon as he tastes one.

For the rest of my day, I'm relaxing in bed, in a t-shirt and shorts, in front of a fan and an open window.  Today was definitely a hot day.  I was running around in jeans, in front of an oven.  Blah.

UPDATE: Brady tasted one of the s'mores cupcakes, and they're a hit!  "Even better" than the peanutbutter ones, which I thought was hard to do.  It seems the pieces of graham cracker that were left over were absorbed by the rest of the mix, and not even noticeable when eating the cupcake.  I was a little worried because Bryan, our roommate, got to the cupcakes first.  I worry when someone tastes something I make before I do.

I'm happy because I got some yummy coconut flavoured vegan icecream sandwiches at the Newark Co-op the other day.  They're so yummy and small and animal-free.  I could eat a million of them, but I won't, because that would be bad.

But another thing I like about being on a mostly-vegan diet now is that my diet is cholesterol free.  I'm never going to have to worry about having eaten too much cholesterol and getting sick from it.  I always get enough protein because protein is in like, everything.  There are only a few vitamins I have to worry about, and I have to make sure I get enough sun for those, and take my daily vitamin.  For calcium I've been drinking calcium orange juice every morning with my breakfast.

I said "mostly-vegan" up there because there are still some veggie substitute things that manage to have whey in them.  I'm not really sure the reason for it, but it's there.  I should give it up eventually I suppose.

If anyone is really wondering why I became vegetarian again (and even vegan this time) is not only because I felt I wasn't being myself, but also because of a movie/documentary called Earthlings.  It's a documentary that shows how we treat animals.  Basically animals aren't ours for any purpose in live, except to share the Earth.  It's a really sad documentary, and I did cry a few times through it, but I recommend it for anybody.

I'm going to be trying a few new recipes this week.  I want to make Brady some more vegan cupcakes or some muffins.  Also I want to try a few stir-fry recpies with the package of seitan that I bought from the Co-op.  I think that if I don't like tofu very much, I'll really like seitan.

Besides all the new vegan-y stuff in my life, I found a new musician to listen to.  Her name is Lenka, and the album I have is her self-titled one.  I really like all the songs on it, but my favourites are "The Show" and another one, that I can't really remember the name.

I'm finishing up here; I'm going to try to upgrade my WordPress to the newest version, and watch Family Guy with my loverly husboi.  <3 <3 <3

Click the link to go to the store that sells them, however I got them on eBay for $18.  I'm not sure if they're very good, but they're cute, and the eBay shipping was free.  I'll be sure to give my review once I get them.

They would be perfect for a morning like today, when Brady went to bed at 5:30 am this morning, and I don't want to sleep until the start of my shift at 3pm.

This is the end of my spending for this week. <3

I really want this:

I had to move upstairs from the boys' 48 hour LAN party, because the computers just got too hot.  I'm listening to Loveline and enjoying Adam Carolla's return.

All of my dolls happen to be Korean.

Each doll ends up being a project.  I'm not the one that does the painting of them.  I pay other people to do that.  Essentially I just like to stare at them.  If you're interested, I have my dolls all laid out at another website.

But my next project is the character of Alice from the Resident Evil movies.  Her head is made by Doll in Mind, and is a "minimee" head.  Minimee is a service they provide where you can request that the mould a doll after a certain character, celebrity, or anything else.  You can order 1-10 at a time.  The more people you have, the cheaper the head is.  Her head is obviously moulded after actress Milla Jovovich.  I may end up buying her an orange wig as well to make her be LeeLoo from Fifth Element but for now, she's just Alice.

I don't have any personal pictures, but I'm borrowing the ones that were sent to me from the artist Miriam Bos who painted her.  I'll be posting more of my own once I get her.

The eyes and wig being used actually belong to Miriam, but I've purchased some new ones for her to use when she gets in.  I'll take pictures when I get her in with her eyes and hair.  Unfortunately she doesn't have a body yet.  I am going to order her one from Doll in Mind later, I just want to make sure I don't cut myself short.  The body itself will be $311 total (which includes EMS shipping from Korea).

I'll be sure to post entire pictures of Alice when she's done.  I'm excited to have her.

Which is why I decided to get some cookbooks today at Border's.  I bought two.  Vegan with a Vengeance and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, both by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.  Today I decided to make some cupcakes.  It was pretty daunting since there are literally 75 different recipies to choose from in this book, and icings, too.  I finally decided on the Peanut Butter Cupcakes.  It's a simple recipe that involves natural chunky peanut butter, molasses, flaxseed, vanilla, soymilk, and other basic ingredients.  The "icing" is supposed to be a drizzled semi-sweet chocolate ganache.  Unfortunately I didn't have a piping bag, and I forgot I could make one out of a ziplock bag.  But my experience with a ziplock bag wasn't really useful for drizzling, so instead I just spread a small layer of the ganache on the top.  Granted this is probably more chocolate than is required, but it'll do.  On top of that I sprinkled some chopped peanuts, and voila.  Cupcakes a'hoy.

I have to say, after trying one, they are pretty good.  Less sweet than you would expect a cupcake to be, but I think that's the point.  I mean, peanut butter cookies aren't generally sweet.  It tastes pretty wholesome, and the chocolate ganache wasn't overbearing.  They're extremely moist, and I had to eat them over the sink so I didn't lose the entire cupcake all over the floor.

I'm looking forward to cooking the other recipes in this book.  I learned a few things, like I didn't know that soy milk would still curdle with vinegar the way that cow milk does.  I've noticed you can use less soy milk where you'd use cow milk.  I'm glad I don't have to crack eggs anymore or  melt butter.

I'll be updating future posts if I make any more of these cupcakes, along with some reviews.  The book is definitely a good resource, and I recommend it, even if you're not vegetarian or vegan.  It was $15.95 at Border's, and they had quite a few.