Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Fan Mail Cake...

I love these kinds of e-mail!

Here is Wolffie's Cocoal Cake (pg 250 - LDV) with vanilla icing & chocolate glaze (& vegan sundrops) that every kid & parent ate! My husband & I didn't even get a piece. There was one girl who doesn't like chocolate, so I made her the vanilla cupcakes from HIAV, ate the cake instead, but her mom loved her cupcake!

Another vegan birthday success story!
Thanks
Angela, from up island

Monday, October 30, 2006

... and you smell like one too!

Everyone say Happy Birthday to my Old Man!!

Chronically Canadian

When I was in Vancouver for CanZine I stopped at a table with a magazine called Chronically Canadian. The magazine is geared towards people living with chronic illness. As someone who's struggled with CFS for many years I snapped it up immediately. It's a lovely magazine filled with humour and a lot of information and I wish it had been around when I was in the thick of my illness.

***Congrats to Anne for scooping the magazine. For the rest of you slackers you can order a copy HERE.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Chino

Chino is doing a guest spot at Tattoo Zoo this week and I had a little fun with him last night. Tuesday is his last day in Victoria so run on down to The Zoo and book an appointment, his work is stellar.

After Tuesday he'll be at Ritual Tattoo in Kelowna.

ATTN CHARLOTTE!
Go make the drive to visit Chino and get some script. DO IT!! :)

Friday, October 27, 2006

Moo

My photography business cards arrived today!!
First 10 people to e-mail me they're mailing address gets a random card in the mail!

Capital City Cheescake

Went to the Capital City Cheescake Review at Lucky Bar the other night. What a lot of fun and what a lot of boobies... I got some great photos and have uploaded a bunch of them to Sarah Kramer Photography.com. I also finally got to see Yum Yum Bang Bang play. Weeeeeeee! They're crazy fun! Gerry and I went to bed at 2am that night... woke up the next day feeling hung over even though all I drank was water. I think I'm old...

Thursday, October 26, 2006

I love stalkers...

Got this e-mail today from my stalker. Looks like someone has a lot of time on his/her hands. I think they have a mad crush on me or maybe it's Tanya. *laugh*

--->

lookie lookie at me ,me, MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
EVERYONE is "MY" friend!
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT
I meet somoene for the first time in PERSON and not just from networking friends and THEY ARE ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL MY FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IM SOOOOOOOOOOO FREAK'N POPULAR!!!!!!!!
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
WOOT
LE SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LMAOROTF!!!!!!!

BEEELCHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Vancouver

Vancouver was a lot of fun. I was supposed to drive over with my Auntie Bonnie but plans got changed at the last minute and I went over to the big city on my own.

It's funny how I used to be so afraid of Vancouver... I thought it was so huge and hard to get around. Now that I have my drivers license (I took my test when I turned 33 --- I'm kind of a late bloomer) the world just gets smaller and more accessible.

I bopped into the big city in my trusty smart car and headed to my parents house. I settled in, brushed my teeth and my Dad and I headed downtown to pick up my step-mum for dinner. We went to a Lebanese place called Habibi's. Almost the entire menu was vegan... There was lamb, chicken and yogurt and some cheese on the menu but for the most part I could have eaten the majority of everything. Weeee! I was very pleased. The food was excellent but the music was so loud that it made it hard to concentrate. We asked for them to turn it down and the waitress looked scared. She said "the chef likes it loud... but I'll see what he says." The music was turned down (barely) but 2 songs later it was back up to ear splitting level. The food was very good... but the atmosphere was lacking. TURN THAT DAMN MUSIC DOWN! ;)

Went to bed early so I could be fresh for the demo the next day. Woke up. Went for a hike and had oatmeal with my parents. My Dad makes the best steel cut oatmeal on the planet.

Drove to the demo and set up. Hung out with some really great people and got down to the demo. I haven't done a demo in a long while (sorry people who came to see me). I don't think it was bad... but it wasn't my best.I then sold some books and signed some autographs and got to visit with some of my favourite fans. I love you Evan!I then sat on a panel with other food writers and talked about food & culture. I didn't know I had to "read" something so I chose the passage from LDV called Girl of 100 Lists (which is the title of a Go-Go's song).

When I got to the end of the passage about when Gerry reaches over and tells me "there's your extra love." I started to cry. I was so embarrassed. I'm not a good crier. I think I blushed 10 000 shades but Trish Kelly (one of the organizers of the event) reached over and squeezed my arm and that made me feel a little better.

I hate crying in front of people. Why?
I'm not a robot. There's nothing wrong with being vulnerable. Jeez Sarah.

Anyway. Hung out for a while and visited each table. There are some really great zines out there and I met some fantastic people.

I headed back to my parents place, but not before hitting Whole Foods. Bought a basket full of Vegan Cheese (not easy to come by in Victoria). My parents were out at a dinner party so I lay in their bed and watched Charlies Angels on cable. I felt like a little kid laying in their room watching tv. Funny how being around family can make you digress.

The next day I had a lovely breakfast with my parents (oatmeal again... weeee!) and then my Dad took me for a ride in Lance. Lance is their new speedy sports car that they are very excited about. Lance is one serious hunk of a car... let me tell you.

I packed my stuff, hugged my parents and headed to Science World to catch The Body Works exhibit I've been hearing so much about. Wow... what a nutty exhibit. Dead bodies. Lots of them. It was really cool and kind of disturbing, especially the guy that was totally skinned but he was holding his skin up in one hand. Did you know that your skin is the heaviest organ? Me neither!

I hit the road and headed out to Ikea but read the map wrong and ended up at the ferry. DAMN! That's ok. I needed to get home. I miss my boys.

I missed the 5pm ferry by 2 minutes so I had to sit for 2 hours and wait for the 7pm to arrive. DAMN IT! Luckily I had just purchased the new K-os cd so I listened to that a few times.... it's a great cd.

Got home around 9:30. Walked the dog and crashed into bed with my two favourite men. What a whirlwind weekend.

Thanks Vancouver!
Hope to see you soon.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Lp madness

So while I was baking for the demo I had some time to listen to some of my LP collection.

First up on the turntable was Enjoy by The Descendents who are probably in my top 5 list of favourite bands of all time. Enjoy is a classic and should be in everyone's music collection. I don't have a mp3 for you from this album... but I do have (thanks to Fat Records) my favourite song from their new album Cool To Be You for you to download. Gerry and I love this song... mostly because it's about us. :)

Next up was Madonna's True Blue. Ugh. Why do I have this in my lp collection? This gem gave us Papa Don't preach and a bunch of other suck-ass songs that are really bad. Wow. With the exception of maybe Live to Tell where Madonna actually uses her real singing voice (plus I have a soft spot for that song because it was in the 1985 movie Vision Quest that I saw high on mushrooms and had quite an epiphany about life and stuff) ... *cough* What?? Oh... um.... don't do drugs kids. They're for stupid people. I'm not even going to link you to anything for this album cause it sucks... but if one of you want to take it off my hands... e-mail me and for $10 shipping it can be yours.

**CORRECTION**
It has been brought to my attention that Live to Tell was from the movie "At Close Range". My bad... the song from Vision Quest that I was thinking about is Crazy For You...

Speaking of Madonna.

Up next was the double album for Fast Times at Ridgemont High which is a hilarious movie and if you haven't seen it... shame on you. You know what your assigment tonight is. Go rent it. Enjoy.

Fun fact. I just learned that Cameron Crow wrote the screenplay. Must be why it's so good... He also wrote/directed Say Anything which is my all time favourite movie.

Let's hope Cameron had nothing to do with the double album soundtrack for Fast Times. WOW! This is a stinker. The early 80's was a really amazing time for music and this soundtrack is full of duds.

The only saving grace for all 4 sides of the soundtrack is Speeding by The Go-Go's ... and I'm not just saying that because The Go-Go's are also in my top 5 list of favourite bands. *laugh* So this album sucks... but I'm going to hang on to it because of The Go-Go's.

And maybe the Stevie Nicks song Sleeping Angel is ok too... but only because her voice is so lovely. Hmmmm. I wonder if I still have Rumors in my collection...

My day in a nutshell...

This post is for the "other" Sarah Kramer ... who is weirdly interested in what I do every day.

9:30am - whoops. Slept in. No time to work out.
9:31am- check e-mails, answer fan mail
10am - take a bath, get dressed, do make-up, throw hair in a pony tail (not a good hair day)
10:38am - eat breakfast - toast with tahini and a little strawberry jam, take vitamins, drink a large glass of water, write grocery list.
11am - work on getting stuff ready for demo in Vancouver. Pick out clothing. Pack up ingredients and props. Put away laundry.
12pm - start baking cupcakes for Vancouver demo.
12:18pm - cupcakes didn't work. WTF?? Must have measured wrong. DAMN IT!
1:30pm - drive downtown to deliver mirror to Tattoo Zoo and pick up garbage to take to the dump.
1:31pm - have small fight with Gerry about something stupid.
??pm - dumped garbage, got groceries, eat veggie sushi at the beach while Fergus runs around.
3:40pm - Gerry phoned to say sorry.
3:41pm - Sarah is still in love.
3:45pm - quick trim at hairdresser
4:15pm - bring in groceries. Check e-mail. Make more cupcakes.
4:49pm - 2nd batch of cupcakes worked... whew!
4:50pm - I'm done talking about my day.

See. I told you Sarah. It's boring... :)

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Dear Lexar

Dear Lexar
I am writing to thank you for your quality product.

I recently sent my husbands 1GB compact flash card through not just the wash but also the dryer ... and the card was fine and the photos intact.

Thank you for making such a fantastic product that it can withstand a housewife who forgot to check her husbands pockets.
Thanks
SARAH

Thursday, October 12, 2006

I'm blog-tastic


I'm the Indie Artist in residence over at Broken Pencil. *WOOT*

It's gonna be tough doing 2 blogs at once ... but I think I can handle it. :)

If you guys have any questions about being an indie artist e-mail me your questions: indierez@brokenpencil.com

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Thanksgiving in 60 minutes

Ok.
So this weekend was thanksgiving for us Canucks. I'm not much on holidays, we don't celebrate anything in the Kramer house except for birthdays. But blame it on my pms because all this talk of mashed potatoes and cranberries finally got to me. In a fit of carb craving I ran to the store and purchased everything I would need for a quick thanksgiving meal.

From HIAV I made the Mighty Miso Gravy (pg 79).

From GOV I made Caramelized Onion & Fennel Mashed Potatoes (pg 116). I also made The Shake 'n Fry (pg121) which I used to coat some slabs of firm tofu that had marinated in a light coating of Braggs and a pinch of thyme, cumin and black pepper.

From LDV I made the Cranberry Sauce (pg299). I also steamed some asparagus for a veggie.

I started cooking at 5:16pm and Gerry got home at 6:08 and dinner was ready and on the table by the time he got his shoes off and asked "what smells so good".

Where's the photo you ask? I forgot. *laugh* I inhaled my meal before I remembered to get a shot. Sorry. You'll just have to duplicate my meal to enjoy it for yourself. What am I thankful for this year? Potatoes. I am so thankful for potatoes. :)

I also did a photoshoot with local burlesque dancer Ricky Hard yesterday and we got some CRAZY awesome shots. I've uploaded more to Sarah Kramer Photography.com for your viewing pleasure.


Saturday, October 7, 2006

Have you ever Flickr'd yourself?

I was very surprised to find that both myself and John Waters had held the same baby-doll when we were visiting (not at the same time) Atomic Books in Baltimore...

I am stoked.

Have I talked about this before?
I'm having blogger deja vu...

Friday, October 6, 2006

Eli


My nephews birthday is around the corner and before I stuck his present is in the mail, Gerry did a little something special to the package.

How cute is that?!!

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Velvet...

As most of you know I love to collect velvet paintings...

I saw a thing on tv a while back about The Velveteria Museum in Portland and they interviewed a woman named Juanita who works in velvet...

I just had to track her down. Why??
I wanted to commission her to do a painting for me. Well today it arrived!!

Gerry had no idea what it was I needed some money for... I just told him it was something good, so he was VERY excited when he opened the package.And found this amazing painting of our family. HOW FREAKING AMAZING IS THIS?? I got goosebumps when I saw it...
The detail is so fantastic and Juanita used sparkles to highlight everything... oh dear. My photos do not do this painting justice.
JUANITA! You are rad!! I love it.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

F**k The Commonwealth

Listened to F**k The Commonwealth yesterday... what fun this LP is. Put out by FOBP in 199? it is a compilation stuffed full of BC and Ontario punk bands.

A really fun cross section of music with the BC side of the lp having some of my favourite local Victoria bands like Goat Boy, Nothing to Lose and MPA to name a few. M-Blankets cover of "In Your Room" almost makes me like The Bangles and it makes me dance around like a school girl. M-Blanket was amazing... if you ever come across a M-Blanket 7"... GRAB it! You'll love them... ahhh the 90's.

The LP might still be for sale as a lp or cd at FOBP headquarters... maybe e-mail them and ask.

My fav part of the record is the snippets taken from a SCTV skit about punk rock... YAY youtube!

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Miss Midori Colada

Added some new shots to Sarah Kramer Photography.com of Miss Midori Colada!

All these ladies belong to The Capital City Cheesecake Burlesque Review here in Victoria and are performing on Oct 24th at Lucky Bar!

My war...



Is it just me or does Black Flag's "My War" suck?

If anyone wants it e-mail me and I will sell it to you for $10 to cover the shipping.