Vegan Haters Gonna Hate But...

May 2011-

Just throwing it out there: vegan treats sans dairy doesn't mean sans excellence in the baking realm.

Last night boyfriend made (and I came through with the cleaning/carrot grading assist) the best carrot cake I've ever tasted, vegan or otherwise.



Boom. Chicka. Boom.

Taste tested even by the omnivores at our shop today--this delight past with flying reverent colors.





Classic Vegan Carrot Cake

yields 2 8×8″ cakes (or 2 9″ round cakes)

2 1/3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt

6 tbsp flax seed meal
3/4 c warm water
1½ c sugar
1 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 c shredded carrots
1 c walnuts, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz vegan cream cheese
¼ c margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Line two 8×8″ pans with parchment paper. In a small bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through salt). In a large bowl, whisk together flax seed meal and water. Beat in sugar and oil. Add vanilla and carrots and mix until combined. Add dry mix and stir until moistened. Fold in walnuts. Pour equal parts into pans. Bake for 18-20 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes.

For the frosting, beat together cream cheese and margarine. Add vanilla and powdered sugar; whip until smooth. (Don’t overbeat; in my experience, store-bought vegan cream cheese has a tendency to get runny.)

Use a knife to loosen edges of cake from pans. Using parchment paper, lift cakes out of pans. Carefully remove parchment paper from one cake. Frost cake, layer, and decorate with a marzipan carrot (brush a little cocoa powder into the indents for some realism). Serve chilled.

Thanks to Hell Yeah It's Vegan for making my Sunday night a tasty one.

Superb

May 2011-

So I've been working at Superb for about a month now, and it's been pretty awesome. Beautiful bikes, components and people to take pictures of.

Here's just a brief medley of some of my favorite shots:



Justin, a custom build customer/shop friend waiting patiently in our mechanic shop for his bike.



Pake frame lineup for 2011. Pakes a plenty!



Beautiful authentic Italian Bianchi Road bike I had the pleasure of shooting. I'm both grateful/bummed that it's not three cm's smaller. (My bank account is praying with thanks to the steel Bianchi gods of fate.)


Shop manager Jason Hollingsworth teaching a basic math lesson. Yeah, we're a well rounded bunch.


Ryffrank catching some rays through our shop window.


More coming later.

Late Night Train Adventures

May 2011

Last week a few friends and I decided to have a late night adventure. And for a bunch of 22-year-olds, adventures mean exploring, and under the cover of night, that means the taboo rules all: train yards.



Entry. Woops.



The Christkicker backpatch--a cycling group in the Boston area.



Walking the tracks. Sorry Mom and Dad.





Caboose entry.



I have a tendency to catch people mid sentence.




A fallen soldier, fatality of the train yard.

These times, they are a-changing.

March 2011-

Geez louise! I've been off the pixel map for awhile.

As of two weeks ago, I officially quit my college job of slinging coffee to working at Superb. I'll be getting my blog on over there with frequency so click it often for updates on new fabulous bike products, bike events and dance party extravaganzas.

Also, boyfriend ended his 8 year no pet hiatus and got a dog, which by proxy means that I sort of have a dog now. Sweet.



O hai.



...still is inconceivable how someone could actually abuse this little critter.


His name is Danzig. He is the man. If you don't know where that comes from do us both a favor, save mutual embarrassment and frustration and just google the name. You know where it comes from. I promise.


Up next: pictures from a myriad of shows, WRITE UP OF THE HEART OV STEEL COMPETITION.

Dark Horse Climbing Competition

February 2011--

Last month MetroRock Climbing gym of Everett, MA hosted the Dark Horse Climbing Series. The competition brought professional climbers from as far as San Francisco to flex their bouldering muscles.

I wish I had documented the transition of the orderly, composed and clean house of my boyfriend to a climber hostel, decorated with backpacks and travelling gear with the occasional set of chalk bag and set of climbing shoes. I think it took more than three or four sweep and mop jobs to clean up the residue of loved crash pads and people.



Pro climbers Max Zolotukhin and Natasha Barnes resting after finishing their sets after Natasha's upper lip got into a fight with the bouldering wall.



Third place Men's Pro Brian Kim getting burly.



Third place Tiffany Hensley sports her signature unorthodox attire in her finals round. Hensley ended up third.

ANNNDD THE FIRST PLACERS!



Pro Francesca Metcalf in first for women's.



Daniel Woods stepping up to his final problem at the Dark Horse Series Comp.

This month I will be fortunate to attend Boston Rock Gym's Heart of Steel competition.

If you think Dark Horse is cool, check out VIDEO INSTALLMENT NUMBER ONE of this bad boy:

HEART OV ZTEEL • Pt1: Missing from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

Savage. Brutality. In the best way possible.

NEW WEBSITE NEW WEBSITE NEW WEBSITE

So I've been working off the old website that I created senior for awhile. An incredibly outdated, PJ-istic website that really doesn't emulate the extent of the work I've been doing lately.


Over the past month I've been working on something and one of my clients asked me about my website so I decided that I'd finally suck it up and finish it. I'm still not totally satisfied but it surely showcases some different things I've been working on. So here we go: MY NEW WEBSITE...for the time being.


CHECK. IT. OUT.

Thanks for looking! Stay tuned!

Proxy Puppies, Purses and People

January 2011--

After more than a year at Simmon's College, Proxy says goodbye to its origins and heads to the wonderful world of Somerville to a new office space conveniently located in Union Square. We share the same roof with an eclectic talents from a guitar builder to Groundworks Somerville. So far we are digging the new space and have even set up a nifty little product studio that I will detail in later posts!

Last Sunday we had our official office warming party/sample sale, and introduced everyone to the newest member of our team:




BESO!!

There was a wonderful turnout of new and old faces to see some Winter favorites and a few sneak previews into our Spring items.




Purchasing the holiday dress!



Awesome new bags made ENITIRELY OUT OF RECYCLABLE MATERIALS.





Beso's best friend was also in attendance.



One of our Lasell models stopped to give Beso a few scratches of encouragement between talking it up with our guests.

Missed out? Not a problem. Monday, February 7 fashionista Naomi Mirando and Proxy will be taking Mission Hill's Savant Project by storm with Fashion with a Conscience:



Hope to see you there!!