When Tara Met Blog: June 2011

Wordless Wednesday: NY Post Headlines

Last week, Blowfish Malibu shoes invited me and several other L.A. bloggers to a night of pedicures and fun! Blowfish is a fresh and inventive line of edgy-cool footwear designed with the trendsetting set in mind and for an affordable price. I wasn't familiar with the brand until this party, but Blowfish shoes can be found at many specialty stores as well as Macy's and DSW.

I got to see several of their shoes on display though from Gladiator sandals like this Maya flat sandal to the now popular platform cork heels
again for a 70s summer look (like this one).

I went home with their pair of Modena strapped sandals ($49) in the color gold. I'm a wuss when it comes to shoes, so I appreciated how comfortable these are, yet still being trendy. They also come in my size too (5.5). Take a look:

You can enter to win a free pair in their Shoe-A-Day Giveaway on their Facebook page.

Hollywood Heroes award ceremony

I recently was able to cover Prevention Magazine's award ceremony for "Hollywood Heroes" committed to using their celebrity for making a world of difference. Recipients included Emmy and Tony Award-winner Kristin Chenoweth on behalf of Maddie's Corner, CSI actress Marg Helgenberger on behalf of The Race to Erase MS, and actress Holly Robinson Peete (The Talk, 21 Jumpstreet, Celebrity Apprentice) for her HollyRod Foundation.

The reason why I attended though, was because they were also honoring Laura Ziskin, the co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer, who passed away last week from cancer. I had posted a photo of Laura in my recent Wordless Wednesday post as I had the honor of working with her back in 2008 when she launched the non-profit.

I knew it was going to be an emotional night, especially once I saw her SU2C colleagues Sue Schwartz and Rusty Robertson. Sue made me cry when she bravely said

"Tonight is special because it's all about Laura and it's an opportunity to galvanize the public and say 1,500 Americans died today, 1,500 Americans died last Sunday and Laura was one of them and 1,500 Americans will die tomorrow and the next day and the next day until we stop this."

On a happier note, the evening wasn't all sad as it was nice chatting with the other honorees. Holly's answers to my questions were awesome, but unfortunately my iPhone recorder wasn't working at that moment, so I was forced to paraphrase her response in my Huffington Post piece instead of having a direct quote like I did for the others.

Oh, and having seen Kristin on Broadway before, I knew she was tiny, but she was even more so in person and she was wearing heels. She's probably the first person I've interviewed who I was taller then, well except for Brandon Soo Hoo from Tropic Thunder, but he's a kid, so that doesn't count.

You can read my full piece over at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tara-settembre/new-hollywood-heroes-hono_b_882734.html

Volunteering at Operation Gratitude

When I asked if we should put different Girl Scout cookie varieties in the packages for the troops instead of two of the same, a veteran replied, "No, they just give them to Afghan children, who in turn, tell them where the bombs are." I knew then that I wasn't just packing mere care packages.

I've written in the past about Operation Gratitude, which sends personal care packages to the troops-at least 100,000 per year. I had originally heard about the organization at last year's The Women's Conference. Inspired by the program, I had a little party where my girlfriends and I wrote letters to the soldiers to accompany Operation Gratitude's boxes.

This last weekend though, I got to see the whole operation in full force when I volunteered at the non-profit's headquarters--a garage at the California Army National Guard in Van Nuys- to help assemble the packages going out. Over 150 volunteers were there and it was a massive assembly line. My job was putting in DVDs along the side of the box (a lot of which were donated by the Walt Disney Home Entertainment team :) or were Emmy screeners of TV shows) into the boxes. Sounds simple enough, but the boxes were actually coming by really quickly and I had to put them in upright in every other box and would lose my order for a second. I couldn't help but be reminded of the classic I Love Lucy episode. Other items going overseas included books, toiletries, snacks, and handwritten letters.

Learn easy ways how you can get involved.

Laura Ziskin
March 3, 1950 - June 12, 2011

Top Ten Things I liked About Portland

Raphael and I had never been to the state of Oregon and we kept hearing great things about Portland, so we decided to take advantage of being so near on the West Coast and did a quick weekend trip. I was able to use miles for both the hotel and flight, so it wasn't that extreme. We also lucked out and had two gorgeous sunny days there, because apparently it's been a long and rainy season this year, but it made everything look very green.

Top Ten Things I liked About Portland:

No sales tax!! Coming from a state where 10% is added to your bill every meal and with each purchase, it was like having a coupon off of everything. I of course had to take advantage of this and made my way to their local outlets, where I cleaned up at LOFT.

People were super friendly. Not sure if was because of the sun being out, but everyone we met was really helpful and proud of their city.

Food Cart Pods. There are these food pods throughout downtown, which are like LA's food trucks, but not mobile since they are stationed in one area. They are also more like little huts than actual trucks too. However, each specialized in different things from Thai, soup, boba, etc. I enjoyed the Dump Truck, which served dumplings.

Pie! Thanks to Gourmet Pigs' advice, we headed to Portland's fun and funky Alberta Arts area for some pie at Random Order, which Travel+Leisure voted their Vanilla Salted Caramel Apple Pie as one of the top ten pies in the US. Although, we preferred their banana cream pie.

The air. Boy did it smell clean and fresh.

The Falls. We got a pit outdoorsy and did a mile hike up Multnomah Falls - outside of Portland where we got to see the most beautiful double water fall.

So clean. It's a very clean city.

Wine Country. Only 40 minutes away from downtown is Portland's thriving wine country known for their Pinot.

Green. I heard the city was very Granola, but it was cool seeing their Solar Compact Garbage containers on the street and how restaurants used grass-fed beef and locally sourced products.