So, I love chocolate and I love blogs, which is why I especially love Cocoa, the super-cute home to Miss Penelope Bat and her sweet-as-sugar musings of adorability. She also shares my passion for pugs, which makes her fabulous x 100.
Describe Penelope in 5 words…
Carousel rides and kung fu.
So, who is Penelope exactly?
Penelope’s a jazz singer, a swing dancer, a carefree careless modern day rebel. She is more than just a plain jane girl putting one foot in front of the other and is out to make her mark on this crazy little world, pen in hand!
You’re the super-talent behind our new favourite blog, Cocoa - tell us all about it!
Cocoa is a site about life, simply, and all the little things that we can do to make it sweeter. It’s about everything all at once – finding the inspiration to try new things, meeting new people, having the most fun you possibly can and, most importantly, living out your dreams.
I started it on June 11th, 2008 in an attempt to bring people together and make them realize that this is life, here and now. Too many people stumble through each day, doing things they hate but see as necessary to getting a better job, buying a better car, becoming stable in their lives. They think that this is what they have to do in order to live their dreams – that life starts after this. What I want people to see is that this is life, and we only have so much time on this crazy little planet! Why not go join the circus or work somewhere that you love, even if it doesn’t may well? Why not shake up the world and take it by storm? This is your chance - why not go for it?
You totally inspire us, where do you get your inspir-o from?
Little things – women in coffee shops with huge, funny hats, books that can shout louder than any punk rock singer I know, but most importantly, the readers. All the lovely bunnies who read every day and send me the most charming e-mails, asking questions and making conversation, they’re the real writers behind Cocoa. I’m just the one who sorts through all their whispers, picking out questions and comments and sewing them into silky dresses that they can all put on – the kind of dresses that make them feel ten feet tall and never too shy to dance. That’s the whole point of Cocoa - to feel good about yourself.
Is the site your full-time job Penelope?
During most of the year I’m a full-time student, but now that summer is upon us I’m dabbling in a few small things - the most exciting of which is my recent application to work at – wait for it – a Betsey Johnson store. Working there would be an orange cream dream! Surrounded by all those delicious dresses, getting to swoon over the shoes and jewelry and bags and etc., not to mention a potential employee discount! I would probably be the store’s best customer.
We have a vanity case of things that make us feel good - what do you do when you need a boost of confidence?
I throw myself a party. I make French crepes with Nutella and dollops of shimmering powdered sugar, dress up in my favorite buttercream dolly dress, and toss around the house to punk rock music and late-night jazz, doing only the things that I want to do. Sometimes I’ll go shopping and splurge on one, spectacular thing, other times I’ll simply lie around and watch reruns of Everyday Italian – whatever it is, I chose to do it and that makes it my day. Having all the fun of a party without all the obligations of being a hostess always seems to brighten me up.
What 5 tracks would be essential to a Cocoa soundtrack to life?
+ Put Your Records On by Corinne Bailey Rae
+ Raw Sugar by Metric
+ Love & Happiness by Al Green
+ Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer
+ Love Underground by Robbers on High Street
What’s your secret to being positive?
Great music and even better friends. Love and music are the sweetest ingredients to happiness.
You love fashion, just like me - who are your style icons?
A strange and eclectic mix of fictional characters and folk who are too cool for me to be sure if they really do exist. Betsey Johnson, Wes Anderson, Carrie Bradshaw, Weetzie Bat (A last name isn’t the only thing we have in common, too!) Louise Brooks, Audrey Hepburn, and Margot Tenenbaum.
We love to visit new places - can you take us on a whistle stop tour of your city please?
For those who don’t already know, I live in Palm Beach, Florida which has a reputation for being predominantly old, rude, and rich. (Which it kind of is.) But! There are wonderful spots scattered around the county filled with the funkiest of finds. You just have to look closely to find them.
My perfect day would include a trip to the Downtown West Palm Beach Greenmarket in the morning, wandering amidst the fresh produce and homemade pasta and huge, towering orchids, then walking right around the corner to the famous Sloan’s. Sloan’s is a really popular hangout that is notorious for it’s super-sweet ice-cream, but the kicker is that the entire place is painted pink and green and they sell all these cool little kid’s toys and costumes. (I’m pretty sure it’s been featured on the Travel Channel) Anyway, after that I’d head to Howley’s World Famous Diner, a super-swanky fifties hotspot, for a cup of coffee and a bowl of their famous macaroni and cheese and then I’d head down the street to Downtown Lake Worth, a very hip and very popular part of town for an indie movie at Emerging Cinemas and a stroll through one of their many funky antique malls. Dinner would be had at my favorite restaurant in South Florida, Bizaare Ave. Café, where everything inside the restaurant is for sale and you can enjoy warm marinara dip with goat cheese on huge, comfy couches.
There’s nothing better!
Tell us who inspires you/who you admire and why?
I met this incredible woman a few months ago at a community yard sale and everything about her and her life blew me away. Her name is Erika and she makes all these beautiful little things out of recycled materials and vintage goods with her two daughters, Chloe and Ava. She’s had this incredible life, living in New York, meeting her husband under the strangest of circumstances, having kids, getting married, but it’s not just that good old American passion play – she adds her own spectacular style to everything she does. She invited me over to her mom’s house in this beautiful little Palm Beach suburb all decked out in the shabbiest of chic and we swam in the popsicle-colored pool, danced on the patio to cheesy pop music, ate home-cooked orzo from tiny pink bowls, all the while she’s singing out her life story in highs and lows. And her daughters are just as spectacular! They’re so mature but so sugary-sweet, and they don’t even know what a storybook life they lead! They’re just being themselves around their best friend – their mom.
I could list every single person that’s ever inspired me, and believe me there are a lot, but for some reason Erika with her homemade cupcake kind of life struck a major chord with me. People like her are my inspiration; people who live these daring dreams they have and never looking back to see what kind of life other people said they should have lead. People who slam-dance past conventions, knowing that life is only what you make it.
Erika still lives in New York, just outside of the city, and she sells all of her hand-painted homemade rose-colored creations through her very own business, Zuzu’s Petals. Although they don’t yet have a website, e-mailing her at zuzugirls@yahoo.com is guaranteed to get you a package filled with goodies and your very own taste of her honey sweetness.
What do you wish you’d have known as a teen girl in the world?
That everything works out in the end – life is just too funny for it to not. I think I put too much importance on GPAs and test scores and never stopped to consider what I was actually learning. I had some teachers that I absolutely loved and some classes that really opened my eyes to new things, but I couldn’t even recognize that because I was always struggling to keep my scores up and to make myself appealing to colleges.
There were so many things that I wanted to do but I felt as though I couldn’t because I was so preoccupied with school. It was as though I was waiting for my life to begin, waiting for my chance to actually do what I wanted. You have to take life into your own hands to make yourself truly happy, and I wish I would have know that. That’s the key.
What makes you jump-in-the-air happy?
Spectacular sunsets where the whole sky turns harlequin pink, slow dancing, kids books, car trips, old tarot cards where you can practically smell the magic on them, baking, used book stores, carnivals, christmas lights, vegetarian tamales, carousels, coffee shops – the kind where novels are bound to be written, instrumentals, cupcakes, hand-made jewelry, folk art, and mary janes.
What’s your life motto?
Rules aren’t meant to be broken, they are meant to be shattered at the speed of sound.
Quick fire round: What’s your favourite…
Shop: H&M.
Book: Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block
Website/blog: Mo Rocca 180. I’m a huge fan of him – he’s pure genius!
Hang-out: My personal-pan sized garden.
City: New York, of course! I’m in this strange living situation right now where I’m a part-time New Yorker, and I absolutely love every minute that I spend up there. The city moves with me, at the same pace, in the same style – we’re a pair if ever there was one.
TV prog: The Soup. Joel McHale…oh, if only he wasn’t married!
Food: Brie cheese with fresh bread and warm raspberry jam.
The colour pink, discuss.
Pink is the color of fun and femininity – it’s that childhood favorite that we seem to forget about as we get older. I say, make pink your favorite color again! Don’t be afraid to be childish and silly! Viva la pink!
To get your fill of Cocoa, go visit Penelope here: http://hellococoa.blogspot.com/
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