Sparkle shoes

Borgeois Boheme

Yes I am normally more organised when it comes to the beginning of a new month but not today! Therefore August is being lumped in with July but only for the moment. I am off to summer school for a few days (in a few hours) and have still to pack which is why this is a hasty post.

Very quickly: Bourgeois Boheme have a couple of new Eco bags in store. They are made from recycled polythene bags and I have my eye on the eco shopper. Only other thing to mention today is that i have added in google ads. It is just an experiment and at the moment I am not convinced by the advertising as it isn't all very vegan friendly. I'll keep an eye on it but if anyone sees anything unsuitable on it can they let me know. Thanks. Right. Off to pack for camping...have got the coffee filter, gin and am taking duvets and pillows! See you in a few days!

30th July 2006

For today's entries I have Carolyn to thank for. I don't normally get to work with her but for my last week of work I did. Good job too as she had some fantastic links for me. First up Urban Decay. If you go to their website and search through their products all their vegan ones have a little paw print beside them! Took me a while to find it as it is a very small paw print but they have a fairly good range of products which are suitable. They are working on making more of their products vegan too. :) The most exciting items I found on their website are their vegan friendly make up brushes!! How long have I been looking for fur free brushes?! I shall be writing a list and then going to a department store. Hooray! Second link I got was for Kiss Fix. The link takes you straight to all their vegan lip balms, some of which have very interesting names.

27th July 2006

Am having a busy week this week. Finishing my old job and beginning a new one. Long hours have left me slumped in front of the TV and spending no time cooking up amazing meals or shopping for fabulous items. :( But next week I will be much more a lady of leisure again and so can browse the shops and whip up culinary delights to tantilise and tease. Shockingly no links today. Really.

24th July 2006

I take back what I said about Herbivore magazine being too expensive. Secret Society of Vegans sells it at a much more reasonable price! Hope they can stock Croq Zine too (hint hint!) as I understand they can be bought in bulk. I should also mention that Matt and Nat have a scarily delicious sale on with up to 50% off their bags. I have caved in and placed a totally unnecessary order. Goes without saying really.

19th July 2006

Have been busy trying to organise the recipes but I'm not finished yet. You would think it would be easy as I have only posted up 4 so far but no. By the end of the week I may be organised but don't hold your breath

Came across Vegan News again. I used to check it every month and for some reason stopped. I forgot how much I enjoyed it so I'm glad I have re-discovered it. Have also come across what appears to be a vegan zine called CROQ which looks very interesting. I haven't ordered one yet but I think I may have to as in my teenage years I was partial to a handmade zine. Plus this one is crafty (something I aspire to be but am unable to knit a simple scarf) and vegan so it can't be anything but a winner. The only other vegan friendly magazine (that I know about) is Herbivore magazine but they charge a stupendous amount of money to ship to the UK so it is way out. Does anyone know if it is any good? Let me know and then I can either lament or rejoyce in not having a copy.

18th July 2006

Vegan potstickers recipe added but still no further with my organisation of them. Maybe later.

Due to the hot weather at the moment I have been eating more of these than I probably should. Fresh strawberries layered up with a homemade chocolate sauce and Swedish Glace icecream. Delicious. From random scribblings on some paper I can see I made the sauce with a bar of Green and Blacks dark chocolate, 2 tbsp margarine, 1/4 cup sugar (although I didn't add the full measurement as I like it bitter) and about 200-225ml soya milk. I put it all in the top of a double boiler (or a bowl over a pan of hot water) and heated it until everything melted. The sauce shouldnt be too hot if it is done this way.

Thought you may like to know that I have added in a Guestbook. I have nowhere to comment and at the moment this seems the easiest solution!

16th July 2006

oops. Bit late on the promised update and now I have the task of trying to remember what on earth I have been doing, purchasing and eating. Not easy. The purchases below were from Lupe Pintos it is a dangerous shop to enter as I am tempted by their huge variety of chillies and hot sauces. What I ended up buying (in vague order in the picture) was a bag of pinto beans (favourite for making refried beans), tortilla chips, packet of chipotle chillies, packet of sumac, 'Smokin Satan' sauce (chipotle and garlic), can of chipotles in adobo sauce and Ras-el Hanout spice blend (which contains, among many other things, galangal, rose petals, cardamon, black pepper etc. Oh and the cookies! Half of the purchased goods have been consumed already. :( But they were all very delicious.

So we ate out quite a bit going to The Note where we feasted on vegan burgers, spicy chips, onion rings and cider. Hurrah! It used to be completely vegan but now has a few veggie options and is great value. They do fantastic vegan puddings too with the most delicious vegan cheesecake and sticky date and toffee pudding. Service tends to be good here with lovely waiting staff. This is not the case with other places. Grassroots cafe was a lunch stop during the week and it should be fabulous as the menu is long and varied but I always leave slightly dissapointed. I'm not sure why. If I go with vegetarians or those who are normally meat eaters they love the veggie food but as a vegan I just don't get excited by it. It is expensive (although I have been told that most of their ingredients are organic, except the vegetables for some reason) but I wouldn't mind if I got a thrill from the food. Only ice cream as a vegan pudding the day I was in but they do sometimes have chocolate cake. Also ate out at Balbir's (sorry, don't think they have a website) an Indian restaurant in the West end. Starters were fabulous and included my absolute favourite Bhel Puri. I love it as it is fresh, crunchy and slightly sour. There are so many recipes for this one and when we make it at home it varies each time. Sometimes we add in potatoes, sometimes lots of tamarind and sometimes coriander, mint and onion chutney. Delicious. Main courses were ok. I should have ordered extra large starters.Phew. End of reviews!!

Now for the shopping! Looking around on the net and Alternative Outfitters have loads of new bags in. I know they are a US store but don't be put out by this. The pound is strong against the dollar so you get more for your money even with postage! Alicia and Van of Bourgeois Boheme have new stock in. New Lavera make up and some lovely looking wedges and sparkly shoes. Animal Aid have a fantastic chocolate sale on. Buy them ASAP, before I do. Unfortunately I have not bought anything more exciting this month than a toaster and a bin

Have a couple of recipes to post up and a bit of organisation to make finding the recipes easier but I will do it later as it is glorious sunshine outside and have been at this computer long enough!!

9th July 2006

Sorry, have had a week of annual leave and have had my brother visiting which has meant that I have spent the week entertaining. Nothing too exciting but will have to wait until wednesday before I can update fully. In the meantime, as a teaser, here are some of today's unnecessary and spontaneous purchases. I will of course describe everything in great detail in the middle of the week. I have left all the names of the products tantilisingly blurred so answers on a postcard please!

4th July 2006

I've been tagged by the lovely Lucy. So here we go:

5 things in my refrigerator:
2 bottles of gin (and tonic and lemons...can you guess what my plans for the evening are?! :)
A container full of seitan
Some dumpling wrappers
Half a daikon
Packet of fresh curry leaves

5 things in my closet:
An embarrassing amount of shoes
An equally mortifying amount of bags
Bubble wrap
A box full of arts and crafts material
A box of miscellaneous loose herbs and tinctures

5 things in my purse/handbag
Um...which one? I have actually emptied out most of my bags but in my new Big Buddha bag I have:
A stethescope
A Sphymomonometer
A tuning fork
A reflex hammer
An otoscope

5 things in my car:
A stack of flat packed cardboard boxes
A dartboard
Darts
Road map
An awful lot of dirt

5, no, No people! I'm afraid I don't really have anyone I can tag. Sad but true. If you fancy carrying it on then feel free. I'm a nosey person and particularly like to know what people have in their fridges.

You might have noticed that I have moved away from the crazy bold print. I suddenly realised that it is way too 'in your face' and it was giving me a headache. So it is now a little calmer around the place.

3rd July 2006

An afternoon addition: Bizzarely the most common search on the internet which leads to this site is for 'Matt and Nat Dominatrix." hmmm. So for those who are trying to track it down here is the one, the only, Matt and Nat Dominatrix. Don't say I'm not good to you.

Hmmm...I don't remember the last few days passing so quickly? The 1st of July found me doing a talk on 'An introduction to vegan lifestyle and nutrition.' It was an unplanned and unrehearsed talk with Jenny (fellow student and vegan) and it went very well. I think we struck a good balance of getting the information across without being preachy or 'we are better than you.' I find it interesting doing talks as public speaking isn't something I adore doing but when it is something I know about and am passionate about it doesn't seem such a problem. It helped that I had made a chocolate truffle cake for everyone to try and feedback was excellent. Doing talks also reminds me of why I decided to go vegan and also the positive impact my lifestyle has not just on animals but on the environment and people too.

As well as the cake you can now get the recipe for smoked aubergine and mushroom burgers which I posted about last month. The plan is to keep recipes slightly seperate from the blog for no other reason than I can make them easier to find! Mango cake with coconut frosting added too. So much easier than trailing through the blog!

Only excitement today was discovering that the cat had got stuck up the tree. Some kind builders working up the road came and got him down and as he got lifted out the tree another cat came leaping down. This made me realise that a) with a bit of effort on his part the cat could have got himself down the tree and b)My sympathy for him decreased (but only slightly) as I realised that he had only got stuck up the tree because he was chasing the other cat up it.

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