Desk of the Day - 29/06/13 - I Love NY

Phew, it feels like forever since I've posted on my blog. I've been crazy busy with painting shoes and illustrating some fun projects. I'm hoping I'll have a little more time to update my blog over the next week.

Today I'm working on a few orders, but mostly I'll be working on this New York & Baby themed pattern. This is for the same project I've been working on for a while now, you can see some more work in progress shots from the same project here and here. I got kind of carried away on this project. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be using Little Baby Liberty as a part of this design now, which sucks. I had originally designed the blog around him but stupidly hadn't realised just how restrictive wordpress can be with editing. So I think i'll be sticking with a basic blog template with a bright patterned background. I've definitely learned my lesson for next time!

Avocados are Amazing - an Etsy Treasury

As most of you probably know, I'm a bit of an avocado addict. I hardly ever go a day without eating half an avocado. Me and my bestie love avocados so much that she made her own avocado skirt and a matching avocado bag for me.

So, I decided it's time I combine my avocado addiction with my love of Etsy and create an avocado based treasury. It's amazing how many quality avocado themed items I found on Etsy, it was hard to narrow it down to 9 of my favs.

1. Paradise Beads / 2. Harp & Thistle / 3. Undercover Quilts / 4. Jewellery L and MM / 5. fwirl / 6. Hair by Creation / 7. Celentano Woodworks  / 8. Godivas Jewelry Box / 9. show me your nails

A big thank you to Claire from Dreams Are Necessary for suggesting the Avocado Nail stickers! I blame Claire if I spend all my money on Avocado themed Etsy goodies.

Vegan Food Review - Vegusto Vegan Cheese

Remember a couple of months back I did a review on Vegusto vegan "meats"? Well, they sent me a ton of cheeses to try too!

As a previous cheese addict, when I turned vegan the thing I missed most was cheese. Most of the UK fake cheeses are disgusting, I have actually been sick at the taste of a few. So I had resigned myself to a cheeseless existence, until Vegusto came along.

Vegusto are a Swiss based company that sell great quality Vegan products such as 'cheeses' and 'meats'. Their 'cheeses' are based on coconut, rapeseed and sunflower oils & almonds. Check out their FAQ page to find out what goes in to (and what dosn't go into!) their cheeses.

Here's what I thought of their cheeses:

No Moo Mild - This was the first of the Vegusto cheese that I tried. The first thing that struck me was the texture was a delight compared to the rubbery feel of a lot of vegan cheeses. It also dosn't have that weird fake taste that knocks me sick about most vegan cheese.

No Moo Piquant - This cheese was very strong flavored and rich. I enjoyed it combined with other food but on it's own it still tasted a little fake and slightly too rich for my taste. I enjoyed this cheese the least.

No Moo Golden - This had a slight fruity flavor, it was a little stronger than the No Moo Mild but still pleasant and had no weird fake taste.

No Moo Herb - I can't shut up about this cheese! I actually ate the whole block within 2 days. It was heaven on a bagel or with some crackers, it was actually really yummy just on it's own too! This is the most like real cheese of the lot, I'll definitely be treating myself to this more often.

No Moo Melty  - This cheese melted really nicely, and was a great texture. It was nice to combine a little of this with the No Moo Mild to create a better texture and flavor. I'm not 100% sold on the taste though. It had a slightly fake after taste (although this wasn't noticeable when combined with the No Moo Burgers).

No Moo Sauce  - Me and Ash made a giant lasagne using this sauce as white sauce (recipe to come). Since Ash eats normal cheese I was a little worried he'd find this an odd flavor. We both really enjoyed it though, it tasted like proper lasagne! I will be buying this again, it's much easier than making your own vegan white sauce!


I have a couple of recipes using Vegusto cheeses coming up in the next couple of weeks too :)






 

Wednesday Art Feature: Laura Manfre

I first came accross Laura's work when she did a portrait of Kailey from mermaidens. I was so impressed with the portrait that I decided to check out her other work. I was not disappointed!

Laura's work is the perfect combination of cute and kitsch. Her work is skillfully painted in watercolours which I think adds a new and unique take on the previously shiney and in your face kitsch style.

I think the kitsch pattern and the adorable unicorns are my favs!

[Portfolio] [Blog] [Flickr] [Twitter]

Vegusto Review - Part 1 - The fake meat!

A few weeks ago Vegusto very kindly sent me some of their products to review. I'd heard so many good things about Vegusto and their fake cheese, so I was excited to sample it!

I'm not a big consumer of fake meat or fake cheese. There aren't many decent vegan friendly fake meats available in the UK, so If I have a burger it's usually a bean burger. I was delighted when I opened my Vegusto package to find three kinds of "meat" to try out; Burgers, sausages and steak! Wow!

The first "meat" I tried was the Farmhouse style sausage. I served these with a vegan cooked breakfast of scrambled tofu, mushrooms and hash browns. The perfect meal to start a busy day.

The sausages had a lovely mild smoked flavor to them. These sausages resembled meat so much that I was tempted to serve some as currywurst to my omnivorous boyfriend and see if he could tell the difference. I think I'll definitely be purchasing some of these, and definitely be making currywurst with them!!

The second "meat" I tried was the Pepper Schnitzel Steak. Having never eaten a schnitzel steak before I was very curious to try this. I can't compare what these are like to proper schnitzel steak but I enjoyed this. I had the steak fried in vegan butter in a sandwich. The crunchiness of the pepper and the fleshiness of the meat was a great combination. My cat was determined that this was real meat as he kept trying to steal it while I was eating it. He never bothers to try and steal my normal food!

The last one I tried ended up being my favorite! The mushroom & cheese burgers. I could eat these for three meals a day. These burgers have little chunks of no moo cheese in them, so when you heat them you get lovely melted bits of heaven inside the burger. I'm probably going to have to treat myself to one of these once a week from now on, I'm hooked!

Over all I was so pleased with the Vegusto meats. I'm a little bit annoyed at myself for not getting one of their roasts to try on Christmas day. They're definitely the next thing I want to try.

I'll be posting my review of Vegusto cheese in the new year, along with some yummy recipes! I'm so excited to tell you all about these! I will be gorging on them with crackers on boxing day.

 Ginge knitted me a cheezburger! He's so cute. I am craving cheese burgers for tea. NOM

Yummy Cupcakes

Today I did some modelling for the very talented, and rather handsome photographer Kyle Chapman. The photo shoot was in a very interesting tattoo studio, it was lots of fun. I'll post the pictures when he's edited out my bingo wings ;)


As a thank you he gave me these scrummy cupcakes from Sugar Hit Cupcakes, they're absolutely delicious, I'm trying to save some for our PonyChops business meeting tomorrow but I doubt they will last that long!

Creepy Angler Pumpkin

Just wanted to share this creepy pumpkin I found whilst browsing Deviant Art. It's by HighBornTalon (who, by the way has some very impressive cake decorating skills, check out this Alien cake)

It's inspired me to attempt my own pumpkin carving, pics of it to come!!