Tape Parade!

Today I want to introduce you to Laila from Tape Parade, one of my fav new blogs. Laila is a musician & vegan from London. Laila likes to blog about her outfits (which are awesome and so unique, I would 100% steal this girls wardrobe) and her explorations around London.

Here are some of my fav outfits/pictures from Laila's blog:

Don't forget to visit Laila and say hi!

Tape Parade Blog // Tape Parade Facebook // Twitter // Bloglovin

Blogwatch - 08/09/13

I can't believe we're over a week into September already. Time is flying by! Here's some of my fav blog posts from my blogging buddies in September/August. As usual, if you have any blog posts you'd like to share with me, send me a link in the comments section :)

I'm not the only one moving to London soon, my fellow purple haired blogger Sarah from The Laughing Medusa is moving there too! She has a ton of great London & travel themed guest posts on her blog at the moment, including this fabulous Big Ben party hat tutorial by Juni from Hey Juni.

Since starting my Revolt program (I blogged about it here) I've been cutting out sugar. I'm missing it terribly and craving these delicious but healthy oatmeal pancakes by Chocolate Covered Katie.

Amy from ART of the HEART celebrates her 100th post with a beautiful pastel outfit post. Oh gosh, I'm having to use so mcuch self restraint not to buy the unicorn t-shirt.

My girl Wensdi from What Is Wensdi shares another of her beautiful illustrations. While you're there, check out Wensdi's new blog layout, I think it looks so rad.

Sarah from Bring More Yarn is getting me in the back-to-school spirit with her first day of school outfit. Sarah is so awesome at putting outfits together, somehow I don't think my back to school outfit will be this co-ordinated.

Rosa from Pink Milk and Cookies painted some adorable hand painted brooches. I love the pastel shades she's used.

Adrian from Adrian Loves Owls shares her fav vegan restaurants from where she lives. I was so surprised to see Loving Hut in the list, I had no idea they had restaurants worldwide. I'm looking forward to trying out the Loving hut in Camden when I move to London!

What's in my bag? Edinburgh Fringe edition.

I see lots of other bloggers post "what's in my bag?" posts, and I've always wanted to do one, but my bag is almost always full of receipts, pens and random flyers I pick up intending to read that just end up staying in my handbag for a year or more.

Last week I visited Edinburgh for Fringe festival, and it was probably the most organised my handbag has been for a long time!

Here's my essentials for a visit to Edinburgh Fringe:
1. A camera or phone! - Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities on earth, you'll need a camera to take pictures of it's beauty (and of the fun and odd things you'll get to see at Fringe).
2. I always bring my business cards with me, at a creative festival you never know who you'll strike up a conversation with.
3. An umbrella &/ or a rain mac (the mac is from Primark) - when you're in Scotland (or most of the UK in fact), pack for rain. Don't forget your sunglasses for when the rain disapears though!
4. B.B Cream with SPF (this one is from Superdrug) - After a late night, I really can't be bothered putting much foundation on, BB cream is great for a quick perk up for your skin.
5. A notebook - Edinburgh is so inspiring, I need somewhere to doodle new ideas for shoes and illustrations.
6. Chocolate!! - You'll be doing a lot of walking in Edinburgh. I'm not saying chocolate is the best source of energy, but it's my fav one!

For those of you who don't know much about Edinburgh Fringe, it's a comedy and arts festival that takes over Edinburgh for 25 days each summer. This is my second year going to Fringe and it's safe to say that it won't be my last.

This year we saw some fantastic comedians; Stewart Lee, Rich Hall, Paul Foot and David O'Doherty were my absolute favs. We even found a pub, The Auld Hoose, that served vegan cooked breakfast, including vegan haggis, it was amazing. And to top it off they have a metal jukebox so we got to listen to Rammstein and Mudvayne while we ate our breakfast.

Blog Watch 07/08/13

Now that I have a little more time to invest in my blog again, I want to start doing blog watches every couple of weeks again. I feel a little disconnected lately and I haven't been reading nearly enough blogs, so I'm hoping this blogwatch will help me discover new blogs and allow me to read more of my fav blogs too.

Do you have any exciting features coming up on your blog? Tell me about them, I may feature you on one of my blog watches :)

Kasia from Coeurs de foxes looks angelic in this beautiful, pale pink heart dress. I love the beautiful scenery in the background too.

Ginge from Cosmos and Crayons shows us how to paint BMO nails!!There are no words for how cute these are.

Becca from Ladyface shares her Lemon Blackberry cupcake recipe with us! It's vegan too! Yum.

Miss Billie Jean outshines Mickey with her flamingo inspired outfit in her newest outfit post.

Explorer Danny from Lady Explorers  shows us how to make a delicious watermelon t-shirt.

It's official, Nerd Burger had the coolest tattoos.

I'm not the only one with a new blog design, GypsyBeee has a beautiful new floral design. I think this fits in with her style so well.

Stilettos & a Giveaway Winner

I've been absent from the blog a few days and things have been crazy busy as usual. It feels like this summer is whizzing by. I'm moving to London in a month and have still got to find a flat, so I've been spending any spare time I have trying to find somewhere.

I've also been finishing off some pairs of my new stiletto and have finally made a custom listing for them in my Etsy Shop. I'm really pleased with these shoes, they take the paint perfectly, and I love the baby blue inner. Here's a sneak peak at what I've been working on:

It's also time to announce the lucky winner of the Vegan Police giveaway! Congratulations to Imani J! I also want to say a big thank you to Heather from Vegan Police for doing this giveaway with me.

Picnic in the Park - Our Vegan summer picnic!

On Saturday my local park, Avenham Park, hosted a big Picnic in the Park event. Preston Vegan Society thought this would be a great opportunity to get to know each other and share lots of yummy vegan food.

I don't know many local vegans, and had never met most of this group before, so it was really good to meet lots of like minded people and have a day of chatting and eating delicious food in the sunshine by the river.

Everyone bought their own food to share out. I made my chocolate chip cookies and a mint, split peas and quinoa salad (recipe to come if I actually remember what the eff I put in it!). There were so many amazing foods on offer; chocolate strawberry cheesecake, lemon poppy seed muffins, chai cheesecake, bakewell tart and vegusto sandwiches to name a few! We all agreed it was very surreal to be able to eat whatever we wanted without asking the ingredients.

I had such a fantastic day meeting new people, trading recipes and scoffing. And I hope we have many more events in the future!

Vegan Police Giveaway!

A couple of weeks ago I did a Vegan Etsy Treasury and discovered a load of fantastic vegan shops. One of them was Vegan Police who sell cute, hand printed vegan t-shirts and tanks. I think I added almost all of their tank tops to my Christmas wishlist for this year. Not only are their tops adorable and spread a load of vegan love, but the shop also donates 10% of their sales to animal charities!

Heather from Vegan Police has very kindly offered to let the lucky winner of this giveaway choose a tank from her shop. You can enter this giveaway below the pictures of awesome t-shirts:

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Sunny Days and a Giveaway winner!

I've been a little absent from the blog over the past few days. There's a good reason for it though I promise! I've been out enjoying the sunshine!

Where I live in the North West of England we very rarely see a blue sky or warm weather. In fact, the weather in my particular village is so dreary that in the second world war they decided to build a bomb factory here so the cloudy skies could protect it from being seen by planes. I don't know how factual that is, my driving instructor told me about it, but it makes sense to me.

Over the past couple of weeks we have had beautiful, warm, sunny weather. So I've been trying to make the most of it.

I'm so lucky that I live about an hours drive from The Lake District, one of the most beautiful places in the UK. Last weekend I drove up to Grasmere to meet a friend who lives near by. We decided to hike up to Easedale Tarn which was an absolutely stunning walk. There were great views all the way up as we followed the path of a waterfall. We even found a little pool to have a swim in and escape from the heat. When we got to the top we were greeted by a big tarn and even more beautiful views. It was bliss.

Later on in the week I travelled down south to visit my gran for a few days. My gran lives near lots of beautiful countryside too, so I spent lots of time relaxing, strawberry picking and even got to go to a buddhist temple that served yummy vegan food!

And, it's time to announce the winner of my Betty Turbo Giveaway! Congratulations to Tamara! 

Etsy Finds - Vegan Love

I have no reason why it's taken me so long to do a Vegan Etsy treasury. There seem to be a ton of make up and beauty shops on etsy that make vegan friendly products, I definitely need to try some out!

1. Betty Turbo / 2. The Gnarly Whale / 3. Love Infinitely / 4. Corkor / 5. Addictive Cosmetics / 

6. A Breath of French Air / 7. Chocolita LLC / 8. Vegan Police / 9. Golden Ponies

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.

And the winner is...

I can now reveal the lucky winner of my Big Vegan Giveaway. It's Sarah from Bring More Yarn! Congratulations Sarah! Your vegan goodies will be in the post next week!
You should all go check out Sarah's blog too, it's pretty awesome.

Indulgent Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

Chocolate fudge cake has always been a big favorite of mine. So of course, as soon as I turned vegan my main priority was to find out how to make it the vegan way! This recipe is a mix up of a few chocolate fudge cake recipes I've tried (yes, I have tried that many, maybe I have a problem). This cake is always a winner among my none vegan friends and family too.

The sponge is pretty much the same as my Chocolate Raspberry Coconut Cake.

Sponge Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup unbleached cane caster sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 cup thick coconut cream
1/2 cup coconut milk

Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup vegan butter/marge
3/4 cup cocoa powder
4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp soy/almond milk

raspberries to decorate  (optional)

Sponge Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Grease two 8 inch cake tins.

2. Sift all of the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Mix in all of the wet ingredients until it is all completely mixed.

3. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 25-35 mins (25 for fan ovens). To tell if the cake is done put a sharp object into the middle of the cake, if it comes out dry the cake is done.

4. Allow to cool before frosting.

For the frosting & decorating:

1. Mix the butter and vanilla extract.

2. Gradually add the icing sugar and cocoa powder while mixing. Add a little milk if the consistency is too dry.

3. Sandwich some icing between the two sponges and ice all around the outside. Add extra raspberries to decorate.

My list of Vegan bloggers - Part 1

Seeing as it's the week of my Veganniversary, I'm pretty much taking over the blog with vegan posts (sorry to all my none vegan readers, normal posts will commence really soon!).

Since becoming Vegan I've met so many supportive people in the blogging community. So I wanted to pay their kindness back by introducing you all to their blogs! Here are a few blogs I think you should all check out:

My Mod Style - Jessie was the very first vegan blogger I got in contact with. She's so supportive and helpful! I love reading her blog because she spreads a crap ton of positivity. One of my fav features on her blog is The Vegan Project where Jessie is helping her friend Dan discover the pros of a vegan lifestyle.

Vegan in a Pretty Dress - Michelle started being vegan in February, she uses her blog to document her journey into veganism, and also share some really yummy recipes. Michelle is such a sweet person, she's a major animal lover and is even training to become a vet!

Adrian Loves Owls - I have a major blogging crush on this lady! She has the most awesome style, and the cutest dogs, and on top of that she's also vegan! I love seeing Adrian's dog posts, it's clear how much she adores her doggy family members.

Nerd Burger - Cazz is the queen of rad hair and comics! She thrifts really cool toys and looks like a superhero, she's also recently become vegan!

Say It Ain't So - Rae and her hubby have recently made the transition from vegetarian to vegan, and I love seeing the yummy stuff they get to try when they're on the road. Rae also has the most adorable pugs Phyllis and Priscilla.

Dreams Are Necessary - I want to give Claire a big mention too! She is so creative and shares her awesome felt creations on her blog along with a load of cat finds. Her post about going mostly raw is really interesting and has made me want to explore raw food some more.


If you're a vegan blogger let me know and send me a link to your blog! I'll be adding to this list as I find more wonderful vegan blogs. 

Don't forget to enter my Big Vegan Giveaway.

Vegan Business Cards

I can't remember how I came accross these vegan business cards, if it was one of you lovely lot please let me know and I'll give you credit.

I think they're a funny, yet functional idea. I'm so fed up of having to explain veganism to each and every person who asks me. Maybe someone could come up with a giant business card that explains why I'm a vegan so I don't have to explain myself to everyone? Or maybe I should just get it tattooed on my forehead?

My 1 year Veganniversary Giveaway!

This weekend it's officially been a whole year since I became vegan! The first year has been a whole lot easier than I thought it would be, I seem to have discovered so many more delicious foods than I would have ever tried before. It's also forced me to cook from scratch much more often (especially cakes, as I can't just pop out and buy vegan baked goods where I live). I find myself craving cheese way less than I thought I would (I was pretty much a cheese addict before becoming vegan).

I feel like I've met so many awesome people through becoming vegan, especially vegan bloggers! The vegan blogging community is so supportive and helpful. I'll be sharing some love for a few of my fav vegan bloggers during the week to say a big thank you!

Because my readers have been super duper lovely to me, I figured this would be a great time to give something back to you all. So I'm giving away a 2 month large Ad spot, along with a few of my fav vegan friendly goodies.

Here's what's in my pack of Vegan goodies:

•  2 Barry M Nail polishes in Lilac & White nail effects (my fav colours!)
• A re-useable Bobble Bottle. I love the idea of wasting as little plastic as possible, so I think the Bobble Bottle is a great idea.
• Good Stuff Summer Peaches sweets - these are yumtastic!
• 3 Mini Moo Free Hunny Comb chocolate bars
• Forks over Knives - The cookbook. This is by far one of the best & healthiest vegan recipe books, it's great for none vegans too.

This giveaway will end on the 22nd May. Everyone is welcome to enter, you just have to be following me via Bloglovin!

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