Welcome new members!

This week we have two new members this weekAelleaelle : and Crafty Panties . Please take the time to check out these shops and heart them!

It's Raining Babies!

Need a quick baby shower gift? Have a wee one coming yourself and want something cute? Look no further than the Vegan Etsy Team!


Garden Maze Toddler Tunic by Earth Groovz:





Red Monster Onesie by Panda With Cookie:




Brown and Gold Patchwork Ball by Crafty Panties:






Origami Crane Mobile also by Panda With Cookie:






-Kala (Vegancraftastic)

Pinkie having a fabulously lazy day.

Lately my cat Pinkie has taken to sleeping on my bed. She waits for the bedroom door to open and whizzes past me, straight to her favourite spot (warm from where I was sleeping). Then curls up, or stretches out, and generally has a lovely snuggly time. She purrrrrs loudly, and if I'm next to her, it's quite hypnotic, and i just want to curl up next to her and snooze too. Ah, the life of a well looked after cat can be so relaxing......................

New Vegan Hair Products.

Introducing a new hair product that i found by accident, while browsing in my local supermarket. Now, I know it's not handmade or for sale on Etsy, but it is VEGAN and carries the certified Vegan Logo, and stated " tested on film stars NOT animals", which I liked :)
They come in small and medium sizes. I opted for the small, as I don't spend much on my hair products normally, and this was like a treat. I liked the funky bottles. I've actually never heard of Tara Smith before, but as a hairdresser to stars, why would I have?
Anyhow, I decided to find how good these products are, so I bought the Shampoo, Conditioner, Base Coat Serum, AND Top Coat Glosser. How's that for a hair splash out!
And so to the testing! : The Shampoo felt thicker than what i am used to, and didn't foam as much as my usual brand, but that didn't matter. It felt good, and luxurious. One wash was enough to leave my hair feeling really squeaky clean. then the Conditioner. Smelled nice and fresh, felt quite smooth. Then I towel dried my hair, at this point I noticed that my felt fell into the right style, with out me even having to style it. Normally at this stage it goes in any direction apart from where i would like it. I think I could have finished my treatment there, but since I had bought the extras, I carried on. Next I used the Base Coat Serum, which was like a liquid gel. It slid through my hair effortlessly and seemed like a nice 'extra'. Finally, when my hair was practically dry, I gave a light spray of the Top Coat Gloss. My hair felt and looked like I had been to a professional salon. Such a treat, and all in the comfort of my own home. I love it! For anyone interested in checking out Tara Smith products, here website is here and you can follow her on twitter here . I love the fact that she's been in loads of magazines, and is promoting Vegan products.
Tara at her celebrity ;launch of her hair products.

Two vegans, two years, one wedding: The Saga, part 3.

This is the third installment of an as of yet unknown quantity of posts about Melissa Bastian's wedding nonsense, to be posted monthly.

As this is my post for the first Monday of the month, it's meant to be the third installment of my vegan wedding antics. But this morning a slow, steady, quiet rain is falling, and it is making me contemplative. So I'm thinking that instead of the wedding, I'm going to write about the marriage that I will be embarking upon, and maybe more so the partnership that I have already found.

Jonathan and I have been together for a bit over three years. Often when omni friends and acquaintances find out that he is also vegan, they ask if he went vegan for me. But not at all! Our mutual veganism is, in fact, how we found each other. Believe it or not, we met on Friendster. (For you young'ins, that's the thing that existed before Facebook, or even Myspace.) He happened to be searching for vegans in his area, and I, having gone vegan two months beforehand, happened to have said something about my veganism on my Friendster profile. Voila!

I won't go into all the gory details, but yes, the long story short is that I met my future husband on Friendster, and it's all because we're both vegan.

Whether veg'ns can or should date omnis has long been a hot topic in the veg community, and many have strong feelings on it. I don't think I have a right to an opinion on who others should or should not date. All I know is that when I decided it was time for me to dedicate myself to a vegan lifestyle, dating anyone who did not also follow that lifestyle was out of the question. I went vegan because of a deep rooted feeling, based in cold hard facts gained through years of research, that there is something seriously wrong with our current methods of food production - particularly with regard to animal foods. How, then, could I date someone who could eat the products of that system, that I so strongly believe to be corrupt, amoral, perverse, etc...? To me it presented a fundamental incompatibility. Plus, how the hell would we ever agree on where to eat dinner?

But alas, I tangent.

Luckily, shortly into my vegan life, I found Jonathan. He had then been vegetarian for ten years and vegan for almost five. He was (is) a fabulous cook, and had (has) an extensive knowledge of the veg restaurants in this huge city to which at the time I was still pretty new. Naturally we connected on many other levels, but being with him was a huge benefit to my fledgling veganity.

Jon and I are vegan for different primary reasons. He focuses on the ethical side: he believes that it is fundamentally wrong to eat an animal. While not feeling that eating animals is A-OK in every circumstance, I have more of an objection to the way that food animals are treated in current society - cranked out of factories as if they were chairs or automobiles, not living and thinking beings. Both of us knew that becoming vegan was the proper step to take for ourselves, but we have different takes on the issues. This allows us to have interesting debates on the subject, and to challenge each other to think about why we do what we do. I believe it's important not to be stagnant in the act of being vegan - after all, it is in reality a boycott.

Jonathan is my partner, and our shared vegan lifestyle is an important factor in that partnership. Of course there are MANY other aspects that are as or more important. (Like that he's hilarious, brilliant, caring, and well read, for instance, or that we agree on the kinds of cities we'd like to live in if and when we leave New York.) But I believe that it has been a cornerstone in our relationship. Why? Because it is a way of seeing, understanding, and approaching the world.

Some of our friends and relatives think that we're simply being stubborn to insist that our wedding will be all vegan. But to us, to do anything else is unthinkable. How can we have a celebration of our partnership, of which this worldview is such a crucial factor, that involves the very thing that we reject? It would be absurd.

So yes, we're having an all vegan wedding, to celebrate our partnership which is so intrinsically vegan - a partnership that began just because one vegan looked for another on Friendster.

Sometimes it's funny how things work out.

Interview-Vegan Dish

Todays interview is with Jeanette of Vegan Dish, Vessels and Wares, and Quiet Animals

Hi. My name is Jeanette. I am vegan. I make pottery.

I don't have a car. I wish I was a farmer's market regular. I love the lemon bar from my local vegetarian food co-op. I have one cup of coffee everyday. The heat of summer makes me cranky. I can't wait for autumn. I have a collection of miniature ceramic animals. My kitchen floor needs to be mopped. I have stinky feet. My apartment in tiny, but my studio is huge (I have studio-mates.) I really really really want to go on vacation. I've never been to Portland, OR but believe it to be a vegan's version of heaven. I have lived in Atlanta for 8 years, but it still doesn't feel like home. I think I'm going to buy a new bicycle very soon.

I think that is all there is to know, but since you asked.....

How did you choose the name of your shop and how long have you been a member of
Etsy?
I joined etsy in March 2007 and opened my first shop, vesselsandwares. I opened VeganDish in May 2007.

I just opened another shop, QuietAnimals, this month, for my lino-print desktop animals.

What kinds of items do you sell in your shop and what inspired you to start
creating them?
I sell handmade pottery that says "vegan." Coffee mugs. Cereal bowls. Platters. That sort of thing.

I started to make them in 2006 for Cosmos Vegan Shoppe. I was just a weekend/hobby potter at the time and made a few bowls for myself. My boyfriend (who is friends with Ken and Leigh at Cosmo's) thought Cosmo's might be interested in carrying them. And they were. They have been super supportive and encouraging since the very beginning.

Have you been featured anywhere?

I was lucky to be interview early on by kittee for Herbivore Magazine (back when they had an online magazine.) And Sarah Kramer has been absolutely amazing and has taken some great pictures of my pottery that she has shared with the world.
I'm also very thankful to the many bloggers that have written about my pottery. That has been so unexpected and great!

Do you have any animal companions?
Yes. Syd is an orange tabby cat. 14 years old and going strong.

How long have you been vegan and what made you go vegan?

I've been vegan for 15 years. The idea of handling raw chicken to cook for myself was just too much. It was the first time I had lived by myself and didn't have a roommate or mom to cook for me.
I went out and bought a couple of vegetarian cookbooks. Turns out they were vegan cookbooks, and they made too much sense for me to ignore. That was it. I was vegan.

I want to say it has been a real pleasure to make pottery for other vegans. I just love me some vegans!

Truly, when I joined etsy, I had no intention of introducing VeganDish to a larger audience. But because of the vegans that I met on etsy and the encouragement I was given, I gave it a go. And it has been a life-changing couple of years. Really. Thank you!

Welcome baeumig!

We have a new member this week: baeumig! Please give them a big welcome, check out their shop and heart them!

The Zine Scene

I love zines, all sorts of zines on all sorts of subjects, so I was very excited to see so many created by the talented memebers of Vegan Etsy!

Being Vegan is Awesome by Bright Design:

Peace to All Creatures by Uber Duper Creations:

Cooking with Compassion by Uber Duper Creations:

Vegans are Easy Issues One and Two by Holistically Heather:

Anywhere I Lay My Head by Bright Design:

-Kala (Vegancraftastic)