The Giveaway is going strong!

Hey y'all - thanks for your wonderful entries to The Great Vegan Etsy Giveaway: Spring has Sprung! You've still got another week to enter, so keep them coming! And, if you've been wondering just what it is you might win, well, here's a SAMPLE of some of the prizes that may be in store for you...

The Great Vegan Etsy Giveaway: Spring has Sprung!

Welcome to the Great Vegan Etsy Giveaway!

Hello friends! Happy Spring from the Vegan Etsy Team! This new Giveaway is extra special. You'll enter by identifying some wonderfully springy items from Vegan Etsy Team shops. If you win, you'll receive a Vegan Etsy Team prize pack full of items hand-crafted by our members!

So how do you enter? It's as easy as 1, 2, 3...

1. Check out the wonderful springy items shown below, and then search for them on Etsy.com. You can do this by combining our team tag, "veganetsy team", along with other key words as necessary.

2. Identify the sellers of at least five of the ten items pictured.

3. Please don't leave your answers in the comments! Send your answers to VeganEtsyTeam at! gmail.com.

And now, the fine print...

*Another way to find Vegan Etsy Team shops is by checking out our Etsy Teams Page of Active Members!

*Winners will be chosen by random drawing out of the entrants who correctly identify at least five of the items.

*The giveaway starts NOW and ends at Midnight, Eastern Time, on Sunday April 29th. The winner will be announced on Monday, April 30th right here on this blog!

*This time around there are TWO ways to get double entry: First, you'll get double entry if you correctly identify all TEN items. And as always, blog followers get double entry!

Have fun!

California, get ready for Vegan Speed Dating!

Veg*n dating has moved into the next millennium - literally. On Sunday, September 24th, Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco will host Veg Speed Dating, a unique matchmaking event for the vegan, vegetarian, and veg curious. The goal of the event is to give people an opportunity to meet a large number of like-minded (veg-friendly) people - where you can "meet a new vegetarian friend or find your vegan soul mate!"

September's Veg Speed Dating event will be the second in the series, and will doubtless grow and evolve as more veg*ns in the area become involved. For more info, make sure to check out the website.

Congratulations on a great decision, New York!

And congratulations to the LGBT community - we're now one step closer to marriage equality for ALL people in the U.S. As we wait for the remaining states to fall in line, a celebration of rainbows:

New Orleans' Third Annual Veggie Fest! Come One Come All!

That's right! It's time again to come on down to New Orleans and celebrate all things veg at the Nola Veggie Fest! This year the fest is at the Zeitgeist, an awesome multicultural and multidisciplinary event space, big enough for one and all to enjoy all that the fest has to offer. So come Saturday, come Sunday, come both days! Be there and/or be square!









To learn more about vegan events and options in New Orleans, check out the blog New Orleans in Green!

Happy Wedding Day to Kate and William.

Posted by Veganessa
Whether you're a Royalist or not, there's no escaping the furore of the Royal Wedding. All across the UK people are celebrating the marriage of Prince William and Kate. And as we wave our British flag to toast the happy couple, here are some Red, White and Blue items from some Vegan Etsy shops. Cheers!

Aguavino










PinkBubble

TwigAndLeafBotanical

MonkeyAndSquirrel

ContinuumDesigns

TwoSilverStars

Pansy Maiden announces Darling Utility!

I'm sure by now you've all taken notice of Pansy Maiden, designer of gorgeous couture vegan handbags and proud VET member. Owner and creator Laura Collins is making a guest appearance on the blog today to announce the debut of a brand new spring line...

* * * * *

I am so excited to announce that my new collection, Darling Utility, is debuting tomorrow!

This collection was in part inspired by the movie Coco Avant Chanel. I first saw this movie last year at a rather definitive moment in my professional life. I was on a flight from Boston to San Francisco where my bags would be hanging from the arms of models sashing down the runway of San Francisco's first ever Vegan Fashion Show. At that time, it was as if I had all these puzzle pieces of a new collection floating around in my head and, after watching this movie, all the pieces came together to form a cohesive picture. At the risk of sounding trite, it was sort of magical.

Darling Utility contains six bags all made with socially responsible, eco-friendly, vegan materials. I have a vegan suede fabric made with fibers from recycled plastic bottles, vegan leather that is PVC-free, and of course my organic twill stand-by. In addition, I will now be offering an eco-friendly vegan waterproofing/stainproofing treatment for those concerned about rain and stains.

I will be offering separate special promotions for both my Facebook Friends and for my Newsletter Subscribers, so be sure to sign up at one or both of those places. If you are considering signing up for the Newsletter, do it today - it goes out tomorrow and will contain a hidden link to a sample sale! Yay!

Et Tu, VegNews?

Well. If you follow the world of Veg, you've probably heard. The very popular blog Quarrygirl blew it wide open yesterday, after all. It seems that the widely circulated VegNews Magazine has been lying to us all. In a nutshell, instead of actually taking photographs of genuine vegan food, they've been using stock photos of meat, dairy, and eggs and telling us (or at least implying) that these images are of vegan delicacies.

Sure, we understand that professional photography is expensive, and that running a magazine is expensive. We *also* understand, though, that there are many professional vegan photographers who would be more than happy to work with VegNews, as was described in detail in this blog post from Vegan Good Things...

One would think that after getting called out on something like this, a business would be repentent. Alas. In a statement issued in reply to the accusation, they "explained" that they only do this sometimes, that running a magazine is expensive... bla, bla, bla. Is that really an excuse to photoshop the bones out of a slab of ribs? I'm voting no, and I'm not the only one. The consensus in much of the community seems to be, "BLEGH."

We do hope that this onslaught of negative feedback will open VegNews' eyes and ultimately make them change their ways. Vegan photographers out there, get in touch! Let them know that they have options other than to use meaty stock photos! We know what the problem is; now let's find a solution, eh?

So once again there's lots of negativity in the vegan online universe. We've all been looking at pics of animal flesh and thinking it was good and pure vegan food! ACK!! But let's think about this: there are hundreds (really probably even thousands) of vegans all over the world who not only make utterly fabulous vegan foodstuffs, but ALSO take stunningly gorgeous pictures of it!

So here's what we're proposing. Let's combat this flurry of negativity and upset zooming around the internets. Let's celebrate vegan food by sharing some of these mouth-watering pictures with each other and with the world! Right here on the Vegan Etsy Team blog, we'll be posting photos from team members of real vegan food made by vegans.

Wanna join in? Leave a comment with a link to your blog, flickr, facebook, etc. where you keep all your gorgeous vegan food p*rn pics - we'll be happy to share those too! (WITH full credit, of course!)

So let's kick it off.

Here's a pic I took a while back of some real live vegan hazelnut frangelico fudge. Is it a novice pic? Sure. But personally, I think it looks good enough to eat. :)

Hey NYC! Vegan Bake Sale at MooShoes today!!

Stop by MooShoes TODAY for a Valentines-themed bake sale benefiting Darwin Animal Doctors! Who *doesn't* want to stock up on vegan baked goods while contributing to a good, animal centered cause? You KNOW I'll be stopping by... with my own tupperware container. :D

Who wants to (virtually) attend an ETSY SUCCESS SYMPOSIUM?!

On Tuesday, February 8, Etsy Headquarters in DUMBO will be hosting a day of workshops! The symposium looks to be sold out, but lucky for all who don't live in Brooklyn anyway, the event will be broadcast live.

Webcast Info: For those of you who can't make it in person, we'll be broadcasting via Livestream (instead of the Virtual Labs). You can check out the line up and view the workshops right on Etsy's Livestream Channel.

(Details are available on this Etsy post.) So enjoy, learn, and make your shops the best they can be!

HAPPY VEGAN PIZZA DAY!!

Happy Vegan Pizza Day everyone!! As far as we know, this is the first ever annual Vegan Pizza Day. And we here at the Vegan Etsy Team think it's a great idea! Vegan pizza is absolutely delish, be it frozen or straight from the coal oven, whether you go extra healthy with a spelt or whole wheat crust covered in fresh vegetables, or to the other end of the spectrum with a pie simply drowning in cheeze, sham, chik'n, and whatever else your heart desires. Every vegan pizza has its place... and that place is IN YOUR MOUTH!

So! Make sure you enjoy some vegan pizza today - and share it with friends! And if you'd like to send us your vegan pizza pictures, stories, and triumphs, we'll post them here! Just leave a comment and we'll get in touch.

Happy pizza-ing!

Vegan Pizza Day is just around the corner...

Vegan Pizza Day will be celebrated on Saturday, January 29 2011. We're excited - are you??

GVEG, V Spot Holiday Market, and holyohmygosh it's December!

Well everyone, we can't believe it either, but it's DECEMBER! That means that Hanukkah begins tonight, and Christmas is just around the corner. It also means that as of this morning, the November Great Vegan Etsy Giveaway is officially closed! Thanks so much for all of your wonderful entries! We will be selecting a winner at random and making the announcement this Saturday, so good luck to you all!!

It ALSO means that the Holiday Market at V Spot featuring wares from Vegan Etsy Team sellers opens in just TWO DAYS!! We are so excited about this project; it's really going to be something special. So if you're in the NYC area you really must stop by! Check out the event on Facebook, or if you're not all facebook-ey here's the flier on the V Spot website. Hope to see you there!

Exciting Announcement: Vegan Etsy Holiday Marketat V Spot, Brooklyn!

Hello world! This morning we are excited to tell you that the Vegan Etsy Team sellers have been invited to participate in a Holiday Market at the V Spot vegan restaurant in Brooklyn, NYC! The official launch party of the Market will be held on the evening of December 3rd. More details will be released as they become available; for now, just get ready to head to Brooklyn and get your shop on!

Vegan Book Signing Double Header Tonight!!

If you happen to be in the NYC area tonight, you simply must head to Champs Family Bakery 'round about 7pm. Why? Because there you will find Melisser Elliott, signing copies of the newly released Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, side by side with Kelly Peloza, author of the Vegan Cookie Connoisseur. You can't even believe how many amazing vegans are gonna be packed into this bakery... not to mention, Champs makes donuts! So seriously, NYCers, don't miss it. ;)