Vegan Craftastic

New Bag!

2012-02-18T10:15:00.000-06:00

I had a little time yesterday to do some sewing, so I made a new project bag for my shop! It's sheep-tastic:

-kala

Little Deer Winner

2012-02-17T20:02:00.002-06:00

Thanks everyone for entering my little giveaway, it was fun reading everyone's scores! By the power of random number generator, the winner is....C.M Powers!

-kala

CLOSED - Little Deer Giveaway!

2012-02-14T10:29:00.002-06:00

Giveaway is now closed, thanks everyone for playing along!

Hey, it's been a while since I've done a giveaway on ye olde blog! Since I'm in the thick of a human geography college class, I thought it would be fun to do a geography themed giveaway. Yes, fun! I have a quiz tomorrow on the geography of Africa, so let's go with that as a theme. I've been using a geography quiz site called Lizard Point to help me study, so for this contest I'm asking you to take the quiz on countries in Africa. Last time I took it, I got a 158 out of 165, not too horrible :)

So what can you win? How about a super cute Little Deer Magnet?

How to enter:

1. Take the quiz on African geography and post your score in a comment on this post. Winner will be chosen at random so don't worry about your score. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win!

2. Contest is open internationally and ends on Friday, February 17th.

3. For an extra entry, tweet or share this post on Facebook and leave a separate comment telling me you've done it!

Good luck!

-kala

Fancy Dressin'

2012-02-13T15:02:00.000-06:00

Since I have a bit of catching up to do in terms of blogging, I thought today I'd share some pictures of me in a rare state of fanciness. The level of effort I put into my outfits really depends on my mood, or of course my occasion. And what better occasion to dress up for than a wedding? One of my friends from my weekly knitting group got married earlier this month (in a beautiful and personal ceremony that made me choke up a bit) so of course I had to put together a sassy outfit:

Hot pink blazer, dress covered in butterflies, and a unicorn necklace, this outfit is definitely me and I really loved how it came together. Plus it was comfy which is important! Here's a silly picture from the photobooth of my husband and I:

This wedding was a lot of fun, even though I was REALLY sick that night. I had a really bad cold but I managed to stay through dinner. Dinner was awesome, there was vegan risotto! And my friends Tracy and Kathy benefited from sitting by vegans at a wedding: they got our slices of cake. One of my favorite moments from the wedding happened during dinner when my friend Tracy made a hilarious comment about how my boobs were looking that night. The most wonderful thing about Tracy is her honesty and lack of filter, she always says whats on her mind, I love that!

-kala

S*** Knitters Say

2012-02-11T12:22:00.000-06:00

I bet a lot of you have already seen this video, but I had to post it because it's hilarious if you're a knitter (or live with a knitter, my husband laughed too)!

Remind you of yourself? ;)

-kala

Finished Knit: Almondine

2012-02-10T14:57:00.000-06:00

What? I actually finished knitting something? Yes, it's true! Behold my finished Almondine socks:

I love how these turned out, they fit perfectly and were fun to knit too. They took five million years (OK, more like a month and a half) to finish, only because I've had very little time to knit lately. Lack of time has kept me from blogging lately too, I'll explain why in another post, but I'll just say that it has to do with school. A good chunk of the knitting on these socks was done at the new knitting group I've been going to, it's been so much fun meeting all of the nice ladies and making new friends.

Back to the socks! The pattern is Almondine by Anne Hanson and can be found in the book Sock Knitting Master Class by Ann Budd. The pattern was awesome - really well written and the lace repeat was simple without being mind numbing, love it! I borrowed the book from the library, I should take a peek and see if there are any other patterns inside that look tempting...

-kala

Scissors and Skulls

2012-01-21T11:05:00.000-06:00

I've been doing even more sewing, it's been a lot of fun playing with fabric and combining prints to make fun project bags that I hope you'll enjoy! Here are two of my newest bags, available in my Etsy shop:

Skull and Knitting Crossbones Bag:

Running With Scissors Bag:

Which one is your fave?

-kala

I Will Always Put A Bird On It!

2012-01-13T10:28:00.000-06:00

Yesterday marked my triumphant (at least to me) return to sewing! After a too long hiatus, my knitter's (and more) project bags are making their way back into my Etsy shop. On a related note, my Etsy shop had it's 1,000th sale yesterday and I just wanted to thank all of you guys for your support over the years, I couldn't have done it without you! Anyway, the first bag I have up in my shop is the Blue Bird Knitting Bag, because if anyone's going to Put A Bird On It, it's me:

If you haven't seen the Put A Bird On It skit from Portlandia you really must, it's hilarious:

What I love about that show is that it pokes fun at a lot of things I'm into myself, like putting birds on things! Being able to laugh at yourself is so important, I don't know how people who take themselves dead seriously make it through life, it's such a drag!

-kala

Quilt Planning

2012-01-11T15:08:00.000-06:00

Hey, look at me blogging regularly again! Scary, eh? Anyway, yesterday I bought some fabric for my block of the month quilt at my local fabric shop, Treadle Yard Goods, here's what I got:

I'll be picking up a lot more fabric as the months go on, but I figure this will get me through at least 4 blocks. The fabric on the far left is my neutral background fabric and I love it, my husband says it looks like rice. It was oddly challenging shopping for fabric that wasn't for my shop, I kept seeing prints and thinking "oh, that would make a cute pin" and have to stop myself and think QUILT! But I'm really happy with what I picked out, I was going for bright and fun as always.

Which print is your fave?

-kala

Not So Finished Projects

2012-01-10T12:14:00.000-06:00

So you know how I'm doing that free block of the month quilting course through Craftsy? Well, I though it might be fun to dig through my fabric stash and see if anything would work for that project....and I ended up unearthing all sorts of unfinished quilting projects, oh no! In another life I was a big time quilter, I was even in a guild when I lived in Northern Minnesota. There is an armoire at my parent's house that is full of finished quilts that I made while living there, and I have a couple here too that you've seen in various photos on the blog. But the thing that I don't like to think about is the stack of nearly and not so nearly completed quilt tops. I'll share a few of them in the coming weeks (especially the shameful lack of progress on my wedding quilt) but I think I'll start with the Hillbilly redwork quilt that just needs borders:

Here's a closeup of one of the blocks:

I hand embroidered these blocks using patterns from a dishcloth pack from Aunt Martha's Embroidery Patterns, an awesome source for all things kitchy and retro. I was (and still am) a big fan of redwork (embroidery done all in one shade of red) so that's what I went with for this quilt. The fabric for the sewn blocks is from a collection of reproduction feed sack prints, perfect for the hillbilly theme! I really do love this top, it's fun and silly which I of course love, so I really need to find the perfect fabric for the border and get this thing done!

-kala

Ritz vs. The Wand

2012-01-09T17:15:00.001-06:00

It's time for another cute little Ritz video, because really, what the internet needs is more cat videos, right? ;)

This is Ritz playing with his favorite toy, the Cat Dancer Cat Charmer wand, he has lots of fun with this thing! If you have a kitty, you should really pick up one of these wands, it's the one toy at the shelter I work at that just about every cat loves.

What's your cat's favorite toy?

-kala

Quiltalicious

2012-01-08T09:00:00.003-06:00

Because the sewing bug has bit me once again, I've decided to sign up for the free Craftsy Block of the Month online quilting course! I saw this via Emmakat on twitter today and thought it looked like an awesome way to get some quilting in even though this year is going to be crazy busy. There are instructional videos that show you how to sew all of the blocks and forums for asking questions and learning new tips and tricks. I'm pretty excited, I can't wait to pick out some fabric and get sewing. Let me know if any of you guys sign up too!

-kala

Back in the Groove

2012-01-04T14:11:00.000-06:00

The sock groove that is! It's been quite a while since I've been inspired to knit socks, which is shocking considering they used to be my absolute favorite thing to knit. But on my last trip to the library, I saw Sock Knitting Master Class on the new arrivals shelf and thought I'd give it a whirl, I mean it's a library book, there's nothing to lose right? Well, I was not disappointed, I found a sock pattern that made me excited about socks again, and that pattern is Almondine by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. This pattern has all of my favorite things: an easy (but not boring) pattern repeat, instructions for working on dpns, and top down construction (toe-up socks are of the devil.) I finished up the heel flap last night, I would have worked on turning the heel, but I was at knit night and didn't want to muck it up like I have in the past. Progress:

Nice, right? The color in real life is closer to the name of the colorway I'm using, Ketchup. The yarn is Panda Cotton from my stash and it seems to be working nicely with this pattern, yay!

Working on anything fun lately?

-kala

Happy New Years Eve!

2011-12-31T15:43:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Years celebration tonight, ours is going to be pretty low key as usual :)

For fun, I thought I'd share a quick video of Ritz enjoying the new cat nip toy we gave him today. Enjoy!

-kala

Message in a Bottle Tutorial

2011-12-27T11:33:00.000-06:00

Hi guys! Just a quick post today to let you know that I have a new guest post up on Rose Pedals Vegan Weddings Blog today. Check it out for a quick and easy message in a bottle favor tutorial:

-Kala

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T10:58:00.000-06:00

I hope you guys are having a great holiday season, whatever holiday you celebrate! It's been busy busy busy around here, I'm looking forward to a long, relaxing weekend with my husband and Ritz kitty.

Since just about everyone I give cards to has received my Christmas card, I thought I'd share the picture I used, of course I couldn't resist making Ritz the star:

Happy Holidays!

-kala (and Ritz)

Crocheted Softies Winner!

2011-12-18T13:12:00.000-06:00

Thanks everyone for entering to win a copy of Crocheted Softies, it was a lot of fun to read about your favorite holiday treats!

The winner, as chosen by random number generator is....Kpmattingly!

-kala

Vegan Tea Gift Guide

2011-12-14T10:33:00.000-06:00

Today's Gift Guide is all about tea and comes from one of my favorite ladies on twitter, Jenn of Cookin' Vegan! Enjoy!

Tea makes a wonderful holiday gift because it has the remarkable power to lift your spirits while warming your body and soul. I don’t think that anyone can argue the power that a hot cup of tea has had historically to help people keep calm and carry on, so what better gift to give someone you care about in these turbulent times. Plus, tea can be so much fun! Some tea companies are so clever and creative with their tea blends that the world of tea has become a foodie paradise.

I’m not a tea expert. I’m really more a super fan tea-nerd with a serious tea addiction. All of my tea recommendations are vegan. I’m a big supporter of boutique tea shops, but unfortunately some of my favorite small tea companies also have shipping schedules that may be too unreliable for gift giving.

52teas

52teas is an artisan tea company that some of the most creative blends I’ve ever come across. It’s no small wonder that Frank, the brains behind 52teas, is often referred to as the Willy Wonka of tea. Frank creates a new limited addition tea blend every week and some of my recent favorites have been Strawberry Pancake, Lime Jello Salad , and Raspberry Banana Honeybush.

There are also several delicious tea blends that have become part of the 52teas Permanent Collection and they’re always available for purchase. My favorites in this collection are Coconut Cream Pie, Strawberry Zabaglione , and Piña Colada Honeybush.

This holiday season Frank is offering a very cool way to sample twelve of his teas for the low, low price of $29.99. The 12 Teas of Christmas package includes samples of eleven of 52teas most popular blends and one brand new tea blend. What a great value! Another great gift idea from 52teas is Frank’s Tea of the Week/ Month Plans.

Frank is really great about making most of his tea blends vegan, but always be sure to check the ingredients for each blend before you make your purchase.

Butiki Teas

Butiki teas is a boutique tea company run by a sweetheart of a vegan gal named Stacy. I’m not going to pretend not to be in love with Stacy. Stacy offers some of the best teas I’ve ever tasted, and I love that I don’t have to research or question any of her ingredients because every single tea she sells is VEGAN!!! A few of my favorite Butiki teas are Grape Oolong, Raspberry Truffle, and Pumpkin Crème Brulee.

Stacy offers beautiful gift baskets that are perfect for the holidays, and she’ll even make one especially for you to suit your personal taste and price range.

Harney & Sons

Harney & Sons is the largest of the tea companies that I’ll mention here today. H&S sells very high quality tea at extremely reasonable prices. I’ve yet to come across a non-vegan tea in their huge tea selection, but I always read the ingredients for each tea blend carefully just in case. Some of my holiday favorites from H&S are White Christmas, Hot Cinnamon Spice, and Holiday Tea.

H&S offers a wide array of gift sets with something to suit everyone on your list, and many of the packages are under $50.

Indie Tea

Indie Tea is a family run artisan tea company that offers delicious, organic, fair trade, vegan tea blends for the independent spirit. Carolyn, the brains behind the blends, is woman with a huge heart to match her incredible creativity. Indie Teas donates 5% of their sales every month to a different charity. AFAN, Aid for AIDS of Nevada, is the charity that Indie Tea is honoring for the month of December. You’ll get yummy tea and good karma with every purchase.

A few of my favorite blends from Indie are HOOPLA, (this is the amazing tea featuring vegan gummy bears pictured above in the small white bowl), Wise Man’s Caravans, and Sock it to Me. Indie Tea is offering a special 25% off plus FREE SHIPPING deal on your online order through December 31^st if you enter “gotbrains” at checkout.

Tiesta Tea

Tiesta Tea is a relatively new tea company on the scene. What I really like about this company is their focus on creating fun tea blends with a healthy focus. Also, Tiesta was founded by a group of university friends with a true love of tea. TEA-NERDS! Some of my favorite Tiesta Tea blends are Slenderizer Plum Bliss, Forever Young Kiwi Cherry Bonanza, and Relaxer Berry Pear-adise.

Tiesta Tea is offering a Karma gift basket for the season featuring three decadent holiday tea blends for $40.

Thanks Jenn! What tea sounds most delicious to you guys?

-Kala

Crocheted Softies Giveaway!

2011-12-09T10:36:00.002-06:00

I'm super excited to be part of the blog tour promoting the new book Crocheted Softies by Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches! In my world, crochet = cute toys and animals and this book does not disappoint. Be sure to stay tuned to the end of the post for a chance to win a signed copy of this awesome book!

Crocheted Softies is packed with 18 patterns of animals and creatures that are perfect for little kids and babies, lots of bright colors and large features to delight the little ones. I'm impressed that Stacey calls for many eco friendly yarns for these patterns, welcoming crocheters to step outside of their yarny comfort zone and try something new.

My favorite pattern in the book has to be the giraffe, he's so sweet! But the alien is cute too! And the crab, and the fish...here's the link to the book on Ravelry so you can check out all the cuteness and queue your faves.

To clarify, the author sent me a free copy of this book to review and a copy to give away on my blog, but I received no compensation for the review or giveaway :)

Ok, ready to win a signed copy of Crocheted Softies? There are four possible entries, none of them are mandatory. You must leave a way for me to contact you if you win, if I can't contact you I'll have to choose another winner and that would be sad! Also, please leave a separate comment for each entry:

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite holiday treat.

2. Follow this blog and leave a comment telling me you're following.

3. Follow Vegancraftastic and Fresh Stitches on Twitter.

4. Tweet, blog, or post on Facebook about this giveaway. Tweeting is easy, just click the tweet button at the end of the post!

Giveaway is open worldwide and ends on Friday, December 16, 2011. Winner will be chosen by random number generator. Good luck!

-kala

Gift Guide for Guys

2011-12-07T11:59:00.000-06:00

Today's guest post is a gift guide for those ever so hard to shop for guys! Thanks to Neva for putting this awesome list together!

Gift Guide for Guys

If you’re like me shopping for the males on your list is the hardest

part of holiday shopping. The handmade options for your average guy

are somewhat limited.

First for some easy gifts—guys can usually use t-shirts for bumming

around, going to the gym, hanging out, or just every day use. Get him

unique shirts so he’ll stand out from the crowd.

Green Dragon Duality Tee by Binary Winter on Etsy:

Kind of pricey, but nice for a husband, mohop thong sandals are a sure

bet. We all know the guy who lives in his flip flops and then

complains his feet hurt, these are ergonomic, handmade and really

cool. Perfect for pool parties, backyard barbeques and lounging

around.

Mohop Sandals:

For the husband, boyfriend or brother who has to work in an office, or

dress up at times, but still wants to show his individuality , here

are some dressy but unique accessories for men. Steampunk tie pins

and cuff links—so cool.

Tie Tack from Compass Rose Design:

And unique awesome ties:

Beer Tie from Cyberoptix:

And finally, when all else fails, nobody ever turns down food. Here

are some treats that should particularly appeal to the guys on your

list.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Veganville:

Vegan Cookie Gift Basket from Sweet V Confections:

Thanks for the great gift guide Neva!

So what's your favorite item from Neva's Gift Guide?

-kala

Finished Knit: A Hat for Dad

2011-12-04T12:44:00.000-06:00

If you're a longtime reader, you may remember that my dad asks for the same thing every Christmas, a handknit striped hat. Using the same pattern every time, a pattern I designed a few years ago called The Slacker Hat. And the same yarn, only in different colors. This year, I went with dark grey and purple:

The yarn in question is Vanna's Choice (not of Vanna's but of the yarn) and my dad is a huge fan, isn't that cute? My husband helped me pick out the colors, my dad doesn't go for traditional guy colors so he's usually pretty fun to knit for, if anything this hat might be a little too conservative for his taste! And yes, this is the first holiday gift I've crafted this year, I seem to have gotten quite the late start. But this hat only took an evening so maybe I'm not doing too shabby!

Oh and if you're wondering, no my dad doesn't read my blog so he's not in danger of seeing his gift early :)

So how are you guys doing on your holiday crafting?

-kala

DIY Wedding Ring Pillow Tutorial

2011-12-01T10:48:00.000-06:00

Hey guys! I don't remember if I announced it here on the blog yet, but starting this month I'm doing a monthly guest post on Rose Pedals Vegan Weddings Blog! It's a blog all about vegan weddings and my posts will be crafty/diy related. Today, you can head over to Rose Pedals to learn how to make this cute handmade ring pillow:

So head on over to Rose Pedals and check out my project, and if you like it, be sure to leave a comment over there, thanks!

-kala

Gift Guide for the Indie Music Nerd

2011-11-30T10:08:00.001-06:00

Today's Gift Guide is a special guest post from Stefanie of the blog Handmade by Stefanie! There are some great music picks in this guide sure to please the indie fan on your list. Enjoy!

I usually leave the music blogging to my husband and band-mate Tyler (see: dispatches from the panda room @ http://shalloboi.blogspot.com/), but from time to time I'll write about the bands that excite me most on my knitting blog. I'm thrilled to be guest blogging today for Kala at Vegancraftastic!

2011 has seen far too many fantastic albums come out in the indie world, so I've rounded up the ones that are in the heaviest rotation on my iPod and turntable for your listening pleasure:

1. Dum Dum Girls, Only in Dreams

If you aren't familiar with this gothy girl-rock band from California, you're in for a treat. Deedee's precise song arrangements, spot-on vocals and harmonies, and well-written lyrics have been perfected for this latest release. Fans of the Vivian Girls (http://www.insound.com/Vivian-Girls/A/37493/ another favorite of mine) will enjoy their back catalog as well as Only in Dreams, which is comprised of polished pop gems and some truly passionate songs ("Coming Down" and "Hold Your Hand" spring to mind). Expect reverb-drenched guitar-driven tunes to get your blood moving - and for those of you who have had a tough year (who among us hasn't), you'll really be able to relate to the thematic elements of this record as well.

2. Deerhunter, Halcyon Digest

Ok, fine - this album came out in 2010! However, if you've missed it, it's worth a listen. I myself was a little slow to the Deerhunter party (so many bands with "deer" in the name!), but this record is the perfect '60's-tinged indie-pop album. For some reason, I always want to play it when I'm cooking, I'm not sure why! "Don't Cry," "Desire Lines," and "He Would Have Laughed" are the standout tracks, but that's not saying much here, considering the consistent quality of this album. Bradford Cox has a gift for crafting truly interesting song structures with unexpected elements - for example, I was convinced that the main riff of "He Would Have Laughed" was a keyboard sample til we saw them live at Pitchfork earlier this year - which was totally worth the heatstroke, by the way (and if you're wondering, that is indeed a guitar!). Also worth checking out: Bradford Cox's side project, Atlas Sound (which released the excellent Parallax this year.)

3. Wooden Shjips, West

Speaking of bands I was slow to jump on the proverbial wagon for, here's another one I initially overlooked. If I had to distill their entire sound into one word, it would be: drone. Wooden Shjips are the masters of droney fuzzed-out guitar riffs. Most of their songs clock in at well over five minutes, and they're great for letting your mind wander, perhaps even slipping into a trance-like state. This album feels like an extention of Moon Duo's Mazes (released earlier this year) which is the lead singer Ripley Johnson's side project with Sanae Yamada. In fact, Ripley recently said in an interview that he makes no distinction between bands when writing songs - the difference is in the instrumentation and execution. Both records have been in heavy rotation for me, needless to say.

4. Crystal Stilts, In Love With Oblivion

One of my favorite Brooklyn bands, the Crystal Stilts' recent release has finally surpassed their self-titled album, against which I have been judging all other releases. The opener, "Sycamore Tree" sets the tone with its simple guitar riff that won't leave your head anytime soon (consider this your warning). "Silver Sun" and "Shake the Shackles" are also tracks of note, but this album is best listened to as a whole. Reverb-drenched vocals & memorable melodic hooks will have your head bopping - and if you get a chance to see them live, don't pass it up!

5. Thee Oh Sees, Carrion Crawler / The Dream

Let's begin with: The Oh Sees are incapable of making a crappy record. Ok, good, we've got that established. Driving force John Dwyer is quirky and talented beyond belief - his hyperactive brand of garage rock can make even the most mellow person bouncy beyond their control. Their latest record is wild and full of psychedelic jams (and trust me, "jams" is not a term I typically like to use - but there's just no way around it). "Contraption/Soul Desert" is a particular favorite track of mine, surpassed only by its live version, which is played even faster at about 100 MPH. Honestly, though, you could blindly select any Oh Sees album from their extensive catalog and not be disappointed. Besides this latest effort, my favorites include Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion and Help.

6. Mikal Cronin - Self-Titled

I stumbled upon Mikal Cronin when a friend posted his video on my husband's Facebook profile. It was infectious, and then we found out he was on tour with another garage-y favorite of ours, Ty Segall . I was fortunate to catch a free in-store at a local record shop, and for weeks afterwards, listened to his self-titled album non-stop. It's full of driving guitar riffs and catchy lyrics - several songs start with a few simple elements, then explode into a thick, fuzzy arrangement of guitars, harmonies and the occasional flute freak-out. Cronin also uses the loud/soft dynamic to great effect. Standout tracks include "Is it Alright," "Apathy" and "Gone."

7. Superchunk, Majesty Shredding

Again, this record came out in 2010, but who knows when or if they'll put out another one? Besides, I can't stop listening to this one - incredible rock songs that surpass expectations and perhaps have even replaced my favorite album of theirs, Foolish. This album is a true return to form, except in a way that feels totally fresh and not at all lame. Great pop songs with signature Mac riffs and solos (man, that guy can solo!) and interesting lyrics that are clever, but not in an annoying way. One of this year's highlights was getting to see them play at Pitchfork, and despite the crippling heat, it was impossible to stand still during pogo-worthy songs such as "Digging for Something," "My Gap Feels Weird" and "Crossed Wires."

8. Cave - Neverendless

Looking for drone-y krautrock a la Neu!? Chicago's own Cave deliver the goods. I'm not sure how they do it, either - by all rights, this should feel like a tired rehashing of the past. Somehow they manage to put their own particular spin on synth-y, guitar-centric instrumental rock. When listening to the album, prepare to often be surprised - they have a way of shifting a song in such a subtle way, you don't notice til you're suddenly overtaken by a wave of sonic noise. Needless to say, the results are interesting and worth checking out, as are their videos: "W U J" features hand-made puppets and this video features highlights from a full set which was filmed live while the band played on a back of a flatbed truck as it drove throughout Chicago.

Thanks so much for the great post Stefanie! Be sure to keep up with Stefanie on her blog, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

I hope you guys find some awesome new music from this guide, either as a gift or for yourself, let me know if you discover something you love!

-kala

Gifts for the Science Nerd

2011-11-28T11:26:00.000-06:00

This year, I thought it would be fun to put together a few gift guides here on the blog to help with your holiday shopping! When I saw the book Science Ink at a bookstore this holiday weekend, I knew I had to blog about it in some way, so I'm including it here in my Gift Guide for the Science Nerd!

Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed by Carl Zimmer. This hardback book is a collection of tattoos "that pay tribute to various scientific disciplines, from evolutionary biology and neuroscience to mathematics and astrophysics and reveals the stories of the individuals who chose to inscribe their obsessions in their skin."

Ferrous Wheel Shirt from ThinkGeek:

Dopamine Molecule Christmas Ornament from whatnomints on Etsy:

Kids Microscope T Shirt from Happy Family on Etsy:

What's Under the Microscope Embroidery from Cleo Dee on Etsy:

So what's your favorite from this gift guide?

-kala

Black Friday Sale in my Etsy Shop!

2011-11-25T09:35:00.000-06:00

The day after Thanksgiving is upon us, and you know what that means, right? Black Friday! The day for crazy sales! If you've had your eye on anything in my shop, today is the day to pounce, if you use coupon code blackfriday at checkout, you'll get an amazing 45% off of your total order, awesome, right?

Here are just a few things you could snag:

Holiday Owl Pin:

Lucky Cat Pin:

If you get a chance, sharing this post or just the coupon code on twitter, facebook, or anywhere else would be awesome and I'd really appreciate it!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Vegancraftastic

-kala

Vegan Cuts Holiday Gift Guide!

2011-11-23T10:15:00.000-06:00

Vegan Cuts, the online deal website that caters to the vegan community, has just launched their Vegan Holiday Shopping Guide. You can view it here: http://vegancuts.com/vegan-gift-ideas. I was honored when the folks at Vegan Cuts asked me to contribute some of my picks for gifts from small vegan businesses. It was really hard choosing only five shops, but I'm really happy with my choices (check out page 24 of the guide for my picks.)

So if you're shopping for someone awesome this year (or want to pick up a gift for yourself) check out the Vegan Cuts Holiday Guide. The guide also includes yummy vegan recipes!

Please share the link for this post so we can help get the work out about this awesome resource for vegan gifts! An easy way is to hit the tweet button on the bottom of this post, or you can share it on Facebook or Google + too. Thanks guys!

-kala

Finished Knit: Pinwheel Blanket!

2011-11-18T14:26:00.001-06:00

Before Ritz came home with us from the shelter, I started knitting him a blanket. It was a lot of fun to knit for a kitty, I got to pick colors I like and use yarn from stash, gotta love that! And I think Ritz likes it quite a bit:

Isn't he a sweetie? The pattern I used was Round or Pinwheel Blanket, a free pattern available here. It was a super easy knit since it's all stockinette in the round with some increases thrown in, perfect tv or movie knitting. The purple is Cotton Ease from Lion Brand (50% cotton/50% acrylic) and the blue is Simply Cotton Worsted from Knit Picks (100% organic cotton.) I think I'll be using this pattern again in the future, in case Ritz needs another blanket or if there's a baby out there that needs a quick gift.

have you ever knit for a kitty or other animal?

-kala

Still Here!

2011-11-14T15:27:00.000-06:00

Still here guys, but I gotta say, this little guy sure keeps me busy:

I hope to have some crafting to share soon, but it's that tricky time of year when I'm making gifts so sharing isn't always an option!

-kala

New Kitty!

2011-11-08T12:36:00.000-06:00

Meet Ritz, the newest member of our family!:

Isn't he a cutie? My husband and I have gotten to know Ritz over the weeks that we've been volunteering at the cat shelter we adopted him from. Ritz is the name he came with, and we decided to keep it, he seems like a Ritz!

Ritz is doing pretty well so far, he's a little nervous and retreats under furniture for a while, but then he'll come out to cuddle so I think he's just adjusting and getting cozy in his new home. I'm thinking you'll be seeing a lot more of Ritz here on the blog, he seems to love the camera!

-kala

Vegan Rice Krispies Treats

2011-11-04T11:08:00.000-05:00

Look what I made last night:

And believe it or not, this is the first time I've ever made classic Rice Krispies Treats! I've made a peanut butter version that didn't involve marshmallows, but this was my first go at the classic. I think it's because I'm not a huge marshmallow fan, unlike my husband. But these treats are really yummy, I have to admit! Although I think I'd like them better if they were topped with chocolate....anyway, here's what I did:

1 bag Dandies vegan marshmallows
3 TBs Earth Balance whipped non-hydrogenated margarine
4 1/2 cups puffed rice cereal

Place the cereal in a large bowl and set aside. In a large pot, melt the margarine and then add in the marshmallows. Stir constantly until the marshmallows melt down into a sticky goo. Carefully pour the goo over the cereal and stir (I used two wooden spoons) until everything is nice and combined. Once it's cool enough to handle, press the mixture into a 8X8 or so brownie pan and let set. Enjoy!

-kala

BareBones Halloween Show

2011-10-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

Last night my husband and I braved the cold October night and checked out the BareBones Halloween Extravaganza 2011. When I heard about the show, I was honestly on the fence on whether it sounded cool or not. I mean, anything with giant puppets in the description can go either way, right? Well, the show was decidedly awesome and worth freezing your butt off! As described on the BareBones site, the show was "a community-created spectacle pageant of larger-than-life puppetry, drama, stilting, dance, fire, song, and music that honors the circle of life by celebrating it's seasonal arc of death in the Fall." The show had really amazing visuals and music, and performers were all awesome.

If you're in the Twin Cities area, I recommend you check out the BareBones Halloween Extravaganza, it's a really great low cost (free will donation) way to get in the Halloween mood. There were lots of kids at the show, although I will say that some of the younger ones were a bit scared of some of the giant puppets. And if you're going to go, dress warmly, I wore a jacket and hat and was absolutely freezing. Next year I'll wear my big puffy winter coat, warmer pants, and mittens! And bring a blanket to sit on, trust me.

-Kala

Vegan Mummy Pizza

2011-10-29T11:50:00.000-05:00

It's almost Halloween! And that of course calls for whimsical food:

Cute, right? We made these little english muffin pizzas last night with homemade tomato basil jam, black olives, and Follow Your Heart vegan cheese. While Daiya is my go-to vegan cheese, I needed something that could be sliced into strips for the appropriate mummy effect.

Have you guys made any fun Halloween themed foods this season?

-Kala

Rabbit Food Blog Tour!

2011-10-28T06:00:00.002-05:00

When I was contacted by Sasquatch Books to be part of the week-long blog tour for the Rabbit Food Cookbook by Beth A. Barnett, I was super excited! If you guys knew how many cookbooks we have in the apartment, you'd be horrified, but I'm always looking for great new vegan cookbooks to add to my massive collection. So first of all, thank you to Sasquatch Books for sending me a free copy of Rabbit Food to review.

Rabbit Food is a great little book to add to your collection, it's full of easy recipes for meals that won't take all night to prepare but are also full of healthy ingredients. Since I'm a big fan of the mighty chickpea, the first recipe I tried from this book was the Chana Masala - a dish that I order all the time at restaurants but hadn't attempted at home. The results were really amazing and I'll be making this again for sure:

I look forward to trying the Basic Miso Soup, Curry Tofu and Peas, Fresh Falafel, Shepherd's Pie with Lentils, and Carrot Cake, to name a few. Overall, I would recommend this book for sure, it's adorably illustrated, full of easy and healthy recipes, and the spiral binding makes it easy to use in the kitchen, always a bonus!

Here's the rest of the blog tour, be sure to visit Manifest Vegan tomorrow for the next stop!

October 24—Cake Maker to the Stars

October 25—Cook Vegan Lover

October 26—Bake and Destroy

October 27—Carrie on Vegan

October 28—Vegancraftastic

October 29—Manifest Vegan

October 30—Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking

October 31—Vegansaurus

Disclosure: I did not receive compensation for participating in this blog tour or for writing a review, but I did receive a free copy of Rabbit Food from the publisher.

-Kala

Dancing Outside of Your Comfort Zone

2011-10-26T10:33:00.000-05:00

This picture has nothing to do with dancing, but somehow seems appropriate for this post:

Trying something new can be the hardest thing in the world. And for me, dancing is about as new as it gets! A while ago, I purchased a Living Social deal that got me a great price on a community ed class. And crazy pants me decided to use it for swing dancing! I thought it would be something fun to do with the husband and I knew it would slap me in the face and shove me out of my comfort zone. I think for some people, the discomfort would come from doing something new in front of other people, but that didn't bother me even a little bit, in general I don't mind looking stupid in public. My confusion came from the actual dancing, it feels so unnatural!

I was by faaaaaarrrr, the most lost student in the class, you could tell that some of the students had a bit of a dancing background and were picking up moves right away. Meanwhile, I struggled with the absolute basic steps. But the woman in the instructor set was awesome and helped me out, she even danced with me a couple of times which was way easier than dancing with my husband!

It was sort of fun though, only sort of because I have a huge discomfort issue when I'm not good as something IMMEDIATELY. It's something I'm working on though, because that kind of thinking can stop you from ever trying anything new. So I'll be back next week and I'll be practicing at home, and maybe after a few weeks I'll be a little less lost. One can hope!

-kala

Black Rice Vegan Mac and Cheese

2011-10-25T14:49:00.000-05:00

Today I was greeted by an exciting box of free vegan nacho sauce samples from Chicago Soydairy, yay for good mail days! I was so excited that I decided to use one of of the packages for a mac and cheese lunch today, here are the results:

I used some gluten free black rice noodles that I picked up at an Asian grocery, I've been using them a lot lately and I love them. The Nacho Teese made for a quick and easy lunch, love it! Here's what I did:

1 container Teese nacho sauce

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

1 tsp liquid smoke (or to taste)

1/2 tsp dried crushed peppers

1 tsp hot sauce

fresh pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups black rice pasta

1. Combine all of the ingredients except for the pasta in a saucepan and cook on medium. While the sauce is cooking, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.

2. Strain the pasta and add it to the cheese sauce. Combine and heat through, adjusting seasonings to your liking.

3. Enjoy!

-kala

Paranormal Activity 3: The Exception to the Rule

2011-10-24T14:17:00.001-05:00

In general, as I'm sure you all know, movie franchises tend to lose a bit of....let's say magic by the third installment. So when I went to see Paranormal Activity 3 last night, I had pretty low expectations. I LOVED the first one, it was terrifying. The second one was good, but not super scary. The third was was awesome and absolutely terrifying! I live for horror movies and am not easily scared, but this series of movies really gets me, I love that they don't rely on gore or any of the other usual horror tropes. The subtle and the unseen are always scarier than the outlandish blood filled scenes.

So if you're in the mood to be scared - and really, it's late October, the perfect time for it - head to your local theater and don't blame me if you can't sleep without leaving all of your lights on for a few nights!

-kala

Halloween Swap!

2011-10-23T15:53:00.000-05:00

Recently, I did another swap with the awesome Miss Muffcake, this time Halloween themed! I had a lot of fun putting together her swap box (you can read about it on her blog) and I LOVE everything that she included in my box. Here's a sampling of what she sent (a few things are missing. And by missing I mean I already ate them):

Fun, right? Lot of yummy goodies and fun crafty items - I've already used the Martha Stewart Halloween stamps for a project, love 'em! And I love the skeleton ornament, it's currently on my Halloween tree which you can see in the background of the above picture. My old Halloween tree died in the move last year, it was a mini X-mas tree that my dad spray painted black for me. So until we get a replacement, I'm just using a regular green tree for my Halloween ornaments. Anyway, my swap box was fabulous and was tons of fun to paw through!

Have you guys done a swap before?

-kala

Nutridel: Snack Worthy

2011-10-21T11:32:00.001-05:00

You guys know I'm always excited to receive yummy vegan foods to try, right? So I was pretty amped when Nutridel sent me an assortment of their cookies! And I wasn't disappointed, these healthy little snacks are awesome.

Not your typical "cookie," these snacks are full of nuts, seeds, and other healthy and filling ingredients. I also love that they're not overly sweet - in fact, I had the Pecan Cookies for breakfast and I can't handle a breakfast with too much sugar.

According to Nutridel's site, these snacks are only available in stores in California and the Pacific Northwest, but they're also available in their online store. So give these cookies a try if you see them, I especially recommend the Pecan Cookies!

have any of you guys tried Nutridel Cookies? What flavor sounds the most tempting?

-kala

Former Ewok

2011-10-20T16:18:00.000-05:00

While I don't remember wearing this costume, I have photographic proof that I was once an adorable Ewok (Wicket to be exact), oh the 80s...

What was the best costume you ever wore for Halloween?

-kala

Zine Sale!

2011-10-18T11:06:00.001-05:00

Halloween is just around the corner so I thought it would be fun to put my Halloween zine, Late October on super sale! Because I'd honestly like more people to have a copy and enjoy it then make more money on each one :) If you've been thinking about ordering a copy, now is the time to jump, it's priced at only $2! I only have 7 copies left and won't be printing any additional copies this year, so don't miss out on yummy vegan recipes, short essays, games, and more - all related to Halloween!

P.S. I only add them into my shop one at a time, so if the current zine is sold, be sure to check back because I relist them as soon as I can!

Late October: A Halloween Zine

-kala

Late October: A Halloween Zine

2011-10-05T12:30:00.000-05:00

After many nights of work and a few hours at the copy store, my Halloween zine is finished! This is my very first zine and it was more work that I thought it would be, but it was so worth it, it feels awesome to hold the finished product in my hands. The zine is called Late October and it's available in my Etsy shop:

Written by me and including the work of several awesome contributors, this Halloween themed zine contains vegan recipes (a yummy popcorn treat, oatmeal cookies, cashew cheese, and more) poetry, art, short essays, word games, and lots of other fun stuff. As you guys may know, Halloween is my favorite holiday so this zine is very close to my heart and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it!

-kala

Things I Love: London City Soap

2011-10-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

You guys know how much I love vegan perfume oils, right? It's kinda my obsession along with vegan lip balm :) London City Soap is a newish shop that I heard about on Facebook, it's from a Vegan Etsy Team member, so of course I had to check it out. Her adorable chihuahua is having some health problems so she posted that her sales would be going toward his care. So of course I ordered some perfume!

It was insanely difficult to choose just one scent, but after lots of deliberating I went with Caramel Apple:

The perfume arrived yesterday and it smell amazing! It's sweet, yummy, but also subtle which I love. I don't like to fill the room with perfume when I enter, that's gross. My husband loved the perfume too, he said it was very "Fallish." London City was also really friendly, shipped my order quickly, and included a free sample, I would totally recommend them and order again for sure!

London City has so many tempting scents, here are a few that are going on my wish list:

Cupcake:

Coconut Mango Martini:

Neopolitan:

Which scent do you think is most tempting?

p.s. be sure to keep up with London City on Twitter and Facebook!

-Kala

All of them Witches

2011-09-29T13:41:00.000-05:00

With Halloween creeping up on us, my Etsy browsing has been focused on all things creepy, spooky, and witchy! Today I put together a treasury with some of my favorite witchy finds called All of Them Witches:

What's your favorite item in this treasury? And for fun, does anyone know what movie I got the title "All of them Witches" from?

-kala

Call for Contributers!

2011-09-26T22:09:00.000-05:00

Hi guys! If you follow me on twitter you may have heard about a fun new project I'm working on: a Halloween themed vegan zine! This is my very first zine and I'm having a ton of fun working on it. So what do I need from you guys? Well, I'd love to include content from my readers, so if you have a Halloween or Autumn vegan recipe, piece of art, poem, Halloween memory, or something else cool to contribute, please e-mail me at craftytofu at yahoo dot com as soon as possible! Seriously, the sooner the better because I want to get this zine done and printed by early early October. If I choose to include your work in the zine, you'll get a free copy!

hope to hear from you guys!

-kala

Finished Knit: Trousseau

2011-09-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

I finished my Trousseau shawl!

I really love how this shawl came out, it's a nice weight and the color is a fantastic shade of green. The pattern was awesome, it's Trousseau from the Twist Collective and it's a pretty simple knit with easy to follow instructions. What I really love is that it includes both charts and written directions for the lace, so no matter which way you like it, you're covered! The yarn was some Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton DK that I had in my stash. It was nice to work with, easy on my hands, but it was a bit splitty. But the color and shine more than make up for a wee bit of splittyness.

Finished any projects lately?

-kala

Blankets For Shelter Cats!

2011-09-19T13:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a cold, dreary, rainy day - perfect for staying in and crafting! My husband and I had been planning for months to make some simple blankets for shelter cats, and yesterday was perfect. The project was super simple, fleece no-sew blankets are probably the easiest blankets in the world to make, here's the tutorial we followed. Here are our blankies, I used a cat print for mine and the husband used a dino print:

Cute, right? Blankets like these are needed by shelters all around the world for lining cages, it keeps the cats comfy while they're waiting to be adopted and it's been shown that cats who have blankets in their cages are more likely to be adopted. So if this sounds like a project you'd like to try, find an animal shelter in your area and find out what size blankets (or toys, or other needs) they need and spend an hour or so that will help an animal find a new home. We also picked up a cat wand toy and a bunch of food to donate, we look forward to dropping off our kitty care package this week!

-kala

Adopt an Animal, Save a Life

2011-09-14T08:00:00.001-05:00

Today's post is close to my heart, it's about the importance of animal adoptions and supporting animal rescue organizations. According to the ASPCA, about 5 million to 7 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, and approximately 3 million to 4 million are euthanized. Numbers like that are staggering, there are just so many sweet animals that need a loving home, it really breaks my heart. When there are so many loving animals out there that need a home, I just don't understand why anyone would buy a pet from a breeder, puppy mill, or pet shop that exists only to make profit from living, feeling, caring beings. 60% of dogs and 70% of cats that enter shelters will eventually be euthanized, please keep that in mind when you're thinking about where to find your new animal friend.

Here's Cinco, a sweet dog in Minnesota that needs a loving home:

If you're looking to add an animal buddy to your family, please adopt from a shelter or rescue organization in your area. Petfinder is a great site, you can search for adoptable animals in your area and even search for specific breeds. From pugs to mastiffs to kittens to bunnies, you can find the perfect addition to your family and bring home an animal that needs a forever home.

While looking at tons of animals on Petfinder, one little guy caught my eye and broke my heart with his story. Mr. Magoo is an 18 month old pug chihuahua mix that was left to die by his previous owners when they moved. They left him alone in their home when they left, with no open windows, or even a fan to cool him down in the house that reached 108 degrees. Mr. Magoo is lucky to be alive and needs a home in Illinois. Here's the cutie:

Here in Minnesota, you can find adoptable animal friends from places like Animal Ark No-Kill Shelter, Small Dog Rescue of Minnesota, and the Animal Humane Society, just to name a few. If you can't adopt a pet for any reason, there are still ways to help. You can donate money or much needed supplies to your local shelter or rescue organization, volunteer your time, or even do something as simple as a blog post.

Here's Athena, a kitten in Minnesota that needs a home:

If even one person reads this post and decides to adopt their next companion animal from a shelter instead of buying from a breeder, then I feel like I've done a bit of good. Please share this blog post using the twitter button below or on Facebook to help get the word out. Or even better, post about the importance of adopting animals on your own blog!

Have any stories about your adopted animals that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them in the comments!

-kala

Awesome Whole Foods Deal!

2011-09-13T11:56:00.000-05:00

Quick post today, just wanted to make sure you guys know about the awesome Living Social Deal today, $20 worth of food at Whole Foods for $10! I've used Living Social many times and love them, such great deals and the site is super easy to navigate. So go for it, $20 buys a lot of vegan ice cream! :)

-kala

An Interview with Miss Muffcake!

2011-09-09T12:19:00.004-05:00

I'm super excited about today's post, Kendy of Miss Muffcake graciously agreed to let me pick her brain about vegan food, makeup, and more! Kendy is one of those great people that I've "met" online and know that if we lived in the same town (or even the same state!) that I'd want to be her friend in "real life." So without further ado, let's get to know Miss Muffcake, one of my favorite vegans:

1. How long have you been vegan and what inspired you to make the decision?
I have been vegan for about 12 years now! I was vegetarian for six years prior that - it started off as not wanting to eat meat and little by little learning about the mistreatment of animals. I could not get behind any type of animal suffering. When I first went veg there was the library with a few books, not much store bought food could be found, no internet...Wow is all I can say about this last decade!

Center Stage Skull Hair Bow by Miss Muffcake

2. I love that you blog about vegan, cruelty free makeup and skin care products, can you share a few of your must have products?

I am 32 and often people assume I am in my 20s (big ego boost!) and I believe besides good genes skin care plays a part in it! I cannot live without Murad Oil-Control Mattifier SPF 15 - it makes my oily skin less oily, has a SPF in it and preps my skin for makeup, I cannot recommend this product enough! I have been rockin' black eyeliner since middle school, it has been my friend through tons of fashion phases - it is a go to classic. My pick for the perfect black liner is E.L.F. - eyeliner pen - goof proof, stays on all day and costs a $1, I buy them in bulk! I dye, bleach, flat iron and tease my hair (I like big hair) and I need a shampoo that gets rid of hair spray, leaves my hair smellin' great and cuts down the frizz and Lush's Cynthia Sylvia Stout delivers, most natural or semi natural shampoos dry my hair out, not this product though!

3. Tell me about your Etsy shop. When did it open? How do you find time to fit your creative work into your day?

My Etsy shop (Miss Muffcake's Lost and Found) opened in 2009 and came about after doing craft shows. Everyone kept asking me if I had an Etsy shop and I figured it was time to open one up. It started with jewelery and random stuff and after people asked about my hair bows I decided to start making those and listing them. I make things I am really into and could see myself picking up at shows and on Etsy. I usually devote 2 days (Monday and Tuesday) to developing new products and listing them. I get to create in my pajamas (sorry to ruin the glamor here!) products from my heart - you gotta make time for it! I am really not the greatest with time management, ask my boyfriend - I can freak out about time! I try to make a to do list and cross things off.

Lots of Little Dots Hair Bow

4. You always blog about the most delicious looking foods, what are your favorite dishes to make?

Not to sound cheezey but anything that makes my boyfriend happy! I love making something (especially when he thinks it sounds gross) and him asking for seconds! My cooking approach is like the vegan version of Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee (maybe I need a book deal - Semi Home Made Vegan with MissMuffcake - any takers!?!). I feel that it is OK if you buy cake frosting from the store to use on a cake you made from scratch or making your own pizza dough and using store bought pizza sauce. Making delicious food should not make you cry. Every Wednesday I make pan fried BBQ tofu, easy cheezey mac n cheeze and garlic biscuits that are made from Bisquick (all recipes are on my blog). Add some fresh watermelon and you have a great meal that is done within 30 minutes because you took help from the store.

5. Tell me about the vegan scene in your town, are there lots of vegans, lots of vegan or vegan friendly restaurants?

There is not really a vegan scene, we have vegan options at cafes and lots of natural and vegan food found at grocery stores but that is about it. I have organized vegan bake sales for two years now and it is really hard to get bakers - the idea of community only applies when you are popular and cool and I am neither! It is frustrating to organize a vegan event, have people sign up and then never show up! It sucks even more when the next time you see them they ignore you.

6. I've really enjoyed the last two zines you published, can you tell me about your newest zine?

Thanks! Issue 3 is about being happy and healthy. Recently I read a few books targeted to the vegan crowd that looked promising but were nothing more than diet books full of body hating advice. I suffered from anorexia for most of my 20s and have worked hard to balance good food and body love and it is hard. The media, family and friends pump us full of what the perfect body is that we forget that we are all different! I wanted to share some yummy healthy recipes, some stress busting tips and lots of positivity in this issue of my zine!

Cutie Cupcake Hair Bow

Thanks to Miss Muffcake for the great interview! Be sure to keep up with her on her blog, etsy shop, Twitter, and Facebook!

-kala

The Vega Breakfast Challenge

2011-09-07T05:00:00.001-05:00

There are few things more exciting to me than trying a new vegan food or products. So when Vega kindly offered me a sampling of their Whole Food Health Optimizers, I was psyched! The Vega Breakfast Challenge is all about comparing your normal everyday breakfasts with a serving of Vega powders.

So here's a regular breakfast for me - an english muffin spread with Earth Balance non-hydrogenated margarine. I would have included a bit of soy sausage, but that food wasn't included in the Vega calculator.

Here's how they compare: English Muffin/Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer: protein (3grams, 26 grams) carbs (13 grams, 22 grams) sugar (o grams, 1 gram) fat (6 grams for both) Omega 3 ( 0 grams, 2500 grams) Vitamin A (501 grams, 5001 grams) Calcium (0 grams, 1100 grams). As you can see, the Vega breakfast is full of all sorts of healthy nutrients and vitamins that my english muffin is lacking.

Sadly, I found the Vega powders to be lacking in flavor and texture, I actually couldn't finish an entire serving of either the chocolate flavor or the chai. So while the powders are filled with all sorts of healthy goodness, I personally can't recommend them based on taste alone. I think one of the main problems is that they are sweetened with something I really can't stand: stevia. Stevia has a really strong taste (and aftertaste) to me, and it's not a good one. But I encourage you to try the small packets if you're looking for a new supplement because tastes are subjective and you may just find one you love!

Be sure to check out Vega through the following links:

Facebook
Twitter
Breakfast Challenge

Vegan Mini Pizzas!

2011-08-31T13:04:00.000-05:00

What's more fun that vegan pizza? Vegan mini pizza!

I made these cuties for lunch yesterday using homemade tomato basil jam, Daiya vegan cheese, and homemade dried jalapeno and basil. These were sooo yummy and a great use for the tomato basil jam. And of course, the Daiya melted beautifully in the toaster oven. My husband was more than a little bit jealous of my english muffin pizzas when I described them, next time I'll have to make them on a day he's not working!

-kala

Cookie Quickie

2011-08-30T13:41:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post today, I really wanted to share a new vegan chocolate bit of heaven that I tried this past weekend. Enjoy Life has been my go-to company for vegan and allergy friendly chocolate chips for quite a while, so I was really excited when I saw Mega Chunks at my local Whole Foods! First of all, anything called chocolate mega chunks is automatically awesome :) I used them in a batch of oatmeal cookies:

The mega chunks are huge and delicious, they make cookies just a touch more decadent, and that's always a good thing! I would totally buy these again and would recommend them to anyone looking for a new addition to chocolate chip cookies. Just to clarify, Enjoy Life did not send me samples of this product, we bought these as a TOTALLY necessary addition to our weekly food shopping trip!

-kala

Trousseau

2011-08-26T10:53:00.000-05:00

Knit night is a dangerous place people! You come in, sit down, get comfy, and then, without warning someone can walk in with the most gorgeous finished project that you just HAVE to knit for yourself! This happened to me two weeks ago, my friend Kathy walked in with a beautiful shawl and from that moment on, it was all I could think about. The shawl in question is Trousseau by Carol Feller and it's from the Twist Collective. I started my shawl last night while watching Priest (great movie by the way) - here's how far I got:

I'm really enjoying Trousseau so far, it's the part of shawl knitting that I love the most, that first bit of a top down shawls when you saw progress really quickly! I'm thinking this project won't take too terribly long to finish since I'm using DK weight yarn...but you never know. Speaking of the yarn, I'm using some grassy green Nashua Creative Focus Cotton DK that I had in my stash. The yarn was originally going to be a light cardigan, but I couldn't get gauge to save my life so it's going to be broken up into smaller projects instead.

Are you guys working on anything new?

-kala

Things I Love: The Clymb

2011-08-24T13:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, so anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not an outdoorsy kind of gal. Just the idea of camping gives me hives, everything about it kind of freaks me out: getting dirty, sleeping on the ground, and worst of all, lack of bathrooms, oh the horror! So when I got a $10 credit from Klout for a new deal site called The Clymb that specializes in outdoor activity and gear deals, I was doubtful that I'd ever find anything to use it on. But yesterday they started a deal that got my little vegan heart pumping: cheap vegan smores bars! The Halo S'mores bars from ProBar are AMAZING so I was super excited when I saw the great deal on a box of the tasty little treats. I ordered a box right away and look forward to noshing on them while doing the closest thing to camping you'll see me doing: knitting in my living room watching bad reality tv or shows about vampires!

If you guys sign up for The Clymb, please use my referral link, that way if you ever decide to purchase something from the site, I get a $10 referral credit, yay! I know some of you guys are more outdoorsy than I will ever be, so I hope you find some fun gear to add to your stash, or maybe a gift when it gets closer to the holidays.

So where do you fall on the outdoorsy scale?

-kala

How to Dehydrate Jalapenos

2011-08-23T13:01:00.000-05:00

One of the most amazing things about Summer is the abundance of gorgeous, delicious, local produce available at the farmers markets. Here in the Twin Cities, we're lucky to have several markets that take place during the week, making it easy to shop even if you can't make it on the weekend. This past week, I picked up two containers of fresh jalapeno peppers with the intention of pickling them. Life got in the way however, and enough days passed that I decided to dry them instead. My ultimate goal was to make something that tasted like the delicious dried jalapenos that I buy sometimes at Penzeys, they're SO GOOD! I like them added into cornbread, chili, and any other dishes that need a bit of a kick.

So here's what I did to make my dehydrated peppers:

1. Use organic, home grown, or farmers market quality peppers if you can.

2. Use gloves AT ALL TIMES when you're handling the peppers. Pepper oil is irritating to your hands and anything else you touch with your hands, so please be careful and don't burn yourself.

3. Wash and dry your peppers. Cut off the stem and discard. Slice peppers into thin rings. If you want a milder end product, remove the seeds and inner membrane. I left mine in because I like it hot!

4. Place your slices on racks in your dehydrator. Dehydrate at 135 degrees F for about 12 hours, or until peppers are completely dried out. I haven't dried anything using a regular oven, but it can likely be done, just do a bit of research for temps and times. Make sure to dehydrate in a well ventilated area, the fumes from the peppers can be irritating to breathe. I did mine in my kitchen with the window open and a fan blowing and didn't have any problems.

5. After your peppers are dry, turn off your dehydrator and let the slices cool completely.

6. Place your slices in a food processor (or you can chop them by hand, wearing gloves) and pulse until desired consistency is reached.

7. Place in a clean jar or other container.

What dishes would you use dehydrated jalapenos in?

-kala

Bookish Anticipation

2011-08-22T10:42:00.000-05:00

As Summer starts to come to and end, my mind is on books. There are some potentially awesome books coming out later this year and I can't wait to get my hands on them! Here are just a few that I think deserve a place on my shelf:

Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. A book full of vegan pie recipes, yes please!

Quick and Easy Vegan Slow Cooking by Carla Kelly. Slow cooker recipes are great when I'm short on time and I'm glad a vegan book is finally being published!

We Sure Can by Sarah B. Hood. I'm always looking to add to my collection of canning books, and this looks like a fun one!

So those are just a few that I'm looking forward to, and I didn't even get to the knitting and crafting books! What books are you looking forward to?

-kala

Finished Knit: Multnomah Shawl!

2011-08-18T11:06:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it, I actually finished knitting something! See:

I finished the knitting part of my Multnomah while on vacation and then I promptly blocked it and wove in the ends at knit night when I got back. I haven't had a lot of time to knit lately so this little guy took longer than it should have, but it was a fun knit and the shawlette will look cute in the Fall.

The yarn is Sock Candy from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, which is becoming one of my favorite all time yarns for things other than socks (I like a thinner yarn for socks). I also threw in a stripe that wasn't in the pattern, I used a dark brown shade of Comfy Fingering. The only change I made to the pattern was that I stopped a little early, I was worried about running out of yarn and feather and fan gets a little tiresome after a while.

Finished any projects lately?

-kala

Back from Vacation!

2011-08-15T10:43:00.001-05:00

I'm still alive, really! Sorry for the long blog break, I was on vacation in the wilds of northern Minnesota. My husband and I took a much needed trip to visit my parents - lucky for me, everyone gets along really well, there aren't any weird in law issues, yay! We had a lot of fun and got to unwind, so I'd say it was a successful vacation.

Since the Beltrami County Fair was going on while we were up there, we decided to give it a peek. It was really disappointing though because the crafts and veggie buildings were both closed for judging on the day we went, curses! The rest of the fair was pretty lackluster too, not a lot to do but take pictures in front of things like this (me and my husband):

While in downtown Bemidji, I spotted a bit of yarn graffiti so of course I had to take a picture:

Have you guys been up to anything fun?

-kala

Zucchini Baba Ganoush

2011-08-07T13:45:00.000-05:00

Have you guys seen the newest post on Bittersweet? It's one of my favorite blogs and I was super excited to see a recipe for eggplant free baba ganoush recently! You see, my husband is allergic to eggplant (the last time he ate it he had to go to the hospital because he couldn't breathe) and misses baba ganoush terribly. The recipe on Bittersweet replaces the eggplant with zucchini, so I picked out some gorgeous and delicious veggies from the farmers market and set to work.

The recipe was very simple , but I did sub out a few ingredients - instead of the smoked salt I used some smoked paprika and a touch of liquid smoke. The baba ganoush came out really delicious, my husband LOVES it which makes me really happy! This is actually my first time having any kind of baba ganoush, for whatever reason I had never tried it before I met Shane, and after that I made sure to never have any eggplant in the house so the baba occasion never came up. I totally recommend this recipe, eggplant allergy or not, it's a great way to use some of the yummy fresh zucchini out there! I like mine with a bit of hummus and some pita bread.

-kala

Knitting Mojo

2011-08-05T12:18:00.000-05:00

I think I finally got my knitting mojo back! After weeks and weeks of not being even a little bit excited about knitting, I'm finally back to my old knitting self again! It happens just about every Summer, the heat just zaps any knitting desire, and this Summer has been an absolute killer with epic heat and humidity. But lately I've made some nice progress on my Multnomah shawl:

I'm almost done with the kniting, just a few more repeats on the feather and fan border. I can't wait for it to be done, although I won't wear it until the Fall...but still!

Working on anything fun lately?

-kala

Strength Goal Progress and the 30 Day Shred

2011-08-02T12:33:00.000-05:00

So it's been a few weeks since I wrote about my big goal to get stronger (here's a link to that post if you'd like to read it) and I thought it was time for an update.

I've been really loyal to the 30 Day Shred DVD I bought, even though it kicks my butt! But it's kicks it in a good way so all is forgiven :) Anyway, I think today will be Day 20 of the Shred, I'm only counting days when I do a workout. I've gone through all of the levels, there are three workouts on the DVD, each level is harder than the last and builds on muscles that you've strengthened in the previous workouts. Level 2 is a killer, just so you know! But it also makes my back feel amazing so I've been doing that for the past few workouts. I think from now on, I'll just do whatever level I feel like that day because if I just do Level 3 for the rest of my life I'll go crazy!

I can definitely tell that the 30 Day Shred DVD has helped me get stronger. I hit a very cool milestone yesterday, I was able to do a full on non-modified push up for the first time in my life, that was super exciting! If you read my previous post, you know my ultimate goal is to do a one armed push up, so I'm on my way! I can also see and feel muscles developing in my body, especially in the shoulder and back areas. There's also new muscle development in my calves that I've never had before. The workouts have also strengthened my core and helped TONS with my back pain.

I haven't weighed myself since the start because my goal, like I said in my previous post, isn't to lose weight, but to get stronger and have less back pain. I'll probably weigh myself at some point just to see where I'm at, but I'm really trying to get my mind past the number and more focused on how healthy I feel. That is the hardest part of this journey for sure, it's like trying to reverse a lifetime of the message that the smaller you are, the better you are. Which is of course total crap, but it's so ingrained from so early on that it's tough to beat. But I'm getting better, stronger, and healthier, so I'm well on my way to my goal!

-kala

Vegan Cookies Galore

2011-08-01T12:08:00.000-05:00

There are few people that I love to bake for more than my friends at knit night. And I really know when a batch of baked goods is a success when I bring a plate of goodies and they're gone before I can eat one myself! But I'm usually sneaky and save a few at home for myself. This past week, I made a batch of jam thumbprint cookies using the same homemade cherry raspberry jam that I used to fill my vegan pop tarts. Since I found this awesome recipe for thumbprints, it's all I use, it's simple and really delicious.

I also tried a new recipe, the Giant Bakery Style Double Chocolate Cookies from Kelly Peloza's book The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur. They were AMAZING, so yummy and very very chocolately! Seriously, this is a great book that everyone should own and I have totally found my new favorite chocolate cookie recipe.

So what's your favorite kind of cookie?

-kala

Homemade Vegan Pop Tarts

2011-07-27T12:58:00.000-05:00

Last night, my husband and I made a batch of vegan pop tarts! I've been wanting to make these for quite a while, but since my fridge is full of yummy homemade jam, I figured the Pop Tart start were aligned. The initial inspiration for these treats came 100% from Williams Sonoma. While shopping this winter with a gift card I got from my mom, I stumbled on the Toaster Pastry Presses. And like so many cool little tools and gadgets at Williams Sonoma, I knew I had to have it!

I admit, I was never a huge fan of Pop Tarts so I haven't really missed them as a vegan (they're not even vegetarian, the frosting contains gelatin). Although I did read in VegNews that the unfrosted strawberry Pop Tarts are in fact vegan, so that's nice for those looking for a quick treat every once in a while!

Anyway, back to the homemade treats! I decided to go ahead and veganize the recipe that came with the pastry press, it seemed simple enough. For the filling, I used homemade Cherry Raspberry freezer jam that I made a few days ago. The recipe for that jam will be available at some point, I'm really happy with how it came out! I decided to leave off the frosting, I planned on eating one for breakfast and that much sugar first thing in the morning would just make me feel oogy.

The pastry press tool was really easy to use and totally worth it for such cute and evenly sized treats:

These guys were delicious and I'll be making them again for sure!

What filling would you use for a homemade pop tart?

-kala

Not So Extreme Couponing

2011-07-26T12:12:00.000-05:00

Have you guys seen that show Extreme Couponing? If you haven't, think people buying massive amounts of groceries at a huge discount, like $1,000 worth of stuff and only paying $2 after a giant stack of coupons. While that's not my thing, the show got me wondering if I could find coupons for vegan food and products, you know, stuff I would actually use! So for the past few weeks I've been doing what I call not so extreme couponing, finding great deals on stuff I would buy anyway, and not buying massive amounts of anything. Really, there are only two of us, and as much as I love coconut water, we don't need 700 containers.

Yesterday I was able to pick up some new drinking glasses at Pier 1 for super cheap. We've needed new glasses since we're getting rid of some of our old yucky plastic glasses. So I used a one day only coupon for $10 off a purchase of $10 or more and got 4 glasses for $2.50 total:

What I've found over the past few weeks is that it is absolutely possible to save lots of money on things I buy all the time anyway, gotta love that! There are a few secrets to making the most out of coupons, here are some of the things I've learned:

1. Combining Sales and Coupons. For example, my favorite brand of coconut water was on sale at Whole Foods for $1.50 down from $1.99ish. I also had a coupon for $1 off the coconut water so we only paid 50 cents!

2. Know Your Store's Coupon Policy. Some stores, like Target, Walgreens, CVS, and some Whole Foods let you use a store specific coupon and a manufacturers coupon on the same item. For example, Target was having a sale on Morningstar Farms frozen meals, they were all $2.99 down from $3.49ish. Target had a coupon in their online coupon section for $1.50 off of two Morningstar Farms products, and I had 2 $1 off coupons from the Morningstar site. I was able to use all of my coupons and get a couple of yummy vegan frozen meals for cheap! They were also low in fat and sodium, making them perfect healthy meals for days when you don't feel like cooking.

3. Don't Buy Something Just Because it's Cheap. This should be obvious, but don't buy a bunch of junk just because it's super cheap or free. The only exception to this rule is buying healthy food that you wouldn't eat, but donating it to the food shelf. That I highly encourage!

4. Think Seasonally. Depending on seasons and holidays, different things go on sale at different times. Right now, it's high season for back to school deals. For example, packs of Bic pens were on sale for 50 cents each at Target. Target also had a coupon for $1 off any Bic pen purchase, so 2 packs of pens were free! That's a great deal for someone who loses as many pens as I do. I also picked up a pack of free Sharpies by combining a coupon with a sale. This is great for teachers and people with kids, school supplies can really add up!

5. Keep Track of Great Deals. The thing about couponing is that it can take a fair amount of time if you do all the searching and deal tracking yourself. I'd rather not do that, so I depend on a great blog called the Krazy Coupon Lady. She posts about great deals, you can look at deals by store, and she keeps track of all of the printable coupons that companies have on their sites.

6. Print Store Specific Coupons. Target has a huge amount of coupons on their site that you can print out, here's a link. Whole Foods also has coupons to print, and coupons in the store ad, usually places somewhere near the front entrance. Really, almost any grocery or drugstore has their own coupons online, so check it out the next time you're planning a shopping trip.

I hope this info helps anyone looking to save money on healthy food and daily needs, a little bit of couponing has really helped us out so far!

Do any of you guys use coupons or try to buy the things you need on sale? Have any other great ideas for saving money?

-kala

Unearthed

2011-07-21T11:09:00.000-05:00

You know that feeling when you're clearing out junk from your home and you find something awesome, like that earring you've been missing or a random fifty dollar bill? Yeah, well finding a craft project you completely forgot about is nothing like that! It's evil because it means that I've started and abandoned so many projects that I'm actually forgetting they exist! While cleaning out my craft closet I unearthed a granny square blanket I started just about 2 years ago, here are the pieces:

Thanks to Ravelry, I was able to figure out when I started this project (July 2009), what pattern I was following, and what hook I was using. I started this blanket in hopes of using up my sock yarn scraps, of which there are MANY. I have pretty big feet (size 10) but I also like shorter socks so I always end up with extra yarn. But I think these projects where you work on them over time as you collect more scraps don't really work for me, unless I'm actively working on it, it just sort of falls to the outer edges of my brain (or deep deep inside my craft closet.) But I do like the idea of a big crazy blanket made from scraps so I think I'm going to pick up the hook and get working on it again!

Do you have any projects that have fallen to the wayside?

-kala

Easy Cherry Crumble!

2011-07-18T11:10:00.000-05:00

'Tis the season for delicous and affordable cherries! Cherries are one of my favorite fruits, but the crazy cost keeps me from eating then more than a few times a year. So when the little guys go one sale, I pounce! I've been eating quite a few in a the past few weeks, and this weekend I decided to come up with a new recipe. I wanted to come up with a crumble recipe that was very simple, quick, and used only a few basic ingredients. I think I came up with a winner, it was easy to make, yummy, and was perfect with some vegan ice cream! Here's the recipe, I hope you'll give it a try:

Vegan Cherry Crumble:

1 1/2 cups pitted, sliced cherries
1/4 cup sugar (I like organic vegan cane sugar)
1 cup rolled oats
3 TB agave
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 TB vegan margarine, melted
a small pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium sized bowl, stir together the cherry slices and the sugar. Set aside while you prepare the crumble topping.

In another bowl, combine all of the other ingredients.

Scoop the cherry/sugar filling into a pie pan. Sprinkle with the crumble topping.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the crumble topping is lightly browned.

Cool and enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it on twitter using the tweet button below, or give it a +1 if you're on Google+!

-kala

Two Toned Swirled Frosting Tutorial

2011-07-14T12:35:00.000-05:00

There are few things I love more than things that look really cool and complicated but are really super simple. The swirled cupcakes I made this past Tuesday are one of those things, the two toned frosting looks magic, but really it's just a trick with pastry bags. Here's how they came out:

This really is incredibly easy to do yourself, and I hope you'll try it sometime! Here's what you do:

1. Make and completely cool a batch of cupcakes of your choice.

2. Make or buy one batch of vanilla frosting and one batch of chocolate frosting.

3. You'll need three pastry bags. I like Wilton Featherweight bags because they're reusable and easy to clean. Take two of the pastry bags and cut the tip end off at about 3/4" from the end, but don't place a tip inside. With the third bag, cut the tip end far down enough to fit a largeish star tip. I used the M1 star tip from Wilton. Now, fill the first two tipless bags with your frostings, one with vanilla and one with chocolate. Place these bags inside the bag with the star tip. Squeezing from the top of the bag, both frostings should feed out of the star tip in a swirled pattern. Practice on your work surface or a plate before decorating your cupcakes.

4. When you're ready to decorate a cupcake, hold your bag so that your tip is pointing straight down at your cupcake. With an even pressure, squeeze your frosting out, starting at the outside (not the center) of your cupcake and work a steady swirl all around. When you come to the center, stop squeezing before you lift your tip away to avoid a really tall peak on your cupcake.

Simple, right? I'm looking forward to trying this technique with colored frosting for the holidays, especially Halloween!

-kala

Swap Love!

2011-07-13T10:51:00.000-05:00

I've been fantasically spoiled by an awesome swap partner! The lovely Miss Muffcake and I decided to do a vegan goodie swap after we had a conversation on twitter about my last disappointing swap experience on Ravelry. I've "known" her for a while through Etsy, twitter and whatnot, so I was super excited about swapping with her! Since she has and injury and I'm not knitting much this summer, we decided not to do a yarn swap, which is perfectly fine considering the size of my stash ;) Here's the awesome package she put together for me:

Amazing, right? I got a jar of the elusive and addictively delicious Biscoff Spread, some vegan nacho sauce I haven't tried yet, fun pasta and spices, issues of the Easy Vegan and a smoothie zine, a canning book, and a magazine with some yummy looking canning recipes in it! I also got a bag of Tapatio flavored Fritos which were super amazing and already eaten. If they had them in Minnesota that would probably be all I would ever eat! Thanks again Miss Muffcake, you're awesome!

Have any of you guys ever done a swap?

-kala

Casting On and a Small Harvest

2011-07-10T13:10:00.000-05:00

I maaay have cast on for a new shawl this week:

I was a little bored with the plain stockinette socks I have on the needles, so I decided that a new shawl was in order. So I finally cast on for a Multnomah, I've been wanting to knit one for ages but could never decide on yarn, don't you hate that? I'm really loving it so far, it's mindless and perfect for those spare moments that I get to knit for a bit and watch tv. Also, I'm throwing some stripes in because it seemed like a good idea. Stripes are always a good idea though, right?

In parking lot garden news, my yellow cherry tomatoes have been ripening! I've harvested 8 so far and there are a few more on the edge of readiness!

In fitness news, I've been working hard on my strength goal that I wrote about earlier. I've been keeping up with the 30 Day Shred and can already feel a difference, I'm able to do about 15 modified push ups in a row, compared with the 3 I could do when I started! Yesterday I threw some yoga into the mix which was a real challenge in the hot living room, but it made my back feel amazing so it was worth it. Today will be the 5th day of the 30 Day Shred (I'm only counting days that I do the workout, I took one day off to let my muscles recover) - I wonder how long I'll have to do it before I can move on to level 2, level 1 is still mega butt kicking challenging!

-kala

Marmalade Umlaut

2011-07-08T10:59:00.000-05:00

How could you not love a zine called Marmalade Umlaut? And why won't blogger let me use an umlaut. Curses! Anyway, the awesome Maud of the blog Food Feud was kind enough to send me issue 17 of her food zine Marmalade Umlaut and I have to say, I enjoyed it thoroughly. For me, the best part about zines is getting a little peek into another person's world, and this zine had plenty of personal stories that I loved. I think Maud's food memory stories were my favorite! There are also several yummy looking recipes to try, bonus! Definitely hop on over to the Food Feud blog, it's full of all sorts of yummy deliciousness, thanks so much Maud!

In honor of Marmalade Umlaut, I thought I'd share a food memory of my own. Oddly enough, many of my food memories don't involve my actual family, but my second family, the Nguyens. I've known them and been super pals with Ted and Thao since I was 4 or so, and many of my earliest memories involve them. Anyway, fast forward to the teenage early vegan Kala years and one of the last time I was in California. The whole family (that is, the Nguyens, me, and my parents) wanted to get together to eat and in true Nguyen dad fashion, we ended up at a random restaurant in a strip mall in the valley. I don't remember what it was called exactly, but it had seafood and king in the name, I believe. So of course, I assumed that I would starve!

It was one of those restaurants where most of the menu wasn't in English so I felt hopeless that I could find a vegan morsel. But luckily, Nguyen dad saved me by talking to the waitress. After a few failed attempts at explaining what vegan meant, he had a brilliant idea and told her I was a strict Buddhist. Yes! You could see the little light bulb pop up over her head and she said "oh, no meat!" and she scurried off into the kitchen. She returned with a plate of yummy fried tofu and a noodly veggie soup for the little Buddhist impostor :)

Share one of your favorite food memories in the comments, I've love to read them!

-kala

A New Goal

2011-07-06T12:46:00.000-05:00

I'm back! I was gone during the longish 4th of July weekend, up north visiting my parents to be exact, so the blog had to take a little break. And while I was gone I made a decision. Or more like a goal? For the past few months I've been struggling with weight loss, as I'm inching closer to 30, staying at the weight I feel best at is getting ridiculously hard. So instead of beating myself up and driving myself crazy about a half pound weight gain, my new goal is simple: Get Strong. Physically strong like I've never been before.

If I lose weight, fine, but what I'm focusing on is feeling healthy, strong, and flexible. I've had a bad back almost all my life (so does my dad, what a great thing to inherit!) and when I work hard on my core (which I haven't done lately) my back pain lessens and occurs much less often. I've never been strong, I spent most of my teenage years as obese (I used to weigh well over 100 pounds more than I do now) and never did anything active. I work out pretty regularly now, but there are still things I've never been able to do, like a non-modified push up, I can't even do one! So one of my goals is not only to do a push up, but to do a one armed push up. Crazy right?

I think the biggest challenge won't be physical, it will be getting past ingrained thoughts about weight and size that intellectually I know are completely stupid but deep down still bother me sometimes. Things like clothing size, when I was a kid, my mom made a huge huge deal when I would go up a size and I would feel horrible. So now when I try on a size I think I should fit and it doesn't for whatever reason, I have to remind myself that the number doesn't matter, you wear the size that's comfy and that fits. End of story. And please don't think my mom is terrible, we have a MUCH better relationship now that I'm an adult. Moms and daughters are so complicated!

Anyway, back to my goal. I officially started yesterday by trying Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. The first couple of parts are available on Comcast on Demand so I thought I'd give it a go. And holy cow, it kicked my butt! The workouts are all under 30 minutes, although I was only able to do 14 minutes before my legs turned to jelly and I had to quit. But I'll be keeping at it, along with runs with my husband, yoga, and trips to the gym. I picked up the DVD last night so I won't be sad when it disappears from On Demand, I hate when that happens! Someone on twitter has even offered to do the 30 Day Shred along with me, which is great, support is awesome! So I'm super excited about new goal, get ready for a super strong Kala!

-kala

Summer Accessories

2011-06-29T12:23:00.000-05:00

With Summer in full swing (at least here in MN), I've stocked my Etsy shop full of cute pins to add a touch of fun to any outfit! Here are some of my new additions:

Chirpy Bird Pin Set:

Happy Animals Pin Set:

Little Pig Pin:

So which ones do you like best?

-kala

p.s. if you like this post, please don't hesitate to the click the twitter button below to share it!

Homemade Strawberry Jam!

2011-06-28T11:56:00.000-05:00

Last night I finally learned how to make and can jam! My friend Flannery offered to teach her friends how to can, and when a MN state fair ribbon winner offers to teach you to can, you get your butt over there and learn! And learn I did. I've been scared to try canning for years, it just seems so intimidating, like if you do one thing wrong you'll create a botulism monster that will crawl into your bedroom and kill you in the night. But seeing everything done by someone whose been doing it for over 20 years made it way less intimidating.

Flannery will be teaching a canning basics class at EggPlant next month, so if you're in the Twin Cities area, I highly recommend stopping by the shop or calling in to reserve your spot! Info about class times and how to register can be found on the EggPlant site.

For our lesson, we made two delicious kinds of strawberry jam, a basic jam and a batch of strawberry vanilla jam made with real vanilla beans. We used this recipe from Food in Jars and it came out amazing, I can't wait to crack open the jar and inhale it, my husband will have to act fast if he wants any!

Of course, now that I know the basics I've been going through all of my canning books picking out what I want to make. Unfortunately, I seem to want to make EVERYTHING!

So what's your absolute favorite kind of jam or jelly?

-kala

Bag Giveaway!

2011-06-27T11:06:00.000-05:00

Yay, it's time for another giveaway! This time the giveaway is over at the Student Knitter's blog, hop on over to her awesome blog for a chance to win this cute cupcake bag:

Again, the giveaway isn't on my blog, it's at the Student Knitter's blog, so hop on over for a chance to win, she's doing a series of giveaways to celebrate her blogiversary so be sure to check out her last few posts as well!

-kala

Coffee in a Jar!

2011-06-24T15:08:00.001-05:00

Since I might by slightly obsessed with mason jars, I was super excited when I read about making cold brew coffee in a jar on one of my favorite blogs, Food in Jars.  Cold brew coffee is magic because you don't need any hot water to make it, you don't need any fussy machines, and it's much less acidic than regular brewed coffee, so there's less chance of yucky heartburn. I really recommend the method described on Food in Jars, it made for some very yummy cold brew!

I don't drink coffee very often and when I do, I have some rules:

1. decaf only, caffeine affects me like CRAZY and I can't handle the full powered stuff.

2.  iced only, hot coffee is gross.

3.  never drink it black - I like lots of almond or soy milk, and chocolate sauce in my coffee, if it doesn't taste like melted ice cream, I don't want it! Coffee is a treat for me, so when I do have it, I like to indulge :)

So what are your coffee rules?

-kala

My Week With Wilton

2011-06-22T11:32:00.001-05:00

Last week, I finally got to do something I've been wanting to do for years - take a cake decorating class! When I discovered that my local Joann offered Wilton decorating classes, I knew I had to sign up. See, I have few decorating supplies, but my skills never really developed beyond basic borders on cakes.

I signed up for Course 1: Decorating Basics which ran for 2 hours a night for 4 nights in a row. I really liked this set up because there was no break in which to forget any skills or lose my cake decorating enthusiasm. The first day of the class, the instructor (who was sweet, charming, talented, and a really great teacher) went over the basics of baking a cake, making frosting, tools...and then we got to practice a bit with some of the tips in our kit. By the end of the night, we were decorating the sugar cooking we brought in with cute little star tip designs.

Over the next few nights, we learned how to use all of the tips in our kit, how to properly crumb coat and frost a cake, make frosting leaves and flowers and the fundamentals of cake design. On our final night, we decorated a cake that we brought in. My cake turned out kinda cute, but you can tell that I need a bit more practice on my flowers ;)

I would totally recommend Wilton classes for anyone looking to try their hand at cake decorating. Even if your only goal is to have the ability to decorate birthday cakes for your family, the basic class is worth it, it provides you with the skills you need for all sorts of frosting decorations and you won't have to depend on store bought cakes for celebrations. I don't always take classes when I want to learn a new skill, but cake decorating success depends a lot on thing like angles of your pastry bag and consistency of your frosting and those things are great to see in person. And fellow vegans or folks with food allergies, don't worry, you bring in all your own baked good to decorate and are encouraged to make and bring in your own frosting so you don't have to worry about working with any non-vegan ingredients!

Have any of you taken a cake decorating class?

-kala

Blueberry Lemon Freezer Jam Recipe

2011-06-21T10:59:00.000-05:00

My latest obsession: freezer jam. While I still haven't used my canning kit to make processed jam (or big girl jam as I call it), I've been all about the freezer jam lately. The nice thing about freezer jam is that it doesn't require any cooking, great for those hot and humid summer days. And it keeps for a pretty long time, 3 months in the fridge or 1 year in the freezer! Last night, my husband and I made a batch of blueberry lemon jam that turned out amazing, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you guys, enjoy!

Blueberry Lemon Freezer Jam

Ingredients:

-enough blueberries to yield 4 cups of mashed berries. You can use either fresh or frozen for this, you'll need about 4 pints of berries.

-the zest of one large lemon. If it's at all possible, use organic since you'll be using the skin in your jam. Wash and dry your lemon before zesting.

-1 1/2 cups sugar. I like to use vegan fair trade cane sugar from Whole Foods.

- One 1.59 oz package of Ball freezer jam pectin. Do not use any other pectin than the kind made especially for freezer jam (also called instant pectin)

-You'll also need clean jars (I used 5 8oz glass jars), a funnel, and a potato masher, and a measuring tool.

1. Wash your berries well and mash them together in a large bowl with the lemon zest. After your berry mixture is as mashed as you'd like, measure out 4 cups of your berry mash into a large bowl. If there is extra, use it for something else, if you add too much fruit to the pectin it might not set correctly.

2. In another bowl, combine the pectin with the sugar and whisk well.

3. Combine the sugar/pectin with the berries and stir for 3 minutes. Yes, really 3 minutes, set a timer!

4. Using the funnel to cut down on mess, pour your jam into your jars, leaving about 1/2" headspace (measure 1/2" from the top of your jar to the jam in your jar).

5. Let your jars set out at room temperature for 30 minutes so the pectin can do it's magic.

6. Keep your jam in the fridge or freezer and enjoy! Your jam will keep for 3 months in the fridge or 1 year in the freezer. Do not store your jam in your pantry at room temperature, it will go bad! If you give your jam as a gift, please remind your recipient to keep the jam in the fridge or freezer.

-kala

E Book Review: Recipes by Very Zoe

2011-06-20T09:57:00.000-05:00

When the author of Recipes by Zoe, a vegan e-book sent me her work to review, I was thrilled! I love handmade zines and this one is filled with all sorts of yummy vegan recipes. If you're not familiar with zines, they're usually diy booklets that are printed on a small scale, although these days it's common to see zines that are available as pdfs too.

This e-book was a lot of fun to read through, it's written by an Australian so there were a few ingredients I had to google (like nuttelex) but that just adds to the fun! Also be aware that some of the measurements (and oven temps) are in metric, so you'll have to do some conversions if you don't have a scale that has metric reading options.

The recipes I'm most looking forward to trying are the spicy quinoa salad, pesto couscous salad, coconut whipped cream, mum's banana cake, and chocolate mousse. The recipes in the zine are almost all on the simple side which is nice for quick and easy meals. My only complaint is that Recipes by Zoe is on the expensive side for a zine (just around $14 US) that contains just about 30 recipes (that number is counting variations on recipes). Other than that it's a fun little zine, thanks Zoe! Be sure to keep up with Zoe on her blog too!

-kala

Blueberry Anticipation!

2011-06-17T07:40:00.000-05:00

I haven't had much time to blog lately, but I had to grab a bit of time to share a couple of great deals with you guys! If you love fresh yummy blueberries as much as I do, you'll want to check out your local Whole Foods today, they're having a big sale on organic blueberries ($1.99 a pint!) I'll be picking some up before my cake decorating class this evening, I plan on turning some into freezer jam, and maybe some blueberry sauce. What are some of your favorite blueberry recipes?

This morning, I also purchased a Living Social deal for Ace Hardware. No, I'm not looking to get into home repair or anything like that, Ace is a great place to buy canning supplies! I've picked up jars and a canning kit (that I haven't used yet) at Ace, and they also have a wide assortment of fun cooking/baking stuff. I may or may not have a selection of dinosaur cookie cutters that I bought at Ace :) So if you're local, check out today's Living Social deal, especially if you're into canning, cooking, gardening, or even home repair/diy!

-kala

Busy Pants!

2011-06-14T13:42:00.000-05:00

Lately things have been all sorts of busy! Sunday, my group of knitter friends decided to have our own food swap, inspired by the Minneapolis Swappers. Our swap was much more casual though, we didn't bother with a bidding system or anything, so it was a lot of fun! Here's what my husband and I made to bring to the swap:

On Saturday, we made classic hummus, chipotle hummus, chocolate chip banana bread, chocolate sauce, oatmeal cookies, and jalapeno corn bread. We came home with homemade pickles, gala apple dressing, taco seasoning, bbq rub, watermelon syrup, and more.

Yesterday, I finally go to meet one of my blogger/knitter/ravelry friends, Yoel of Yoel Knits! We did a bit of yarn shopping at Depth of Field and then had dinner at the downtown Pizza Luce. She was super nice and it was great to finally meet her:

The rest of the week looks like it's going to be quite busy too, I have cake decorating classes for the next 4 days. I'm really looking forward to that, I'm hoping it'll be super fun and my decorating skills will be elevated to at least a little bit above Cake Wreck status :)

-kala

Finished Knit: Sweetie Pie Socks!

2011-06-12T10:09:00.000-05:00

By some sort of miracle, I actually finished knitting something! OK, it's sort of cheating though, because this pair of socks was a UFO that only needed a few rounds on the foot and a toe on one sock to be done. But I needed to have that accomplished feeling of "yay, I finished something" so I knocked these out while catching up on Game of Thrones.

It will be months (not as many as I'd like though) before it's cold enough for handknit socks, but these will come in handy on chilly Fall and Winter days. The pattern is a free one I designed a while ago, the Sweetie Pie Socks. I used some Panda Cotton I had in my stash and US size 1.5 dpns. I think this is the third pair of Sweetie Pies I've made, I love the simple four round stitch pattern and they fit me really well, gotta love that!

Finished anything lately?

-kala

Making Stuff and Doing Things

2011-06-08T11:55:00.001-05:00

Lately I've been all about the DIY! It's been too hot for me to really want to knit or crochet, so I've been pouring all my creative energy into gardening, sprouting, and making delicious homemade foods.

Let's start with the sprouting. I picked up a big glass sprouting jar from Whole Foods, a packet of mung bean seeds (I picked these because I read that they sprout really fast), read a bunch of articles on sprouting, and watched a ton of youtube videos. After my brain was full of way too much sprouting info, I set to work. Here's how the little guys looked the second morning:

And today, the third morning:

Cool, eh? As soon as I sprout a few more things and taste what I've sprouted, I'll put up a detailed sprouting post with what I've learned. It's a ton of fun though, especially if you're the kind of person who would get a kick out of seeing daily progress, I'm thinking this would be really fun to do with kids too!

I've also been gardening! Parking lot gardening to be exact. We don't have any outside space to ourselves in this apartment, but last year I saw some tenants growing tomatoes out back in the parking lot area near the picnic bench and thought I'd give it a try. We picked up a patio yellow cherry tomato plant at Menards (I didn't want to chance starting from seeds this time, I'm not a very experienced gardener) and the little guy is doing quite well:

I also have a basil plant that I picked up from Trader Joes of all places, and a teeny jalapeno plant that I got at ACE.

On the kitchen front, I've had the chance to try a few cool new things, chia seeds being my favorite. The pudding that I made using this recipe was eaten too quickly to get a picture, but chia seeds are amazing enough that they'll get their own post eventually. I also made vegan horchata:

If you haven't had horchata before, it's a delicious drink made from rice, cinnamon, sometimes vanilla, and sometimes some sort of milk. I used this recipe because it didn't require any cooking (perfect since it was literally over 100 degrees yesterday). I left out the vanilla extract and used vanilla almond milk for the "milk." It was really delicous and I encourage everyone to try making horchata, it's really refreshing!

So what have you guys been making and doing?

-kala

Things I Love: Crazy Rumors Lip Balm

2011-06-06T11:58:00.001-05:00

I might not wear any makeup, but I'm a bit of a lip balm junkie! I always have a huge stash on hand in all sort of flavors, what can I say, I like variety :) Crazy Rumors, a vegan lip balm company, recently had a huge sale so I knew I had to pounce since I can't find it locally and I've been dying to try it. Or rather, since it was our wedding anniversary on the first, my husband had to pounce! I ended up getting two lip balm collections: A La Mode (ice cream flavors) and Soda Pop (duh, soda flavors). Right now I'm wearing Raspberry Sherbet from the A La Mode collection.

The first thing I did when the package arrived was pop the tops and give everything the smell test. I was very impressed, everything smelled awesome without being overpowering or too sweet. Over the days since the lip balm arrived I've tried almost all of the flavors and I'm in love! It goes on smooth and keeps my lips soft without feeling greasy. I'll definitely buy from Crazy Rumors again, I have my eye on the Gumball and Fresh Squeezed collections.

Which collection or flavor looks the most tempting to you?

-kala

Summer = Grain Salads!

2011-06-05T18:33:00.000-05:00

Lately it's been hot and sunny here in Minnesota, and for me, that means the less time working over a hot stove, the better. Grain based salads to the rescue! I'm not a fan of big leafy salads, but grain salads (made with barley, quinoa, couscous...) are delicious and easy to prepare. Tonight I made a salad with organic quinoa, black beans, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, tomatoes and more:

I also love that grain salads make awesome leftovers for lunch the next day!

What kinds of grain salads do you like?

-kala

Spicy Gluten Free Noodle Salad

2011-06-04T19:33:00.000-05:00

Tonight's dinner was made of gluten free awesomeness:

I don't eat a gluten free diet, but I think a little variety is nice so I like to try gluten free recipes from time to time. Tonight I tried Spicy Asian Noodles from a recipe from the Healthy Green Kitchen blog. I originally stumbled upon this dish on foodgawker, that site is really great for food inspiration.

My husband and I prepared this dish together, and we ended up following the recipe pretty closely. We used rice noodles made from black rice just for fun :) We also subbed tahini for the almond butter because that's what we had in the fridge. The salad came out really yummy and I'd definitely have it again, it's a great warm weather meal!

-kala

Finished Knit: Clapotis!

2011-06-01T07:54:00.000-05:00

What? I actually finished knitting something? Yup, it's true! You may remember this post about how I needed something a little less complicated to work on, and how I was cheating on my Rock Island shawl with a Clapotis. Well, here's the result of my knitting infidelity:

It's the ever popular Clapotis by Kate Gilbert! I knit this cutie with Sock Candy from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in the Otterpop colorway, and I didn't even end up using the entire 800 yards that I had. The drape of this shawl/scarf is really nice and it's very soft too, I look forward to wearing it in the Fall and Winter as a bright scarf and in the summer as a cover up for when I'm feeling chilly.

-kala

Vegan Breakfast in a Jar

2011-05-31T11:45:00.000-05:00

Since I'm not a morning person, not even a little bit, I'm always looking for easy ways for my husband and I to get a good breakfast in without much effort. And if I can prepare breakfast the night before, even better! So I was thrilled when I read this post from the awesome blog Food in Jars about making breakfast parfaits in a jar. Here's what I came up with:

So last night I started with two clean jars and added uncooked rolled oats, plain soy yogurt, strawberry jam, blueberries, and walnuts. In the morning, I stirred everything up before I ate it, and it was delicious! I'll definitely have this again, it was easy to prepare the night before, and it's just really fun to eat straight out of a jar :)

-kala

Totally 80s!

2011-05-30T11:28:00.000-05:00

Last night Shane and I went to a super fun 80s prom themed party, and of course the best part was checking out everyone's outfits! Here's what I put together:

It was a lot of fun shopping for pieces for my outfit, the dress was a great find at JCPenney, it was on clearance from $110 down to $14! The cardi was also on clearance, I think it was just over $5 at Target. The accessories are leftover from an 80s party I went to in the Fall, and the Ray-Bans are my everyday prescription sunglasses :) Oh, and I wore just a teeeeny bit of makeup:

Here's my husband's outfit:

So what would you wear to an 80s prom themed party?

-kala

Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

2011-05-28T11:23:00.000-05:00

Banana bread is one of those odd foods that I love but can really only eat a few times a year. It's super yummy, but is so....banana-ish :) Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I'm like that with certain foods, watermelon for example, I like to eat once every five years or so. So yeah, I might be weird....

Anyway, last night my husband and I made 2 mini loaves of chocolate chip banana bread from a recipe in the book the Compassionate Cook: Or, "Please Don't Eat the Animals!" It's an old favorite because it's really simple and we usually have all of the ingredients on hand. I like mine slathered in a bit of peanut butter and jelly:

How do you like to eat your banana bread?

-kala

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

2011-05-27T18:35:00.000-05:00

Today has been gloomy and rainy, not at all like Memorial Day weekend should be! We were invited to a BBQ today but the husband's allergies are really bad and, well, it's raining out so we're staying home. Bummer, since I even got a new outfit for today! But the rain did inspire me to seek out some cute Etsy finds from the EtsyVeg Team and put together a treasury:

So what's your favorite item?

-kala

Homemade Chocolate Sauce!

2011-05-26T14:24:00.000-05:00

This week I made something new, homemade chocolate sauce! I love a bit of chocolate sauce on a bowl of vegan ice cream so I thought I'd try my hand at making my own, here are the delicious results:

Yum! The recipe I used was called The Best Chocolate Sauce from David Lebovitz. I cut the recipe in half because I was running low on cocoa powder and it made the perfect amount of sauce. I would say that unless you have kids or are living with more than one or two people, cutting the recipe in half is best.

So far I've used the sauce on vanilla vegan cream and in soy milk and it was delicious both ways, much more chocolaty than the stuff you buy in stores. It seems that I've been on a bit of a sauce/condiment making kick lately, I also made blueberry sauce and homemade mustard. As soon as I get my canning gear, jams and jellies are next!

-kala

Owl Pouch Winner!

2011-05-26T10:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks everyone for entering my zippered pouch giveaway, it was a lot of fun to read everyone's comments about their favorite summer treats! There seems to be a lot of watermelon fans out there! Ok, on to the winner. By power of random number generator, the winner is......CMEH!

-kala

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway! - Closed

2011-05-23T00:00:00.002-05:00

Giveaway is now closed, thanks everyone for entering!

Hi guys, it's Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day! Welcome all new readers who are here from Sew Mama Sew! Ok, I'll keep it short and sweet and get right to the giveaway, I know a lot of you have a lot of blog posts to visit today :) If you guys are into crafting, knitting, sewing, cooking, and more, be sure to bookmark my blog or become a follower, I love to share my crafty adventures!

Today's prize is a cute Owl Zippered Pouch made by me, this has been one of my most popular items in my Etsy shop, Vegancraftastic:

To enter to win this pouch, simply leave a comment here on this post letting me know your favorite summer treat! Mine changes but right now it would be root beer floats :) One entry per person, giveaway is open worldwide, and please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win!

Giveaway is open until Wednesday, May 25th, good luck!

-kala

Food Swapping

2011-05-18T11:23:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, my husband and I tried something new and decided to check out the Minneapolis Swappers event. My friend Trinity let me know about the swap, and since she often blogs about yummy and interesting food, I thought I could at the very least swap something with her. Then I found out that A-K of Swell Vegan was co-hosting and that we would finally be able to meet face to face after years of mutual blog reading and twitter conversation snippets.

So now a little bit about the swap itself. Basically, if it's edible and you made it, baked it, canned it, or grew it, you could bring it along to swap for something that one of the other swappers has made. Everyone lays their goods out on a table with sheets of paper that describes the item. At the bottom of the sheet, swappers make offers such as "I'll trade a jar of strawberry jam for your loaf of banana bread." The actual swapping is where it got a little frantic. The space didn't have great traffic flow so it was kind of a mess with people trying to find each other to make the actual swaps.

I love the idea of the swap, I think it just needs some tweaks here and there to make things run a bit more smoothly. I think a huge improvement would be to make the item sheets available as online printables so swappers could fill those out at home. This would streamline the swap, especially for people who bring lots and lots of stuff to swap, and would hopefully encourage all swappers to include ingredients lists for their items.

I also would have liked a different setup for the tables, often there would be lines of people wanting to look at one can of jam or one loaf of bread because the tables were pushed against the wall and not accessible from all sides. I know it's tough to work things like that out with a small, not so open space though.

Overall, it was fun to try something new and we even came home with a couple of yummy goodies, a bottle of ginger syrup (we mixed it with some bubbly water for a delicious drink) and a jar of picked jalapenos that I haven't broken into yet. Unfortunately, all of the other food items we were offered weren't vegan so we had to turn down trades. But I'd go again and give it another shot for sure, it definitely inspired me to try new recipes! If you're local, I definitely encourage you to give it a shot and see if it's something you might enjoy.

Have any of you guys ever gone to a food swap like this?

-kala

Spring Romance

2011-05-17T14:30:00.000-05:00

It's Etsy Treasury time again! I made this one with sweet, romantic Spring finds in mind, enjoy!

What's your favorite item in this treasury?

-kala

Sewtropolis

2011-05-16T11:05:00.000-05:00

When I saw today's Living Social deal for sewing classes, I knew I had to blog about it! Today's great deal is a choice of discounted sewing classes at Sewtropolis, a sewing studio and fabric store in Minneapolis. I visited this charming studio this past winter after a trip to the Museum of Russian Art and was impressed with the atmosphere of the shop and learning/open sewing space. The ladies working in the shop were also very nice which is a lovely bonus.

So if you're local and looking to learn to sew, take advantage of today's Living Social deal, you can get sewing classes for 50% off! That way, even if you find out you don't love sewing, you're not out a huge amount of money. And for those who haven't used Living Social before, I have used it and have had only good experiences with it :)

Sewtropolis also has an Etsy shop, blog, and Twitter account so you can keep up to date with classes and whatnot!

-kala

Your Cheatin' Heart

2011-05-11T14:23:00.000-05:00

You know, I'd like to say that I've been making amazing progress on my Rock Island shawl, maybe even that I'm done with the edging. Well, I could say that, but I'd be a dirty rotten liar! I've been a naughty knitter and have been cheating on my Rock Island with something a little more simple. It's like I'm two timing a brooding, intellectual, complicated guy with his hot but not so bright friend. Here's what I've been working on:

I'm sure a fair amount of knitters know that this is a Clapotis! This is my very first Clapotis, I don't know why I've never knit one, it's a really fun pattern and a great use for crazy yarn. I'm using Blue Moon Fiber Art's Sock Candy in the Otterpop colorway, and boy is it bright! And as soon as this is done I'm going right back to Rock Island. I really do like the pattern, it's just....laceweight is so thin!

-kala

Knitcircus Winners!

2011-05-11T12:41:00.000-05:00

By power of random number generator, the winner of the Knitcircus giveaway are.....mijke and katrina!

Thanks everyone for entering, and extra thanks to Jaala from Knitcircus for proving such great prizes!

-kala

PuNk rAwK pUrL Winner!

2011-05-09T20:48:00.000-05:00

Thanks everyone for entering the PuNk rAwK pUrL giveaway, and extra thanks to Tammy for providing such an awesome prize!

The winner, chosen by random number generator is....Captain Sharmie, yay congrats!

-kala

Interweave Knits Summer 2011

2011-05-08T19:01:00.001-05:00

First of all, happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope all the mom types are having a fab day :) And as an extra way to honor you great ladies, I've set up a coupon code in my Etsy shop so you can get yourself a little something - use code MOMSROCK at checkout for 20% off your entire order, today only!

Ok, onto the main post! Have you guys all seen the preview for the Summer 2011 issue of Interweave? This issue looks like a great one, there are actually quite a few patterns that I'm excited about! Here are some of my faves from the preview:

Cumulus Tee by Allyson Dykhuizen of the Sweatshop of Love:

Amelia Hoodie by Erica Jackofsky:

Camp Smock by Mary Keenan:

Swirl Skirt by AnneLena Mattison:

So what do you guys like from the preview of the new issue of Interweave?

-kala