Down the Rabbit Hole into the World of Animal Rights

A few things:

1. I updated my vegan shoe pinterest with some cool vegan shoes such as these:

There are some excellent shoes on there, so check it out if you so desire to clothe your feet in man-made materials. Vegan Shoes 4 Lyfe.

2. Following Anita Krajnc, head of Toronto Pig Save, on facebook is very educational. I feel as if I have gone down the rabbit hole, so to speak.

If you want to learn more about animal rights stuff, just subscribe to her posts and then check out the pages of groups she shares and whatnot.

I don’t even know where to begin.

I now feel certain that animal rights will be the next great battle our society wages for freedom and justice and all that.

Everywhere I see more and more people mentioning veganism. This movement is growing!

Along time ago when I started with vegetarianism, I always used to think to myself “what difference am I making. So I’m not ordering meat at a restaurant…big deal. 1 billion other people are.” Still I stuck to it because it felt like the right thing to do, not really knowing why, besides I loved animals and my dogs.

After all this time I feel I finally understand my true motivation for being a vegetarian and now vegan.

For one thing, it DOES make a difference. Little by little, person by person, vegans infiltrated mainstream media and awareness.

And for a second thing, ( a thing I have become so much more aware of lately thanks to my interviews with animal rights heroes) vegans are, as one blogger put it so well, Conscientious Objectors to Cruelty.

Check out this blog post from the great blog Once Upon a Vegan. She shares the story of a man who privately financed the transport of 669 Jewish children to England…because they were going to the death camps. He saved their lives, but no one, even in his family, ever knew about it until 50 years later he wife found a log in his attic listing all the names of the children he saved. She contacted them and there is a video clip on the blog post showing him meeting some of the children he saved years later…

I could watch it a hundred times. It’s amazing.

She links to this article which tells the whole story of Nicholas Winton. One of the most touching things I’ve ever read. At the end of the article it says he wears a ring given to him by one of the children he saved which said

“save one life, save the world”.

(nicholas winton with one of the children he saved)

a book about him was written by one of the children he saved.

This guy never asked to be recognized, he just quietly did a beautiful thing. I imagine he felt he could die happy after that meeting, knowing that he made a difference in the lives of so many grown men and women. You have to see the vid in the blog post–so good!

3. Speaking of the Holocaust, I saw this video Anita Krajnc posted on Facebook the other day–these two guys discussing why people become violently offended and write vegans off when they compare the exploitation of animals to the holocaust. They do a fantastic job of discussing it, and it’s really fun to watch.

The similarities to the things I saw in the slaughterhouse videos and in the trucks thanks to the youtube videos of Toronto Pig Save have really been haunting me with how similar they seem to the holocaust. Gas Chambers. Cattle Cars. Horrible experiments on animals. The dark barren barns chickens and pigs, for example, live in before being slaughtered.

The moment I decided not to look away and “bore witness” was the moment everything changed. Now I feel like I want to see more, to know what is really happening. Now all these extreme animal rights people’s tirades are really making sense!

When I learned about the holocaust in middle school I read a lot of books about it…in my typical, disturbed and depressed yet can’t look away fashion. I always remember thinking, how could this have happened only 50 years ago? It didn’t make sense. I looked around me and didn’t see evil people who were capable of doing anything like that. It seemed like a blip on the radar. And yet I imagined myself, being half Jewish, in that situation and tried to make it feel real.

Now I see that those behaviors are still in place but they are hidden from our view…in the slaughterhouses of the world. In the video I mentioned above, they talk about how evil is often just no one taking responsibility…like in a bureaucracy where normal people take orders but don’t want to take responsibility for what they are doing–that’s how evil happens. Exactly!

Clicking around, I found this Holocaust Comparison Project, a photo essay by David Sztybel, that the video is responding to. It makes fascinating and disturbing points. The same patterns of violence that existed in the Holocaust are very much alive and well.

At the end of the photo essay there is this post script:

Edgar Kupfer was a survivor of the Dachau death camp. After his liberation, he furtively scrawled the following message on the wall of a hospital barrack:

Wow.

I understand the Holocaust is an extremely sensitive subject. But like they say in the video, by discussing the past, we can learn from the past.

Your thoughts? Do you feel that you know your motivations for being vegan or vegetarian on a deep level or do you sometimes question? What do you think about the Holocaust Comparison Project?

My Non Leather Life T-Shirts and Visions of a Vegan Lifestyle Brand

A dream I have is to have my own vegan lifestyle brand. A la Martha Stewart.

Of course, everything would be animal cruelty free. There would be no leather, wool, suede, rich calfskin linings, fur trimmings etc. Everything would be fake.

One thing I love is the aesthetics of different companies. Some companies want to be all high fashion, and others are inspired by things like old movies.

Some companies are loud and proudly vegan, preferring to shout the truth about what is happening to animals from the rooftops (OlsenHaus comes to mind). Others prefer to simply present a non leather option with a more subtle animal rights message (Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather comes to mind).

What would my imagined company do? I think I would try to make a brand centered around the fabulous lifestyle of the most well equipped vegan ever–by that I mean, a vegan who never needs to hunt on the internet for cool shoes and what not. Oh no, she has it all already. She has every non leather item you could ever want.

What kind of girl is she? She is a very old fashioned, romantic soul. She lives alone, or perhaps she is married, or perhaps she has several BEAUX, who bring her fresh flowers.

She has a vintage car, and she lives on a farm, a vegan farm though. Maybe this farm grows sprouts or micro greens. She has a big greenhouse full of tropical plants which she collects on fabulous plant hunting and preservation vacations. She has a lavish bed full of DOWN-FREE comforters and pillows. A pair of tan non leather driving gloves lies by her bed side table.

She has a closet of non leather shoes. She has a cool fake leather jacket that looks like she found it in a thrift store. She has faux leather pants for when she needs to impress say, Prince.

She has hats, many hats–but with no wool in them. She has floral couches, with no leather trim. Even her car–the seats are upholstered with faux blue leather.

She likes to fashion herself after a gibson girl, lucy honeychurch from a Room With a View,

a pre-raphelite painting. She wears a golden circlet and flowers clipped to all her shoes.

She LIVES…MY NON LEATHER LIFE.

A little fantasy for today.

Oh, and I made t-shirts!! Comment below if you would like to acquire one.

The Best Vegan Gift Guide You Will Read This Year– Happy Holidays!

Come gather ye readers round the yuletide log, and open your presents I wrapped for you in leaves and twine.

In other words, it is time for the Holiday Gift Guide!

Now you have all been very naughty. Since none of my lovely readers suggested any vegan gifts via my fascinating facebook page, I guess this gift guide is going to be all about ME.

As a recent vegan, (I used to be just vegetarian) these are the items I truly WOULD want for X-Mas. I know I have probably written about most of them before, but sometimes I get a “collect them all” mentality. I fixate on the same things…and the longer you want something, the more you know you want it, right?

My list, if you please….

1.

These awesome Jcrew-esque vegan mens boots. I have them in black. I splurged, but they are so great I want them in tan. Be warned, these are very UNfunctional boots sadly. They have literally NO traction and if you wear them in the snow you are truly living dangerously, but they look so cool…..HA. Available at Mooshoes.

Worker Boot in tan from Brave Gentleman X Novacas $250

2.

I do not yet own a shoe from the inimitable GOOD GUYS. After doing my Interview with them, I feel like I just want a piece of the company. I now know so much that went into the company, how nice and cool the people behind it are, and the adorable vision for the brand. I like these red desert boots the best. They are so cute.

ayita red desert boots from The Good Guys

3.

I have written about these before as well, but I still want them.  Once I saw this girl wearing a mini dress with over the knee boots, probably not an uncommon occurrence, but I thought it looked amazing. These are from vegan company Cri de Coeur.

Olivia Tall Boot $180

4.

Ok, Allison’s vegan gourmet chocolates look really good. This is a necessity since I’m dying for chocolate. Every time I’m in the store, I look at labels of chocolate hoping to find vegan chocolates–haven’t found any yet! I want the toffee from here.

Vegan Toffee from Allison’s Gourmet.   I can’t look at this anymore…..it looks too good!

5.

A weekend getaway at the Bed and Breakfast Guesthouse at Woodstock Farm Sanctuary. So…I read The Lucky Ones, the creator of the Farm Sanctuary’s Book. I found parts of it quite hilarious, and although the farm is closed to visitors for the winter, if you stay at their cabin, you can spend time with all the animals. I’d love to see for myself what it is like to spend time with rescued farm animals. I’ve always wondered what farm animals are like…never having been lucky enough to get to know one.

A place where you can count sheep to go to sleep? VERY dreamy.

6.

Well, this pink bag is still on my wishlist… I wish I knew the exact shade of pink as screens can be deceiving.

Vegan Pink Bag from Modcloth $54

7.

The last time I went to mooshoes in NYC I was really impressed with the look and quality of this bag from vegan company Matt and Nat. It was beautiful! Better in person.

Matt and Nat Malone bag $135

8.

You can never go wrong with anything from Lush. After reading the incredibl, thrilling and eye opening book Free The Animals by Ingrid Newkirk this year, I realized that it is just as important not to support testing on animals, as it is to not buy leather or wool etc. Animal testing, especially and without a doubt for things like cosmetics, is horrific. Lush is amazing in that they do not even work with any suppliers who support animal testing. So much of their stuff is vegan, and I feel like they were one of the first companies to bring veganism into the mainstream with things like their bestselling VEGANESE conditioner. They also do animal rights demonstrations. They are a really unique cool company. Ok, how about some bath bombs. You can’t go wrong.

Lush Bath bombs. $ 4-10

9.

Ok guys, this one is for the edgier among you. I forget if I posted this on this blog, or my other one, but I think Harnesses are a really cool look to add to your outfits!! Yes, I am talking about wearing these out in public over t-shirts and evening wear… They are very edgy. 1 time I wore one out over a grey worn t-shirt and not only did I feel like the coolest person in the room, and everyone asked me about it…I was the coolest person in the room because of my AUDACITY to wear one of these babies in day. These became pretty mainstream a while ago. Topshop was selling them…but of course in LEATHER. I searched for non leather options….buying mine from the pole dancing wear shop Body Binds. I love mine! However I found these on etsy today–Vegan Harnesses!

Sorry for the nudity in this photo! I think these are mannequins anyway. I recommend wearing over clothes for a XENA warrior princess/Anjelina Jolie in Tomb raider kind of look.

Miss Malwia’s Etsy Store

Also check out Body Binds (made from elastic so definitely vegan).

10.

For the 10th day of Christmas….I would like a print of a photograph by the amazing Jo-Anne McArthur. Her photographs are so beautiful, moving and meaningful. They express so much that can only be felt. She is going to be the subject of a film, The Ghost in Our Machine, that I think is going to possibly change the world.

I will soon be talking more about this as I have an exclusive tell-all interview with the DIRECTOR of the film….hehehehe. You will love it.

Anyway, this is the print I would choose.

This says EVERYTHING about our relationship to animals. “an animal” and a “human” gently touching hands. It is like they understand in this instant how similar they are, and yet their lives are so different–two different fates. One can help the other. Both can help the other. I think animals are one of the most beautiful and mysterious things on earth. It is a gift we get to know them and spend time with them.

That’s what all this gifting and being vegan is about anyway…trying to do what we can for animals. They do so much for us by inspiring wildness and magic in us.

True art.

Jo-Anne McArthur’s prints start at $125 dollars and can be purchased here.

Merry HoLIDAYS, HAppy Chanukah, Festive Solstice to you….

And please, any other gift ideas I have missed…comment below!

Vegan Cambridge School Satchel

Hello Everyone,

Over on my Facebook  Page I posted a pic of a vegan bag that I have always wanted that I now own.

A faux leather, vegan Cambridge Satchel.

I got it at H&M for $29. It is great quality–well it looks nice at least.

They have them in all different colors including polka dots, but I usually go for the classic look.

Just a little tip for you all if you’re into it.

These non leather school girl satchels remind me of the post I did on Saddle Shoes.

It also reminds me of this amazing PBS tv show I saw called Frontier House where they made families go back in time to a log cabin on the Frontier, like Little House on the Prairie. Highly recommend it!

Happy Monday to you all!

 

A Review of a Highly Vegan Material for Vegan Cuts and some info about the Material Known as Cork

Yay for me!

Today I received a package containing an item that the highly intriguing company Vegan Cuts asked me to review.

If you don’t know about Vegan Cuts, they are a great site. They  are a handpicked selection of cool vegan items that are all moderately to heavily discounted. Check them out! Very cool.

They kindly sent me a very fascinating item. A cork bag from the company CoolCorc.

First of all….. a question arises. Why is it that everybody likes cork?

cork on cork

Cork boards.

Wine cork collecting.

It is such a fun material to touch.

Am I right?

I found out from the website of coolcorc that it is also one of the most environmentally friendly materials in the world.

Unlike natural sponges, which are also so fun to touch, but are killed for their amazing texture….

Cork is the bark of the cork oak tree, and incredibly no cork trees were cut down or harmed in the making of these cork products. The bark is simply harvested from the outside of the tree, and the company says this harvesting, kind of like pruning I imagine, allows the cork tree to live an unusually long life for a cork oak tree of around 200 years. They never cut down a single tree. When cork trees die naturally, their website says they are used for the cultivation of edible mushrooms.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/5477145008_a4763d59b9.jpg” height=”333″ width=”500″ />

How nice.

This cork tree land that the company owns actually allows the company to preserve and protect a incredible forest sanctuary that houses many endangered species including Lynx,

the Golden Takin  (an animal I just learned about, probably the origin of the Greek Myth about the Golden Fleece, a winged golden ram)

and Golden Monkey.

On to the purse.

Well….. I love the fabric. It is so very smooth. Cork is great. It is smaller than I expected. Not really sure how I will wear it, but I will try to incorporate it one of these days into my attire.

In retrospect, I wish I had gotten the clutch. It looks very chic and magnifique. I like the minimalist design.

http://www.fashionhound.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CoolCorC___Vegan-Cork-clutch-1.jpg” height=”496″ width=”599″ />

Well…to sum up….

I love what CoolCorc, this company, is doing.

I love entrepreneurs and these people are really doing a lot of good in the world…not only by putting out very unique and interesting products, but by inventing a sustainable way to create jobs for cork cutters in Asia, protecting an old if not ancient cork forest which houses endangered species, and making a stand for cool vegan products and vegan materials…and not cutting down a single tree in the process.

Vegan Cuts is offering a site wide discount for the next 3 days (till November 10th) of 10% off anything on their site. Enter the code

BLOGFRIEND

Thank you so much Vegan Cuts and CoolCorc for asking me to review your product. That was a lot of fun and is the culmination of a kind of blogg-ish dream I had of getting sent a free gift/product to review.

Amazing work, to both companies.

Oh BTW LIKE MyNoneatherLife on Facebook if you want to stay in touch.

Your thoughts?

-V-toria

A Candy Pink Vegan Bag and the Style of a Dreamy Parisian Blogger

There is this blogger by the name of MakingMagique, well, her real name I believe is Haleigh.

Wow, her blog is incredible. Not only does she take amazing photography, but she seems to have an amazing life. She has an incredible apartment in Paris which she has remade and redecorated with beautiful things, an incredible wardrobe, awesome style, great photography skills, cool friends…it is so fun to check out her blog.

It makes me wish everything I owned was beautiful and awesome. A Dolce Vita, a Non Leather Life, if you will, of beautiful but cruelty free things. One day, I will have a company perhaps providing awesome non leather things so that we can all look as cool as this blogger.

She has very girly style and loves pastel pink and blue. She has this amazing pink bag that she carries all the time in her photos….of course it is leather, but I found a non leather look alike (sort of–well it reminded me of it) on modcloth in non leather and I thought I’d share some pics of her awesome style from her blog. However, I couldn’t pick just a few pics, and have included all of my favorites. Check out her blog–there are far more where that came from.

Here is the bag of the wonderful aforementioned blogger:

And here is my vegan lookalike I found for you:

Modcloth Practical in Pink Bag $54.99

 

Sort of?

Anyway, I tried to share a ton of pics of her inspiring style, but none of them seemed to show up on this blog. Therefore go to my other blog, where I posted them as well, to see many many pics of my favorite outfits of hers. You won’t be sorry you checked out these outfits. Or simply go straight to the source–her blog.

Also, if you want to, like this blog on Facebook because I have a fun thing I want to do that I can only do on facebook involving photos of ourselves and our animal inspirations, that I will be writing about in the next post.

Your thoughts? Hehe. <3

Black Glitter and Black Glitter Vegan Rainboots

A weird quirk I have I just realized is that I love Black Glitter, that special eighties brand of glitter. I’ve never been one of those girls who’s like “OOOH SHINY THINGS! GLITTER!!” or anything, but black glitter is so magical…sparkling in a vortex of doom. It’s like space. Mysterious. Unknowable.

The only bag I like to carry is a vegan backpack from American Apparel that is black glitter.

Similar to this but in black. It is great.

Which leads me to these Hello Kitty rainboots

Cool, RIGHT??

Also available in pink glitter and gold glitter.

Vegan of course.

You can buy them here, at MoodSwings, an online store selling a large selection of vegan Hello Kitty brand shoes, and here for sale.

Cool Vegan Items at Modcloth, and Vegan Backpacks at AA

I’m back.

To show you a crazy vegan shoe I found.

Check it out.

vegan irregular choice sundae shoes can be found and purchased at modcloth, $150.

You like?

While you are at modcloth you may want to check out their shoe and bag section if you are in the market for any new vegan items as a lot of their stuff is vegan and I have spotted some very cool new stuff there recently. Remember to look for things around $50 and under as those are the items most likely to be totally vegan. However you can take your chances with other things like these shoes…cause they just might be vegan as well.

For example here is a really cool bag that is vegan:

september trip satchel, $54.99

Sometimes the puns on the modcloth website are a bit much, lol… but they have a great slection of cool vegan things.

Recently I purchased a vegan backpack from American Apparel that I use every day. I highly recommend getting a slightly cooler backpack thanthe one you may have from your school days. Mine was from L.L Bean.

I got this shiny backpack in black for a rocker 80s chic look. I love it!

Why did my mind jump to an image of Robbie’s girlfriend’s new bf in the Wedding Singer!!! Ha! Remeber the scene when he is like “give me back my Van Halen T-shirt”…. This backpack makes me feel like that! The wedding singer was such a great movie by the way…was it not?

Linda, Robbie’s ex, wearing his T.

American Apparel has some other great backpacks in denim, etc. Check em all out here.

Oh look, this is cool. you could DIY it. Do you like to Do it yourself? (40 year old vierge reference there. anyone catch it?)

Anyway, my readers how are you? How was your weekend. Do you have any cool vegan gifts you will be buying thholiday season?

I am thinking of doing a raw food diet experiment. I have heard from so many people who have tried this that it changed their life. I just want to see… have any of you tried going raw?

A New Line of Designer Vegan or (Cruelty Free Rather) Handbags from Cornelia Guest

I recently read on the peta blog about a new line of “cruelty free” handbags from Cornelia Guest, daughter of fashion icon C.Z Guest.

Cornelia Guest. I love the name Cornelia.

With mother, the famed C.Z Guest.

Cornelia seems to have been an animal lover her whole life, with nine dogs, a donkey and a tortoise, a line of vegan cookies and now a beautiful new line of handbags. I am a fan.

I read an interview with her in which the interviewer asks “what would you like to achieve before you die?”

she responds:

“To let the world know that there is an alternative, and animals suffer horrifically, and there is no need for it.”

Inspiring.

Here is a quote about her design process I liked. She says:

“Every day I learn about resourcing fabrics,” she says. “It’s like being in a candy store. I sit on the floor of these warehouses and sift through different sorts of corks, PVCs and faux leathers in every possible texture. So much of it is recycled.

“I love using woods, organic cotton, so many things available to us. I don’t know where it could go and it morphs every day. Right now I am using sustainable PVC that is also recyclable. The faux leathers now are incredible quality. You can’t tell the difference and it’s just as – and even more beautiful than – any leathers I have seen.

This is quite admirable. I think this line will do well. I really like her bags.

I totally love the woven satchels, and the rest are very nice too. You can see them all and purchase them here.

The woven satchels:

A Vegan Cambridge Satchel, Vegan Shoes, and Finnish Bloggers

Hello everyone,

Have you ever seen those cool cambridge satchels from the Cambridge Satchel Company and wished for a vegan version?

I found one at this interesting UK website called Freerangers through this nice vegan blog veganshoeaddict.  The satchels are totally vegan and come in red with blue trim, blue with red trim, and classic brown.

I also really liked this knapsack, available in their “bag” section, delightfully called the “conker rucksack“. Conkers are what English people call Horse Chestnuts and they dry them out and kids play a game with them. I read about this first in Roald Dahl’s book My Year, and references to this charming game can often be found in British children’s literature.

conkers

This website also has a very unique and cool selection of colorful, handmade looking boots and shoes. This is a British company but for around $20 shipping, they will ship to the US.

Check it out:

brogue boot

ruthie boot

brook sandal

pippa sandal 

This last sandal reminds me of a shoe that if you are gorgeous and styling, will look super cool on you, but if slightly less than stylish will look quite frumpy.

all these shoes come in a variety of unique colors, which sadly, the website does not picture.

All these shoes remind me of something I find fascinating– the personal style of Finnish bloggers.

Somehow I began following many Finnish blogs online. These blogs are amazing. They contain some of the most beautiful photography I’ve ever seen.

Now to lump all of them together and generalize — the women who write these blogs live simple lives as photographers or artists (from what I can tell, since their blogs are usually all in Finnish) in quiet cities and villages in Finland. They have small blond children who they take out into nature daily, to forage for mushrooms, swim in ponds, run through tall grasses with their dogs, bathe in steel tubs by the fire, etc…

They eat dark brown bread and sew all their kids clothes. They take a lot of photos of nature –the sun setting on the magical finnish forests, the moon in the evening, the cats sleeping in the sunlight.

They seem to wear simple, handmade colorful clothes that they make look incredibly stylish, and I could really see them wearing some of these shoes!

The best way to get to know them is to look through the pictures on their blog…I wish i could repost all their photos, but here is a taste.

Liviia, one of the coolest bloggers ever.

Chocolate circus: 

puhti

manteli: 

Have fun exploring these blogs if you so choose and I’d love to know what you think!