Hawaii Vacations, Vegan Sandals on Pinterest and Speaking Up for Animals in the Comments on the INTERNET

Hello Everyone,

How are you doing?

I attended Vegan Drinks in NYC the other day. Were any of you there? If anyone who reads this blog lives in NYC, I would love to meet up some time at vegan drinks and meet you. I believe I may be away for this next one because I am going to HAWAII. I am so excited.

This was a really long winter in NYC and all winter long I dreamed, craved, going to the beach. I had dreams of going with my vegan boyfriend and going on holiday, but unfortunately we broke up.

Well, I am going to the beach anyway. On a No Boys Allowed women’s retreat–a pole dancing beach retreat nonetheless!! HA. As you may know if you read my 5 Random facts About Me blog post one time, one of my favorite things is pole dancing. It is so beautiful and athletic and I could go on for days about it. Well I am so excited for the retreat.

 

I have been updating my pinterest board with vegan shoes quite regularly. There are a few cool vegan sandal options on there inspired by HAVAII.

 

A few vegan shoes on pinterest.

 

Today I was reading one of my fave things online ROOKIE magazine (a magazine for teen girls) when I saw someone asking a question about vegan shoes. Though I normally do not get involved in self promotion, I decided to tell this fellow vegan shoe lover about my pinterest board in the comments.

 

While I was there I noticed another commenter being like “vegan shoes are highly toxic and bad for the environment. So is fake fur. People think animals are treated badly and killed in horrible ways on fur farms but that is just not true. Furs are worth less if the animals aren’t kept in good condition…so it’s worth it to the fur farms to treat their animals well.”

 

………………………….

 

I felt I had to comment! I almost didn’t cause I was thinking how can I possibly express how wrong this person is. They prob won’t even accept my comment.” Well, I decided I had to give it a go anyway. One can make a difference.

 

 

I calmy wrote that what she said was not true. Most animals are anally electrocuted and go crazy in the cages and chew off eachother’s limbs and what not. I told her to watch The Witness– a great documentary I saw online (wrote about it here) about a man whose love for his cat caused him to see the connection between cats and animal and try to make a difference by educating people about what goes on at fur farms by driving around in a van with footage from fur farms playing out the back, forcing people to witness the truth.

 

 

I also told her to watch earthlings.

 

Anyway, YAY for me. I spoke up for animals. I hope some teen girls read that and it gets to them.

 

If you want to learn more about animal rights my humble recommendations are …check out 269 life and follow Anita Krajnc, both on facebook!

 

Do you ever respond to people who try to knock veganism, or vegan shoes, or animal rights? Or do you prefer not to get involved and let their ignorance reveal itself. I always feel releived when people respond to those haters in the comments, but I know it is a rough role as they are attacked themselves. What do you do?

 

Feel free to comment any time and let me know if you ever attend vegan drinks!

 

 

New Vegan Shoes and a Tumblr that will Open Your Eyes through Art

I added some more vegan shoes on pinterest today.

vegan go go boots

white converse high tops.

vegan birkenstocks because I have really been reminiscing about my old pair. They were so comfortable, and incredibly real birkenstocks for all their hippie-ness, are not at all vegan.

These little babies. Converse! Pretty cool right?

Some nice classic “thongs”.

Anyway check em out on my vegan shoes pinterest board!

After you have done that, turn your mind to more troubling matters.

Check out this blog by an unknown tumblrist: I Have Seen Another World.

Through pictures and dreamy captions….it tells a story of a war.

All of a sudden you see it as a war…that’s going on right now…and has been going on for thousands of years…against our fellow earthlings.

It’s incredible. This blog really opened my eyes. Wish I knew who created it. I recognized many of the photos on it as Jo-Anne McArthur’s.

Check it out, and check out the Holocaust Comparison Project by David Sztybel if you didn’t already. It is very ….interesting.

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.

Vegan Shoes Out of an Old Movie from the Good Guys Spring Collection, and Musings about my Raw Foodism

an imagined vegan banquet

Hello Hello.

I have two great great posts coming up. Two interviews with some awesome vegan people. I know you will enjoy….

In the meantime, I am home on a Friday night, browsing the net to see what the latest happenings in the vegan shoe world are. Despite all the great companies that make great “intentionally vegan” shoes and all the cheap shoes that are “unintentionally vegan”, I still am often frustrated by the slim pickings in the vegan shoe world. You see so many cool leather shoes, and so few cool NON LEATHER shoes. I hope one day, much nearer in the future than we think, that reverses.

English babies converse with a goose

I have completed 1 week of raw vegan food, by the way. It was such a great experience. I now I am eating healthy foods primarily, for maybe the first time in my life, even though I have always considered myself a very healthy eater. I am really eating fruits and vegetables now as the staple of my diet. I love it. I feel like I gained so much knowledge in the last two weeks of what nutrition really comes down too. Natalie’s advice was spot on–Victoria Boutenko and Ani Phyo. Get their books. They are the best!

acceptable dinner on a raw food diet

Ok on to more exciting news. Well, I don’t want to sound like an advertisement for any company, but I really like the Good Guys shoes. I like their whole menswear, quirky, vintage movie, aesthetic. I was, no joke, so excited when I saw their new spring line coming out. It is so cute. See for yourself.

If you are a reader from way back, you know I love my vegan saddle shoes. I wear mine all the time. I wish all vegans could be recognized by the fact that they only wore saddle shoes, lol, jk.

My favorite of the collection has to be those pink shoes! I love them. I love cotton candy pink.

They also have colored loafers, my other shoe staple. But my favorite is the white loafer. This is really a Woody Allen, vintage movie kind of shoe. Love it.

These are also so rookie magazine, school girl. I need these…oh no.

These are so cool too!!

Ok well, I could go on. But get ‘yer vegan shoe loving butts over to their website and check it out yourselves, if you so desire.

Hope you all have a happy weekend. I think there is some big vegan bake-off in NYC this Sunday. Anyone planning to attend?

xoxo Victoria

Cool Vegan Shoes on Sale at Cri de Coeur and Vegan Lederhosen

Some interesting developments.

I have now been a raw vegan for 1 week. I have been drinking green drinks, eating salads, making bizarre raw food recipes, eating whole mushrooms–it has been quite an experience. I think I may prolong the experience another week.

victoria bountenko’s raw food pyramid

#1 CHANGE: My sense of smell has sharpened. I have been smelling all kinds of new things. #2 Change: my face feels better. It is softer, and when I look in the mirror, I think it looks great.

Ok, on to shoe news.

There are some interesting sales in the vegan clothing and footwear world you might be interested in.

First order of Business:

Cri de Coeur is having a sale on their shoes

They have 3 shoes for sale that I love.

1. I love these alpine-esque vegan hiking boots.

Bavarian birds sing to me while I hike in Lederhosen along the white capped, yellow flowered alps yodeling…when I think of these boots.

Hmm…you know, I’d really like some vegan lederhosen. But back to the shoes.

Vegan Alpine Hiking Boots on sale for $40.

I have these in black, and love them.

(also on sale for $40, but only in size 11).

If you put red laces in the tan ones, they would be so cute.

These remind me of going to Switzerland every year as a kid.

I also really like these:

vegan laceup boots

These are odd, but they have potential. Very “sexy witch”.

Join me on facebook to see some cute vids and find out about other cool vegan happenings, and keep in touch!

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!

10 Questions for the Founder of Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather

Hello Everyone,

Today I have a very special post to share. I know everybody says things like that…but trust me on this one.

How to start? Let’s just get down to it.

I have an interview with the founder of Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather.

If you do not have a vegan shoe blog like me, and feel it is your duty to share cool vegan shoes with vegans and vegetarians, you may not be intimately familiar with this brand.

They are the coolest vegan shoe brand. Based in Paris, they make perfect desert boots, oxfords and other amazing classic (often with a twist!) shoes that did not exist in non leather materials before their company.  They have an amazing tumblr that I love which is full of awesome pics of old movies, music and their inspirations. They have a really cool company name and adorable logo, are extremely nice (connecting with fans such as myself and through facebook), and their shoes are actually cool, which is a rare quality in vegan shoes. Also cute.

(I have written about them here and here for starters).

I was so intrigued by this company I requested an interview.

Well the company is even more interesting than I thought.

It was created single handedly by one woman, Marion, with photography by her twin sister and Francois, with inspiration by her boyfriend, her “vegan muse”. The company is influenced by her love of movies, books and music–which you will read about below. Her logo was inspired by The New Yorker. Woody Allen appears in all caps in her movie recs.

Might I ask…why aren’t more shoe companies inspired by Woody Allen and The New Yorker? (to name only a few of her inspirations). So great.

Thank you so much, Marion, for doing this interview. I loved your answers and can’t wait to check out your movie, book, and music inspirations.

My questions are in bold.

1.

Who are the people who make up Good Guys?

I’m Marion Hanania, french shoe designer, born, raised and based in Paris, France. I’m the owner, creator and designer of Good Guys.

I work with my twin sister Estelle Hanania and Francois Coquerel who are photographers and have shot all the Good Guys campaigns so far. I work with Jessica Gysel for the press and marketing part.

This season I collaborated with Jason and Sophie Glasser for the latest campaign and my boyfriend Yaya Herman Dune is the Good Guys Vegan-Muse from the start 

Amazing! I love this.

2.

How did you get the idea for Good Guys. Had it been percolating for a long time or did it pop into your head one day?

I’d been planning on creating my own brand while I was working for other brands and I got this idea that the brand I’ll be creating will definitely be a vegetarian brand as I am myself a vegetarian. I’m an animal lover and a while ago I realized that it wouldn’t mean anything if my own brand used leather, so I decided that when I start this project I won’t use animal products at all.

3.

Was it difficult to get the company going?

I have a 10 years experience in the shoe-business, so for me it was easy to start with a small collection but harder to find the right factory to produce the vegan shoes since suppliers are used to working with leather which is way easier compared to using fabrics.

Did people think you were crazy and tell you things like “vegan shoes aren’t breathable” (which I get all the time) or were people excited about it?

I had the feeling that in France I could get a weird image saying it’s a “vegetarian brand” as people here are such meat lovers and where leather is synonym of luxe and quality for them. I had everything to prove to french customers. Finally they realized though that the “vegan” part was an additional value to a product they want to wear anyway and not the other way around…Like “yeah…it’s vegan but do I really want to wear those heavy boots?” Now it’s more like “Cool shoes…WHAT? it’s vegan? let me get those “

4.

Was it hard getting up the courage to strike out on your own as an entrepreneur?

I have this in me. I always wanted to create my brand. I had my own shoe line at 21 years old when I started. I learned everything from experience. I had no family in the fashion industry or anything related to management so it’s hard every day, but it’s so much fun too and so instructive.

5.

I love the name “Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather” so much. It reminds me of an old Western movie somehow, while also getting across an animal rights message, but in a gentler and more positive way than some companies. How did you come up with it?

My brand is not meant to make other people feel guilty for wearing leather. It’s not an aggressive statement, it’s a way to show that wearing leather is not a fatality if you also want to have style. I knew the name “Good Guys don’t wear leather” was the perfect fit for my brand.

6.

How did you find someone to make your shoes? Were you already in the shoe business? If not, I imagine it must have been an adventure learning the ins and outs of making shoes.

I looked and asked suppliers that I knew of and they found me the right place to produce my shoes. Also as I said I was a freelance shoe designer for 10 years so it was natural to me and I knew how to start my project.

7.

I LOVE your tumblr. You guys are one of the only vegan shoe companies that has a really cool brand somehow. It’s unique and personal, and inspired by old movies and Americana and music and things like that (as far as I can tell). Your tumblr, your logo, your shoes–all have real style. Did you always feel like you had a vision for your brand?

Thanks, I designed the logo of Good Guys myself. I had a precise idea of what I wanted so that’s how it came up, a dog playing with a shoe. I’m a big fan of the New Yorker illustrations and the logo is so good I wanted to draw something that would last years and be personal too.

Are the inspirations and photos in your tumblr really important to your company–or are they just stuff you personally like.

It’s both.

And finally, what IS your “vision” for the company? (long question!!).

My vision for the company is to grow and get known by vegan and non-vegan and collaborate with people I like, artists or designers..(More soon…) and keep having fun doing it.

8.

Can you list some of your inspirations. What are some of your favorite books, movies, and music. I’d love to know. I’m always so inspired to become more cultured after looking at your tumblr (haha).

Favorite music is Herman Dune, The Beatles, Withered hand, John Frusciante, Jack White, James Levy, Beck, Turner Cody, This is The Kit, The WoWz, Caitlin Rose, Jonathan Wilson, Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith….people who have a lot to say I like lyrics…But I also love the Kavinsky track “Nightcall” on the Drive soundtrack and Zombie Zombie.

I Love reading Murakami, Jack Kerouac, Philip Roth, my favorite is Henry Miller…

I love movies and my boyfriend too so we’re constantly watching something, 2 movies a day basically. WOODY ALLEN, Alfred Hitchcock, Jude Apatow, Terry Gilliam etc…..

9.

Is it fun to run a vegan business? Was it everything you thought it would be when you decided to take on the challenge of starting your own company?

Yes it’s fun, complicated and challenging.

10.

Feel free to maintain your right to remain silent, but can you give us any hints about what the next collection of shoes is going to be like? I’m excited to see what you will come up with for Spring. I loved those pastel shoes!

You better get ready for a lot of colors. I love designing the summer collection because it always have a very “summer-ish, Holiday-ish” feeling and this time more than ever, it’s a good excuse to go get inspiration somewhere far away from Paris

10.

Thank you so much. You guys are wonderful. Please feel free to add anything you would like to add, or further comments about anything whatsoever!

Thanks for the interview and thanks for the support )

Awesome, right?

Hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I did, o readers of the blog.

4 Cool Vegan Shoes…Vegan Heels, Vegan Uggs, Vegan Wedges and Vegan Workman’s Boots

I found these vegan heels at urban outfitters. Very cute. And the heel is not too high which is good for me who is already tall and likes to kick up my heels and dance.

Anyone for some faux suede uggs? I would enjoy wearing these for apres-ski whatever that means. I know it means after-skiing, but I believe it’s a whole lifestyle as well… that includes hot-tubing, drinking hot chocolate and partying at the ski lodge. These vegan uggs can be found at Old Navy for an excellent price.

I think (vegan) Uggs are cool. I have heard people say “Uggs are so hideous! One can never be sexy wearing ze uggs.” All I can say to them, is U R Crazy. Of course you can be sexy wearing VEGAN faux suede uggs. These are the people who say the same thing about crocs–a great vegan shoe.

These are the shoes I really really want. These vegan Worker Boots are from a collab with vegan companies Novacas and Brave Gentleman, and unforch cost $250. But they are gorgeous. And I have them in black and wear them every day. You can buy them at Mooshoes.

That reminds me….if any men are reading this blog, if you are looking for some really cool shoes, check out this aforementioned collaboration. They have some really cool shoes…Also check out Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather, and you will probably be set for vegan shoes.

Speaking of Good Guys, a shoe of theirs has really been growing on me. At first I thought it was very odd, but now I see how it looks great.

Worn by this super cool french blogger.

I want them in navy. They can be found for people in the US at mooshoes, and for others…at the good guys online shop.

Alright…any vegan shoes that are COOL that you guys have heard about of late?

Well, I have to give you a little update on me before I end this post.

I have been drinking green smoothies daily after doing that amazing interview with Natalie from OutletforFoodPicturesOCD, and following her advice to read Green For Life by Victoria Boutenko, a book which seems to inspire every one who reads it to rush to make a green smoothie asap.

I have also been extremely vegan, whereas before I tried to be mostly vegan, for the past week after reading one too many books on the reasons why things like the dairy and egg industries are not at all what I thought they were.

Yay for me.

I got an adorable comment from someone who says their dress code requires leather shoes and they used my blog to find similar non leather shoes.

Happy Monday? How are you?

Vegan Fringed Thigh High Boots, The Who, and the Inimitable Pamela Des Barres

Have you ever seen the Woodstock: The Director’s Cut? Such a cool documentary.

If you have, who was your favorite act? Mine was The Who.

See me. Feel me. Touch me. Heeeeeal me. SEEE ME. FEEEEEHEHELELL ME.

Ok you get the picture. Or if you don’t, do yourself a favor, and watch it on youtube.  Maybe you were there in person, I don’t know…actually.

Well that scene really got to me the first time I saw it. He looked like a giant bird in his fringed coat. A bird-God. A rock God.

Ever since then I always wanted a fringed coat like that. Of course, they are all leather.

These shoes were made by Cri de Coeur, an excellent vegan company. They are sold on cri de coeur’s website, and freepeople.com which has better pics of them.

Very groovy. And not in a sarcastic way.

on cri de coeur’s website you can also find these vegan fringed bags. Very far out.

Cullen (twilignt much?) bag

All this talk of the 60s has me thinking about two books I recently read.

I’m With The Band and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart by Pamela Des Barres, arguably the most famous groupie ever.

These are amazing books, especially I’m With The Band, which is about a free spirited girl who loved music so much she would do anything to meet her musical heros. She was searchin’ for true love with a rock star and her idealism and amazing writing skillz will thrill you!!

Here are some pics of this freaky but totally cool babe, Pamela Des Barres (who now runs writing workshops I’d love to attend!!!!)

(with JImmy Page who she was totally in love with)

And that is my shoe and book recommendation of the day for y’all.

Happy Wednes!!!

P.S How do you like the new look of the blog? I think it’s way better. Even though it’s a wedding theme?!?!?

And find me on Facebook if you haven’t already. I love seeing your faces.