VOTM Guide to Gifting Part 2: If you’re not a cat.

You saw Buhbah’s picks, here’s mine! Buy local, handmade, vegan, etc. Some might say we’ve entered “last-minute” as it pertains to gift-buying for the holidays, but I say psshaw. Bake your hard-working postal worker some cookies and hope for the best.

This wonderful gift pack from Food for Lovers Queso (we love Chris and Crystal!) is essential. Your lucky recipient gets a jar of the best vegan queso, either a felt ornament from our very own Panda With Cookie or a queso cozy, and a personalized gift card. Open to US-only, sadly, but I know I have lots of American friends staring blankly at the tortilla chips in their cupboards.

I'd go for the felt serrano.

I love My Zoetrope, it is no secret. I fell in love with artist Michelle Cavigliano’s colourful illustrations last year, and this year I am really excited to have her 2012 Calendar sitting on my desk, awaiting 2011 to bite the dust. Because aren’t we all waiting for 2011 to bite the dust?

Someone on my list will find this grey turban ear warmer from Treewool under the tree. Good thing my family ignores the blog.

I am by no means a perfume girl, but I can think of handful of crazy friends who would love this fascinating Grandpa’s Pipe-scented roll-on perfume oil from LondonCity.

The next two picks come from local (to me) businesses run by incredible people I have had the privilege to either work with, eat with, or write about.

Nice Shoes is Vancouver’s first vegan shoe store, run by a wonderful vegan couple. And I have been thinking about, saving up, not saving up enough and then going broke, and then thinking about again these boots for years.

Karmavore Vegan Shop has the ubiquitous Peppermint Chocolate Vitasoy in stock. Enough said. Non-Canadians, you are in luck—Karmavore ships worldwide!

After that Vitasoy aperitif, we are getting hungry, yes? How about some PandaWithCookieBakes Earl Grey tea cookies or some SweetVConfections S’more Fudge?

This beautiful necklace makes me feel pretty emotional because it would have been the perfect gift for an inspiring bird-loving person I knew and loved and who passed away a couple of years ago. I’m sure many people would appreciate its uniqueness.

And because it always comes back to cats (Buhbah just jumped on my lap), who needs Santa cards when you can have trampoline kitties? The scrappyrat Etsy shop donates some of its proceeds to various worthy animal causes.

Buhbah Friday: Buhbah’s Newest Attempt to Take Over the World!

The flood in my house is mostly a thing of the past, and Buhbah has been doing a whole lot of this in my office:

Leave me alone, shorter but still kinda tall one.

Meanwhile, Buhbah’s fame just keeps on increasing, most recently with this prototype Panda With Cookie Buhbah holiday ornament, only $8 (US) from the Panda With Cookie Etsy Shop!

See the fang?

But Panda’s efforts (while Buhbah slumbers) don’t stop there. Panda had the brilliant idea to take custom cat face orders for your own personalized cat ornament. In true VOTM style, she is donating 10% of all cat ornament and zine orders to Brother Wolf Animal Rescue, who assist cats that are looking for homes.

Custom cats!

As if any feline-respecting person can resist. Contact Panda Cookie today and make sure your cat makes his/her appearance on your holiday tree!

Panda With Cookie

Panda Cookie came up with the idea for Vegans on the Move, but she herself has long been a model vegan moving. Maybe you’ve noticed our plush vegan stir-fry monster ambassadors on the blog’s background? Those are Panda creations.

If Oprah had been smart enough to give these out to her lucky audience members, cats would have already taken over the world. Meet "The Buhbah".

The history of my friendship with Panda Cookie goes like this: We meet on the PPK, and she amuses me with her wonderful humour (with a U) and raps. Then I hear about her Panda With Cookie Etsy shop, and my life is never the same. Suddenly, I own multiple monsters, several hilarious zines, an Asparagarr, and Panda sends Buhbah his very own (first) catnip carrot. The catnip carrot, now named The Buhbah, is probably one of the best things to enter my life. I’m not even kidding. You can hear Buhbah talk about it (among a great many other things) here.

Yes, your couch is sad that it is not home to a giant tofu pirate.

My little sister now has a giant tofu monster pillow to snuggle with. A wonderful friend ordered some Rocky Road brownies (from Panda’s bake shop) and more Panda Cookie plushes for my birthday. When I see a package from Asheville in the mail, I know my days is about to rule. We have a duck (Quackers), a horse (Figgles), a wizard (CaDaBra), two wee monsters (It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue; and Hot Chocolate), a little green monster (Mossy), and more.

Peter! He is mine!

Panda brought her business to Vida Vegan Con this past summer (where I won a bid on Peter the Pig, who Panda donated for a silent auction benefiting Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary), and after that, she drove up with me to Salt Spring Island where she presented Buhbah with his second, freshly catnipped carrot.

My yet-to-be-born niece or nephew will be wearing a monster onesie, oh yes.

I can’t guarantee you’ll get that kind of unrivaled customer service, but I can easily say that Panda With Cookie products are lovingly sewed and uniquely designed plushies, delicious baked goods, humourous zines, and whatever new creations Panda has up her black and white furry sleeves. My sister and one of my closest friends are pregnant, and I’m impatiently waiting for them to pop so I can order up some PWC onesies and t-shirts.

Who doesn't need a candy corn plush in his/her life?

Halloween is around the corner and all of those other holidays soon to follow, so this is the best time to order some mellowcreme candy pumpkins, pirate ghosts, aprons, onesies and maybe a giant pirate tofu block of your own. I can’t even begin to tell you how passionate I am about supporting wonderful, creative, independent, talented artists, and fortunately, all PWC products are Buhbah-approved.

I asked Panda if she wanted to include any brilliant quotes for my write-up, and she provided two cracker quotes (Masterchef Australia has me calling everything a cracker): 1) ”chops cabbage thinly, yes I do” (Panda is an expert cabbage chopper. I went out to pick up my boyfriend while we were making dinner together and when I came back the cabbage was shredded perfectly and uniformly. It was magnificent.) and 2) “5 out of 5 cats like panda with cookie best! They know she’s a sucker who will pet them for hours on end.” (It’s true!).

Buhbah endorses Panda With Cookie Products.

Vegan Month of Food

Happy October! I am extremely excited to welcome you all to 2011′s Vegan Month of Food—Vegans on the Move-style. We can’t wait to share with you our adventures in my inaugural (Panda is a seasoned pro) year participating in Vegan MoFo.

This is the fifth year of Vegan MoFo (succinct info about the whole shebang can be found at MoFo HQ here), and while I’ve seriously enjoyed (and lost a great deal of job productivity) reading my way through the MoFo months over the past four years, nothing is more exciting to me than actually being involved this year, as a blogger.

We’ll have posts up every Monday to Friday throughout the month of October, I’ll be doing roundups over at MoFo headquarters on Sundays, and Panda Cookie will also be MoFo-ing at her other blog, Panda With Cookie.

If either of us get sick, Buhbah will pick up the slack.

Happy MoFo-ing and see you Monday!

Buhbah Friday

Obviously this isn’t the most painstakingly composed photograph, but such is the case when you are catching Buhbah dealing catnip paparazzi-style. Buhbah is the proud owner of not one, but two Panda With Cookie catnip carrots, and his buddy Sim (aka Grey Man) is eternally jealous. I caught them looking shifty—Buhbah never fails to fist pump his buddy Grey Man, but he’s always looking out for that not-so-trustworthy anti-catnip tabby.

 

Baking in Brighton

The lovely Jojo of Operation Icing fame

Jojo Huxster was one of the many inspirations behind this blog’s inception. What is more motivating than a charity bakery in England’s quaint seaside town of Brighton? My family hails from a town called Lewes, mere kilometers from Brighton, and having grown up dreaming of our next visit to the helter skelter (the slide, not The Beatles song) at Brighton’s pier, I was particularly jazzed to hear about Brighton’s vegan-friendliness, and its lovely residents such as Jojo who are furthering the vegan movement in East Sussex. We caught up with Jojo to hear more about her adorably titled Operation Icing (inspired by Operation Ivy for all you ska-punk fans out there) not-for-profit bakery.  You guys, this lady is one inspiring vegan on the move—baking up a storm for everything from feminist groups to animal sanctuaries to organizations such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

VOTM: Who or what inspired you to start the bakery?

Jojo: This question is so hard to answer because I feel like the inspiration for the business has come from so many different places! I guess there’s my own desire to work for a vegan company and to raise money to help animals. It took a few years to work out exactly what I wanted to do & how to go about doing it. I considered moving to the countryside to start an animal sanctuary and contemplated opening up my house as a vegan B&B, but my love of cake and desire to work from home eventually spurred me on to start this little bakery. The actual business model hit me in May when I was trying to arrange Brighton’s first vegan bake sale, and I decided to make Operation Icing not for profit. Once I’d decided to do that, I was so much more motivated to get going with the hard work. Within a week I had the website and twitter account up and running and had my first order, so yeah, the bake sales taking place all over the world and the amazing people organising them were definitely a huge inspiration. Oh, and I can’t list my inspirations without mentioning Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero— those ladies taught me to bake—I recommend the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World to everyone!

Speculoos Cookie Cupcake. COME TO ME.

VOTM: How challenging was it to get this project started from the ground up?

Jojo: It hasn’t been too complicated to get the business up and running. Last year when the idea first popped into my head I had to get the environmental health officer from the local council to inspect my kitchen, and to say that it would be okay for me to operate a business from here. But aside from that you don’t need any permits here. The hard part for me was working out how to make the idea align with my plan to raise money for the animals.

VOTM: Is it just you running the show?

Jojo: It is indeed but without my husband being so supportive, having a “real” job, and being able to knock up a website in a few hours, it would have been much more difficult for me to get Operation Icing up and running.

Vanilla cupcake with vanilla raspberry swirl frosting, topped with an iced and sprinkle covered baked mini donut. Jojo was inspired by friend of VOTM and amazingly young and talented cookbook author Kelly Peloza.

VOTM: What charities do you donate proceeds to?

Jojo: At the moment I donate the proceeds to Sea Shepherd, The Monkey Sanctuary and the East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service. I’m considering adding a local animal sanctuary, Raystede, to the list. A few weeks ago I donated some cupcakes for a fundraising tour and tea and cake afternoon at the sanctuary and I’ve just heard that after talking to us and tasting our vegan cakes they’ve decided to make the cafe at the sanctuary completely vegetarian. Go them! I most recently donated cupcakes to a tea and cake fundraiser organised by Brighton’s feminist group to raise money for The Poppy Project who provide support and accommodation to women who have been trafficked into prostitution in the UK.

VOTM: What has been the response so far in Brighton?

Jojo: The response has been great. After tasting my cakes and brownies at the bake sale I organized, I had a girl stop me in the street to tell me that my cupcakes are the best cupcakes ever. It was so nice to hear!

VOTM: What advice would you give to vegans hoping to start something similar?

Jojo: Just go for it, the more vegan bakeries the better! I really disagree with this whole ‘hating the competition’ rubbish I’ve come across, I want there to be more vegan businesses in my city and around the world. The more mainstream veganism becomes the better it’ll be for everyone—both people and animals.

Let's all move to Brighton NOW Coconut Lime Cupcakes.

VOTM: Do you have future plans for this project?

Jojo: Aside from working on new cupcake flavours and a range of cookies, my next big step is to open an Etsy store so that I can sell my brownies and cookies elsewhere in the UK. The lovely Miss Panda With Cookie’s Etsy store has been a big inspiration in this decision.

Thank you Jojo! Everyone start bakeries! Especially you lucky ducks in the UK with handsome and forgiving health inspectors! PS: Jojo also writes a blog, and I read it religiously, not only because I regularly visit my grandma in Lewes and need Brighton eating tips, but mainly because I love Jojo and her fun writing voice.