Animal Aid Christmas without Cruelty 2017

On Sunday I attended the 25th (can you believe?!) Animal Aid Christmas without Cruelty fayre at Kensington town hall. I have been attending this event ever since I became vegan 5 years ago and I think it’s my favourite event of the year. The atmosphere is very relaxed and you get the opportunity to really talk to the stallholders. I also bumped into a few familiar faces which was really nice starting with Polly and Phil from LDN vegans who have also posted a video about the event on their YouTube channel. I had arranged to meet my Sister-in-law and as we arrived at lunchtime we needed some fuel before we hit the stalls! We both went for lasagne with salad which was nice and hot and full of veg to balance out the snackage we were about to partake in!

Here is a pic of my little haul and I’ll talk through everything I picked up.

My favourite chocolate ever has to be Solkiki. I have previously interviewed their founder Bob when I reviewed their chocolate earlier in the year here. I could listen to Bob talk about chocolate all day long and I was pleased to try some of their new flavours. I bought their peanut and coffee bar and their bright pink raspberry bar which I’m going to try and make as long as possible! 
My Husband’s favourite cake of late is Battenburg and as I’d rather him have a vegan version than Mr Kipling’s I picked him some up from The Vegan Cakery. I’ve had their cakes multiple times in the past and they are always delicious.

I bought a vegan take on a pork pie made with beetroot and a smoked houmous centre, wowzers was this good! I scoffed it with my lunch today and I wish I had another for tomorrow!

I also picked up some cakes from The May Bakery who I was previously unaware of. I picked up a carrot cake and black forest Viennese whirl which I enjoyed with a cup of coffee later in the evening. These really hot the spot and I’ll be seeking them out at future events.

I also picked up a couple of bits for my Sister-in-law’s Christmas presents that she picked out. A fab pair of dog socks from Greek Animal Rescue and a T-shirt from Black Star (don’t worry I also have a couple of surprise presents for her!)

Last but by no means least we have the obligatory Lush bath bombs but this time we got to make them ourselves and they were free! It was great fun making them and even better it was a free gift!

I spoke to the lovely owner of Greenscents who really sold his products and company, they are natural and organic cleaning products. I’m stocked up at the moment but I was interested to hear they are available at Ocado where I usually get my shopping from. Here’s some more information from their literature.

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Another great T-shirt company were Simple Animal and I really commend you check out their designs on their website.

I’ve been thinking about where to get my next trainers from once I wear out my current ones so I was interested to see Freet which are supposed to help you feet move more naturally, it’s my birthday in February so these might be going on my list!

We tried some delicious chutneys from Cheeky Food Co and some sprinkles my Sister-in-law tried on her soup, I’ll definitely be checking these out to go with my vegan cheese at Christmas.

I also bumped into Ian from The Vegan Option. I met Ian many moons ago at a London Vegan drinks event. Ian presents a podcast which charts the history of veganism, I’m a few episodes in and I’d definitely recommend you give it a listen.

Did you attend the fayre? Did you get any great treats, eats or Christmas presents? Are you planning on going to any other vegan Christmas fayres in the next couple of weeks? Let me know in the comments below.

Plumes x

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Animal Aid Christmas without Cruelty 2017

Lush Vegan Evening

On Thursday I attended an event at my local Lush store with my Mum. I was really excited when I saw this event pop up on Facebook as my little suburb of London isn’t the most vegan-friendly.

The details on the event page were – 

We believe in fresh handmade products and making them using only vegetarian ingredients. It’s a value we’ve always held because it’s important to us, and to our customers.

With around 80% of our products also being Vegan, we’d love to give our customers the opportunity to meet up for some fresh ideas, recipe and knowledge sharing, and also a bit of a pamper. So whether you’re a life long Vegan, brand new to the diet change, or just thinking about adopting a Vegan or Vegetarian lifestyle, we’d love to invite you along.

When we arrived we were given a sticker for our name and how long we’d been vegan or vegetarian. They had a table with some cookbooks and magazines to look at for recipe ideas as well as some vegan refreshment laid out in the way of oreos, fizzy sweets and chocolate.

There was also a game to play or attributing the vegan quote to the correct celebrity (our group did rather well at this!)

We also took the opportunity to have a proper look through all their vegan products and Mum got a sample of their coffee face scrub. We was really nice just having a browse and seeing what they had as I usually just go for the same products when I’m in there.

I wasn’t in need of much so I just bought a bath bomb each for my Husband and me, I was slightly disappointed we weren’t given a discount at this event but that was the only thing I think that would have made it better.

I thought this was a great event for Lush to put on and have been a long time customer of them due to their cruelty free status and ethical campaigns. If they went 100% vegan it would be the icing on the cake!

Have you been to a vegan event a Lush? If not I would ask your local store if they’d consider putting on an event like this.

What are you fave Lush products? Let me know in the comments below.

Plumes x

Lush Vegan Evening