LONDON LONDON!! Selfridges on SAVE THE OCEAN

Lady Gaga? Hussein Chalayan? the late Alexander McQueen?... 
The ocean inspires  more than fashion and art.

WASHED UP is an instillation by Selfridges to raise awareness of the dangers faced by our oceans. Inspired by coral confiscated from illegal trade, this beautifully crafted story is made of exquisite aquatic dresses,  intoxicating neo colors and bedazzled headpieces.

ROSEMOUNT FASHION WEEK CASTING - WITHOUT FASTING

~ Running around town, Sydney's Model Mayhem

So for those of you living in Sydney, you will be well aware that next week is Rosemount fashion week. This means a lot of running around for everyone: models, designers, casting directors and stylists included! This post is dedicated to my favorite spots to rest, revive and survive!

It's uber important to stay in shape over fashion week, but it's also a very difficult time to look after yourself. When I am doing fashion week the biggest challenge is not staying thin; it is staying healthy. Running between castings, fittings, and  hair or make up trials makes forgetting to eat all too easy. Another challenge is finding a place that serves vegan meals when you are on a tight schedule!  

Above: fellow veggie model: Sharah Elizabeth 

Vosper who blogs at Borrowed Jewel (Pricillas)

FASHIONABLE FOOD FOR THE MIND: IQ and vegetarianisum

~ Browsing the Net, Cyberspace

"A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10."

Now, I don't usually do these types of posts. Since I don't believe in putting down non-vegetarians,  but I could not help sharing this article with you in spirit of celebrating those that are veggie's!!! Anyway, take it how you want! Most likely with a grain of salt.

ANIMAL ACTIVIST PROFILE: Annalise Braakensiek

~ Fun Fearless Female, Annalise Braakensiek

Last week I had the utmost pleasure of a lunch date with Annalise Braakensiek!

This stunning superwoman has been an animal activist for as long as she can remember. Having grown up in Byron on a vegan diet, done multiple campaigns for PETA (The Naked Truth About Sheep Export, Save My Sheep)  and worked alongside Cleo Magazine campaigning to stop live sheep exports.

Her heart is defiantly in the right place! As well as being a model and actress, this beauty is a vegetarian cook and lingerie designer!!

ONE MANS RUBBISH, ANOTHER MANS TREASURE

~ Bondi Autralia, Garage Sale Trail 

As the saying goes: one man's rubbish really is another man treasure.

I absolutely love hunting for treasures and  it's taken me years to learn how to restrain myself. Truth be told, I still don't think I'm quite there yet...

The Garage Sale Trail was brimming with treasures. The philosophy behind the event was that consumerism can be sustainable.

Roaming the streets and trawling through everyone's goodies was indeed very personal, and I felt like part of a pirate community eyeballing an excesses of treasures!

What I love about vintage shopping (aside that it's obviously much more sustainable) is that things are unique, can be one of a kind and are often bargains! I snapped up those beautiful hand made indian bangles for a mere 2 bucks!

GARAGE SALE TRAIL

~ Australia Wide

I've just got wind of the Garage Sale Trail. This event is all about recyling the old and saving your self from unnecessary mass consumption!

The concept is simple: one man's rubbish is the next mans treasure! There are 1562 (and still counting...) garage sales all over the country.

GREENHOUSE BY JOOST - sustainably chic

~ Sustainable Luxury ,Sydney Harbor

Covered from head to foot in strawberry plants and herbs Greenhouse By Joost. is an instillation was created and designed by Joost Bakker.   More so a piece of art, this restaurant (a float) is constructed entirely out of recycled, renewable resources. What more? It is entirely self sustainable! On the weekend I pleasure to  meet Joost and experience his flamboyant restaurant.

For as long as he can remember Joost has been driven by reconstructing waste and throw away goods. This Restaurant, albeit quirky, defiantly does not resemble the throw away materials of modern society; it is ultra cool and beautiful!

SPOT FEST: Australian Food and Film Festival

~Eating on the Red carpet~ The spot

Sunday was the Randwick Spot Festival: celebrating the Australian Film and Food Festival at The Ritz. I spent the afternoon soaking up the festive atmosphere, indulging in a delicious spinach and mushroom gozleme and strolling the carpet. There was market stalls, live music, dance performances and of course lots of food. I pick up a stronger emphasis on organic foods: choosing to dine at the Organic Gozleme tent. The lovely Turkish ladies were kneading and cooking up a storm right before our eyes!

THE WORLD IS OUR STAGE

~Mardi Gras, Sydney Australia 

Last weekend I watched of the  fabulous   Mardi Gras street parade. Although I'm not gay, it was thrilling to see the colors and feel the atmosphere and passion. To me Mardi Gras celebrates much more than freedom of sexuality: it celebrates a freedom to express and the freedom to be who ever the hell you feel like being! To my delight there was a Queer Animal Liberation Float  and a truly inspirational float labeled The World's Our Stage.

WILDLIFE FOR ART - Sarah Menzies

~Artists passion, Animal Compassion

So I've been aware of Sarah Menzies work for quite a while, and I haven't done a blog post on her yet! Shame on me!! Sarah combines her passion for art with her compassion for animal rights. She has an online store where you can purchase her work and 25-70% is donated to a specific animal charity.

Magical Mushroom Pie

~ in my kitchen

I’ve spent a long time dreaming about making this mushroom pie. The thing that stopped me was the weevils that invaded the kitchen. Eating grubs is defiantly not vegan! So after clearing out the old, and stacking up with the new:  I finally made my magical mushroom pie!

MY MAGICAL PIE

Ingredients:

Filling: 

* button mushrooms, sliced

* 50g dried shitake mushrooms (that I   soaked for a good half hour

I WONT EAT ANIMALS, BUT I WILL DRESS LIKE ONE

I'm Like a Jaguar

~ Secret Squirrels Closet.

If you have been reading this blog you may remember Bri Cheeseman's Vegan Profile (click!) She is the fabulous designer of the label Secret Squirrel. Her latest collection just came out and is being feature in this weeks Grazia mag, so check it out!

The topic: is it wrong to wear animal prints as a vegan? I say absolutely not!!!

Many of my style choices are animal inspired, particularly cats. I love feeling like an elegant, strong panther. Some people argue animal prints and pleather are tacky... but this stylish and chic collection from Secret Squirrel proves otherwise!

TOMATO TIME RELISH

~Taking the Garden into my Kitchen

This time of the year is my favorite:  When cherry tomatoes are uber ripe and the plants start drooping with the shear weight!! We have so many cherry tomatoes, that I had the luxury of concocting a cherry tomato relish!

TABLE MANNERS: TO CONQUER DYSFUNCTIONAL DINING tdinning

~Patching Up Differences

 

Yesterday afternoon I fell into a conversation about Food and Friendship. Small differences of opinion are usually irrelevant in a good friendship. BUT dinning out with my non veggie bestie’s can sometimes complicate things!!

Table Manners is the perfect topic for this blog post.  My disclaimer is that I love my friends for who they are, not for what they eat. I wish they were vegetarian for reasons such as animal rights, sustainability and - at least I believe so, their health.  At the end of the day everyone makes there own choices based on personal wisdom and experiences. Also, internalized morals cannot be forced.  So I live my life  setting an example for what I believe in and choose to celebrate achievements rather than obsessing over losses.

MY VEGETARIAN GIRL CRUSH: SUPERMODEL SASHA PIVOVAROVA

~ Sasha shares her top 10 beauty and health secrets, VOGUE BEAUTY 

From the moment I saw her Prada adds in 2006, I developed my first ever girl crush: Sasha Pivovarova. My first boyfriend at the time will remember this quite clearly.... This Russian stunner is AMAZING!

Not only does she have an incredibly fierce personality that radiates through her editorials and campaigns (Prada, Armarni, Alberta Ferretti, Rag and Bone etc...) she is also a talented artist, very conscious of the being Eco friendly AND has been vegetarian since she was 12 years old!!! No wonder that I have a serious girl crush on this super woman!

10 THING I LOVE ABOUT BRIGITTE BARDOT

~ Fighting Out of Love

Some people dismiss Brigitte Bardot because of the negative comments she has made in the past. Yet, I still LOVE her stance on animal rights. No one can take away her passion and the awareness she has created in almost 40 years of fighting for animal rights.

Here are 10 reasons why I LOVE Brigitte Bardot.

MY HEART AT HOME

~ My Beautiful Home, Australia!

Happy Australia Day!!! Yes I know my post is a little belated.... but I've been very busy celebrating!!! To challenge myself, I cooked a huge BBQ style vegan brunch for my family. Instead of the standard Aussie day brunch (sausages, fried eggs and steak burgers) My family ate: home made bread, roast mushrooms, tomatoes, avocado and sauteed spinach. Being at home has made me realize how wonderful and special family is (between the quarreling of course.....).  

So on top of celebrating my beautiful home country this post will celebrate heart warming pieces of my  childhood home! ENJOY :)

CAMPING VEGAN STYLE

~ Waking up on the beach at Dawn, Dunsborough 

What do you eat when your a vegan camper? I'm in Perth visiting family and recently went  on  camping style getaway to Margret River and Dunsborough. Of course I was a diligent vegan and forced my friends to eat quinoa... and buy ice for the esky to keep all my veggies.....

LOOKING FOR HOME!

~  Rescue me Kitty! Perth, Western Australia

I want to write a post on my Dad, whom is a huge cat lover too. My Dad came home from his summer holidays with much more than he bargained for. A cute little fur ball now called Dizzy!! While he was windsurfing up at Coronation Beach he and my brothers noticed a little stray cat that would come looking for food. They started leaving little scraps of food out and became friendly with the stray. Coronation Beach is in the middle of nowhere: there is no running water and no houses for miles -  essentially it's far out in the bush and a very strange place for a stray. After five days of feeding him scraps, a ranger became aware of Dizzy and set up traps to capture him (and put him down). My Dad found out about this and smuggled Dizzy back to Perth!!!!

QUEENSLAND FLOOD APPEAL: THE ANIMALS

~ Please Read

A few days ago I landed in one of my favorite places: Perth, Western Australia. My friends and I had planed a road trip up to Coral Bay. But alas the floods in Australia are not only in Queensland and Victoria but also in Canarvon: which means that we changed our plans. For those of you not familiar with the floods in Australia, 3/4 of Queensland is under water. That's a landmass bigger than France and Germany put together. It's a total nightmare.

VEGAN STYLE: # 1 searching for shoes

~Fantasising Shoes

Recently I received a comment from the lovely Kym who asked me about Vegan Shoes.  She gave me the great idea to include some vegan style posts! All these posts will feature clothes from the net (so that everyone has access to them) and will come from a variety of price ranges. Today's focus: SHOES!!

SYDNEY FESTIVAL: starring animal activist Emmylou Harris

9news

~ Dancing in the streets of Sydney!! 

Saturday night was the opening of the Sydney Festival!! I had an awesome time running around the town, checking out the different flavors of music and dancing like a spring chicken!! We began the night in Hyde Park watching the sensational Imogen Kelly dancing her flamingo burlesque act! The spotlight was almost stolen by a random couple standing in the audience unaware that they were blocking everyone’s view of the stage…. They were oblivious for a good 5 minutes as the crowd screamed for them to sit down!

VEGAN CHEESECAKE

~ Post 4 hour cook-a-thon!

I am so excited to share this recipe with you! Not only is this cake vegan, but it is also gluten free AND uses only a little sugar. This cake is the best cake I have ever made and there were several people who asked for this recipe (blown away at how healthy this cheesecake actually is!).

Now the secret to this cake is… avocado!!!

NANAIMO STORM

The pomegranate vanilla

~ In the Kitchen, Mastering Nanaimo slices

I have heard too many people say that putting togther the words vegan and dessert is a sin. To battle this unjust generalization I opted to be in charge of desserts over the festive eating marathon. When I cook vegan foods for people I don’t know, I never want others to guess that it’s specifically a vegan dish. It is a pet peeve when people say “wow this is good considering it’s vegan”. I want my food to be good for the fact that it is simply delicious full stop. I think that the Nanaimo slice achieved this.

CELEBRATION FEASTING

Location: Tessa gorging on vegan cheese cake!

 WOAH! What a crazy week of celebrations!! Happy 2011 everyone! Im back from a beautiful holiday in Byron Bay.

I thought I would do a couple of post on this weeks celebratory cooking! I was in charge of deserts and have recently been reading a lot of Angela's vegan blog at Ohsheglows…. I made my own adaptations of her vegan cheese cake and whipped up her delicious Nanaimo slice.