Time for a Pamper

When I walk around shops today I get slightly fed up of seeing the same brands and designers over and over. Perhaps I am alone in this but I can't help but feel inclined to buy products that are unique. I love brands that pride themselves on being different, even if they have shops on every high street in the country, just making an effort to stand out from other shops is enough of an attraction to make me want to have a look. Lush is a great example of this with their strong ethical views towards animal welfare being proudly displayed on their shopping bags and in their window displays. However I find it even more thrilling when I find a brand that isn't on high streets but instead has to be found mostly by being at the right place at the right time, such as when I came across 'Bathing Beauty' at 'VegFest' last year.

'Bathing Beauty' is a hand made collection of products made by a lady named George from North Wales who in her spare time picks ingredients, experiments with them, makes her products and then sells them across the country. Yet she still has time to raise her children, go to work, look after her horses and live a full life. Remarkable. I got chatting to her and she began to explain the background behind some of her products and the process of making them. She normally starts with finding an ailment and then tries to make a product accordingly. All of her different soaps, oils, lotions and potions smell absolutely divine and to top it all of each and every one is packaged beautifully. As can be imagined my excitement levels were at an all time high when I discovered all of this.

When making time to indulge myself, by having a simple bath or a full blown pampering session, I've found myself automatically being drawn to her products as they never fail to impress and fulfil their function. One particular detail I like is how the pots for the bath salts are handmade by a man in her local village. I can't help but feel that these little details amalgamate to making my pampering sessions, and myself, feel extra special. She makes a huge array of products for all various functions and purposes catering for the masses for whether you have specific considerations or not. Many of her products are vegan and all of them are free from animal testing. I rapidly made my way through testing many of her products and am now coming to the end of my second buy. I thoroughly recommend having a browse through her website if you're on the hunt for luxurious bathing products that will not fail to impress.

love, bean xx

Lunch Box #1 (Pesto Pasta)

So a couple of days ago I started college and with that came the new responsibility of making my lunches everyday. I've never been too keen on having the same thing to eat everyday, which is why I've always struggled with choosing what to have for breakfast, so it is my new task to come up with healthy, delicious and varying lunches everyday which are all easy to make. No pressure then. I shall be putting a series of posts on here with different lunches that I come up with, starting with today...

So the main thing that I had was the homemade vegan pesto pasta that I'd already made, the blogpost for the recipe is here, this was perfect as it was really delicious and it also really kept me going all day. One of my all time favourite things to have at the moment for a treat is corn chips dipped in homous, oh my goodness it's to die for and if somebody doesn't physically take the packet away from me I can easily just keep on going. I like to also have something sweet so I added a little booja champagne chocolate truffle, if you want to know more about them then the blogpost for them is here.

It's obviously a good idea to try and counterbalance some of the more stodgy and less healthy options with some fruit so I had a banana and fruit flakes, the flakes also count as one of your five a day. To finish it all off with I had an alibi drink, which are the most delicious energy drinks that are full of vitamins and minerals including the following vitamins C, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12.

So this is just day 1 and I shall keep on going until I run out of ideas! I hope you found that useful and yet me know what you like to have for your lunches!

love, bean xx

Cat & the Cream Vegan Cupcakes

Today I just wanted to do a quick followup on the blogpost I did a week or so ago about cake, go and read that first here. In that blog I mentioned about lots of different vegan cakes but in this post I want to specifically talk about the company 'Cat & the Cream'. One of the main reasons I am re-mentioning them is due to the fact that my Mum was very enthusiastic on the 'Ocado' order and brought 4 different flavours of their cupcakes!

The first one was a beautiful and refreshing combination of 'Lemon, Lime Grapefruit & Coconut' which tasted pretty exotic and I loved that there were so many fresh flavours in one cupcake, including 'coconut' which is one of my favourite ingredients ever!  

This was the one I'd already had before, which I'd teamed with vegan squirty cream and strawberries for a complete pudding, which is 'Chocolate, Coconut & Raspberry with Chocolate Icing'. This is of course the perfect cupcake for all you chocolate addicts!

I found this one a bit more unusual as it's 'Chocolate, Fresh Mint Ganache & Raspberry Icing'. The mint flavours just gave it a very different and exciting element which I don't think you find too often in cupcakes and with the raspberry icing it really just lifted the chocolate. 

The final one was a cupcake that I would never have had down as my first choice but it was so delicious, it was 'Pear, Hazelnut & Chocolate Chip with Hazelnut Icing'. Now, I have only recently really gotten into nuts and I'm putting them with everything so what better then having them in a cupcake!

So, as I said we got ours from 'Ocado', but may I add that I didn't eat all of them in one go and I did of course share them ;) They're very reasonably sized and a perfect treat so I like to take them every other week or so to college with me. I love all of the different available flavours and they last for quite a long time too which is really useful. And of course the best thing about them is that they're vegan, dairy free, wheat free & soya free whilst tasting absolutely delicious! 

Let me know if you've tried them before and what flavour you would like to try!

love, bean xx

Going to School & Home Education

Sadly it's that time of year again. For children from the UK September is the month that is the start of a new academic year. For some this means a fabulous prospect full of new beginnings but for others, it just means another dreaded year of getting up early. I was an early dropout of the schooling system, leaving at 15, deciding that I could probably do a better job then my teachers at preparing myself for my exams (there were, of course, other reasons too may I add!). It just so happened that teaching myself opened up many doors of opportunity and it enabled me to have my first proper taste of what the performing industry was like too in the big wide world. It's safe to say, I learnt a lot from teaching myself but I equally learnt as much before, when I'd gone to 8 schools altogether, I was certainly never 'deprived' of the school experience! 

The 8 schools varied greatly for me, each one teaching me different lessons - the majority of the lessons being of course outside the classroom. I think the problems I found at school were usually about fitting in whilst remaining true to who I am. I was interested in quite a few different types of things then the majority of other people, veganism being a prime example, and conforming to fit in and forget these interests was never my strong point. The other aspect I struggled with at school was that it wasn't until much later on that I found out that I'm dyslexic. This gave me a much stronger understanding of how my brain tends to work in a different way to other people, and how it also effects the best ways for me to learn. So when I taught myself I was able to plan it all in a way that was specific to the best way in which I learn. 

In retrospect I suppose I could have stayed at some of the schools for longer then my average of about 18 months, but I never regret it because from each school I learnt invaluable things about myself. There are so many things to say about the topic of school because it's a time of so much growth and self-discovery. You go through puberty, have the stress of sitting exams all whilst trying to balance your hobbies and friends as-well. It's a very demanding time filled with a lot of expectations and I don't believe that anybody goes through school without copious difficulties along the way. At the time it can feel like the be all and end all and that you're the only person in the entire world feeling how you're feeling but this just isn't the case. I now see that there's much more to life then being one of the 'popular people' and getting the perfect grades!

I am now venturing back into conventional education (sort of) by going to college and doing a qualification in performing arts, I must admit I am slightly nervous because no matter how many times you put yourself into a completely new situation the initial nerves always seem to crop up. I'm hoping that due to there being a big similarity between us all, in the sense that we all love performing, that it will be easier in terms of friends then in school but only time will tell! The video, click on the picture below, is showing you my college morning routine, it was pretty much the same when I was at school (the majority of the products I use are vegan). Feel free to let me know how you found/are finding being at school!

Love, bean xx

Latest Video...

Just a quickie to let you know about my latest YouTube video about going to starbucks as a vegan. Starbucks is one of my favourite places to go to when I'm out and about, take a look at the video where I go into more detail about some of my favourite things to order. Just to let you know when buying the caramel drink the sauce that you can have on the top contains egg whites so be sure to just ask for it without that!

love, bean xx

Time to explain a few things...

At this stage in my life I am not as strict a vegan as I would like to be, as I've said before I don't believe it's something that can happen overnight but I see it more as a gradual process.  For example, I recently went and did an intense course down south for 2 weeks where we put on a show at the end. We were working 12 hour days and our food was catered for us therefore it was quite difficult to eat a proper vegan diet. I made the decision that I would try my hardest but not to be too dramatic (I left that for the stage!) and ate a predominately vegetarian diet. This wasn't ideal and my face was instantly covered in spots due to the sudden dairy intake that my body wasn't accustomed to digesting. But, for the friends that I met and the experiences I gained I felt the sacrifice was definitely worth it. Some people and stricter vegans then myself will not agree with my decision but I believe everything in moderation and trying to find a balance in life.

This blog and my YouTube account both reflect that relatively relaxed outlook, I use them as an outlet to share with other people the lessons that I'm learning. But I just thought I should write this disclaimer type post to give you a bit more understanding on how these posts and videos won't offer you a strict formula on how you should be a vegan, they're the gradual accumulation of things that I personally come across on my journey, which you may find useful for your journey too. If you're already the perfect vegan then I'm really not going to be much help but if you're thinking about maybe testing the waters and seeing if this may be something you're interested in then this may be the place for you. I suppose I'm an aspiring vegan, but I hope to always keep this relaxed frame of mind. I believe in this lifestyle and all the benefits that come along with it, and I want to share this passion for veganism and various other things I believe in with you, talking about an array of things as and when they inspire me whether it be a life lesson or a new ice-cream I've come across. I hope you've found this useful and that it's given you a slight more understanding on what this is all about!

Love, bean xxx

Only touched the surface

I want to quickly tell you of an interesting moment I experienced earlier today. I was in a room that had reddish coloured curtains that were drawn shut, allowing the sunlight to shine through, tinting the colour of the room. As I sat in the room I saw some obvious blue veins on my leg which I’d never noticed before, I then shifted my focus and noticed that bright blue veins were showing up all over my body due to the light. Although I’d always known that there were veins all over my body it was the strangest thing actually seeing them, I felt rather like a picture out of my high school biology textbook.

It got me thinking, in a slightly more metaphorical sense, how many other aspects to myself I haven’t yet seen. I wondered how much there really is to me just under the surface that hasn’t yet been able to come to light, but would given a change of circumstance. These veins keep me alive, they never stop working and I’m covered in them, they’re a truly fundamental part of who I am yet I'd never given them a second thought before. It all sounds very silly, but for me it was fairly symbolic and I learnt a lesson; there are so many aspects to ourselves which we haven’t yet discovered or even acknowledged to be there, both physically and I suppose too within our personality. They showed me that there are endless bounds of self-discovery that I have to do and really I’ve only just touched the surface on getting to know who I am.

love, bean xx