Sunday, July 24, 2011

Create Your Own Loving Magazine

Have you been looking for a way to spread the Earth and Animal loving message to the world, but not sure where to start? Well, we hope that this piece will point you in the right direction.

The biggest step of all is an idea. What aspiring thoughts have you had that you think the world would love to hear? For people like us, it is pretty simple, we want to save the animals. This is a great start, however, to ensure longevity, you must have a theme, a look or a concept that your magazine publication will have. It is essential that you create this idea in your mind, so that every-time you publish your next great piece it is in line with all the rest that you done. If you keep on chopping and changing, it can confuse your reader and all of a sudden you have lost everyone that you have worked so hard to get.
Once again, don't confuse things, there is an old saying in marketing 101 'Keep It Simple Stupid' or KISS. Nothing could be further from the truth. Once again, for us it is pretty simple. Think of a few key words and picture what goes with this word. For example, we are saving the animals, so what do you think goes with this - Love, Peace, Compassion. There you go, you have just got yourself a theme and idea, you are ready to get pumping.

Editor-At-Large Laura Hooper Beck decided she needed to make a zine after being inspired by others and recognizing a niche waiting to be filled. Beck recently launched Fat Zine!, which she says cost her about $76 from start to finish, and is paying that amount back with the proceeds of her zine sold online and at the recent San Francisco Zine Fest. “There just isn't that much stuff out there that's body positive for women. I wanted to make something that said, ‘hey, it's okay if you're not skinny, or it's okay if you are—whatever!’ and I did it with a fat-positive bend because hardly anything is,” said Beck. “I want to open up that dialogue more. Plus, I love working with glitter, and my zine has a lot of it.”


Here is a great link to get you thinking about what you need to do. The site is called Micro Publishing. They have very helpful hints and tips on how to get up and running.


Once you have got yourself ready to go, and have done all the fun layouts and articles the next step you will need to do is convert your magazine to a PDF file. There are a number of free programs that can do this for you, as well as some word processing software that can convert files to PDF format, such as Zoho and Open Office. Both wordprocessing packages have their advantages and disadvantages however. Alternatively the magazine can be completely created with desktop publishing software which should also be able to save the document as a PDF file.


Sign up to your preferred magazine hosting website. It can pay to check out a number of these sites because the free options can offer different levels of service. A basic option may only allow you to upload the PDF file without other alternatives such as allowing readers to download the magazine. Different websites also have different levels of advertising that will be presented to your readers.


Now you have to share your voice with the world. The best, easiest and cheapest way to do this is via the big 2 - Facebook and Twitter. Get yourself known amongst the Vegan community. Target those pages that have a large, dedicated following and keep on plugging your work.


We hope that this information has helped. If you have any questions, please let us know - we would love to help spread the beautiful Vegan message to the world.

Monday, May 30, 2011

The Best Vegan Recipe EVER!

How great does this look?

Hi Space
Just me again, checking in after a creative afternoon in my kitchen, which inspired me to blog on my creation, adored and rated by a non-vegan trifle lover! After I discovered a gelatine free jelly in the health food section of Coles yesterday, I came home to my partner dreaming of trifle, and I had a light bulb moment! It must be about 10 years since I have even eaten trifle, not that I missed it, but I had just bought gelatine free jelly and checked my cupboard for other ingredients, and wala!! Vegan Trifle was created, and it was a welcomed change on our menu! So I will share with you all my recipe incase you too are inspired!
 
So you need to make the vegan jelly found in Coles, no gelatine in this brand "Vitarum"
Can you believe people put the hooves of pigs in most of children's lollies and jelly's...I bet mothers would be horrified if their child tried to suck on the hoof of a pig, yet that is what "Gelatine" really is... a ground down pigs hoof!  Just a little sad knowledge for you all there!! Anyway....lets go back to the recipe without this sadness!
To make the sponge:
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup Castor sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp baking powder
Sift these ingredients then add,
  • 3/4 cup soy milk 
  • 1/4 cup canola oil.
Bake the mixture in any small tin and in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. It will need to be cut up or you can just break it up with your hands....
Then you need soy custard:
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • 1&1/2 tbsp raw sugar
  • 1 cup cold soy milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Mix cornflour to smooth liquid with little soy milk
Heat remaining milk with sugar. When it nearly boils, take it off and stir in cornflour.
Return to heat and boil, stir constantly and cook for another minute, add vanilla.
Then you just mix them all in together, the custard, cake and jelly in a clear bowl if you can to show off off the colours, and you can toss in some strawberries or raspberries or jam.Then top with Vanilla Bliss soy ice cream instead of the usual cream, and grate some of that vegan chocolate from Aldi, for $2.50 the peppermint version of "Moser Roth" works for me!!
 
Enjoy with your family, or take it to the next party!
Made With Love from Renata xo

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Peace, Love.......VEGAN!

Spreading the Peace Baby

The word “VEGAN” can resonate negative connotations in my mind....or society’s mind.....or society’s mind in my mind....ha-ha....and I would like the opportunity  to consciously change that habit of my way of thinking...in my own mind!! Am I making sense yet? The word “Vegan” can bring on lots of feelings to different people, and I am feeling like I need to have more trust in this word for the future of its survival in the positive realm!

Vegan means peace, vegan means love for all beings, yet it also seems to be a great excuse for some to get angry and judgemental, myself included in this statement. A close friend recently told me I can be these things, which caused me to take a deep look inside and clean up some more!

The fact is, it is a hard task to be vegan in society...not because of the myth that there is nothing for vegans to eat, but because everywhere around us is food that turns human stomachs into graveyards....and it makes us feel so sad...which then makes us feel frustrated when we look around supermarkets...and barbeques.... and children’s lunchboxes....which in turn makes us feel judgmental...... and ....well... sometimes we are hungry when uncreative chefs think all that we eat is “Garden Salad”....but that is beside the point!

People are vegans for so many reasons, but beside the fact that so many animals suffer for the palate and it’s a healthy way of life, our diet is now actually detrimental to the future of our planet. And it’s not rocket science to the average IQ....Billions of animals are bred for human consumption, it wastes billions of litres of water and petrol, and wastes millions of hectares of land, which clears and wastes millions of trees,, and wastes millions of kilos of grain to feed the animals that we fatten up to kill, who also need millions of dollars worth of medicines, and well...the meat industry is basically a huge waste of time and resources!! Meat is actually and factually...quite destructive to the planet on a huge level!! The most rediculous thing is we don’t need it to survive...it is actually poisoning our species survival and the planet that we live.

A friend once said to me “If the government told me to stop eating meat  then I would!” Do we really need to be dictated to? Can we no longer think for ourselves? The government is not going to tell millions of people to stop eating a product that generates billions of dollars ...they would rather watch the destruction of our planet before they “Let Go!” 
We are so programmed to both ignore and endure the cruelty we inflict on animals.

So vegan is a great word as it means peace for all animals, it means tranquility for the future of climate change, it means not wasting precious resources that the planet provides for us, and most importantly it means happy healthy humans! Vegan is the only way of the future!!

So for now, I will do my best to try to be all of these attributes to protect the reputation of the word Vegan!

Peace Love & Vegan!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Taking It To The Streets

Vegan Era's Billboard
In the midst of all that our world has witnessed to the start of the year, the CREW at Vegan Era are taking the Earth Saving message to the world. As you can see, this billboard will be up and about for the next month (and hopefully more to come) in a hope to urge people to think about the choices they make.

If you look back a year, you would notice that our world went through a big shift. Haiti and Chile were the main countries affected. They bore the brunt of damaging earthquakes that shock the very fabric of the Earth and people's lives. It seems that we are witnessing something similar again this year, however doesn't it seem that things stepped up? Not only did Australia have the biggest floods in over 30 years, but New Zealand and Japan have had their worlds shaken.

I recently took the time to write to a selected group of open minded people that have great responsibility in our world. They are already environmental activists, whose will is strong in helping save our world. I sent them information about the damaging affects the livestock industry is having on our world, and how making the simple choice of changing your diet can help Save Our Planet.

Some of the people I talk to have already labeled it too late to do anything and that nature is on course to do its job. They may be right - but I can't stand back and throw my hands and say that's it. You just never know your luck in a big city. How about your luck in a big world?

What ever your mindset, there is no doubting our world is in the midst of turmoil. The bad karma created by killing innocent beings is too great, and retribution is being paid. But what if it is not too late? what if we do have time? Shouldn't we do all that we can to open that one's person's eyes to the truth.

Be Vegan 2 Save Our Planet.