New Year's Resolutions and Contest

So everyone, there aren't necessarily a ton of things that I've resolved to do this year. I don't want to just have an ever-growing list of things that I'll never do just because I've resolved to do them. I don't really have any health resolutions. I mean, I'm already vegan. What else is there? I guess I could theoretically resolve to stop cheating my gluten-free diet, but I don't really have an ethical problem with gluten, and they make magic pills that can help you digest gluten occasionally.

I have resolved to post more on this blog, especially Vegan College Cookbook reviews, which I guess could be food-related, and thus health-related, but that's really a stretch. But I got a seriously nicer camera for Christmas, so the photo quality on this blog should be improving! YAY! I have also resolved to be more active for the causes and charities I care about, especially animal welfare. But I guess because everyone needs one resolution that they don't mind not keeping, I also resolve to keep my room cleaner. Ha ha ha! Oh, that's a good one. So, that's not an exhaustive list of my resolutions, but too many of them would require context explanations that it's not worth bothering to mention them.

I hope you've made some resolutions that you plan on keeping. Though, as a tip, make them realistic. For example, I would not resolve to be the #1 Pop star in America by the end of the year. First of all, pop isn't even my favorite genre. Like, at all. But that's beside the point. However, I also wouldn't make them so boring or non-specific that they're not motivational, such as resolving to be "a better person" or resolving to smell more flowers. Unless of course, that's your thing. And then, by all means, smell away. I hope you're not allergic to pollen. Basically, make sure it's something that can be accomplished to your satisfaction. If you're really not sure what you want to resolve, but you want to resolve SOMETHING, here's a list of suggestions:

• Plant a new tree or shrub by the end of the year.
• You can buy a tree already sprouted (as long as you have permission from the powers that be,) or if you're up for a bigger challenge, try starting out all the way from a seed. Avocados are a good choice if you aren't sure what to go with. First of all, you can make yourself some yummy guacamole to get the pit to start out with. Second, the plants themselves are very pretty.
•  Plant a veggie garden.
• The best part about planting your own garden is picking what veggies you want to grow. Then you get really inexpensive, fresh food once it's grown. If you don't really have a yard to plant a garden in, like if you live in a dorm or apartment, or maybe your parents don't want you to dig up their nicely manicured lawn, you can plant window-box gardens, or potted plants. Those are great for smaller plants or herbs. I'd recommend rosemary and basil if you're not sure what to go with, but you want something small.
• Complete 5 Actions per month at Peta2.
• This one is really easy because the people over at PETA have already dome the hard work for you by making posters, collecting email addresses and researching the details, etc. Plus, you earn points by doing all those things and you can get yourself free stuff with the points. Who doesn't love free stuff?
• Go Cruelty-Free!
• Maybe you already only EAT vegan, but you haven't made the switch with cosmetics, clothes, etc. There are so many great brands of cruelty-free products, and many of them are really affordable. 
• Go Vegan!
• If you haven't already done this one, it really has never been easier. There are so many recipes out there thanks to the internet, and veganizing existing recipes is also super-simple with the amazing options that are out there.
• Go Vegetarian!
• If for some reason, you can't go vegan yet, or would prefer to make the switch more gradually, this is a good baby step. Again, it's never been easier!  
• Go Organic!
• This one can be a bit pricey. But it's certainly more healthful than eating junk food. Though I guess they do make organic "junk" food. Eh. Whatever. Aldis and Costco have a surprising amount of organic options, which are inexpensive.
• Convince your Family / Friends to do Meatless Mondays.
• Maybe they won't go 100% vegan or even vegetarian. But there are a lot of doctors and specialists saying that giving up meat at least 1 day a week has a ton of health benefits. This might mean that you have to cook diner once a week, but I'm sure you've got some ideas that you're dying to try, right?
• Try one new vegan recipe per month.
• This could involve a bit of pre-planning, but trying new things can be a lot of fun, and if you have the Vegan College Cookbook, it can be really affordable too. 
• Stay Positive / Be Thankful.
• The holidays are coming to a close, and it's easy to get out of the habit of being thankful for small things in life, and to take the things you have for granted. One thing that I have found helpful is to get a notebook or journal and write down things that I'm thankful for / happy about. For example, a friend of mine recently had been struggling with depression, and I encouraged him to write down 5 things a day to be thankful for. You can write more or less things, and do it as frequently as you'd like. If 5 things a day is too much, you could do 3 things a day, or 5 things twice a week. The important thing is not to quit when you forget a day. Even if you forget a week. If you're ever feeling down or discouraged, read back through the things you've written, and you're likely to feel a lot better. Everyone I've ever gotten to do this has found it extremely helpful.

If you have any other good ideas for general resolutions you'd like to share, please leave a comment! I'd love to hear what you have to say.

So, whatever you've resolved, here is a motivational picture.

This is my cat, C3PO, who I adopted from my local animal shelter. He had already had one leg amputated when I found him, but he gets along without it pretty well, even if he looks kind of ridiculous when he runs. Anyway, the other day, he climbed on top of our giant old TV that was given away, and was acting like he had achieved the most amazing accomplishment possible. It was pretty much adoreable. This was just an excuse to post a picture of my cat.

Alright. So here's the contest part:

First, you must follow this blog by at least one method if you do not already. Next, using the contact form located in the right sidebar, send me your name and email address, and at least 1 activism-related resolution. The winner will be randomly selected by computer, but if your resolution is just "I resolve to be more active" or something like that, then you won't qualify. And trust me. You want to win. Why? Because here's what the winner gets (approximately $25 value):

•  2 stickers from Sevenly, a company which funds a huge variety of humanitarian organizations by selling super-cool shirts and other apparel
• 3 magnets made from Sevenly stickers that are great for lockers or mini-fridges
• 15 magnets made from PETA stickers that are also great for lockers or mini-fridges. 
• 1 customized bracelet made by me. You choose colors and specify size. The bracelet will appear similar to this one in my web store, only it will say "ACTIVIST" instead of a name. 
• The winner will also be featured on this blog with a photo, short biographical description, and their resolution. (The winner will be contacted for the photo and description, as well as the details of the bracelet after being selected. This will act as a conformation method.)

All entries must be received before February 1st 2014. There also must be more than 10 qualifying entries, or the contest will be canceled. If there are a large number of participants, I may add runner-up places with smaller but still awesome prizes. In the event of cancellation, a consolation prize will be available to any participants. I reserve the right to change the rules and awards at any time. I'm sorry if you don't think the prizes are cool. I'm a poor college student, remember?

Happy New Year, Everyone! Good luck! Feel free to comment and tell me what a great idea this is. Tell all your friends about this contest and encourage them to enter as well! Who knows. Maybe they'll share with you if they win.

*************** UPDATE: CONTEST IS CLOSED.

Rolling Phone

Ah ha ha ha! The title of this post was such a lame joke. Alright now, I'm over it.

Here is a little something-something, mostly because I really haven't run across anything stunning to post recently. A while a ago, I mentioned Sevenly, a group that creates apparel designs, the proceeds of which benefit many different humanitarian charities. When you purchase their products, they give you a sticker for free!

The part of the sticker that peels off basically asks you to put it on your phone, so I did. I actually get comments on it all the time. The sticker back also asks you to take a picture of yourself with your freshly stickered phone, and post it on their Facebook page, which I also did. So I figured I'd share the pictures with you all, and you could tell me which ones you like the best! (Please note, I did not have access to any fancy cameras, so I just used a plain old boring digital camera. My apologies to any photographers out there!) I am, by the way, also wearing a Sevenly shirt. The proceeds of this particular shirt went to providing orphaned Jamaican babies with food, water, and diapers. The last item of note is my phone itself. It's a Nokia phone. You know, the kind that are virtually indestructible? The ones that have whole pages of internet memes dedicated to them because of their amazing capabilities not to break. Yeah. That's because it's my 8th phone. So far, it's outlived almost all of them.

Ok, so before anyone says that I look angry in these pictures, let me inform you that I am in a tree. That means that these photos were taken from the ground. Let me also mention that I have almost complete mono-lids. That means that my eye lids crease in such a way that when my eyes are open, you can hardly see the crease at all, making my eyelids look very small, which has a tendency to make people look more serious, even when they are not. The fact that the pictures were taken from the ground really exaggerated that feature. Now, I hope you all feel a little bit smarter about anatomy.

Runway Wednesday: Humanitarian of the Week

Today, my post has absolutely nothing to do with veganism. In fact, it has nothing to do with Animal Rights. I'm not even going to be talking about Environmentalism. This is, however, related to activism.

There are a lot of charities, and non-profit organizations out there, and sometimes it is hard to decide which ones to support. Sometimes it's even hard to know HOW to support the ones you want to. Especially with humanitarian-type charities, the problem is often very far away, or out of the boundaries of our finite eyesight. You can always donate money, but not very many people have the kind of money that they can just throw around to whichever charities they run across. Even when you'd like to donate money, it's often difficult to know which charities need it the most. I mean really, there are hundreds of thousands of cancer support charities, and while that is a noble cause, what about the charities that say, help feed starving orphans? Not many of us run across starving orphans every day, so that sort of things tends to be out of sight, out of mind.

I have recently discovered an organization that is the solution to all of those problems. Sevenly is a group of people who were trying to solve these same problems. They have now made it their mission "to harness the power of art and community to build sustainable awareness and funding movements that support charities in their efforts to change the world." This is a small organization comprised of artists and researchers who find worthy charities that need support, and they create designs for clothing that they turn around and sell to raise support for their charity of the week. Every shirt, tank top, hoodie, tote bag, etc. donates $7 to a specific non-profit. They have both guys and girls designs, and multiple styles and colors of apparel to appeal to as large of a target audience as possible. Every design has a story behind the art to show what inspired it, but each design is only available for 7 days. New designs are available every Monday at noon, but orders for the previous week's shirts are processed exactly up to that point. Once the time is up, the orders are processed so they never run out before the week is up.

Organizations they have worked with in the past include. . .

1Love - Helped put abandoned babies and toddlers into nurseries and provide with them with the necessities they need to survive.
Feed My Starving Children - Each purchase provided the money to feed a child in Thailand for a month.
The Sheepfold - Raised money to put abused women and children in safe-houses.
Somaly Mam - Funded a raid on a brothel in Cambodia to free women and children who had been sold into sex-slavery.

. . . And so many more.

This week, they are raising support for Autism Speaks, a charity that provides tools and therapy for children with severe autism that helps them learn to communicate with their families. The extra cool thing about it is that someone is doubling the money they raise for Autism Speaks, up to $180,000. Sevenly is also selling iPhone cases this week with both guys and girl's designs. Pretty cool, huh? Even if you can't buy something from them, they really appreciate you sharing the page on all your social networks. That way, maybe someone else can hear about it for the first time, and buy something to support the week's charity.

I am really hoping that I can get this week's design featuring the phrase "Live Loud for Autism."



I've bought 3 other shirt in the past few weeks, but since the designs are only available for 7 days, and I can't find an archive anywhere, I can't show you the designs. Maybe I'll just have to take a picture wearing them myself.

Anyway, I think that Sevenly is a great way to become aware of different organizations and charities, and show support for a myriad of organizations with Sevenly's amazing apparel art.

Does this sort of organization seem helpful to you? Are you interested in humanitarian non-profits like this one? Had you heard of Sevenly before? Give your opinion in a comment!

Update: I have added this to my Runway Wednesday series, even though I wrote this post a long time before the Runway Wednesday series started.