Vendors of WNY VegFest

Most of this week I will be posting about the WNY (Western New York) VegFest that took place this past Sunday.  If you have been reading the other posts thus far you will see that I really had a great time!

Here's a silly photo of me in one of those character cut outs.  I think someone named this green guy in a purple suit "Cilantro Frank".

In this post I will be sharing some of the vendor tables we visited.  Everyone was really nice and fun to be around!  I made a few donations at a couple of the tables one being Ester The Wonder Pig.  Late last night I found that The Vegan Zombie posted a video about the WNY VegFest AND Ester The Wonder Pig so check out their embedded video at the end of this post.

Eventho I don't consume a lot of meat alternatives I was happy to see Tofurky be a large part of the event.  They are a HUGE Vegan company that is for sure!  I have tried some items I do like from them.  They had another guy that was wearing a HUGE Tofurky Box for the race which was pretty funny.  I guess it was the first 5k Tofurky Trot above the Mississippi from what I hear.

Of course anything chocolate will grab the attention of most.  This dessert company sold all vegan desserts at the event.  The corner of the building they were on was a little congested so we didn't stay long but I heard a lot of interest from vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.  I did hear someone ask if they were Gluten Free and these weren't bit some of the other items were Gluten Free.  I was just glad that you didn't have to ask if there were vegan options since everything there HAD to be in order to be displayed.  It's like you didn't really even have to think!  It was AWESOME!

Another great thing about the festival were all of the speakers.  Since my sister and I only stayed for a few hours because of our other obligations that day - we didn't stay for the speakers.  But here is a list of about half of the ones they featured that day.

Many of them sounded interesting!  MAYBE next year we can attend some of the talks, presentations, and seminars!

I really see this event getting bigger and bigger every year!  I still think they had WAY more people attend than they originally expected or even hoped for!  That's ALWAYS a plus, eh!?

Another thing that I liked doing during my time at the festival was donating food!  I grabbed a few items from my stash including some brown rice pasta, some individual protein powders, some tabbouleh, and some natural sweetener and donated it when we got there.

Food donations went to Food Not Bombs.  They gave out informational and free sample bags for those who donated something.  There were a few snacks in there including some veggie chips and a sample of a Raw Revolution bar.

Tomorrow I hope to have a post about some of the food vendors, too!  

Blissful Journey ~ Adventures in Art Journaling, Self Esteem, and Avocado Hummus!

I've struggled with Self Esteem issues and Body Image Issues most of my life.  As I get older I am more accepting of myself for the most part on most days.  I think some of that came along with dropping dairy from my diet, too.  I know that sounds like a superficial item on the list of reasons but it's just something I have noticed the last few months.  I think because I feel better overall it has made me feel better about myself.  Not in a vanity type way but more accepting of who I am, I guess.  I guess it's just hard to explain. 

Over the past week or so I have been adding more and more layers to a few Art Journaling Pages and last night completed this one.  I had the layers down and even the two digi stamps but last night I decided to go with the "JUST BE" theme and text.  It seemed to work here and as I added more and more of the "BE..." elements it 'felt right'.

I saw this little 'meme' on Instagram the other day and LOVED that is was Pirates of the Caribbean and Johnny Depp and Captain Jack Sparrow and it all seemed to come together.

I realize we all have our faults but I also think we are all 'perfect' in our own way!  Yes...that's contradicting but pretty deep if you give it some thought!

Yesterday, I forgot to mention, while at the Festival over the weekend we ended up meeting some 'new friends'.  That's one of my favorite parts about being a vendor at these things!  Meeting people but also fellow vendors that you 'click with'.  My mom, dad, sister, and I always come with 'goodies' and invite other vendors over to 'take a break' with us.  Ever since my sister had some store-bought 'Avocado' Hummus a few months ago she's been wanting to try some others.  I finally decided to make it last week.  It made a HUGE batch and I brought it with me to the event and shared with about a dozen or more people!  EVERYONE absolutely LOVED it!  Even people who are NOT focused on their diet or food intake or 'health' foods commented.  One person even said he didn't like hummus - as a rule of thumb - but LOVED my Avocado Hummus!  This totally made my day!  Woot!  Here is what I used...

1 1/2 C Chickpeas
2 Avocadoes
3 T Lemon Juice
2 T Tahini
2 Cloves Garlic
Water (or Grapeseed Oil), Pepper to taste/consistency

Some Product Reviews & Near Future Happenings!

I have a few things to share with you today - a few products and such - as well as some things in my near future that I am looking forward to - but I will get to those in a moment.

First I would like to tell you about yet another Raw Revolution flavor that I was luck enough to try a while back!  It was their Cherry Chocolate Chunk and it was marvelous!  The Cherries were awesomely flavorful!  Juicy!  Sweet!  Plump!  It really activated the taste-buds!  The chocolate chunks were HUGE!  Some where even the size of my thumb!  This flavor completely lived up to it's name, that is for sure!  It was VERY Fresh and terrifically chewy!  The cherry flavor lingers with a somewhat creamy and slightly tart finish!  This has been one of my favorite flavors from Raw Revolution YET!

Another product I recently finished was New Earth's Awesome Almonds!  These Almonds are RAW - therefore - a living food!  They've been activated!  Their website explains how and why they do that!  It's quite interesting!  They are crispy and certainly helped curb my hunger!  The best part?  I only needed a small handful of them at a time in order to do this!  So this bag of Almonds DID last me a while!  They have just a pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt - which is GOOD - because I am not much of a salt fan!  The amount they used was perfect for my palate.  These were wonderful! 

Remember my post earlier this week when I used Boku Super Greens in my Fruit Berry Smoothie?  Check out this link!  I really like this product, too!  I'm trying to educate myself MORE about Superfoods and tinkering around with them and the powders and "green" powders more! 

For this specific one - Boku - I do like it because it doesn't have much flavor to it when you blend them in with berries and/or fruit!  I'm going to try this one again, tho, because I have only tried a few teaspoons at a time so far and it says to work your way up to about 4 Tablespoons!  I might take that leap next week!  I think it will be easy to do, actually, based on the successful attempts I have had so far with this product!

This weekend is going to be a nice one...almost a clam before the storm...of busy weekends, that is!  Eventho the weekends of the 20th and 27th are going to be busy I AM looking forward to them VERY much!  Our busy events season is now underway!  Both of those weekends we have Wildtree/Vendor events!  On the 20th we will be at the Youngsville Art & Vino Venue in Youngsville, PA, and the following weekend we will be at Liberty Winery in Sheridan, NY.  I will do my best to take some pics and post them here once they take place!

Last night I went over to my parents house and my mom and I got two shipments in and sorted them.  We had a Wildtree Party last week over at a Salon in Russell, PA, and then we had The Vendor Showcase I blogged about earlier this week in Jamestown, NY.  In addition we submitted another order last night!  We had several people who wanted to order and re-order various Wildtree Products from us.

We also decided to FINALLY do a website last night for our Wildtree Business.  I will add it to the sidebar next week but incase you would like to take a look you can visit it HERE or HERE.  It's the same website but we have 2 different extensions!  If you have any questions about anything with the Wildtree Line let me know!  And/Or feel free to shop 24/7 on the website!

What are your plans for the weekend!?  Have you tried any of these products yet?  I will have more smoothies next week, too!  And more Recipes!  And more Products!  LOTS and LOTS on tap! 

I'm just really itching for Farmers Market Season to get here!  YOU DON"T EVEN KNOW!!!! :)
Have a BLISSful Weekend, everyone!

Bear Encounter, Juneteenth Vendor Showcase, and Beautiful Spring!

I meant to blog about this at the end of last week but haven't had much time lately but it's something BIG...and exciting!  Last Thursday Night I was leaving my parents house around 8:30 or 9pm and in their neighbor's front yard was an Adult Black Bear!  I am borrowing this photo from Bear.Org and it looked a lot like this one.  Between what I learned in my research and what I have been told by local bear people I think this photo resembles the closest thing I saw.  If this is the case - this is a female North American Black Bear around 4 and a half years old...according to the site.  IT WAS HUGE but beautiful BUT I also was grateful to be IN my car when I saw it.  It was about 20 feet from my car.  It was standing tall and up on 2 feet.  It looked behind her - then looked at me - got down on all 4's - and started running around in 2 semi-circles in the neighbor's front yard before dodging towards their OPEN GARAGE.  I then called my mom and dad to call the neighbor's to warn them.  They weren't home.  I came back down the hill and parked in the end of their driveway with my high-beams on pointing in the direction of their garage and sat there for a good 5 minutes.  After realizing the bear wasn't in their garage - I decided to drive home and my parents waited for their neighbors to return.  In the meantime - one of the other neighbors said it darted back behind their house and took out one of their hand made 20-year old bird feeders.   I know it wasn't a cub.  I'm thinking hundreds of pounds!  When asked I said maybe 500 pounds or so - I could be way off - but still it was quite the site and I was so shocked I couldn't get to sleep that night!  This time of year they are looking for food because not much has grown yet in their habitat so they have to go out and look for it and travel a bit.  I assume that is what she was doing - especially after the neighbors told us about their bird feeder!

Saturday - my sister, my mother, and I all attended the Juneteenth Vendor Showcase in Jamestown, NY, with our Wildtree Products.  This was Part 1 of 2 events.  The actual Juneteenth Celebration is in June and is a 2-day event.

We had a wonderful time and met a bunch vendors we have never met before - mostly because we haven't done too many events in Jamestown YET.  It started off being quite cold in the morning but by the time we left it was pretty nice outside.  Thankfully the event was inside the Renaissance Center.  It was an awesome space to have an event! 

As you can see there is even an upstairs.  We didn't use the upstairs but the areas of the space we did use were great!  There were about 20 vendors there and everyone had smiles on their faces and were very excited to start up another busy events season!  The people who attended - the public - the walk-in and walk-thru traffic was light but steady and again everyone appeared to be happy because it's FINALLY Spring!  YAY!

As you can see from some of the photos here - there were all sorts of vendors!  Jewelry, Purses, Food, Tupperware, Skin Care, Fabric Crafts, Up Cycling Artsy/Crafty Items.  There were some non-profits and informational weight-loss type tables, as well!

I LOVED the windows and you can see a little bit of the stage and storefront area in this photo, too!

There was a face painter, there, and they opened the kitchen for Tea, Coffee, Snacks, and such.

I really hope they have more events in this building - I think the space is perfect!  It's within the section of Jamestown that they have put a lot of work into with renovations, parking, and street scapes.

Here you can see our table and display.  That's my mother with the red hair standing behind the table reading our Wildtree Catalog!  I doubt she knows I took this photo of her!

We didn't take all of our stock but what we did bring sold well!  Everyone enjoyed our samples.  We decided to sample the Absolutely Onion into a Dip by adding Sour Cream.  We also sampled the new Happenin' Hot Pepper Jelly which has quickly become one of our best sellers (and it's vegan!)

Then we sampled the Outrageous Orange Sauce, Honey Dijon Dipping Sauce, and 4 Oils - the Garlic & Garlic Dipping as well as the Balsamic and the Butter Flavored Oil - ALL Grapeseed Oil Based (and ALL the oils are Vegan).

I met a few people who were Gluten-Free, a few Vegetarians, and at least 1 Vegan!  YAY!

Yesterday I spent a good amount of time cleaning and I have even more cleaning to do this week!  BUT...tonight I plan on getting back in to the kitchen and making something to add here on my blog.  Another food project I have on tap is to find some foods I can make for my father who has changed his diet because he was diagnosed with Diverticulitis.  So he will no longer be consuming fruit with seeds, nuts and seeds, corn, and other foods - foods that are spicy or acidic.  He LOVES Italian Food and he loves Salads with dressings and he's a fan of nuts, seeds, fruits with seeds, and is totally missing TOMATOES the most!  But he's been told to stay away from them...so...I will be doing some research for dressings and sauces, etc. without those ingredients!

I also have many more reviews and giveaways on tap!

I'm going to state TWO mini-goals I hope to start this week, too, for myself!  ONE...I want to wake-up earlier and TWO...I want to do more Green Smoothies in the morning!  I have the GREEN Powders, the Super Food powders and mixes, etc and am ready to go I just have to start doing it!

What are some mini-goals you are setting for yourself this week!?

MY Wee Beastie

My friend OPAL is a super creative lady!  She was blogging about some of her creations - which I LOVE - and she was recently blogging about how her daughter's friend LOVES Owls!  Check out the blog post HERE.  The Owl sort of reminded me of a friend of mine - locally - who creates WEE BEASTIES.  I absolutely LOVE them.  I told Opal I would blog about them a bit.  Ellen has a shop on Etsy where she sells them and that's located HERE.

The photo above is the WEE BEASTIE I purchased at a local vendor show a few years ago!  It still sits in the same place!  On my desk at work!  It makes me smile often!  I LOVE the lil guy!  He has LOTS of personality!  I have him on a file fold tray ledge where he can sit.  As you can see he guards my computer tower - as well as my NuNaturals items and some of my Tea.

The photo I took a while back and edited thru an iPhone App and posted on my InstaGram App from there.