Long time no see

You know, I don't know if anyone still reads this blog but I just felt like for old times sake coming back to say hi.
I am no longer working for Crispy Cat, in fact no one is.
the company changed hands and everyone got let go. It was really sad and I miss my job so much, but what can you do, bad economy and all that stuff so I guess you just have to say eff it and move on, right?

So I wanted to read some old posts and I went to the website b/c for a long time my blog was still up there, but I guess the new CC people were not feeling it and it was taken down. For a split second I panicked thinking that my blog had been erased and with it all the good memories of my time with CC along with it. Then I remembered that the blog was on Blogspot and that it could not be erased *Whew*.

Stu actually set me up with a new blog spot but i forgot the password and all that and honestly blogging for the company was a lot more fun than blogging for myself.

Who knows maybe I should contact the new CC people and see if they want me to do their blog.

Anyway nice chatting with you all again.

Fan of the Month Contest.

I always think no one ever reads this blog, until we run a contest that is and then I see all the fans we have. So since you love to get free stuff and we like to give free stuff away we are now having a contest that happens every month. That's right every month you have the chance to win a free box of Crispy Cats! That is 12 bars people!
Of course you have to do something to win but its so easy. All you have to do is be your wonderful, fabulous, candy loving self and you can win. Just email us a short note about how much you love our candy bars and include a photo of yourself with the candy and you just might be the winner. Its just that easy! So go ahead and email all your love to info@crispycatcandybars.com please don't put it in the comments section . Of course feel free to put my fan mail in the comments section. So now you know and I can't wait to see all the things people send in.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, I sure did even though my food makes my mother"sad". She gets sad because I won't eat all the meat and the dairy and cakes and pies. She did make me vegan apple turnovers and they were so good everyone wanted them. I felt sad when I saw her turkey, its legs were tied together with string . I think that is what was truly *sad* about Thanksgiving. But I did not mention it because I didn't want to be that person...I just wanted to enjoy my food and let people enjoy their food. Even if I don't agree with their food, Thanksgiving day at the table is not the palace to try and convert people to being vegetarian. So for the day I gave it a rest.
Next up Christmas!!!!

LEAF Trade show and other stuff.

I love what Stu has done to the blog. He is so artsy and cleaver. But he refuses to redo my hair in the short style that I have it in now. Just for the record I got a "Rosemary's baby" inspired do and ditched my high maintenance long hair. And Stu refuses to acknowledge it by re-drawing my hair. Whatever Stu.



Lets get down to business. LEAF. It was just here last weekend. In case you aren't a local, LEAF stands for the Lake Eden Arts Festive and it is one HUGE hippy gathering. We have a booth both in the fall and spring and I usually end up working some of it. This year I took my close personal friend Sadie with me. She was a hit with all the crunchy, stinky people walking around! Let me just say for the record that I have lived in a lot of places and I love living here with all the stinky, crunchy people the best. So no offense if you have dirty hair and bedraggled clothing, I love and enjoy you. Anyway LEAF was LEAF. Danny Dryer the author of Chi Running was there and that was totally exciting for me. That book totally changed the way I run, if your into running or you want to run but think you can't because it hurts your knees check it out. Danny Dryer now lives here in Asheville and is having a Chi Running workshop on November 1st.



Also the guys just came back from trade show. I went last year and it was so much fun. This year it was in Boston. I was jealous I couldn't go but I don't think I could have done much with the baby dangling off my hip. But according to Eric and Joel they had a lot of fun and even had an adventurous cab ride that I am not allowed to blog about because according to Eric its "inappropriate". Wow when did things become inappropriate around here? The times they are a changing. For reals.
According to Joel people from all over the world are interested in Crispy Cat. Well I'm not surprised we are awesome. Not to mention that if you can't eat gluten or dairy it is the only candy bar on the market. True there are flat chocolate bars but nothing like a real candy bar.
If you don't believe me just look for yourself the next time you are at your local health food store. Don't forget, if your local store doesn't carry us you can always request them too and if you post a store you want me to send samples too in the comments section I will do my best to get them to carry us! I am quite a convincing sales person if I do say so myself. In the past people have done that and I have been able to get Crispy Cats in their area!

Cheap shoes and a no effort pumpkin patch!

I was just revisiting some of the old posts in the archive...wow .Its interesting to see how much life changes in the course of a year. Enough reminiscing, that was then and this is now time to move on.

So I went to Target and found that shopping for vegan shoes can be a lot cheaper than buying leather. I know on line you can find fancy expensive vegan shoes but you can also just go to Target or Payless and not feel like a cheep ass for doing it. Before I would be embarrassed if I got shoes at Payless, like I was admitting I am poor and don't have great taste. But now I feel self satisfied and smug, superior even saying I buy my shoes at Target and Payless because they're vegan. The truth is it is awesome to get a pair of shoes for $10 (they were on sale). I also like it because it saves me time by having less choices. Less to look at, less to think about and less to choose from. Much easier than having to mull over a ton of different shoes and then feel like a jerk for paying too much for a pair of shoes.

Halloween is coming and I want to give a little tip on how to grow a pumpkin patch with little to no effort.
Last year I got a white pumpkin and I put it on the stone wall in front of my house. It was so pretty and festive and I felt really good about it when I would come home and see it sitting there. After Halloween came and went and it survived Halloween night I just forgot about it. Then Ted noticed that it was rotting on the wall. I continued to ignore it. It rotted further and still I pretended not to see it. Eventually when it was half gone I slam dunked it by the garbage can on trash day. The garbage man refused to pick it up so it just rotted and composted by my mailbox. last year it looked like a very lazy person lived at my house, this year it looks like a PUMPKIN PATCH under my mailbox. That's right we have a real pumpkin patch growing by the mailbox complete with a white pumpkin. I love that pumpkin patch so much and I check on the pumpkin everyday! So this year just chuck your pumpkin where ever you want to have pumpkins and then ignore it and by next year you can brag to everyone you know about your awesome pumpkin patch!

Vegan party food for a non-vegan crew...

On Friday night I hosted a small intimate gathering to celebrate my friend Murry's special day. Just a few people were coming, none of them are vegan. I struggled with the idea of making food for them that was non-vegan, I would never cook meat but I didn't know what to do about the pizza I was making. Should I do dairy on it for them and then a non-dairy pizza for me? As I stood in the grocery store mulling over my options I decided that I would serve the food I wanted and let people decided if it was something they wanted to eat.

I made a vegan pizza with a tons of veggies and nutritional yeast sprinkled on top along with hummus and carrots and my friend Sarah made a vegan split pea soup. For desert I tried my hand at vegan baking....not so great. The brownies tasted OK but looked like molten lava and smelled like carcinogens. They were definitely not the kind of yummy treat that you could cut a square of, it was more like you took a spoonful and tried not to burn off the first few layers of skin on your tongue. Over all the food was OK. I need to learn some new recipes and expand my horizons. I'm not really a "foodie" so it doesn't bother me to eat a baked potato with melted rice cheese every night.

If any of our fans have some great vegan party food recipes that they love please send em' in. We are going to start doing profiles on our "special" readers in upcoming issues of our newsletter, sort of like the "Reader Spotlight" in vegnews. So send in any tidbits you might have laying around in your head and you just might end up a winner!!

Is this the end of the world?

Here in Asheville NC and the surrounding area it feels like Armageddon when trying to get gas. I don't know about other places but here if you want gas you have to wait in line for sometimes 2 hours. Cars will be backed up so bad they need the police there to direct traffic and break up fist fights. For reals people were fighting at the gas station. Cars are abandoned on the side of the highway, its pretty creepy.
This inspired me to be even more dedicated to my cause to drive as little as possible and challenge myself to find ways to get by without a car. Now I have to drive to work twice a week. I live too far to walk and I don't have a bike. I could try running to work but it would be a really long run, I think I could make it there but getting home might be another story. Luckily for me I live in a small town where I can walk to most everything. Here is an example of how I am saying FO to the oil companies......
When I got home on Tuesday my baby jogger had arrived and Teddydigital had already put it together for me (yay)! So yesterday after Sadie's nap I planned out what errands I needed to run. I put the baby in the running stroller and headed out. First we walked to the movie place and returned a movie and got a new movie. Then we walked over to the gas station to see if there was a long line for gas (just out of curiosity) and of course there was. By the way this is the universe's way of punishing all those people who don't care about our environment and drive SUVs. Now all the SUV people have to wait on the gas lines every few days because most places have a $40 limit on gas. Not to mention how much gas costs now. Anyway, so after that I picked up the pace and I did my run while pushing the baby. We ran for 45 minutes and then we walked over to the pharmacy so I could pick up something and then instead of just heading home we walked around town. It was a lot of fun. I did not drive the car once. Another thing I have been doing is reliving my days of living in NYC when it comes to getting groceries. Instead of doing a huge trip once a week I have been walking over to the store every day or so and just getting the things we need for that day. Its actually very nice and very enjoyable. Since the gas crisis I have been spending more time outside getting fresh air and exercise and I think its really improving the quality of my life.
Please, if you want to share your story about how you are adapting to the gas crisis or just how you are trying to change your habits to help the environment please post it in the comments and I will put it in the blog!

Crispy Cat Candy Bars go to Hollywood!

Guess where the front man and fearless leader of Crispy Cat was this weekend?...at the Emmys! That's right Joel Schantz founder and CEO of Crispy Cat went to the Emmys and rubbed elbows with a ton of clebs including Ben from Lost. Joel is not a Lost fan but Eric and I are so we were super excited to hear about that. We are currently waiting for the disk with all the pictures but when it comes in Stu and I are going to put up the pics for everyone to see! Apparently all the beautiful people in Hollywood love Crispy Cats just as much as the rest of us. Don't worry Asheville we will always love our tried and true hippie fans here at home, after all you are the ones that made us the hot shots that we are today! So check back to see all the pictures of the beautiful models and actresses lovin' on Joel.

On another note we here at Crispy Cat are interested to know how you are finding creative ways to have fun while saving gas. I keep seeing things about people organizing stay at home weeks and other stuff like that and I am curious to know what the creative and eco-aware Crispy Cat fans do. I know you guys do something so what the heck is it?...I'm running out of ideas for stuff to do on the days I am not a work! Just post it in the comments section and I will put it into the blog!

A green tip for the bored stay at home Mom...

At the moment I am only working 2 days a week. This gives me 5 full, glorious days to stay at home and do my other job...mothering Sadie! While being a Mom is the best thing I have ever done I will admit that sometimes I get stir crazy being at home all day. Here is where I get into a pickle....do I hang out around the house all day and avoid driving because gas is so expensive? or do I waste gas and go somewhere just to go somewhere? It is a very hard call because I hate nothing more than wastefulness, it is a serious pet peeve of mine. And now we are in a gas crisis because of hurricane Ike. We could not even get gas last week and it cost a fortune when I did get it. But what is a Mom to do? Well necessity is the mother of all invention as they say and so I decided that I was going to figure out fun things to do that did not involve driving and therefore help to free myself from my gas dependence. Here is what I did.......

While Sadie napped I got her stroller ready and then hung her cloth diapers out on the line. By the way nothing is worse than disposable diapers when it comes to waste. I use cloth 90% of the time, I will admit that I use one or two disposables at night. After she woke up and ate and got changed I popped her into her stroller and we set out. I needed to pay the water bill so instead of driving to the town hall or wasting the stamp we walked. It only took us 15 minuets to get to town and I noticed that Sadie did not make a peep the entire way, she just sat mesmerized by everything she was seeing. She is just now big enough to sit in the stroller without the car seat so instead of having to look just at me she can see the whole world. After we paid the water bill I decided that we were having too much fun to go home so we walked to the other side of town to take care of some errands we had to run. Along the way we stopped and chatted with a girl that wanted to say hi to Sadie and then we bumped into an old friend near the supermarket and we chatted with her for awhile. Then we ran some errands and set back to our house which was a good distance away, but we were totally enjoying being out and all the fresh air so we didn't mind. When we got to our street I noticed that my neighbor was out with her 6 month old and so I stopped at her house and chatted with her. Funny how she lives down the street and we have kids around the same age and we never stop and talk! But because I was walking we were able to connect. By the time I got home we had been out having fun and interacting with people and getting exercise and fresh air for over 2 hours! All without contributing to the thrashing of our environment or our bank account! Amazing!
That night I got to thinking about other ways that we can spend our day with out being cooped up and without hurting our environment. I decided to take the plunge and invest in a running stroller. I figure that instead of driving 20 minutes to the gym to have the daycare watch Sadie while I work out I could get a jogger and we can run together. Now, I didn't cancel my membership because there will be rainy days and freezing cold days too where we will need to get out. Even though the jogging stroller was sort of pricey I think in the long run it is a worthwhile investment. It cuts down on having to use my treadmill or drive to the gym or use workout DVDs that involve using the TV and best of all it is a way for us to have family time because now Teddydigital and I can run together instead of taking turns with watching the baby!
If you are a mom and you have tips for fun and earth friendly ways to spend the days please let me know we will put them in the next blog!!

Animal groups We Love!!!

Farm Sanctuary is one of my personal favorites when it comes to animal organizations. Over the years we have donated a lot of product to various events that they have held to help farm animals in need.
One of the best things about them is that they do a lot of education. So in keeping with the theme that being vegan is a snap I want to share a resource that makes it that much easier. First off Farm Sanctuary has a guide to compassionate living and we are featured in it along with many other companies that make vegan food, clothing and other products. It is a great resource to find alternatives for all the stuff you can't live without.
They all so have a website www.vegforlife.org and that will take you step by step through all the ins and outs of making a transition to vegetarianism or veganism lifestyle. It is very gentle and helpful and has a ton of information all in one easy to access and organized place. If you're curious about Farm Sanctuary and what they do you can check out their website www.farmsanctuary.com and if you are in the Watkins Glen area you can even take a tour and see all the animals that they have rescued and given a second chance to live a peaceful life!

Being vegan is a snap!

I'm back!! After a long and wonderful maternity leave I am back in the office a few days a week! So now I am back and ready to entertain and educate the masses on green living, animal issues and all that other good stuff that we here at Crispy Cat really care about!

One of the things that we here at Crispy Cat really want to express is that being vegan is so much eaiser than you might think...really, being vegan is a snap!! I had no problem giving up meat, I always thought it was disgusting and I always thought it tasted like it looks...nasty! But dairy was another issue all together, I was totally addicted to cheese. I really felt guilty though eating cheese and not being a vegan because I love animals so freaking much and I felt heartsick over the idea that I was contributing to the suffering of animals. Then the best thing ever happened to me...I found out that my daughter is allerigc to dairy. Since I breastfeed the doctor told me to cut out all dairy and because I would do anything for Sadie I immediately did. It was not even a question for me, I just did it and at first I did miss cheese and I craved it. But after a little while it just went away. I would say that by the time 2 weeks had passed I never even thought about it. Now it's been months and I don't miss it at all, in fact I feel better than ever. For the first time my digestion is great, perfect even and I almost never feel bloated. I heard somewhere that it takes 3 weeks for your taste buds to forget the way something tastes and I have found that to be true. Plus there are so many different and tasty things to eat instead. And that brings me to my next point...we here want to show anyone who might be struggling to make the leap just how easy and painless it can be. I am going to showcase vegans that we love and vegan recipes and all sorts of other good stuff, and to our Celiac people don't worry I have not forgotten you we will also bring you some gluten-free tidbits as well.
If you have a great story about going vegan let me know and we will put you in the blog and perhaps even in the newsletter!