FUNK OFF! Handmade Vegan Bath + Body Products!

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A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the super rad Michelle who runs the sweet little company FUNK OFF! with her (future) husband, Chad! They are based out of northern California and they're looking to spread the Funk Off word! I was flattered and excited when they asked me to check out some of their products and let them know what I thought!

Here is a blurb from their etsy so you will have a little bit of background info!

We hope you like what you see and we're certain you'll like what you smell when your order arrives! We've got a product for just about anyone, if you gotta get fresh why not Funk Off! 

All of our products are natural and cruelty free. In fact, all of our soaps are Vegan with the exception of the honey soaps, since technically honey is not Vegan. Our body sprays and lotions are Vegan too!

All of our natural, earth friendly products are made by us, we only work in small batches to ensure top of the line quality and freshness and long lasting scent. Every little measure, chop, mix, pour, cut, fold, stamp, wrap is done by us. We put the utmost care and attention into every detail, every step of the way to create a perfect product every time…not factory perfect, truly handmade perfect!!!

All of our scents are favorites. We’re not kidding! Originally we started with a trial of about 16 different scents (imagine smelling one after the other, 16 times in a row!), but once the results were in we were able to narrow it down to our Top 8 scents. So, every scent we bring you is the best one!

Each soap is made using the finest ingredients. Our natural soaps boast quality, the hemp and shea butter soaps have higher amounts of actual hemp seed oil and naturally crushed shea butter than most of their kind. And the palm oil in our bases comes from vendors that are members of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil!

Every bar of soap has a nice layer of exfoliating, apricot seed on it's top with a gentle amount of exfoliant throughout the entire bar. 

We hope you enjoy all of our natural products and eco friendly packaging! We do our best to make sure we are bringing you a truly handmade product, using hand stamped recycled packaging materials.

I was really excited when the box arrived and I opened it in the middle of class! The room quickly filled up with the sweet aroma of the soaps! I caught myself putting on the lip balm every 15 minutes even though I didn't need it! It stayed soft and silky for quite some time but it smelled so fantastic!

(I realize now that I forgot to add the 3 lip balms in the photos, but I assure you, they are awesome!).

Michelle and Chad were so kind to send so many lovely goodies over to us! They even included more manly scents and such so that Mike could enjoy them too!

Okay but the REAL KICKER was opening the package and having something for Miss Georgia courtesy of their little pups! There was even a note! That truly tickled me because I'm such a fan of really personal packages and believe me, Georgia enjoyed that little treat!

So my review: We can't stop using the stuff! As of right now, out of the soaps, the Sapmoss Bonsai has been my favorite, but we keep them in both of our bathrooms and we've both been caught washing our hands simply for the sake of the good smell and the nice scrub on top! And they're so pretty, too!

Mike and I walk around the house with our hands up to our faces smelling them and then we'll run over to the other and say "Smell this!" or "What flavor is on your hands?!"... I'm not exaggerating when I say this! (Seriously... come over. I bet we'll make you smell our hands... or at least go in one of our bathrooms and wash yours!)

Basically, Michelle, can we be your official spokespeople for Funk Off because we are IN LOVE! I'm requesting Funk Off! bubblebath, dish soap, and candles! The scents were so wonderful and so unique! 

Mike favors the Oatmeal - Milk - Honey Later Gator Lotion but I'm loving the Cool Mountain Moss Lotion! We've been spraying the Lavender Vanilla Keep It Fresh body spray around the house along with the Sandalwood Vanilla Nag Champa! (Aren't the names great?!) 

FUNK OFF! comes highly recommended by both Mike and I (I guess I should throw Georgia in that mix, too!) and I definitely suggest you check out their Etsy, snag a few sweet-smelling goodies and spread the Funky word! CLICK HERE to visit the shop!

Have any of you ever used Funk Off! products? If so, what did you think? What is your favorite? For those of you who haven't, do you think you'll ever give them a shot? Let them show you what loveliness smells like! 

xoxo

and it's the weekend...

so yesterday we went and ate at genghis grill and had a nice little date day i suppose. then last night i called into work to find out if i needed to bother coming in... granted i'm not snowed in or anything but you mention the word 'flurries' and it sends everyone in tennessee into a tail spin. they told me to go ahead and come in so i did just that. got to work at 9pm and found out that they wanted to call me at 8:30 and say stay at home... but i leave for work at 8pm so i was already over halfway there. bleh. it was dead. dead dead dead. finally at midnight my boss man just told mde to head north and go home. i counted down my register, put out some glasses and headed home. much to my dismay, i had very very few bills in my pocket from the night. i talked to mike on the way home and finally got in at 12:45am. i practically coasted through downtown because it was so icy. i was determined to craft away last night so i did! i stayed up until 4am fighting with my sewing machine trying to make an iphone case. i hate how it came out but i guess its a step in the right direction.

we slept and slept and slept and slept. finally pulling ourselves from bed at 1:15pm. we made toast and headed out for daily errands. we went to JoAnn Fabric to get a new rotary cutter, a cutting mat, some snap clips, felt felt felt, sewing books, and a mini craft iron among other things. Then we got chips & salsa from Garcia's [our fave!] before heading home. We ate some chips and salsa, I listed a ton of stuff on my etsy and then we headed to Kroger to get a few groceries. we came home and made a vegan pizza with the new "cheese" i had talked about in the last post [btw, the brand is VEGAN GOURMET, not vegan alternative, my bad!]. but anywhoo, the pizza was fantastic. [i'll include the recipe below!]

this is what i wore today:



HOLY COW I'M WEARING JEANZZZZ! weird.

Outfit Details:
Shirt: Truly Madly Deeply for Urban Outfitters $28
Jeans: Charlotte Russe $30 [the flare jeans that a reader HATES, ha sorry!]
Flats: Walmart $9
Vegan Leather Jacket: Aryn K. for Therapy $100

The Pizza:

BEFORE it went in the oven

AFTER it came out. YUM!

This is the crust we used. You can buy it at Whole Foods.

How to make it:

• Preheat over to 425 degrees F. Take the crust out and drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil. Use a pastry brush to distribute it evenly. Apply a coat of pizza sauce [the amount to your liking]. Shred up Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Cheese Alternative and distribute evenly over entire pizza. Cut up a zucchini and slice in halves. Place zucchini and mushroom slices on pizza. Add a little more sauce and "cheese" if you want the vegetables to bake IN the pizza. Place pizza directly on the oven and cook for roughly 8-10 minutes, or when it looks done. Then slice and enjoy!

Mike and i were both pretty ecstatic when we took our first bite of the pizza because it was phenomenal. Mike's favorite food is pizza and he could eat his weight in it in a single day, i'm sure. Now he can have it yet again! I'm not sure I'd even want regular pizza again. I liked this tofu cheese because its not as heavy so it doesnt leave you feeling bloated and gross like normal pizza does. Anyway, y'all should all try it because it will make you believers :)

Angie, the other bartender at work, just called to let me know that i'm not missing a thing. It's been dead all night and we're just praying that it picks up next weekend. I've missed practically a week and a half's worth of work because of this stupid slump. I can't afford to miss any more :(

Here are two funny pictures of Baby G today.. I felt like sharing!


and just to end things on a good note, here are some silly FlipCam videos!








oh oh oh, one more thing, i know i mentioned it in passing up above, but i FINALLY listed some things on MY ETSY so please click HERE to have a look! especially if you love owls or vintage brooches because i'm clearing out parts of my collections! *If you're interested in buying multiple things, i WILL cut you a deal! just speak to me before purchasing!

a YUMMY vegan recipe!

okay okay! so i promised the recipe to the yummy vegan stirfry that mike and i make [read: i just cut the vegetables... he actually makes it haha]. and finally! my cardreader works so here you go! you guys should DEF try it! feel free to ask if something isnt described in enough detail, etc!


What you'll need:

• 1 pack Wild Rice Tempeh [can be purchased at Whole Foods]
• 1 pack Brown Rice
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 pack of stir-fry veggies [snow peas, carrots, broccoli]
• Sliced mushrooms
• 1 bottle of Stir-fry sauce [any brand is fine, the kind we got has a ton of sodium... bleh!]

* Start by washing & slicing the vegetables in halves & then halves again [quarters, derrrr]. Then slice those up into smaller pieces for the stir-fry... As shown below:



* Boil a pot of water and cook as much rice as you think you'd like [typically 1-2 cups, depending on how many you're feeding]. Boil the rice for about 30 minutes. [The package says cook it with a certain amount of water, but really, cook it with less. You want it to remain a little firm.] Basically cook it at your own discretion.

* Gather together all of your vegetables.


* Take the tempeh out of the package and slice it long ways. Then cube it up in a similar manner that you did the vegetables.



* Boil a pot of water and cook the tempeh for about 7 minutes.

* Then strain the tempeh and stick it in the oven on a cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes [until it is golden brown.] at 450 degrees F.



* Fix up a pan and put a very thin coat of olive oil and heat it up until the oil is nice and hot, then put in the vegetables. Let the veggies simmer until most of the olive oil is gone and then put in the stir-fry sauce. [or whatever sauce you choose, we're going to try sweet & sour next!]. Put the sauce in by thirds. Let the veggies soak up the sauce a little. The best rule of thumb for timing this is to try a carrot. When the carrot is at a decent texture, add in the rice & the tempeh and cook them around a little more. Continually turn the veggies and tempeh so it allows them to soak up more of the sauce. The timing is completely at your discretion [don't be afraid to try it while it's on the stove. Only you will know when it's the right amount of "done".]



* Then TAH-DAH! it's done! and eat it upppp!



It's such a fantastic recipe and Mike is oh so good at making it! I could literally eat it almost every day! We're going to try it with different sauces until we find one that is perfect. The regular ol' stir-fry sauce is great, but it's highhhhh in sodium! If you try it, let me know how it turns out for you! It's a wonderful way to try something vegan if you're thinking about making the switch, and it's something that even meat-eaters can enjoy!

xo

ps; if you'd like to see the rest of the photos that go along with this recipe, click HERE to see the set on Flickr!

holy absentee batman!

so sorry for the whole 'not blogging' thing.. i suppose the end of the year brought a serious case of laziness... well, not so much laziness as just being a busy busy bee. oops, i should start off by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR! hello 2010! you're looking mighty fine thusfar! i've been avoiding reading any of the new year resolutions in the comments of the giveaways because i want to be totally impartial when we choose one in a couple of days. ill just have mike read them aloud to me and we'll choose the best without seeing who left it. no favoritism here, ya know what i mean?! anywhoo, i'll kind of just throw in bits of what my week has consisted of.

it's been a LOT of vegan cooking with mike. fantastic! he's such a wonderful cook and i'm grateful that he actually enjoys cooking for me so that i dont have to. peep the photo below...i was definitely perched up on the counter eating a pickle sickle while he cooked. haha supervising at its finest!
the other night he cooked vegan veggie stirfry with wild rice tempeh and then brown rice. we also had vegan spring rolls. mmmm. it was SERIOUSLY like the best thing i've ever put in my mouth. no lies. im guilty of not liking to try new things but this was worth it.


c'mon... who WOULDN'T eat that? okay okay.. i digress. we've been tinkering around with new yummy foods to make and i can already tell that being vegan with mike is definitely going to make things a LOT easier. win! we' ve been keeping up with our tradition of waking up late, eating lunch at roughly 3:30 or 4pm and then coming home after errands, ginormous bubble baths, cooking dinner at 10pm and then crashing in bed and watching a movie. it's fool proof and i love it. the other night we watched like 3 episodes of Ace Of Cakes while laying in bed. I definitely made my love for that show contagious. he's now definitely a fan!

the past 2 nights we've made yummy veggie burgers and all that jazz. we had a very very very late lunch at blue coast burrito the other day after running errands in columbia and nashville so we decided to make it a full on date night. we ate, got ice cream before his vegan-ness became official today, and headed over to the movie theater to see Did You Hear About The Morgans?... well, we FINALLY got in the theater and it was CRAMMMMMED full of people. seriously. you could barely move. so we bailed and said we'd do that another night. instead we drove over to walgreen's to the redbox to rent Funny People but instead of just getting the movie and going home, we sat in the parking lot, in the car, and had an intense 1.5 hour conversation about our pasts and what it was like when we dated each other the first time around. Then we went home, cooked, and definitely just sat and talked for 2 or 3 more hours... never even watchign the movie. i love when you can have indepth conversations like that.

i feel so incredibly blessed to be with someone so amazing and i'm so so so grateful for him.

yesterday we took it fairly easy, grabbed lunch at genghis grill and just hung around for a bit. i had to leave for work at 7pm so we didnt get to spend new years together. kind of a bummer but i know nothing that silly and trivial will really play a huge part in our relationship. he had fun at a mutual friend's house party deal and i worked from 8pm til 2am. i really really did NOT want to go to work but i'm so glad i did. i made bank. it was really needed, too. we were so so so incredibly slammed so it was good. i'm not sure if any of you know how strange it is to be a bartender on new years eve with several hundred people in your bar and to be the only person there that abstains from any alcohol consumption... but its definitely interesting haha my job is DEFINITELY easier if you're under the influence of said alcohol, however i really enjoy not partaking in that so it all works out. i have to work again tonight and tomorrow so hopefully 3 nights of bringing home lots of cash monieeezzz. we'll see, i reckon!

it was awesome waking up to someone on the new year that i adore. and i've really been racking my brain for my ~new years resolutions. [honestly, i'm just like everyone else in the world... aka i'm really really bad at keeping them.. but i try to make them more tangible so here they are...]

my 2010 resolutions:

• continue to be completely & totally open minded to what the future has in store for me.
• absolutely BUST BALLS to rock my 2nd internship at BUST mag in NYC this summer.
• save save save! starting this weekend, $500 a week into my savings. NO. EXCEPTIONS.
• keep up with my blog regularly
• practice what i preach [read: continue to be optimistic, work on my self-esteem and while its okay to be my own worst critic, i also need to learn to be my own biggest fan.]
• continue to keep up with my moleskine on the daily. [it has seriously been one of the biggest AWESOME factors in my life. i swear by it. y'all need one.]
• continue on my healthy stint [read: stay vegan, continue to abstain from any drugs or alcohol, continue to kick that soda habit, etc]

the reason i start many of these with "continue" is because i dont see the new year as being a "fresh start" like some people... i dont wait until the "end of a year" to kick nasty habits. the measurement of time is completely man-made and the universe has no concept of this. it's foolish to say "2009 was such a crappy year" and try to place all blame on the cosmic universe to what happened to you, or the habits you acquired, etc.. thats just silly! 2010 is not a tangible thing.. it's merely something that exists in our minds. now, its perfectly fine to try and use this as a tool to help trick/train yourself to do something, but don't rely on this measure of time as though it's a life line. anyway, sorry, that was my little sch-peal about it all. hope that wasn't offensive to anyone! i just get a little peeved when people rely on something like that to change their ways. :)

i can't wait to read all of your resolutions! post yours in a comment on the post prior to this so you can be eligible to win the awesome goody package that i've rounded up!

happy new year, again, all of you! and a huge huge HELLO to my new followers! if we haven't spoken, please introduce yourself in the comments or shoot me an email! i love getting messages from y'all! [kaelahbee at gmail dot com!]

happy 2010! xo

Vegan Website Interface Survey.

please take this survey about the vegan website i'm currently designing. i'd really appreciate it & maybe even bake you vegan muffins!

http://tinyurl.com/ybznc4r

vegan

thanks to my lovely best friend Shannon, I've decided to finally take the leap into being fully vegan. i was vegetarian for 5 years through high school, etc, but now it's time to step up my game and really test my willpower. the past 3 days have gone off without a hitch. it's with great supportive systems like shannon and my mother that make the transition easier. if anyone is looking to become vegan, i highly suggest the VeganXpress app for the iPhone [amazing!] and websites like I Can't Believe It's Vegan! I already feel so much better physically and mentally. it's good to change up your lifestyle a little bit.

xo