Living Without Meat

Certain things just go together: peanut butter and jelly; kings and queens; hyenas and laughing; babies and poopy diapers; arts and crafts, cat hair, and … vegetarianism?

That’s what I said, crafty people tend to be animal-loving, nature-communing, hippie-ish vegetarians. Or perhaps it’s vice versa. I haven’t exactly seen a scientific study on the matter, this is simply my observation. Here are some from, craft-related bits that support my wacky theory:

1. Craftster, one of the greatest craft Web sites out there, has a forum specifically for vegetarians and vegans under the cooking as an art form section.

2. CRAFT Magazine has featured a number of veggie-friendly, inspired, or ironic blog postings and projects, and even one dropping of the word “vegetarian” in there.

*Check out their highlights on an ironic bacon scarf where Craftzine blogger Becky Stern offers you “plus ten points for wearing it with vegetarian irony.” This is the fatty neck wrap pictured here.

*A woman with the coolest name ever (duh! Sally!) was featured for her whimsical leaf mobile.

3. Etsy, a place to buy and sell homemade delights, is having a costume design contest in which Treehugger is sponsoring and judging a Green category! De dada daaaaa it’s time for your superhero - Veggie Vixen - to hit to costume crafting table!

4. Crazy Aunt Purl. She’s a blogging knitter, and although she does eat meat, there is no denying her love for her many cats.

5. I have an category for posts (look to the right —>) called Artists and Crafts. But I’m not the only Veg head blogger with a craft-related category! SuperVegan has one, as does the blogs forum Veggie Board.

6. Me! I teach knitting and arts/crafts classes, and am a vegan. As I look around my desk right now I see eight handmade items, a knitting calendar, and 10 animal-related decorations (hey, I never claimed we were neat people). Plus, I have two awesome rescue cats, Julius and Marshall.

7. And don’t forget all of the celebrities who are involved with vegetarianism and animal rights (is acting still an art?). Some, like Kristen Bell, have spoken out about their diet; some, like Alicia Silverstone, posed for ads and campaigned with PETA, some are activists like Chrissy Hynde, and still others, like some of the members of Good Charlotte and the Beatles, let it out in their music.