On the Blog: December

Hello and Happy December! The holidays are officially here!

You might remember how I mentioned that we were looking forward to a quieter month in November? Aye, not so much.

I got a wicked head cold which almost knocked me out for a full week, at which point William caught the head cold which then knocked him out for even longer! So unfortunately we didn't accomplish my goal of publishing 7 posts. Darnit!

Ah well, I'm really starting to gain some perspective on this whole blogging thing. All things considered, November was actually a great month for us. We learned a lot, we made some big scary decisions (more on that later!), and I was able to push myself to Get. Stuff. Done. Procrastination and lack of motivation are 2 things I feel like I'm constantly battling and this month I know I did a heck of a lot better at pushing back and staying focused on my goals.

November's published posts:

1. On The Blog: November
2. The Ultimate Vegan Thanksgiving Loaf with Cranberry Glaze (Gluten & Soy Free)
3. Tumblr's Choice: Favourite Meals from October {on Garden of Vegan}
4. Rustic Vegan Oat Crisp Pumpkin Pie
5. 8 Simple & Delicious Recipes to Complete Your Vegan Thanksgiving Menu
6. The BEST Vegan 7 Layer Dip {Gluten & Soy Free}

The 7th post I had planned for the month was Part 2 to my Guide to Packing Easy Vegan Lunches. In order to meet some deadlines and get my holiday posts done in time for Christmas I've had to postpone that post until January. I apologize if you've been looking forward to it, at least it'll be at home next to all the other awesome healthy stuff we've got planned for the new year!

FindingVegan shared our Healthy Pumpkin Pie with Coconut Whip on their Twitter and FB page. This was my first time having one of my recipes featured on FindingVegan's social media channels so this is pretty exciting! It brought quite the boost of traffic which is a really nice bonus. If you're looking for great vegan finds, make sure to check out FindingVegan.com!

Improved food photography - We reshot the pictures for 5 of our old recipes to include in our post 8 Simple & Delicious Recipes to Complete Your Vegan Thanksgiving Menu. Wow, what an eye opener! We've shot those same recipes every year and the difference in the photography is striking. It was a real boost to see how much my photography has changed from vegan thanksgiving #1 to #2 and now #3! Take a look for yourself!

Sometimes it's hard to see yourself improving day to day or even month to month, but seeing things on a wider timeline of year to year was really striking. Sometimes you need to see things in perspective to see how far you've come!

We received some really cool stuff from some really cool companies - Lems Shoes were kind enough to send us some really neat vegan shoes to test out. I'm trying out the Boulder Boot while William tests out the Primal 2. The verdict so far? We are impressed! But considering the winter weather neither of will be testing them outdoors anytime soon.

The lovely people at Lovebean Fudge sent us samples of their vegan chocolate Superfood Fudge Spread and Superfood Sea Salt Caramel. ohmygosh,we can't wait to try this stuff out! We're including some squeeze packets of their Original Coconut and Essentially Raw Superfood Fudge Spread in our holiday giveaway later this month so make sure to enter! (Or hop on over to lovebeanfudge.com to try some for yourself!)

Coming up in December:

A recipe with Food Bloggers of Canada and The Little Potato Company. We've got potatoes on the brain big time right now! Be on the look out for an AWESOME potato recipe featuring The Little Potato Company's creamers this month! The recipe and accompanying blog post will be our application to become a brand ambassador for The Little Potato Company. We're really excited about this opportunity.

Holiday posts:

1. 2014 Holiday Themed Giveaway (we've handpicked some great vegan treats, you're going to love this one!)
2. No-Bake Candy Cane Brownies
3. Classic Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
4. a BIG Christmas roundup (everything from easy DIY gifts to a Christmas dinner menu!)

Exciting news!

We've got some HUGE changes in the works this month! Are you ready for a shake up?

I Love Vegan is getting a facelift! This month we're switching themes to something a little more food blog-friendly. William and I are going to be working like crazy in hopes to launch the new look by early January. We're hoping to keep a lot of the same aesthetics we've got going on now but with a theme that's a little more functional for our specific needs.

We're preparing ourselves for the next big step in blogging - This December we're making blogging our FULL-TIME GIG! Crazy right? Within the last few months it's become clear that our passion could turn into something more. This whole decision makes me feel a little scared but mostly excited. We've got all sorts of inspiration and ideas that we can't wait to get to work on, perhaps there's an I Love Vegan ebook or online course in our future for 2015!

That's it for this month's recap, see you in 2015!