Mobile fashion shops (as in fashion shops in vans) are a thing in the USA.

If you're a London reader, there's a vegetarian café now hiring.

Been doing some reading on suffragette Ethel Moorhead.

One of my favourite vloggers Melissa Fabello films in front of her bookcase and being the nosey parker that I am (and knowing that we're likely to share similar tastes in books) her bookcase tour video had me watching intently.

I was searching on YouTube for more bookcase tours and stumbleupon an asmr and comic book cross over niche (This is a great ASMR channel which also includes a Morticia Adams does your make-up video).

I love the idea of a weekend away in Cornwall. In a treehouse. 

Best feminist books for young readers.

Events (such as weddings and corporate function) make the vegan in me worry if I'll have anything to eat. But I was at a work event and came across the GH Event Catering stand which had the gluten-free and vegan nibbles marked out!

After 18 years Buffy is still revoluntionary. 

You know that belief that women want relationships and men was casual sex? It's a myth.

Emily gives us 5 reasons to play netball.

Sky Sports will be broadcasting the Netball World Cup this summer (though I am annoyed that they're focusing on the England matches, there's other UK teams taking part you know...).

Here's a fantastic guide on switching your household energy supplier.

I've recently switched to Ovo Energy, and they've since joined the ECO pledge. 

There's a business Twitter chat called #CakeClubHour! 

A guide to what the clitoris is, and what it isn't.

How to turn negative social media posts into an opportunity.

In news that doesn't shock me, making girls look after a doll doesn't stop teenage pregnancy.

Hahahaha: a bisexual make-up tutorial.

You may have heard about #BoyCottLimeCrime and here's a good video on the low-down.

"If your name is uncommon, you are more likely to be a delinquent". And other findings about names that I'm not sure are true.

I'm a woman who doesn't want kids and it has happened that I've dated men who've wanted kids, so none of this surprised me.

"It's quite rude, insulting and ignorant." What Jennifer Aniston has to say about society's obsession with asking women when they'll have kids.

There's been a big leap forward in solar panelled transport recently.

TTIP is not getting much attention in mainstream media but the people who do know about it don't like it: including MPs who worry about what it will mean for our environmental standards.

The Campaign for Nuclear Dissarmament has has collected the views of candidates across Scotland regarding Trident and nuclear weapons and put them in a handy database.

Whilst on the topic of the elections, make sure you are registered to vote (they've changed a few things so please be diligent and double check).

The Vegan Womble is a great blog to find out what food/cleaning products/cosmetics are vegan in UK supermarkets.

There's a new restaurant in Dundee of the Lebenese persuassion and it has a very veggie friendly menu.

This SEO guide is quite technical but it's worth a read if you want to improve your URLs for search.

A guide to sponsored content on Instagram in 2015.

What happened when Rachel lived the life of the Pinterest popular page.

It was Steak & Blow Job day recently, and here's a feminist and vegan critique of it.

On the 4th of April you can visit Katie's Bar in Glasgow and get served by a guy from Corrie!

If you're in California and need abortion advice, please be wary of these places.

If you're in Minneapolis and need a winter date spot, here's an article.

In slightly more upbeat American news: the AHS mansion from season 1 was sold for $3.2 million.

And if any my readers are in the market for a castle, there's some in Italy for sale.

Nom: 5 ingredient vegan ice cream snickers.

And finally, brides tossing (badly Photoshopped) cats.

So far this year I brought you reviews of café and restaurants from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dundee. Today I'm finally got my feet back in my city of residence and writing a review for those of who don't live in all these other random places I like to visit (which would be most of you). It's Assams in Glasgow, situated on St Vincent Street right beside Cova. 

I recently popped along for a friend's leaving night (she's going to teach English in China) and she picked Assam's because 1) it's bring our own bottle and 2) they cater to particular diets. The second one being particularly important as there would be two vegans attending and someone with a gluten intolerance (and let's not lie getting to bring your own wine is a plus too). 

The menu is small and is set out so that anyone with dietary requirements can have things adjusted. The girl who had the gluten intolerance had a naan freshly made up for her. I went for the spinach stuffed mushrooms (which were lovely and are pictured) and Aloo Gobi (which was average). I also ordered a garlic naan (as always) but have to admit I have a lot better (I've been tempted to write up a post of the best nanns in Glasgow). 

The food was standard but we weren't paying that much for it and I was just over a tenner for my meal. It's a difficult one to call. As I have tasted better but given that you can bring your own wine and they're very flexible regarding dietary requirements I'm tempted to still recommend it if you're on a budget or are used to feeling awkward asking for something. 

Have you ever been to Assams? Where's your favourite Indian restaurant in Glasgow?

P.S. Some of my other reviews of Indian's in Glasgow include The Village Curry House, Akbars, and Masala Twist. 

I can't remember the exact date of very first #cfbloggers chat. But I remember chatting about it in February with Tilly and Charlotte, and we were going for a spring launch date (I looked back through my archives and it was the 20th of February, so not March). And this being #BeCrueltyFree week seems like the perfect time to chat about the past year and churn out some advice for anyone wishing to set up their own Twitter chat. 

The idea of hosting a Twitter chat had been in me for a while but the usual reasons held me back: time, would anyone take part, someone could do it better etc. But then I got chatting to Tilly and Charlotte and we decided to go at it as a three. It has grown a lot since then and I'm also the only original mod left, and I now run it with Louise and Lizzie. So lot's of twist and turns.

But I am really proud of how far the chat has come. I said in my 2014 wrap-up post, 2014 was a game-changing year for cruelty-free blogging. It's been so exciting to watch it become a niché within it's own right which is separate from beauty blogging. And along with some of the lovely people who are part of this community and the fantastic people I've met through the chat (some of who I have now met in real-life!). 

Whilst it's been busy, I'm glad I started the chat up. Twitter chats are already established as a great way to promote your blog and get involved in the blogging community. However hosting a Twitter chat has grown my blog's readership more than just taking part in Twitter chats has. So if you really enjoy a good old natter on Twitter then maybe hosting a Twitter chat is for you. Here's some of my tips. 

Be committed

First off, understand that hosting a Twitter chat takes commitment. Not raising a child or obtaining a degree commitment but you have to dedicate time to it and understand it won't magically take off. For example, I keep my Thursdays clear the best I can (no late night shopping for me!) as taking part isn't exactly optional for me...

Once I was going to a gig on a Thursday and I knew I had to host from my phone. Unfortunately the venue didn't get much signal so I had to go outside and host it from my phone (in December). 

Team-up

Even in full hind-sight I'm glad I didn't start this myself, as running a chat is a lot of work. There's usually three mods but sometimes there's been two as some mods have moved on to do other things. Between us we split the work - someone organises who guest hosts, someone looks after the Facebook page, someone looks after the account on the night etc. 

It also helps when a moderator decides to move on. I'm still enjoying hosting the chat but I know the day will come when I choose to focus on other things and I want to know it will be left in good hands. 

Check out the other chats

It can sometimes feel as though there are hundreds of chats, and I sometimes log-on to Twitter in the evenings and find my timeline full of tweets relating to four different chats at the same time. When we started one of my worries that we were adding yet another chat to an already saturated Twitter timetable. However no chat closely resembled ours - and to my knowledge there still isn't - so it was something that was different. But with all the chats going on make sure you're idea isn't already taken (and ask about to see if there's a demand for it). 

Announce it ahead of time

We gave ourselves about three weeks of promotion before starting. This gave us enough time to promote, enough time to brainstorm topic ideas, enough time to set all technical aspects up, enough time to delegate...you get the idea. It was also enough time to gage whether there was the demand for this kind of chat.

Get a Twitter client
I use Tweetdeck, and I have columns set up for notifications to my personal account and the #cfbloggers account, a column for all tweets with the tag #cfbloggers, a column for all tweets with the misspelled #cfblogger, a column to show all tweets tagged #crueltyfree, and one for messages from both my accounts (plus others for personal use). 

Keep track of what works, and act on it

When you have a great idea, it's really easy to become stubborn and ignore the signs its not working. The chat has evolved differently to how I originally envisioned it but we had to go with what was working. We were never planning to make it 100% guest-hosted  - we only did guest slots to give ourselves a breather, however these chats had a higher rate of participation and now the mods have only hosted once since the start of the year (from their personal account). 

It's community driven, not moderator driven

Similar to above. But it's important to remember that blogging has a strong community aspect and you should bare it in mind when building a chat or a blog. When we began to let go and hand more power back to the community (such as allowing guest slots) the engagement increased. 

Rome wasn't built in a day

At the start there would be chats where no one would show up. I once continued asking questions from the CF Twitter account and answering them from my personal Twitter, so essentially was having a conversation with myself (yeah). I felt stupid but people eventually began joining in and that chat went on until 11pm! Thankfully we haven't had an empty chat in some time now but be prepared in the beginning that it will happen. As with all projects be patient and persevere. 

It's been a lot of work and sometimes I've had a few tantrums but it's been heartwarming to watch it grow and it always feels wonderful when we have particularly good natter on a Thursday evening. And thank you to everyone who takes part, even if it's only now and then and also thank you to the people who had supported it (included IRL friends who has understood that Thursday nights are out for me). 100% love. 

Bunny pants from this Etsy shop. 

This week has been #BeCrueltyFree week and I have been taking part in #BlogForBunnies, a camapign by the Humane Society International. I wrote my post on Monday with a few facts on animal testing for cosmetics but for today's Linkables post I thought I would do a cruelty-free theme (it also means next week's non-themed Linkables will be a bumper post!).

This cosplay blog has a cruelty-free tag. 

An article on the update on the first moves towards a ban in South Korea. 

And this article that reminds us that it's not an outright ban. 

And the world is currently looking at New Zealand as a ban becomes a hot topic there. 

New Zealand cruelty-free blogger Sarah Lilly shares her top 5 cruelty-free brands. 

Buying Cruelty-Free hasn't been updated since 2014 but it's a great resource for learning about legislation. 

It caught me out recently but keratine isn't animal friendly (though I have heard there are plant-alternatives).

Amy celebrated #BlogForBunnies by blogging about the best vegan male skincare. 

Claire created a playlist on YouTube of all the #BlogForBunnies vlogs.

Jen went listed her cruelty-free top ten.  

Helen of Tea in The Tub lists her favourite cruelty-free blogs. 

Sarah - who is one of my favourite natural beauty bloggers - also wrote a post for #BlogForBunnies. 

Emily shares with us her cruelty-free wishlist. 

Gemima shares her recommendations for a cruelty-free starter kit. 

Something that us bloggers have in common is that we love a good nosey into other people's lives, So when Jessica's posted her full cf collection I was glued to my laptop ha!

Remember the time The Body Shop was caught selling in Chinese airports? 

I've shared this before but Amber wrote a great post last October on the alternatives to animal testing. 

If you want to know more about medical testing you can learn more form the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research.

The Dr Hadwens Trust also carry out similar research, and it's a register charity which you can donate to. 

And just to be clear, 'natural remedies' aren't always that animal friendly.  

The Vegan Kind and Souk Souk are the two cruelty-free beauty boxes I know of in the UK. 

The Good Box is a new subscription box on the market which includes ethical goodies.

Petit Vour is a cruelty-free beauty box in the States.

What have you been doing this #BeCrueltyFree week? 

When I was most recently in Dundee it wasn't just the West Bar that I took my tastebuds on a wee trip to. Before my bus on the Sunday I stopped by another café in the Westport area which I had heard offered a good vegan selection called Avery & Co. 

Because my backside needed to be back on the Glasgow bus in the next wee while this was a bit of a flying visit. So even though there were multiple choices on the menu I wanted to dig my vegan paws into I decided to pick the falafel (minus the tzatziki, which was no trouble for the kitchen) just for quickness. But I'd love to go back and sample the lentil pate, the veggie haggis or go later in the day and try out their dinner menu.

I was also there with my pal Alan who went for the steak burger and he said it was a very good burger! 

Something else I really liked about this place was the atmosphere and decor. The owners clearly put a lot of effort into the whole café and not just the food. The place was grey but with flashes of yellow in the menu, the occasional chair and the napkins. They also have a very strong social media presence with an on-point Facebook page and Instagram feed. I might just think these are nice touches because I'm a marketer however it just gives that feel that a business is really passionate about when they do when they take things such as branding and social media seriously.