anunrefinedvegan

Isn’t it nice not to have to clean up after a big party?

Ahh, my head is now swimming with vegan recipes – all of your delicious creations from drinks to desserts.  Now I just need to find the time to try them all out!  (Honey, I’m gonna be busy for a while…)  A lot of heart and soul went into each of your posts; it really showed.  The support among participants for all of the blogs in the circle was a beautiful thing and I was very gratified to read several comments along the lines of: Hey!  How did I miss this and how do I get involved in the next one?!

We had a few glitches, which was to be expected.  A lot of issues had to do with the trickiness of scheduling a post.  I myself sat staring at the time on the screen, wondering if I’d entered it right.  We also had some funky links (I made one of those errors) and some dead ends.  I expect as we all understand how and why the links work (and why they’re so important) those problems will be a thing of the past.  Other bloggers had technology malfunctions of one kind or another.  I was really bummed to have to bypass two blogs.  I did not want to have to do that, but I also wanted each blog in the circle to get the attention it deserved.

Sunday morning I went back through the Potluck and overall it moves really well.  However, there are still a few breaks in the chain.  If you are mentioned here (I’ve contacted each of you either by email or via comment already), please make these fixes as I’d like the Potluck to run seamlessly for anyone who comes through later.

1) Along Comes Mary did not participate.  Turning VEGANese, please update your link to go directly to Anne Sture Tucker’s VVP blog post.
2) Foodie McBooty, I still need you to add links directly to Christine Robyn’s blog post and to The Adventures of Vegan Charlie’s blog post.
3) Naughty Vegan and Hearty Herbivore, no need to change your links as I directed in my comments to you.  Please keep your links active to Rachel in Veganland – she’ll stay in her original spot in the Potluck.
4) If you haven’t already done so, please update your links so that they lead to the VVP posts rather than to the home pages.

and:

5) I noticed that on some blogs, comments I wrote did not get published.  This has been a problem with my blog, too – some comments go directly into the Spam folder.  FYI, keep an eye on your Spam folder for genuine comments – you may have some good stuff in there!  Don’t want anyone to think I did not visit and comment on their blog.
6) I’m slowly adding photos of your VVP recipes to my Pinterest board, Virtual Vegan Potluck.  Haven’t made it all the way through, but I’ll get there.

So now on to the most important thing: when are we doing this again??  How do you feel about doing this two times per year?  I’d love to keep the momentum going.  I’m thinking perhaps a mid-November date so we can share cold-weather and holiday-related fare.  Share your thoughts, please!

Which leads me to the next thing.  If (and when?) this Potluck gets bigger, I’m going to need help.  I’ve got a few ideas about that, but be thinking about how we can make this event easier, more efficient, smoother.  I’ve already identified some areas where we can improve and some ways we can make things (like posting times) less muddy.  Also, how do we maximize interest in it?  There are plenty of vegan resources on which we can call – it just means that we need to cultivate some of those relationships.  But, I have mixed feelings about the Potluck getting really big; too many participants means it loses some of the intimate community feel, yet I love the idea of having anyone interested involved.  Please let me know how the rest of you feel about the size of the Potluck.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, Jason had the brilliant idea of putting all of the recipes together in an e-book, available possibly at Amazon or another vendor.  I know I’d like to have a copy.  We’ll share more on that as we find out what that entails.

Please email me your thoughts and ideas or leave a comment on this post.  You are a creative, outspoken, energetic bunch and you made our very first Virtual Vegan Potluck a huge success!  Here’s to the next one!

P.S. Wishing the best to one of our participants, Veggie V’s Vegan Adventures, who is hosting Plants 2 Plate tomorrow in my home state of Ohio.  Best of luck, girl!  Proud of you for spreading the plant-based word.

P.P.S. Saturday night, after I’d settled down from all of the excitement, I decided I deserved (yes, I believe in positive reinforcement) to treat myself to these cute vegan sandals (the soles are made from yoga mat material!):