Their name is mud.

This past Saturday the ladies of skinfood attended the 27th annual Mountain Glory Festival in Marion, NC. While, for us, the festival was pretty darn great, it was our neighboring booth that I do believe was a huge succeess ... and as far as I'm concerned, it was well deserved! I can't remember the last time I came across something so incredibly original, creative, and all around impressively ingenious! I just had to tell y'all about it.

May I present to you ... Authentic North Carolina Red Dirt Shirt.

What an absolutely fun idea! These folks are what being original is all about. Was no way I wasn't going to buy one of my very own! Long sleeve, perfect for the fall weather happening here in NC now.

If you have ever dealt with red clay dirt, you know what this stuff is like. Gets on everything. Stains like a demon. And 99.999999% of the people who know it hate it with an unequaled passion. It is the bane of every woman with kids, or a husband who works construction, and has to do their laundry. 

When my husband and I built our house ten years ago he didn't believe me when I told him the sooner we got that red clay covered up the better off we would be. Nope, man from Texas just had no clue. He kept putting off covering it up, being indecisive about landscaping options. We wanted to keep the property as natural as possible, no grass to mow, and low maintenance as a general rule. After a few months of waiting for him to decide, I put my foot down, ordered gravel, and had it put all around the house. I covered the front and back banks with mulch and planted English ivy and Periwinkle as ground covers.

During the time he had delayed doing anything, our dog and cat had tracked that red clay into the house onto our nice, new, sage green carpet. The cat also liked to lay on the back of the living room chairs - which were upholstered in a cream colored fabric - and I had to keep towels across the backs to prevent staining them. We had tracked it in on our shoes. Rain splashed it up on the house, staining the foundation and siding. Ruined a couple of pairs of his jeans from digging holes to plant some azaleas down the drive. Basically, it made a mess. The husband didn't realize how bad the carpet looked because he's red-green color blind and he, figuratively and literally, just couldn't see why I was making such a fuss.

It wasn't until I decided to redecorate the living room a couple of years ago that the husband got a really good look at the carpet. I'd attempted four times to clean the carpet over the years, but I could never get it back to the pretty silvery-green again. It had a faint rusty red haze all over the main walking areas. 

I'd had a large area rug centered in the living room, and in changing colors, it had to go. When I rolled it up the husband was stunned to see the difference between the carpet that had been covered up by the rug and the rest of the floor space. I will never forget the look on his face! I confess, I took advantage of the opportunity to say, "I told you so, husband dear!"

It bothered him so bad we ended up getting new carpet.

But I digress from the beginning subject!

Authentic NC Dirt Shirts!

Talk about a creative method to being green with dying fabric! The shirts are 100% cotton, and since they are dyed with real NC dirt, the color coming from iron oxide found naturally in the red clay, it's chemical free. Pretty darn cool. I would love to see jeans, skirts, curtains, or whatever! dyed like these shirts. And there are so many other types of plants and minerals in our own back yards which can dye things beautiful colors ... yet not be harmful to the environment! If you don't believe me, check out this website: Pioneer Thinking. They list a huge number of plants which can be used for dying, separated into the colors they produce. I might just have to give those Pokeweed berries a shot and make myself a purple shirt!

Namaste, y'all ...

Carol