Yes, I am a bag lady ... and proud of it!

I love bags. Tote bags, that is. One of the things I've learned in being a 'greenie' is that those oh-so-convenient plastic bags every store on the planet stuffs your stuff in at the check-out counter are really about as convenient as a case of poison ivy on your butt. You might laugh at that, but let me give you a few statistics to put in your poke ...

• Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistaken them for food
• The manufacture of plastic bags add tonnes of carbon emissions into the air annually
• In the UK, banning plastic bags would be the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the roads each year
• Between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year
• Approximately 60 - 100 million barrels of oil are required to make the world’s plastic bags each year
• Most plastic bags take over 400 years to biodegrade. Some figures indicate that plastic bags could take over 1000 years to break down. (I guess nobody will live long enough to find out!). This means not one plastic bag has ever naturally biodegraded.
• China uses around 3 billion plastic bags each day!
• In the UK, each person uses around 220 plastic bags each year
• Around 500,000 plastic bags are collected during Clean Up Australia Day each year. Clean Up Australia Day is a nationwide initiative to get as many members of the public to get out and pick up litter from their local areas. Unfortunately, each year in Australia approximately 50 million plastic bags end up as litter.

The above info was snitched from Natural-Environment.com. 

Think about it.

Now think about how simple it is to not use those plastic bags of woe. My personal choice is canvas bags. They are sturdy. They are washable. They last for years. They are easy to take with you, whether it's for buying groceries, getting books from the library, or even to haul your stuff out to the park for a picnic! They are easy to store when not in use. They can be decorated a million different ways - which appeals to the artist in me. They multi-task - which appeals to the 'greenie' in me.

I love my skinfood tote bag. You can get one at our CafePress Store. They are really nice, heavy weight cotton duck canvas. Roomy sized to hold lots of stuff. I have lots of other tote bags, too. Big ones. Small ones. Plain ones. Decorated ones. I use them all the time for all kinds things.

But, if you find yourself stuck with the plastic bags of woe and want to get rid of them, what do you do?

A lot of grocery stores have a big bin for collecting bags for recycling. Some of your 'convenience centers' (where you haul your trash off) also have plastic bag collections. And then, I've read about some creative folks who use them for creative things.

I've seen them woven into rugs at Homestead Weaver.com

I've seen them knitted or crocheted into tote bags at My Recycled Bags.com

I've seen them crocheted into sandals at Craftsters.org

I've seen them made into wallets, dish cloths and scrubbies, hats, raincoats, jewelry ... an incredible array of crafts all from plastic bags! I, for one, am truly impressed with these people and their efforts to make something good out of something bad.

Namaste, y'all ...
Carol

A lovely Autumn breeze and a clean smellin' house.

It's Autumn here in the mountains of western North Carolina. My favorite season of the year. The only downside is what comes after - nasty cold winter, but I try not to dwell on that part. Instead, I turn my focus to how nice it is to open my windows to the fresh air after a hot and humid summer, and the dreaded air conditioning - which my husband loves so much. I love seeing the leaves change colors from their coats of bright greens to all the fall colors of rust, orange, gold, yellow, red, ocher, sienna, toasty browns and ... well, what can I say, I'm an artist and it just thrills me.

I get to pull out my sweaters and scarves and wear them. (I'm cold-natured and love sweaters and scarves!) And don't get me started on thick, fuzzy socks! I get to drink cups and cups lovely flavors of hot tea. My cats get all snugly and sleep, like little furry heating pads, on my feet at night. The air is crisp and clear, the sky is a stunning shade of, well, Carolina blue. Squirrels run around my property collecting acorns and building their nests in the oak trees. I start thinking of pumpkins and wood fires burning and cinnamon and apple cobblers hot out of the oven. Yes, I love Autumn.

One of the other things that comes with the onset of Autumn is a thorough house cleaning. Yeah, I don't exactly consider it a 'joy' as I do watching leaves change colors. It's house work, after all. Dusting, vacuuming and scrubbin' toilets ain't a party. The upside to the grunge work is what I use to clean. Now, that IS a party - a party for my nose!

Part of 'living green' is cleaning up your act with your cleaning products. Last post I got on my soap box about the dangers of shampoo. Today, it's a little rant about, you guessed it, cleaning products! Thing is, most of that stuff on the market really should come in the same containers they put hazardous materials in. Big ol' HAZ-MAT stickers slapped all over them. Warning! Use At Your Own Risk! Kills You, Kills The Environment! 

In a perfect world, they wouldn't even have the stuff available for sale. But it ain't a perfect world. Unless we change our habits, it isn't likely to even be habitable in the not so distant future. Scary thought, that.

Before I became a 'greenie', I was just like every other typical house-keeping woman out there. I thought the smell of Pine-Sol and Lysol and 409 meant I had a clean house. I had done a good deed. I followed the directions, wore my fancy yellow Playtex gloves, and scrubbed and cleaned and wiped and disinfected. I was a warrior. I was winning the battle against all those nasty germs that crawled, unseen but dangerous, on all the surfaces in my house.

But there was one small fight I had over and over, and over again. I always came out the loser. Beaten by a tea cup. Go figure.

Anyone who drinks coffee or tea knows about the inevitable stain that develops in a cup used repeatedly for that coffee addiction. Oh sure, if it's a dark cup you don't see it so much. My cup, on the other hand, was white. At least, it was for awhile. Then, after a few months of use it was still a lovely white on the outside; ugly, dingy brown on the inside. I tried bleach. I tried several other tricks. No go. The dingy brown mocked me.

One day, just for kicks, I decided to try an old method I remembered my mother told me about. (She's a big hot tea and coffee drinker, too.) Baking soda. Straight up. Mixed with just enough water to make a paste. Rub all over the inside of the cup. Rinse out. No gloves needed. Guess what. That's right. Freakin' cup looked brand-spakin'-new. It was so white it sparkled. I marveled.

Then I got busy researching that most humble powders' cleaning power. Did you know there is a book entitled, "Baking Soda: over 500 fabulous, fun and frugal uses you've probably never thought of" by Vicki Lansky? I bought it. I read it. I was impressed. I highly recommend it.

While studying up on the wonders of baking soda I discovered the horrors of all my other, traditional cleaning products. Yikes! Wicked bad mojo in those bottles. Scared the beejeebees out of me. No wonder they tell you to wear gloves! Do the research, find out for yourselves. Find out not only what that bottle of 409 is made of, what harm it can do to you, what harm it does by leaching into the groundwater - not to mention the business practices of the company. Gives me chills to even say the words ... animal testing. (I'm going to save that particular rant for another day.)

I immediately bagged all that stuff up and hauled it to a hazardous materials recycling center. Wasn't about to keep using it. Nor was I going to dump it down the drain either. No way. This was one of those 'smack you in the face' kinds of wake-up calls to becoming a 'greenie'. The more I learned, the more determined I became to change my lifestyle right along with my cleaning practices. As I said in another post about becoming green, it was pretty overwhelming. So, I took it a step at a time. Cleaning the house safely, naturally, and as an added bonus, frugally. Can't argue with saving money!

Yet now I'm faced with coming up with an alternative. Still have to clean the house. Still have to do laundry. Wash dishes. Scrub toilets. Ya' can't not clean your house. What to do? Well, I had my first ingredient - sodium bicarbonate, a.k.a. baking soda. But it needed some 'umph'. It has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and disinfectant properties, but it needed to smell good, too. Inexpensive came with it automatically. More research, more reading.

I read that white vinegar is another 'magic' cleaner like baking soda is. Met my checklist of requirements; safe, natural, disinfects, frugal. Sadly, it bombed on the smell-good part. Bombed in a big way. I was not to be deterred. The smell of vinegar is a bit of an olfactory offense, but the smell also dissipates fairly rapidly. You also get the quick thrill of a fourth grade science experience when you mix it with baking soda. Scrubbing Bubbles can't compete to the volcanic foaming action of baking soda and vinegar! You'll want to mix those two in a nice, big bucket. Trust me on that one. Anyway, while my new brew cleaned impressively, it didn't give me that "Oh my house smells so clean!" experience. 

There's about a billion and one recipes out there in information land for natural cleaning. I think I read them all. Buy yourself some essential oils to fancy up your baking soda and vinegar and you have an unlimited cornucopia of flavors you can concoct in your very own kitchen. I tried more than a few. Funny thing, a nose. What is true about one man's trash being one man's treasure is also true about scents. One recipe said oils of rosemary and thyme would provide a heavenly scent of clean. Uh, not true to my nose. Another said rose and basil would be just the ticket. My nose requested a refund.

Of course, I have to consider not only my own nose with respect to smell-good stuff around the house, I have a husband who has his own opinions about smell-good stuff, too. I am inclined toward earthy, spicy kinds of smells, but clean smells as well. The husband, on the other hand, likes clean smells, yet also rather flowery kinds of smells. The art of compromise jumped into the mix.

During one afternoon of experimental cleaning, I knew I had hit on a winner when I got a visit from the UPS man. I had just finished cleaning the kitchen with my new test formula when he knocked on the back door. This stranger, in brown uniform and box in hand, quite literally, followed his nose into the house when I opened the door. He was sniffing like a dog. I had to take a couple of steps back and over to block him from coming on into the house. My "Excuse me!" got his attention. Poor guy looked completely surprised to realize he was IN my house instead of on the porch where he was supposed to be. He kind of shook himself, handed me the package and asked what it was that "smelled so good in there." I told him I was just cleaning the kitchen with a home-brew.

That really got his attention. A homemade cleaner? Smelling that good?. His words, and I quote, "You gotta' be kiddin'. I want that for my wife!" Oh yes, I found that really funny. To use or to wear, Mr. UPS Man? I got pen and paper and wrote down the mix. Made him a really happy guy.

So now I'll share that recipe with you ...

1 gallon hot water

1 cup white vinegar (cheap store brand)

1 tbs. baking soda

1/2 cup lemon juice (cheap store brand)

10 drops lavender essential oil (therapeutic grade, not fragrance grade)

5 drops sage essential oil (therapeutic grade, not fragrance grade)

I mix up a fresh batch each time, and I use it for cleaning pretty much everything. Put some in a spray bottle to clean counter tops and other surfaces. Mop water for floors. Take a 1/4 cup and mix with enough baking soda to make a paste to scrub the shower and sinks. Use a half mix - half white vinegar for windows. Use the same paste mix to scrub the toilets - but still use gloves for that bit of cleaning! *Note - I purchased the essential oils from Camden Grey.

Not only have I saved lots of money over the last several years (I make this for pennies compared to the price of a few ounces of brand-name cleaners!), it's perfectly safe health-wise, perfectly safe environment-wise,  won't hurt my cats, cleanse better than anything I've ever used, and it smells pretty awesome. The husband loves the smell, too. Have to admit though, the cats aren't crazy about the smell.

If you are thinking of making a change to greener cleaning products, give this a try. I can't say you will think the smell is all that and a bag of chips, but that's the way noses work. You gotta' experiment. If you do give it a go, let me know what you think about it.

Namaste, y'all ...

Carol

I washed my hair today.

Yes, yes. I know y'all are thinking, "Well, Carol, I wash my hair every day!" Thing is, I don't. Now, before you get all grossed out, allow me to explain ...

In my earlier post about living green, I talked about how skinfood helped me eliminate a lot of harmful products from my health/beauty repertoire. Something in all that mix I had not eliminated was my shampoo and conditioner. Yeah, I had switched to something organic, but I was still tied into the belief I had to wash and condition my hair every single morning like clockwork or some obscure beauty care rule would be irrevocably broken and bad things might happen.

Like a bazillion other women on this planet, I was as faithful to the never ending search for healthy, soft, shiny, manageable, lovely locks as a dog to its master. Oh, to think of the hundreds of shampoos and conditioners I tried over the past 40+ years! And, sometimes I achieved success ... and sometimes I had hair resembling last years' birds' nest. A roller coaster ride of hair care. I'm sure y'all know just what I'm talking about.

About three years ago I started reading a lot about homemade beauty products. I had decided it was time to begin my process from being vegetarian to being full-fledged vegan. (notice I said 'begin my process', but more about that later!) I wanted to get rid of as many 'artificial' and/or 'animal based' products as I could. I wanted to get rid of even more chemicals, toxins, and basically nasty stuff from my little corner of the world. In all this research, and I don't even remember where now, I read about 'no poo'. To break it down simple: baking soda to wash, apple cider vinegar to condition. If you have really curly hair, you wash with just conditioner, no baking soda.

Shampooing, as we know it today, didn't come about until the 1930's when Dr. John H. Breck, Sr. founded Breck Shampoo. Remember the Breck Girls advertisements? Lovely ladies with silky soft hair. Kim Basinger and Brooke Shields were Breck Girls. Before then, people often used some form of soap made from animal fats and wood or plants ashes containing potassium carbonate. Think of lye soap - which is dangerous to make and pretty darn irritating to the skin for lots of people. It wasn't a great success on hair either.

Over the decades shampoo has gone through untold changes and modifications in formula, has been made by a staggering number of companies. Thousands of flavors for every hair type on the planet. The list of ingredients on a bottle of shampoo reads like a crazy science experiment ... a scary combination of hazardous chemicals stirred up together, with a little good smelling stuff tossed in to mask the danger. Something that smells so nice can't be bad, now can it?

Oh yes, my dears, it's not only just bad, it can kill you.

No, it won't have you curled up on the floor of your shower, writhing and foaming at the mouth like the death scene from a movie where an unsuspecting husband drinks the rat poison cocktail his smiling wife just made for him. Nope, it's actually a lot worse. 

What you eat goes into your body, it gets digested, and the nutrients (and everything else in that food) gets absorbed into your system. That hamburger you ate for lunch? Eventually it will make its way into your blood stream, into your muscles, into your internal organs, etc. The process is the same with anything you put ON your body. Your skin is your largest organ, and it absorbs like a sponge. Think about that. The lotion you put on your hands soaks right in, gets into your blood stream, moves right into your organs and other tissues.

First time I really thought about it, well, it kinda' freaked me out. Particularly after I understood just what was in that hand lotion. Shampoo? Yep. You call it your scalp, but guess what, it's still just more skin, and it soaks up whatever is in your shampoo just like lotion on your hands. But you rinse it out! Hey, you put the stuff in your hair and massage it all over your scalp for a few minutes to get your head clean, right? It only takes a minute ... and your in the shower, where it's warm and your pores have opened up, too. 

So what's so bad in that sweet smelling shampoo you spend ridiculous amounts of money on?  (One time I actually spent $15 dollars on just one bottle of shampoo.) One of them is a detergent called ammonium lauryl sulfate, sodium lauryl sulfate, and/or sodium lauryl ether sulfate. Makes your shampoo foam up 'cause shampoo has to be all foamy and bubbly to work, right? Well, no, but everybody thinks it does. 

The Journal of the American College of Toxicology says that sodium lauryl sulfate is a know skin irritant. It can also blind you if you do not irrigate the eyes immediately if you get it in there. Studies have indicated that sodium lauryl sulfate enters and maintains residual levels in the heart, liver, lungs and brain from skin contact. Still other research indicates it may be damaging to the immune system, especially within the skin.

Now, tell me why it is necessary to put something in my shampoo that is irritating to the very thing I'm trying to clean - my scalp. Why does something I use so close to my eyes have the potential to blind me? Why does washing my hair need to be a hazard to my heart, liver, brain, or my immune system? I'm just trying to have pretty hair.

That is just one ingredient. 

Suave Naturals Lavender Shampoo with Lavender Extracts and Vitamin B5 is a 7 on the Skin Deep website for it's ingredients. It's natural. Has lavender in it. A nice B vitamin, too. Yeah ... and it is swimming in ingredients that are linked to cancer, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, organ system toxicity. Shampoo to clean my hair plus give me cancer, destroy my immune system, destroy my nervous system, and my reproductive system. Sounds like a sudsy, fragrant and vitamin filled way to a slow, unpleasant death to me.

So back to 'no poo' ...

I started my new hair care routine in January 2008. Seemed like an appropriate time to me. New year, new hair. Armed with a bag of this ...

and a bottle of this ...

I hopped in the shower and 'no pooed' my head. The formula: 1 tbs baking soda dissolved into 10 ounces of warm water. Pour it on dry hair, concentrating it on the scalp. Massage scalp with finger tips just like regular shampooing. Rinse. Pour another 10 ounces of warm water mixed with 1 tbs. apple cider vinegar over hair, again concentrating on getting it all over scalp. A little more scalp massage. Rinse with cool water.

Honestly, I didn't know for sure what to expect. I had read blogs written by other women who had done the 'no poo' thing. Some loved it. Some hated it. I knew I was pretty much a good candidate for the process because I have thick, naturally wavy hair which tends to get coarse, dry and slightly frizzy if I don't keep it well conditioned.

I wanted to give 'no poo' every chance to prove whether it would work or not. I gave myself three months before I passed judgment. I was prepared to start wearing hats for a month, or two. I'm a knitter, so I was kind of psyched  over the prospect that I might have the opportunity (or excuse!) to knit up some spiffy hats to sport around in. Alas, by the end of the third week I knew I was forever done with traditional shampoo. I was a 'no poo' convert.

The first week I 'no pooed' three times. The second only twice. The third week I went six days before I pooed my hair. *Note - I can't stand to let my hair dry naturally because it's thick - takes forever to dry, not to mention it's too flippin' cold in January to venture outside with a wet head unless you live in a tropical paradise. Thus, I did use my hair dryer, but only to dry the roots. Oh, my hair is long. It was about down to my bra strap at that time - even longer now.

Look up the word 'flabbergasted' in the dictionary and you will see my picture. My hair felt soft. It actually had some shine again. I could comb it and not have to fight with tangles. It was like little kid hair. Wow.

For the remaining nine weeks I 'no pooed' every Monday morning. If at any time I got sweaty from exercise, I'd do a quick 'no poo' that day as well, but basically kept it to once a week. For the first time in several years I had strangers tell me they thought I had pretty hair. One guy in line behind me at the post office even reached out to touch it - and got all embarrassed when I caught him. He said, "I sure wish my wife had hair like yours." While a little strange, I still thought it was a nice compliment. And, a testament to the 'no poo' method of shampooing my hair.

Now, it hasn't been 100% effective in giving me fabulous hair. As I said, my hair is naturally thick and has a history of being temperamental, coarse, and often dry. Diet, climate and stress levels also play an important factor in the condition of a person's hair. I've had my ups and downs with those, too. But in all this time the only extra step I've added to 'no pooing' is a deep conditioning treatment once or twice a month on the ends. For this I use plain ol' olive oil.

Without doubt, 'no poo' isn't for everyone. I've asked my husband to try it because he's got a life-long battle raging with the dreaded dandruff beast. I've explained to him that the vinegar will actually re-balance the ph level of his scalp and most likely eliminate the dandruff problem. He doesn't like the smell. I said, okay, then use orange juice - it's the acidity you're after anyway. He said orange juice was for breakfast, not bathing. He's a grown man, he can do what he wants. I've got friends and family members who love their shampoo routine just too much to give it up. I've also got another friend who swears she can't do it because her hair is too oily and the 'no poo' made it worse. Yeah, it will for some, for about a month or so, until the scalp/sebaceous glands can regroup and get their proper function going on again. She doesn't have patience, and won't wear a hat. Again, it's her choice and I respect that.

But for me, it's more about making a better choice for my health, both now and long term ...  clean, pretty hair is a bonus.

Namaste, y'all ...

Carol

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

Green is not only a beautiful color, I think it's a beautiful way to live.

One of the numerous reasons I became involved with skinfood was how it helped take me yet another deeply satisfying step in living 'green'. When I began the journey to green back in the early 90's, it was pretty overwhelming. The more I read, the more I researched, the more freaked out I got. It seemed everything around me - car, house, clothing, food, health care and beauty products were all toxic. My world seemed to be made up of nothing but harmful chemicals and totally non-eco-friendly things; frightening amounts of earth and health destroying stuff. I thought, "How do I do this?" It seemed as difficult as climbing Mt. Everest in a sundress and flip-flops.

I spent a lot of time beating myself up for all the 'bad' choices I had made. Beat myself up some more for living pretty obliviously to the impact I was making through those choices. And I beat myself up for not being able to completely change my life all in one felled swoop. Okay, kinda' ridiculous and self-defeating. I had to change that attitude and start patting myself on the back for opening my eyes to the problem, and for making that first single step forward in the right direction ... awareness.

To make what seemed like an insurmountable task to accomplish something I could do without breaking down and hiding in a dark closet, I took it apart, breaking it into bite-sized pieces. Sort of like a 12-Step program for a recovering drug addict. I was hooked on things that were bad for me, bad for the environment. I had to shift a lifetime of non-eco-friendly living into living the 'green' life.

My second step was figuring out what was the easiest to change. It wasn't like I could just sell my car, throw out all my clothes, dump all my cleaning and/or beauty products in the trash, and run off to live in a yurt in a commune. I started with the practice of replacing whatever I ran out of with something eco-friendly. Out of toothpaste? Made homemade with baking soda, sea salt and peppermint oil. Out of Mr. Clean? Made homemade cleaner with white vinegar, oils of sage, lemon and lavender. Need another pair of jeans or another sweater? Shop second-hand stores. You get the picture.

One very important part of this process was giving myself the freedom to make changes at a pace that was comfortable. Rome, after all, wasn't built in a day. As time rolled on, it got easier and I made bigger changes. I canceled my cable service (saving myself $70 bucks a month in the process!) and found I had more time to paint, to read, to just go for a walk. I stopped buying new books and made use of my library card. I stopped buying all that pre-packaged, processed, imitation food at the grocery store and started cooking again. Saved myself a lot more money there, too!

During all this time I never stopped learning more and more about what it means to truly live green. I found hundreds of websites with huge amounts of information, great ideas and suggestions, and realized how deeply committed I felt about changing my life and improving my eco-foot print. I realized simply changing me and my lifestyle automatically changed the effect I had on the planet ... even if seemed like a tiny drop in the bucket toward building a greener world for everyone to live in.

Then, several years ago, I discovered my friend Peggy made something called skinfood. Hmmm. Got a little sample of it and Hole-E-Smokes! I couldn't believe how incredibly the stuff worked! Cleared up my chapped lips, which I used to battle with constantly, in just a couple of days. Healed a nasty cut I got from slicing tomatoes in about three days - and no scar! Which was truly impressive because I tend to scar very easily. Immediately stopped the bleeding on a shaving cut on my ankle - and again, completely healed it in about two days. Got a little crazy and started using it as a hand moisturizer after doing dishes and low-and-behold, no more dry, itchy hands! My hang-nail problem went away, as well as my fingernails stopped splitting in layers just like Hungary Jack biscuits - a life-long problem! I was amazed, impressed, and completely hooked!

After using it for a while I had an epiphany ... all those other products I had used - Chap Stick, Neosporin, hand lotions, nail creams, styptic stick for razor cuts ....... I wasn't using them anymore! All those products I knew were full of toxins, and run by companies with horrifying business practices, had been totally and completely replaced. And it went even further. It became my new facial moisturizer that also cleared up those occasional break-outs! It softened up the heels on my feet! I used it after shaving and no more dry, itchy legs! If I got a little too much on my hands, no problem! I just rubbed into the ends of my hair and it conditioned those crazy, dry ends!

I figured it up one day and discovered that in about two months time, with one single product, I had replaced ten other products. And the product that replaced them was, without doubt, safe, effective, and eco-friendly. Wow. Just ... Wow!

For me, skinfood is a product I can trust. I can feel good about recommending it to others. It helped make a tremendous difference in not only a long list of personal health/beauty care concerns, but personal concerns about impacting my little place in the delicate eco-system that is our world. I'd say that's more than a small step in living green ... it's an awesomely big leap!

Now you tell me, how could I NOT be on board with a product like that?

Namaste, y'all ...

Carol

A five foot frog, a festival, and lots of fun!

On Saturday, October 9th, downtown Marion, NC will be hosting it's 27th annual Mountain Glory Festival ... and Skinfood Works will be there! 

Not only will we have lots of freshly made skinfood for sale, we're bringing our buddy, Fredrico, the five foot (from the tip his nose to the tip of his toes!) red eyed tree frog! He's going to be hanging around the booth, chatting with customers, and waiting impatiently for the end of the day when he finds out who his new family will be. That's right ... just enter our raffle and some lucky winner is going to get Fredrico delivered right to their door! Sure wish it could be me 'cause I just love this big ol' hug-able frog!

This guy is beautifully detailed and so incredibly soft! He likes sleep all day, sing and dance all night, and eat crickets, moths and grasshoppers, too! His family lives in the rain forests of Central America. 

Sadly, Fredrico's family habitat is shrinking at an alarming rate due to rapid deforestation. We, the ladies of Skinfood Works, both practice and support recycling on all levels to help save Fredrico and his family's home!

So don't forget to come by our booth at the Mountain Glory Festival and show your support for saving our world, too!

Namaste, y'all ...
Carol
... and Fredrico

animal instincts

Brown saucer eyes and a black button nose were such a contrast to the snowball of fur a friend handed me several years ago. My friend pleaded with me to give the 10-pound puppy a home and it only took one look, eyeball-to-eyeball, and I swallowed the hook, line and sinker without even opening my mouth! I was little aware at the time that instead of doing someone a favor, as I foolishly believed, I was receiving an incredibly rare gift.

She was given the name Astra, meaning ‘star’ and from the beginning was the perfect pet for our little family.

While I was busy making fruit leather snacks, tying shoes, ironing shirts, working for money and developing and making skinfood, Astra, at 115 pounds, was by my side and under my feet every step and misstep along the way. She was strong, funny, instinctual, stubborn, protective and loving…a noble being. Did I mention smart?

Once, Astra carried a newborn mole (in her mouth) a few hundred yards and gently lowered it to the ground at my feet and looked up at me with those big, brown pleading eyes! It took a second for me to get what she wanted. Uh-uh! No! It ain’t happening. I’m not going to take care of one more creature– especially one I know nothing about, I told Astra, raising my voice for emphasis. No way!!!

I gently picked it up, took it back to the bush she’d found it under, laid it down with a prayer for its well being and started back to the garden. Giving me a look that showed her disbelief at my lack of sensitivity, (I swear!), my four-legged Florence Nightingale once again gingerly lifted the orphaned, eyeless creature with her tongue, carried it to the shade of my daughter’s green bean teepee, put it on the ground and laid down beside it. The “Fine, I’ll do it myself!” look she was sending me was hard to miss – and one of the sweetest things I’ve seen.

When Astra developed a tumor at the age of 9, the doctor explained the surgery she needed: If he opened her stomach and found the growth attached to any of her organs, he would simply sew her up and we’d consider the next options, ones I refused to think about. He also explained that as large as the tumor was, she might not make it through the surgery at all.

By the time I finally got to bring her home a few days later, I was ecstatic – she’d made it! Sure she had a 13’ incision down the middle of her tummy, but no organs were affected, she was still with me and I could’ve danced for joy had she not been in horrible pain. Even though I knew a wound has to heal from the inside out, it was so hard to wait. I wanted to put skinfood on the painful incision, knowing it would not only ease Astra’s pain, but it would help fight infection and speed the healing process. That was the crunch – didn’t want to heal the outside incision before the inside trauma had recovered.

When her moans made it impossible for me to wait any longer, I opened the jar of skinfood dedicated to her and swiped a bit of it out with my finger. Even as careful as I was, Astra flinched and yelped the instant the skinfood barely touched her and I immediately abandoned the idea. The wound was still too tender.

But as I reached for a towel to wipe the skinfood off, Astra raised her head and in one swoop, licked the skinfood right off my finger. Amazed, I watched as she started licking the incision. I got more out; again she took it with her tongue and continued to coat the entire cut. Glory be! Once that was done, she laid her head down and sighed deeply. I was also relieved ….but more awed by the implications of what I had just witnessed. She knew!! Not only did she know what I’d been trying to do, but she knew skinfood would indeed help! What an amazing confirmation for skinfood – from the animal kingdom no less, from one who lives instinctually…like, wow!

After a few days of repeating this process, Astra was up and about exploring the world like nothing had ever happened. The doctor was amazed with her rapid healing and I had a new confidence about the healing powers of skinfood and the amazing instincts of animals. Thank you my loving companion!

 with love, Peggy