viva verde

so i get people, every so often asking me about Method cleaning products, you know of them at your local Target store. if you haven’t it looks like this:

now call me picky, hard-core or nerd…but when i think eco-friendly, healthy, non-toxic, safe…i don’t think teal solution w/ fragrance. yes, method has many ingredients that are safe & biodegradable but what about those who are chemically sensitive? i can’t imagine coloring & fragrance being items that make them feel comfortable. and what’s wrong with clean smelling like clean? why does it have to smell like something else?

do you ever pull over the side of the road when driving….to work? or realize that the flowers & plants growing in your yard are beautiful just where they are?

William Blake said it best:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

Joel Robinson, Park Naturalist for the City of Santa Ana made me see that Orange County the home of: Legoland, track homes, strip malls, chain restaurants, gentrification, urban development and everything else we despise in humanity overtaking the world still has that wilderness left, and it is beautiful! I must say that i was a little shocked that Joel took these while on regular hikes in the hills, so close to home.

2 of these images were blown up, and i can’t express how amazing it is to see the smallest of things bigger than yourself….

people say i am creative…but i don’t really think that i am. what i really am is cheap. i would rather spend money on products for my customers and tasty food than on things that i can make myself. for example, there are tons of catalogs that sell things for retail stores. they sell anything and everything and it is all very expensive. signs and displays for items are anything from $4-$50 and you never need just one, so it really adds up.

to combat this is started using my old paint sticks and attached paper on them (which is great because if something changes, i just change the paper) and the old scraps of wood from the ceiling i tore down on in my original space.

i just found a good source for finding out which paper products have recycled/post-consumer content.  I must say that the 365 brand from Whole Foods does pretty well at maintaining high-levels of post-consumer fibers in their products, better than most of the other brands out there.  However, at this point i am a little shocked to see that there are still brands who completely ignore the issue of recycling like: Bounty, Viva, Charmin, Puffs (basically all the names that we grew up with).  The only excuse it that they are living in caves or have their company headquarters on a deserted island that has no communication with the outside world.

let Kimberly-Clark (company that uses virgin wood for paper products) know how  proud you are that they are ruining forests!

i love co-op america..

not only do they host the GreenFest (a trip i will be blogging about in November), they send you these great little tidbits on eco-friendly living (PS sign up for their newsletter for awesome tips!). they sent me one last week on the not-so-regular recycling options.

click here to see items that you didn’t know you could recycle…

bookmark this or print it out on some high-content recycled paper, this is a definite “spread the word item”.

yesterday, we dressed up a simple IKEA tack board to display some of our new jewelry items.  we simply put a coat of clay paint (a $5 sample pot is more than enough).   then we hot glue-gunned pennies ( which i always seem to have more of that anything else in the store) to the tacks and fin!

the board looks weird because i couldn’t wait for the  paint to dry to mount …not suggested.  you can use buttons, bottle caps, or tiny pieces of wood instead of pennies for the tacks. i just liked how the copper looked against the green board.

1. STYROFOAM: toxic in creation, use and it takes years to go away…this is one of the worst inventions in my opinion!

2.PAPER TOWELS: you can do the same job with cloth napkins…if you have to get them, go recycled/non-bleached

3.BLEACHED COFFEE FILTERS: OK, bleach-soaked filter straining your coffee, need i say more. there are non-bleach ones out now.

4.OVERPACKAGED FOODS & PRODUCTS: don’t support wasteful packaging, what are we going to do with it later!

5.TEAK & MAHOGANY: these are tropical woods. the rainforest creates fresh air for us, medicine and food (and other pluses)…is it really worth it for some furniture?

6.CHEMICAL PESTICIDES & HERBICIDES: these things are another one of the worst things that could have happened to humans. they may kill weeds & insects but they are killing us too.

7.HIGHER OCTANE GAS (than what you need): only 1 car in 10 needs this type of gas that releases more toxins.

8.TOYS MADE WITH PVC PLASTIC: the #3 plastic is known to leach toxins & off-gas, many of the paints & finishes are toxic too. Look for organic cotton, safe paints and natural/untreated wood.

9.PLASTIC UTENSILS: again, most are made with harmful plastics, and we are putting them in our mouths and using them to cook our food!

10.FARM RAISED SALMON: environmental toxins have been found in higher quantities with farmed fish.

11.RAYON: made in developing countries usually, fabric requires heavy amounts of chemicals & dry cleaning.

12.BEAUTY/BODY ITEMS W/ PARABENS & PHTHALATE: not enough research has been done on these chemical (which are in a number of products) and have been linked to birth defects & cancer.
13.CLING WRAP: many are made with PV, a plastic known to leach toxins if heated…one of the worst of the plastics.
14.CONVENTIONAL HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS: many are straight up toxic. look for biodegradable, veggie-based ingredients, no colorings or fragrances & smell them before you buy!
15.HIGH VOC PAINTS & FINISHES: Volatile Organic Compounds that can cause a number of health problems…there are safe options now!

to find out more about this list, Co-op America.