Does Your Healthy Home need a Detox?

The benefits of eating clean, nutritious, whole foods are clear--the fewer toxins, chemicals, and junk you feed your body, the more vibrant a life you'll lead. While the phrase "you are what you eat" stands true, the state of your environment can also impact your health. Here's what I have learned lately about detoxing my home.

Cleaning Products
Toxic chemicals are widely used in generic cleaning products. The first step in your home detox is to read labels and question the "brand I always buy". Not all cleaning products list their ingredients. I would certainly avoid anything with a danger, hazard, or poison label. Ingredients like ammonia, DEA, APEs, and TEA are also bad for your home. Although even the most natural cleaners contain small amounts of hard-to pronounce ingredients, choose cleaning products like you would food. Opt for short ingredient lists (five or less) and make sure you comprehend most of the terms used on the label. Plant-based ingredients are the best choices, followed by solvent and phosphate-free products.

Making Your Own
Alternatively, you may make your own cleaning products. Baking soda, lemon, vinegar, and cornstarch are pantry staples that can also double up as cleaning supplies. Combined with hot water and elbow grease, you may never need to use a chemical cleaner again!

Furniture and Textiles
Mattress manufacturers often add flame retardants in order to comply with fire regulations. Regardless of the chemical concoction used, retardants are known to cause poor brain development as well as learning, behavior, and memory problems in children. Carpets also contain their own chemical load--stain resistance treatments, antimicrobial properties, antistatic agents, etc. In reality, they are all toxic.

Be a conscious consumer and choose a mattress made from natural materials like untreated cotton or wool. Also ensure they are free from synthetic materials like foam, glue, and moth-proofing chemicals. Use the same standards when choosing bedding, curtains, and rugs. Clean carpets with a plant-based detergent, or if you're moving homes or renovating, opt for hardwood floors instead.

Refresh your home with Paint
Springtime is often the cue for homeowners to clean and refresh their home. Nothing says fresh and new like a new coat of paint! Be sure to use no-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints. Many companies advertise no-VOC, but this may only be the base white paint. Once color is added, it's no long no-VOC. Here is a link to more information.

A truly clean, green home can't be achieved overnight--so if you can't incorporate these suggestions now, that's okay. Begin with small changes and watch them make a big impact over time.

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

Sometimes the big changes start with one, small conversation. Learn more about my health coaching programs at www.GeorgianneHolland.com!

Fiber Art in Action: Do you Dress Locally or do you Dress Globally?

Rebecca Burgess

Have you ever made an effort to eat local, organic foods? I belonged to our local CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) co-op last summer and enjoyed food grown near my own backyard. I love the idea of keeping my purchasing power in my own part of Colorado! It is environmentally friendly to do this, especially as you consider the reduced effort required to ship or transport items to my front door.

I recently learned about Rebecca Burgess who has been inspired to start a fiber co-op, called a Fibershed, that has been built using this same love of keeping things local. In a working Fibershed, folks combine forces with their neighbors to capitalize on their various fiber "processing" skills, like weaving, dying, hemp cultivation, spinning, and garment sewing, and then they join together to sell the combined products of the larger community.

So my question to you is, have you ever considered "dressing locally"? If you were required to dress yourself and your family using only fabrics or clothing manufactured within 200 miles of your own home, would you even know where to start?

There are obstacles to this type of green economy. Rebecca reports that the largest barrier to dressing locally is that there are few fiber artists who loom fabric made with locally-grown raw materials. Finding people to sew clothing for you, if you are unable or unwilling to sew it yourself, is also an obstacle. So perhaps we won't be able to buy clothing made totally from local raw materials, but we can certainly open our minds to that possibility!

Do you find in your community that people have developed the habit of buying clothing that is made inexpensively and without regard to the conditions under which those clothes are made? One of Rebecca's comments that really hit me between the eyes is her explanation about dyeing fabrics in the August 2013 issue of American Craft magazine. She talks in that article about the externalized costs of ecology and labor. Take the manufacture of blue jeans for example. "The face-value cost to shop at Walmart versus the real cost of shopping at Walmart: the Pearl River Delta [an industrial region in China], where most jeans are made [along with the resulting pollution]; genetically modified cotton fields; suicides related to that kind of practice because farmers are so deeply in debt" ...all of this is part of the narrative that Rebecca provides consumers about the way most of us in the US have gotten used to shopping for blue jeans: convenient, fast, inexpensive, and easily available. Perhaps you are ready to step away from this "fast-food" mentality regarding the way you dress? I know that I am!

What kind of alternatives are available to you and me for buying clothing made in healthy circumstances with fibers that have a reduced polluting impact on the Earth?
 
Fibershed has created an online marketplace to connect farmers, artisans, and consumers. That choice means that the manufacturing of the clothing may not happen directly in your own community, but it does mean that you and I will be better informed about the health of the garments we buy. I am always in favor of supporting independent artisans.

Bullet Blues is a company in Florida that makes from American-made denim fashionable blue jeans that are sewn in Florida. For me, that's a step in the right direction.

Earth Creations is a company that I have recently found and find helpful in my desire to shop for clothing that is made in healthy circumstances. "The sewing facility where most of our garments are sewn is located in rural Alabama. Our employees are paid a fair wage and work in a clean and safe environment. They actually believe in what they do and enjoy their work. By providing local jobs, hopefully we help keep a piece of our rural American culture alive."

What resources have you found to dress locally where you live? Are you a fiber artist who would love to be connected with a Fibershed community in your town or city? I would love to hear from all of you!

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne
Georgianne

Top Ten Tuesday -- March 6, 2012

There are birds and fiber galore in this week's top ten! From a hand embroidered bluebird lunch tote to a burnished bird necklace, and 7 other wonderful items in between, I feel great kinship to those who hand-make bird-themed items and fiber arts projects! If there were more than 24/7, I'd be interested in trying my hand at many of these types of projects. Oh well, I cannot make the days any longer, but I am so happy to pass along contact information for these creative folks!

#1 Hand Embroidered Blue Bird Canvas Lunch Tote

Jemzy on Etsy makes this sweet bag which measures 9" x 11", and comes complete with a pink floral calico pocket lining. This may be the best Easter basket you've ever received! Visit with the talented Jemzy here.

#2 Sparrow Tea Cups from Rustic Peace

I originally saw these lovely cups on Pinterest and have tracked them as far as I can to Rustic Peace on Tumblr. I hope that if anyone gets further in the search for these coveted cups, you will share with all of us!

#3 Seamless Felted Mittens with Floral Design

Aurelial T Felting in Lithuania is making these charming mittens to order on Etsy! I know that winter is almost over for many of us now, but springtime in the Rockies can be seriously snowy, so these mittens look just right to me! If you live in a place where it is snowy or cold at least part of every year, this mitten purchase just makes perfect sense. Visit AureliaLT felting and see her complete line -- you'll enjoy yourself!

#4 Needle Felted Landscape Ball

I'm really impressed by the detail that The Felted Egg shopkeeper Emily puts into a simple 3.25" spherical shape! You can see photos of all angles of this ball on her charming Etsy shop, and I'll bet that you will be impressed, too! She has used both wet and dry felting techniques and 100% natural plant-dyed wool. Lovely!

#5 Pink Embroidered Felt Birds in time for Spring

The applique and embroidered details of each Beedeebabee item is artistic and perfectly balanced. Don't you love the uniformity of her hand work and the charming shapes of her designs? This little pink bird brooch is nearing the top of my list for sure...enjoy your visit with Beedeebabee on Etsy here!

#6 100% Re-Turned Recycled Norwegian Wood and 100% Adorable

Hand turned wooden birds made in Norway by Lars Beller Fjetland are catching my fancy this week. Lars used left-over wood from carpentry production, like a table leg or armrest, and turned them into these adorable sculptural birds. Let's all keep our eyes open for production of these charming pieces!

#7 Meg Hannan's Fabric Jewels "Millefiori" Hearts

I have to share with you these textural treasures from Rag Sky Art Studio in Seattle, Washington, and the hands of Meg Hannan. She has used vintage fabrics and fibers to make these layered and rolled fiber hearts. I found a shop named Great Green Goods that offers them through Renga Arts to us folks outside of the Seattle area!

#8 Peony Eco Shopping Bag

I would feel very special indeed carrying this exceptional shopping bag! Colettecolor on Etsy tells me that it folds up to stash into my purse when not in use, but it is so lovely, I think I'd proudly walk into the grocery store with it on my arm! It measures about 15"x17" and has a 22" strap. That's some good-looking grub!

#9 Burnished Nest Necklace from Sidney Hanner

I was intrigued to see all of the great classes in jewelry making being taught by designer and instructor Sidney Hanner. I also love the name of these classes: Gilding the Lily Classes! I know that classes like this are only available for specific time-frames and places, but I am inspired by this necklace and Sid's generous sharing of her techniques.

#10 Funny Animal Photo of the Week!

Someone has a sense of humor! Perhaps it isn't me, but here's my funny animal of the week!

Thanks for stopping by,

Georgianne

Colorful Produce and Time with Laura

Organic Bountiful Harvest!

I am loving the end of season produce from our CSA, Grant Family Farms. It is great fun to take the wide variety of produce I receive every Wednesday and cook for a couple of hours with my daughter, Laura. This Community Supported Agriculture delivers boxes of organic fruits and vegetables, pastured eggs and meats, fresh bread and fresh-cut flower bouquets to convenient pick-up locations in communities throughout the Colorado Front Range, Mountain Communities and Wyoming. I never know exactly what my delivery will include, so the fun of this is in being adventurous when the cooking begins! Laura is finishing her degree in Nutrition and will soon be a Registered Dietician. It is always fun and yummy cooking with her!

Here is a photo of the gorgeous tomatoes I received last week. I cooked them into a sweet pasta sauce, and boy, did that hit the spot! I always know it has been a hit when my husband fills his 3rd plate!

The summer season of CSA deliveries is coming to a close so I need to think about signing up for a Winter Share. I do not want this fun to end!

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne