Green Pearly Whites

Hello,

My name is bwings and my daughter scrubbed the toilet....with my toothbrush!!!

No worries, we caught her in the act, she was only trying to help and the toothbrush was immediately placed in the cleaning supplies container. Of course this little cleaning endeavor on her part resulted in subsequent replacement of said toothbrush. Given my new efforts at greening the house I thought I should make any attempt I could to make this a green purchase.

I figure a toothbrush may be just a small piece of plastic but it's a household staple, one per person to be replaced once every 3-6 months! As I did with my artificial vs. natural christmas tree entry I will do the math, if everybody had a life expectancy of 85 years, 12 months in the year and a potential for a new toothbrush every 3 months (or 6 but we're going with the higher scary number) that means 4 new toothbrushes annually for 85 years. 340 in a lifetime per person and approximately 6,892,048,568 people in the world there is potentially 27568194272 per year and 2343296513120 per lifetime. I of course didn't subtract the 500 or so fuzzy teethed individuals who don't brush.

Some ways I could make my pearly whites a little more green (in a purely figurative manner of course) would be purchasing a(n):

• toothbrush made of recycled materials - Everything but the bristles can be made from recycled plastic. In some cases you can find toothbrushes made using recycled wood fiber, yogurt containers, flax and even dollar bills. Using recycled materials saves natural resources and uses less energy during manufacturing. Not to mention it's a clever form of upcycling. If there are no local recycling programs instated for #5 Polypropylene some companies will let you mail back your old toothbrushes to be crushed up for plastic lumber. 
• toothbrush made of renewable materials - Some companies use cellulose acetate extracted from cotton. This makes their toothbrush more bio-degradable. In fact, they claim it will degrade in the same amount of time it would take an oak leaf, 6 months. As compared to the thousands of years it would take a standard plastic to do the equivalent. 
• toothbrush with replaceable heads - As much as you'd still be changing the head every 3-6 months it'd be less plastic. It is estimated that you would have to throw away 14 - 42 replacement heads to equal the waste of 1 toothbrush. If you're looking at 340 toothbrushes in a lifetime that translates to a reduction in waste the equivalent of using only 8 - 24 in a lifetime! I actually had to do the math twice on that one as it's such a huge reduction! 
• electric toothbrush with rechargeable base or batteries - This is the least green of the green alternatives to plastic brushes. But one with rechargeable batteries and replaceable heads isn't too bad. 

The more dedicated hippie would rinse with tea tree oil and water and brush instead with the root of the Araak Tree. As silly as that may sound that root is pretty nifty. It contains natural nutrients like fluorine, silicon, vitamin C, sulphur, sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and calcium oxides. All of these things will whiten and strengthen your tooth enamel.


Unfortunately my local grocer didn't provide any with replaceable heads that weren't electric. I am certainly not in the market for an electric toothbrush at the moment so I settled for a regular toothbrush made of recycled materials for now.

Perhaps next time I will purchase one online. A quick search found these gems:

Acca Kappa Biocete Toothbrush - $6.50 - designed with natural bristles and a handle of biodegradable cellulose acetate. Only takes six months to biodegrade. 

Eco-DenT TerraDent Replaceable Head Toothbrush - $4.50 - $5.75 - Self-explanatory, only ever need to replace the head. 

Fuchs Ekotec Replaceable Head Toothbrush - (on sale) $3.74 - $5.75 - Comes with 2 replacement heads and then simply replace the heads. 

Radius Intelligent Toothbrush - $8.99 - An electric toothbrush with replaceable heads. The batteries will last over six heads worth of use (18 months) after which you can return the handle for recycling. 

Radius Source Toothbrush - $6.95 - Replaceable head toothbrush with a handle made from 100% recycled material - Half wood, half plastic but both recycled. 

Recycline Preserve Toothbrush - $2.99 - Made from 100% recycled plastic. 25-65% of that plastic comes from Stonyfield Farm yogurt cups. You can even send back the toothbrush to be recycled if you don't have a local recycling centre accepting of toothbrushes. They then grind it up to make plastic lumber for picnic tables etc. What I found cool was they have a thing called "Toothbrush subscription" where they will send you a toothbrush every x months (your choosing) to replenish and change your old one. I thought that was great considering how often I've looked at my toothbrush and asked myself, "Did I change that 3 months ago or 4?" 

Well, I'm going to go brush my teeth and go on a hunt for some more eco-purchases of the day.
Your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

Return of the Rubber Duckie

Hello,

My name is bwings and I'm still struggling to remember what plastics are worse.

I doubt I'll ever get rid of all plastic in my household, but I would like to make an effort to rid myself of the most damaging. Since my initial post about PVC and BPA I've reduced the cans in our household in case of BPA plastic lining in the can. If they had some regulation enforcing companies to state what they lined their cans with I might continue to use canned goods. But for now the only canned goods in this house are to be canned corn as it's my fiancée's favorite. For now, if we buy beans, they will likely be canned as well simply for simplicities sake. However, we don't frequent the beans in this house so that should not be a problem.

So what is the deal with plastic? I know to avoid BPA and PVC but what labels am I looking for. Not everything that is BPA free will say so. Although I'm sure most will seeing as it's considered something to brag about in plastic departments. To remind myself I returned to the charts of recycling codes.

Click on picture to view chart

There is going to be a complaint about all types of plastics with leeching, bio-degrading etc. So for now, for my sanity and my families, I will focus mostly on those concerns that affect my health and the health of my family.

PVC (our lovely rubber ducky's skin) has a massively bad rep. But a little research would find that this is because of the plasticizers (mostly phthalates) added to soften the PVC and make it flexible. These additives can leach out into our food, mouths or ... other body parts, as they are common in shampoo bottles, shower curtains, food containers, children's toys and adult toys ...so to speak. This leaching is concerning as Phthalates have been linked to liver/kidney damage and tumors. They can mimic human hormones and hurt the environment. Studies have shown statistical association between allergies in children and indoor air levels of DEHP. This additive of particular concern, DEHP (Diethylhexyl phthalate) has, among other phthalates, been banned in Europe. In the United States it has not been banned but most companies have voluntarily ceased production of PVC toys using DEHP additives. An alternative to DEHP called diisononyl phthalate (DINP) has been found to have unlikely risks by the European Commission.

What, outside of Europe, has been done to reduce issues with PVC? As far as toys are concerned factories have started using DINP in lieu of DEHP although it is not required and so personal investigation into purchases would be necessary. There is a call for a ban on use of DEHP on shower curtains and a few other household items as the initial outgassing of the additive may cause medical complications. In November '05 Catholic Healthcare West signed a contract for vinyl-free IV bags & tubing. Several corporations including Microsoft, Wal-Mart & Kaiser Permanente have announced efforts in eliminating PVC from products and packaging in that same year. Japanese car companies (Toyota, Nissan & Honda) have eliminated PVC in car interiors in all models 2007 and beyond.

As far as environment is concerned I doubt I need to mention that plastic does not biodegrade in the environment because they are not digestible to microorganisms. If you toss plastic out instead of recycling it will simply be moved about by are or water and accumulate.  Animals can become entangled in some plastic litter or eat plastic mistaken for food and die.

So what have I done to reduce plastic in my home?

• Grocery bags - I take my stroller with me most times and instead of bagging them I put them in the carriage of the stroller. I am a vegetarian and so meat juices is not an issue here. In addition I have over two dozen cloth bags that I bring with me when I am without a stroller. I do bring home the occassional plastic bag when I'm low at home. I use them for kitty litter sometimes and also as my main form of garbage bag. A resolution in my house is to reduce our waste to one grocery bag a week. This has meant composting for the first time so we're still working on it. 
• I purchased a soap dispenser and buy my soap in bulk recyclable containers to reduce the amount of plastic containers. 
• I have been enforcing the bare bum or cloth bum policy when home. I still use disposable when out of the house or when we have a babysitter. But my daughter runs around disposable diaper free as much as I can. 
• I poked a bunch of holes in some containers and reused them as containers for her bath toys, so they get the proper drip dry anti-mildew action with the holes but I get to put them away and reuse a plastic container.
• I bought a wipe container and always bought refills thereafter.
  

I know I can only get better at this as I look around and see various plastic objects everywhere. But as far as the health of my family is concerned, it is my top priority. I will be even more mindful now of PVC (#3 plastic) and try to find out what ones are made using DEHP. I have stopped microwaving in plastic. I may still occasionally store leftovers in plastic but when they are heated I put them on the plate they will be consumed from. It might make more dishes for me but that is what a mother is for. Right?

Your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

Smokin'!

Hello,

My name is bwings and my roof is on fire!

I don't need no water let the ... oh... well....censorship and all. *ahem*
Sorry, got a little carried away. I haven't checked my smoke detector because I know it isn't broken and it isn't due to be replaced for another 10 years. However there are some facts about your smoke detectors I feel you might want to know.

Although it is common knowledge and there are certainly enough warnings, as is required by law, I'm sure at least 60% of my readers are unaware of radioactive material in their home. Hmmm I just heard at least a few jaws drop, don't worry, it's not deadly....sort of. If you take your smoke detector down, assuming you even leave it up, and look at the bottom you might discover some warning signs. "Contains Radioactive Material", "Warning radioactive material" and most importantly "Return to supplier or department of health for disposal"

As long as you don't take your detector apart, severely damage or crush it you will be fine as the small amount of radioactive americium is contained securely inside. The radiation is also predominantly alpha which can not penetrate paper. The thing that concerns me is the disposal and possible resulting damage and compromising of the beta particles. I'll admit I haven't looked into proper disposal of my batteries I just toss them in the trash. I know this is wrong and I keep meaning to make an effort to correct this. Instead, my main effort, has been in the reduction of my battery trash. I have rechargeable batteries for all heavy electronics and even my wii balance board uses a modified piece that charges through the usb port in your computer. Instead of tossing out 4 AA batteries every time I just disconnect and charge.

The idea of radioactive material laying improperly disposed in the waste land does concern me a little more and so in 10 years time (although I hope to not be in this present location by that time) when I need to replace my detector I will be contacting the manufacturer of the alarm. Unfortunately it may be the case that you would have to pay the postage to send the detector but this may differ per company. I'm sure there are at least some who will send you a box to send the detector back in. There should be a telephone number on the bottom of your detector that you can call to find out this information.

Don't necessarily run out and replace your ionizing smoke detector with a photoelectric detector as there are differences.

An ionizing detector is that annoying apartment detector that goes off when you're having your shower, this is because the ionization detector can detect slight alterations in the atmosphere such as steam or combustion gases produced by an open flame. This makes it more sensitive to open flame fires than a photo-electric detector.

There have been studies to determine the more common causes for false/nusiance alarms. Findings in Woodlands, Texas from 1970 found the most common causes to be: Cooking (30.4%). Mechanical/Sensitivity (24.2%,. Fireplace (21,6%). In  Maryland, Texas 1984 another study found similar reasons but a tendancy for cooking to be the problem. Their findings were cooking (72%), Fireplace (7%). Steam (4%) and more recently in Devils Lake Sioux Reservation again it was found that cooking was the main cause at (76.7%), Steam from bathroom came in at second (17.8%), followed by Cigarettes(5.5%)

I first heard of the steam situation from two tenants when I first became a landlord. I had never heard it before and were it not for the honest reputation of these tenants I'd have smiled, nodded and went on my way. To this day I have never had my smoke detector go off from my shower or, as some stated they had, boiling water on the stove. So what makes it happen? Condensed steam from sources such as showers, kitchens (tea kettles), laundry rooms, sterilizers, humidifiers etc. would be viewed and register with the detector as being white smoke. If it's a heavy steam it will even set off a photoelectric smoke detector, think fogged up sauna's, you wouldn't want a smoke detector in there.

In summary, the comparison between the two main types of smoke detectors shows the main differences are the type of fires they are better at detecting. Ionization detectors are best at detecting smoke from an open flame fire while photoelectric are best for smoke from smoldering fires where there is enough heat to create smoke but no flame. If anything I would say you'd want one of each but the fire departments say either or works just fine. All the same, before tossing yours in the trash, phone the number on the back or bottom and see about returning the americium for proper disposal.

Until then, everybody wave your hands in the air, like you just don't care...the roof...the ...umm...sorry.

Your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

Homemade beauty

Hello,

My name is bwings and I haven't yet made my own beauty products

There are a select group of people who are of the belief that you shouldn't put anything on your skin that you wouldn't consume. It bares some logic as your skin is only so thick and resistant to things being absorbed into your blood. I have been curious to try some of these recipes for home made cosmetics and someday I just may.

I'll probably mostly tamper with my hair as I won't have to worry so much about my poor peepers. One thing I am often worried about is that my hair is losing it's shine. Some days the blond is so vibrant, others I look brunette. After some searching I found this recipe:

• 1 large apple, peeled and cut into small pieces

• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (1 tbsp for sensitive/dry scalps)

• 2 cups water

Mix all ingredients in a blender/food processor set on high. Pour through strainer into a container to remove all solids. Pour the strained mixture over your hair after shampooing. Massage and rinse thoroughly with cool water. 

This mixture should restore a scalp's pH level and rid it of buildup from hairsprays/gels. 

If any of you try this mixture out before me please let me know how it worked out.

Your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

Major Make-up Monday

Hello,

My name is bwings and I resolve to look good everyday!

One of my new years resolutions was to look good everyday instead of just when we were going out somewhere. This is becoming increasingly difficult not only because of my daughter and other priorities in my life, but also because of another resolution I made to decrease EDTA and Paraben usage in my house. My foundation had not one but five variations of parabens in it. On New Years Eve I ventured out to purchase some new paraben free foundation and if luck would have it one without any EDTA as well. This was excruciating! Nearly every foundation had a paraben of some variant, expected since it is a form of preservative. Lise Watier had one for $40 which was a little out of my price range. I soldiered on and eventually found another paraben free product by the name of Maybelline Mineral Powder Foundation. It only set me back $15 and promised no oil, talk, preservatives or fragrance. Sadly it does, however, contain one other ingredient that has raised flags as a possible carcinogen. It still has far fewer flags than parabens and so I will continue to use it for now until I can find another option. That ingredient is Titanium Dioxide, in particular in dust form as would be the case in a powder formed foundation. When inhaled the powder deposits particles, impairs lungs clearance thus injuring cells developing excess fibrous connective tissue followed by mutations of the cells and finally cancer. Similar to how a cigarette reacts with your lungs, but I am certain I will be inhaling far fewer titanium dioxide particles than I would toxins through smoking. Titanium dioxide dust is more of a problem for a person working with the product in high concentrations. Until someone brings more evidence to the table I'm not going to worry quite as much...although I certainly won't start snorting my foundation. ;)

Your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

A greener year

Hello,

My name is bwings and I have set my new years resolutions!

Yes that was "resolutions" plural. I read somewhere about this person doing 365 things for 2009. I thought it was a fantastic idea and decided to do that for 2011. I only have 77 things yet but I will continue to add to it where I can as I go.

Some things are juvenile like:

• knit a Yoshi
• get a massage
• look nice everyday
• learn to pole dance

Some more serious like:

• learn to knit
• Participate in Relay for Life (or another run)
• Read a book a month (and other goals of 15 books a year)
• take dance lessons with David (in preparation for our wedding day)

But throughout my resolutions, even the ones that are not completely green, I maintain a level of green mindedness. Even the juvenile goals will have green undertones.

For instance when I:

• knit my Yoshi (after learning to knit) - I will seek organic cotton/bamboo yarn.
• get a massage - I will ask that they use only products free of Parabens and EDTA.
• look nice everyday - I will work towards reducing the Parabens in my make-up products
• learn to pole dance - ...let's call this one a freebie ;)

Of course I have green goals littered spread throughout as well. Such as reducing the EDTA usage in our household by removing all soaps, lotions, bubble baths etc. with EDTA in them. Reducing parabens with much the same method. The bigger challenge I've set is by the end of the year I want to reduce our garbage to 1 grocery bag a week! Right now we are at one grocery bag a day!! I have high hopes here but I feel with some amount of effort it can be accomplished. I don't know how I feel about composting with the beast around, so for now I'll do what I can.

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Have a happy and safe new years eve everyone and I'll be back with more eco-friendly blogs in the new year. See you in 2011, your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

Stubborn daughter

Hello,

My name is bwings and my daughter has the devil in her!

Okay, maybe not all the time, but tonight definitely! And for the past 3 or 4 days! She won't nap, not that she screams or anything! She used to wake up at 9am, nap from 2:30 - 4:30 on the dot every day and then back to bed at 10pm for her 11 hours. Normally it's as simple as giving her a bath at 9:30 to wind down and then tucking her in and walking away. Now, she absolutely won't go to sleep. Just lays there singing to herself. What does this mean? Come bedtime she is as dramatic as a late Shakespearean play! Not if I let her stay up she wouldn't be, but if I try to put her to bed it's screaming fit. A big change from the standard!

So WHAT does this have to do with Eco-friendly anything? Quite simply it has NOTHING to do with eco-friendly anything. However, it has resulted in some late night random research into old findings and some interesting discoveries. So this tired hippie mom thought she'd share some of her more silly findings with you for your light hearted enjoyment as her daughter screams from the next room. *joy*

Firstly, here is an old discovery of mine, it's called Veggie Connection where one can sign up and find vegetarian/vegan love! As much as it may serve a purpose I did get a small chuckle from the idea. But if there are sights like Ashley Maddison out there (a site dedicated to helping married people have affairs) then why not have a vegetarian dating site?

I of course couldn't help but to sign up for an account just to see what it was all about. Don't worry, Asmerus, I'm not going to abandon you for a full out vegetarian. I simply was curious as to what it had to offer. As you would expect it asked for your basic information, height, weight, star sign, body type, ethnicity etc. None of which you had to input. But you could filter others by such input. Then it asks about your diet and your preference in a partners diet. You can also select to seek only friendship and whether you want your friend to be semi-vegetarian, Vegetarian, Vegan, Raw Foodist or Macrobiotic. Aside from the last question, "I'm most drawn to these charities:" the rest of the questions were pretty standard lifestyle questions. I felt so odd filling it out, even if it was a bogus account. I selected friendship only at first, requested that my new penpal be only vegetarian/vegan. None of these "practically vegetarian" types. ;) After browsing through some profiles I decided to see who on here was seeking love. I will admit some pretty cool people popped up in my search. Unfortunately they had selected that they were only seeking love and not friendship and so I won't be getting to know them. None the less an interesting find for a laugh or two.

Secondly when looking for organic cotton and bamboo towels I discovered this delicious site called Le Viette. Organic towels styled in a way to make you drool and rage. I could never have one of these around for the simple fact it would make me want a cheesecake and all I'd have to eat is my towel! As delicious as they look I'm certain the taste would not compare to a cheesecake. But if I was ever being attacked by a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast from Traal this would certainly be a towel I'd be sure to have around. Can you imagine not knowing where your desert shaped towel was?

Well, I'm going to pass out soon and I believe my daughter already has. I hope you enjoyed my lighthearted post, if she keeps this up I'm sure there will be more in our future.

Your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

P.S. after much deliberation my daughter finally decided she was going to go to bed....with daddy. What a silly beast.

I was dreaming of a GREEEEEENNNN Christmas!

Hello

My name is bwings and I had a delightfully green Christmas this year.

Some things not shown in the video would be the hot air popcorn popper and a natural loofah as well as a loofah made using recycled plastic. I am not sure if it is common knowledge, but a loofah is in actuality a plant. Just as the marshmallow was originally a plant, a mallow that grew in the marsh. Now it is a sugar creation of pig tendons and flavoring, but it was once a native american favorite sticky delicacy from the marsh.

A loofah, luffa, or lufah is a tropical/subtropical plant of the cucumber family that is harvested before maturity in Asia and Africa and eaten. A loofah that is harvested after it's ripened is dried and used as a plant sponge for bath or kitchen, as a natural remedy for jaundice,  or to make the soles of beach sandals.
I am positively in love with my new loofah, ever since moving into this new place I found my feet got cracked and dry quickly. Scratching against my blankets at night and sending shivers down my spine. With the natural loofah it is more coarse and helps scrub off the dead foot skin *yummy*. I can use it and know that it's from a natural self-sustaining source rather than plastic/pvc created with harmful chemicals and sitting in a waste pile for years.


My hot air popper I have used almost everyday since I opened it. Not good for my diet as popcorn might be fat free but calories WOOOO but that's a discussion for my bridal blog. I have childhood memories of standing the correct distance from our popcorn popper and waiting anxiously to watch the popcorn fly out. I would be mesmerized by this and now so is my daughter. It's a delightful way to make popcorn, easy and PFOA free.

Shown in the video was a gift of Natures Gate shampoo & body wash. Their products have:

• No Phthalates or Parabens
• No Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfates
• No Animal Derived Ingredients
• No Animal Testing
• No Synthetic Fragrance
• No EDTA (at least in the products I received) 

and in addition they, as a company, support Water Aid America which helps communities in Asia and Africa gain access to sustainable supplies of safe, clean water.

Lastly but most adorably the video shows how Asmerus, when wrapping my present, tenderly reused wrapping paper as part of his gift to me. Every year I salvage what I can of the paper to be reused the next year. I'm not anal when unwrapping, I don't carefully pull tape away from the paper so as not to make a tear. But after everything is done I will fold up the less tattered paper and put it in a box to use the next year. I save every bag and have reused some bags in this house since 2007. It would date back further but before 2007 I was between houses for 3 years. Having been nomadic for so long I couldn't sacrifice storage space on a moving trip to bags and paper. Selfish yes, but it was just not realistic at the time. Since 2007 we've been in the same basic location and so I have built up quite the collection of bags and tissue paper. I know Asmerus wouldn't likely reuse paper or bags were it not for my organized storage of such things. Alas I love him that much more for having done it just to make me smile.

The end of the video shows the aftermath and what remains. I am proud to say that of all that paper I removed all tape and recycled what I wasn't going to reuse. I was rather amazed with just how much reusable paper I got out of this years paper. I thought that a lot would have to be recycled based on how small our daughter was shredding them. But I ended up with a full box of reusable paper and not even an eighth of a standard recycling bag full of recycling paper. 3 full bags of cardboard though!!!

All-in-all it was a pretty green Christmas (lack of snow and all)

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That is all from your friendly neighborhood hippie mom for now. 

Post # 42!!!!

Hello,

My name is bwings and I'm a hoopy frood who always know where their towel is!

A towel, you see is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.

"Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it around your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. 

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Obviously, being the 42nd entry and my being a hippie nerd I simply had to make a H2G2 reference in todays entry. What better topic than towels? I certainly know no eco-friendly space travel fuel remedies!

I am unaware of what sort of towels I have, inexpensive and in their first 6 or 8 washes they shed a lot of blue! In fact the first time Asmerus got out of the shower and dried himself he shouted out, "Can I have a different towel? Preferably one that doesn't make me look like grover!!!"  But I digress.

I'm certain we will someday replace these towels, as towels go, and when I do so I intend to make a more eco-friendly selection. Most towels are made of conventional cotton, it is this cotton that brings about 25% of the insecticide in the world. The dyes in these towels are often derived from petroleum, polluting our waters and drying our face. Organic cotton, hemp or bamboo towels with plant-based or low-impact dyes are a far more eco-friendly choice. Each has their positives and negatives that accompany them.

For instance, bamboo will grow quickly and with little maintenance. It doesn't require pesticides or fertilizers and when cut needn't be replanted as it will simply grow back. Bamboo made towels are highly absorbent and studies have proven them to be 60% more absorbent than cotton towels. Bamboo towels also have a natural silk quality to them making them comparable to cashmere and far softer than cotton towels. They also have their own unique anti-bacteria and bacteriostasic bio-agent making them naturally anti-bacterial. They are 100% biodegradable and quick drying. If used in hot climate it will keep your skin cool and in the cold will keep you warm. They have natural UV properties, anti-static properties and are odor resistant. However making them into fiber for clothing is a massive chemical bath! There are sources available that have more eco-conscious fiber production but they can involve a steeper price tag.

Organic cotton towels would maintain all the qualities of regular cotton towels except without the pesticides.

Hemp towels are durable, absorbent and will withstand far more washings than cotton. They are also far more resistant to mildew than cotton towels. Because of hemps durability the towel will hold it's shape better than other material and won't stretch out. If dyed it will retain the color a lot longer and better than most any other fabric. This is due to it's porous quality, in addition the pores will allow the hemp to breath and keep you cool in the heat while the absorptive quality will keep you warm in the cold. Unfortunately they aren't sold in standard retail stores and so might be harder to find. But with the invention of teh internetz I'm sure a quick google for a local store would turn up something in your area.

Personally I'm sold on the organic bamboo towels and given that my new bathroom lacks a fan I am often growling when I pick up a new towel and find it already stinks of musk! There is nothing I hate more, when it comes to bathing, than coming out smelling clean and drying off with a stinky towel! To me the musky odour of a dirty towel bares resemblence to cat urine and that is a disgusting thought to run through your head after getting out of the shower. I won't even put my kitty litter in the bathroom. I have always kept it tucked in the back of the storage closet and refused to ever move into an apartment that didn't have this option. So I believe I shall venture out early for a few of these bamboo towels. One or two at first to see what I think of them. If they turn out then I may donate the cotton ones to my kitties for their bedding and dry off in anti-bacterial, odor resistent material.

I didn't think I'd be switching quite so quickly but my research has changed my mind before. As Douglas would say,

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

That is all for now, from your neighborhood hippie mom.

Another Manic Monday

Hello,

My name is bwings and I rarely wear lipstick.

I've never really saw much point in lipstick, it stays on your lips or it's faded in places, it's on your teeth. I prefer eye shadow for it's room for artistic flair. Regardless, I do have, in my tool kit, some lipstick. Revelon Moon Drops. Scary thing is it rates 9 on the hazard scale!!! NINE! Well, isn't that lovely. I don't know that I'll bother replacing it because of my lack of use. However, it's good to know my good list and bad list.

The Good

Boots No7 Mineral Perfection (0) - $10
Coastal Classic Creations (0) - $16 - $20
Afterglow Cosmetics Organic Lip Love Lipstick (1) - $24
barefaced Mineral Cosmetics Natural Lipstick (1) - $12-$15
Cargo (1) - $12-$24
CNaturals Vegan Lipstick (1) - $14
Cosmic Tree Essentials Lip Care Confections Lipstick (1) $9
Earth’s Beauty Shea & Aloe Lipstick (1) - $10
Hemp Organics (1)
Inika Mineral Lipstick (1)
Johnny Concert, LLC Narcissistic Lipstick (1)
Maia’s Mineral Galaxy Ecstasy Lipstick (1)
Monave Vegan Lipstick (1)
Pure ANada Cosmetics Natural Lipstick (1)
Real Purity Lipstick (1)




There are options, even if I don't plan to replace mine, at least I know I have a lot of options.
Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and are ready for the new year.
Your friend neighborhood hippie mom.