A Natural Home

It is leap year and what a great time to bring organics into your life.

What are you eating? How about buying organic lettuce instead of conventional lettuce? Organic lettuce feels better and tastes better.  What about the difference between organic carrots and regular carrots? Organic carrots taste like real carrots, what an oddity to eat food that tastes like food.

So once you start eating better, you might notice the chemical poly furniture you have in your home. What about that computer table you bought at your local office supply store? What is it made out of?  We have a cute little sustainable computer table that is made out of poplar and is less than you think. Buying real wood feels better to sit at and puts off less toxic fumes than a chip board computer desk. 

What about the sheets you are sleeping on?  Even the most non organic people I know love our organic cotton sheets because they feel good.  Organic cotton breathes, and feel alive, there is chi to organic cotton sheets, unlike conventional regular sheets.

So,today, this leap year that comes once but every four years, buy something organic and work at changing your life.

Everyone is rushing about this season. Seems like none of us have time to sit down just enjoy a cup of java or bake some cookies. It is hard to keep up with kids, school activities, work, and home.

I know I am stressed out with all the things going on, especially with work and getting the house clean for holiday guests, but at some point I need to sit down and enjoy wrapping up presents in recycled newspaper and decorating the gifts with fun crayons and markers.

Here are some fun ways to make your life a little more natural and less “commercial” this holiday season:

1. drive less.  Make a list and make all your stops or as many as you can in one day.

2.buy local.  Find a local craft fair or seek out local artists in your area and support them, encourage them, and even buy from them.  I found a potter locally and purchased some lovely plates and saucers as a special gift for my DAd.

3. Use recycled newspaper that you can hand decorate yourself (or better yet, have the kids do it- they lov eto draw on stuff anyways).

4. Go to thrift stores and buy small things for stocking stuffers, you are recycling and supporting local organizations that help the less fortunate in the area.

5. Find items that are non plastic or that are recycled plastic.  Buy wood, buy metal, buy cloth.  All of these are less stress on the environment are possibley made in the USA (locally) , and are going to last longer. 

6. Forget those silly gift cards, you are just supporting the big corporations that have less regard for the environment unless they are doing it as a publicity stunt.  Smaller stores are more concerned about the local economy and are oten more concerned about the environment, they know the impact people make in their purchases.

7. Regift.  There is something about your house in great condition that you do not use. Perhaps a great sweater that you have grown tired of, or was not quite the right color. I know I have found great books that I know a friend might enjoy, but that I have already read. Why not re-gift. 

8. Give a food basket. People love food baskets, get some yummy local organic cheese, fruits, breads, even throw in some homemade cookies (if you have time).

9. Spend less, stress less, have more fun.  I should follow my own advice.  Quit worrying if the house is clean enough, or the tree has enough gifts, just enjoy your family and the spirit of the season.

Hope these things help.  I am by no means an expert, but I try to employ most of my suggestion (well the less stress I am working on) in my daily life.

Have a GREAT organic new year!!! 

Waking up to a brisk day is so glorious.  I loved getting out of my organic latex bed surrounded by organic cotton sheets and an organic cotton blanket. 

My wool pillow kept my head cool at night and I woke up refreshed and feeling great.

After sleeping on organic sheets and an organic mattress I can not imagine sleeping on anything else. The energy flow and the comfort I feel when I wake up makes me want to POP out of bed everymorning and start the day. 

Just when I thought I was done having kids, I end up preggers.

Here I am 39 and I thought I was done. I gave away my maternity clothing. I gave away my baby clothing, and I gave away all the cloth diapers, and here I am having to get more.

Argh.  So I was thinking, did I want to buy new ones?  Why, should I? I have people who can sew who work for the company and we have tons of organic cotton scrap, why not sew some.  So I brought over a roll of hemp fleece that I had and we just got in some organic cotton 5%  fabric and I asked Vernon and Ella to make me some diapers.

They said that sounded like fun, and we had tons of scrap, so it was not a big deal.  I made 36 organic cotton hemp 14 X 17 small newborn diapers and 36 16 X 19 diapers.  I had some hemp diaper covers left over from the last child that I just could not part with, so I can use those.  I also had tons of organic cotton and hemp one-ts onesies that I used to make and I found those in the warehouse. 

I thought I had nothing, but I have found all sorts of fun things that I can use for the baby and I am hoping that people will just give me extras here and there that will get me by without having to buy an bunch of stuff.

Throw out the plastic toys.  Who knows what they have on them.  Paint? PVC? other nasty bits, the sky’s the limit.

In this day and age of recall after recall, do you really want to take that chance?  We are now offering a nice quite line of natural wood toys. NO stains, no finish, just simple.

Wooden push mowers, natural wooden doll houses, natural farm toys, blocks, stacking crates, wooden play kitchens, wooden tables and chairs, wooden pull horse, wooden pull cow , and wooden pull dog.  For the boat person in your life, a wooden pull boat!

So cut down on the plastic and things that make tons of noise, enjoy the quiet of a natural toy. 

WE are super excited to be moving the warehouse… going from a smaller space that was cluttered and disorganized,we are moving to a larger space with easy access to our store.

Because of this we will now be open from 8 am to 8 pm eastern time answering the phones and packing up orders, PLUS if you are in Ohio you can stop by anyy day of the week and shop at the showroom!

We have organic cotton pillows, organic wool pillows, shredded latex pillows, organic cotton mattresses, organic latex mattresses, baby cribs, natural sustainable beds, asian style furniture, organic pet toys, organic cat and dog beds, and all natural wood amish made toys 

Last week we went to LAs Vegas. Here I am 6 months preggers and I am schlepping a mini chair on the air plane as we forgot it at the last minute. Kenny (shipping guy) has packed it up nicely for us, which was super.

WE got off and went straight to the convention center, where there were tons of people unloading things and setting things up. They would not let our shipping guy unload in the proper place so we had to unload it ourselves and hand carry everything in. It was exhausting. Jayna and I set everything up and it looked great.

There were 2 floors on the show this year and it was huge.  4,000 vendors were there and I think the buyers were overwhlemed. We were told that 10,000 plus buyers were going to be there, but apparenlty only 3100 showed up. They were exhausted and the vendors, we were all feeling a tad desperate.

I know we personally were agressive with what we were selling, but since we were one fo the few places that was organic and NOT made in China, we had an upper hand on things.  I love saying ”made in the USA” or “made in Ohio” it was great. 

We had many people interested in what we were doing, and many more asked questions.  I think all in all it was a great show and one we will do again in the future despite the annoying union guys that were useless and not competant.