Morning Walks with Liquid Rock

Creek in the winter.

I try to walk everyday since the kids have gone back to school. I do belong to a gym but I have been enjoying the outdoors lately. So for now I will wait until the weather turns wet to go to the gym.

I find myself very lucky to live within a block of a creek and trail that follows the creek for a couple of miles. And I also have a nice neighborhood that is easily walkable. Yesterday I made a short trek to the supermarket for bread and soy french vanilla creamer. I grab my iPod ready to listen to More Hip Than Hippy or Armstrong and Getty podcasts, hat, sunglasses and a smile to tell people along the way "good morning". I am blessed to be able to start my day so pleasantly.




You are wondering why I am telling you about my walking every morning. Well, I use Kiss My Face Liquid Rock Unscented Deoderant and, frankly speaking, I have sweaty, wet armpits the whole time. Now, I am walking by myself, I don't smell and I just lift my arms to dry off. No big deal. But I always wonder, "What if I was going to a job interview? My pits would be all wet! And possibly my blouse would have a nasty armpit stain." The horror! I guess in that case I would find a solution. But right now I don't need to worry about that.

If you wear all natural deoderant you should never find anti-persperant. The anti-persperant mechanism in deoderant is never natural. You want your body to sweat, it's natural and your body is getting rid of waste, you don't want to keep waste. Luckly, as a female I sweat very little so it dries fast. And I can say this deoderant does a fine job at keeping me from being stinky. Also, when I put it on in the morning it does take a while to dry on my skin but from what I remember most roll-ons do.

So that's my monday morning and every morning. Do you want more to read about keeping your armpits fresh feeling? Grist has an informative article called "Scents and Sensibility". And you can always read up on the best deodorants at the EWG's Skin Deep Site, starting with my deodorant.

Be Green.

What is MSDS Report?

An MSDS report describes the properties of a particular substance, such as household products.

"A Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is designed to provide both workers and emergency personnel with the proper procedures for handling or working with a particular substance. MSDS's include information such as physical data (melting point, boiling point, flash point etc.), toxicity, health effects, first aid, reactivity, storage, disposal, protective equipment, and spill/leak procedures. These are of particular use if a spill or other accident occurs." (ILPI.com FAQ's)

The MSDS report is mostly used by workers or employees to reference the report in case of an emergency. But for greenies this report is a handy resource to find out if your favorite household product is toxic or not. The report will list the ingredients of the substance and then you as the green consumer can take those ingredients to the EWG Skindeep Database to find out how toxic they are to your health. Handy eh?

To find the MSDS report for a particular substance simply type in your search engine "MSDS brand name here". For example, I searched "MSDS Tide" and got this report. I can now read the report, which is a lot of scientific stuff, and found the ingredients, among other facts, and then took the individual ingredients to EWG's Skin Deep website to look up each one. (Green Disclaimer: I don't use Tide anymore but it was an easy example.) Wah Lah!

Some substances may be hard to find so here are some websites that may help:

• http://www.ilpi.com/msds/- Great resource! Very informative.


• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Msds- Of course, I always reference Wikipedia. And they have an international section also.


• Department of Health and Human Services Household Products Database-they might not be as critical as the EWG but it can be a good start.

Be Green.

Going Campaignin'

Just one more for today, I am in a funny mood. This video is from JibJab.

Going Campaignin'

Update on My Green Life

Today in my neck of the woods it should only reach 90 degrees. At that temperature I don't need to turn on the A/C. I am glad for that. My husband makes fun of me because I like the heat and have acclimated to it over the years so in the Spring and Fall when we get 75-80 degrees outside I put my sweater on. (He's from Michigan and I am from Southern California, HUGE difference in weather.) He makes fun of me that I can't handle the "cold" weather. But I still wear my sweaters. So today I will wear my tank top and shorts and maybe get my butt up for a bike ride.

I may not be there yet...but I'm closer than I was yesterday.

As for the rest of my life, I am truckin' along, not achieving the green state I wanted to be in at this time but still working on it. As things run out I replace them with more earth friendly counterparts. Like my dish soap, dish sponge, or fabric sheets (many people use vinegar, I like baking soda in the rinse). I use Trader Joe's dish soap (pictured above), my dish sponges are natural vegetable fiber and no more fabric sheets. As for other household cleaning I use vinegar and baking soda as I run out of Comet, Windex and Fantastic. Sometimes I wonder if these products have had a negative effect on my health through the years. What's done is done and now I can make better choices for my family.

My dryer is lonely. I haven't used it for weeks. In my last post about hang drying I mentioned I don't hang socks, underwear or heavy jeans. Well, that stopped. Everything gets hung now. The socks are not crunchy but underwear are (that didn't sound good, "crunchy underwear", I'm washing them). The clothes almost dry as fast as a dryer would do it when it is 100 degrees outside.

My baby cantaloupe.

In other news, I had to tell my children no apples yesterday at Trader Joes, even organic. Those little gems were coming all the way from New Zealand and Chile! Talk about a huge carbon footprint on something I can substitute with our own fresh cantaloupe (from the backyard, woo hoo!) or make a smoothie from the fresh fruit I picked earlier in the season. I have, for the most part, cut out bananas too, they all come from way down south like Costa Rica. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against those countries, as a matter of fact I envy Costa Rica, they can eat bananas carbon free!

This last week I went to get my haircut with my hairdresser I have used for years. She has always made comments that I need to deep condition my hair. This time she made comments about how soft my hair was. She asked me what was I doing. I told her I wash it every 2-4 days depending on my activity level and rinsed with a solution of apple cider vinegar and water. And combined that with better eating habits. She was impressed. We always discuss more natural ways of managing your hair. She is a hairdresser at a nice salon so she has to sell the products there but she has learned over the years I don't buy them.

And last, but not least. Call it a small victory, but my husband agreed to no more buying individual water bottles. He drives more than I do and would easily grab one on his way out but he agreed to use a Sigg bottle or anything we have in the cupboard with a top.

Be Green.

My New Day Cream

(I had written up a post about how great my new Burt's Bees Day Creme is. And how much better it is than the lotion I previously used. Then I remembered, after I bought Burt's Bees, to do my research at the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep website. And I found out they scored the same! They both received a 4 out of 10 on a hazardous scale. 0 being not hazardous, 10 being highly hazardous to your body. Well, I tweeked my post a little but here it is.)

My Oil of Olay day lotion finally ran out. So I went out and bought Burt's Bees Carrot Nutritive Day Creme. I trust Burt's Bees brand so I didn't do any research for a new day cream for my face. I just went to Long's and bought it. After I bought it I found out the EWG gave it a 4 out of 10 hazard rating. That's not horrible but I think I can find better. But I will use it all up before buying a new cream.

When you open the jar you immediately smell the the ingredients. It is not a bad smell, somewhat neutral, just natural. I am used to the artificial smells of lotions that manufactures think we want to smell like. The texture of the cream is thick and smooth. When I went to put it on my face I was a bit worried that the cream would not dry enough and make my make-up float. It did not, I am very pleased and relieved to say. What was surprising to me is the color, it has an orange tint. I mean it is a natural carrot cream, so it has beta carotene as an ingredient. You know, the stuff that makes your skin orange. But you need to eat quite a bit to have that happen. But what if you use it everyday? Will my skin turn a tint of orange? I doubt it, but it sure did cross my mind when applying it this morning.

Overall, so far, I am very pleased with the creme. I have pretty normal skin, slightly oily on my forehead and nose. This cream blended nicely with my skin. It doesn't make it feel greasy or dry. I think it works all day.

The only draw back is that I wanted a day lotion/creme with a sunscreen it it but if you want all natural then you can't have sunscreen. Something about nano-particles in the sunscreen being absorbed into your skin. Here is an article from the Green Guide about it.

As for the score of 4 at the EWG's website, I was a little shocked and concerned. A 4! So what is wrong with Burt's Bees Carrot Day Creme? Well, reading the report it looks like the big concern is the frangrance used in the product, it was scored an 8! That is really high. The report states that the fragrance can cause allergies and it is a neuro and immune system toxin. Well, that doesn't sound good. (I knew my mama nose was right when I became sickened by fragrances after having babies.) The next concern was the tocopheryl acetate. My take is that it is toxic to your skin and organs. But it scored a 4, which is pretty low. All the other ingredients scored fairly low.

And what about the Oil of Olay scoring a 4? Well, it scored high, 8-9, in fragrance and DMDM Hydantoin. The DMDM Hydantoin has toxins and comes with quite a few warnings and violations. I think the this lotion received a lower rating because the EWG regards UV sunscreen as good because it helps to deter skin cancer.

There are other factors to consider. Burt's Bee's does not test on animals and the signed the EWG's Compact for Safe Cosmetics. Oil of Olay may test on animals and has not signed the Compact. Also, Burt's Bees came in a handy dandy reusable glass jar. Olay, #5 plastic.

So in conclusion, I'll stick with my Burt's Bee's Creme for now. And look for something without a frgrance for next time. I did look in the EWG's Face Lotion Datbase and my head is spinning. There are 1000's. So if anyone has a good face cream let me know.

Slightly Greener

Well, pat my back and call me a slightly darker shade of green. I am excited to share my green finds, buys and actions with you.

-My A/C was fixed on Monday by a very nice and local HVAC company. I am so happy to give a local guy my business. He is not only local but his kids go to school with mine. And he came recommended by 3 of my friends. I love to keep it local. (Ok, that wasn't green but he was local.)

-We have managed to keep the A/C off until about 30 minutes ago. We hovered around 92 degrees today and at the end of the day the house absorbed all the heat. My husband got home from work and wanted cool air after refusing to turn the A/C on in his truck to try and save gas.

-My garden, specifically the zucchini, is growing. I now have 8 bean plants now and every time I take a zucchini off the plant another one is there to replace it the next day. Wow! Zucchini bread for everyone!

-Because of the plethora of zucchini I am prompted to purchase a Foodsaver. I cleaned out my large freezer today and found some of my meats are starting to look rather unsavory. This year I want to start freezing more of my local finds to eat them over the non-growing season and hopefully the Foodsaver will keep my pretties well until I devour them.

-My new toothbrush is green, well actually pink but green. I found it at Trader Joe's. It is called the Preserve toothbrush. The handle is made from yogurt cups. And get this, when you are finished with the toothbrush you can send it back to the company in their pre-paid envelope to be made into park benches. Check it our at Recycline.com

-Meet my laundery team: Trader Joe's Laundry Detergent, Borax and Baking Soda. TJ's Laundry Detergent says it has no harsh or petro chemicals and is pH balanced. I did a little research on Borax and Baking Soda and they are better for the environment than the harsh alternatives. The detergent and Borax keep my clothes clean and the baking soda makes them soft. I do plan on trying to make my own detergent to keep my plastic use down but for now TJ's will do. And I only use 2 tablespoons per load because I have a High Efficient machine. Here are some other things Borax does. And baking soda.

-I finally hung my towels outside to dry. I usually only hang my delicates but the heat was calling to the towels. They were a little crunchy so I cheated a little and put them in the dryer for 5 minutes to soften them, that is better than the hour they would have been in before.

-As you have guessed I love Trader Joe's. They have great organic cottage cheese, the best, I mean best hummus and they always have samples. Anyway, I found some great dish sponges there. They are made from vegetable cellulose. No chemicals or synthetic stuff there. The only drawback is they are made in France. Boy is that a LONG way to travel but until I find a good alternative I will use these. They are firm and hold soap well for washing dishes and there is no smell.

-I have been trying to be more organic and fair labor in my clothing choices but that is a very hard place to go. Organic is expensive. I did manage to buy flip-flops for $25 a pair. I got them from Simple Shoes. They boast recycled this, vegan that. Just check em out for yourself. If you like flip-flops like I do and wear them even in the rain (on warmer days, of course) then you will like these. They are cushy.

-I found an awesome book at the library called Stocking Up by Carol Hupping. She writes about everything from freezing to canning to making fruit leathers. It is a great book and has helped me, the complete novice, learn so much about what to do with your fresh zucchini. I was also shown another book on Beth's site called Putting Food By. The only reason I don't have that book in my possession is the library didn't carry it! Can you believe it? So I will buy it from Amazon used.

I can smell the zucchini bread, gotta go.....

I apologize if the page loaded slower because of the pictures. I love pictures. I am not an eloquent writer and the pictures help to tell my story.

I would love some feedback from you guys. Please be honest, just not brutal. Does anyone have a Foodsaver? Do you like it? Any simple zucchini recipes? Do you have a green store you like?

BE GREEN!

Natural Facial Soap

I finally ran out of Noxzema. It was a little bitter sweet because I have been washing my face with it it for over 20 years, since I was a tween, you do the math. But my new found green calling has lead me to try more natural personal products. I was at the farmer's market yesterday and found Delta Moon Soapworks. The bar is made with the "Cold Press Method" with Aloe and Oatmeal and says it is "great as a facial bar." The woman selling the bath bars claims that everything is natural with no artificial colors, no phthalates and no parabens. I asked her if the soap was organic. Her answer perplexed me. She said, "There is organic and then there is natural. My bars are natural. I can't afford to make them organic. The bars would be $10." Isn't organic also natural? She made it sound like you had to choose one or the other.

Anyway, I did buy the bar because it is better than Noxzema, natural and local. Here is what's in it:

• Olive Oil


• Coconut Oil


• Goat Milk


• Glycerine (also spelled Glycerin)


• Aloe


• Ground Oatmeal


• Vitamin E

The only ingredient I questioned was glycerine. Off to Google I went. Google did not help. Wikipedia justs gives the facts, not if it is good or bad. (Unless you are a chemical scientist of some sort you can understand all the scientific names.) Treehugger, Alternative Consumer and The Environmental Working Group barely had anything to mention about glycerine. Does that mean if it is in my soap glycerine is ok? I also checked Burt's Bees and Kiss My Face to see if they noticeably excluded it as an ingredient, they did not. And lastly, I did google "organic, natural soap" to see if organic natural soaps exclude it. I stopped at 3 sites and none of them excluded glycerine. But they did boast their bath bars were "cold pressed" which made me feel better about how my bath bar is made.

So I will start tonight to wash my face with it. I will give it, say, a week to report back my findings.

Longs-Recycling

We went into Long's Drugs the other day to buy shoelaces. (Actually that doesn't matter.) Anyway, I noticed they had a battery and plastic bag recycle collection located just inside the doors. I thought I would just share this tidbit of knowledge. So if you live near a Long's Drug store you too can recycle those nasty batteries and plastic bags in one place.
I also noticed they had a huge section of organic beauty protucts like Kiss My Face and Burt's Bees. So when your not making it yourself, check out Long's.

Baking Soda Can Do What?

Sodium Bicarbinate. It almost sounds like a chemical we want to avoid. But if you are trying to be green and eco-friendly this is your best friend. It is baking soda. And with a little research, I mean barely any research, I found out that you can do everything but fuel your car with this stuff!
We all know you can deoderize your refrigerator and help bake your holiday cookies. But did you know it can also keep weeds out of cracks? Treat dandruff? Ward off diaper rash? Boost laundry power? Scrub away dead skin cells, even on your face?
Head over to the Arm and Hammer website to find out more and to signup for free e-newsletter and promotions. Reader's Digest has a list of things baking soda can do. And then I found a free web book that I have yet to explore more!
Oh, the things you can find in that little orange box!

Happy April Fools Day

My blog post today has nothing to do with April Fool's Day but I thought I would wish everyone Happy April Fools Day anyway. But today is my dog Maggy's birthday, she is 3 today! And she has pledged to go organic, ha ha. She eats organic food now too! She is trying out Natural Balance Organic. And actually I think she likes it more than her old dog food. She is actually better than I am. I still cheat and go to Starbuck's every so often.

I am starting to get frustrated, though. I am in the bathroom this morning and I want so desperately to get rid of the shampoo, lotions, make-up and cleansers I have there but so many are near full because I not only want to be organic but I want to be frugal. I can't just pour the shower cleaner down the drain. I guess I will wait and finish it off, which may take me a year, and then clean the bottle out really well and replace the cleanser with vinegar and water.

And the same goes for my personal hygiene products. The shampoo is new and full because I don't wash my hair everyday and I use a very small quantity. I am dying to try Burt's Bees or other organic brands but it will be a while. I wonder if I can convince my hairdresser to switch?

Oh! I just want to feel good about what I use and I can't yet! I can replace my feminine products (sorry for being so personal with this subject). That is one product I have no control over the quantity I use. I was reading Allie's Green Answers (not me) this morning and I am glad because that time will be approaching soon. Her subject was which tampons were the safest. I will try her suggestions.