Business Review: The Common Thread

In preparation for my first sewing class, I visited the newly opened independent fabric store The Common Thread just over a week ago. What a treat!

As I mentioned when I listed my goal of learning how to sew this year, I haven’t done any real sewing since I took a home ec class in junior high. That was a few years ago (ahem!) so I felt a little nervous preparing for my sewing class. What fabrics would be best for the various projects? I checked out organic fabric online but for my first projects, I wanted to feel the fabrics. The selection of organic fabric at the chain store in my area was nonexistent so I had to find another option. Read more

New Rules Proposed on CO2 Emissions and Fuel Efficiency

Yesterday the EPA and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed regulations that would provide a national threshold for carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles and would require an increase in fuel efficiency for passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty passenger vehicles sold in the United States by almost 40%. Read more

Available Space Rather Than Size

This post is part of September’s APLS Blog Carnival. Learn how others feel their household’s size affects their efforts to live a green life at crstn85 on September 19 to read all the submissions.

This month APLS took me on a walk down memory lane. As I pondered these questions:

When does size matter?… what efforts that you make are easier to do because of your household size? Which are harder and make you wish there were a better way?

I thought about our current life, our life with a two-year old and a baby, the toddler and a pregnant mom on bedrest life, our adjustment to parenthood with our eldest child, and our life pre-children. Read more

A National Day of Service and Remembrance

Tonight, in response to a question, I tried to explain the significance of September 11th to my children. They are just six and four so there are many, many things about that day that I don’t want them to know about yet so my explanation was very brief.

Earlier in the day I had happened upon an old post by Tall Grass Worship. The post begins:

A couple of years ago we watched the excellent movie “United 93″. The movie takes place on September 11, 2001, and it’s director tried to stay as completely faithful to the events regarding that flight as possible, down to the exact words of the various passengers, as recorded or recollected by their relatives. As you may remember, United flight 93 was the airliner on which the passengers chose to attack the terrorists who had hijacked the plane, resulting in it crashing in a field in Pennsylvania rather than into Washington, D.C.

One of the most memorable scenes in the movie involved a very young woman calling home on her cell phone. She had just comprehended that the plane was destined to crash, one way or another, and that she was facing certain death. At her parent’s home, her stepmother answered the phone. The young woman, in a panicked voice, explained to her stepmother the circumstances she was in. The older woman had already seen news coverage of the other three planes crashing, and quickly understood the situation. She drew a deep breath, and, in the calmest of voices, began to guide the younger woman through her final moments. They expressed their love for each other. Then, the stepmother, seeking to calm the panicked girl, said something like,”I have my arms around you. Do you feel them?” With that, the demeanor of the younger woman changed. She relaxed. “Yes, I feel them,” she replied.

I sobbed as I thought about all the people who have missed the hugs of their friends and family members over the last eight years.

Later in the day I read Honoring the Dead by Serving the Living, which talks about the work two of those people have done since that day. In order to ensure that the memory of all those lost that day is truly honored, Jay Winuk and David Paine founded MyGoodDeed, which is now known as 911DayOfService.org. Their mission is:

to honor the victims of 9/11 and those who rose to service in response to the attacks by encouraging all Americans and others throughout the world to pledge to voluntarily perform at least one good deed, or another service activity on 9/11 each year. In this way we hope to create a lasting and forward-looking legacy — annually rekindling the spirit of service, tolerance, and compassion that unified America and the world in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Now I know how I can better explain the significance of September 11th to my children. The response people around the world had after the attacks, and can continue today, is the main lesson I learned from September 11th and is the lesson I will teach them. Sometimes it is just hard to remember through the sadness so I am deeply appreciative of the reminder from  Mr. Paine and Mr. Winuk.

Please join us, and many others, in engaging in a charitable activity in honor of all who were killed and injured on September 11, 2001. If you need help thinking of ideas or want to share your family’s plans, you can do so at 911DayOfService.org.

Organic Fabric Sources

This may not be news to the green crafting crowd, but finding cute organic fabric can be tough!

One of my goals for this year is to learn how to sew. I’m signed up for a class that begins shortly so I’ve started looking for fabrics for the class projects. (Exciting!) I naively walked into a nearby Hancock Fabric expecting to find an organic section and found… no organic fabrics in the store. Not one. When I asked about them, the salesperson said, “We only get a few of those and they sell out quickly.” If I were working in the fabric world, I would see this as a sign that there is a strong demand being unmet!

Rather than driving from store to store, I decided to hop on the information highway to see what I could find.

My first stop was Mod Green Pod. This Austin-based company creates the organic fabrics that started me thinking about making our curtains myself. It is fair to say that I am going to learn how to sew so I can use their fabrics. Their beautiful selections are made out of 100% organic cotton, which is grown, woven and printed in the United States. They keep the fabrics free of fire retardants, wrinkle-free agents, and other toxic chemicals so they don’t off-gas. I love the bright colors and clean designs! Both of my girls and I enjoy playing with their Room Creator. Check out the Bloom fabric to the right as curtains!

The fabrics at Mod Green Pod led me to Near Sea Naturals. This site carries organic fabric from a number of companies, including Mod Green Pod and Harmony Art, which is listed below. They carry not only organic fabric but also organic lace, organic ribbons, organic sewing thread, organic stuffing and other notions so you can find everything you need in one place. They carry several out-of-production selections from Mod Green Pod, including this one called Tickled Pink that my daughters love. ( Pink ladybugs with flowers for spots, could anything be more perfect for little girls?) Their site even shares project ideas in case you need a jumpstart.

Harmony Art is another source of lovely organic fabric choices. The prints are especially compelling and I really appreciated the fact that coordinating fabrics are listed. Details for wholesale purchases of 50-yard rolls are listed. For smaller orders, retail distributors, including Near Sea Naturals, are listed on the site. I see a possible dress option for my girls here!

I recently came across Betz White’s book Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed & Organic Materials so thought to see if she carried any organic fabric on her site. It turns out that she has a very cute organic fabric line that just came out at the end of July. (Sounds like smart folks ARE paying attention to the strong demand!) These colorful fabrics made of 55% hemp and 45% organic cotton are available at her Etsy shop. So far the Sprigs and Sprout on the left-hand side of this pillow is my favorite but the Lawnchair on the right-side of the pillow is growing on me as well. I have a feeling the more I look, the longer that list will grow.

Etsy is also the home of Daisy Janie. Her organic fabrics are a blend of 55% organic hemp and 45% organic cotton or 100% organic cotton sateen that are printed in the United States. Her patterns are very clean and crisp looking with lots of fun colors. I think the Parkside fabric would make a cute skirt; good thing I am going to learn how to make one!

I’m continuing my search for organic fabric so please share any sources you have found.

Benefits of Going Green – 7 and Counting

As we have been preparing for the new school year, we’ve been looking backwards as well as forward and reviewing our progress over the year to date. We have our green goals and have been tracking our progress on them but it struck me that the benefits of going green have gone far beyond meeting those goals. Here are the main benefits of going green we have experienced: Read more

Family Friday: Tagging Monarchs

Autumn is my favorite season. The weather finally begins to cool, which in Texas means the highs drop into the 90s, and monarch butterflies begin to reappear. They can use your help again this time of year, just as they could during their spring migration. Lucas Miller explains what you and your family can do to both enjoy and nurture nature by assisting in research efforts to track monarch butterflies. Enjoy!

Back in the spring, I wrote a bit about planting milkweeds to attract monarchs.  The females seek out milkweeds when it’s time to lay their eggs and, hopefully, you had fun watching the little caterpillars feasting, fattening, and metamorphosing while you sipped your morning coffee on the porch.

Monarchs are on the move again so give those milkweeds some TLC (or maybe just go out and buy some more) if yours, like mine, have been decimated by aphids, scale insects, potato beetles, and a series of others.  The toxins in milkweeds are supposed to offer protection but, in my garden, the milkweeds suffer far more infestations than any of our other plants. Read more

Slow Food USA’s Time for Lunch on September 7

How can children learn and grow to their full potential when the food pictured here is what we feed them in schools? They simply can’t.

This fall, the Child Nutrition Act is up for reauthorization. This Act provides the governance for several child nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program. The National School Lunch Program supplies 30 million school children with lunch every school day. For many of these children, the meals they receive at school provide the majority of their nutrition during the school year. Read more