I think I have

Listing Block! Its like writers block except with listing new items to my shop.



That is the pile of items that have not yet made it to the shop

Hello there it's me blogging from my Iphone!
Last week was hella busy and much of it is dealing with more aftermath of doing a home birth. It's not too big of a ordeal it's just getting Solace her birth cert which has been done so the next process is with getting her a social security number. It's less paperwork but a bit more challenging where as they really want two forms of ID for the child but you have one ( the birth cert) that qualifies. So it takes a few ackward looks from the clerk and then they say they have to have the supervisor verify the birth cert and it will take a few weeks. Overall it's a pretty painless ordeal but a bit time consuming. Anyways Solace is now official so I'm happy

Green Baby Bargains gift cert giveaway!

GreenBabyBargains.com is still one of the best kept secrets on the web! I have loved all of the products I've gotten through this site which range from clothes to bottles and many other things. They are always around 50% off or more, fortunate for me they take paypal so I don't have to ask the hubbys permission before I buy these goodies ;P Also they ship super fast which always puts a smile on my face! Right now they are having a $50 certificate giveaway so click here to enter today is the last day!

Thanks to Hyla of Green Earth Journey for showing me this site and a big congrats to her having a beautiful new baby girl!

Is Polypropylene a safe plastic

With the recent CPSIA bans on Phthalates Lead PVC in children products and with impending bans on BPA manufactures have turned to the extensively used currently deemed safe polypropylene among other plastics but is it really harmless?

Recently I was doing some research for an eco-friendly baby bathtub of which there is only one that comes up when you do the search the tub in question is a great concept and touted as being "non-toxic, recyclable, energy efficient, BPA and PVC free" I was ready to press the checkout button when I thought is any plastic really eco-friendly? Then again is any plastic really safe? So I looked into this mystery "non-toxic, recyclable, energy efficient, BPA and PVC free" plastic. Turns out its made out of our friendly plastic Mr.Polypropylene (PP) which is one of the most used plastics!

This #5 recyclable is what replaced the BPA and PVC in those baby bottles, it's the plastic tub you get from the prepared foods section of your grocery store, it's your yogurt container, the cap to your glass/steel water bottle, in addition to many many other things and it's even used in Europe! So you figure it's safe right? Well perhaps we were wrong as a recent experiment by researchers in Canada had their research fouled by two compounds, quaternary ammonium biocides, and oleamide,leaching from their polypropylene equipment. The fortunate thing is that they noticed this and raised a red flag about using PP which is now being brought into question in much the same way Mr.Polycarbonate was in the early 90s according to the Environmental Working Group. I wonder about how many crucial experiments have been fouled by these products leching unnoticed.



So what are quaternary ammonium biocides, and oleamide besides hard to to pronounce?
Lets start with quaternary ammonium biocides are an anti-bacterial compound which has a variety of applications including being mixed in with the plastic that holds your pro-biotic yogurt which sounds like false advertising if it does leach this compound into your friendly bacteria. Not to mention it getting into your body and killing your friendly bacteria that you tried to hard to place there by eating yogurt and into the environment killing off friendly bacteria which the results of this happening are largely unknown but most anti-bacterial hand soaps have been causing a commotion.


On to the other compound olemide leaching from PP, this is naturally occurring in the body and causes sleep to be induced when one is sleep deprived as it collects in the cerebrospinal fluid. If you're like me you may be asking why Mr. PP has this compound is he being sleep deprived? Actually it's used as a slip agent or lubricant as it were. Since this compound is found within the human body this substance is of the highest concern as no one knows what it's effects could be perhaps making people lazy, hallucinate as if sleep deprived or the "run-of-the-mill" effect of causing cancer.



However, before people go screaming into the streets that Mr.Polypropylene is the devil what caused these compounds to leach in the first place so that is still a mystery but the EWG reports that they were "conducting experiments on a human enzyme" and that the "substances were leaking from the plastic tubes they used to transfer liquids in the experiment." Also there is currently research happening to see exactly what the potential effects these compounds can have on us and the environment.
So in conclusion this knowledge is your to take whatever action you want to with it. I personally did not buy the bath tub because a baby can be very susceptible to these compounds being absorbed through their thin skin and I save money on not getting one anyways, however I still come in contact with this plastic almost daily so I anxiously await the results. As do product injury lawyers it seems, more info can be found at Lawyers and Settlements.com, The Environmental Working Group(EWG), Gaiam, and lastly a report of the leaching study here

I need a massage!

Sorry updates have not been happening the past week or two and this week seems that it may be no different. I've been busy so busy in fact that today I actually took a nap which is impossible for me to do unless I am completely drained. I haven't taken an afternoon nap since the first week Solace was born, and I was running on very little sleep for the past week in prep for vending at an event and hanging with the family that flew in town over the weekend. I just feel bad because I feel like I didn't have a chance to enjoy spending time with them, working the event and lack of sleep =/
Anyways, today I got Solace her birth cert and I was able to get to the Monday Mommie movie at the Pacific Theatre in the Grove it was Star Trek which was a really great movie I really enjoyed it! Then afterwords I headed to Mani's bakery to get food to go then the grocery store and home to promptly pass out for a few hours before making dinner. Tomorrow I have a bunch of errands to run around town and a couple of appts going on the rest of this week in addition to taking inventory of what was sold at the event so I can get my shop out of vacation mode. I did really well at the event and made the most I have ever made in a day so I am pretty happy about that =D

The place to get your eco-friendly packaging and other office supplies

Green Earth Office Supply
I have to share my new packaging supply find as this place has the best prices on truly eco-friendly products. Upon finding this site with it's html novice style layout I was a little deterred to try it as they don't use paypal however with it being through Yahoo Shopping I deemed it a bit safer to try out.
Below is a comparison of of the more expensive Jiffy padded envelopes that I got from another "green office" supply with the less expensive NatureWise ones from Green Earth



The more post consumer content the better as it's putting your recyclables to good (re)use.
I also applaud them for reusing packaging as my items were shipped in a reused box shown below! This is honestly the one green company that really works hard to to be green all around in contrast to where I was getting my packaging supplies from before the envelopes in their own separate 25 pack boxes creating more waste that I had to deal with.



The only cons are you must make a minim order of $40, they only ship UPS, and that it took a while for them to send out the items which seemed to be sent out after I called and emailed them and I didn't receive any response just my items a few days later. They also offer a free item with your order and I selected one but did not receive it as they may have ran out of the free items either way it would have been nice to get correspondence in some way. However these are the only down sides but not a big issue as I got what I needed.

Overall I am pleased with their dedication to being green and very cost effective I got my items and that's what counts, for this I look forward to ordering from them again and to better customer service/business management in the future from Green Earth Office Supply

Solace at 3 weeks

Easter was an interesting day where I realized that anything I want to do depends on what Solace wants to do. I wanted to go to church and she wanted to eat, I wanted to get to my mother's house by 1pm and we left at about 2pm because Solace once again wanted to eat right when we were ready to walk out the door. Anyways we did capture a pic of the Easter bunny

Yeah I did that pic up Anne Geddes style :D here's a few more pics of the little bunny in her Haba Dream Meadow




Yesterday was officially 3 weeks for our baby girl and to celebrate we went on a 2 mile walk! (actually I needed to go to the post office) Solace did really well with the walk so a piedi is the way to go for me to get out of the house and feel a sense of my freedom. Also yesterday Jason took me out to all you can eat sushi at Midori which was delightful being able to have raw fish again (this is what makes me the heathen vegan I can't get fish out of my diet especially when it's raw!) The only limitations on sushi still lies with the mercury so I couldn't have all of my favorites which will have to wait till Solace is weaned :(