My husband turns 30 today and I am throwing him a birthday party this Saturday to celebrate his life. He has spent all of his life (minus 4 months) living in the midwest (Illinois and Michigan) and we thought that it would be perfect to close out this chapter of his life and welcome the [...]
The general idea behind the term “fair trade” is that producers and workers trading/selling their goods internationally will be fairly paid for their products. This can become very relative, therefore, standards in the form of certifications were started to keep everyone in check. There are a couple of different fair trade certifications/labels out there. If [...]
I have a strong appreciation for unique and beautiful textiles. The combination of form and function is wonderful and I continue to be intrigued by the new creative spaces some people are able to explore using these age-old traditions. Denyse Schmidt is one of these people. Growing up with two parents that were highly skilled [...]
I am a runner that needed new shoes. I put off searching for a new pair of shoes for as long as possible because (1) I didn’t want to do the research to find sweatshop free shoes and (2) I wanted to buy quality running shoes and not some crappy pair of sweatshop free shoes. [...]
Happy Earth Day to all! I have chosen this wonderful day to kick off the first annual Challenge of Late Spring. Sound interesting? Sound fun? Sound like something you would love to do? YES! YES! YES! Well, let me first take a moment to tell you a little about this exciting Challenge. Spring is a [...]
My husband and I love to travel and we (maybe more me than him) thought it would fun to travel a bunch this winter in order to get a break from the gloomy Chicago days. We have been traveling every weekend for over a month, visiting family and friends all over the U.S. We are [...]
I thought about putting pictures up of my lavender bathroom (bathtub, toilet, sink, floor, and tiles ALL lavender) but thought better of it. You will just have to imagine what it looks like in all of its CLEANish lavender glory and filled with the following products. I have included a brief review of the products [...]
The Bathroom This is Part One of the Products That I Like series. As I was writing this post I quickly began to realize that it is going to get ‘out of control long’ before I was finished with it. To make it more managable, I have decided to break it up into a couple [...]
Introduction I have found that a lot of people who attempt to make the switch to using environmentally and socially responsible products very quickly get overwhelmed. They don’t know where to start, what to look for, or what products are good. This series is supposed to serve as a base to start from. I am [...]