Mark #500 with A Hair Story

This is my 500th post folks and it just dawned on me that this summer will mark five years that I've blogged. I haven't always been a continual blogger as there have many quiet moments when I didn't feel like sharing life or didn't want to push my ideology onto others, but it's been a journey in it's own right.

500 posts about life, love, and the pursuit of both. Posts about pets, daily captured moments, gratitudes, environmental and public health issues, donating, social justice, spirituality, travels. And today a post about....well, my hair. I mean why not mark #500 with hair, as it's had it's own major journey in the last five years too. ;)

When I started blogging my hair was down the middle of my back:

And then I chopped it up to my shoulders to donate to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program  (as I'd heard that Locks of Love gets too many donations to use)....and then a month later it went a bit shorter and cuter.

My hair even was personified in the ring tone for when I'd call my gal N: I'd always hated being judged on my hair (As a kid I had some pretty crazy cuts & perms. Really it's thick and luscious, but 99% of the time I don't do anything with it and just have it hang there), and I had mentioned several times to my gal N about people always commenting on the changes with my hair. Since we have a mutual love of India.Arie....she set my ringtone when I called her as I Am Not My Hair. :) (Idk, maybe it still is?!)

Being the lame hair style type person that I am, I even hate scheduling hair appointments and I like the walk-in method. I LOVE Bishops Barbershop (walk-in only, Portland funky, and you can have a beer if you desire....) but sometimes it's been hit or miss....and at one point it was a definite miss that I had to get sorted out just prior to hub's and my legal contract together (aka when we got hitched). Hub likes my hair short however and while in Louisiana, it was just too much of a pain to grow out with how much I was running and the humidity, and I honestly couldn't find anyone who could cut it into a good style while it was growing out. I made it to the length where it'd just fit into a pony tail and then I couldn't take it anymore.

Plus....I'd always wanted to try a pixie, so I took the plunge in Fall 2010.....and the first go around of the pixie was cute and fabulous for my no-maintenance preference (bar soap to wash and a bit of hair gel to style). And somehow it actually framed my face well--I got loads of compliments near and far.

Right before Christmas 2010 I had a second stylist re-do the pixie (and right before the military formal ball) and it was SH-OR-T---as in I almost had a crew cut with a funky bang.

At that point I decided for the entirety of 2011, no hair chopping or real cuts, only trims to help with grow out....and during the entire year, I only had 4 trims (3 of which were done by the most amazing stylist I've ever had.....who is at the nearby Bishops here. She's so amazing that when I showed up for the 3rd trim, she asked what I was doing there cause she knows I want to grow it out!).

I have seen all sorts of friends hair grow like crazy and through multiple chops in the last year, so I've come to realize that a) while pixies take a while to grow out b) my hair is slow growing and c) I'm wondering if using "natural" shampoo w/o hormones has something to do with it?! But while it's taken forever, my hair is finally between my chin and shoulders at one year and one month later! Today was the first time I was able to tuck it back into a sort-of ponytail again.

I'm not sure how long I'm going to grow it out, but maybe I'll see how long it can go for the next year and try to donate it again if its long enough. Sometimes I miss the super short hair, but I also am ready to have some long hair again!

(PS Usually I don't post many face shots of myself cause I try to blog somewhat anonymously, but for #500 and for this new plug at authenticity, you got to see me)

Why I Care So Much about Personal Care Products

Here's an approximate snap shot into hub's and my conversation as we were laying in bed last night:

Me: Feel my hand it's SO soft from using that coconut oil on my skin.
Hub: Where'd you get it?
Me: It's that jar that I bought that's been in the kitchen. I have to warm it up but it's amazing--coats well and was great for a bit of self-massage. Roxi was licking my legs like crazy cause she thought it tasted good, so I put on pants.
Hub: (laughing) I bet she loves it! That's funny though cause I thought that jar is for cooking.
Me: Well, it IS for cooking but it can be used on the body....it even says so on the back of the jar! I'd been thinking about buying some and then K sent me a link on it out-of-the-blue and D added to it and it has all sorts of health benefits. Plus some schools of thought think that since our skin is so porous that we shouldn't put anything on it that we wouldn't eat anyway.

Hub: Definitely makes sense and I'm glad you're liking it!
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Now I've only been using it for two days folks, but so far I am AB-SO-LUTELY smitten. I slathered it on with that self-massage in place of my daily moisturizer last night. I applied a tiny bit as my face moisturizer after washing my face this morning, and I slathered up with it after my shower tonight. So far my skin feels great. I haven't decided if I'll stick with it as my morning routine too and it does take a bit of time cause I have to warm up the jar for it to melt into oil, but my skin feels and looks great!

So folks, I'm truly thinking that the coconut oil is here to stay as part of my increasingly more natural beauty routine:

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It dawned on me that as much as I've written about green living and my use of certain products, I don't know that I've ever really gone into some of the whys about it, so here ya go and get ready for a lil soapbox lecture, although some of you already know most of this.

A) I got into public health originally because my father was diagnosed with cancer due to environmental causes, which lead me to wonder what exactly in the environment could have led to his cancer development. What I didn't know was that the can of worms would so completely open and I'd learn more than I ever wanted to. Ignorance sometimes feels blissful, although the majority of the population has no clue about the harmful substances they are surrounded by...and many of us feel that there's not too much we can do about it even when the knowledge arrives....except to attempt improved personal choices.

B) What this means is that of the approximate 80,000 chemicals out on the market, only 200 of those have been tested by the government as to their health effects....and of those only a handful have been banned for negative health effects in the United States. For the most part industry determines what is "safe" and what is not, and they tend to operate on an "it's safe until its proven otherwise" rather than via the precautionary principle (until its proven to be safe then lets not have the public exposed to it). There are multiple other factors to consider about human exposure too. Some chemicals have been found to have worse effects in small amounts than large (which boggle the human mind, but the human body can also boggle the human mind). And most research that exists is based on a one-time exposure for a certain amount of time.....and does not include cross-contamination. What this means is this: if you apply your lip gloss frequently, then the estimated health effects via the original research is no longer valid. If you apply chap stick AND lip gloss there is a chemical interaction occurring that has not been researched either and any individual research done by the separate industries is no longer true.

C) This multiple exposure issue matters because how frequently are we ever exposed to just one chemical? Your carpet, furniture, car, etc are all off-gassing all the time. Your clothes are made of materials that were coated in chemicals. Your cookware has chemicals, your food is GMO and/or coated in pesticides, dishes & etc-- all are made up of various substances. And how many of you only use ONE personal care product? ALL of these exposures build up in our systems and have the capacity to negatively effect our health. Sure some of them break down quickly but others of them last in our systems and in our environment years beyond their common use. Case in point: recent body studies of individuals have found chemicals that were banned decades ago in the bodies of people born after the chemical was banned. (This can be due to exposure via the environment where the chemical has yet to break down in nature or via the following point....)

D) We're all carrying around hundreds (if not more) chemicals in our bodies that is known as our body burden. You add in the principle of bioaccumulation (think chemical gets eaten by little fish which gets eaten by bigger fish which gets eaten by even bigger fish which gets eaten by human which passes it on to its offspring, since infants are at the top of all food chains.....) and that means that each generation continues to pass its load onto the next. Scientists have measured cord blood in newborns and found that most babies born today have about 300 toxins at birth. Now just imagine the lifetime exposure to more chemicals....and welcome to the life experiment we're all in yet no one signed informed consent. (You can read more about this quickly here or via the books: Body Toxic by Nena Baker and Having Faith by Sandra Steingraber.)

E) And so because of all of THAT I have spent the last several years trying to cut down some of my exposures. There are some things that I can't do too much about---there's always going to be new carpet, new furniture, paint, etc somewhere. And there are some points where I need to do more (case in point: we have stainless steel & copper pots and a cast iron pan but we still use non-stick regularly, plus much of our food is not organic.....). However there are also other products that I use day in and day out.....and many of these are ones I have taken the time to try to find healthier options for. However the more I'm contemplating potentially having a bio baby in the next few years, the more I'm realizing I need to be even more mindful and do more to impact product choices across the board if possible.

F) The area I have probably done the best in over the years has been to reduce the harmful effects based on the ingredients in my personal care products. Generally speaking I use the Skin Deep database by EWG to check out my products. Before I knew about the database, I wrongly thought that anything in the "natural" aisle must be okay, so I used to use things like Nature's Gate shampoo, etc. Most our soap & shampoo got switched over to Burt's Bees after using the database, but in re-checking my products out for this post it appears that the sell-out of Burts to Clorox has increased their harmful health ratings one point on most my products. Now there is some controversy of course, as almost any ingredient could be argued to have potential negative health effects, but I like to check out what the actual ratings are and see what the ingredients have been tied to. Thus staying out of the cancer and reproductive toxicity categories are key for me, while I don't worry quite as much about the allergies category. Not all my products score in the low categories and after the discovery about Burts Bees I might be switching over to something else (Yes to Carrots Nourishing Shampoo & Face Cleanser scores better), but from what I can tell the majority of the other items I use score in the lower categories (minus deodorant, face moisturizer, and face scrub).

I've posted what most the low scoring items are before, but in case you're looking for safer alternatives, I'll recommend some of them again:
--Foundation, bronzer, blush, & eye shadow all come from Alima Mineral Make-up, which is also a local Portland company.
--Eye liner, mascara, & fingernail polish are from Honeybee Gardens.
--Lip gloss & balm are Burts Bees
--Listerine mouthwash scores fairly low and even my stand-by acne treatment scores low (Clean & Clear Persagel)
--Curel Ultra Healing body moisturizer (although this might get taken over by the coconut oil!)
--Basic castille soap bar (for body)

Tonight's research has made me realize I need to swap out the Burts Bees shampoo and face wash and I REALLY need to find a new facial scrub other than the St Ives (which scored 8 out of 10!! Goodness!).

And while we're STILL on this topic (sorry about the lengthy soapbox post tonight!), there was a great related blog post with suggestions for homemade options by Keeper of the Home:  5 Tips for Saving Money on Natural Skincare

What great alternatives can you share to decrease chemical exposure? Any great products or ideas?

The Weekend Post

Are you getting used to these weekend only posts? ;) I definitely have lots to say but just not as much time to write about it all. Luckily I took Friday entirely off of work since I'd already worked over my hours for the week and it made for a great three day weekend, although there's been grading of exams and prepping for this next week still going on. Hub's been in our hometown attending our high school's football game and going hunting for deer with his best friend. Beyond grading/prepping, there's been lots of enjoyment going on between the critters and I though! One of my favorite gals came over Friday evening until late, the dogs and I finally ran twice last week, and all around we've been enjoying fall. Here are some more fabulous things from this special season:

Two of my favorite indulgences of fall: hard apple cider and pumpkin beer. I've also taken a hankering to red table wines--especially the one by Middle Sister which my mom (who ironically doesn't drink alcohol) turned me on to....although it's definitely a bit more north of my typical wine price range....

Major's been spending nights cuddling up between hub and I during the week. Usually we don't let the cats sleep with us, but he's been so still (and cold!) that we've let him just hang out curled up in bed while we sleep.

The leaves are changing colors everywhere and its completely gorgeous!

I spent an afternoon mowing the lawn, reseeding some grass, raking pine needles, and putting one of our raised beds "to bed," so the chickens had the opportunity to finally free range. The dogs love following them around the yard, but man were those ladies difficult to catch this go around ;) Took me 15 minutes of chasing them before I finally had both of them back in their home!

Hub and I headed downtown to one of our funky favorite breakfast diners on Friday. It was neat to enjoy some delish breakfast together and led to a conversation about how we both, at times, wish we lived closer in. Even though we live 8 miles from my work, it takes 30-45 minutes of driving in order for me to get there and it's an hour commute for hub to get to campus downtown using public transportation. We love our rental and usually don't mind the 'burbs, but if we end up staying longer than I'm envisioning in the Portland area (it's definitely where the jobs are and hub could potentially have a grad program to go to after his undergrad degree.....) then we will probably want to re-evaluate where we are living in relation to my job and to downtown.

When hub and I got married as quickly as we did, we didn't really have the finances nor time to really think about rings. At the time I bought a simple white gold band that I wore and then added another ring about a year ago that symbolized my family when I was gifted a family ring with a unique stone from Granny. In my mind I always assumed that someday I'd get a different ring and after watching Blood Diamond (& getting into sustainability/simplicity), I've been against the idea of buying a new ring/diamond for myself. Hub and I hit some rough spatches this summer and one thing that came out of it all was my realizing how much I want us to have at least a few of the more "traditional" things, ie rings, dishes, etc that we didn't really do due to our chosen marriage route. While hub doesn't want to wear a ring (don't ask....), I've had it in mind to find a more traditional ring for myself. Yesterday I took my baby cousin (who actually just got engaged to her high school boyfriend who is training for the Army) to one of my favorite areas downtown. After looking at a couple other cutesy stores, we went into Gilt, which is a vintage and estate jewelry store. There were two rings that I equally liked but the one I chose felt more like a lifetime ring and I have to say....I LOVE IT! I love that it already has history (it's from the 1950s) and I love the swirl. While I usually try not to be too attached to things..it seriously makes me happy every time I've looked at it in the last two days......

The bedroom still isn't done but I thought I'd finally at least post a picture, as I don't know that we'll decide what we want on the walls anytime soon. I love how cozy it is and that it's a mix of new, organic, and old. The paint is low-VOC and is sort of a taupe color. The bed itself is the Sumatra II from Pottery Barn and the low footboard is perfect so hub's long legs can hang over still, the new mattresses from BedCo continue to be amazing, and we purchased the bedside tables for $20 a piece from our local Bimart. The lamps are ones I've had for years now that I got for $6 at Goodwill. The four panels of curtains are some I got on clearance at the evil store (Wal-Mart) and they were in our living room in Louisiana. Hub doesn't like extra decorative pillows so we only have regular pillows and we almost always have two down comforters. The patterned duvet is organic cotton from West Elm. Since we haven't really turned the heat on yet, I've got one regular sheet and one flannel fitted sheet on the bed currently ;)

I hate to admit that I haven't really cooked or baked in.....months. Yesterday morning I made banana french toast, and then this morning I made baked oatmeal using a recipe sent out by Two Frog Home via her newsletter.

Her Recipe is this:

Baked Apple Oatmeal

• 2 Cups Oatmeal
• 1 Cup Peeled, Cored, and Chopped Apples
• 1/3 Cup Chopped Nuts
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Allspice
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
• Pinch of Salt
• 1/2 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
• 3/4 Cup Milk or Milk Alternative
• 1/3 Cup Sesame Seeds
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar

--Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" Pie Plate
--Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mixing until thoroughly combined and well moistened.
--Pour and spread into prepared pie plate. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, the oatmeal will have puffed and be browned on the edge.
--Serve with extra milk/milk

I substituted dried cranberries and dried cherries for the apples, flaxseed for the sesame seeds, and I used shelled sunflower seeds for the nuts. It was a bit drier than other varieties I've tried but I liked that this version doesn't use eggs, and I ate it with organic vanilla yogurt so it was great!

 

The dogs have been pretty cooped up in the house and yard the last few weeks since we've been so busy so this weekend not only did I make sure to run them, but they got to go on several car rides. We drove the back farm roads looking for farms that would have decorative gourds this afternoon and then made a couple other errands the last two days. They always LOVE IT!

And I'm stoked because today I got to indulge in one of my favorite fall looks. :) Ballet slippers, beat up old jeans, tank, hoodie, and my poofy down vest.

LOVING FALL and hoping you are too!

Favorite Beauty Items

Burts Bees Products (at least the ones with lower product hazard scores), but especially their plain chapstick, shampoo, and this one:

 Alima (Portland-based mineral) Make-Up for their shadows, foundation, blush, and this item I usually can't go without (bronzer):

White fluffy cotton towels:

Preserve recyclable (and made from recycled plastic) toothbrushes:

My oh-so-not-natural-but-completely-standby-for-years body and face (unscented and w/ "fair" scores) lotions:

And the final make-up standbys: Honeybee Gardens products for eyeliners, mascara, and nail polish:

Beautiful Morning

It's amazing how much good news can change one's entire demeanor toward the upcoming days. And today of all days is that magical and commercialized day of Valentine's Day. No need to discuss hub's and my outlook toward prefabricated Hallmark events again however, it's a beautiful day!

Today I intended to wake up slow and in a sense I did. While the rest of the world has been running around about its Monday, I have the blissful opportunity to relish my cup of coffee and toast smothered in butter and jam while listening to my favorite tunes and wake up slowly and lovely this morning. I'm reporting to work about 11am and in a few minutes the hub should be home from his night out in the field working. The dogs are always thrilled to have their owners around any extra moments and today they'll doubly benefit from my late morning and the hub being home to sleep off the night--no kenneling today!

Sunlight has been streaming through the windows, there's a slight breeze swaying the trees behind our home, and the air is that type that although slightly chilled has the excitement of a spring oh so close around the corner.  My daffodils have been peeking their leaves out of the front beds for the last week, albeit hesitantly due to the chilly nights we've been having.

And today is Valentine's Day....a day when many around our nation (and maybe even the world) will focus their presence and desire on the one they love. And I can't help but wonder what would happen if that energy and feeling could be shared with EVERY one throughout every single day. I'm pretty sure if we all infiltrated a little more love, excitement, and energy into our interactions with others....the world would be a much better place indeed.

So here's to a beautiful morning and to what will hopefully continue to be a beautiful day....and one through which I can keep my love toward my fellow human at the forefront of my actions and thoughts.

Sending love....and prayers....in your direction!

A Sunday at the River

Tulip Time

I've been wanting to go to the Tulip Farm in Woodburn for about ten years now and this year my brother and I were able to meet down there during the week a couple weeks back. I knew it would be gorgeous, but the pictures don't even do it justice! Tulips are some of my most favorite flowers and the fact that people would plant that many just made me smile!

Hope you are having a wonderful week!

A Day Away

Sometimes we might be slightly broken:
And sometimes we might be like jelly w/ poisonous tentacles on the inside: Other days, we may put up a hardened exterior:

But sometimes just a little exposure to the sand, sun, and sea....

Can be enough to make us feel whole and renewed again.

Sometimes you just need a little sand between the toes and salt air to clear your head and satisfy your heart and soul.....

Beautiful weather on the Oregon coast. Retreating to a day and evening of solitude, a place of calm and full of satisfying memories. Living on coffee, wine, and the most basic of meals. And always, always, always coming back with a little bit of extra sand in my jeans and in the floor of the car.

A Saturday in the Fall in the City

Outside the library.

The start of campus...you can see the Saturday Farmer's Market in the distance.

All of these are the Park Blocks downtown in the city. Campus is at one end of them.

Thought you might enjoy some pictures of fall in the city. I was on campus last Saturday working on some projects and assignments that are due, so took my time getting there and returning home in order to take some pictures.

Weekend Fall Pictures

Another wonderfully relaxing weekend spent with my granny. We ran her errands, enjoyed the Scottish Reformation Sunday service (complete with bagpipers and tartan flags), indulged in her delicious homemade pumpkin pie, watched World Series games over glasses of beer, walked around the lake, and just enjoyed each other's company. I also got in some short but quality time with my siblings that live locally. It's incredible to me just how much I can get done and enjoy when I'm removed from internet access! :-)