Category Archives: gallery

Green Halloween-The New Way to be Ghoulish

I was just writing about Halloween party ideas for a client and realized, I never really pay much attention to the environmentality (if that were even a word) of the holiday (I use that word loosely as well…since technically Halloween isn’t a national holiday).  I started thinking about how if you go to a store, even the Good Will store; all the costumes are gone in the few short weeks before Halloween.  Seriously, I have seen racks with only one or two costumes left and although we keep our costumes in our home for years to come both as hand me downs and dress up clothes, I never realized that other people actually throw those costumes away each year.

Yes, Yes! Call me naïve.  I live in a bubble.  What can I say! But seriously, when I read the following statement on another website I was totally floored:

“Green Halloween notes that if we could just swap out about half the costumes used each year, we’d help reduce annual landfill waste by 6,250 tons (the weight of 2500 midsize cars).”

So then I started thinking about all the big retailers and they must sell millions of Halloween costumes each and every year right.  Why on earth would anyone throw away a perfectly good Halloween costume after just one use and even more to the point, why throw it away rather than pass it on.  Perhaps it came into disrepair, but I am betting there is some natural mamma out there somewhere that could use it to create the best green Halloween costume of all.

This past Halloween, my daughter wore a witch’s costume that I wore over 20 years ago that my mother had made by hand.  Her accessories included an incredibly heavy broom made entirely out of twigs and wood fashioned by her father, a purple apron made from some old fabric that I had left from the curtains of someone’s Volkswagen bus (that used to be my thing…making curtains that is) and a witches hat passed down from her second cousin in Florida about 4 years ago.  OH! Can’t forget the sparkly purple spider ring that came from who knows where…maybe a gift from the library? And we put glow stick juice in Jello and poured it into some old spice jars and added dead bugs; classic witch material.  Point is, it all came from pretty much right here in the home and she LOVED it!

But really that isn’t what I came to tell all of you about! In my discovery of the statement above I was intrigued by Green Halloween and went on a World Wide Web adventure to learn more.  I wanted to share what I found about their great annual costume swap and hope that all of you will consider a green Halloween too! Enjoy, Swap and Be Scary!!

Green Halloween Costumes

To Shave or Not To Shave? One Natural Mamma’s Thoughts On A Very Personal Subject

I saw an article in a magazine recently talking about 4th and 5th grade girls shaving and how their parents should let them “because all the other girls will be smooth and your daughter will want to be too”.

That just didn’t sit well with me.

Shaving is and has been a big issue for me.  I don’t like to shave and feel like I have better things to do with my time; like write this post for instance!  I also feel that I have hair for a reason; it’s part of my earthly, natural beauty – why expend all that time and energy to shave it off day after day in a fruitless attempt to be smooth in spots the Universe gave me hair!

But, I’m also  a pretty self conscious person, and, as a result, over the years I’ve gone back and forth from shaving all the time, to being hairy, and back to shaving again.  I can see the advantages and disadvantages of each choice and each time I vacillated from one to the other, the motivations were different, personal, and actually really mixed.

When I started shaving around 12-13 or so it was for the “Everyone else is doing it” reason.  As I got older, I wished someone would have discussed the fact that women didn’t always shave and that shaving, while a US societal norm, isn’t the norm in most other countries even today.

In fact, the history of women shaving in the US is not even that long of one, and that, in and of itself, is something to consider when deciding whether or not to shave; or discussing the subject with a girl in your life.

Not until the early 1900s did you see shaved American women and this ad is credited by historians as being why :

This ad ran in a 1915 issue of Harper’s Bazaar and informed women that their underarm hair was “objectionable”.  The ad was paid for by a razor blade manufacturer who wanted to expand his market place.  To do so he informed women of a problem they didn’t even know they had and, of course, offered a way to solve it!  His ad campaign was extremely successful and changed the way a woman’s natural beauty was, and continues to be, seen.

After the hair on the underarms went, women were shown how and why they should shave their legs too.  Again, razor manufacturers are at work here and have made gobs of money off of disposable razors, razor blades, shaving cream and more now that both genders feel the need to shave off the hair on various parts of their bodies.

Since this ad ran and shaving became a norm for US women, there have only been pockets of ladies who chose to go the road less shaven.  The largest and most notable of these are the “hippies” of the 60s and 70s; but there are others too.  Mostly though, women in the United States shave – that’s just how it is now….or is it?

Actually I know quite a few women who don’t shave.  They’re definitely not the norm, but, more and more women are starting to explore the idea of not shaving.  There are many different reasons for this of course but, each one has thought about it all quite a lot, including yours truly.

In fact, currently, I’m still struggling with what to do with/about my leg hair.

I know shaving isn’t the most earth friendly pass time in this world.  Between the plastic razors, the sharp metal razor blades, the often toxic ingredients used to make shaving creams and lotions; it’s much less energy to leave the hair there.

But there are options.  Electric razors aren’t ones you throw away and while they do run off of nasty batteries and require electricity to charge said nasty batteries most allow you to dry shave which reduces the amount of water and shaving cream used.

Also, companies like Preserve make razors from recycled plastic (yogurt cups actually) that you simply replace the blades in; they even allow you to send the razor handle back to be recycled again once you’re done with it.  This is another great option to help make shaving more eco friendly.

And, there are more and more organic shaving lotion options out there made from non toxic ingredients that are good for your skin, but don’t harm the earth of the animals that reside here with us.

In my opinion though, there’s just something to be said for allowing your natural beauty to shine and to me, part of being naturally beautiful is hairy armpits and legs.  And, no matter what, shaving does use up resources that can be saved by staying hairy.

The main thing that article brought up for me though is that we do have a choice to shave or not to shave.  Yes, societal pressure is a factor but, that’s all it is – a factor; it doesn’t make shaving, or anything else simply what we do.

Many women I know decide to shave after really considering weather to or not because it’s more comfortable to them – at least it’s a choice though, instead of just blindly following the heard.

Others decide they are going to let their natural beauty show regardless of what the rest of folks say and do about it!  Again though, it’s a conscious choice not just one of following a fad or trend.

What do you think?  What do you do?  Have you struggled with whether or not to shave your armpits/legs/face/other naturally hairy area of your body?  Talk about it with us!  It’s always nice to know you’re not alone and we sure do love a good conversation here at naturalmammas.com so share away!

Fresh Cucumber Salad on a Hot Day

I can’t really say for sure why we grow so many cucumbers, but every year we hit a point in the growing season where the cucumbers take over the kitchen. The kicker at our house is that although I like cucumbers in almost any form, my hubby thinks they make him burb, our oldest girl only likes them on like the third Tuesday of each month and the baby…well, she eats anything, but cucumbers she only likes to eat in spears without seasalt and again, this can change depending on the day and the current weather conditions.

Well I had a cucumber overload happening and those summer fruit flies were closing in on my fresh garden produce pile so I had to make something quick, simple and tasty. Knowing full well that the rest of the family wasn’t likely to help me finish off whatever creation I came up, I decided to go with my family recipe for Fresh Cucumber Salad modified slightly to possibly appeal to the rest of the crowd that sits around our dinner table.

You will find my recipe below. I don’t include onions, well because my kids don’t like onions. I don’t do the vinegary style either because they seem to turn their nose up on any salads with that kind of flavor. And I drain and salt the cucumbers in hopes that they won’t cause my life partner too many gastric repercussions.  Isn’t it funny how eating naturally can be so complicated!

Was it a hit?! It was gone. No one wowed over it or said can you make that again, BUT, it was gone which usually if it sucks, there are lots of leftovers to prove it. So share your thoughts. Tell me what I can do to make it better or what not to do next time, but I think I am on my way to having a future family favorite on the table each cucumber season.

Fresh Cucumber Salad on a Hot Day
Author: 
Recipe type: Salad
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Just a great kid friendly way to use up those garden cucumbers in a perfect salad for a hot day!
Ingredients
  • ½ cup Plain Yogurt or Sour Cream
  • 2 Tbsp Nayonaise or Mayonaise
  • 2 Large Cucumbers-Peeled and sliced thin
  • 1½ tsp Lemon Juice
  • 1 tbspn Sugar or Honey/Agave flavor equivalent
  • Sea Salt
  • Dill
  • Celery Salt
  • Onion Powder
Instructions
  1. First peel your cucumbers and slice them very thin. Place in a layers in a bowl; sprinkling each layer with sea salt. Let the cucumbers sit for at least one hour in the salt. Then pour cucumbers into colander draining off excess liquids. Mix yogurt, mayonaise, sugar and lemon juice. Add sea salt, dill, celery salt and onion powder to taste. Once blended remove cucumbers from colander by the handfull and squeeze out excess liquids into sink before adding to yogurt mixture. Continue to press and add cucumbers until all have been added. Fold gently into yogurt mixture. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving!