Category Archives: au naturale

Life is too short to knit with RedHeart

I've been falling down this slippery slope lately. Especially after Stitches Midwest (and also Wizard World at the same venue which was like a dream come true for me, the intersection of these two subcultures appealing to a very select, yet rockin', few) and then recently at yarncon, I'm finding myself more and more in love with wool, alpaca, mohair, cotton, corn, bamboo, soy and all of these wonderful natural fibers. After having tasted what it's like to knit with this stuff, I'm afraid I'm never going back to acrylic or nylon. Natural just feels better. I'm starting to see now why knitting anything in that crap is a total waste of time and knitting energy. I've rid my stash of the stuff and I will stick to purely natural fibers from now on. As gawd is mah witness... you get the picture.

10.25.07 6:53am(2 comments)

Happy Birthday Mom!

I know that you're somewhere on a ship off of the shores of Alaska, without internet access or cell phone service, but when you get back, you might see this. I hope that despite being away from everyone, in icy waters, with a bunch of oil goons on a boat, that you're having a good birthday regardless and that they wrastle you up some cake and perhaps a balloon.

Love you,

Kissy

P.S. I still have pink hair (just highlights though)

08.19.07 6:20am(0 comments)

You’ve got me in stitches

I <3 yarn. I really really love it and I blame it all on my Gramma who passed her knitting mastery on to me along with a yarn obsession common among knitters. Recently, I've discovered how awesome natural fiber yarn is and have sworn against purchasing any acrylic yarn (and I donated a bunch of fun fur to the thrift store. Bye bye fun fur!). In other words, my red heart days are over.

And there's a knitting convention in town. I'm going to Stitches 07 this weekend at the rosemont convention center to check out a bunch of demos and hopefully not blow my life savings (HA!) on yarn. Wish me luck.

08.10.07 11:08am(1 comment)

Vegetables are taking over

Within the last few months I've noticed this huge upsurge in people switching to vegan or vegetarian lifestyles. All of these people are doin' it. Many, vegans especially, rave about the health benefits, increased energy levels, closer to godness they get without meat products. Lots of folks say it's better for you and there are books and books and studies upon studies about how the human body and how it processes various foods and how everyone should just be vegans who eat only organic foods. And then there's the raw food movement, but that's one bandwagon I just can't get on right now. I was even vegetarian myself for awhile in highschool, but back then the options for vegetarians were pretty minimal in rural west central ohio and I ended up eating a lot of cheese, beans and rice. All vegetarians will tell you that one can only eat so much salad.

Now, I like a lot of vegetarian and vegan recipes, and I've been really inspired by all the success stories. However, I don't necessarily have the same motivation that many do when going vegan. Coming from where I do, I understand the life cycle of farm animals. Until I moved away for college, a majority of the meat that my family ate came from the purchase of a whole or half animal which we then had butchered and prepared for us by the local butcher and then filled the box freezer in the garage. I am also fully aware that not all meat comes from factory farms and not all cows eat cannibal feed. You can get, fairly easily, grass or grain fed meat that does not come from nasty factory farms, and you can even get it in the big city too. You get the picture; I'm not buddhist nor one to be campaigning for PETA anytime soon.

I still see the benefits of going veggie or vegan. I want to lose weight, have high energy levels, be focused, eat more soy, etc. Even the stereotypical lifestyle is one that I can admire - running and doing yoga daily, meditating, eating really healthy and wholesome food, living greenly and consciously, recycling, wearing unbleached cotton, and all that stuff. I'd like to do that. I want to do it. I can see myself doing it for a long time. I guess the question for me is if this is something that I have the discipline, will power and self control to do?

I'm not sure if the proximity of a whole foods has anything to do with it but I have been really interested in this super conscious healthy living stuff lately, but I'm reading mixed reviews. Does it really work or is it expectancy effect? If I drink my weight in green tea daily, will I live forever? What about omega 3 and active enzymes? I guess there's a lot that I need to figure out.

06.10.07 10:27am(2 comments)

In love with LUSH

I've been familiar with LUSH for quite some time, but I always felt that I couldn't do beauty with only nature's ingredients. My skin was in need of serious help, and harsh chemicals. Hell, even mild chemicals weren't cutting it for me. And yes, I wanted the stuff to be incredibly effective, andd I wanted it to be cheap. I could care less about anything else. Little did I know.

Then awhile ago, I was doing my daily blog reading, including lay-c.com where a discussion on face products that work , including all natural face products, was going on. Somebody linked to this place, which totally intrigued me and freaked me out at the same time. After reading about how my current regime was totally toxic (I'm addicted to you, moisturizer, don'tchya know that you're toxic), mooching some cream from Lura, smelling Carla's godiva bar in my bathroom all weekend when she visited, and stopping by the LUSH display while in Macy's, three straight days in a row (I know - I'm a horrible Chicagoan), I figured I'd go and give it a try. I could resist no longer.

So I went. I bought. I used the products. I'm in love. I'm a believer. Then I went back for more. Twice. Here's what I got:

  1. A shload of Bath bombs

  2. A few bubble bars

  3. lemslip buttercream

  4. Flying Fox and WHOOSH temple balms

  5. Seanick and Godiva solid shampoos

  6. Jungle solid hair conditioner

  7. Angels on Bare Skin facial exfoliator

  8. Fresh Farmacy facial cleanser

  9. Imperialis moisturizer

  10. Enchanted eye cream

  11. Ultrabland cleanser (for makeup removal)

  12. Helping Hands handcream

  13. Love Lettuce and Crash Course in Skincare fresh face masks

And for purchasing so much (don't worry, I didn't get all of it at once, but my first trip was a biggie) I received a bunch of winter and holiday gifties, soaps, shower gel, bath bombs, etc. I also got a bunch of samples which included shower jellies, deoderants, freshface masks, shaving cream. I didn't like the jellies and deoderants. I loved the fresh face masks, and the shaving cream was just aight for the dog.

Some things to note about Lush products:

  1. They all smell incredibly good - omg.

  2. They are all natural and handmade. Yay.

  3. Unlike a lot of other all natural and handmade products, they actually do what they say they do and well.

  4. They have a strict no testing on animals policy

  5. Having such products that work well is *awesome*

Seriously though, I'm certainly not the kind of girl to go on about bath and beauty products. This stuff is amazing. You should check it out. If it might be a bit too hippy-ish for you, just get some soap or a bath bomb. You'll love it. I gar-own-tee.

03.28.07 11:24am(13 comments)