Doing Good: The Mitten Commitment

 I received an email from the Simplicty Creative Group today and was delighted to read among their sales listings that they are helping to support a group dedicated to collecting handmade mittens for the indigent. The group is called “The Mitten Commitment“. The website reads:

Handmade Difference

Every year, millions of Americans face cold winter weather without sufficiently warm clothing. Simplicity Creative Group and OttLite have joined together to sponsor the Mitten Commitment – an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate by providing handmade mittens. All mittens will be donated to the Salvation Army for distribution in mid-December, 2011. Handmade mittens are special, unique, and especially warm!

What is the Mitten Commitment?

The Mitten Commitment is a call-to-action for crafters all over the country. We challenge you to knit, crochet, or sew one pair of mittens to donate. They can be any size, as traditional or as creative as you want! Some fabulous designers have donated mitten patterns, and there are more to come – see below. Use the patterns as a base for shape or style, or come up with your own pattern!

Why Mittens?

Excellent Question! Mittens are easy projects to sew, crochet, or knit, and there are endless embellishment possibilities.

How can I commit?

It’s easy as 1-2-3:

1. Make a pair of mittens.
2. Send your mittens to:  OttLite / The Mitten Commmitment
                       220 West 7th Avenue,
                                    Tampa, FL 33602

If you would like to start making a difference by crafting mittens to keep someone less fortunate warm this winter, you can choose a sewing pattern from the Simplicty website (there are two) or knitting pattern from the OttLite website.

Fat Trackin’ Apps: Lose It! VS Tracknburn

Spring has sprung and it’s time to prep for swimsuit season (kill.me.now.) Also, after coming off of a foot injury I’ve been getting my buns back into gear. It’s darn near racing season and I’m in no shape to take on the challenge of the Gravity East Series. So, to get motivated and track my progress I purchased a new scale Escali High-Capacity Bathroom Scale with Body Fat/Body Water Monitoring (440lb / 200kg) and a few apps for my iPhone. I purchased the scale because it measures more than just my weight. It also measures my body fat percentage (most important) and my body water percentage. These are important because while I want to reduce my weight, I want to do it by reducing my body fat percentage, not my muscle or water. I’ve been working out on average 3 days per week doing a video in my workout space. The two that I use most frequently are Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred and Personal Training With Jackie: Xtreme Timesaver Training. I used two apps for about 2 weeks to compare and then selected the one that I found the most convenient and easy to use. Lose It! is a free app that I had downloaded last year, but never used. I purchased Tracknburn in the iTunes App store and tried that one out too. Each day I diligently tracked every calorie that passed over my lips and every exercise session that I completed. The apps varied significantly in what I should be able to eat each day and what I burned doing the exercises. As an example, Tracknburn says that in order to reach my goal weight using my current weight, age and mostly sedentary lifestyle, I can only eat 1,282 calories a day without working out, while Lose It! says that I can have 1,507 and still lose 1/2 lb. a week. A 225 calorie difference is prety significant. To give you perspective to how that relates to my current diet, that’s more calories than I typically eat for my entire breakfast. However, this is compounded further when you look at how the exercise measures up.  According to Lose It! 25 minutes of circuit training (what I’m using to log my video workouts) only burns 175 calories, but Tracknburn says I burned 200.  So Lose It! says that I can eat more, but gives me fewer calories credits for my exercise while Tracknburn restricts my diet more, but gives me more calories back into my budget  for working out. After using it here’s a comparison on the good points of each from my perspective:

In the end, while they both have great features and a few minor drawbacks I finally stopped using tracknburn and moved exclusively to Lose It! because it allowed me to review charts and track my progress easily on line or on my phone, connect with friends and quickly and easily log my activities. After a month of use I am also happy to report that while I haven’t really lost any weight (it fluctuates within 2lbs on any given day), I have lost a full % of body fat down to today’s 23.2%. Having to track my calories is often enough of a deterrent to keep me from overindulging and helps me to really gauge how much time I devote to working out. While I may not ever look like a Victoria’s secret model, I know that I am healthy, happy and fit. If you are concerned about getting into shape and staying there I highly recommend tracking your progress and the Lose It! iPhone app is a wonderful, free and easy way to do that.

Here’s a sample of the online reports availabe on Lose It!

Spring Cleaning Time Again: DIY Natural All-Purpose Cleaner Recipes

This weekend is spring cleaning time again around my house.  As you may have read in previous posts I try to use inexpensive, effective and natural cleaners wherever possible. I swear by vinegar for cleaning counter tops, stainless steel and cutting boards, but when it comes to all purpose cleaners for bathrooms, floors, etc. I have a new recipe:

All-Purpose Cleaner

1/2 Gallon of Water

2 tsp Borax

1/2 C vinegar

As for everything in the bathroom, when in doubt, just use borax. It’s abrasive and natural and leaves everything clean, shiny and fresh. I sprinkle some around inside my toilet and let it sit while I clean, then I just use my little scrubby brush and voila! It’s clean and fresh! Essentially, some mixture of vinegar, borax and water can clean anything in your house. If you have stains and you need some abrasive, just add the borax.  For dusting, cleaning wood floors and furniture polish though I recommend buying. I use Method’s Wood for Good because it removes scratches and leaves everything smelling almondy and rich,  but there are lots of healhty and natural options out there. You can even use a bit of olive oil and lemon juice to make a good wood cleaner/polisher if you want. I don’t have to use it enough to be concerned about the economic impact of my wood cleaner because I use mostly all-purpose cleaner around my home. What about you? What natural and/or DIY cleaners do you use around your home? Do you have any great recipes to share? If so, leave them in the comments below.  Happy Cleaning!

The Verdict is In: The ‘Buch is Good!

If you have been kind enough to read my blog prior to this entry, you may know that I love kombucha. I enjoy the flavor and the wonderful health benefits, but purchasing ready made can be pretty pricey. So, I have decided to take matters into my own hands and brew my own batch. I bottled it on Sunday and then allowed it to complete a second ferment. My little SCOBY friend was fed a bit of peach puree to feast on during this week. I grabbed my bottles and took them to share with my friends at work and my temple and sent a bottle home with my parents too. So far, everyone seems to really enjoy it. It turned out a bit sweet as you can imagine with peach puree and while it did get that pungent vinegar flavor that I’ve grown to love, it did not get very bubbly. All in all though I’m very happy with my results. It was easy to make and it’s already paid for itself. My next batch is brewing now and I’m hoping to enjoy it soon. I’ll have to figure out how to start brewing more than one gallon at a time though. I’m blessed with many friends and family and I want to ensure that I have enough for everyone so I think that I’ll start up a second fermenting jar with the baby SCOBY growing now. So now that peach is out of the way, what flavor should I try next?

The ‘Buch is in the Bottle!

Good news! As a follow-up to my previous post “The ‘Buch is On!” I can say that it appears to have been a successful experiment. I finally had a thin, white, filmy pancake looking SCOBY grow on top of my tea brew. It looked like kombucha, it smelled like kombucha, so I called it done. I removed the new SCOBY that grew on top and placed it into a glass jar with a cup of the kombucha to sit while I brewed, sweetened and cooled a new gallon tea. Once the tea cooled to room temperature, I plopped in the SCOBY and juice and recovered my jar with cheesecloth, a rubber band and returned it to it’s special place to await another fermentation cycle. The completed batch I bottled in four growler’s that I had set aside after my last visit to the Pub Dog.  The to-go bottles from Pub Dog are the perfect size if you want to make mutliple flavors or share your batch with friends. To each bottle I added a bit of pureed peaches and lightly capped. I’ve left them out to complete a second fermentation over the next few days to allow the flavors to marry and to make my sweet nectar a bit fizzy. I’ll post the results of the taste test once I crack it open for drinking this weekend.

The ‘Buch is On!

I love, love, love kombucha. In particular I like GT’s Kombucha because it’s tart, fizzy and a healthy alternative to diet soda (which I also love, but doesn’t love me back). Unfortunately I can only buy it at my local Whole Foods and the convenience store on the bottom floor of my office building. While I am ever grateful that they offer it, I don’t enjoy dropping 5 bucks on it every time I have a hankering for tea.  I recall my grandmother and mother making mushroom team when I grew up and decided to sort out how to start doing it myself. Then I found this, the home brew kit offered by Kombucha Brooklyn. Boy, was I stoked; it’s only $30.  That means that even if I totally screw this up, and I might, if I only get 6 bottles of kombucha out of this, then it’s still an amazing deal. Even better, if I actually figure out how to make this work without killing it, think of the savings! I could even share my SCOBY (that’s the gooey, live bacteria that makes this tasty tea) with friends and family. While you can purchase just the scoby and use your own containers and tea mixture I was really interested in the kit because I wanted to make it just like they do at least once to get a good feel for the tea. Well, today was my lucky day because my USPS lady dropped it off on my front porch and I went straight to work. I opened the kit and it included 1 large glass container, in which to ferment my kombucha, 1 glass jar with a SCOBY inside, 6 tea bags, and organic cane sugar. The handy instructions were clear and easy to follow, so I brewed up a 1/4 gallon of tea, added the sugar, filled the fermentation jar and dumped in my SCOBY. It says to begin tasting my tea every 4 days and then it should be ready for bottling in 2-3 weeks, then on to the next batch.  I’ll post updates as I go, and give my comparison to the commercially bottled versions out there. My first batch is going to be plain, but after that I’m going to start experimenting with additives of dried fruit and seasonings, so wish me luck.  I’m off to ‘buch!

Thanks to Kombucha Brookly, here’s more information about kombucha tea and it’s benefits:

What is Kombucha?

Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage that is both delicious AND health-supportive. Today, it is known around the world for its detoxifying and energizing effects. This elixir contains:

• Probiotics
• Polyphenols
• B Vitamins
• Vitamin C
• Organic enzymes
• Vital amino acids
• Organic acids

No Trash Wrap Christmas

Now that halloween is behind us, I’m skipping Thanksgiving temporarily and moving right to Christmas. Yes, I agree that it’s annoying when retailers do this and we should all slow down and enjoy the holidays. Ordinarily I would agree whole-heartedly, but this year, as in previous year, I’m making Christmas presents for friends and family again. I’m stepping up my game this year though and putting my newly found skill for knitting and crochet to work and cranking out gifts for the whole family. Some of these gifts are rather ambitious (omg how long will it take me to crochet 4 balls of yarn for one gift?!?) and we’ve only a few crafting weeks left until the big day. So for this reason, I am already 3 balls of yarn down and in the background of every football game you can hear the needles clicking away I’ll try to post up photos of my achievements as I go. 

Unfortunately, all this time spent on gifts means that I can’t spend as much time on my Etsy store. I will however be sure to list some festive christmas gift bags (from recycled fabrics of course) that can be reused and passed among the family members in addition to my recycled paper bows.  I hope to have time to list some other goodies, but I think I’d better focus on one task at a time for now. In order to celebrate the concept of a cleaner, greener holiday I am promoting the no trash wrap holiday tradition, which means don’t use throwaway packaging if you can help it; and if you must be sure it’s at least made from recycled materials.  Here’s the promotion that I’ll be running in my shop through the end of the year.

SerendipiT’s Shop Announcement

Did You Know? In the U.S., an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. Four million tons of this is wrapping paper and shopping bags. Through the end of January 31, 2011 I will include either one (1) free refashioned t-shirt shopping tote bag or three (3) recycled paper bows with every purchase. Please let me know your preference by sending me a convo at checkout.

The individual members of the Fashion:Remix Team are committed to help fight the trash by offering promotional items tagged “notrashwrap”. Search for each of our unique solutions for a greener holiday season.

SerendipiT sources fabrics from previously loved clothing and recycles these textiles into hand-crafted EcoChic fashion. This eco-friendly process reduces our consumption of raw materials and precious resources. Refashioned clothing and accessories are true sustainable fashion that helps you to reduce your environmental impact on the Earth. I will donate 10% of all proceeds to The Conservation Fund, America’s Partner in Conservation. For the past 25 years, The Conservation Fund has been America’s partner in conservation, protecting more than 6.5 million acres. www.conservationfund.org – $15 donated so far in 2010

*Proud Member of the Fashion: Remix Team (tag: fashionremixteam)

*Proud member of the Recyclers Team Guild (tag: wastenot)
Proud Member of the Etsy Recyclers Guild Team
Visit us at http://www.EtsyRecyclersGuild.blogspot.com

My Favorite App: Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything”

Earlier this summer I finally upgraded my ancient cell phone after it finally stopped charging and couldn’t be repaired. As you may know from previous posts I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, and I’m glad that I did. I’ve found a lot of really useful, fun and entertaining apps, but my current favorite is Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” app.

But wait…,”Who’s Mark Bittman?” you may be asking. Well, Mark Bittman is a reknowned cook and writer. He’s a columnist for The New York Times, jounalist and an author of many great cookbooks including:

Mark Bittman’s Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times: Featuring 350 recipes from the author of HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING and THE BEST RECIPES IN THE WORLD

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food

and

The Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living

In fact, his book, How to Cook Everything, Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Foodsells on Amazon for over $20, but now you can download the App for $4.99. I can tell you that it’s a real bargain. I love that it’s on my phone, so I have it anytime that I need it. Some of my favorite features include the Bittman’s picks, which lists his favorite recipes. These include: Top 100 Vegetarian Recipes, Top 100 Make-Ahead Recipes and the Top 100 Fast Recipes; all of which are super useful for meal planning. You can then select your favorite recipe and with the push of a button add it directly to your calendar. You can plan recipes for a week or a month, or for that next party you have coming up during the holidays. If you didn’t plan your meal in advance and you just want to work with items you have laying around in the pantry or fridge you can use the search option. You can search by ingredient, cooking technique, flavor or recipe types (fast, make-ahead, vegetarian or essential). One of my favorite tools withint he app is the groceries feature. You can add right from the recipes or type in your own selections. It lets you organize by aisle so that you don’t have to go back and forth over the recipe to find everything at the store. You can even email your shopping list in case you have another family member who can stop and pick things up for you. Last, but no least is the ability to favorite your recipes. Best yet, you don’t have to carry around a printed book or pages or recipes from the internet. This frugal and environmentally friendly app gives you access to over 2,000 recipes and you’ll never have to waste paper printing a recipe in this easy to read format. Everything is in one convenient place (your iphone), which you were going to have to carry around anyway. This app has revolutionized weeknight cooking for me and I wanted to share my thoughts on what a great tool this is for any cook. Enjoy!

Arnica: The Downhill Mountain Biker’s Friend

Downhill mountain biking is not safe, probably not a good idea, but always a good time. I’ve been riding for about 2 years now and started racing this year. I don’t have any biking experience really and tried cross-c0untry riding a handfull of times before making the switch. At first I was terrified and hated it, but now I’m totally addicted. I ride as often and as long as possible, often until my hands bleed and well beyond exhaustion. Unfortunately, as a direct result, I am nearly always nursing at least one injury. While I do wear loads of safety equipment (full-face carbon fiber helmet, flak jacket that covers my chest, back, and arms and shin guards that cover me from knee to ankles) unfortunately you just can’t protect everything. *As a side note I learned the hard way this past weekend that wearing a mouth guard is also essential to prevent tooth and mouth injury and reduce the chances of a concussion.  The steep rocky terrain combined with skinnies, jumps and speed all end in injury at some point.  Fortunately my acupuncturist recommended arnica a few years ago and my mother, a massage therapist, also recommended it and began incorporating it in my monthly treatments. She also purchased me the essential oil to use at home after injury because of the frequency with which I am acquiring new hematoma. I now swear by this stuff as it does seem to help me heal more quickly than my husband, who doesn’t belive in natural treatments.  Arnica is a flower native to EurAsia and cultivated by Native Americans. It has been used topically to ease inflammation and promote healing for bruises, sore muscles and injury caused by overuse or trauma. The essential oil can be married into a lotion or applied directly to the skin and is an ingredient used in many organic or all-natural healing balms. After a long weekend of hard riding and rolling around over rocks and under a 40 lb. bike I am very, very thankful for this all-natural remedy. So if you find yourself sore, overworked or bruised whether its from downhilling or whacking your knee on the coffee table, consider grabbing yourself some arnica online or at your local health food store to help ease the pain naturally.

Of ACV and POD

Where to begin, well…first, this is not an article about that band from the 90′s, it’s about Perioral Dermatitis (POD) and the homemade remedy that finally worked, Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV). Next, you may find yourself asking, “What is Perioral Dermatits“? Well, to summarize, dermatologists don’t know exactly what causes it, although they do have a few theories. They do know that it occurs mostly in adult women, looks like acne, but acts more like eczema, and is linked to steroids. (no, I haven’t been juicing, they mean corticosteroids, ie. prednisone and other prescription medications). Where it gets tricky, it that many Dermatologists indicate that it isn’t serious, its akin to acne and it’s just us women being oversensitive and vain. I can tell you however, that it hurts! It burns, it itches, it stings, it hurts. I found it to be so disruptive to my personal and work life that I started to look for my own cure. It’s notoriously difficult to treat, but hat’s just because Dermatologists can’t agree on what it is, or how to treat it. I’ve heard everything from stop using fluoride toothpaste, to take oral antibiotics for a few months. They did all agree that I must immediately stop using any creams, lotions, face wash or makeup.  That’s right, just at the time when my face was covered all around my nose, mouth and chin, with painful, inflamed red bumps that were itchy, flaky shiny and generally awful looking, my Dermatologist basically said, just stop acting like a girl and being so sensitive. In my day job, I actually have to go out into public and talk to people. Most of my friends sympathized, but strangers stared at my face with mild disgust and concern. It wasn’t just uncomfortable, but it affected by ability to be effective at my job because people were freaked out.  I did find out that during an abdominal surgery that I had in October of 2009, I had an allergic reaction to the paper tape that they used to cover my eyes. (Yes, I know that it’s completely ridiculous that I’m allergic to paper tape, but none of my friends were really all surprised. They just sort of rolled their eyes and said, of course you are….). Anyway, my eyes swelled so large while I was under anesthesia that they gave me prednisone, yep they gave me steroids. Apparently, this was enough to get the perioral dermatitis ball rolling unfortunately. What started with a few small red bumps on my chin, that looked like any other pimple, began to ooze, itch and spread. Egads! Within a month or two my face was raw, red, angry and I was miserable. I used hydrocortizone cream, which made it temporarily better and helped to quell the itching, but then it came back x3! I kept covering it with lotion and cream to try to keep the flaking, itching and dry skin from looking so creepy, but it didn’t improve. Finally, after talking with a dermatologist and realizing that they have not a lot of information, but recommend tossing you on oral antibiotics for a few months anyway, (oh and by the way, it could come back at any time once you stop the antibiotics) I started doing some research… it’s very similar to seborrhoeic dermatitis, which I have in two small patches on my scalp. I learned that it is suspected that it is caused by a yeast that normally grows on your skin, but in some people can get out of control and the toxins that it releases cause irritation. Sounds reasonable, right? Especially in someone like me who is over the top allergic to everything and has incredibly sensitive skin. I thought, what could help re-balance my skin and kill yeast and increase the healthy bacteria that are supposed to be taking care of this stuff? Well, I came up with probiotics and apple cider vinegar. I already eat probiotics (greek yogurt, kombucha, good belly, etc) so I just bumped up my intake a notch to help get things in order. I then, started thinking about how I could kill off the yeast and get rid of the awful dermatitis. I decided to reduce my face washing and stick to only the most mild natural products to stop any further irritation. I used an astringent made with chamomile and cucumber to cool and help relieve the itch. (I never stopped wearing my make-up, btw…that will never happen). I did cut down on my make-up products to include just mineral powder foundation and blush and mascara. I stopped wearing lipstick, gloss and chapstick. Finally, I mixed up a batch of apple cider vinegar, diluted with a bit of water. I started using the ACV as an astringent 2x a day. I noticed immediately that it burned anywhere that the dermatitis was on my face, but caused no discomfort on the normal skin. I did try to skip wearing make up on the weekends and started swiping my face with the ACV 3x a day. After about a week I noted immediate improvement. In two weeks it was barely noticeable. After a month my skin was clear again. As my face healed the ACV burned less and less. (the weeping did increase for the first week, but improved as my skin cleared). I stopped the ACV and it did come back, so I continued using the ACV once a day. After two months my skin remained clear and I began to taper down the ACV to every other day. After 3 months I decreased it to 2x a week. I now wipe my face using the ACV once a week or so, but the POD hasn’t returned and my skin is great. I still get an occasional pimple once in a blue moon, but no clogged pores, and no POD. ACV astringent is inexpensive and all natural and make a great astringent. My only complaint, is that when used in the strength that I have been using it your face does often smell like boardwalk fries, which can be occasionally unpleasant. I notice it most often if I’ve been sweating, usually during and after a workout. However, it absolutely cleared by POD and cost only pennies and had no ill effects on my body or skin, which I can’t say the same about using oral antibiotics (I’ve had some pretty nasty experiences mixing antibiotics and my delicate digestive system). So, for me, ACV worked better than anything my Dermatologist prescribed and I didn’t have to suppress my vanity, risk cavities or gastrointestinal distress. In my humble opinion, apple cider vinegar is the best treatment for perioral dermatitis that money can buy. However, it still took months of discomfort before I looked and felt like myself again, so if your Doctor recommends steroids, consider the possibility that you could develop POD and ask your Dr. about it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that option because I was unconscious when it was administered, so if that happens to you, just remember to start using the ACV before things have a chance to get out of control; it won’t hurt anything to proactively wash with vinegar. Hey, if nothing else you can reuse the olive oil that I recommend as an eye makeup remover and the apple cider vinegar that I recommend as an astringent and make yourself a nice salad