Pink Gradient Ring
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My village – a collection of 10 soft houses
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Fused Argentium Bubbles Cuff Bracelet
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Interview with Carrie, Mountain Mama Chic
[hLeah]
Carrie of Mountain Mama Chic has lived in La Porte, Indiana for the past two years and loves it. She says, “We moved here from West Virginia by way of Texas because of my husband, Jim’s work. If you would’ve told me a few years ago the Great Lakes’ beaches are just like the ocean, I wouldn’t have believed you. Now I know better. :) We’re 10 minutes from the beach and love it here. ” Carrie and Jim have three kids, Bailee, Nolan and Fletcher, 9, 7, and 3 respectively, and a dog, Callie, half Cocker Spaniel, half mutt.
Carrie describes herself as outgoing, a realistic optimist, and the best mother and wife she can be. She loves “laughing so hard my belly hurts and tears start to overflow, my family, dancing with my munchkins to really good music, putting on makeup and dressing up to go out with my husband, passionately loving, playing, and living life.”
Check out Carrie’s blog and her store. Her soap looks so delicious!
Interview with Cheri Tracy of Orglamix
Update 2011: There’s been some controversy about whether or not Orglamix is really handmade or not. Please see the comments below for details and add any information you might have on the subject.
Orglamix is artisan crafted 100% pure organic mineral makeup. All Orglamix products are proudly formulated without: Nano Particles, Bismuth Oxychloride, Synthetic Dyes, Parabens, Synthetic Fragrances, Petrochemicals, Parabens. Orglamix is a proud member of PETA. I guarantee you will love Orglamix, or your money back. It’s that simple!
How did you get started? Have you worked in other creative areas before the kind of work you’re doing now?
I’ve always been involved in the beauty industry in some form or fashion, so Orglamix was a natural transition for me.
It started after the birth of my first daughter in 2004 when my skin, seemingly overnight became sensitive, blotchy and unbearably acne-ridden. Whatever I bought to try and conceal my imperfections seemed to make my face look worse.
Late night, when I was up feeding my daughter, I began researching ingredients in makeup and stumbled upon mineral makeup. I was instantly captivated by the good-for-you sparkly potions in a rainbow of hues, but once I gave them a try, I was obsessed!
Is there a story behind the name of your shop?
I wanted something that said fresh and fun; most organic brands are kind of bleh, sans color. My line is pure and organic, yet fun & creative. Orglamix is a merger of organic and glam –with a bit of a twist.
Do you work alone? With a team? Do you engage your family or friends in the work? What is your process? How do you ensure you get your work done yet still have a life?
Until recently I worked alone, but going to bed after midnight and waking at 5 am to get everything done can only last so long. I love what I do, but I’m a mom first and foremost. I realized I needed help.
I design and create all of my products; and I now have help with customer service and pulling and packing my orders. I’m also starting to outsource things like photography, website / blog and my listing so I can focus on the ‘big picture’.
Where do you sell your work? Which venues are your favorites? Do you prefer selling online or in person? Do you attend shows or fairs? Is your work in a gallery or brick-and-mortar store?
I sell on Etsy and ArtFire. I’m also working on my own website to launch this summer. It’s a challenge to maintain multiple shops and listings, plus you give up a certain amount of control. Like recently when Etsy upgraded and I could not access Etsy hacks for almost a week. It was a nightmare. It took me a half an hour to locate invoices / customers — it usually takes five minutes. That said, I love Etsy and the community. I feel it’s a great place to launch and grow your handmade business.
I have yet to attend a show or fair, but I am looking forward to my first trade show this Fall. I’m nervous and excited at the same time.
Do you have any favorite handmade shops or sellers you’d like to recommend?
I have many, but here are the shops I covet right now: SewCuteShop, sunbasilgarden, and blisscandles.
What inspires and motivates you?
I find inspiration everywhere– magazines, blogs, daily life and especially my customers. They are always an amazing source of inspiration.
What do you wish I had asked you?
“Is there anything special your customers can look forward to this season?”
I am working on so many amazing things! I just launched the new Chakra colors. They are a virtual bold & beautiful rainbow.
I’m also working on Flair, the first hybrid eye shadow. One Flair layer changes your look a little or a lot–it’s up to you. From the fine opalescence of Aura to the super-bling audacity of the Sparkles–you’ll find the perfect Flair for every mood.
Thanks Cheri. And if you would like to be interviewed next, please head over to DIY Interview.
On Small Fruits and High Prices
Those sad, tiny excuses for carrots came from my garden. On my knees, fingernails full of dirt I dug them up one-by-one this past weekend. I’d let them go for more than a month longer than their “maturity” date hoping that when I did harvest I’d find something bigger around than my pinky finger. As you can see, I had no such luck.
What you can’t see is that the tomatoes and bell peppers in the background are also bite-sized. My Amish Paste Tomatoes looked more like grape tomatoes and my big, heirloom slicing varieties resembled over-plump cherries more than anything. Slicing would have been futile; we ate them whole instead. The only thing that didn’t seem to suffer this year was flavor. The carrots were as crisp and sweet as ever. They just didn’t last long amounting to less than a mouthful each.
The Case for Meat Part 1: The People
Lately, there have been more than a handful of high-profile books touting a vegan existence. Freedman and Barnouin’s Skinny Bitch (pictured above) and Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet among them; I read one, skimmed several others and I have, to risk the use of a terribly cheesy pun, beef.
While I can, mostly off the top of my head, recite for you the nutritional needs of every animal in my care human nutrition is, admittedly, not my strong suit. For that reason — and because I find it largely irrelevant, another story for another day — I will not argue against the premise that meat is nutritionally detrimental to humans.
What I will point out — over the course of the next few weeks — is that books like those listed have completely overlooked an important and rapidly growing demographic of food producers in North America and that the consequences of doing so, on a mass scale, will negatively affect not just the people, but the animals therein. Yes, even those intended for slaughter. And that it is, as long as we’re speaking in cheesy puns and cliches, possible to have your happy, healthy pig (or cow or chicken or quail or duck or goose) and eat it too!
So what about the people? For the first time in decades the U.S. is seeing a significant increase in the number of small farms in operation. Perhaps since WWII herself, when the industrialization and centralization of our food system hit full stride, David is wiggling from under the thumb of Goliath. And, most significant, he’s being backed by consumer dollars. The very thing that makes the world, or at the very least business, go ’round.
But it’s not just David either. “Donna” has also entered the brawl. Between 2002 and 2007 the number of female farm operators increased by nearly twenty percent. Like medicine, engineering, mathematics and countless other industries agriculture has always been a boys’ club, but today women are playing a major role in the restructuring and revival of it from within. They’re supporting their families, strengthening their communities and paving the way for a healthier, more equal society tomorrow while implementing systems that can sustain both the earth and its people.
In fact, organic produce was harvested from more than 200,000 acres in 2007. That’s just from the farms that are not so small they’re flying under the census radar; and where there is organic produce, there are small meat producers not far behind. In many instances they are one and the same.
Small, diversified farms may, as a matter of fact, be the single most sustainable model on the agricultural landscape today. Able to produce natural fertilizer off their land, by way of animals they feed from it, they can create a cyclical balance that cannot be reproduced. And the people behind those farms are the ethically astute people we need behind the scenes of our Agricultural Evolution. Stop supporting them and we stop supporting the sustainable restructuring of our food system.
So how do we cut through the jargon and find the right meat, milk and egg producers? Join me next week when we’ll look at just that.
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