Over the years she has developed these plants and now produces green, brown, buffalo brown and white organic cotton. While it takes about 10 years to develop a color, Fox continues to experiment and tries to find new hues for her organic cotton. She says that by working at it year after year, eventually you come up with a plant that has a good color that is also suitable for spinning.

All of Fox Fiber yarns are certified organic and the cotton is available in cones or skeins and available in a variety of textures including boucle, chenille, bulky and crepe. As previously noted here on Yearn Worthy Yarn, I am a sucker for bulky yarns and Fox Fiber’s bulky comes in wonderful blends of the green, brown, and white cotton.

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Brian Base, the creator of RideSearch.com, was at the Green Dallas event held this last weekend here in Dallas, Texas. Proforma Green runs the t-shirts for RideSearch.com and both RideSearch.com and Proforma Green had been asked to participate in the event by the City of Dallas.

Well Brian was wearing a shirt we ran for him for the 2008 Plano Green Living Expo back in April (another event we both attended as vendors) and I noticed something.

The RideSearch.com shirts are natural cotton shirts. This means they have no dye in them, they are the color of untreated, undyed cotton.

What I noticed was that these shirts fade, although I am not sure fade is the correct word. As I mentioned the natural shirt, whether organic or regular cotton, are called natural because they have no dye in the shirts. So really there is no color (dye) to fade from the shirt, it is just the natural wear of the cotton.

And it seems that over time these shirts go from a sand tan color to more of a lighter parchment color.

I never really thought of it before but because the shirts have no dye in them they just act like what they are, natural cotton, and the “fading” is a result of their nature.

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Move to southern Oregon, buy a two-acre, defunct berry farm in need of lots of work and start a boutique, hand-made chocolate company of course.

First, you need to plant some fruit - gold raspberries, marionberries, boysenberries, purple raspberries, red raspberries, three varieties of strawberries, blueberries and four varieties of grapes - farm organically, make deals with a nearby sustainable-certified dairy,  and source top-quality ingredients like organic chocolate couverture.

Then you start with amazing fruit preserves and work your way up to making chocolate truffles out of your home kitchen (legal in Oregon) and sell them at local farmers’ markets out of the back of your pickup truck. The rest is history, as they say.

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The Verve line of organic cotton promotional t-shirts from Vantage Apparel seems to be going for the title of most green t-shirt available.

Like many other organic shirts in the promotional items industry Vantage starts with a non-bleached t-shirt made from organic cotton (i.e. no pesticides or petroleum fertilizers used to grow the cotton). At this point the shirt is similar to other organic shirts, like the AnvilOrganic line from Anvil Knit Wear (which by the way does come in different colors than just “natural”).

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Some would be content with just one successful career. Others (myself included) let the type “A” part our brain rule. Enter Ashley Peldon - actor, director, producer, entrepreneur - and all before she turns thirty. Some “stars” use their celebrity strictly for monetary purposes and ethics and commitment be damned.

Not so for Ashley Peldon and her sister Courtney. Started in 2006, Starring…! Fragrances is a cosmetics company with a difference. It combines “the allure of Hollywood glamor with their commitment to health and wellness.” Starring…! products are hand crafted and are a collection of natural, organic, environmentally friendly and paraben free perfumes, body scrubs and 100% soy wax melts. Their lineup includes everything from “playful, dessert-inspired scents to sexy, attention-grabbing florals.”

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In fact, she is guessing that these raw botanical products are the wave of the future for eco-conscious estheticians.

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Basic H2 Organic cleaning concentrate was the first official Earth Day product in 1990 and has hundred of uses. From windows to stovetops, the concentrate allows you to mix the appropriate amount of water for your use.  This little 16 oz. bottle of concentrate can mix up an unbelievable 48 gallons of safe, powerful cleaner.

Basic H2 is quite sudsy, so I suspect it contains SLS; however, I am not sure this as much of a concern for a cleaning product as it is for a beauty product.  As long as your child’s skin doesn’t come into contact with it, it would not be irritating. Shaklee, the makers of Basic H2, will not release full disclosure of ingredients because, “We do not list the  specific ingredients for all of the cleaners as some of the formulae are proprietary.” This is common with household cleaners, but they state their products are from sustainable sources such as corn and coconut (SLS is coconut-derived).

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You can see that earth and human-friendly designers and decorators are increasingly riding the green wave. And we now know that natural wool, hemp, silk, seagrass, bamboo, cork, and other organic fibers are here for us. Ancient craft techniques are reviving and some know how to blend it all so well into the present. Recycling is one method that seems to create new artistic magic.

One such conscious professional creator is Marla Henderson. She identifies herself as more an artist/producer of interiors than a traditional designer. Marla frequently works with artisans to develop unique spaces. Her course of life leads us to the Babik rug collection she offers today.

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Clark’s Honey Farm is committed to help SAVE THE PLANET.

With all the news’s going around about the disappearing of the bees, (about 70% on the East Coast) I became very intrigued to learn more about this honey farm’s passion to help save the planet.

At the current time they have over 2,000 healthy bee colonies. Their goal is to double the colonies in the next few years. Each colony has over 60,000 + bees.

They claim to provide enriching environments for their bees to thrive. “The bees are instrumental in the survival of the planet”.

They also ship their bees across the country to help farmers in need of pollination.

Bees pollinate up to one third of our food plants, and in recent months, bee colonies have been mysteriously collapsing. Up to 70% of bees on the East coast have disappeared, and about 50% in other parts of the country. One recent news account from New Hampshire says this: “The problem, called colony collapse disorder, already has hit beekeepers in 24 states, part of Canada, and several European countries. Many bees seem to disappear, with few to no bodies of dead bees found near the hives. The remaining bees, meanwhile, show mysterious symptoms. ”

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The organic & natural beauty market is increasingly saturated with new brands and products, and growing confusion about what’s ok for you and what’s not. Now seems like a good a time to provide a basic outline of what you need to know. In the posts to follow I’ll cover these in more depth but here’s a good starting point:

Natural: Widely defined as any substance harvested or derived from nature and then isolated, processed or purified by a variety of environmentally sound techniques including filtration, fermentation, distillation, expressing and other like processes.

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Tenfold Organic Textiles

Their fabric is a 200 thread count plain weave cotton, which they recommend for quilts, clothing, and bedding. Currently the only fabric colors available are solids: madder red, pom orange, myra yellow, kasam olive, ash pink, bark brown, soot black, and sun white.

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In fact, eggs are the product with the most “eco labels” of all reviewed by Consumer Reports. How do you navigate the sea of label terms and find out what they really mean?

Consumer Reports offers an Eco-labels Center that has tools like a virtual kitchen that shows users common foods and the labels associated with them, some of which were new to me. Did you know wine can include a “salmon-safe” label, for example?

The site also offers three different ways to search for label definitions; by “label” including label term, logo, label index and label category; by product category including food, household cleaners, personal hygiene, and wood/paper; and by certifiers, the organization or program that validates the label claim.

Luckily, one brand that is commonly found in said box stores is Lion Brand and even more luckier is that Lion Brand now has an organic cotton yarn. Hallelujah!

Lion Brand Organic Cotton is free from herbicides, pesticides and other agro-chemicals. It comes in four natural colors as no dyes are used to make the colors. Check out the light gray-green of Cypress or go darker with my favorite, Bark.

The yarn is soft, warm and easy to work with. Available in worsted weight, this organic cotton is a great environmental addition that has made its way into the mainstream. And while Vanna’s Choice might be cheaper, it’s good to know that there is another choice out there in the aisles of that big box store.

Image credit: Lion Brand

Keep it stashed in your bag during Summer heat to spritz all over as a refreshing, light, easily applied moisture solution that will leave you smelling gorgeous. Pop the top, spray and voila! A great addition to any ‘must have’ list for Summer.

SmartShield is an “eco-friendly” sunscreen and bug repellent combination, but it does not appear to be all natural, as there are some ingredients I do not recognize. I researched several of these ingredients on Skin Deep, as Smartshied itself has not been rated, and I discovered they contained a low to moderate hazard. The Environmental Working Group has done an extensive study on sunscreens and found that:

Our comprehensive scientific review indicates that 85% of 1,015 sunscreen products offer inadequate protection from the sun, or contain ingredients with significant safety concerns. Only 15% of the products on the market are both safe and effective, blocking both UVA and UVB radiation, remaining stable in sunlight, and containing few if any ingredients with significant known or suspected health hazards.

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• 47 percent trust companies to tell them the truth in environmental messaging
• 45 percent believe companies are accurately communicating information about their impact on the environment
• 61 percent of Americans say they understand the environmental terms companies use in their advertising

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“Our mission is to produce and sell high quality yarns from natural fibers and design classic Vermont patterns. Transforming the many types of raw fibers into luxurious and long lasting yarn. The Green Mountain Spinnery helps to sustain regional sheep farming, and to develop environmentally sound ways to process natural fibers,” says their website.

Using vintage equipment, Green Mountain Spinnery creates yarns that take any project from plain to prodigious. Also similar to Hope Spinnery, GMS will spin yarns from fibers that you provide as well. The company has also released its own book of patterns, called The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book, featuring “30 of their best loved contemporary and classic patterns.”

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There isn’t an ideal or perfect beauty. We are all so completely and utterly different. You can have someone drop dead gorgeous who is shallow and mean and she’ll seem like the most unattractive person on the planet. Conversely, you might meet someone not so physically attractive but with a beautiful personality and radiance that can take your breath away. Beauty can’t be separated from the personality no matter how much spritzing, spraying, waxing and killing yourself on the treadmill you think will make you beautiful.

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Many items that tested positive for the carcinogen are well-known brands, including Kiss My Face, Alba, Seventh Generation and Nature’s Gate products, sold in retail stores across the nation.

Related Posts: Natural Means Nothing- What Does Everything Else Mean?

As I wrote about back in January, the word, “Natural” essentially means “nothing”, as far as the FDA is concerned.

The FDA (has) declined to issue a regulation that would define use of the word “natural” on food and household product packaging in the near future, stating: we’re not sure how high an issue it is for consumers.

Well actually, according to a Yankelovich study commissioned by Burt’s Bee’s, 78% of consumers believed that “natural” claims ARE regulated. So, of course they are not concerned…the government’s on the case, right?

Nope.

“… a company might make a product that really is natural, and label it as such,” says Daniel Fabricant, VP/scientific and regulatory affairs at the Natural Products Association, Washington, D.C., “or it could be made of nine synthetic ingredients, with just a little plant extract thrown in.”

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