Watch this now.

Really. It's an important 20 mins. If everyone watches it, our collective literacy on critical issues facing us as a species will increase.

Goodness! It's been a week since my last post!

How did that happen? And it's yet another rainy Monday. I'm at the store because Michal slipped and sprained her ankle this morning. Happy to be working the day shift; sad that she is hurt and needs to be off her feet. I have about 8 gazillion things I need to be doing right at this very moment [correspondence that is overdue, orders to place, new jewelry to display, a newsletter to write, an ad to design]. But I did want to just pop in here and say hello. I've actually heard from some folks in the last week who have been reading here and who gave me some positive feedback. Which is very much appreciated, 'cause I rather felt like I was sittin' around talking to myself. So if you do drop by -- do leave a comment. Even just a "hello out there" would be wonderful.

I have several post brewing. So it ought to be well less than a week before I'm back again.

Later luvies...

Rain, rain ...

I don't want it to go away, necessarily. But it does put me in a rather indolent mood. I have beaucoup I could be doing, of course. But very little motivation.

Tomorrow is officially Earth Day. We will have a little free gift for everyone who comes by the store tomorrow [and for the rest of the week, until we run out.] Tomorrow is also, incidentally, the 1 year anniversary of Greater Goods' opening. [Not exactly a coincidence.]

On Wednesday, Michal and I will have a table at the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce Annual Leadshare Luncheon. The event is sold out, and the speaker is one I am eager to hear, so I am looking forward to the event. Both as a marketing opportunity for the store, and in terms of my own personal edification. And, bonus[!], the luncheon is at one of my favorite Loudoun restaurants, Lightfoot. I have got to have produced some kind of reasonably nice-looking flier before then! I have several designed if I can just stop playing with them and actually print them out in sufficient quantity.

And then I could of course be working on my website content... Oh! and I found a handful of Loudoun bloggers that I want to connect with and see if we can't help each other with some cross-promotions... I have ideas!

Off to implement ...

What I'm thinking ...

Quiet afternoon in the store. Just dropped my son off at Little League practice [I was so ridiculously full of goofy joy and pride seeing him in his uniform] and am now back for the evening shift. Spent a good chunk of the day getting organized professionally and personally. Our life is fairly hectic right now in general, and we are hosting our extended family for a Passover seder on Saturday evening. Which requires almost as much shopping and cleaning and cooking and baking as Christmas does in many folks' homes.

Trying to keep my spirits up. Business is so sssslllloooowwww. Folks are just not shopping. I hear it from most of the other local businesses as well. I know that stocking grocery and food is the way to go. Making that happen is a bit more complicated though. There are so many wonderful products I'd love to stock! I recently got wholesale buying information from 3 reusable water bottle companies. I am hoping to be able to choose between them and place an order in the next 2 weeks or so. I'm also a big believer in rain barrels, and am trying to find a cost-effective way to supply them to local folks. Last summer was so dry that Purcellville was on mandatory water restrictions for most of the season.

Well ... I'm off to make some more progress on the website.

Later, luvies...

More on plastic and bisphenol A

Based on draft findings by the National Toxicology Program, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, senior congressional Democrats asked the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider its view that the chemical bisphenol A is safe in products for use by infants and children.

From a Rueters' wire store on Tuesday.

In lieu of me writing ...

Here's a campaign I've joined. Check it out and see if you'd like to as well.

Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles,

the number used in the US every five minutes.

Photo by Chris Jordan. Image found at TreeHugger.

I'm not going to re-write what other people have said perfectly well elsewhere on-line. Even the most cursory of Google searches will result in plenty of anti-plastic info. All I'll do here is summarize the key points and link to the sources.

1. Bottled water is no more pure or healthy than tap water. And in the minority of places in the US where tap water isn't up to standards, inexpensive home filters will help.
2. "Bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water."
3. "Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water required more than 17 million barrels of oil last year – enough fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year - and generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide (Source: Pacific Institute)."
4. "Each year more than 4 billion pounds of PET plastic bottles end up in landfills or as roadside litter."

Bottom line: Bottled water costs too much. Too much money. Too much oil. And creates too much garbage.

Want to read more and research it yourself? Here are some places to start:

Think Outside The Bottle

Take Back the Tap, a report by Food and Water Watch

And for an excellent overview of the economic issues from a relatively mainstream and not particularly "green" source: "Message in a Bottle," from the magazine, Fast Company. One of the most chilling quotes from that article:

And in Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.

Runner up most disturbing fact from the same article: "24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi."

Do I have to?

I’ve been on a certain parenting e-mail list for years. The list is organized around a particular parenting philosophy, and list members are fairly “hard-core” about adhering to it. Most list newbies undergo a fairly predictable process. There is often some defensiveness as she finds some of her parenting strategies and ideas challenged and critiqued. And then, after much back and forth with the articulate and fiercely opinionated women of the list, at some point the newbie dissolves into a pool of maternal guilt as she regrets past interactions with her children. And then a list veteran will console her – and encourage her to move on – by reminding her, “When we know better, we do better.” Meaning of course, “Don’t beat yourself up for the past. But, now that you see that something else is possible, put it into action.”

When it comes to the environmental impact of our modern life: Sometimes I wish I didn’t know better. New habits are hard to adopt, especially as we juggle too-full lives with too many responsibilities. I’m proud that my household recycles most of our waste – the volume of paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum that my husband hauls to the recycling center in town is triple the amount of garbage that the trash company picks up at our house. I’ve finally bought enough reusable grocery bags [and put them in both of our cars] that more often than not, I don’t use store given disposables. We’ve all gotten used to using towels and rags to clean instead of paper towels. What few paper products we do buy – we spend a little extra to buy recycled. And, while we can’t afford it yet, I know that our next car will be a hybrid.

But, oh my. Some of the changes I know I should make… well, they are more challenging. I must be a bit of a masochist. As I count down to Earth Day, I could be blogging about any of the changes we’ve already made. Instead I’m preoccupied with plastic. And now that I know better … well dang it all, I’m supposed to do better. Some of the changes I’ve already implemented. We’ve weaned ourselves off of plastic cling wrap for the most part, and we no longer put any plastic containers in the microwave. [That’s a health issue – as opposed to an environmental one.] But doing without the ubiquitous litre of bottled water? Especially as we move into warm weather? Committing to buying, and then regularly filling and cleaning reusable water bottles? Enough for a family of 6? While we rush pell-mell through boy scout meetings and baseball practice and shopping trips and playdates at the playground? Do I really have to? I really wish I didn’t know better. But the evidence against bottled water– as you’ll see in the next entry I post – is fairly damning. So, I think I’m going to have to give it a go…

April Sales!

Still on Sale Until April 14th:
Baby Badger Skin Care for Infants 30% off
Byrd Mill Farms and Woodpecker Farms Baking Mixes 20% off
Celadon Green Pottery from Bali 25% off
Children's Books from Dawn Publications 25% off
Earring from Global Crafts 25% off
Green Glass Tumblers and Goblets 20% off
Maggie's Organics Baby Hats, Onesies and Gift Sets 30% off
Maggie's Infant and Toddler Socks 20% off
Tween Bath and Body Products 20% off

Come in on tax day, April 15th and let us ease the pinch a bit by giving you 5% off your total purchase!* Then, starting April 16th, we will count down to Earth Day, April 22, by offering 10% off of a different product each day!

Which products will be on sale? Even we don't know! We decided that the first customer of the day gets to help us choose each day! So if there is something special you've had your eye on and you'd like 10% off -- 11:00 am is a great time to shop!

Procrastination, Perfectionism and Plastics

It’s 10:30 on Friday night. My head is pounding after a long week. The kids are asleep and my husband is in the other room watching a comedy starring a young and handsome Paul Newman. I’m sure he would be delighted if I joined him given that he’s been traveling all week. [My husband, that is. I’m not privy to Paul’s schedule.] But, I decided that I would post once a day as a countdown to Earth Day and I am determined to do so.

Actually more of an obstacle than my being tired is my own familiar nemesis, the biggest reason I procrastinate or avoid doing anything--my perfectionism. I just spent the last hour reviewing some of the topics I’d like to post about here, and I realized that almost anything that needs to be said on almost any issue has already been said – several times. And it’s usually findable in just a matter of moments thanks to Google. So if I can’t do it first or best or most comprehensively – then why bother? At least that’s what the little devil on my left shoulder says – with quite a bit of a petty pout I might add. And then the little angel on my right shoulder takes a deep breath and reminds me, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” And I remember that my deal with myself in all this is just to be authentically myself and that doing something is almost always better than doing nothing.

So. I want to tackle one of modern living’s most relied-upon conveniences and one of the environment’s most pernicious foes: plastic. I will not attempt to do so all in one post – especially as tired [and verbose] as I am feeling at the moment. Plastic bags have been much in the news in the last year: China recently banned free distribution of plastic bags at stores, San Francisco became the first city in the US to ban their use in grocery stores, and chic New Yorkers stood in long lines for the chance to buy $15 designer “I am not a plastic bag” totes. Then there was the spate of news about the possible danger posed by plastic baby bottles leaching the toxin bisphenol A. And, as oil continues to hover around $100/barrel, the fact that most plastic is made out of petroleum products should be of increasing concern to everyone.

But plastic is everywhere. And we use it for everything. It’s cheap and convenient. For time- and money-crunched families I imagine plastic products show up – in one form or another – many, many times during our daily routines. To change those routines and create new habits takes effort and we need to feel that such effort is justified. After all, not everyone self-identifies as a “treehugger.” However, after much reading and review, I believe that there are a handful of changes each and every one of us needs to make in terms of how we use plastics. Despite their convenience, there are some plastic products whose environmental cost is severe enough that no one can really justify their continued use.

So this Earth Day I challenge myself – and my community – to wean ourselves completely off plastic shopping bags and plastic water bottles. Additionally, I strongly recommend that people limit their use of plastic wrap and plastic containers to store foods. I also urge folks to consider paying a little more to buy trash bags that are made from recycled plastics. I will blog more in the coming days about why I recommend these changes, and how you might implement them. Finally, I will share what I’ve learned about the development of new, more earth-friendly, plastics. But now -- goodness it’s already midnight -- it’s time for bed.  

Busy, busy, busy and a poem

Absolutely gorgeous day here in Lovettsville. Blue skies, mildly warm, birds singing. And I'm delighted to be able to spend most of the day at the store. The door is propped open and I love the fresh spring air.

So much I want to get done in the next couple of hours. Prepping for Earth Day promotions, need to get the newsletter out, finalize a jewelry order. [Mother's Day is just around the corner.] And I want to draft a substantive (or at least helpful or insightful or meaningful) blog post as part of our Earth Day/Anniversary Count Down. And then there's the really fun stuff: I have a large order from one of our favorite fair trade suppliers to unpack and get on the sales floor. Three large boxes filled with baskets, bird houses, jewelry and home decor. Here's hoping some customers actually walk through the door as well! So much to do! Better get on with it.

Oh. I almost forgot. April is also National Poetry Month. In honor of this glorious spring day, then, I found this to share:

Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful spring.

Thomas Carew, The Spring, 1630

Well ... off to work!

Wednesday's Hours

Michal is attending the funeral of an old friend's mother [our thoughts are with you S.] and Ayala is juggling the schedules of 4 kids while her husband is out of town. So, today the store will be open: 12:30 pm to 6:00 pm. And we may close briefly about 3:30 to do another kid shuffle.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

13 days and counting ...

Well, Earth Day is April 22. And it is also the one year anniversary of the opening of Greater Goods. If I had more time and more money, I would have loved to really "do it up" -- host some special events, invest in advertising, hire some musicians. Alas resources are still thin. So, we will do the best we can in our own impromptu, bootstrapping way...

What I hope to do here on the blog is a series of posts to help everyone commemorate Earth Day in their own way. The best they can.

I will launch it by pointing folks to a fairly comprehensive site courtesy of the Sierra Club [of which I am a member.] In honor of Earth Day they have launched a clever website "We Can Do It" filled with practical ways to conserve resources. I say it's clever, because they've crafted it to appeal to a wider range of folks than the stereotypical "treehugger." The emphasis is on strengthening the US economy -- and you can't argue with the relevance of that right now.

From the site:

We Can Create a Clean Energy Economy with Good Jobs Now — and Save Money!

Investing in renewables and efficiency will transform our economy and free America from our dependence on foreign oil and big oil companies. It will also creates job here at home, save families and businesses money, and combat
global warming.

We can do it. We have the necessary technical skills and ingenuity. Now we need to commit -- to fix our economy and our planet.

Give it a look-see. And if in your quest to tread more lightly and use fewer resources you'd like to pick up some green cleaning products, recycled paper products, or convenient and colorful reusable shopping bags -- drop by Greater Goods. We can hook you up.

Closing early tonight ...

Just a note: We'll be closing at 5:00 pm tonight.

Unavoidable due to family scheduling.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

I love to shop ...

Well, not all the time ... and not when I have to. That is stressful. Nothing worse than hiking a mall end to end because you have to find the perfect outfit at the perfect price for some looming event. But ordering for the store is a lot of fun. Our recent order of birdhouses and baskets was so successful, that I already had to place a reorder today. And I am also writing 2 more jewelry orders this week. It's such fun to anticipate all the new things coming in!

Speaking of new things, we are pleased to added 3 new locally produced items to the store this spring.

Wonder Wraps.
Handcrafted in Purcellville, VA by a work-at-home Mom, Wonder Wraps are 100% natural luxury hot and cold wraps to soothe aching bodies. Filled with natural cherry stones, they can be placed in the freezer or warmed in the microwave. [And they smell delightful when warmed!]

Jewelry by Sky High Designs
One of a kind silver and genuine stone bracelets, necklaces and earrings, handmade in Hamilton, VA.

MOMS Club of Purcellville Cookbook
Filled with hundreds of recipes, all proceeds from the sale of these books go to three local non-profits serving women and children in Loudoun County.

Remember, it's not too early to be thinking about Mother's Day!