etsy shop update!

felt crowns
reusable celebration crowns
Storytelling bags
The bags come ready to use!
lil' dude messenger bag
lil' mama messenger bag
for dress up!
or birthdays
or pretending to be the frog prince!

tye dye for all ages
tye dye
the mascot of dalai mama's day...do you think she looks like me?
colored pencil rollups
recycled celebration banners!

Hey there, friends! Time for an update on my etsy shop. Summer has come and gone and we're rolling into fall. This was a busy season for me with lots of festies, and market days. Many of these items have already sold, but I thought I'd catch you up on what's happening in Dalai Mama's world! Thanks for all of your support this season and I look forward to seeing you all again real soon.

Please visit: http://www.dalaimamasday.etsy.com/ for current items!

Enjoy all that Fall has to offer!

Peace!

Slow down and love...

So, I was checking out one of my favorite environmental homeschooling groups today and came across these quotes. I pondered them and was truly moved by the honesty of them both. I hope they move you too.....really, can't we all use more love? And aren't we all feeling too rushed? Let us slow down today and really just work from our hearts...let love motivate our parenting today.



The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be. -Katherine Mansfield


I am struck by the fact that the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think that the same is true of human beings. We do not wish to see children precocious, making great strides in their early years like sprouts, producing soft and perishable timber, but better if they expand slowly at first, as if contending with difficulties, and so are solidified and perfected. Such trees continue to expand with nearly equal rapidity to an extreme old age…Henry David Thoreau

Celebrate!

Reusable Celebration Banners available for sale now at dalaimamasday.etsy.com! Get yours now!!! These banners can be customized any way you like!!! Made from upcycled fabric samples, they are so festive and can be used for all celebrations throughout the year. Start this green tradition for your family!! The children will look forward to each holiday and celebration as they see you pulling out the treasured celebration banner! Try it.

Tye Dye helpers

it got a little out of hand...

voila!
For sale from Dalai Mama's Day!!

Look at those bright colors!
more...
still more...
silly, silly girls

Neighborhood girls start accumulating...
Shirts soaked in ash
drying the ash soaked shirts
all dyed up and setting
Neighbors really wanted to do some of their own shirts with our leftover dye

So, first off, let me apologize for the order of these pics...I still struggle with that.

Teah and I were enjoying our first mama/daughter solo night of the school year and we decided that we'd love to get started on making tye dye shirts to sell at festies this summer. Great, the boys were with Dad, Andy was on a canoe adventure with the boys...we set out to gather the goods.

Now, this is the first time we've done tye-dye since moving into a neighborhood. Let me just say that the experience was much less peaceful and enjoyable than when we lived on seven secluded acres!

As soon as the kids in the hood got wind of what was going down in Teah's backyard, we were swarmed...I tried to tell myself that the kids needed this experience more than I need chill time...though I did think, "here goes our solo time." Really though, these children may never have had this experience if it weren't for us. So...after consulting with my sidekick we decided it would be okay to delegate jobs like stirring the ash and passing the shirts and hanging them to dry to our neighbors...then when we were finished, we let them bring shirts from home and use up the rest of our dye. It got a little out of hand, I got a wee bit stressed, but the shirts, pants, skirts and dresses got dyed and Teah felt like we had some together time...and I crossed off one festi task off my to-do list!

Commercialism, Big Business, what is the world coming to?

Many of you know that I used to work for The Body Shop. Many of you also know about Dame Anita Roddick, founder or The Body Shop and her life-long focus on activism,natural skin care, environmentalism, fair- trade, recycling, refilling, no animal testing, etc. I loved working for such a family-friendly, personal, small, down-to earth, positive, company that was about things I could get behind.

What you may not know is that Anita passed away fairly recently. A shock to everyone. I hoped that her husband Gordon and daughters Sam and Justine would keep the company going in the direction Anita had always envisioned. Well! Imagine my dismay when I found out that not only is the Roddick family not running The Body Shop, but the company has been bought out by Loreal! A cosmetics company! ARRRRGGHHHHHH......i was speechless. Outraged really. How did this happen? I still cannot believe it. Though I no longer work for the company, I do still use their products: Brazil Nut body butter in the winter on my super sensitive skin, peppermint foot lotion on my tired feet, woody sandalwood oil in place of deoderant, hemp had creme.....I love those products. Needless to say, I will NOT be buying those beloved items from The Body Shop anymore. But most of all, it saddens me to think that all of Ms. Roddick's dedication and hard work has been sold! Gone... I have some books that Anita wrote and in all of them, her determination to stand alone from the cosmetics giants is voiced....her disdain for big business, or business in general....her vision to sell real products, not false promises to people for simply, cleaning, polishing and moisturizing their skin. What is Anita saying right now?

So, if that weren't bad enough, I have also come to find out that AVEDA, a company who I also believed in and who I thought stood for something...environmentalism, natural haircare and cosmetics, etc....has sold out to Estee Lauder! When I lived in St. Louis, I regularly went to an Aveda-concept salon for my haircare needs. Now, you all know that I now have dreadlocks and don't go to the salon, but still! I may not have them forever and I'd like to know that I could still buy shampoo that I believe in....... What is this world coming to?

Okay, so I needed to calm down. I made a cup of tea and while it was steeping, sat reading a magazine at the table. What did I come across? An article on how BURT'S BEES has sold out too! Guess who now owns burts? Clorox! Yeah, for real! A company that's been polluting the environment for years. I love my burt's bees lip balm...in honey, mint, and cranberry! I love my nutmeg lip shimmer, and my vitamin E face oil.....I love the shampoo bar....I could go on and on. I wanted to cry. I may have even shed a tear. "That's it!" I decided. If I can't rest assured knowing that Burt in his old overalls, worn hat and burly beard is not tending his bee hives in Maine to create my favorite lipbalm anymore....then, then, then....I'll make it myself! I'll post pictures when I actually do make a batch...but first, I need to use up all the Burt's in the house. I've decided I'm not even going to try and find a replacement product. I'm suddenly feeling bitter towards all companies. Time to look to local farmer's for beeswax and rely on myself to make my beauty necessities..

The final straw....TOM'S OF MAINE...yes, the toothpaste the children and I use. They've done it too, they've sold out. To whom, you ask? Colgate-Palmolive...I have no words. We may start brushing our teeth with Bronners. Mama Kim does it, her kids have adapted.....that or baking soda.......

What's the deal? Why can't our small, family owned and operated businesses thrive? Did they get money hungry and want some of the fame? Was it too much work? Didn't enough of us naturalists support them? I just don't understand.
I'm off to make another cup of tea, sustainably harvested from a local family and my friends, The Orners out at Quiet Creek Herb Farm and School of COuntry Living....a place I can feel good about.....by the way, I also get my handmade soap from Quiet Creek...and I just spoke with Claire, they have beeswax!

Please share your frustrations, let me know I'm not the only one affected by these things...anyone?

There are only two ways to live your life, only two ways to be.

One is the right way, the other the wrong way.

The right is to give, to share, to love.

The wrong is to snatch, to exploit, to accumulate.

~Osho, No water No mood~

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

So, Many of you already know that I personally think that indeed, schools DO kill creativity....one of my biggest pet peeves is mass produced classroom art projects...you all know what I'm talking about...twenty-five jack-o-lanterns taped up in the hallway....all identical!
But anyway, I came across this very interesting video and thought I can't seem to embed it today...I've included the link below so you can consider your own thoughts on schools and creativity.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY