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1 State down, 49 more to go? sounds expensive…
News update: Colorado voted NO to the safe cosmetics bill. I’ll be the first to tell you, we have some serious problems with our environment and product culture that is helping cause the increase of Cancer and other diseases. We need to get to the bottom of the ROOT Cause. If you read the previous post on the Safe Cosmetics bill from CO, you’ll know that it’s not the intent of the bill that that many large and small businesses have a problem with. It’s the details and ingredient levels that the Colorado bill by passed entirely. In a Global age of information and commerce, each US State is going to mandate…
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Colorado's new bill = baby out with bathwater…
I could write my version of this but instead, I’ll be brief. On Monday, Colorado is about to pass a bill that has all of the good intentions of providing safe cosmetic products to its citizens yet falls short on thought out reasoning of specifics. Broad brush strokes only create a nightmare of litigation for small businesses everywhere that don’t have time, money or resources to redefine everytime, every law suit. Our economy is a wreck gang. Let’s not punish the few sectors of American business that are still hiring!! I’d love to see state and federal folks actually approach citizens and small business owners for their opinion before blazing a trail…
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Things going on at Dr. Flower headquarters…
If you look at the picture of the week, you’ll see a line up for fruit bushes purchased on sale that will be planted in a minimum of 3 backyards and one Farm! We are just a little bit excited to do some landscaping with the fabulous plants that are antioxidant producers! Will these lovely organic homegrown fruits end up in Dr. Flower’s All Natural Handmade soap? I’m betting NOT! They will however, nourish those that make these all natural goodies. What do we have? Blueberries, Raspberries (red and fall producing gold), thornless blackberries, kiwi, and figs! Chances are that you might see a few updates on the landscape…
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Tis the season…that poison ivy blooms!
As summer winds down and the kids go back to school, there are changes also happening in the backyard. The fall blooming plants are beginning to do their thing. Some of this is good….some of this is bad! Perhaps not as bad if you know how to identify it. In the past, I’ve blogged about how to identify poison ivy in your yard. What was missing from those pictures is what the plant looks like in full bloom. I’ve gotten close enough to the plant to snap a shot. Why is blooming bad? Well, blooming means more seeds which means this plant is going to procreate. ACK!! What do…
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Mud Daubers, friend or foe?
Why all the sudden interest in mud daubers? You know how you hear talk about a certain subject and that subject comes up again? It was that way with mud daubers for me. Since I was at the Alabama Soap Meeting on Friday and Saturday, I got another facial from Tammy Doering of Dead Sea Bulk Materials. My new friend Aimee Morhan of Magnolia Soaps that I met at the conference was suggesting that mud daubers would be a cute name for young girls that use facial mud. Being the earthy chick, it sounded like a neat idea to me! Tammy was not so sure about it. That got me to…
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Green Pest Control, sometimes all you need to do is ask!
Admittedly,we’ve had our contract pest control company for many years. As the truck pulled up last week for the guy to perform treatment, I posed the question. Do you have a green alternative treatment? You could have blown me over when he said, As a matter of fact we do. Would you be interested? Here’s our brochure. (psst… it’s Keystone Pest Control.) THAT my friends is the customer service we strive for at Dr. Flower’s Essentials! If you have a question on something you’d like to see in our product line, find us! twitter facebook e-mail Happy Washing! ~Regina
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Plant Identification: Poison Ivy
It occurred to me this week that not everyone is aware of how to identify this itchy plant. Those of us that are allergic have it burned in our brain! Do you know what it looks like? Here’s a few shots as fresher for plant identification: And here is the Elderberry bush that I dare not walk to as poison ivy currently surrounds it… Remedies could include vinegar sparingly painted on the sunny leaves of the plant. Why so sparingly? Vinegar will kill most of the plants around it, most microorganisms and leave a brown spot of nothing in it’s wake. Goats I hear will eat poison ivy. I’ve entertained…
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Time to get out the neem oil! "spot" the bug, beware!
I took some shots of the garden over the past week. If you follow me on twitter, then you know that I celebrated my first little squash. (here) Here’s another growing: And here is a seemingly cute little bug that will DEVOUR said squash lovelies! ACCKK! What do I do? (btw, here’s a list of plants he likes for lunch: melons, squash, pumpkin, corn, beets, cucurbits (cucumbers), tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, and even some fruit trees. His stripped cousin likes flowers too!) Before reaching for the pesticide bad bad bug spray, try a little neem oil. It’s safer, organic and does the job! Here are a few more facts about neem…
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Blue Whales do have a predator….
We enjoyed watching National Geographic ‘s documentary “Kingdom of the Blue Whale” last week. It seems that many facts that were only suspected before about blue whales were revealed and proven during the show. There were investigations of where blue whales go to have their babies, go to breed, over winter, etc. Some if not all of these hypothesizes were confirmed during the show. One of the most impactful points in the whole show aside from getting glimpses of beautiful baby blue whales was the show of the blue whales major predator, man. They are on the endangered species list, I know. Yet they are still getting hurt and killed…
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Mars and Seeds of Change
Seeds of Change is quite a mouth full when you realize that they have in fact CHANGED! (company was bought out by Mars) If you read the about us on their website, It’ll tell you about their long history of being organic sustainable…what it won’t tell you is that Mars bought Seeds of Change in 19xx. Since then, It’s been lanched in the UK and in this article on The Ecologist it details the money made and this little tidbit: ” In 2004 Mars failed to respond to an international petition urging it to include Fairtrade chocolate in its product range. “ I’ve written about chocolate before in regard to organic companies…interesting…
