It could be easy being Green....

There's lots of things around your pad aka Crib, right now you can use to clean stuff...and it is Spring. Right? Right?
It's easy to be green. And fun. And lovely.

Cashmere sweater, micropleat olive green skirt, loden green wool skirt.....

a  green-eyed cat in a green chair

vintage military field pants and a letterman jacket

Green things...handmade. that yountville girl

The Green undies.

There are commercially made cleaning products like Mrs Meyers, Seventh Generation, Bright Green,  and Method
------------ Green Cleaning tips and lots of linkies ------------

A handy List.


Did you know plain ol' baking soda has cleaning and deodorizing properties? It does. Here's a list of 27 ways to use it.


Good ol' soap.
Soap comes many forms....liquid, and in bar form. It's biodegradable! Back in the Olde Days, we used to wash cloth baby diapers and baby clothes in Ivory Flakes. It was soap. yes, us olde moms used to do laundry with a special soap just for baby. Sadly, Ivory Flakes no longer exists.
Don't use any formulas with petroleum distillates. This is a big issue, and more so, if your Home is a motorhome since the petroleum ingredients will ruin a lot of the plumbing and seals.
(Petroleum distillates include mineral spirits, kerosene, white spirits, naphtha, and Stoddard solvent. All household products that contain 10 percent or more of petroleum distillates, or benzene, toluene, xylene, or turpentine, are required to have hazard warnings by regulations under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.)
Dr. Bronners. always a good choice.
buy cake soap like Ivory. Don't buy soaps (detergents) and other products with triclosan. Triclosan is that ANTIBACTERIAL crap that is in every damn product now!! It is real bad stuff. More info about triclosan and other nasties


Lemon juice one of the best little remedies for dirt and yuk, It has natural acids, so it does battle against most household bacteria. mmmm Lemon juice !

Borax ...as in 20 Mule Team Borax. Works great as an insecticide, a deodorizer, mold and mildew killer, general cleaner. It is strong and needs to be handled with care, and kept from pets and kids. Just click this and spend a lazy 1/2 hour reading.

Washing soda like Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda at most grocery stores. It's great for grease-cutting, removing greasy spots, wax and lipstick, and zaps stinky odors like baking soda does. It's harmful to fiberglass, aluminum and waxed floors, because it strips wax and is really strong stuff. Read all about it here.
What is it?


White Vinegar will de-grease, zap mildew, odors, and attack some stains and that pesky yellow waxy build-up. Leave out the detergent in these recipes.


Alcohol-The drinking kind. Got some wine or vodka just laying around? going bad? We use it to clean the countertops. It disinfects.

It could be easy being Green..

Green sure has many meanings now......Eco-Friendly, the Wearing of the Green which leads to the Drinking of the Green...and the very nasty GreenWashing such as that done by Wal-Mart....they who generously help pollute China and keep those factories chugging day and night and trade winds being what they are.......that nasty nasty smog is floating over the Pacific Northwest right now..........
BUT I digressed........

How is it easy to be green??? Just buy vintage....from me.
Or just dress like Kermit the Frog......



and some Green in my etsy shop.........


Green Hearts........

But no purple clover.......yet, said the Leprechaun.

Vote For Salmon Swimming thru the North End !

Time to Vote!
Time to vote for salmon streams running through Tacoma!
Vote for Puget Creek Restoration Society
Vote Green
Vote Scott



Scott Hansen, founder of the Puget Creek Restoration Society, and our sweet neighbor here on Broadway, funky funky dirty dirty Broadway, is a finalist in the Cox Conserves Heroes program, presented by KIRO 7.

This program honors people in the community that help create, preserve or enhance places for everyone to enjoy...you know...like creeks, parks, gardens, plazas, streets and public squares.........the places that make life beautiful......
the places that make life possible.

go here... Then click

• Scott Hansen - Environmental Non-profit of Choice: Puget Creek Restoration Society

to see a lovely website....ahhhh...breathe deep...........

then, on the

Welcome to the Seattle Market

page, click finalists and watch a sweet video about what Scott and the folks do...
then come back and click vote.........
and click for Scott........
You'll feel better......

and omg........the Puget Creek Restoration Society can win
5 Thousand, yes, bones or clams or whatever you call them
.....to continue the fabulous work...and get a load of urban achievers in the vid....

so VOTE you hooked up monkey...Scott Hansen is at the bottom of the vote page......
DO IT.

The Earth loves a Vintage Wedding.......

Of course you should choose a vintage wedding dress...

because it's better to use what is already here, better to use what comes from a local source, better to think about the disposal problem...I know...but you are a GrownUp now!

vintage and handmade wedding ideas here at etsy

you know me...I like marriage so much...I did it twice.
I think everyone should have the right to marry...
the old joke: Everyone should have the opportunity to be miserable like the rest of us !!
(ha ha)
But seriously, marriage takes work and a pretty wedding takes some pretty stuff.........
My 2 weddings were all diy...1st one made my dress (duh) of natural crinkle gauze (duh) from India and I embroidered pretty flowers all over it, and made a matching shirt for the groom (duh)

The second wedding was an elopement affair because I was under too much pressure to invite/feed/entertain/mollify about a 100 people and I was not up to it. (everybody will tell you what to do...few will actually help)

Traveling to San Francisco to be married at City Hall in 1997, my second wedding dress was a lacy antique silk slip that was mostly falling apart..
I made that into the mini skirt, then for the blouse I used a 70s faux Victorian blouse that I remodeled ....
I wore some new/edwardian style shoes....and paired it up with my favorite leather jacket. I was hot! Mark wore a thrift store linen suit, with a bright blue shirt and a vintage pink/blue tie and 2 tone Saddle shoes.
Vintage sunglasses of course.
The pics are packed away.....after my big move I'll copy them and post them for you all to laugh at.

So....a Vintage Wedding Dress?
I always buy pretty white dresses for my shop and I adore vintage lingerie for the bride. A bride and groom should indulge themselves (sensibly) for their wedding and honeymoon, because soon enough, it won't be about just you 2. There is real life.

Right now I have these on etsy:
a loverly Emma Domb from the early 60s...it is tailored in the front and girly on the back! I love love love the deep back and the bows.








Going more Bohemian?

70s crinkle gauze with sheer lace. This is ethereal and fairy.







Like the tailored look? Classic ivory wool boucle set by Tina Hagen.

im in ur base....

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

I'm not even sure you realize how much important fundamental change is needed in the direction this country is going.....but chew on dat Chew On Dat......
But 75% of the income made during this Bush Admin......went to the top 1% of Americans...
that means.........You middle class workers......just got royally screwed by the Reagan Revolution of tax cuts for the wealthy and massive deregulation......
did ya enjoy it? That was Class Warfare.....and you didn't see it coming.....
they now treat you like they've always treated the poor....disposable....
Welcome to the Hyper-Inflation 3rd World.....no need to travel to Mexico.....the Banana Republic is Here .........
Your mortgage is in default, your credit cards are maxed out, and you haven't had a raise in a decade, and you have no health care.
That's a Republican for ya !!!!!

Europe is already 20 years ahead of us in energy conservation and fiscal responsibility, need I mention Health Care, while we spend a billion a month (might as well be if you add the interest on the national debt) to fight a "war" solely for the benefit of the Oil Companies......2 Oil Men in the top jobs in the White House...what did you think was gonna happen????

the zeit bikes are so pretty......

and......so friendly.
and completely understandable.
And pretty. And kinda weird.
They are "gettable" immediately.

I told Mark his entry was too hard...too subtle ......it's Art in the big city sense.
If I would have had time to make a zeit bike I would have covered it in fur and made it an animal of some several types.
Get it? Bike as a throwback to organic renewable grabbable transportation.
If I'd have covered a bike in easy to get materials, just some random crap I found in the alley, maybe I'd have been chosen.
But the idea that a bike is an instrument of torture...that it might be quite painful to ride........
...is an unpopular concept.
Since I had it displayed in front of the shop , every single person that saw it commented on it.......and were confused.....but all comments centered around the idea that riding a bike would be hard and painful......and inconvenient........
Yes, that's right. But changing patterns of modern urban and rural and cul-de-sac living.....
is Hard.
Changing our nasty ways isn't as easy as changing lightbulbs. It will require more thought, and a revolution in the way we think of the planet and what we want and why we want.
And ....Trailblazer.......
Be A Trailblazer.
Think outside the moss.

Well, I'm Sorry If I Hurt or Embarrassed...

Tacoma.I don't think the movers and shakers spend enough time on Neighborhoods...
and small business...
all the small businesses and the new ones that would infill .....would so kick Russell's butt.....and replace them ...and all their money .....So go ahead and go.....or not.

Tacoma will Not live or die because of Russell. And the condos.
Wake Up !! Great things got done in Tacoma for years.....
Steph Farber is Right ! Enough with the stupid consultants and the outsiders.......
WE already know what we want........Didn't we (Tacomans/Tacowomens) create an Art Oasis..........growing and building from Sheer Force of Will ????? Didn't we get Union Station saved, and the Pantages....and UWT ? Tacoma Dome....The transportation hub in this district....makes perfect sense. Working together with the Tribes....and getting issues settled...........
"That's what saved Tacoma"
Yes we did !!!!
So many people truly love this town......with its warts.
and its sugar.
yes Russell contributed money to those causes, but it would have been done with or without them because the people wanted it..........

And I'll say this again......I am a trickster.....I say almost everything with a wink and a smile.....
I do appreciate Love Tacoma...we're MySpace Friends.....duh!
So kick me. Ignore me. Cuss me out. Hate me. Whatever.
From a blog post and from my criticism......

comes a fabulous conversation........ and I am really impressed that folks publicly and privately came to her defense.
I have so many stories of folks who do not feel included....
and this insane amount of money and attention that goes to developers, the rich and Russell......it is just hated by the people I talk to.
The working class of Tacoma......don't give a flying flip about Russell.
they hire only from a small select pool.....and there is so much more to Tacoma than that.
The working class could care less about expensive condos. They want the potholes fixed....they want good schools....They want Affordable Homes....You know something a person or family that makes 50 grand and Under could buy Today !
They want nice neighborhoods. They want to start businesses.
And Russell's money hasn't kept the streets free of holes. Russell's money hasn't made Tacoma schools better.......obviously......
It is the people who give a good .......damn about life here that did these things.
Enough already.

City fathers and mothers....Invest in the People. Invest in infrastructure.
Help people buy homes at a sensible price. House the homeless. Feed the hungry.
I know Tacoma is smart. Click .......brought the world to me.......
Low utility rates....because of smart management......
Tacoma doesn't need to be the fastest bunny on the Block.....
we need smartness, we need faith in each other, and respect for steadiness, respect for home-grown talent.

Build a strong working class and that's anyone who works for a living.......
It makes far more sense to have 3000 jobs that pay 20 bucks an hour or more,
than 1000 jobs that pay 50 bucks an hour. Rising tides lift ALL BOATS instead of just a few as documented here by Steve Winn . But even the wealthy are nervous.....

If Tacoma is gonna spend, what, 140 million on Russell .......why not spend that much on creating great middle income jobs...and lots of them......financial services is too often a code word for taking fair wages away from the worker and rigging the system for the benefit of the wealthy.
Restaurant work is not a livable wage base.

"Who gets the shortest end of the stick? Coffee shop hosts and cafeteria counter attendants, according to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts.

Eighty-seven percent of restaurant-host and counter-attendant jobs were categorized as "bad," meaning they paid less than the median wage in 1979, adjusted for inflation, and had neither employer-sponsored health insurance nor a retirement plan. That translates to a wage today of $16.50 an hour or $34,320 per year for a full-time, full-year worker, according to the report."

Rising rents and home prices put people in financial danger. It was and is a stupid idea to use your home as an ATM.
That is not sustainable in a community. C'mon you number-crunchers....

I suggest following the leadership of Van Jones.......
Why can't Tacoma become the Green Center of the Northwest.....let's create green jobs...let's show the world that we build Green.....We recycle....We cut emissions....We have industries that are embracing New Green Ways of doing business.
Do we or do we not live in The Evergreen State?

Buy Green in the Northwest.....

I do see many clothing designers using organic and bamboo and such for new clothes and that's great!!
My choice is to remake from used and vintage, and tossed away stuff.
There is an endless supply....of stuff....

I especially love building with reclaimed wood, windows and such...I do realize any new building must be energy efficient and non-toxic and new technologies can provide that.....here's a link to LEED....

From a Seattle PI article...

Counter intuitive: What began as a concept for a graduate-studies paper by Ameé Quiriconi is now a caressable countertop cast in Woodinville. Squak Mountain Stone Countertops' textured, cement-based composite, mixed with waste fly ash as well as newsprint and other recycled paper, is an alternative to quarried stone. A 30- by 48-inch slab: $420.29. A new line, Trinity, uses recycled glass to mimic smooth granite. Call 425-486-3417 or www.tmi-online.com.

Bee Green: Kim Denend and Aaron Otto combine organic farming and beekeeping to make soaps, salves and lotion bars tested on family and friends. Most of their ingredients are grown on Pragtree, a land-trust farm near Arlington, or come from other sustainable producers. Calendula soap: $5.95; muscle rub with cayenne: $10.95. Moon Valley Organics: 877-652-1819 or www.moonvalleyhoney.com.

Waste not: ELWd ("elwood") Systems, a division of Auburn's Forest Concepts, began replicating woody debris for salmon-habitat restoration and branched out to erosion-control bales, planters, fencing and other products made from wood that would otherwise be wasted. Sets of pole units can be used in place of rock, block or creosoted railroad ties for landscape terraces. A 90-inch unit: $52.99. ELWd Systems SlopeCheck: 253-333-9663 or www.elwdsystems.com.

It's Earth Day...again

So........For Earth Day I re-read Ecotopia

...Did you know Nixon signed the Clean Water Act, The Clean Air Act, The Endangered Species Act, and started the EPA ?? That was way back in the 70s when Republicans thought that a clean environment was good for everyone, and a conservative value ! The party left me, I didn't leave it...so, I'm not a fan of neo-con Republicans who think of nothing but war and money for themselves. Shame shame shame.

On May 4, 1970, OHIO NATIONAL GUARDSMEN opened fire on American citizens--anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. On that day, my baby girl was 3 months-old, and we had just marched a few weeks earlier on the first Earth Day.
Which is what I say on my ME page on ebay .....
your new god, Kunstler says: Go plant a garden. And learn some handicrafts.
mmmm like sewing, or knitting, or at the very least,
Stay the Hell outta the Mall........and stop buying new useless crap.....from china.from where ever. You went to college. Use that brain !!! challenge the dominant paradigm ! my college grad class motto......Be The Change You Wish To See.....

Kunstler says a lot of things that us Old Hippies (well I'm a flower child...big difference) have been saying for Decades.
What if the energy programs.......we started in the 70s were still in practice today ?? 25 years of energy conservation....wind energy...solar energy....trains....buses......fewer children....less materialism.......what would your world look like today....and our heroes were folks like the Nearings.....no, it wasn't a paradise.....but it was a good start......Look what was accomplished with a Republican president.....

Also, Mark and I reread........the writings of William Morris......you know the Wallpaper guy........our favorite.......

Useful Work v. Useless Toil

Read this, and you will understand the way of the future....back to the future.......
And I have a few links for greeny living......it's kinda hard to change...but bit by bit......
oh yeah, buy a used copy of Take Back Your Time Day.... Handbook........

Made in China -- Assembled in Tacoma

Tacoma Third Thursday Art Walk

17.4.08

funkoma vintage 306 E. 26^th St. noon -- 6 pm

is featuring

Portraits of Your Lifestyle Chinesed Children

A Sculptural Rumination on the Post-Modern Family

What happens when the poison in your children's China-made toys infiltrates your uterus and sperm......

Did you give birth to a child or a pet?

Because you wanted to save money, and didn't read the label, your home is full of poison in the toys from China. Your children play with them. And injest the poisons. And so do you. Are you sure you want another child? Would you be better off to adopt? From China? Why do you want a child? Would you be better off with a pet? What kind of food will you feed it? Food made from Chinese ingredients?
-------- Art ------ Made In China ------ Assembled in Tacoma --------

Sample of My Immense Talent !

Here's a little show of stuff I've made from recycled stuff.....this is why you see me a the thrifts all the time......and why I need so much stuff!

Monster Jam, City of Tacoma, Misery

Monster Jam is a series of live events and television show created by Live Nation (formerly Clear Channel Entertainment). The series is sanctioned under the umbrella of the USHRA and takes place primarily in the United States. Although individual event formats can vary greatly based on the "intermission" entertainment, the marque entertainment is always the racing and freestyle competitions by monster trucks.

Am I the only person in Tacoma that knows Clear Channel is putting on the Monster Jam show at the T-Dome? The T-Dome that the City of Tacoma owns? The Clear Channel that the City of Tacoma is wrestling with over billboards? RR ? Word Up !

Ok, I know I live a block from the T-Dome. duh. But every time there's an event the monkeys schlup by and park all over.......and in my parking lot and pee in the lot and smoke pot and drink beer.......

This particular event is ultra-disturbing because: HELLO ! Did or Did Not Al Gore just win the Nobel Prize?
Monster Jam uses up how much oil/gas/ pollution.....and the driving here of all the minivans and SUV's........
There is just no hope for the planet.........no, the planet will go on and on........but humanity and animals and stuff will decline and suffer.........
Oh Well.

-- 2 -- 2 Fun things in one...

One of my favorite blogs..Lulus vintage..did a lovely post about buying vintage for Christmas.....great advice for any holiday or birthday.....
Now on to Biba ..one of my favorite clothes designers....here's a vid..



And by way of Senorita Hollywood comes word of an article on Biba in this month's BUST ....

and take a trip to 60s London.....

Why Buy Vintage ??

Mmmm, because when you buy something that was made a long time ago,with materials that have been already harvested and finished......and with a good chance the shop was union....or not...
Well, the best reason is that when you buy something vintage, you are not exploiting todays workers and the environment !
in other words, the damage has been done.....
We can't change the past, but we can fashion the future !!

I have been railing against buying from 3rd world countries...like China for nearly 2 decades....
and now that we are bombarded with recalls of nasty merchandise and toys and toothpaste we need to find a better way ....Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean, Boy Scouts products have been recalled...........
and do you want to know who makes your "distressed furniture" imported from China? Do you want to know the conditions that exist where they make the toys we buy for our kids?
It doesn't have to be disgusting !

Click here for a shocking expose on conditions in China
From the SLC Tribune:

Charles Kernaghan, the director of the National Labor Committee, told Dorgan about factories with forced 70-hour work weeks, where overtime wages are withheld. Workers sleep in "primitive dorms," with a dozen people in each room on metal bunk beds. They have substandard food, no hot water and take home 46 cents an hour.
Kernaghan held up a Barbie produced under these conditions. The labor cost the factory 19 cents. The U.S. company paid $9 to ship it here and then charged the consumer $30 for the doll.
"There is enough money here to make toys safe and to treat the workers in China with dignity and respect," he said.

Sure -- shop funkoma vintage and the other used and vintage shops in T*Town...
Look where the thing was made......if it was made in Europe or the US there is a very good chance
that there were environmental laws and worker safety laws and decent wages laws in place when/where your widget was made.........
It's not a perfect world...but there is something Good to be done about this !

I'll post Over there on the right side under the TACOMA Stuff !
of great places to shop right here in T*Town...places that offer good old-fashioned stuff made safely & fairly, and things that you can feel good about buying and owning.....
It's not just about Being Green......it's about being a moral person !