pressed juicery

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i love making my own juices, but am jonsing to check out pressedJUICERY the next time i'm in LA. their combinations sound pretty damn amazing!

*for an interview with the company's founder, LA-native Carly Brien, check out this recent post on chef speak. 

beautiful girl

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thylane lena-rose blondeau

...maybe too beautiful for 10. i'm glad i have boy. 

T A N E organics

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minimal, clean, organic natural fibers...j'adore T A N E organics

*for more on the inspiration behind the brand, check this interview with founder/designer, Sheree Lee

Momma Tina

‘Prayer for a Daughter’

First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.

May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.

When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer.

Guide her, protect her
When crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.

Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels.

What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.

May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.

Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day – And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.

O Lord, break the Internet forever, That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.

And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

Amen.

check out the full hilariousness if you haven't yet, in her book: bossypants

knottie baby

though it's not practical in this house (lil' man needs to be in a straitjacket in order to sleep), i do love this knottie sleeper on etsy.

Before Buying BEAUTY PRODUCTS

{model, cornell grad, eco-activist summer rayne oakes}

For better or worse, I have always been fairly meticulous about the products that go on my body, particularly so as I  prepared for preconception and pregnancy, and now especially as I continue to nurse precious new life. 

Before buying any product that goes on my body, I like to consult one of two places:

1.) ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP'S SKIN DEEP COSMETIC DATABASE *very easy to search almost any product

2.) STYLE, NATURALLY   (Chronicle Books, 2009) A comprehensive product reference book by Summer Rayne Oakes (above) 

new mama facial care (from the inside out)

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while i'm on a beauty kick...

for the most part i've been pretty lucky. inheriting my mom's Mediterranean skin, i've spent most of my life battling oil control as opposed to moisture issues. but after i gave birth and almost four months out, with very little sleep and lots of breast-feeding i have for the first time found my skin to feel a little...dry. what the #&@#! i don't like it, but it appears i'm not alone. i'm a pretty mellow mama, but i do care about my skin, particularly as it is representative of the health of my inner vital organs. 

 some things are gonna change around here! 

my p.o.a:

• #1!!! Sleep. not much i can do about this now, but i could get better at sleeping when my little locomotive goes down.
• water.water.water. lots more water.
• amp up the fruits, veggies, and greens. easy now that it's summer.
• increase healthy fats; walnuts, flax, olive oil, coconut, avocado
• shorten my time in the shower *this never used to be an issue, until the shower turned into my only moments alone, my mini-vacation
• take cooler showers while i'm at it
• spend a little more time upon awakening & going to bed in quiet meditation
• drink this smoothie
• and maybe just maybe, splurge on this divine serum from one love organics

mom-do redo

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i am quickly losing strands of hair by the day to the cutest little sticky fingers!

 before i resort to a mom-do,  i shall try more braids and flex my dexterity out on something like this. thank goodness for tutorials, because i would never be able to swing something this fancy on my own. i'm a simple girl. wish me luck!

Though I don't wear sunscreen, I  do like to protect my lips when out and about. I used to suffer through the ghostly white-lipped look with Burt's Bee Lifeguard's Choice Lip Balm back in the day when natural lip balms with spf were slim-pickin's. Effective, but not necassarily practical or desirable.

 For the past year, I've been using ALL GOOD LIPS by Elemental Herbs. Love this stuff! Why?

• A short list of primarily organic ingredients
• SPF 15
• Fairly local product (based in Morro Bay)
• Ever so slight sheen, but neither glossy or sticky*an interesting read on why you don't want to sport glossy in the sun
• Very very faint scent of lavender

ELEMENTAL HERBS 

*They also carry a really nice line of sunscreens with one specifically for babes. 

Purple Prairie SunStuff

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 Because the overcast days are aplenty here in the Bay Area, I don't use sunscreen or sunblock of any sort as I feel my body needs all the Vitamin D it can get. However, if I were living in sunnier locals, Purple Praire Botanicals SunStuff is most likely what I would use for mid-day excursions. A mineral lotion, SunStuff is made of 99% natural & organic ingredients and is free of the typical toxic chemicals found in more conventional products.

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Happy sunning!
x

sick day

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caught a little cold the other day, so drinking lots of fresh carrot-orange-lemon-ginger juice, listening to the tallest man on earth and handsewing on the couch -- working on a mobile for my little birdie.

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My apologies for the intermittent and short posts. There are so many thoughts that come to mind these days about what might be useful or inspiring to other new parents. But life beckons with an immediacy I have not known before. My active little Aries Baby is a delight and a handful; not so into daytime naps, he is eager to engage himself in the world and I am happy to take his hand into it. The few free moments I do have are spent trying to keep some order to my home, squeezing in a shower, exploring healthier meal options, and savouring stolen kisses from my Man. Only a year-and-a-half married, we're still learning so much about sharing our lives, exploring our individuality and expanding our togetherness. And add to that Parenthood. We are not perfect. But we are strong, even in all of our tired, overworked, messy, grumpy, heartbreaking moments.

"All problems aren't meant to be "smoothed."The solutions we seek sometimes come from living through them. We can escape the situation we've created (temporarily), but we can't escape ourselves. Our self-made crises are custom-tailored, painstakingly crafted, and always fit perfectly. We construct emotional knots, until, eventually, we are willing to go through them. [...] In like fashion, we sometimes create situations that ask us to risk our marriage in order to receive its bounty. Approached in this light, committed relationships become epic dramas of heroism rather than soap operas. The suffering and strife inherent in marriage are as purposeful as its delights." ~David Schnarch, Ph.D., Passionate Marriage