Organic Needle

Tea Bags on Etsy!!!!!

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized

What are you doing here? You should be over on Etsy buying a lifetime supply of tea bags for everyone you know…whether they drink tea or not.

I am hoping to have the Harmony fabric gift bags up soon too. Hey…did you notice…I added new nut colors? There was absolutely no classy way to say that. ( Because you know me…I always try to add a touch of fricken class to everything I do.)

I’m Being Squashed by the Great Pumpkin

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, csa, recipes

I currently posses a pumpkin, a giant butternut squash, 2 acorn squashes, a sunshine squash, and what appears to be a confused pumpkin. I do not posses, however, even one measly idea as to what to do with them all. This is a cucurbit crisis people!!!!! (OK…I totally just wanted to show off my years of botany study. That 2 seconds of impressing the pants of you cost me tens of thousands of dollars. Fake your awe if you must.)

I Take Back Anything Nice I Have Ever Said About 7th Generation Cleaning Products

Posted by organicneedle in green cleaning, product review

Which hasn’t been a whole lot to begin with. A few weeks back I reviewed their dishwasher detergent and gave them a generous…doesn’t completely suck. Ahhhh…what a naive fool I was. It, in fact, does completely suck. I may be saving the world from phosphates but I am certainly not saving any energy or water. I often have to run the machine 2x…or simply hand wash everything because the detergent doesn’t dissolve…meaning many dishes are coming out dirtier than going in. I have used the vinegar rinse…no difference. I have tried not over crowding…no difference. Not for nothing…but when I was using the old toxic brand Electrasol I could put things in there with entire meals caked on and they would come out spotless…no pre-rinse, no rinse agent, no after washing. Now I don’t plan on going back to a phosphate brand but this is ridiculous. I am using at least 2x the water and energy if not more. There must be a better alternative!

While I am sharing my warm fuzzies about 7th Generation, let me share with you a little discovery…Planet. I was using 7th’s liquid soap for hand washing dishes but this stuff is soooooo much better. It actually cuts grease. Who would’ve thunk a green cleaner could do it? (Planet’s auto dish detergent doesn’t get such rave reviews.)

Don’t even get me started on 7th generation laundry products. Trust me, you don’t have that kind of time. Nor have I mastered enough profane vocabulary to express my feelings fully. (I really do need to go back to teaching middle school so I can bank up on the bad words for just such a review.) Planet does make a well reviewed powder detergent that I will be investigating soon. I’ll keep you posted.

So… yes…while I will still allow 7th to produce wipe for my who-diddly-whos…that is about all they will be doing in this house. But that in and of itself is quite an honor, no?

The Woods Survived Our Visit!

Posted by organicneedle in family

And…. we’re back. (No need for bear poop checking.) Taconic State Park survived the city folks. And we city folks had an amazing time.


Bash Bish Falls

Some highlights….

* My boys had their first real hiking experience and were amazing. They even got a mini taste of rock climbing. The park had 4 trails that were less than 2 miles with reasonable inclines. They also have a lot of expert trails but with a 2 & 5 year old in tow we decided to leave them for the bears…the trails…not the kids.

* My husband learned to make a fire without losing even one eyebrow…in its entirety.

* We survived for 5 days without the internet. My husband was a little shaky by day 3. (I swear I saw him with a coat hanger, a stream of aluminum foil and a very confused rabbit…but he denies any wrong doing.)

The most important thing…they are all hooked! My 5 year old wants bigger rocks to climb. My 2 year old wants to throw more nature stuff at other nature stuff. My husband is determined to start a fire with less than 10 expletives. Ahhh…my little mountain men.

As for me? I can’t even describe the joy I felt reliving my own most cherished childhood moments with the people I love most. The woods have always been magical for me…a world of joy, wonder, reflection, restoration, and even escape. To open the door to this amazing world with them was nothing short of amazing.

Disney my ass…this was the real magic kingdom.

Check the Poop

Posted by organicneedle in family

We’re off to the woods. If I’m not back by next Friday start checking NY State Park bear poop for organic cotton.

Celebrating 5 Years of Tru Love!

Posted by organicneedle in family

My little Einstein turns 5 today. The big 5. In honor of him…

Top 5 things I love about Tru

1. Your sense of humor. In the middle of the chaos you know just what to say to make me laugh so hard I snort.

2. Your favorite place is with your family. I hope we are always your soft place to fall and to laugh.

3. Your brilliance. You are truly freakishly smart. Please use it for good and not evil.

4. Your confidence in yourself even when you are totally outside the box. I hope you never lose that.

5. Your creativity. I love how you entertain ME with stories. Go ahead and reinvent the world Peanut!

I love you and everything you are Little Man. Thanks for being mine.

It’s in the Bag: Stitching Towards the Holidays While Taming the Jabba

Posted by organicneedle in blogtastic, recycling, sewing

Yes…I have officially made September the month to nag everyone into clearing up those “gonna do” sewing projects. Today let’s focus on two easy and extremely practical project…bags.

I have the world’s easiest little T-shirt recycler project. Take an old T-shirt & sew the bottom and the sleeves shut. Cut a little hole behind the neckband large enough to thread a hanger through and waaaaaaalaaaaaaaaa. You have just created the perfect storage bag for plastic bags, rags, clothespins, pantyhose, or whatever unmentionables you need to organize in your closet. (We’re not here to judge people…just to sew. Okay…you can judge a little.) Anyone can do this one…and it is really practical and helps to get those closets organized. And it doesn’t even have to be pretty. Definitely on the Cat-With-Narcolepsy Skill Level.

Now if you are looking for something to venture outside the house with…let’s talk shopping bags. Since I design and sew mainly by trial and error, error, and then more error…and not so much with those pesky easy to follow patterns, I have opted to take my usual cheap way out and find other people’s really cool easy to follow instructions and steal…I mean highlight them.

Some of the clearest instructions I have found were over at Wild Onion. She shows you how to convert a T-shirt into a bag with some great, very clear, step by step photos. A little more challenging than the closet hanger bag…but still very doable.

Gosh golly…I bet you could find some really cool vintage T-shirts at a yard sale or consignment shop and sew together a set or two for your friends for the holidays. A set with their favorite bands? Come on…who wouldn’t want the complete Def Leopard shopping set? How about making a pile of bags and using them as your gift bags for your other homemade goods? Pour some sugar on your friends and get sewing. Where on earth did I put my good hair-teasing comb?

Camping Preparation for the Clueless

Posted by organicneedle in family

Yes…the city family is headed for the woods for 5 days to celebrate my Little Man turning 5. We are all seriously looking forward to escaping the city & its inhabitants for a few days.

My goals in packing…

1. Try to be techno free for a week. (Which means I will probably get 400 orders, my husband’s sites will all crash, and I will be contacted via e-mail that I’ve won 1,000,000,000 dollars.)

2. Try to avoid disposables within reason.

3. Try to not eat pure canned crap for a week. (A little can 0′ crap perfectly acceptable.)

4. Try not to embarrass ourselves too much. (Kinda out of my hands, but…)

So the question is…what to bring for a week of woodsy survival? I have so many questions. What can be cooked over the campfire? How does one clean a fish? How do you know which ones are safe to eat? (I’m guessing a third eye indicates a “no” on the edibility scale.) And most importantly, would it be wrong to tell my children that squabbling attracts bears?

(Okay…we are staying in a cabin with running hot water, a fridge, stove, etc….but we will NOT have a doorman….you heard me…NO doorman…so it is technically roughing it. Don’t judge. Baby steps.)

Meet the New and Improved Organic Needle Tea Bag with Tagua Nut Tag

Posted by organicneedle in handmade holidays, organic cotton, organicneedle, organicneedle bags, projects, sewing, tea/tea bag

I am finally ready to put my tea bags up on Etsy after thinking over my test piggies’ comments and making some design tweeks.


*First I made the bag a little larger. It is still small enough to fit nicely in a mug, even a travel mug, but now has a little more room for loading and cleaning. (Thanks Arduous!)


*The second change was I added a small wooden bead over the cording to allow the bag to be cinched closed to prevent any tea leaves from escaping. (Thanks Joilie!)

Price wise I am thinking $4.50 per bag, or 4 for $15. They are actually quite a bit more labor intensive than a regular produce bag.

I am still working on a simple pouch that could hold the bags and some tea. I have some great organic Harmony fabrics that are beautiful and would make for a very nice gift presentation. Trying to keep it simple to keep the cost down. My goal is to make organic gifts practical for any budget. Not always easy.

If You Use Some of My Garbage…I’ll Use Some of Yours

Posted by organicneedle in csa, plastic, recycling

A few weeks back I inquired within my CSA as to whether or not “our” farm would take back the containers that they use for berries and little tomatoes. Didn’t hear back from them or the farm so I assumed they could not for some sanitation reasons. Most of the containers were that green paper material which I could recycle in the paper bin but some were the plastic kind that can’t be recycled here in the city…so I was a little bummed. Fast forward a few weeks and guess what I saw at the CSA distribution? A little reuse rainbow…a sign saying the farmer will indeed take back the containers AND the farm that distributes eggs will take ANY egg cartons. How cool is that? I had been recycling the new paper Trader Joe egg cartons, but a reuse trumps a recycle, no?

This also inspired me to think about “garbage” I could reuse from other people. Like bread bags. I have run out of my old stash and was contemplating buying a box of zippies but realized that there must be a world of bread bags hitting the trash right in my very building. Most of my friends do not make their own bread. (Yes…they can still be my friends even though they don’t bake bread. Hard as it is…I find ways to love them anyway.)


What can you pick from your friend’s trash? (And no…that is not a euphemism. Get your mind out of the gutter and into the dumpster people!)