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.)

Please Welcome the Coolest To Be Kindergartener EVER!

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized

Blog Pause

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized

Trying to soak up the last bits of summer fun with the wee ones. I will be back to neglecting them and blogging next week.

Patches Hide the Shame & the Crazy

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized, family, projects

Now my plan for today was to write a brilliant little piece about greening up the back to school shopping. Well…I got my kid’s school list…and …well…noooooot so much. Besides maybe buying a ream of recycled paper over a ream of virgin paper, they don’t give you a whole lotta options. They demand specifics right down to the brand name. !2 plastic tubes of glue, plastic folders, plastic markers, etc. etc. Will I be the crazy mama making a stink about the choice of supplies? No. It is going to be stressful enough for my little guy who much prefers to be at home pontificating with mama than in a room full of kids who may or may not appreciate his full length lectures on the complexities of a spider’s digestive system. I figure I can pretend to be sane for the first year. (Then balls to the wall nuts from there on out kid.) Instead I will find quite little ways to support things we care about without making him a social pariah…yet.

One thing my little brain has come up with is the idea of patches. My son won’t be getting a spanky new hard plastic techno colored bag. He will be taking his pre-K bag or the ol’ family Eastpak…which has survived through about 48 years of college use…I hope it can make it through a month of public school. Now I am not a heartless wench that doesn’t get the excitement of the new stuff for the new year. I’m a heartless wench who realizes that a little goes a long way with a 5 year old whose expectations have been sufficiently whittled down. To make the bag his and special I will be sewing on patches of pure evil…Darth Vader and two Stormtroopers. (He insisted that Vader wouldn’t travel with just one. By insisted I mean looked at me with pure contempt that I could even suggest that Vader travel with such little protection. I think my allegiance is under serious question.) The great thing about patches is that they can be changed should he suddenly want to leave the dark side. If you don’t have a bag and need to get one, spend a little more and buy a good quality canvas based one instead of the plastic, which will crack if you sew on patches. It should hold up to years of being crammed into a locker and can handle a few patch swaps. And stop sniveling about not knowing how to sew…they make iron-ons for the thread challenged.

On Vacation….Again

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized

:) On Vacation :)

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized

Brainwashing at its finest Part III: O’ Pioneers of NYC

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized

Yes….it is more about my little people. I warned you Monday that the whole week would be like this. ….Well if you are still here I am assuming you too have an interest in brainwashing your own little people or just want to mess with other people’s kids. Equally as fun.

As I plunge on with my week of chats about molding my little people into what I hope will be good stewards of the earth, or at least not Mc Ds eating H2 driving Re…re….re…..republicans, I would like to focus on that ever important trait that we don’t often associate with city living: self-sufficiency. Now…I am not talking about pioneer living. Obviously I have chosen to raise my family in one of the largest cities in the world and don’t even handle my own trash, shovel a walk, or even get my own packages. (This isn’t because I am a megasnob that doesn’ want to chip a manicure; it is just the nature of communal city life. So stop rolling your eyes country folk!) That being said, I do feel it is important for my children to not take for granted that one must have others do everything for them. So how do I train my little monkeys to not assume they will always have their hineys professionally shellacked? I let them “help” me with just about everything. Does it mean dinner takes 43 &1/2 hours to make? It might rabbit, it might. Does it mean I often have to sew with a 30 lb two year old licking my face? Perhaps. Does taping a page back in a book require a few more yards of tape than one would deem necessary….who are we to judge? Now…I love my husband…but Bob Vila he is not. He is, however, an amazing father who always seems to find a way to include our guys in any attempts he makes to fix things around the house. (In addition to my great fortune to have a husband who tries so hard, I also have the great fortune of a building staff that can ever so discretely come and fix any “fixing” that has been going on over the weekend.)

[The boys make necessary slide repairs.]

So what does all this blathering have to do with raising little green gremlins? Well….it is my hope that by showing them that they can do and make things for themselves they won’t always look to the easiest answer..buying something new. When they approach a new situation hopefully they will include themselves and their begotten skills as part of the solution. Also…hopefully, because we try to show them we value their help…they will value their own ability to do things. Something is broken…at least make it a discussion as to what should be done. Maybe in the end you need to hire someone or you may even need to replace it, but make it an active choice and not an automatic response. My point…yes I have one…include the little people in on the chat and on your attempts. Failed attempts, such as I’m sure we will experience many many many times in our upcoming yogurt attempts, will teach them that it is okay to fail and keep trying. Even if you may end up with a bucket for a hat. Don’t ask.

Brainwashing at its Finest Part II: MacGuyver Has Nothing on My Boys

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized, organicneedle

A few weeks ago in the park my 4 year old stopped me from throwing out the bag that previously contained a questionable rice cake snack given to him in yet another party bag from PreK. (How 10 kids can manage to have 433 birthdays in a year is beyond me.) “Ma…I could totally reuse that for my snack tomorrow.” So…I rolled it up and popped it into my purse and just smiled. There is hope for our little planet.

*********The Boys Prepare for Their Next Mission ********* As you start reducing the incoming tide of plastic and other wasteful disposables into the home…you soon discover that the “waste” you do have needs to play 3 or 4 rolls before making its exit. By all means include your little people in these discussions!!!! Let the little monkeys raid the recycle bin. You would be amazed at what their brains come up with. My two year old will take any container…M&M dispenser, old sippy cups, Ming vase and deposit it in the tub indicating that said object has passed his rigorous examination and has earned the second use of the elite…a tubby toy. (If you ever BUY a toy for the bathtub I order you to smack yourself right now. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Now that we all feel better we can move on.) If all else fails…art supplies. My husband and son love taking toilet paper roles, a shoe box and a little scrap paper and making AT-ATs. (Never saw a family get so excited over using toilet paper up. More fiber STAT; we have a fleet to make!) I guess my boys are lucky. They come from a long line of reusers. Their Uncle Brian, at around the same age, once discovered the remarkable similarity between a slide whistle and a tampon applicator at one of my mother’s parties. She must have been beaming at his pure ingenuity. When I am stumped…I turn to my little superheros and say..what the hairy heck could we use this for? Trust me…they’ll come up with something. It may be mortifyingly embarrassing, but it will be something. More importantly…they will hopefully see that things in life are not so disposable if you are just willing to think a little.

Product Review: Preserve Razor & Replacement Heads by Recycline

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized

I’m sure by now many of you are familiar with Recycline , a neat little company trying to change a few things in the world of plastic products. I recently reviewed their toothbrushes with some success and since the season is calling for a little less wookie leg…I’ve decided to give their razors a try. So here it is…

Preserve Razor 4 count 5.19 & Preserve Replacement Heads 5 count 3.99 …Recommend …I think. I usually use Personal Touch which also has replaceable blades to reduce waste. Not sure why Preserve has to give you 4…but maybe they break, hence the “I think.” The Preserve razor is a lot lighter and cheaper feeling, but it’s head is a little bit flexible making knees much easier to navigate. I think men who use disposables would like this. Price is about the same as the conventional razors with replacement heads. In terms of plastic, the razors are made from recycled #5 plastic, verses the virgin plastic of most conventional replacement head razors. Recycline will also take the razors back to further recycle them into new products. Packaging is excellent for both the razor and the replacement heads- recycled/recyclable paper. My recommendation for this one comes purely from a recycling/recyclability standpoint. The whole support companies that do the right thing-thing, yaddy yaddy yaddy. So if you are looking to tame your winter wookie legs and save the world at the same time…give them a try.

For Beth :)

Posted by organicneedle in Uncategorized

Produce Bag Fabric…Organic Color Grown Cotton Mesh