Dinnerware Dilemma, Part 2: Would you like some cancer with that?

While searching online for a new set of dishes I came across something quite scary and sobering. I found a set of dinnerware with a warning statement! This set of Cream Dream Dinnerware comes with this warning in the product description - WARNING: This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer and reproductive toxicity. What!? Can someone tell me how it's legal to sell dishes that contain cancer causing materials? I can't imagine that any manufacturer would knowingly make and sell food-related products that are potentially hazardous. This is really disturbing. It causes me to wonder how many dishes that we use everyday contain these same dangerous materials? Does this mean we're serving up toxins to our family every night at dinner?

I did a little digging and found one article where the CDC warned about dangerous lead levels on dinnerware. Then I found an equally upsetting bit of news on SpringerLink about radiation emissions from uranium-glazed dinnerware. But neither came with an accompanying list of manufacturers. Good grief! I see statements that explain while most agree that high concentrations of lead-containing dinnerware is rare, low-level concentrations of lead are allowable. There's an extensive list of low-lead china patterns, but it's not been updated since 2001. I can't imagine why someone hasn't seen fit to keep this list current. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to serve up a side dish of lead on any occasion! Seriously, does any of us want just a little bit of cancer? Or a tiny hint of neurological disorder?

The Environmental Defense Fund has great information here about lead in china dishes. I'm planning to use their buyers guide as I seek out my new dinnerware set. The buyers guide link also has a list of manufacturer phone numbers to call and ask if the dishware you already own contains lead, uranium or other hazardous chemicals. If you don't see your manufacturer listed here, you can always purchase a lead test kit to see if your dishes are safe.

All this is making me lose my appetite and then some. I'm off to find some healthy alternatives for safe dinnerware. I'll share my findings with you in my next post. In the meantime, I urge you to look into the links above and see if your dinnerware is safe for you and your family. My guess is that your standards, like mine, are alot more strict than the governments when it comes to the health and safety of your family.

Buying in Bulk - Go Green & Still Save Money

Last spring I embarked on an experiment. I had decided that I wanted to shift the everyday household items we used over to organic products. Every year I go a little further to the greener side of commerce and it was time to make the switch for things we used daily like detergents, deodorant, bath soap, etc. The catch was that I couldn't spend more money on these items; in reality I needed to cut expenses. I was concerned about being able to afford the switch to organic products, as I'd found them to be more expensive than traditional ones at local chain stores. So the trick was to go greener and somehow save money at the same time.

I thought about the fact that these items would have to ship to me so I grouped the purchases together in two different orders, as I could afford it. It would save me multiple trips to the grocery store which seemed to offset the shipping given that it's 2 shipments versus probably a dozen or more grocery stops. The UPS man goes down my street every day so no extra trip on his part either. I used my local Whole Foods store as a benchmark for individual prices and found a few of the same items at Target for comparison. But they didn't offer products in bulk or carry Country Save or Canus. I considered signing up with Frontier Coop but they didn't carry these products either.

I took my search online. I spent several hours researching to find the best selection, lowest prices and reduced or free shipping. I was being very conscious about what company I bought my products from. I wanted to be sure I was making good choices and supporting companies that cared about producing good quality organic products from sustainable sources. I knew that buying in bulk would reduce the unit price but I wasn't sure if that really applied to organic products, since I'd never seen organic products available in bulk before.

Enter amazon.com. They had the best prices and Free – thank you very much – Shipping. I spent more up front because I was buying in quantity, but as you'll see from the breakdowns below it's been a total win-win experience for me so far:


Country Save HE Laundry Detergent Powder
80 standard loads, 160 high efficiency loads per box
Case of four 10 lb boxes for $62.15 ($15.54 per box)
I have a heavy-duty top load washing machine and wash for a family of four. I bought this case on March 17th and I'm only half way through the second box. That means each box is lasting about 4 months so this should be enough laundry powder to get me to July of next year, conceivably. Dare I say this was the first time I'd used Country Save laundry detergent and went on recommendation alone. I know, risky move to buy something I'd never tried before in bulk, right? I absolutely LOVE this detergent. My daughter, who struggles with allergies, does fine with this. It cleans wonderfully. It doesn't have a heavily perfumed odor, the clothes just smell fresh and clean. One thing I really like about this is that it's the best detergent I've found to keep clothes feeling soft when line dried outside. It's safe to say I am officially hooked on Country Save!


Seventh Generation Dishwashing Powder
Free & Clear, 75 oz box, Case of 8 boxes for $49.77 ($6.22 per box)
We bought a new energy efficient dishwasher last year. We cook, bake, eat and dirty plenty of dishes daily. Our dishwasher sees action at least once every two days. I bought these on January 31st and seriously I am only about halfway through the 2nd box. I am impressed! I'd used this detergent before and found it was the only one that didn't spot or streak dishes and glassware. It's a wonderful product. I'm averaging about 4 1/2 months per box which amazes me. That means I have enough of this on-hand to last me until January 2011!?


Seventh Generation Dish Liquid
Lemongrass & Clementine Zest (also available in Free & Clear and Lavender Floral-Mint)
25 oz Bottle, Case of 6 Bottles for $18.13 ($3.02 per bottle)
Okay, for those of you that don't know me in-person, doing dishes is not my favorite. I used to hate doing dishes. Now, in a strange way, I find it a little therapeutic; is that wrong? I actually credit this dish soap with the transformation. {Mom, if you're reading this, I'm sure you'll agree it must be a miracle product if it helped *ME* to actually enjoy doing dishes.} It smells so wonderful and for the first time ever I've found a soap that doesn't cause my hands to break out in a rash from doing the dishes. I love it so much I refill our foam pump dispensers in both bathrooms with it and bathe our pets with it. I bought this on March 17th and I am about to finish the 2nd bottle. At this rate I'll have enough to last me until this time next year. Oh Joy! (oops sorry, wrong brand)


Canus Goats Milk Bar Soap
Four 3-count boxes, case of 12 bars for $20.32 ($1.69 per bar)
I've posted about this soap before. I am so grateful for this product, you can read about why here. I have 4 bars left and 2 newly opened ones in use so my best guess is that I won't need to buy more bath soap until April of next year. I think this would have lasted longer but my son was going through a phase of drilling his finger all the way through a bar of soap just to see if he could. We've since curbed that behavior.

So you see, it can be done. I'm a very thrifty girl and unfortunately more economically-challenged than I would like to be. If I can afford organic products, anyone can. I know this isn't rocket science. I just want to encourage you, you can buy healthier products for yourself and your family without spending more money. You just have to do your homework, be thoughtful about the products and companies you're supporting and order from the best resources you can find.

The 3/50 Project in Action

In the spirit of Project 3/50 we had a big day of shopping local last weekend. We started at our favorite lunch spot, Stone Soup, for yet another delicious meal. The back patio flowerbeds are bursting with color, in many shades of lavender and green. It sets the mood to slow down and enjoy. The lunch was excellent, asparagus-red and pepper-blue cheese whole wheat quesadillas.

And the coconut-lime cake we shared for dessert was terrific! Very dense yet delicate. It is definitely becoming one of our favorite local eateries.

We then headed east, over Afton Mountain to Critzer Farm, home of pick-your-own-strawberries. The berries were looking gorgeous and we picked up a couple of pre-picked quarts. We'll head back next weekend to pick-our-own for homemade jam and strawberry pie. (yum!)

Then we headed south for some thrifting at Rockfish Community Center. The old elementary schoolhouse has been converted into a thrift store, a gathering space and the Earl Hamner Jr. Theater. It's a lovely little spot with a great view of the mountains to the west. From there we headed south to the SPCA Thrift Shop in Lovingston which has moved to a new location just south of town. We were greeted by the nicest ladies there. It made us feel especially good knowing that our money from what we bought went to help pay for the care of all the sweet pets at Almost Home Animal Shelter. The new thrift store is huge, very clean and well organized. We picked up some great deals, recycled castaways and helped the furbabies all in one visit. Nice!

After that we headed up to Wintergreen to meet the hubs at the pool. The kids enjoyed the pool while J'Daddy and I caught a little sun on the deck. Employees families can hang out for free which is a very nice bonus for us. We had a picnic on the mountain overlook and from the pic above you can clearly see why they are called the Blue Ridge Mountains. They are beautiful!

I encourage you to explore and enjoy the treasures that are right around you. Shop Local. All told, we really didn't spend that much but every little bit helps. These shopkeepers and workers are our neighbors. Helping them helps all of us.

Cool Tool: Gasoline vs. Hybrid Calculator

I dare you to type in your current car versus an alternative fuel or hybrid vehicle and see the difference. It can be pretty significant. Like in our case: I drive to work five days a week with an hour commute each way. (Yes, that actually means I burn 2 hours a day sitting in a frigging car instead of doing something useful, unbelievable.) Anyway, our minivan is no spring chicken and our pickup truck was drinking up gas at last years $4.00 a gallon high. Something had to give. A friend of mine turned me onto hybridcars.com. I think you’ll agree it’s a snazzy little cyber-gadget! You type in the info for the vehicle you’re driving now and then compare it to the hybrid or alternative fuel vehicle of your choice. For us it was our Dodge Dakota pickup vs. the two top-selling hybrids at the time, the Honda Civic and Toyota Prius. The Prius took the prize in every way; lowest emissions and highest MPG. It’s been almost a year since we traded our truck for the hybrid and this cool tool played a big part in our decision. Even if you’re not looking to trade-up, it’s worth checking out just to learn more about your personal energy consumption and fuel costs.

Old School Woodsy

If you grew up in the 70’s, you might remember Woodsy Owl. I was big into Woodsy! He was green before going-green was popular. I was in girl scouts then and decided to start picking up trash along some of the country roads near my house. It started out as work to earn a merit badge. Somehow I even managed to get my parents and little brother involved. I’d like to think it was my clever persuasiveness but more likely I just wore them down with incessant nagging. We each put on a pair of heavy work gloves, toted big black trash bags and set out on more than one occasion to gather up whatever less-thoughtful people had tossed out on the roadsides. It was a pretty thankless job, messy and sometimes stinky. But I always felt good about it. Like I was undoing a bad thing. A little average kid from southwestern Pennsylvania, actually making a difference in the world around me.

Some years later when I was in my twenties, I went on a date with a forest ranger. We went on a hike to a beautiful, remote area in the Ouachita Mtns. When we got back from the hike to the parking area, we noticed some hikers had thrown a bag of trash out of their car. The ranger promptly wrote them a citation, tucked it under their windshield wiperblade and threw the trash bag in the back of his truck so it could be disposed of properly. My own personal Woodsy Owl — except he looked much better in the uniform — I was in love! (okay, that’s a little heavy on artistic license. Obviously there was more to it than that, but you get the idea.)

We now have two little woodsies' of our own and take small trash bags with us when we hike. Sometimes even when we walk in our neighborhood. So on this first day of spring when we’re all looking forward to spending more time outdoors, I’d like to challenge you to do your part. Pick up what others carelessly toss or accidentally lose. Keep an extra trash sack in your car or in your pocket just for the occasion. Get your kids in on the act. Let them learn firsthand that little acts of kindness and stewardship make a big difference in the scheme of things.

Happy Spring!

It's all good

The mother and consumer in me loves the good guide. It's a great place to check out everyday products and see not only what the health ratings for their ingredients are but also how the company rates on overall health, environmental and social responsibility. It's definitely worth checking out.

Information growth-spurt

It was one of those weeks were I was finding out about new things almost every day. I love that, except that I wonder how all this stuff was out there circulating without me knowing about it? Probably the fact that we don't watch TV has something to do with it.

First I was introduced to Kuler. It's a rockin' online color tool! Featuring tons of preconceived color palettes and options at the click of a button. If you click the tiny slider icon near the selected palette you get the color breakdown for RGB, CMYK, Hex, etc. Hats off to Adobe for yet another innovative tool.

Then I saw an article in a national trade magazine about the USS New York. I had no idea that a military ship had been made from the steel recovered from the World Trade Center. Sorry if this is old news but I found it pretty interesting.

I also found this great online tutorial for enhancing photos with the high pass filter in Photoshop. Definitely worth tinkering with if you're looking to boost your PS skillset.

And finally, I had a taxpayer epiphany. Instead of paying my accountant a sizeable chunk of change to hammer out our taxes this year, I made the leap to TurboTax. Downloaded last evening for a fraction of our preparer's tab, completed within about 2 hours rather than 3 weeks which is the usual wait from our busy accountant's office -- our taxes are done & e-filed! Crazy. The downside is that we aren't getting a tax break on the Toyota Prius hybrid we purchased last April. Apparently our government, in its infinite wisdom, decided to do a percentage phase-out on that exemption. Interesting concept to dangle a $3,100 carrot in front of the consumers nose only to have it vanish after they made the purchase which should have earned them the carrot. Verdict: TurboTax good, IRS bad.