The Friday Feedback Forum

May 14th, 2010 - filed under: Furthermore » Feedback

Hello my dears! It’s the weekend once more, and here in p-town it’s HOT and SUNNY and GORGEOUS! I hope your weekend is as lovely as mine promises to be. But in the midst of getting out there to enjoy the season, don’t forget to stop by for comments, critiques, thoughts, support, and suggestions.

So what’s on your mind this week? What’s got you fired up and excited for life? What do you want to learn about? And what do you want from Bonzai Aphrodite? More food? More fashion? More farm?

As usual, the Feedback Forum will remain here at the top of the page all weekend, so if you’ve got an idea or a question or you just want to introduce yourself and say ‘Oi!’, you can stop back by any time. This is your community, so get involved and have your say!

I hope the weekend leaves you inspired and refreshed!

sign-off

  • Tenise Rae

    I’m all fired up about Roller derby tomorrow. WAHOO!!

    Oh yeah and I got my luffa seeds in the mail finally. I’m so super excited about growing my own scrubbies. :D

    I’m all about the gardening blogs of yours. Love em and keep em comin’…

  • http://www.heathers-perspective.blogspot.com Heather

    Hi! I think I already put this under another topic, but was curious about if there are any non-toxic, environmentally friendly, chemical-free sunscreens aside from hats, sunglasses, and clothes!
    thanks :)

  • Erin

    @ Heather: I have not tried it, but I’ve had this recommended to me. http://products.mercola.com/summer-survival-kit/

  • April

    I first heard about Chia seeds through the Happy Foody blog
    http://happyfoody.com/2010/04/20/carry-chia/

    It is packed full of good things (protein, calcium, omega3s…)
    Have you ever used it before?
    Thoughts? Suggestions? Recipes?

  • http://vicki-lou.hopto.org Vicki-Lou

    I’m excited that my strawberries are starting to bear fruit! I have babies in my back yard!
    This will be my firs year harvesting them, so I’m very happy. I told my hubby to bring me some fresh ones after ‘Peanut’ is born when I’m in the hospital in July(they better allow it, too!).

  • sal

    I’m excited about my flourishing veggie garden and my flourishing tummy! I’d love to hear more about the baby products, nappies etc your using.

  • Kelly

    Had a weekend full of alchemistic exploits! Fun story: was making your laundry detergent recipe and my husband kept bugging me about how much I was stirring it. Well, I knew from the comments on your post that I needed to stir until the end days if that’s how long it took to get to the proper consistency, so I did, and sent his annoying butt upstairs to look for a good vegan peach muffin recipe. He found one and a computer virus (searching for vegan muffins?? seriously?!) and called me to come up and check it out. So I did, and about that time, the detergent magically turned into soap flake stage! At which I gave him a good I-told-you-so, then cleared his computer, made vegan muffins and did laundry. Just had to share!

  • Julie

    My husband and I are gearing up to enter parenthood this July and we are starting to get all the baby things together. We’ve decided to do the cloth diaper thing along with cloth wipes and I’m curious if you’ve done any experimentation with homemade wipe solution. I’ve seen a few recipes on the internet but we are true believers in your laundry detergent recipe and several others you have provided. Just thought you might have advice in this area now that you’ve got your little one. :)

    Thanks for your inspirational blog!!!

  • Minna

    I, personally, wouldn’t mind more baby talk =) Although I’m very far from being a mom myself, it’s still pretty exciting! (Has being green become more challenging with a baby and things like that.)

    My weekend left me real refreshed and relaxed! I asked my boss to get rid of one overhour that I work every day and now I get to wake up at 5am instead of 4am! WOOHOO!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

    @ Tenise Rae – That is SO cool. I can’t wait to hear all about how that goes. Home-grown scrubbies! And yes, my gardening blogs begin this week. Exciting!

    @ Heather – I don’t have a ton of experience with non toxic sunscreens (yet!), but I have two leads for you. Firstly, there’s the Cosmetic Safety Database, which rates products on their toxicity accross a variety of markers. Their list of sunscreen ratings can be found here, so anything with a ’1′ or ’0′ is probably a great place to start.

    Secondly, I’ve heard great things about the brand California Baby and their sunscreen is supposed to be excellent (for adults as well as wee ones)

    Hope that helps!

    @ April – I haven’t had much experience with Chia – I’m more of a flax or hemp girl myself – but I know they’re very healthful! Maybe I’ll look into them more someday. =)

    @ Vicki-Lou – Me too! Little green budding babies. They’ll be perfect in July too – that’s so exciting for you!

    @ sal – Yes! baby posts are in the works, due to overwhelming reader requests. I hear you guys! They’re coming! =D (and congrats!!!)

    @ Kelly – Ha! I love that, thank you for sharing! (also peach muffins, um, yum!)

    @ Julie – Well, yes and no. I do make my own wipe solution! . . . it’s just plain water. My research led me to believe that baby skin was just better off with NO chemicals, cleaners, detergents, etc – even ones that are supposed to be beneficial. We didn’t use anything on Waits for the first 2 months, no soap during baths, no lotion, no bum cleaners, no nothing. Now I still wash him with only water but I’ve started doing massages with vitamin E oil or olive oil, and I use an all natural diaper rash salve when he’s gotten irritated (long story).

    I know a lot of women who use a bit of castile soap or a bit of tee tree oil in their wipe solution, but I prefer straight water. Anything else will leave a residue and I just didn’t want that. He’s been great with just water and we haven’t had any issues.

    Hope that helps!

    @ Minna – Baby talk will be coming, here and there. =) Being green can be challenging now, mostly because I have such greater time and energy restraints. But, being a parent has also allowed me to explore all kinds of new avenues of living more mindfully!

    Oh man that extra hour of sleep is going to feel so good! Congrats on that – so nice!

  • http://www.chewonthisvegan.wordpress.com windycityvegan

    @ Julie – I just wanted to second everything that Sayward stated about wipe solutions. We used water only as a wipes solution until our daughter started eating foods, which was around 7 months. At that point we just used a very mild tea tree oil solution, and only when it seemed that water alone wouldn’t suffice.

    Our daughter did not get diaper rashes, but whenever she was trying new foods with a high acid content, she was susceptible to diaper burns. The only thing that really ever helped was a salve from Earth Mama Angel Baby. FYI, they also have a wonderful nipple salve if you have irritation from nursing.

    Also, for bathing we only used water until she was at least a year old, and we used olive or sesame oil as a moisturizer for a few months, then at some point switched to using the sesame oil exclusively.

  • Julie

    Thanks for the advice on bathing and wipe solution!
    I hadn’t heard that plain ol’ water does the trick.

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