Category Archives: Products and Gear

Move over ebay…new addiction in town.

Posted on February 21, 2008 by juliebyers

I’m a tiny bit sad.  I recently did a household book and CD purge–loading the car and dropping my unwanted items at Goodwill.  Later, as I was wandering the disordered bookshelves of Goodwill, I thought….wow, no one will ever buy my books because HOW CAN YOU FIND ANYTHING IN THIS MESS? 

Enter Swaptree:  a huge website similar to ebay that facilitates free trades between users.  I create two lists:  items I have for trade and items I want.  Swaptree makes it so easy.  I even imported my Amazon wishlists with one click of a button.  Here is an example of my first listing.  I listed the DVD Twelfth Night.  I received a choice of 273 items (books, DVDs, CDs, and video games) that I could get in exchange.  If I decide to trade and the other user accepts my trade, Swaptree even gives me to option of printing and paying for a USPS mailing label with another click.  Or I can mail it myself. 

On top of that, if no one wants my listing, Swaptree keeps watching for a match.  And it will even facilitate three-way trades!  It is like match.com for lonely books!

I love it.  I give things I don’t need to people who want them.  They give me things I want and I don’t buy them new.  Better for our consumptive world (not to mention fun!).  The only problem:  after my massive Goodwill purge, I’m not left with much to trade.  Maybe I can sneakily visit my parents and see what needs a-purging on their media shelves… 

4 Comments

Posted in Products and Gear and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Treasure Hunting

Posted on February 17, 2008 by juliebyers

A few of my recent discoveries–

Green Bags:  Ingles has these great cloth grocery bags available for .98 each!  I’ve been searching for eco-bags that match (yes, I’m vain) and are inexpensive.  I was able to bag all my groceries in four bags and carry all my groceries into the house in one trip.  I’ve used them at three stores now and gotten compliments each time.  Now that is worth .98! 

Laptop Lunches:  I have so much fun serving food bento-style to Norah and this bento lunchbox was impossible to resist.  Two side notes–I found mine for a great price on ebay and they are made in China. 

laptop-lunch.jpg

Ideal Family Health:  A friend sent me a link to this new medical office in Anderson.  It is too far for us to drive but I’m intrigued by the concept.  There are only two staff–a doctor and a nurse.  There is supposedly no waiting.  They do not take insurance but list their fees on their website.  They make housecalls if needed.  It is a perfect option for those without insurance or with catastrophic insurance only.      

Locally Grown:  I haven’t tried this service yet but here’s the scoop:  You place an order for produce, products, meat from local farms and it is delivered on Thursdays to West End Coffee Company.  The list of items available is pretty impressive. 

Earth Lines:  Poems for the Green Age:  I found this little book at Goodwill for .25.  It is pretty “in your face.”  No wispy imagery or metaphor.  Want a sample?  Here is one called “Men of Clay”
      If Adam was shaped from earth’s rough clay

     What creature would God make

     From the poisoned and eroded soil

     That we’ve left in our wake?

Yeah.  You should read the one about what is in a quarter-pounder or the one about how to make a fur hat.  I probably won’t read it to Norah as a bedtime story just yet. 

6 Comments

Posted in Food, Green Living, Products and Gear and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Play Day

Posted on January 4, 2008 by juliebyers

Today was babywearing day which is Norah’s big social event of each month.  The Clemson group lasted four hours this time!  Our spur-of-the-moment topic (great to have two procrastinators as leaders) was “How to Get A Baby on Your Back.”  There was much slinging and tossing of tots.  We made a new friend.  The hit of the Clemson group was Jackson’s tin of wooden pineapples. 

The Greenville group topic was “Wearing Your Podaegi” (because we all have a podaegi lying around, right?).  Carey showed us different ways to use the podaegi.  Kawani brought her boys’ playsilks and Norah brought hers.  playsilks-004.jpg

The kids ran about with various capes, skirts, togas looking like a blissful band of gypsies.  I really didn’t believe Norah would play with the silks.  In the astounding way only a child can be, she becomes incredibly creative with the way she uses them:  sling, baby, water, campfire, lion mane, hat, dress, hiding place.  I’m sold.        

Scott and I spent what was left of the evening with our new ritual–watching Heroes on Netflix and eating popcorn (made on the stove with coconut oil and sea salt–mmm mmm good).  I cannot believe I’m hooked on a TV series.  This is what comes of reading too much nonfiction.  I’m hungry for story.

6 Comments

Posted in Babywearing, Family, Play, Products and Gear and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Blueberries + smartwool + family = bliss

Posted on December 23, 2007 by juliebyers

My sis and her new hubby journeyed from afar for Christmas.  They couldn’t stay long so we celebrated Christmas Eve last night (stockings) and Christmas this morning.  My sweet hubby planted a Sigg bottle  and TWO pairs of smartwool socks in my stocking.  Norah received playsilks and fruit leather but spent the entire evening brushing her teeth with her new electric toothbrush.  What can I say?  She believes in good oral hygiene. 

 christmas-021.jpg

This morning, we gathered in mom‘s kitchen at 7am.  Zach made blueberry muffins, mom made a pumpkin cheesecake roll, and I broiled grapefruits with sugared grapes, cinnamon, and brown sugar.  And of course, we had gallons of blueberry coffee.  Norah received a Furnis Spielwelt doll and more college funds from Grammy/Papa (Yay!).  Noelle and Zach gave her an adorable enamel tea set in a picnic basket.  She immediately hosted a tea party.  The family buried me in books including Sex God, Simply Christian, Spiritual Midwifery, Children at Play, Last Child in the Woods, and Seven Times the Sun.  Scott and I were most excited to receive three windows for our dining room!  Yippee-skippee!  Norah received much more (you know–that first grandchild thing and all) but there is too much to mention–like the play kitchen and giant giraffe tent.  Suffice it to say that the toothbrush is still Norah’s favorite.  Go figure.

It was a beautiful day relaxing with family, cleaning house, and staying far, far away from anything resembling a store!  I even ended it by eating fresh blueberries.  Ahhhh.

1 Comment

Posted in Family, Products and Gear and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Toy, toys, toys

Posted on December 19, 2007 by juliebyers

After finding 5 of Norah’s toys recalled for lead a few months ago, I’ve been somewhat nervous about toxic toys.  I’ve also noticed that just about every toy on the store shelves was made in China.  I was sitting in Norah’s room one night and had an awful thought:  How many of her toys, clothes, shoes were made in sweatshops?  If it was purchased at Walmart there is a darn good chance it was.  Yeah, so that bothers me more than the lead does. 

A few websites have helped me with the safety factor–Healthy Toys and CPSC’s email recall list.    

The sweatshop factor is trickier.  If you operate a sweatshop, you probably don’t want it to be common knowledge.  I guess this shopping guide is a start.  Our little global community is so intertwined.  I could make my own clothes (well, assuming I could sew) but where did the fabric come from?  I purchased Norah’s playsilks from a work-at-home-mom, but where was the silk made?  Ai-yai-yai.

3 Comments

Posted in Products and Gear, Social Justice and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Morning Snapshot

Posted on December 18, 2007 by juliebyers

I am going to admit it:  we have absolutely no routine or any semblance of schedule to our days.  It is 11:15am and Norah is still asleep.  Wake her up?  Are you crazy?

new-029.jpg

Yesterday, she woke at 5am.  Bedtime?  Sometimes 8pm.  Sometimes 11.  We have tried the bedtime “routines.”  Didn’t take.  Quite frankly, if she’s ok with our ever-changing days, then I’m ok with it.  Scott and I aren’t big on routine either.  She perfectly fits the description of children who are not biologically wired for routine in Raising Your Spirited Child.  The author of this book writes that you can peg these children from birth.  Yep.  My life involves dragging Norah with me to groups, appointments, coffee shops (which are not kid-friendly at all!).  Whoever coined the phrase “stay-at-home-mom” must not have met one–we’re rarely at home. 

I love having a two-year old.  She is so much fun (and yes, so challenging).  Eavesdropping on her play, one sees her do things like: bake a turkey in the oven (the oven is beneath the kitchen baseboard and the turkey is a wooden xylophone), comfort her baby (the baby is an inkpen and yes she does pretend to nurse it, wrap it on her back, and swaddle it with my kitchen towel), or build a duplo tower–this weekend her tower was 32 blocks high and she was standing on the couch to hold it.

The challenges:  a few days ago, I was hurrying her (we had to get to the coffee shop!) and she said, “Hold your horses, Ju-ie.”  Or the day she popped every key off my laptop.  Saturday, she ran toward the road and when I caught her, she whacked me between the eyes.  We went inside the house and talked about safety.  Yesterday, when we took Jude out, Norah warned him not to run toward the road.  I know you’re not really supposed to reason with a 2 year old, but it works sometimes with Norah.  Like, putting a toy she wants back on the store shelf because “it needs to stay with it’s mommy.”  And now my sleepy little one has wandered in.  Must put away my Kentucky Derby pie, pumpkin coffee, and computer.  Must slice apples.  Thank you, mom, for the apple slicer.  How did I ever live without it??

2 Comments

Posted in Parenting, Products and Gear and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Jude and the Purple Crayon

Posted on December 12, 2007 by juliebyers

You know what?  Nevermind.  You really don’t want to know what happens when a dog eats a purple crayon. 

You may, however, be interested in knowing that Christmas came early for me! 

new-001.jpg

This kayak and I have a history.  He used to live at our house when Scott and I were first married.  Things changed.  We parted (on good terms).  Not Scott.  The kayak.  Now we are together again.  Any suggestions for a name for my sweet kevlar friend? 

Christmas also came in the way of my new BG 3.0’s that arrived today.  I’ll be showing them off at Cloth Diaper Group tonight.  Well, ok, Norah will be showing them off.

2 Comments

Posted in Natural Living, Products and Gear and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Walls that withstand

Posted on December 11, 2007 by juliebyers

Having a two-year old is like having a puppy all over again.  We are potty-learning.  Which means the wee one runs bare-bummed about the house while I cross my fingers that she will tell me she needs to potty or I will see the signs.  We do not always succeed.  Which is why Scott’s shoes and my friend Joy’s book “Song of the Bride” are sitting on the front porch.  Yep, Norah released the flood on these lucky objects.  Sorry friends. 

birthday-023.jpg

Meanwhile, Norah and I continue to fight our cold.  The illness has motivated Norah to use grand sentence structure, “My nose hurts.”  We are taking a homeopathic treatment derived from a geranium that the Zulu tribes used.  Somehow I can’t picture Zulu warriers with colds.  On top of that, I bought an ear candle but haven’t worked up the nerve to use it yet.  I’ve been using a remedy my 4th grade teacher told me about:  heat salt, place into a towel, hold hot salt pack against ear.  I don’t know why that helps…but it really does.  Thanks Mrs. Allen!   

We celebrated Norah’s two-year birthday Sunday.  She received a Radio Flyer wagon, an indoor tent (to be her new comfort corner), plan toys vegetable garden w/ grandpa and grandma dolls (Nana), Haba wooden fruit, the book Mom and Dad are Palindromes (Zach and Noelle), and a shopping cart full of play food and goodies (Grammy and Papa).  Oh, and of course, Grammy and Papa added to Norah’s college fund.  She may not appreciate it now but I know we all will later!  It was a lovely, low-key celebration.   

I give you names like nails, walls that withstand your pounding, doors that are hard to open, but once they are open, admit you into rooms that breathe pure sun.  I give you trees that lose their leaves, as you knew they would, and then come green again.  I give you fruit preceded by flowers.  Venus supreme in the sky, the miracle of always landing on your feet, even though the earth rotates on its axis.  Start out with that, at least.  –birthday poem by Lisel Mueller

 

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Natural Living, Parenting, Poetry, Products and Gear and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
←
Newer Posts →