Sisterhood Review: 4 Tier Lace Skirt

What Does Your Clothing Say About You?

Normally, my clothing says, "I was made in Vietnam by a man who doesn't earn enough money to feed his family". Really rather depressing, isn't it? I have been making a big effort to buy as much of our clothing used as possible. It's quite easy for the kids- but I'm a plus-sized mama and I don't wear muumuus, so options at the thrift store for me can be limited. Recently I told you about my new endeavor with Hip Mountain Mama- she was looking for mamas with a commitment to the Earth who were interested in sharing their experiences with her products. I recently ordered the 4 Tiered Lace Skirt and I LOVE it. I am definitely a skirt and dress girl- they're easy, comfortable and cute. Plus, if you get them long, people don't stare at your natural (not shaven) legs!

The skirt is lovely- well made, gorgeous, with a nice cut and feel. It's made by Gypsy Rose, and reading the tag warms your heart- "This garment was hand crafted in the peaceful mountain Kingdom of Nepal, where the mountains are high and the air is pure." Gypsy Rose's goal is to ensure that the environment is not harmed and they pay their workers fair wages (no child labor!) and provide clean , safe working conditions. Now, if you had just gone to Wal-Mart and bought a $5 shirt, an angel would be crying. Well, probably.

Gorgeous, hand made clothing made by a company with morals- sold by a family owned business committed to the environment? Win, win! Please check out Hip Mountain Mama for amazing green products for your entire family.

*Kim is a part of our Hip Mountain Mama Sisterhood. She blogs over at Not Blessed Mama and is one of my newest favorite bloggers. She is entertaining, funny, and all about keepin it real!

Sisterhood Review: 4 Tier Lace Skirt

Feature Friday: Play Silks

This week we are featuring one of our favorite and most used products around here!  Play Silks are just as they sound...silk material to play with. It seems quite simple which is the best and, in some cases, most confusing part.  I know when I first discovered play silks I was a bit confused..."what do you do with them"?  After we brought some play silks into our home 6 years ago the question changed to "what can't you do with them?"

We have a basket full of play silks that we keep accessible to the kids and they get used just about every day in every kind of play.  Allowing the kids to use their imaginations and just a few simple natural objects is a wonderful way for kids to let loose and have fun.

My kids enjoy using play silks as dress up, to build forts, as table cloths for tea parties, to make beds for their dolls, as slings to carry their babies, to throw around and watch them float in the air, as decoration, and the list goes on and on.

As a mother I have enjoyed using play silks as a table cloth for our nature table, decorating for birthday parties, and using them as great additions to costumes. 

Treat your child to a simple and basic toy and watch their imaginations soar.  These make a perfect gift for a child of any age.  My children started using play silks as early as age 4 months and at 3 yrs and 6 yrs are still using them daily. 

We are offering a very special offer on play silks for 1 week only!  Order any 4 play silks (mini or regular size) and receive 1 Hip Mountain Mama Play Silk for FREE!  Offer good until Thursday November 4th.  

*Check out the rest of our Sarah's Silks dress up and imagination items.  We are proud to be one of Sarah's Silks on line retailers that carry their entire line and have for over 2 years.  We love working with Sarahs Silks and their wonderful staff!

Feature Friday: Play Silks

Introducing Sustainable Baby Steps: And an Awesome Giveaway!

Tara of The Organic Sister has been a virtual friend of mine for a while.  She is someone I am always drawing inspiration from and always enjoy her blog.  Tara and I are also on a Visionary Moms Team together so I have gotten to know her better over these past few months through phone conversations and online forums.  Tara is a hard working, dedicated, creative, inspirational, and all around amazing Mama!  Her newest endeavor is her website Sustainable Baby Steps.  

Tara is celebrating the official launch of Sustainable Baby Steps with a BIG giveaway on her blog! Visit Sustainable Baby Steps: Great Big Giveaway! to enter for your chance to win one of many fantastic, sustainable prizes!

Tara was kind enough to answer a few questions for us...please enjoy this interview!

Suzy: Can you tell us a little bit about what Sustainable Baby Steps is?

Tara: Sustainable Baby Steps is a website dedicated to answering the question "How do I go green?" It's about spreading awareness through knowledge and inspiration, keeping things simple and understandable and not overwhelming people with a doomsday mentality or the feeling that it's all Too Big or Too Much to handle.

Suzy:  Where did the inspiration to start this website come from?

Tara: Sustainable Baby Steps started out as a weekly blog post on my blog a few years ago. It was a combination of my extensive research into the issues around environmental degradation and my passion for spreading the word about sustainability. I love the topic and wanted to share it! But I quickly came to see the subject as bigger than a blog feature and I really had the vision to take it further. I wanted to make "going green" feel manageable, fun and affordable, so I took my time over the last year really clarifying my ideas and format for the site and working toward building it. And I'm nowhere near complete! The topics behind sustainability are vast and Sustainable Baby Steps will be my labor of love and my contribution to the green living movement for some time to come.

Suzy:  How did you first become interested in living a sustainable lifestyle?

Tara: It wasn't a major or obvious part of my childhood (although simple living was), but the principles of conservation, and care of our natural resources has always made sense to me. I remember digging through the compost pile and feeling passionate about stopping littering. Being kind to the Earth was never a question of why. As I started my own household, I naturally became more and more intrigued in providing a healthy environment for my family and the question of "How do I do this?" surfaced. What started as an interest and investigation into organic foods quickly led to an understanding on sustainable farming, environmental degradation, our consumer impact and on and on.

Suzy:  What advice can you give my readers who are trying to make changes to live a bit more "green"?

Tara: There are so many places you can start, but a few jump out as being the most beneficial: addressing the issue of where our food comes from, whether it's sustainably grown or raised and the impact it has on the environment is probably one of the biggest issues we face today; the next would be the damage we do to our bodies and our ecosystems with things like pesticides, cleaners and other chemical or synthetic products. Educate yourself on the issues, and then start with one area that you can change: throw out the toilet bowl cleaner and replace it with baking soda, find one local farmer or CSA or replace your plastic tupperware with glass or stainless steel containers.

Suzy:  One Small Change is all about making small changes each month to lessen your carbon foot print.  How can Sustainable Baby Steps help people who are involved in the One Small Change Project? 

Tara: Sustainable Baby Steps is jam-packed with ideas on conservation and lifestyle changes. You can check out the sections on Going Green At Home, or Eco-friendly Holidays for plenty of inspiration and information on the things that matter most.

Be sure to subscribe to the free Going Green! newsletter for monthly updates from the site, relevant environmental articles, interviews and special offers from some great sustainable companies.

And stay tuned as the articles and content on Sustainable Baby Steps continues to grow!

Suzy:  Thanks,Tara, for taking the time to talk to us about Sustainable Baby Steps!

Tara: Thank you Suzy for being a part of this movement and allowing me to spread the word! It's awesome to work with so many other families and individuals interested in making a difference.

Introducing Sustainable Baby Steps: And an Awesome Giveaway!

Weekending

The Hip Mountain Mama crew had a great family weekend!  Complete with dinner with friends, a kids halloween party, music at our local theater (Sweet Sunny South and Finders & Youngberg), and a Halloween carnival!

So much fun to be had this time of year!  Hope you are enjoying!

Weekending

Safe and Non-Toxic Halloween

As parents we all know the real scary part about Halloween is all of the candy our children eat. Add in the toxic chemicals in children's face paint... now there is something to be scared of.

Of course our children want to dress up and have fun but we have to keep them away from the toxic paints that are available in the stores. At Hip Mountain Mama we carry the Lyra Skin Pencils which is a safe and natural way to color your children's face.

A review of the Children's Face Paint available in the local grocery store reveals that there are chemicals which are known to be toxic and some are even banned in other countries. The Lyra Skin Pencils major ingredients are Palm Oil, Kaolin (a natural clay mineral and food additive), and Mica (a natural mineral).

These pencils will last a really long time. Purchase one set and you'll have them for many Halloweens and other uses. We use them at every kids Birthday party for Face Painting all of the guests. Our children even broke them out for the 4th of July and all the kids in the neighborhood had stars, stripes, and fireworks on their cheeks.

These are safe, super fun, and will last a very long time. Order yours now and we'll get it to you by Halloween. They will ship USPS Priority 2 to 3 days shipping to anywhere in the U.S. Order before Tuesday 10/26 at 2pm Mountain Time and you will be sure to receive them by Friday.

Safe and Non-Toxic Halloween

Feature Friday: Think Pink

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Statistics show that one women dies every 13 minutes in the U.S. due to Breast Cancer. Odds are that you know someone or even many women who have been affected by this disease. With my own two young daughters it is hard to sit back and watch this beast grow.

We at Hip Mountain Mama are dedicated to helping the fight. We announced a special giveaway on our Facebook Page for a Pink Ribbon Necklace and a matching pair of Pink Ribbon BabyLegs. The winner will be announced later this evening so enter now.

Also, We have announced that we will make a donation to Breast Cancer Research for each new fan of our Hip Mountain Mama Facebook Fan Page between now and Friday at Midnight (up to $500). So please tell you friends about our fan page, post it on your wall, twitter, blog, or call a friend and spread the word. It is for a great cause.

Finally, our good friends over at Namaste Inc. have come out with a couple cool new products which are now available at Hip Mountain Mama. First of all, the Oh Snap! Pouches which are very handy pouches for keeping all of your stuff organized. Perfect for knitting and crafting items such as needles and notions or for nearly anything. These Pouches are sturdy with mesh transparency and are sold in sets of 2 (XL and XXL) or 3 (S,M,L)

Namaste is donating 10% of the proceeds of the Pink Oh Snap! Pouches to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. BCRF is dedicated to preventing breast cancer and finding a cure in our lifetime by funding clinical and translational research worldwide. For more information about BCRF, visit http://www.bcrfcure.org/.

Also, brand new from Namaste Inc. are Light Pink Buddy Cases. The Buddy Case is a very handy little case for knitting or many other things. This popular product from Namaste is now available in the limited edition Light Pink Color and Namaste Inc. is also donating 10% of the proceeds from the Light Pink Buddy Cases to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

So please enter our contest, get your friends to 'Like' our Facebook page so we can write a big check to fight Breast Cancer, and support Namaste's effort also. Together we can fight this horrible disease.

Feature Friday: Think Pink

A Day in the Sun

We have had a very productive week thanks to our new office space so when Wednesday afternoon rolled around we were all ready for an afternoon of soaking up the sun on this cloudless autumn afternoon.

We packed up a few snacks and headed out to Bobcat Ridge, a local public open space. Here we enjoyed watching grasshoppers, prairie dogs, rabbits, and an eagle while taking in the beautiful grass lands, rolling hills, and beautiful rock outcroppings.

Just over a mile in, there is a log cabin originally built in 1917 and some old farm equipment which provided an excellent opportunity to discuss with our children the history of our area, how people lived, and nature all in a short hike.

On our way back into town we talked about when we could go explore this space again. We had the most perfect warm fall afternoon.

I hope you also have a chance to explore the spaces around you.
~Andy

A Day in the Sun

Inspiring Mama: Peggy O'Mara of Mothering Magazine

I received my first copy of Mothering Magazine when my first daughter was 4 months old. A friend told me she was done with it and wanted to pass it along to me. I took the magazine, not having a clue what was inside and that what I was holding was going to change my entire way of parenting. During my first 4 months of motherhood I had instinctively leaned towards natural parenting, but I didn't really even know "natural parenting" existed. When I got my hands on Mothering it was like my whole world seemed to come into focus....it was truly a blessing that this magazine was passed on to me and that it is available to all parents!

Peggy O'Mara is the editor, publisher, and owner of Mothering Magazine, author, Mama of 4 children, dynamic speaker and and incredibly Inspiring Mama!! Please sit back and enjoy the words and wisdom of Peggy O'Mara.

Suzy: Thank you so much, Peggy, for sharing with us today! Can you tell us a bit about what the inspiration was for starting Mothering Magazine and how you got involved?

Peggy: Mothering was started by Adeline Eavenson (now Cranson) in Ridgeway, Colorado in 1976. I sent her an article, "In Defense of Motherhood," and a poem, "There Will be Time", both of which she published in 1977 and 1978. My family and I moved to Albuquerque, where Addie had moved from Colorado, in 1978 and I began working with the magazine as an editor. However, I had three children under five and it was really impossible to do anything else so I quit knowing that I was satisfied being "just a mom." In 1979, Addie told me that she wanted to sell the magazine and I said I wanted to buy it. In fact, she had a dream that she passed me the torch. I didn't have the down payment of $5000 that she wanted and could not borrow it, so once again I let it go. Addie called me late in 1979 to say the deal to sell the magazine to Rolf and Heidi Preistnitz in Canada had fallen through and did I want to buy it? Of course, I did and I got on the phone with her dad to tell him that my husband and I were our own collateral and that we would keep to the contract. And, we did. We never made a down payment and we paid the purchase of the magazine off with monthly payments over several years. I am blessed.

Suzy: What have been the highs and lows of having your own magazine that usually goes against the mainstream way of thinking?

Peggy: I can't even begin to answer that in a few words or even paragraphs. The highs, of course, are helping people, making a difference in people's lives. I always wanted to help women especially to overcome the challenges I faced myself more easily. I was so isolated as a new mom and such a pioneer that I wanted to make it easier for families and the high for me is knowing that I have. The lows have been the incredible financial pressure I have been under during most, if not all, of the time I have owned the magazine. We do not have investors, or a financial safety net so I have ridden out more a lot of fear and terror over money and whether or not we would be able to print the next issue, but just like in the beginning, I keep letting it go and it always rights itself. Mothering has a life of its own.

Suzy: I often find it difficult to explain my natural parenting choices to others who disagree with some of my decisions. This is true for so many other mother's and I wondered if you could give us your opinion on how to handle these tough situations?

Peggy: I think you have to keep it about you. You can talk about things that work for you and how excited you are about certain ideas or skills or even products, but we all recoil from being preached at or told what to do, so we can't make it personal even when we know that someone desperately needs what we know. I like the La Leche League idea of taking a mother where she is. She'll move along just like you have. Take her where she is, give her the information she asks for and trust that, like you, she will get there. Also, I like the three rule. I will mention something to someone three times. And, if they don't pick up on it, I let it go. My, I sound so Buddha-esq. Believe me, I struggle with this all the time. As they say, it's a practice.

Suzy: A lot of my readers are working mothers who find it hard to balance their work and family life. Can you give us a bit of advice on how you have balanced (or attempted to balance) this over the years?

Peggy: I've had the good fortune of being able to work from home and on my own schedule so that's made a huge difference. When my children were small, I had the two hour rule. I would try to break down all of my tasks and task for the magazine into two hours blocks or to do them in two hour blocks. I could usually have about two hours if the children were playing and all was going well. I used to write my editorials with the children underfoot. It taught me how to really concentrate. I make a mental inventory of how things are going. I always start with my children, then the departments of the magazine. When my children were little, I worked around their needs. I think they didn't even know I was working. And, I chose one day a week that I could get help with the children so I could play catch up on my stuff, but truth be told, I never really caught up until they were grown. I had to always be OK with that because I was determined to put the needs of my children first. And, they made me so happy.

Suzy: Thanks again for taking time out of your busy life to visit with us today!

Peggy: Thank you, Suzy. I wish you the best with Hip Mountain Mama.

Inspiring Mama: Peggy O'Mara of Mothering Magazine

A New Space

I am sure it is a common occurrence to change with the seasons.  In my case, when a new season rolls around, I get the urge to change things around my home.  Over the past 5 years of living in this house, we have had many different situations where rooms hold new purposes and they switch back.  As Autumn approached this year, Andy and I both had a strong desire to make a major change.

It has almost been 1 year since Andy joined Hip Mountain Mama and we have both been working from home.  When he came to work with me we decided to give it 6 months to see how it went...well, 6 months came and went and here we are!  A year later and it was really time that we created a home office for ourselves!

Our situation at the time held the computer in the front room of the house...this means when you walk in the front door, there was the desk with the computer...and just beyond that was the kitchen and family room.  So, if you wanted to get work done, you were doing it amidst kids running in and out, answering the door, getting snacks for the kids, etc. and no way to close a door.  We thought this worked fine, but we dreamed of having a real office away from the chaos.

A few weeks ago, we made this dream a reality!  Our home has 3 bedrooms, so to make this a possibility the girls would need to move into the same bedroom, and luckily they welcomed this idea with open arms.  With the girls sharing a room, this left a room open for an office!  We moved the office stuff into the vacant room and reformed the old "office" into a toy room. 

We have been living with this new arrangement for just over a week and it has been going great!  Andy and I love our new office and we find that without all the distractions, we actually get more work done in a shorter amount of time.  Scheduling times to work in the office also allows the person who is not working to spend quality time with Sienna or doing things they enjoy doing without worrying about working.  Although the girls room is jammed full of beds and dressers and there isn't much room for anything else, they love it!  It is cozy and comfortable, and they really enjoy each other's company!  And...the toy room, is just amazing!  So much room for them to play school, house, or get some blocks out!

So, you see, change is a good thing (in my opinion).  We were going along thinking things were fine they way they were...but when we entertained the idea of change and went for it, we created something that is working even better for us.  Who knows, things may change again and we may find a new way that works!  Life is all about making changes, trying new things, and going with what works! 

I will leave you with some photos of our new office! (As you will see, we are lacking some decoration, but will fill it slowly as we go...any suggestions are welcome!)

 Our new prayer flags from http://www.mirandagraystudio.etsy.com/ "May the wind carry this prayer for more trees and fertile ground, more love and compassion, more peace and harmony, on this, our only Planet Earth" Love this!

 Same desk, same arrangement, different room...it works!

 A couple of chairs for the kids to come read books on or for Andy and I to sit on during a coffee meeting.  Complete with a signed Hot Buttered Rum poster, Ipod for music, smudge wand to clear any negative energy, and a beautiful plant.

 The beautiful plant hanging in a handmade macrame hanger that I made several years ago.

There's me, working away!

A New Space

The Majestic Plastic Bag

I watched this video over the summer and it just recently came across my path again.  I wanted to share it with you, as it is an amusing and thought provoking video on the plastic bag.  Hopefully, this video will inspire you to avoid using plastic bags whenever possible.  Please watch this and pass it on!

The Majestic Plastic Bag

Feature Friday: Autumn Scarves

One of our biggest sellers this time of year is our scarves.  We have been carrying Maggie's Organic Cotton Scarves for a couple of years now and last year just added some adorable applique scarves. 

Maggie's scarves come in a variety of colors and designs and are just perfect for dressing up an outfit while helping to stay warm. 

Maggie's scarves are long and can be worn wrapped around your neck once or twice or folded up.  This year we have added 2 new colors to our Maggie's Solid Scarf collection.  And at only $13.00 these will make a nice treat for yourself or gift to a friend. 

Our other style of scarves are from Natural Life.  They are made with a super soft 100% cotton with vintage appliques on the front. 

The appliques include a butterfly, birdy, peace sign, mushrooms, and owl.  The colors are earthy making these suitable for most outfits. 

We stocked up on these and have lowered our price from $22.00 to $18.00 making this a wonderful and affordable gift for you or a friend. 

I am very excited it is finally scarf wearing season.  Not only is it a great way to help keep you warm, but also a wonderful way to stay hip and cute!

To view our entire line of scarves, please visit here.

~Suzy

Feature Friday: Autumn Scarves