I wish I was a bee…but…with out all the dying off stuff.

I always forget how freaking awesome growing up in a small town wasn’t…my husband and I seriously get excited when we get to explore a new small town; it’s weird. Its like we completely forgot that we ran from our little town like zombie puppies had taken over the population and had our scent in their nostrils. We HATED growing up there (winona, MN) because of the lack of culture and art …and fun-ness.
Over the last 10 yrs we have made a point to go back down to winona on the weekends but over the last two our opportunities to go have decreased. The band has us traveling so much we hardly have time to see our family! So, when we got to visit this last weekend, it was really a nice change from the weekend warrior craziness.

Change…well, maybe that’s too big of a word to use (we still played a freakin’ show for raisins’ sake)…it still wasn’t a vacation.

Anyways, we headed down the Mississippi river valley and took in the sights for a couple hours while we planned how we were going to take over the world. I was super pissed I didn’t see any eagles. After our show on Friday night we spent the rest of the weekend doing what most small town people to: throwing baby showers for friends & pub crawls….a zombie pub crawl to be exacpt. IT WAS AWESOME! What was more Awesome? David sneeking up on my Dad while he was hanging laundry the next day!!!! yes…He was still wearing Zombie garb the next day, and like a good little boy he drove his mother to the bank and target in the same state.

Instead of trying to gross my father out i decided to help him harvest herbs from my parents organic (not certified) garden. 

There were lovely Honey Bees every where! I was so happy because i love them and do not want them to die from cell phones, or pesticides, or Nintendo NES…or whatever it is. My Dad told me they were probably living in someones house and i secretly said, ” i hope it’s the weirdos’ house next door…” Actually, the bees deserve a better home.

The Garden was SO lush with growth from the rains we have had here in MN this summer. Now, generally when you have too much rain the quality of the herbs lack because the grow too quickly. The longer an herb takes to grow the more concentrated the flavor is. That was not the case here! they were huge AND aromatic! LOVLEY!

Dad harvesting Chives

MY Harvest of Menthol Mint for "Sweet Mint & Cucumber Soap"

It was great fun! It was so amazing collecting the different herbs that i use in my soaps by hand and smelling them right off the plant. I forgot how amazing the garden always is. Mom and Dad use a 50 gallon compost bin to fertilize their garden. the garden is probably only about 20×15…so, that’s  A LOT of nutrients!  We picked Sage, Oregano, Menthol Mint, Bergamont, & Nepeta. The Mint will go into my Sweet Mint & Cucumber Soap,  the Sage will go into a variety of concoctions and the Nepeta ( a form of catnip) will go into my facial serum. Nepeta is a lovely herb that smells and tastes like mint and licorice!

Too much Compost?!?!?

The zucchini on the left is only half the size it was when picked!

the good, the bad, & the ugly – why i turned into a crazy lunatic who thought she could make soap.

Chemistry has never been a strong subject of mine, frankly I avoided it like the plague…senior year in high school I skipped any sciences that were not required and replaced them with art classes!

So now why the hell do i find myself covered in powders, mixing in beakers, & creating weird concoctions i store all over the house and in the fridge???

It wasn’t until I was suffering from a mired of illnesses in my mid-twenties that I decided to take another look into chemistry. I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis and another auto-immune disease; all of these illnesses that seemed to be separate all came together under one roof.  All of these symptoms – migraines, chronic fatigue, joint stiffness, arthritis, tendonitis, psoriasis, endometriosis,  asthma, heartburn, and skin pain – were holding me back so much.

It was suggested to me that I try a gluten-free diet, that I try “eating for your blood type”, and keeping a food diary. I did all this and nothing seemed to make a difference at all. Then I took a step back….why in the world would any of this help me? Maybe before I remove gluten or tasty-ness I should be removing chemicals! The hunt was on! What is in my food, what is in my house, and what is in my beauty products??  Lots and lots of awful stuff, that’s what.

The evil doers:

-Formaldehyde – bad for respiratory system, weakens the immune system

-Artificial colors like Blue 1 and Green 3 are carcinogenic

-Dibutyl phthalate – cancerous, found in nail polish’s like OPI

-DEA, MEA and TEA – found in shampoos, links between liver and kidney cancers

-Propylene glycol – found in deodorants & hair gel, causes brain, liver and kidney damage

-Sodium Laurel Sulfate (SLS) – found in shampoos, toothpaste, hand soap, carcinogen that penetrates deep into skin

– Flame retardants –  household furniture, textiles and electronic equipment, may cause neurological problems and disrupt thyroid function

– Pesticides – foods & bug sprays – Linked to neurological damage, asthma and other respiratory diseases, birth defects, cancer, and even suppression of the immune system

I was ingesting these chemicals everyday, I won’t even go into how bat SLS is for you here…we are saving that for a post all it own!

So, I started eating organic…the extra cost was hard to bear at first but, it pales in comparison to the medications that I was taking. I’m not saying I’m cured of anything…i’m still paying for meds and heavens knows that I’m still very miserable at certain times but, I’m certainly having fewer headaches and I feel better all over knowing that I’m reducing my chances of cancer and other illnesses.

The good:

So how does this all go back to chemistry?

I started making Soap. Why did i start making soap and turn my kitchen into a chemistry lab?

Well, a homemade soap contains NO SLS what so ever.  THE simplest way to create soap is by using only fats and lye. Now, lye (sodium hydroxide) is VERY caustic but once it meets the fat the two soaponify – turn into soap. The is NO lye left in a bar of soap once finished. You could eat that stuff if you wanted…granted it would taste horrible and make you feel very ill, but it is made out of all natural materials. Aside from eating an organic diet this was another way I could remove chemicals from my daily life. Then, I figured out how to make better and more nourishing soaps and soaps with character and purpose. I learned how to make laundry detergent, facial masks, toilet bowl cleaners, shampoo bars…the list goes on! THIS was my new calling! It is so much simpler than I thought it would ever be. NO longer was I afraid of chemistry! I actually loved chemistry…i always had but never knew it!

Desperate times drove me to a new career path and i could not be happier!

I’m going to be posting new post often and will be touching on some of the really dangerous stuff we should be avoiding, i will also be delving into another subject – Multiple Chemical Sensitivity – and, will be talking about my products as well.

-Priscilla