Join Us at Handmade Arcade in Pittsburgh, PA!

The following post is by Katie Perugini, Herban Lifestyle’s Creative Communications Strategist.

As the holiday season falls upon us we hope you will join us this weekend in for a handmade holiday shopping experience in a beautiful city – The Handmade Arcade in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Now in it’s 9^th year, the Handmade Arcade is Pittsburgh’s first and largest independent craft fair. This weekend, it returns to downtown Pittsburgh at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on December 8 from 11am to 7pm with free admission.

Herban Lifestyle is excited to be a vendor in The Handmade Arcade for a second time and first time in the Holiday show. If you’re in the area or making the trip, please stop by and say hello! We will be at booth #91.

Remember to visit the shopper info page to get all the information you need to maximize your Handmade Arcade shopping experience!

I also compiled a short list of cool things in Pittsburgh. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few of my favorites. See you there!

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens- Founded in 1893, the conservatory currently has thirteen rooms with different themed gardens featuring various exotic plants. I visited the gardens a little over a year ago was impressed by the commitment to sustainability, environmental education for the community and stunning photo ops.

Mount Washington -The view of the Pittsburgh skyline is as breathtaking as seen in the pictures. I had the opportunity to view it for the first time while sitting on a bench on top of Mount Washington in addition to riding on the Duquesne and Monongahela Inclines–which are the oldest continuous inclines in the world. Although it is definitely a “cliché” Pittsburgh activity—the experience is definitely worth it.

The Cathedral of Learning – Despite being a Penn Stater, I couldn’t help but stand in awe next to the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. Not only is it 42 stories and the second tallest university building in the world, the inside looks like something straight out of a Harry Potter movie. It’s so beautiful you wish you had the opportunity to study in this building.

The Bridges – Pittsburgh has an incredible amount of character and its bridges are undeniably a big part of that. Pittsburgh has hundreds of bridges within the city limits, practically begging you to get out of your car and take pictures every where you go.

Thank you, from Herban Lifestyle

Pie pumpkins and butternut squash to be cooked for Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving, we have a lot to be thankful for. It would be virtually impossible to list every single person and organization, so we’ve attempted to list our top 10 in no particular order. We hope you enjoy the list and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

1) Friends and family, who support us in every way.
2) All of our customers, fans and supporters who make everything possible.
3) Writers and bloggers who have generously featured Herban Lifestyle.
4) Craft Show organizers who were kind enough to welcome us to their shows.
5) Our amazing suppliers who are committed to organic, Fair Trade, all natural, recycled and other earth friendly products and practices.
6) Katie Perugini, our Creative Communications Strategist, for making things look shiny and new.
7) Our long-suffering, always-smiling Postal Service, UPS and FedEx delivery workers.
8) Our non-profit partners who are working hard to make the world a better place.
9) Sustainable and Small Business organizations that provide support and resources for all of us small business committed to sustainability.
10) The rabbit for her unconditional love.

Join us on 11/10 for our 3rd year at Crafty Bastards!

The following post was written by Katie Perugini, Herban Lifestyle’s Creative Communications Strategist.

Between the weather, the elections and Herban Lifestyle being super busy, it has been a crazy fall. And we’re more than ready to have some serious fun!

That is why we are so incredibly excited for Crafty Bastards return on Saturday, November 10th for it’s 9th year in Washington, DC. With temperatures projected to be in the 60s, over 140 vendors and an estimated 30,000 attendees, it is guaranteed to be an amazing show!

We are super honored and excited to have been chosen to be a vendor for our third year in a row! It’s not only a great place to be a vendor; it’s also a dream-come-true for the shopper looking for unique, high-quality handcrafted gifts. Typically the show is held in October but this year’s November date makes it ideal for holiday shopping.

You can take a look at the vendor gallery to get a preview of the who will be selling what, then download the official Crafty Bastards vendor map so you can make sure you find us and all your other favorites!

It’s also important to note that Crafty Bastards is showing a different hip DC neighborhood some love this year with its move to Union Market, located at 1309 5th Street NE in Washington, D.C., and accessible via the NoMa-Gallaudet University/New York Ave. station on Metro’s Red line.

If you are in the DC area this weekend, come visit us at booth #16 and say HI! In addition to everyone’s favorite fuzzy soaps, we’ll also have a variety of beer soaps, men’s grooming products, curiosity soaps and gift sets.

The show will be held from 10:00am to 5:00pm. Admission is $5.00 and 2-for-1 tickets are available for sale through tomorrow.

We hope to see you there!

Cleaning Up the Greenwash

The following post is by Katie Peige, Herban Lifestyle’s Sustainability Associate.

Back in July, I moved back to Arizona and I’m now newest member of the my Econista friend’s household. With the move came a shift of my lifestyle to the greener side of things, one of them being greener household cleaners. Basically the only things we use are vinegar, baking soda, and thieves all purpose cleaner.

More people are using natural cleaning methods because most cleaning products on the market contain chemicals and toxins that create indoor air pollution and can lead to health side effects such as lung damage.

Because there is no industry certification for what is “natural” or “eco-friendly” or “healthy,” household cleaner manufacturers can get away with greenwashing their products. So the Environmental Working Group (EWG) launched their “Online Guide to Healthy Cleaning” a few weeks ago, to let consumers have a better idea of what’s in their products and what effects these products might have on their consumers. Unlike food and cosmetics, it is not required that cleaning products list all of their ingredients, so EWG had to do some real digging to determine the full ingredient lists.

Like EWG’s Skin Deep Database, the Online Guide to Healthy Cleaning really surprised me with the items that got a bad grade. Here’s an example: When I think toxic cleaners for some reason the first thing that popped into my head was Windex. So I typed in Windex, expecting to have a bad grade come up, which it did. Windex Original Glass Cleaner got the grade of D, so did Windex Nature’s Source Glass Cleaner and Windex Multi-Surface Vinegar Cleaner. So I wanted to try a more eco brand, thinking for sure the eco brand would get a better score. I looked at Seventh Generation’s window cleaner, Natural Glass & Surface Cleaner, Free & Clear, the score was better, but not by much, with a C grade, mainly because of the ingredient methylisothiazolinone. Frustrated, I clicked on the category “Glass/ Window Cleaner” to see who could best the C grade. Turns out of the 49 glass cleaners out there, 4 received an A: Simple Green Naturals Glass & Surface Care, Rosemary Mint; Whole Foods Market glass cleaner, unscented; Green Shield Organic Glass Cleaner, Fresh; and Citra-Solv Citra Clear Window & Glass Cleaner.

For the record, there are simple homemade DIY recipes out there, including pure vinegar; you can check them out here. Or try our Four Thieves Vinegar or All-Purpose Cleaner recipes! Happy Non-toxic cleaning everyone! Have any favorites?

Meet Us at The Mother Earth News Fair this Weekend!

The following post is by Katie Peige, Herban Lifestyle’s Sustainability Associate.

This weekend, Herban Lifestyle will be exhibiting at the Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania.

This fun-filled family festival is a three-day event held at the Seven Springs Mountain Resort starting at 12:00 pm on Friday and going until 6:00 pm on Sunday. The event is like a state fair, but better, because it’s all about rocking the sustainable lifestyle. So it’s like a Sustainability State Fair (as this Rogers and Hammerstein geek starts to sing, “Our State Fair, is a great State fair, don’t miss it don’t even be late!”)

Back to the fair… When you go, you’ll find a slew of activities to partake in to boost your sustainable expertise. First off, there are the workshops (with very entertaining titles), featuring hands-on experiences on topics ranging from modern homesteading to composting to DIY solar panels. Then there are the animal husbandry workshops with a variety of animal workshops on chicks, and ducks and sheep (oh wait, that’s another R&H musical) and llamas, alpacas, horses, and so on. I am torn between whether I would get a bigger kick out of “Hare-Raising Possibilities with Heritage Rabbits” or “Everybody Duck! The basics of raising ducks.” For those who are not as amused with word play as I am, there are also classes like “Pastured Pork Basics” and “Incubation 101.”

So where does Herban Lifestyle come into this mix? Well, we will be exhibiting in good company with an array of vendors including Affordable Barn Co., The Apothecary’s Daughter, Featherman Equipment, Flying Fibers, Gita Naguri Yoga Farm and Grandma Whimsy’s Cupboard. And I really like the name, Love at First Sit, which happens to be “portable, fair trade, ergonomic back support systems made of organic cotton and hemp.”

Tickets are $35 at the gate for a three-day pass or $20 for one day. By using this coupon, you can get $10 off those prices. Sounds like we are going to have a blast. I hope you can join us this weekend to get your State-Fair-Fix-with-a-twist. Mmmm pass the raw cultured veggies and vegan goodies this way!

It’s Park(ing) Day! Come sit down!

The following post is by Katie Peige, Herban Lifestyle’s Sustainability Associate.

“Hey, would you like to come sit in the Park?”

“Excuse me?!”, I responded, “What is this?”

I stared, completely baffled at the guy sitting on a park bench surrounded by green grass. It was not that the question itself that was odd, the cause of my bewilderment was in the “park.” I was in Mid-town Manhattan, right across from MoMA in a traffic-cone-demarcated parking space in the street. And while I was perplexed, the offer was greatly appreciated since I had been desperately looking for a place to sit that hot September day as I killed time after a job interview before meeting up with a friend.

“It’s Park(ing) Day! Come sit down!”

So I did. I pulled off my sandals and sat in the cool grass in a “park-ing” spot. I ended up sitting there for hours, watching and observing the many people walking down this busy New York street during lunch rush. Many stopped in their tracks to ask, “What’s going on?”, “What is this?”, and to say “Err..yeah…Happy Park(ing) Day to you too, ah…right”.

In those few hours I learned that Park(ing) Day started in 2005 in San Francisco when one metered parking space was converted into the first pocket park (much like the one I found in 2007), the space covered with grass, a lone park bench and a tree. The idea was to create awareness of ways the public could use the space cars and trucks take up in a city where green space is lacking. In 2005, the first pocket park was created by the design firm, Rebar, a photo was snapped, that photo went viral on the Internet, and a global movement was created. Quick side note: In 2009, Manhattan closed off Broadway around Times Square to traffic and opened it up for the public to walk the once busy streets or sit and have lunch on the cafe tables. It is my personal theory that Park(ing) Day may have influenced this decision.

With each year, more and more parks are converted into pocket parks inspiring people to not only take a little time to enjoy some public green space, but also be creative. Pocket parks have progressed into pocket smoothie bars (complete with a bicycle powered blender), pocket yoga studio, pocket coffee house, pocket art installation, pocket you-get-the-picture. In 2007, when I found my park in front of MoMA, there were 200 parks created in 50 cities in 9 countries on 4 continents. And Park(ing) Day’s popularity has climbed each year. In 2010, I volunteered to spend the whole day in a parking space in Baltimore to wish everyone a very happy Park(ing) Day and raise awareness to the importance of public green urban spaces. That year there were 800 parks worldwide in 183 cities, 30 countries on 6 continents. Last year those numbers grew to 975 parks in 35 countries!

Park(ing) Day 2012 will be held on Friday, September 21. I will again be volunteering in a parking space, this time in Phoenix, starting at 6 am and wrapping up at about 10 am, so that I do not fry like a crispy critter (one of my mother’s favorite sayings). I hope you’ll join the movement! Checkout parkingday.org to find out where you can par-take in the nearest celebration of Park(ing) Day. Better yet, grab some friends and make it a tour!

Park(ing) Day NYC 2008

Herban Lifestyle’s Eleven Virtues

On August 23, 2008, I opened an Etsy store. I thought it would be a great way to sell my handcrafted bath and body goodies. Two weeks later, on September 7, I received my first order! The response to my products was encouraging, so I soon opened my own online store, too. By May of 2009, I had achieved certification through Green America and Leaping Bunny. Then  I began to pick up some wholesale customers through word of mouth. My company continued to grow and evolve, and now it is four years later!

As Herban Lifestyle’s 4th Anniversary approached, I felt it was time to write down my guiding principles – the framework of values and guidelines I have given myself to work within as I have grown my business. I solicited feedback on a draft of these principles from friends and family members who have been there from the beginning. The result was Herban Lifestyle’s Eleven Virtues, pictured above. If you like the image, I have included a link to a free 11″ x 17″ PDF version of the Herban Lifestyle Eleven Virtues. Feel free to download and print it out.

A huge thank you to all who have supported Herban Lifestyle, in oh so many ways, over the years!

Join Us at the Farm-to-Street Party on July 21st!

FARM-TO-STREET PARTY!

Saturday, July 21
1-7 p.m.
$15 (includes four $2.50 tickets for food/drink and beer garden)
1300-1400 V Street NW, Washington, DC 20009

Please join us at the second annual Farm-to-Street Party being held in the awesome U Street neighborhood! Enjoy scrumptious dishes made with fresh ingredients from local farms, drink local craft beer and wine, shop local retailers and take craft food classes in the pop-up park. Entertainment will by provided by musicians via Listen Local First!

Here’s a taste of the great businesses that will be there:

13th Street Meats featuring Ben’s Chilibowl    |   Busboys and Poets  |   Clean Currents   |   The Diner  |   Eagle Bank  |   Eatonville  |   Flavor Magazine   |   Goldilocks Goodies
Herban Lifestyle   |   Local 16  |   operation:eatery |  Ripple  |   Sonoma Wine Bar  |   Sweetgreen  |   Tevolution  |   United Tables   |   Whisked!  |   Zipcar DC  |   Arden Jewelry Design  | Coastal Nut Company   |   Dreaming Out Loud, Inc.  |   Gouter   |  Just Peachy Organics  |  Kew Park Farm  | Langdon Wood   |  Live Green  |   Logan Hardware  | Loulies |  Mid City Businesses  | MTO Kombucha, LLC  |  My Great Garden|  Neighborhood Farm Initiative|   Pawgevity  |   Penn Quarter Bodega  | Pleasant Pops  | Prospect Solar, LLC  | Route 11 |  Rutabaga Sweets  |  Scout Mob DC  |  Seasonal Pantry  |   Slow Food DC  |  Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative  |  Waldo, Sluggo & Me  |  YB Green

Beer garden:
The Pug featuring DC Brau, Chocolate City and 3 Stars Brewery.

Music by:
Flo Anito   |   Justin Trawick with Drummer Duo  | Bumper Jackson  | Lucky Dub Trio 

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS!

SoulPancake: The Rainn, The Park & Other Things

Last week we watched Taking Woodstock, an Ang Lee movie about the guy who played a pivotal role in bringing the Woodstock Music Festival to Yasgur’s Farm in Bethel, NY. It was a fascinating look into the time period, with wonderfully quirky characters and amazing attention to costuming and set detail that left me feeling like I had traveled through time to see the whole event unfold.

While I know that in reality those times were filled with social and political upheaval, I’ve always had a bit of 60s envy, feeling that I would have enjoyed living in the idealized version of that time with its love, peace, buy-the-world-a-home-and-furnish-it-with-love vibe.

And so when I come across a community, a gathering place for kindred spirits, that espouses that we’re-all-in-it-together-the-world-is-a-pretty-cool-place energy, I tend to gravitate toward it.

Three years ago, I wrote a post on one such community. The then newly-launched SoulPancake, an interactive online community, was created by actor Rainn Wilson as a positive place where people can come together to ask and answer questions about life, philosophy, spirituality, creativity and more. The site is filled with community members’ videos, photos, musings, and other creative expressions.

Serendipitously, the day after I watched Taking Woodstock, I received an email from Nicole Ro at SoulPancake letting me know that they will be launching a premium YouTube channel on July 23. Since I had blogged about SoulPancake in the past, she wondered if I would be willing to help spread the word about their new YouTube channel. I told her that I would be happy to!

The purpose of the SoulPancake YouTube channel is the same as their website – to create a stream of positive, uplifting, thought-provoking, and creative messages. With so many negative messages and images coming at us all the time, it is nice to have a place to turn to see the brighter side of humanity.

To give you glimpse at their content, I’ve included one of the SoulPancake videos at the top of this post. It’s silly and simple. It left me feeling happy and optimistic. It has an updated Woodstock feel, complete with VW van, but without the hallucinogenic drugs.

SoulPancake’s ultimate goal is to reach 50,000 subscribers by their launch date. They are up to about 20,000 subscribers. When they hit 5,000 subscribers, Rainn Wilson offered to meditate in a field wearing only a Speedo. As an incentive, 6 new subscribers will be randomly chosen to hang out with Rainn virtually in a Google Hang out for a half hour to talk about anything. Anything at all.

I highly recommend that you visit the SoulPancake YouTube channel. You can also get updates on Rainn’s Facebook fan page.

Here’s a brief intro, which gives you an idea about the vibe of the channel. Enjoy!

How to Make a Solar-Powered Battery Charger

The storms that blew through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic on June 29 left us, along with millions of other people and all of the businesses in my town, without power for several days. I was incredibly grateful for a handcrank/solar-powered radio that I’ve had for years. It keep me abreast of the news, and provided some musical entertainment. It also inspired me to figure out how to make some solar appliances for future power outages. I heard stories on the radio of  people buying up batteries, and it occurred to me that I would prefer not to have to rely on them.

So, I headed to a library a couple of towns away (the closest one that was open) and did some research. I decided to start with a solar-powered battery charger since it was an easy first project. It required knowledge of how to use a soldering iron, but I had learned this as a child, having put together many Radio Shack kits with my father. The charger would be a low-cost-of-entry project, and if it turned out okay, I would go on to bigger and better things!

In addition to a 25-watt soldering iron ($8.99) and some solder ($5.49), which I can use for numerous future projects, I found that all I needed was the following items:

1) A solar panel. You need to have a total of 9V to have enough energy to charge your batteries. I purchased a 1W 9V ($16.99), but some articles I read used anywhere from 2V to 4.5V and connected them. You can even salvage some from inexpensive solar garden lights for less than that.

2) A rechargeable battery holder. I chose an enclosed one that can hold four AA’s ($2.29), but they come in a variety of configurations for different types of batteries.

3) A few things I read said that I needed to have a “blocking diode” to make sure that once the batteries are charged, and the light source is taken away (i.e., the sun goes down), that the power doesn’t flow back from the batteries into the solar cell and damage it. However, at one of the Radio Shacks I visited (I ended up going to a total of 3), the guy helping me said it wasn’t necessary, and since I didn’t know the exact number/name of the diode that I needed, I decided to forgo it and do some more reading.

Apparently, there is some debate over the necessity of blocking diodes for such a small project. However, I came across an article by someone who had actually measured the amount of energy flowing in and out, and he concluded it was necessary even for a project of this size. So, after some more reading, I decided to purchase a 2-pack of 1N4001 micro 1A diodes ($1.29).

Once I had gathered all of my materials, the actual putting together of the battery charger was very simple.

1) I soldered the positive (black) wire from the solar panel to the positive (black) wire from the battery holder.

2) Then I soldered one end of the diode to the negative (red) wire from the solar panel, and the other end of the diode to the negative (red) wire of the battery holder. I then trimmed the excess wire.

NOTE: It is important that you attach the diode in the proper direction to make sure that the energy is flowing TO the batteries and is blocked from returning to the solar panel, so it is important to read the diagram on the diode packaging to see which way it should be facing. Diodes have colored (or in my case grayed) bands indicating which end is which.

3) This part is not necessary, but since you have to leave your charger in the sunlight for several hours, it is nice to have some sort of weather protection. So I taped the solar panel to the inside of the lid of a takeout container. You can use anything with a clear top.

4) Once it was assembled, I just inserted four AA NiMh rechargeable batteries and let it sit for a total of 15 hours in the sunlight (I read that it takes anywhere from 10 to 15 hours for the batteries to fully charge).

Once the charging period was over, I transferred the batteries into this little flashlight. It worked like a charm! It was very satisfying to know that I had harnessed the sun’s power for this simple task, and it gave me the confidence to move onto bigger things.

My next project will be a solar USB charger so that I won’t have to worry about running out of juice in my phone during the next extended power outage!

[UPDATE: I came across some new instructions for a solar-powered battery charger in which the author recommended the use of a 1N914 Diode. I don't know enough about the differences between the 1N914 and 1N4001 to say which is more appropriate. If there are any experts out there who can shed some light on this, I would greatly appreciate it!].