I woke up Monday morning with a couple of wonderful comments in my inbox, reminding me about sustainable palm.

*looks around sheepishly*

I’d forgotten about the RSPO, or the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. They’re the body that certifies sustainable palm oil among other things. They’ve got a bunch of great information with a wonderful listing of links.

I’ve got a whole bunch of other information to post, but right now my life’s kind of in between field trips. Next weekend I’ll be in the Adirondacks, hopefully snapping a bunch of photos for you guys, and the following couple of weeks after that I’ll be out and about as well, so thing’s will be slower than usual around here.

I’m surfing etsy, looking at the soaps that had caught my interest. Smiling at all the pretty colors and the beautiful smells when all of a sudden I stop, because I saw something. Palm oil. Listed inconspicuously in with the rest of the ingredients.
 
Palm oil’s in a lot of stuff, it’s cheap, has a lot of useful properties, it comes from palms. Not a problem right?
 
 

(from gliving.tv)

 
Compare the palm oil plantation to the rainforest at the top corner of the photograph. Think about the amount of rainforest in Asia and in Africa.
 
I think we’ve got a problem. Large cosmetic companies and the fast food industry do a lot to create demand for palm oil. It’s these larger corporations that make the soap that most of us buy, but what about those of us that buy handmade soap?
 
It’ll be an easy switch to make I figured. People tend to be conscientious of what they put in they’re soap, because the people that buy it are. At least that’s what I thought. I’ve got picky skin and I’m sensitive to strongly perfumed soaps. Even so I figured I’d go looking for a soap bar that I could use as shampoo. Turns out I was having a hard time finding anything, shampoo or not.
 
I found a couple of non-etsian shops in the UK, and while the soaps look absolutely beautiful I’m not sure shipping soap across the ocean would cut it in the environmental department, so I pressed on.
 
I came across The Chic and Green Blog and rejoiced. Sitting a top the list of posts was a review for AuntNancysSoap. Palm oil free and she has a selection of unscented soaps that I’m definitely going to be trying.
 

Rose Clay Soap from AuntNancysSoap

Fragrance Free Bar From AuntNancysSoap

(another deviantArt feature)
 

100 years of solitude by *curlytops on deviantART
 
 

sant six-three-five II by *suo-me on deviantART
 
 

Audrey II. by *JulieCerise on deviantART
 
 

kis by ~SnjezanaJosipovic on deviantART
 
 

mail by ~suckcess on deviantART
 
 

Abandoned by *iKate on deviantART
 
 

Seabird 2 by ~jondean on deviantART
 
 

sea shell by ~saveourtrees on deviantART
 
 

tell me story by *curlytops on deviantART

 
Last week I signed up for crunchy’s buy nothing new challenge. The premise of the whole thing is to shop in a more sustainable way, buying only what you need in the most sustainable way possible which means:
 
* No new clothes
* No new gadgets
* No new furniture or housewares
* No salon services (except haircuts)
* No new makeup
* No new tools
* No whatever else people buy
* No eating out
 
Most of this I knew going in won’t be a big problem for me. I don’t buy much in general. My only real vice is eating out. So where does this leave me one week later?
 
I bought cleaning supplies, my bad I know, but you can’t exactly borrow sponges or drawer liners. I did eat out once, on move in day I had no food so it was pretty much eat out or starve. I decided I liked eating.
 
I’d made it through the weekend and than Monday came and I bought a tv pass on Amazon to download this season’s episodes Stargate Atlantis. I didn’t even think when I did it. I considered canceling my order when I realized what I’d done, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. A girl’s got to have some fun once in awhile right?

 After that little transgression though I made it through the rest of the week squeaky clean. One week down three to go!

I should know better than to watch conservation videos before breakfast. I end up driving myself nuts trying to argue with the skeptics. Sustainable development isn’t about reverting back to the dark ages. It’s about finding a way to live in harmony with the Earth. It’s not about giving up the illusive search for the next bigger and better thing, because it’s not about material goods. It’s about finding peace and happiness and really living. It’s about having what you need to survive and being happy about it.

You can argue that having what you need to survive isn’t enough to be happy, but does having more than that make you happy? Is destroying the Earth so you can have your shampoo and fast food really going to matter when we run out of water or air?

Tomorrow I’m moving into the apartment, so posts will be a bit slower coming than usual as I’ll be without internet for awhile.

These little guys grow fast…the leaves are now bigger than my hand and we’ve got the start of some blooms. Originally I was worried about them getting over watered with the heavy rain we’d been getting, but it turns out the more water you give them the faster they grow.

 
Back before our little heat wave I did a lot of baking, and every time I started I’d stop to think of just how badly I really need to buy an apron. Without fail opening the flour canister is asking to be over taken by a furious cloud of flour. While originally amusing, I wanted to do something about it, so I hopped on etsy and started looking around and found these incredible aprons (1, 2) by boojiboo.
 

 
If these aren’t the cutest aprons ever I don’t know what would be. Too bad they didn’t have full skirts. I’d totally wear these out for a night on the town.

Trash Fashion by ~stasha-pistachio on deviantART
 
Another day of record breaking heat and I’m ready to call it quits. It’s just too hot to do much of anything. The weather service says it was 95 at the hottest point yesterday, but the temperature display across the street read 99 at about five last night. Thankfully it’s a bit cooler inside, but I’m wondering how miserable this summer’s going to be if this keeps up.
 
I haven’t gotten anything planted outside yet, I’m worried about the heat killing the seedlings off. It’s hard enough to keep them watered when they’re sitting inside on the window sill.
 
On the etsy front things are going better. I’ve been having a lot of fun browsing through all the new summer stuff and I’ve been pumping out the paper. Who knew cold paper pulp would feel so good. I’ve gotten quite a bit behind on all my blog reading though. I’ve been keeping up with crunchy chicken and burbanmom, but nothing on the etsy side of things. As soon as it cools off I’ll be powering up the laptop and totally binging. I miss all the funny stories and the crafty inspiration.

A couple of the little guys that have been poking up on a regular basis.