Natural Clothing Blog

Do you remember the 70’s  - with leaded gas cars, polluted skies, and when rivers caught fire?  Look how far we have come! When Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson created this movement in 1970, 20 million Americans joined the protest. Today Earth Day Network expects 1.5 billion people to be part of global events and programs.

The green community of Snohomish invites you to join us in celebrating Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary. On Thursday April 22nd, 1 pm – 6 pm, local green businesses, farmers, and organizations will display their products and services in KlaHaYa Park, right off historic First Street by the Snohomish River. Various businesses along First Street will also be participating.

Recycling Queen Karen of Snohomish Farmers Market, Full Circle Farm, Flying Tomato and Caruso Farm will present their green ways and eco-friendly methods. Cedar Grove Compost will share secrets of successful composting and Earth Wise Excavation explains how earth work can be done sustainably with care for the environment. Natural Clothing Company will display organic clothing of hemp, organic cotton and other natural fibers, along with information why are organic textiles important for you and even better for the planet! The Boys and Girls Club will display art made from recycled materials. Sip organic coffee from Java Inn while sampling certified organic skincare products from NYR Organic Skincare. Rowdy Rascals Toy Store will demonstrate which toys are safe for your youngsters. Come and meet Chris from Wolf College as he describes his fascinating camps and classes on survival skills and his fascinating camps and classes on surviving in the mountains, wild cooking and herbology and more. SongCroft is a self sufficiency school and a family farm run by Marilene Richardson, who is not only Master Gardner, Certified Permaculture Designer but also an originator of Foundation for Sustainable Community. Check out www.NaturalClothing.com/Earth_Day for a other exhibitors, like Esoterica Candles – all natural soy wax candles, hand-crafted locally.

Each exhibitor will answer the question: how is your business/organization sustainable? The answers might be as varied as the issue. Is it organic? Energy efficient? Recyclable? Reusable? Compostable? Helpful to future generations? You can ponder on that and your own definition at Grilla Bites Cafe, which offers delicious food with lots of organic choices and non-gluten or non –diary options. Grilla Bites composts its trash, serves as a pick up place for the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and is a great gathering spot for the community. Join us there after the event for great food at a special Earth Day discount and appropriately enough – Dirt Cake! Also, a showing of the 20 min video by Annie Leonard “The Story of Stuff”, will be a great finale for an amazing day!

Thursday’s Earth Day event is sponsored by Natural Clothing Company and Grilla Bites Café with help from City of Snohomish and Historic Downtown Snohomish.

Don’t forget to join us on Saturday, April 24th, 9 am to 4 pm – for the City of Snohomish Spring Clean-Up. Join us at the Boys and Girls Club, 402 Second Street, for sign up and assignments. Bring gloves, rakes and enjoy a day of fun and community spirit helping to make the city more beautiful. This yearly event is sponsored by City of Snohomish, Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, Kiwanis Club and the Snohomish Parks Foundation. There will be lunch served by the Snohomish Lions Club. The Household Clean-Up is held at the City shop yard, 1801 First St where City of Snohomish residents can dispose of household waste items.

There might be no uniform definition of “sustainable” but it is simple to recognize when one really cares about their environment. Our community certainly does –come and see!

Organic clothing and living sustainably while looking great was the focus of an eco friendly evening in the historic town of Snohomish, Washington.

Natural Clothing Company, hosted by Grilla Bites Cafe, presented a selection of beautiful organic clothing, made from organic fibers like hemp, organic cotton and bamboo. Green ideas were flowing also from other presenters: recycling and re-use ideas, darling children’s wear from a local thrift store and handsome kitchen aprons made from recycled shirts.  The evening was filled with laughter and common interest in living eco-friendly while being in style and having fun.  Flavorful organic food, wine samples  and lively music created an unforgettable experience.

Press Release

How we can live sustainably , minimize our impact on the environment  but still have fun and look great?  An eco-friendly community gathered at Grilla Bites in Snohomish, WA has some practical ideas.

On January  16th, 2010 Natural Clothing Company, invited by local Grilla Bites Cafe, presented a selection of beautiful organic clothing, made with all natural fibers. Featured were versatile hemp dresses, sweaters and pants, naturally dyed scarves and hats, organic cotton blouses and skirts as well as bamboo clothing with a popular line of reversible tops and cropped pants. Even a hat made from recycled grocery bags got well deserved round of applause.  Gracious models streaming down the runway were a local artist, a Historic Downtown Snohomish representative and local students. Annie, the host and owner of organic Grilla Bites Cafe, was also wearing eco-friendly, fair trade organic clothing from Natural Clothing Company.

The owners of the company, spoke about the benefits of growing organic crops for textiles. Organic clothing is made and grown without pesticides or chemicals, comparing it for example to conventional cotton, which uses 24% of the world’s insecticides.  Organic clothing is very safe for people with skin sensitivities because of lack of harsh chemicals in their production.

Live demonstration of reusing plastic grocery bags by Karen Erickson followed next. Then local thrift store Cinderella Closet’s young models fashioned delightful reused clothes that would not break any budget.  At the end was presentation of  Cody’s sewing skills learned from his grandmother. Cody created a line of aprons using recycled men’s shirts.

Wonderful live music was played by talented musicians from Tim Noah Thumbnail Theater of Snohomish while guests tasted organic food by Grilla Bites Cafe and sampled wine from local wineries. Aside from the delightful evening, it was a birth of ideas on how to stay focused on helping environment, have fun and create next green gathering on larger scale. After all – every day is an Earth Day on this planet! See more photos from the show at www.NaturalClothing Company.com/green_fashion_show. and join us on Facebook http://tinyurl.com/NaturalClothing and Grilla Bites Cafe.

Natural Clothing Company is a retailer of organic and natural fibers clothing for the whole family. Located in Snohomish Washington  they are focused on helping people find natural and great looking organic clothing. As the family owned business they practice organic gardening, composting and strive to be “zero waste” family as their personal goal. For more information visit http:/wwww.NaturalClothingCompany.comor email info @ NaturalClothingCompany.com. Media contact Alina 877-800-8878. You can become our fan on Facebook  http://tinyurl.com/NaturalClothing

Grilla Bites Cafe is an organic food restaurant in historic downtown Snohomish. It offers variety of delicious organic food choices, including non-gluten and vegan options. Grilla Bites participates in recycling and composting programs, uses local suppliers and is a pick up location for a local Community Supported  Agriculture (CSA) program.  Visit http://grillabitessnohomish.blogspot.com/

In our not-so-natural anymore world I ask myself this question a lot: how much technology do we really need and want in our life to live better?

It is a very interesting question. Nano-technology fascinates many by binding particles like silver, with its anti-bacterial properties, with common materials presumably for our benefit. But there are also serious opponents of that technology with valid concerns about possible health dangers.  As the owner of Natural Clothing Company, I come across much of different and often very interesting information, which does not have a clear cut answers.

Take for example the Chinese Hebei Metals & Minerals Corp, a producer of fiberglass insulation, mineral wool and calcium silicate insulation. These products make an organic person like me shiver… But let’s look. The company is exploring other hi-tech applications as production and sale of the anti-electromagnetic radiation fabric, anti-static fabric and apparel. Their anti radiation material was used by for astronauts.

As many holistic people confirm, there is a growing concern about the effects of electromagnetic wave (microwave) and increased by it cell temperature on human organisms. Hence the concept of anti-electromagnetic radiation fabric was born, shielding 99.99 percent of harmful electromagnetic waves.

Hebei  other path of research involves two naturally occurring materials like bamboo fiber & silver, then spinning and weaving together. The result is an anti-bacterial fiber, which retains its properties with washing, sun etc. On a surface, sounds like natural product. Is it?

OK, my actual question is: can we really protect ourselves from ill effects of technology by increasing our use of the technology itself? Are we playing catch-22 with ourselves?

Hemp, bamboo, even soy  have inherent anti-bacterial properties serving us, as in case of hemp for thousands of years. Well, does it protect from  electromagnetic waves?  Who knows… I know the vibrations of natural fibers do increase our well-being, consciously or subconsciously.  When you put on natural fiber clothing,  your body registers something, a vibe of goodness, a breath of relief.  Maybe a solution is  a “middle path”:  we limit the offensive forces in environment, while we work like crazy to grow and process natural fibers organically. If we fast enough we might repair some of the damage to our earthly home and ourselves.  What do you think?

Well, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine does not think that soaking, spraying, waxing and injecting food with chemicals is any concern for their food study. Completing extensive review of previous studies on organic vs. conventional food they found “no evidence that organically produced foods are nutritionally superior to conventionally produced foodstuffs.”  Of course the review rejected many existing studies of comparisons between organic and non-organic nutritional differences because it did not meet their criteria.

So let’s be clear: get yourself a fresh bowl of strawberries, spray with Raid, grease up your lunch salad with motor oil – it does not really change their nutritional value. Bon Appétit!

Hello…

Read Organic Consumer Association much better stated article http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18745.cfm

Life without poisons.  That’s what the “Green Lifestyle” means to me.

I  actually came across that wording  on some Italian site and it seemed like an obviously awkward translation of their expression. “We don’t use poisons on our food”, they said. It stuck to me and I cannot get it unstuck. Every time I eat beautiful “conventional” (not organic) food, wear the conventional “normal” clothing, their beauty might as well come from toxic veneer, their great texture from gene engineering. The more you learn the more you see the percentages, like GMO corn at 70%, toxic cotton at similar range. A bio-scientist /artist (?) in Chicago crossed Petunia with his blood DNA. Called it Edunia. Cute, hmm…

Even though I am quite fanatical about life without poisons, I can see that one could go nuts looking for the potential hazards everywhere. Where do you draw the line? Does your line fluctuate like cosine function or is it straight and bold ? Do you think we are doing better because of the awareness growing with the green movement or are we getting behind because of damage already existing?

I took my Mom to the Mall on Saturday (mother-daughter bonding time).

It was way too quiet for Sat night but the actual surprise hit me when we walked for a few minutes deep between the clothing racks. My eyes started to water and sting. Then my Mom turns to me and says “Let’s go somewhere else. My eyes are itchy…”

Does anybody else experience that? Have you heard of formaldehyde meter? I wonder how much it costs? I would love to have that meter for one day only and walk through life metering everything – clothes, furniture. Food? Probably one would not want to do it for longer than one day…