I'm also stocking up for my first shows of the year! I decided not to do as many summer shows this year.  Mostly because of the heat and my skin care items not holding up as well as I'd like in the heat and to also spend a bit more time with the family. I have so many new items to share with you all! Many new upcycled items including a new crochet tote bag made from plastic shopping bags, a few different styles of market bags made from old t-shirts, and some really cute garden aprons made from old jeans. I'll also be introducing a few new skin care items including tinted lip balms and lotions with sunscreen in them (all natural/organic ingredients, of course). And of course I'll have all my old favorites with me!

The second show I'll be participating in is the Summer Fun at Arlington Gardens on Saturday, June 13th from 10am-4pm. I'll be there selling all my handcrafted goodies as well as selling Wildtree products with my team member, Nykki. There will be many great direct sales ladies there, local businesses inside the mall, local artists, and food trucks. We will also have some bins set up to accept pet food donations for the Nevada Humane Society. You can see all the event details on the Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/SummerFunatArlingtonGardens.

I hope to see all you locals at the events!  As always, if you need something custom, I'm happy to make that something special for you!

Wow, I can't believe that it's almost September.  Where did the summer go?? All the kids here have been back in school for weeks now, which of course made the summer seem so much shorter than it really was.  So much to do, so little time!  So if you've been following me on Facebook, you already know I've been pretty busy.  I finally painted my Family Tree mural that's been on my to-do list since January.  I've been crocheting like a mad woman getting ready for all my upcoming fall/holiday shows.  And of course what you probably wouldn't see is that I've also been busy being a mom/wife/gardener.  My garden is now kicking into full gear (despite some issues with the squashes/cucumbers/melons.  I'll be giving a garden update here in a future post). But first I wanted to talk about my next event coming up.

One of my favorite events is almost here!  The Great Reno Balloon Races!  It's such a fun event and has been going on in Reno for 32 years now.  We used to go to it annually when I was a kid and of course as we got older we stopped going as much just due to school schedules and sports activities.  After I moved to Las Vegas I, of course, didn't go until we moved back to the area.  We ended up taking the kids for the first time 2 years ago and it was amazing.  There's nothing like looking at something through a child's eyes and seeing the magic and wonder you once felt as a kid.  This is how it was for me.  Now if you've ever been to this event, you know that most people will park over at UNR and will walk up the very steep hills/streets to get to Rancho San Rafael Park.  And if you want to catch the Glow Show and the Dawn Patrol, you have to get there insanely early (5:00am is when the show starts, so you usually have to give yourself at least 30min before to find parking and make the hike into the park).  For us, we planned on getting up at 3:00am to get ready, driving across town to pick up my parents then looking for parking and making the hike, all with a 2 year old and a 6 month old.  Quite honestly, I thought I was insane and I imagined that I'd have 2 very tired and cranky kids with me.  Boy was I in for a great surprise!  They slept most of the way to the park and in the stroller.  We got there a little later than planned and the balloons had already started the Dawn Patrol.  As soon as my oldest saw them in the air, she called out, "Balloons! Balloons!  Balloons EVERYWHERE! Look mommy!"  It was definitely one of those great mommy moments that brings happy tears to your eyes.  Both girls had such a wide-eyed look of wonder on their faces all morning as we sat amongst the balloons.  One of the greatest parts about the event is that everyone gathers around in the open field of the park and the balloons and crews are setting up/taking off/landing all around you.  With around 100 balloons and 150,000 people, it's quite the site to see.  My kids talk about this event all year long and look forward to us waking them up when it's still dark and then seeing all the balloons.  I'm not a morning person (in fact, I usually don't go to bed until around 1:00 or 2:00am), but seeing the joy and wonder on my kids faces each year makes that early morning wake up so worth it!  

This year I get the privilege of working the event as a vendor and seeing the balloons all 3 days.  While I'm not relishing the idea of getting up at 3:00am for 3 days, I am very much looking forward to seeing those balloons, working along side some amazingly talented artists and bringing my kids along with me to enjoy the event for yet another year.  If you are local or are planning on visiting Reno, make sure to stop by for this event at least once.  I promise you won't be disappointed!  And make sure to stop by Crafter's Row to say hi and check out all of the work of our Indie Reno artists!

Wow, it's been a busy couple of weeks!  I had my first couple of shows of the year this last weekend.  It was great to get out and meet new people! I'm looking forward to all the new shows I have coming up.

So if you haven't already figured it out by the products I make and sell, we tend to go pretty natural in our household.  In my journey to research more about the chemicals in the beauty products that my family and I used, it was clear that what we were using wasn't the best.  The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a great website that tells you how safe the products you use are.  Looking up the products that we had been currently using, most of them were rated about a 4 or 5 (On a scale of 0 to 10; 0-2 being low hazard, 3-6 being moderate hazard, and 7-10 being high hazard).  I guess I was a little surprised that all the items we used (most of them being for sensitive skin and/or for babies) were still rated this high.  So I set out on a mission to find products that were rated 0-2 (preferably 0) and that didn't cost an arm and a leg (why is it that the more natural and non-toxic you want to go, the more expensive things tend to be?).

I figured that one of the best and least expensive ways to get a good product with ingredients that I trusted was to make it myself. One of the first items that I wanted to switch out to a natural product was our shampoo and conditioner.  Of course I dove right into Pinterest to find a recipe for shampoo.  Boy was I in for it!  There are SO many DIY recipes on Pinterest to try!  It's a bit overwhelming.  One recipe that I kept coming across and seemed really interesting to try was called "no-poo".  If you're like me when I first read about it, I thought, "what in the heck is 'no-poo' and how could this possibly work?"  It's actually really simple.  You use baking soda as your new shampoo and vinegar as your new conditioner.  With traditional shampoos and conditioners, the chemicals in them strip your hair of all its natural oils.  This can leave your hair very dry and unhealthy.  You are also exposing your skin (your body's largest organ) to many toxins which will be absorbed directly into your blood stream.   By using the no-poo method, you aren't using the toxic chemicals on your hair (and indirectly, your skin) and you are giving your hair a chance to get it's natural oils back.  Did you know that some of the toxic side effects from the ingredients in chemical shampoos include Ecotoxicology, Allergies/immunotoxicity, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), & Cancer?  And that's just from the Fragrances alone.  We are exposed to so many different toxins in our daily lives, if I can choose to eliminate some of those toxins, than I'm going to do my best to steer clear of them.

Now be forewarned - there can be a transition period for people when you first start going this method.  It can look like you dunked your hair in a vat of Crisco.  Not a very appealing thought, especially if you have a job to go to everyday and need to look professional.  I will admit, this is now my 3rd or 4th attempt at going the no-poo route and I think I may have finally achieved the result I wanted.  My first few attempts were not so successful.  I went through a very long transition period that I never was able to get out of.  I just looked like I hadn't washed my hair ever.  I even had my mom asking me when I would give it up and just wash my hair.  From most of the blogs that I read, the transition period for people was about 2 weeks or so.  I would go over a month and not ever get past that greasy, static-y, gross look.  So I found a few shampoos at the supermarket that were rated a 1 and would use those in between trying the no-poo method several more times.  I finally came across a new blog that gave me a better method to start the no-poo method.  In most of the original blogs that I read, the blogger would put a little (maybe a teaspoon to a tablespoon) of baking soda into a cup, dilute with water and then wash their hair with it.  This method never worked for me.  In this newer blog post, the blogger just used the baking soda straight and would massage it directly into her scalp/hair.  So I tried this method and it actually worked!  I was so excited that I didn't have to look like a grease head and have unmanageable hair and could still go with the no-poo method.  I'm now about 7 weeks into the no-poo style and I have to say I really like it.  I wash my hair now about every 2-5 days with the baking soda and then rinse with the apple cider vinegar.  

So here are a few pictures from when I first started out:

To answer some questions you may have regarding this method:
No, your hair doesn't stink from not washing it with a "regular" shampoo.  There can be a slight vinegar smell from the conditioner, but this doesn't bother me (I use vinegar in so many of my cleaning supplies and laundry, I have begun to equate it with a clean smell).  If it does bother you, you can also add a few drops of essential oils in the vinegar when you rinse (I've used lavender and melaleuca on mine on occasion). 
You can try a few different applications.  You can try the baking soda diluted in water and rinse or you can just put the baking soda straight onto your hair.  Go with the method that works best for your hair.  Everyone's is different.
And to answer the question I asked earlier - Natural and non-toxic tends to be more expensive because, well, let's face it, you get what you pay for, unfortunately. 

Here are a few more pictures as I've gone through the last few weeks of no-poo:

Some of the things that I really like about going the no-poo route is how cheap it is!  Baking Soda is so much cheaper than any shampoo out there and lasts so much longer.  It's also rated a 0 on EWG's website (hooray for non-toxic!).  The apple cider vinegar is rated a 1.  I also love how soft my hair feels.  It actually feels so much more healthy than when I was using regular shampoo and conditioner.  I'm amazed at how well it brushes out as well.  There are hardly any tangles in my hair and it's much nicer to brush after a shower.

If you do end up going through that transition phase with greasy hair, you can also try dry shampoo.  Simply brush (I use a large makeup brush) some arrowroot powder/cocoa powder mixture on your hair and comb through.  (For the dry shampoo, start with a base of arrowroot powder and add the cocoa powder for color; the darker your hair, the more cocoa powder you'll add.)  This will help soak up any excess oil in your hair and make it a little more manageable between washes.  And as a bonus - you'll smell like chocolate! 

So if you've seen me around the last couple of months, let me know what you think, or if you've even been able to tell that I haven't "washed" my hair.  If you've tried this method, let me know how your experience was too!

If you'd like to read more on what some other bloggers went through in their no-poo adventures, here are some good links:  
http://www.homemademommy.net/2013/10/does-the-no-poo-method-actually-work.html
http://thecrunchymoose.com/2013/07/no-poo.html
http://thecrunchymoose.com/2014/03/one-year-without-shampoo.html
http://www.healyourselfdiy.com/no-poo-method-hair/
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/04/the-best-homemade-shampoo-recipe.html
http://redandhoney.com/diy-all-natural-dry-shampoo-2-ingredients/

The Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep - http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/

Wow!  I can't believe it's already been more than a month since my last blog post!  There's so may things that I want to write about and have my little mental notes filed away, life however has kept me from sitting down to write anything new.  So here is a little catch-up entry to let you know what I've been working on...

I've had a few new ideas and requests that have come up over the last couple of weeks and if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may have seen a few sneak peeks come up.  A good friend of mine and fellow fiber artist Purple Goddess Design asked me to step out of my comfort zone and try making a soap.  So after a couple of attempts to getting the right texture, I think I found one that I like.  It's a wool wash and is perfect for washing your wool or linen items.  PGD loves it to wash her wool yarns (which are fantastic!).  Thank you Alicia for getting me out of my comfort zone.  If you are interested in any wool wash for yourself, contact me and let me know.  I'm in the process of getting everything onto my Etsy shop now, and will be posting the wool wash soon.

So that leads me into what else I have been working on.  I FINALLY have my shop on Etsy open (It only took me about 7 months or so to stock it with at least one item and get it open)!  As I said before, I am in the process of trying to get more items stocked on there.  Again, those darn day-to-day things keep popping up (do the kids and animals REALLY need to be fed again?!  And that laundry and dishes... where's that maid?  Oh wait... guess my day job is calling. Hehe!).  So if you are interested in something and don't see it just yet, please feel free to drop me a line and I'll be happy to get it on the shop so you can purchase.  I do plan on getting multiple sizes of the wool wash on there, as well as my other skin care items, some hats and headbands, and of course some of my new items - recycled market bags and barefoot sandals.  Please feel free to stop on by and have a look, let me know what you think.  https://www.etsy.com/shop/DesignsByMeganG

Here's a few new sneak peeks at my latest creations that I'll be selling on Etsy as well as at my next craft fair - Reno Earth Day.  My recycled market bags are made from old grocery/shopping bags and crocheted into a fun market bag.  I love these for the farmers markets or for trips to the beach/pool.  So versatile and I love that I get to recycle all those old bags that have piling up in my garage (and would always forget to take to the store to recycle).  Another fun project I'll be premiering at the show are these barefoot sandals.  I'll be making these in both adults and children's sizes.  The kids and I love running around barefoot, so these are perfect for us (and so pretty!).  And of course they are made with the fabulous yarn from PGD! 

Also at Reno Earth Day, my friend LeAnn will be sharing a booth with me and selling her very cool recycled bottle plates/dishes and wind chimes.  I love how crafty these are!  They are made with recycled wine/beer/liquor bottles.  Here's a little peek at what she makes:

If you are ever over in Sparks shopping, head on over to Recycled Rugrats.  I have a small display of skin care items over there for the next few months. I am one of a few featured local artists over there. They currently have all my stock items, so if you are looking for something, head on over there!  They also have great gently-used baby and kids items for sale if you are in the market. 

In addition to Recycled Rugrats, I'm also joining the Indie Reno group in a co-op store in Reno at the Great Western Marketplace.  The store will be opening later this Spring, so I will be sure to keep you updated as we get closer to opening.  I'm so excited to be joining this great group of artists!  

So with that, I must get back to making my wares for the next show... Hopefully I will be able to update the blog much sooner next time!  I have a few things I'd love to write about including some about gardening and some about cosmetics and "no-poo".  Thanks again for stopping by to read the blog!