DIY Debunking: Plants Don’t Always Heal
Detoxing my home and beauty regime has been an eye-opening experience. The notion of “living naturally‖a typical-part of the DIY detox, has a lot of people talking about the dangers of modern chemistry and the health and environmental benefits of using more natural products. For the most part, I agree with this. But I’ve also...
The Rapunzel Conundrum: The Delight and Plight of Having Long Hair
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!†No one has ever said these exact words to me, but I have been (jokingly) called Rapunzel at one time or another. That’s because I have long hair. From crown to end, it’s about 24 inches when it’s styled with a roller brush — meaning my natural waves are...
Understanding Labels: Preservatives, Why We Need ’em and What to Watch Out For
Everything natural decomposes. It rots and/or grows mold, and eventually returns to the earth in the universe’s greatest recycling plan. This is awesome for long-term sustainability, but not so great when you want to make something now and use it later or kill something now (plant or animal) and eat it later. Hence humans have...
Understanding the Ingredients on a Soap Label
If you haven’t read last week’s distinction between soap and detergent, you might want to do that first  as this will make more sense! Before I get started explaining the ingredients, here are three important but not related things. I’m not a chemist or a doctor. I’m a romance novelist who runs a Pagan blog...
Soap Labels: The Good, the Bad and the Dirty
Before soap labels can make sense, the distinction between soap and detergent must be made. Soap and detergent are the two main category of cleaners we use, both in home cleaning products and on our bodies. I have a natural “soap good, detergent bad!†prejudice when it comes to my skin. I decided to do...
Introduction to Label Reading on Cosmetics and Food
One of the things I’ve had to learn how to do over the past few years is read ingredients labels, and I started with packaged food. For people with sensitive systems (like me) it’s important to monitor what we consume. I’ve also had to accept that the things I put onto my body, like lotion,...
Homeopathy: What Is It and Where Does It Come From?
Last week I mentioned that stress caused my skin to go crazy. Not fun! I was itching SO BADLY that I spent an entire day surfing the net for potential remedies. I found several sites on homeopathy and how apis (bee poison) and urens urtica (stinging nettle) can be used to cure it, so when...
Jax Makes Soap!
Interesting things I’ve learned about soap… Soap is what happens when you mix melted fat (animal or plant) and lye (either sodium or potassium hydroxide). The original lye used in soapmaking was ashes from a hardwood tree (although I’m guessing what you buy at the store isn’t made that way anymore). If you make soap...
Ode to Morgan le Fay, My Cat
For two and a half years I’ve managed to not wax eloquent regarding my love for my cat, Morgan le Fay (aka Mo). Tonight, though, I sit at my desk attempting to come up with a topic for this week’s post, mind blown by the business that is life–the girls return to school, our quarterly...
According to some people, I am an accidental serial killer. Or, why I don’t believe a fertilized egg is a person.
I’m not here to start a general debate on abortion. I’m pretty darn far to the left on this issue (hey, my Norse ancestors didn’t consider a person human until nine days after they were born. Comparatively I’m downright conservative), but I can at least understand why somebody would have a more strict viewpoint than...
I’m Anti-Consumerist, Not Anti-Capitalist
Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption…Â We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace. We need to have people...
A Good, Wholesome Pagan Girl
I’ve noticed we don’t get defined this way a lot. Pagans get defaulted to “mysterious†or “rebellious†or even “tech-savvy†but not “wholesome.†I think this is a real shame. Why? Because I’m a good, wholesome Pagan girl. In fact, I think there are a lot of good, wholesome people out there who are not...
