News That's Not About Food

But important for anyone who wants to stay healthy. Check out "Ten Dangerous Household Products You Should Never Use Again." Then get busy on replacing the toxic cleaners and other products in your house with safer alternatives. Yes, it is that important!

Meanwhile, to help eliminate the plastic bag problem, here are step-by-step instructions for making inexpensive, eco-friendly totes out of old t-shirts, a great way to keep plastic garbage from suffocating our waterways.


tshirt-bag-tshirt or the emergency eco friendly bag - More DIY How To Projects

I'm Baaaaaack ...

to nag about food some more. And why not? Health care is a major topic these days. But while that debate rages on, there's plenty we can do to keep ourselves healthy. For example, check out this headline: "Vegetarians Less Likely To Develop Cancer, Say Researchers." Do yourself a favor and go read it. Now.

Reason # 1,759 Not To Eat Meat

Seriously, there have been hundreds of studies showing that eating meat, especially the red variety, is not good for anyone's health. Now there's one more, and it's pretty impressive. Here's the short version, for those who don't want to read the whole thing: Vegetarians live longer.

Need menu suggestions? There are hundreds (actually probably thousands) of cookbooks loaded with unbelievably great vegetarian recipes, like this one.

Food Matters

Lately I've been thinking that a lot of health issues could be improved if people were willing to give up some of the fast and ready-made food they eat, which are not good for all sorts of reasons. So I loved finding this fascinating article in the New York Times by columnist and author Mark Bittman (“Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating”).

Some of the statistics made my hair stand on end (Americans get more calories from soft drinks (7%) than they do from fruits and vegetables!!!). But it's nice to hear someone else talking about the benefits of eating real, cook it yourself food. Maybe I'm delusional, but I'm calling it a trend!

Don't take my word for it. Take the time -- a whole minute and a half!! -- to watch the trailer (above) for the documentary "Processed People." Want to see more? Check out the second trailer (below) -- it's barely three minutes long. Even if you're not inspired to buy or rent the DVD, just remember the bottom line: Eat Food, Not Food-Like Things!

Promote a Sister Sunday: Hello, Miss Ruby Sue!!

What’s in a name? Plenty, I think. Example: as soon as I saw the shop name “Miss Ruby Sue” I just knew the store would be filled with things that were fun and different and creative. Wow, I couldn’t have been more wrong!!

Because the offerings at Miss Ruby Sue are actually way, WAY beyond fun, different and creative. They are firmly entrenched in the “dazzling, knockout, holy cow I’ve never seen that before” category. In fact, MRS pretty much owns the entire category! Just check out Exhibits A, B and C, below:



From adorable tote bag to trendy, bib-style necklace to dazzling headpiece, it's clear that Miss Ruby Sue is all about being unique. Store founder, Lori Ward, describes her distinctive style this way:

“…a one of a kind Fashion Label with romantic vintage curiosities. Often using upcycled clothing, thrifted trinkets and extinct vintage cuts in an artful blend of melodious chic and neovictorian deconstructed elements. You may even see a little punk fun come thru as well.”

Okay, no argument here. Miss Ruby Sue’s colorfully eclectic collection of bags, accessories and body art is hard to describe. But that’s exactly what clients love about Lori’s work. Even though she’s fairly new to etsy, the shop’s had plenty of sales. And Lori gets extra credit for cultivating her over-the-top style from a conservative small town where out of the ordinary is not exactly celebrated. As she explains at her blog:

“That has been a challenge for me- that's why I'm so in love with the internet- I can reach a worldwide audience and not just locals. My work is a little eccentric for my town, but I have found people who do like that sort of look and will find me. I had a friend tell me 'you'll never sell that here- it's too expensive and eccentric.' I just smiled because I know women want to feel and look beautiful no matter what the economy is like.”

Exactly! It’s nice to know that even though the world seems to be going to heck in a hand basket, there’s a place where none of that matters. In fact, I have a feeling that just slipping into a delectable little item like “Scary Mary – funky punky princess wears hairpiece in pink and black set on headband or clip” is the perfect antidote to so many of the “woe is me” moments that come along. And for that, I just have to say “Thank you, Miss Ruby Sue!”

The Big Bag of Luck Giveaway ...

... with Carried Away: The Etsy Bag Makers Team GIVEAWAY RUNS March 13th - 23rd, 2009!!

The Carried Away Team is celebrating the lucky season and the turning of Winter to Spring with a BIG BAG OF LUCK GIVEAWAY. Visit each of our participating SHAMROCK SHOPS to find the hidden Shamrocks (exactly like the image above) or the phrase "bag of luck" hidden somewhere in their listings. Email us your list and you're in!

You can earn additional entries by making a purchase from any Carried Away team shop or by promoting this giveaway via your blog, twitter or any other means that we can verify.

BIG BAGS OF PRIZES!!!!!
1 (One) Grand Prize winner. Participants must locate all 26 (twenty six) hidden shamrocks/phrases to qualify. Winner will receive their choice of 6 (six) prizes from the list below. Winner will also receive an actual Bag of Luck shopping tote, courtesy of team member Naughty Monkeys (yup, that's MY bag, shown in the post just below this one!!). Limit one entry per email address.

1 (One) First Place winner. Participants must locate at least 5 Shamrocks/phrases to qualify. Winner will receive their choice of 4 (Four) Prizes from the list below. Limit one entry per email address.

1 (One) Second Place winner. Participants must locate at least 3 shamrocks/phrases to qualify. Winner will receive their choice of 2 (Two) Prizes from the list below. Limit one entry per email address.

The 14 (Fourteen) Remaining Prizes:
Earn one entry to win the the 14 remaining prizes by promoting our giveaway or finding at least one hidden Shamrock/phrase. The remaining prizes will be awarded singly by random number drawing from all entries that qualify as stated below. Prize won will be chosen randomly.

For full details and rules of the game, please visit the CAB team blog at:
http://www.carriedawayteam.blogspot.com

Ready to Get Lucky?

Then join Carried Away: The Big Bag of Luck Giveaway, March 13-23rd, 2009, sponsored by my terrific teammates at etsy's Carried Away Bag Team.

For details, keep an eye on the team blog -- http://carriedawaybagteam.blogspot.com -- or come back here March 13.

Meanwhile, here's a preview of one of my giveaways -- the Shamrock Reversible Shopping Tote! This is the "lucky" side, a riot of shiny shamrocks!!



And this is sturdy side -- good old industrial-strength burlap, with a few shamrocks peeking over the edge -- just for luck, naturally!



Eat your heart out, Kate Spade!!

My Bag, My Bag, My Bag, Talking 'Bout My Bag...

That title's supposed to be sung to the tune of the Temptations' "My Girl," by the way. And, yes, I do looooooove my bag. Here she is:



This might be one of those offspring that only a mother can love. I don't know for certain, because I can't be objective about it at all. Here's why:

This is the first bag I ever made out of an old sweater. It took months of trying to figure out what should go where and how ... all that stuff that now seems like a no-brainer.

But it did get finished. And it's totally impractical -- the interior is lined in lime green silk (what was I thinking??) and there are no pockets at all. The drawstring doesn't function all that well, either. But I really learned a LOT by making this bag -- plus I was emboldened by this "success" to continue tearing apart sweaters and making other things out of them. Go figure ...

The bottom line is this odd little bag will always have a place in my heart and on my shoulder. Plus, I prevented another person from ever having to wear a sweater that made it look like you had curlicues of blond hair growing on your chest. (Yes, those little golden curls were part of the original sweater -- ewwwwww!!)

My Next Victim ...

A sweet little purse. But a) there's a very faint but visible grayish mark across the front (you can't see it in the photo but it's there) and b) it's kinda boring, in that predicable, "seen this at least a hundred times, nothing new here" kind of way.

That's why I have plans to turn into something ... um, different! Really, really different. Stay tuned ...

Fringe Element: New T-Shirt in the Works

I'm not sure if it's being constructed or deconstructed. Maybe a little of both. And clearly it's not done. But I have to say, I like it a lot!!

Here's the back view:

Weight Loss 101

Back to basics -- that's the message from the latest study on weight loss and it's creating a buzz among health experts. Why? The research, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, is truly impressive, consisting of "the longest, largest and most rigorous test of several popular diet strategies."

The bottom line: after years of fad diets, new research shows that successful dieters are the ones who simply go back to the old notion of cutting calories.

The best summary I've read so far is this one in the Irish Times. Here's a small sample:

"There isn’t any one way. That is the nice thing about none of these diets in particular winning,” says Christopher Gardner, a nutrition researcher at Stanford University’s Prevention Research Center. “We don’t have any right to push low fat or low carb or high protein. If one of these approaches is more satiating, where you will not be hungry and have cravings, that is the one that will work for you."

As you might imagine, I'll have a lot more to say about calorie cutting in the very near future. In the meantime, the photo above is worth at least 1,000 words -- and if it keeps you away from fast food, it just might save you 4,000 calories!

Fame! I Has It!!

My etsy Carried Away Bag Team member, the multi-talented TILT, just featured guess who (!!) on her blog!! After all these years of writing about other people, I think this is the first time anyone has ever written about me. What an honor! Thank you, TILT.

Crafting through the Economic Crisis

Until the economy perks up, most everyone is cutting back on expenses wherever possible. But pity us poor crafters -- forced to deny ourselves the indulgences in fabric, yarn and other delights that make what we do possible!

Naturally, I was rescued from my pity party by another crafter -- the wonderful Sandy Wiseheart at Knitting Daily. As she points out in her latest post, it's possible to indulge without guilt by simply scaling back -- that is, buying just one skein of awesome yarn at a time. (I know -- the thought of one skein makes me shudder, too -- but desperate times and all that!)

Not only does your one skein purchase help the local yarn store stay in business, but it can also be made into something very cool -- especially if you have a copy of Leigh Radford's book, One Skein.

Another idea: I've read about groups of crafters who live in the same area getting together and trading items from their stash, which sounds like so much fun!

Finally, if you've never unraveled a sweater to recycle the yarn, what are you waiting for???? Here's a great tutorial. Seriously, thrift stores sell wonderful, barely used sweaters for just a few bucks. And you can get a whole lot of perfectly good yarn from one sweater. Not to mention the fact that the unraveling process is great mindless fun ... and who couldn't use some of that these days?

Caution: Genius at Work!!

Whoever invented the incredibly clever Knit Stix Knitting Needles with built-in rulers (above) gets my vote for Genius of the Year! I can't even count the number of times I've been driven to the brink by not being able to find a measuring tape or ruler when it was absolutely necessary. Chalk up another win for the creative minds in the craft community!

Drop the Diet and Lose Weight

There's nothing like finding someone who agrees with you -- especially on a touchy subject like the fact that diets don't work. But now you don't have to take my word for it ... Pam Anderson (not the boobs-bikinis-and-boyfriends Pam, this is the one who's based her career on being a great cook! In fact, she's the CookSmart columnist for USA Weekend.) has a new book detailing how she lost forty pounds -- and kept if off, hello!! -- without giving up good food.

It's hard to imagine a tougher situation than being an acclaimed food expert and trying to lose weight. So what's her secret? In two words -- common sense! After years of dieting, Ms. Anderson realized that the hunger and deprivation that go hand in hand with most diets are killers. Instead of a temporary solution (in other words, yet another diet), she changed her lifestyle -- and lost the extra pounds she'd been struggling with for years.

If you'd like to know more, here is a link to an interview, plus an outstanding and very personal podcast in which she talks openly about her lifelong struggle with weight. Great stuff, all of it! (In the interests of full disclosure, I am not receiving any compensation of any kind for recommending this book. Also, I do not know Ms. Anderson and have no personal interest in her work. I just loved what she had to say, mainly because she agrees with me!!)

Thoughts About Sugar and Why It Is Not Your Friend

Back when I was in college, I read "Sugar Blues" by William Duffy (and not by candlelight -- we had electricity, even way back then!). Ever since, I've been leery of sweets. There have been plenty of other books written on the subject and in theory the debate about whether or not sugar is good or bad rages on. I say "in theory" because the sugar and corn (makers of high fructose corn syrup) industries have powerful lobbies in Washington and there are literally billions of dollars involved. All this makes it tougher to sort fact from fiction.

So to make things easier, let's reframe the issue and put aside arguments about overall health. Instead, let's focus on weight loss -- something most of the nation is concerned about. Simply put:

If you're trying to lose weight, sugar is not your friend.

Don't take my word for it. Here's a great little summary from the Washington Post's Lean Plate Club with some excellent food for thought.

How Not To Make a Purse Pocket

The shamrock bag was nearly done. It just needed pockets. There was some byoooootiful green stretch velour that looked so great with the other fabrics. But let's just say it ain't happening.

I would post pictures of the "pockets" but they're too embarrassing. I'm not sure where I went wrong, but holy mackerel -- as nice as that fabric is, it requires a special skill that I do not possess to sew it properly. The so-called pockets look like they were made by someone who had just polished off a pitcher of martinis. Yeeeesh!

I probably should have looked for tutorials online, but somehow that only occurs to me after the disaster occurs. There seems to be a pattern developing here ...

Why I Am the Nicest Person in the World

Because I'm sharing this recipe for the Best Potato Salad in the World with you. Really ... Best. Potato Salad. Ever.

It's fast, easy and tastes amazing -- WAY better than super-sized fries! No eggs to boil, either. (To reduce the fat content, use low-fat mayo and skim or 2% milk.) Seriously, this is like a meal in a bowl -- a really good, tasty, healthy meal!

And the Losers Are ...

...the 60+ percent of our population who are overweight or obese. According to a new report in The Guardian, excess weight is likely to double the number of cancer deaths in the next 40 years. The saddest part: about one-third of those deaths are preventable with lifestyle changes, such as improved diet and more activity.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Obesity is the biggest health challenge we face and many people simply don't know that being overweight can lead to major health problems, including cancer...."

It's truly mystifying to me that people don't connect weight and health. But rather than try to figure out how that happened, it seems more productive to focus on weight loss and management.

Where to start? Admit there's a problem!! Addicts can't realistically deal with addiction until they acknowledge that they are in trouble. So start by calculating your Body Mass Index (BMI) with this handy tool from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to see if you fall into the overweight or obese categories. Then check back here for frequent updates on weight loss news. (HINT: The man in the photograph is looking in the wrong place. Weight loss does not start in the medicine chest!)

In fact, here's a great overall suggestion from the Guardian article:

"The experts urged people to stay slim and abstain from too much fast food, red meat and preserved meat, such as ham and bacon, as well as alcohol."

What does this have to do with crafting? More than you might think. Because crafting (and many jobs these days) is so sedentary, it's almost a given that you'll gain weight if that's all you're doing. And now I'm going for a walk!

A Few Words about Green Tea (Yummmmm)

My name is Marie and I'm a green tea addict. Seriously. That's not meant to mock 12-step programs -- I'm just trying to get your attention. Because I just read yet another article written by a person who tried green tea and could not stand the taste of it. My response? She did not have a good, high quality tea.

So here are two simple rules regarding green tea:

1. Buy loose tea in a real tea shop or an online source (see list below), not tea bags from a major tea distributor whose name I won't mention but it begins with an L and is found in most grocery stores. The contents of those tea bags is what's known in the tea world as "tea dust," and it is literally that ... dust and bits of tea leaves swept up from the floor of factories. (So is their black tea, for that matter, but let's just focus on the green for now.)

2. Put a scant teaspoon of tea leaves (less is truly more with green tea) in a small strainer, put the strainer over the top of a cup so the tea leaves can soak in water and pour hot (not boiling) water over them. Let the leaves steep in hot water for NO more than two minutes. Green tea becomes bitter if it steeps for much longer than that.

If you want to decaffeinate your tea, let the leaves soak for 30 seconds, throw out that water and pour new hot water over the leaves. Nearly all the caffeine is removed from the leaves during the first 30 seconds.

Still not crazy about the taste of green tea? Check out the flavored greens -- jasmine, Earl Grey, and the ones that incorporate fruit bits and/or flower petals. They are amaaaaaazing!

Why should you go to all this trouble to buy what appears to be over-priced (not really) tea that you're not even sure you like? Time for another list!

1. Green tea has profound health benefits, including the possibility of minimizing atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), reducing levels of LDL (bad)cholesterol, cutting the risk of developing various types of cancer, easing symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, neurodegenerative and liver diseases. Fewer symptoms and ailments means less money spent on doctors and medicine, right?

2. Green tea has been linked to weight loss. It's no magic bullet, because there isn't one. None. Nada. Period. (MUCH much more on weight loss in the near future.)But it does help, plus it has the other health benefits listed above.

3. The used tea leaves make an excellent mulch for your green plants.

If you don't have a great tea shop nearby, the best place to buy green tea is online. I say that because those mall chain stores (like Teavana) are pretty much considered a joke among serious tea lovers:

1. My favorite hangout -- Le Palais Gourmet (http://www.lepalaisgourmet.com). Don't be put off by the fancy name or the prices. These people are devoted to tea. And price-wise, you can get a whole lot of great tea for the price of a few of those over-sugared, 500-calorie "coffee" drinks that end up on your hips and thighs.

2. Harney and Sons (www.harney.com) have a great website, beautiful catalog and extraordinary teas that are worth every single penny.

Time for some tea. See you later!

Words To Craft By!

I subscribe to a couple of different daily feeds that supply "quote of the day" kind of things. Many times the quotes apply to those who are recovering from one addiction or another (I subscribed just in case I ever get that elusive counseling job!). But this one is so great, anyone can be inspired by it, especially people who are enjoying a life of making stuff.


"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

- Howard Thurman

No argument here!

Latest in the Pipeline and Why Organic Produce is Better than Conventional

New bag in the works, one of those ideas that just appears out of nowhere -- a triangle purse cut from two felted Jones New York sweaters. I love the shape!! All that's missing is a really great lining, which means a shopping trip to International Silks and Woolens on Beverly Drive.

For me, going to ISW is like taking a drug addict on a tour of the evidence lockers at the police station -- I'm just dumbfounded by all the amazing fabric. Not to mention an entire separate room with notions!! It's sort of like getting a preview of what it would be like to die and go to heaven (which in real life is pretty much a long shot).

Now for the health news: Check out this piece, via Yahoo News and Time magazine, explaining why produce is probably not as healthful today as it was in our grandparents' day. The money info is toward the end (last couple of paragraphs). Basically, experts tend to agree that the pesticides and other chemicals used to grow conventional fruits and veggies rob them of nutrients. So go organic!! And don't make me tell you twice, okay -- just do it. More on organic benefits later ...

Totally Off Topic

There's so much suffering in the world, it's hard to tell where to begin. But rather than dither around doing nothing, I decided to join the effort to save koalas. The tragic fires in Australia have brought the plight of these little creatures front and center. They are seriously endangered, as their habitat disappears at an alarming rate.

The same can be said of so much wildlife that this might seem like a drop in the bucket. But I just put a few drops in the bucket and so can you. Skip a few iced mochas or miss a movie or two and help give these little guys a chance by going to Save the Koalas. And do it now, okay! No excuses!!

The Messenger Bag, Chapter One

Two felted sweaters, getting ready to become the front and back of a new messenger bag. This is trickier than I thought it would be, because the bag will have a gusset (see below) and fitting it all together is a job that requires precision and patience, two things in notoriously short supply around here. Wish me luck!