Photographer Catherine Ledner is well know for her animal portraits, alligators to zebras set against backgrounds of amazing patterned wallpaper and captured in her book Animal House.  She recently released her second book Glamor Dogs, filled with canines in some pretty cushy settings.  We should all be so pampered!

Take advantage of Chronicle’s current promotional and pick up a copy for 25% off plus free shipping though February 14th - click on their sponsor ad in the column to the right.

I’m crazy for these new Get-Set Placemats by Hello Hanna, with their cute pop-up characters that Junior can customize with the accompanying sticker sheets. Choose from Hello Robot, Hello Me and Hello Jungle. I think these would be brilliant for a birthday party - interactive decorations, what could be better?!

· Each set contains 8 placemats and 8 sticker sheets (4 designs, 2 of each)
· Placemats are printed on heavyweight uncoated paper stock
· Stickers are printed on uncoated resealable sticker stock
· Activity area on placemat backs
· Appropriate for children ages 5+

I used to be one of those people who loved to do laundry, found the process semi-theraputic and the folding calming. Somewhere along the line something changed, life got busier and work piled up. Now I wait far too long and end up faced with seriously full laundry baskets on the weekend. And I can only imagine what it must be like for large families - the never-ending chore. While lugging dirty clothes down to the laundry room on Saturday I started thinking about the detergents and whiteners and softeners and dryer sheets that go into each load and wondered what friendlier alternative products might exist. So I began to dig and here’s what I found.

At the greenest end of the detergent spectrum is the Sapindus Mukorossi, a deciduous tree found wild in north India and one of several that bear fruits that are commonly referred to as soap nuts. However, the soapnuts from the Sapindus Mukorossi tree variety have the highest saponin content - a natural detergent commonly used for cleaning (among many other things.) When the soapnut shells come in contact with water the saponin is released and suds are produced. It’s usually recommended that you use 6-8 half soapnut shells per wash - placed in a small muslin bag (or orphaned sock!) they can then be reused around four times. So a two pound bag would wash approximately 7-10 loads per week for a year.

I know it sounds completely foreign to us (nuts, if you will), but it’s the only genuinely natural laundry soap alternative I’ve found and I’m honestly anxious to give it a try. Do any of you do laundry with soapnuts? Comment on this post and share your results. Here are a few resources to learn more and purchase soapnuts.

• Pucketa Creek Soapnuts - NaturalLaundrySoap.net
• LaundryTree.com
• MaggiesPureLand.com
• Zamuta.com

Another alternative is created by the fascinating Mugwort Maggie, a work at home mother of two who lives in the woods and grows many of the ingredients that go into her handmade laundry soap. She starts with an all-natural, (vegan) plant-based bar soap which is hand grated and laid to cure in front of the wood stove. It is then mixed with a small amount of water softening natural minerals such as soda ash and hand ground to the finest powder enabling it to dissolve completely in the coldest of wash water. Her soaps are mixed to order, nontoxic, completely biodegradable, 100% free of petrochemicals, phosphates and dyes, and available in 70+ scents (think peppermint, clove leaf, lemon and grapefruit). Each 22.5 ounce, moisture-proof package of Mugwort Maggie’s Laundry Soap contains enough concentrated powder to clean an average of 48 large loads (2 scoops) in a conventional washing machine or 96 large loads in an energy efficient model.

Nellie’s All-Natural products were new to me, but another company focusing on a greener way to clean. They offer Laundry Soda created largely from soda ash and available in powder form or Laundry Nuggets. The Nuggets are individually wrapped in a biodegradable wrapper which dissolve in any temp water - you just throw the whole thing in the wash. I also like their DryerBalls which look like crazy PVC seed pods designed to reduce drying time and soften fabrics naturally without using chemical fabric softeners. As they tumble around in the dryer they lift and separate fabrics allowing air to flow more efficiently thus “reducing drying time up to 25%.”

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day is another company making “environmentally friendly, biodegradable cleaning products” including liquid laundry detergent, fabric softern, dryer sheet and stain remover. They have provided an extensive amount of environmental and safety information as it pertains to their products.

And finally, among the most commercially available lines are those created by Seventh Generation - a company that derives its name from the Great Law of the Iroquois that states, “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” They fully disclose all product ingredients including their Natural Laundry Detergent which is hypo-allergenic, free of phosphates & optical brighteners, contains no chlorine bleach and is safe for septic & greywater systems. Be sure to check out their Baby Laundry Liquid Detergent and chlorine free diapers, wipes and training pants.

“This book tells you how a group of boys and girls became interested in safety and what they did to promote safe living for themselves and for others at school, in their homes, and in the community.” And so begins Safe Living, written in 1937 and packed with great illustrations like the one below and at the bottom of this post.

I’ve had this book on my library shelf for a few years and am forever indebted to C.W. Hippler (then director of Child Welfare and Safety Education in Pasadena, CA) and Helen Burr Durfee (a Pasadena elementary school teacher) for their direction in avoiding poorly covered farm cisterns, preventing my fingers from being flattened in the clothes wringer and organizing safety parades with my friends. I jest, but C.W. and Helen really did compile an impressive amount of good advice, some of it just isn’t as relevant today as it might have been in the 1930’s.

Were Safe Living written today you could pretty much be assured it would be twice as long and all of those kids would be drawn wearing helmets. Expectant parents have allot of safety info to process and to consider in transforming their homes into kid-friendly habitats. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, August is the month with the highest number of births - so I imagine right now there are more than a few moms trying to figure out how to install those tricky cabinet locks and considering the merits of wrapping the coffee table in bubble wrap.

Well, the nice folks over at First Alert are taking this opportunity to promote their broad range of home safety products and have bundled together quite a nice little selection of items, wrapped them in a security blanket (pun intended) and shipped them to me for one lucky Junior Society member!

Leave a comment on this blog post by 11:59pm on Friday, July 31st and you could win First Alert’s Security Blanket bundle with the following practical goodies. Good luck!
Thanks to all who entered - the giveaway is now closed and we have a winner.

First Alert would also like to offer up the following smart safety reminders:

Regular readers will know that I’m a fan of the kid’s line Boodalee with their beautiful graphics and keen sense of color. They’ve recently expanded their bedding patterns with coordinating wall graphics and pillows which pull together to create fantastic children’s rooms and living spaces. See the entire collection here.

I recently published a post on Chasing Fireflies‘ treasure chest of great pirate gear. Always a sucker for a thoughtfully realized theme, my inner Old MacDonald compells me to also share their barnyard of farm-centric bounty. For clarification purposes, I’ll mention that it is a hooded chicken towel (neatly rolled) in the upper left hand corner of the image and an oh-so-brilliant hen bean bag chair pictured just below the red rooster tee. E-I-E-I-Ohhhhh!

be·spoke [bi-spohk] -adjective: made to individual order; custom-made

New York based ceramicist May Luk, recently returned from studies at Kensington Chelsea College and the Glasgow School of Art, combines her love of illustration and the potter’s wheel in these gorgeous bespoke silhouette plates. They’re so elegantly crafted, revealing the hand of the artist in their slightly irregular forms and dreamy glazed brush strokes. May Luk creates these plates from profile photographs of yourself, your honey, your kidlets or your parents. A brilliant and thoughtful gift. They’re completely utilitarian, dishwasher and microwave safe but I honestly can’t imagine taking it down from the wall long enough to eat off of it.

Pirate’s booty that is. And the wonderful online shop Chasing Fireflies has plenty of it - from pirate puppets to costumes. My favorite has to be the combo shown at the very bottom of this post - they offer a beautiful Noah’s Ark set, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a kit to transform the ark into a pirate’s ship! I don’t know why it struck me as so funny, but now I can’t get the idea of animals outfitted in eye patches and bandanas out of my head. Arrrrggghhh!

Yes, ‘green’ is everyone’s new favorite color. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that pop culture is beginning to embrace eco-stewardship - I just have a little migraine from Ed Begley Jr. beating me over the head with it this week. But who knows, with hype like this maybe they’ll actually make Earth Day a federal holiday and give postal workers extra time off to garden.

Ahh, now I’ve done it. I’ve gone and made myself sound cynical. I’m really not (that much). How can I be when faced with the kind of sincere and joyful upcycling exhibited by indie businesses such as rikrak whose line of bibs and blankets, purses and patchwork is pure sunshine. Kristal Davis‘ clever use of bright vintage fabrics gives new and modern life to material that might otherwise end up in the rag bag. One item I think particularly brilliant is the reusable wrapping cloth - a product created from vintage material, crafted to beautifully wrap and re-wrap small gifts like cds and books - and in doing so prevents wrapping paper and ribbon from being trashed. A great way to green it forward.

1. quilted fabric cards, 2. cutie little tags, 3. felt gift card pouches, 4. sweetiepie little lovenote mailbox….full of lovenotes!, 5. reusable wrapping cloth part one, 6. reusable wrapping cloth part two!, 7. new card holders!, 8. little toy quilt - little ted modelling, 9. finished bibs!, 10. almost ready…iron-on heart patches, 11. little stars play mat, 12. little soft blocks

There’s a lovely online shop that’s been getting some much deserved attention in the blogosphere recently (thank you housemartin), Bailey’s, a home & garden shop at Whitecross Farm in Herefordshire, England. Their beautifully vetted selection goods are created largely from recycled goods - all of which are so brilliantly photographed you’ll want one of everything. Below is a selection from the kid’s department - a mini band set, bear coat hangers, rope ladder, jump rope, over-sized dice and wooden xylophone.

Also noteworthy are Bailey’s bird offerings including an apple feeder, peanut cage (shown with sheep’s wool for nest building), nesting pods and edible peanut wreaths.