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~ Live green Promote green Business/Political Action, ~ pop culture

Fashion tips … Handbags

11/14/2022 Nativegrl77

7 Tricks to Ensure Your Handbags Will Last for Years

November 8, 2014

By Allyson Payer

We’re more willing to splurge on a beautiful designer handbag than on any other wardrobe component, justifying our purchase by saying, “Well, this’ll last me for years,” which brings us to today’s subject: learning how to preserve and properly care for these investment items. Luckily, there are a few simple steps you can take to ensure that your precious satchels are kept in mint condition for years to come.

Scroll down to see our tips, and to shop gorgeous investment bags that you’ll want to protect!

1. Protect The Material:The Blonde Salad

Want to shield your new bag from spills and dirt before they happen? Scotchgard Fabric will do the trick for fabric panels, while Scotchgard Suede and Nubuck is a great water and oil repellant for suede. Both Collonil and Chamberlain’s make great leather-protecting products. Apply product with a clean white cotton cloth, followed by a dry cotton cloth to buff. Use products regularly on heavily used bags. With any products, test a small patch on the bag to make sure it doesn’t cause discoloration.

Collonil Leather Gel

Chamberlain’s Leather Milk

2. Store Them Properly:

Le 21eme

Do your bags get tossed onto a haphazard heap at the bottom of your closet? They’ll last longer if stored the right way, ideally in an upright position in their dust bags or a cotton pillowcase. Never store them in plastic or vinyl, which traps moisture inside. Stuff your bags with scarves, sweaters, or acid-free tissue paper, or use a handbag insert made for this purpose. Cross the handles over each other to avoid wear on the bag and unclip any removable straps for long-term storage.

The Container Store Quilted Handbag Shapers

The Container Store Linen Handbag Storage Bin

3. Remove Stains the Right Way:

Athens Streetstyle

The first step is to know what type of stain you’re dealing with, as that will dictate the removal method. See specific techniques below!

Food stains: Crush white chalk and let it sit on the stain overnight. Brush off with a clean cloth in the morning.

Oil stains: Put cornstarch on the stain immediately, rubbing it in to create heat from friction, which will help the oil absorb. Brush the powder off with a clean cloth after you’ve rubbed it in—don’t let it sit on the stain.

Ink stains: If the stain is fresh, use a white eraser to immediately erase the spot, without applying too much pressure so that the color doesn’t come off. If the ink is already set, you’ll need a professional (see tip #7). An eraser also works for dirt stains.

Water stains: Blot water stains, let them dry naturally, and bring your bag to a professional for removal.

Odor removal: Keep a plastic bag filled with baking soda inside your handbag. Zip the handbag or place it in a larger bag that seals if it doesn’t zip. Keep the baking soda in the bag for one or two days to absorb the odor. Another option? Place a couple of dryer sheets in the bag for a few days.

4. Protect the Lining:

A Love is Blind

Use pouches to store cosmetics and liquids, which will protect the handbag lining from spills and keep you organized to boot. Avoid click pens at all cost, opting for pens with caps instead. Better yet, put those in your pouch too, in case of dreaded ink leaks.

Comme des Garçons Star Embossed Small Pouch

5. Keep Metal Hardware Shiny:

A Love is Blind

Do your best to keep away jewelry and zippers that could scratch your bag’s metal hardware. A go-to household item, Mr. Clean’s Magic Erasers, do a great job of cleaning up tarnished and grimy hardware.

6. Practice Routine Maintenance:

Athens Streetstyle

Here are a few best practices when it comes to daily handbag maintenance:

1. Avoid handling your bag if your hands are dirty or have lotion or cream on them.
2. Keep your bag out of direct sunlight.
3. Rotate which handbag you carry regularly so that they don’t wear out too quickly.
4. Use a suede brush to clean and revive suede.
5. Regular use of a leather moisturizer will keep the leather supple and free of cracks.
6. Wipe your bag down on a weekly basis (when in use) with a soft cloth.

7. Take It to a Professional:

A Love is Blind

For stains and wear and tear beyond your handbag maintenance skill set, take it to a handbag repair professional. Most shoe repair professionals also work on handbags. They’ll treat it for you, clean it, and restore color as needed. If your bag doesn’t have metal feet on the bottom, it’s wise to have those installed, as they’ll protect it from scratches and dirt.

Shop Investment Handbags:

A.P.C. Edith Leather Shoulder Bag

A structured black bag will take you from day to night. Bonus points for sleek gold hardware.

Chloe Large Drew Grained Leather Shoulder Bag

All the cool girls are wearing this It-bag with a cool yet classic vibe.

M2Malletier Memento Mori Bag

This slightly larger version of M2Malletier’s popular clutch style is perfect for everyday wear.

Building Block Bucket Bag

Buttery forest green leather and oversized tassels join forces to create a perfectly quirky bucket bag for fall.

Mark Cross Laura Leather Shoulder Bag

Boxy shapes are in for fall, so tap into the trend with this structured Mark Cross version.

Rag & Bone Haircalf Bradbury Small Flap Hobo

This leopard calf-hair bag makes a subtle statement and gives a luxe feel to any outfit.

Products & Services, ~ Live green Promote green Business/Political Action

Foods … they say are good for our skin

09/26/2022 Nativegrl77

READ: 10 Foods That Can Help You Get Amazing Skin

Some skin experts, like New York City-based facialist Joanna Vargas, are incorporating them into treatments to help repair the damage caused by the sun and pollution. And even if your budget doesn’t call for a spa day, you can still enjoy these benefits at home.

READ: Can Chocolate Give You Youthful Skin?

To find out how we can detox this autumn for glowing, healthy looking skin, we investigated some of the best foods to eat this season and how they can be the post-summer treatment you need right now:

(Thinkstock)

Pumpkin

D r. Stafford Broumand, associate clinical professor of plastic surgery at New York‘s Mount Sinai Medical Center, highly recommends pumpkin for your best skin ever. “Pumpkin has a high content of vitamin A and retinol is a derivative of vitamin A,” says Broumand. “Using this ingredient in its natural form delivers great benefits, such as exfoliation, repairing sun damage, post pigmentation, as well as improving texture and tone.” Create a face mask with pureed pumpkin, organic honey, a hint of lemon juice, and vitamin E oil for soothing results.

(Thinkstock)

Yams

“Yams contain a compound called diosgenin, which is a natural plant-derived steroid that is thought to have both anti-inflammatory, as well as anti-aging properties,” explains Dr. Julia Tzu, clinical assistant professor of dermatology at New York University. “In some laboratory studies, it has been found to increase cellular collagen production.”

(Thinkstock)

Beets

This root vegetable, which is at its most tender until October, features fiber, keeping you feeling fuller, longer. They may also be the secret to getting your glow on this fall. “Beets reverse dull skin by stimulating the lymphatic system, removing waste from our cells,” says Dr. Jayson Calton. “Beets can also brighten your skin because they increase the oxygen-carrying ability in the blood, adding brightness to the skin.” Calton recommends savoring beet juice or a roasted beet salad this season.

(Thinkstock)

Cranberries

Forget the canned versions. The tangy berry is best savored alone, especially if you’re looking to give your dull skin a much-needed boost. “I like cranberry for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. Plus, they are rich in nutrients,” says Dr. Elizabeth Tanzi, co-director of the Washington Institute of Dermatologic Laser Surgery. If snacking on bitter berries aren’t your thing, consider looking for skincare products that feature cranberry.

(Thinkstock)

Pomegranate

This fruit will improve your skin smoothness, elasticity, and overall look,” says health coach Lori Shemek. “Pomegranates can also help reduce acne, sun damage, and fine lines with its powerful antioxidants, which also reduces skin inflammation.” Add them to nearly any dish for an flavorful meal.

(Thinkstock)

Apples

“Apples contain many bioactive compounds, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties,” explains Tzu. “Studies have even demonstrated anti-cancer properties of apples, including those of the skin.” Go apple picking this autumn for a fun workout and enjoy the fruits of your labor all season long.

(Thinkstock)

Carrots

As with other seasonal foods, carrots feature beta-carotene, which can help protect skin against damage caused by wrinkle-causing ultraviolet rays. “Make a mask out of carrots to help alleviate blackheads and dark spots,” suggests Calton. “Simply boil carrots until soft and then mash. Add in honey, olive oil, and lemon. Leave on the face for about 15 minutes and rise. It’s also great for wrinkles.”

(Thinkstock)

Brussels Sprouts

“Brussels sprouts contain high levels of collagen boosting vitamin C,” says Shemek. “Eating this cruciferous veggie can not only give you skin that has better elasticity, but skin that feels younger and more youthful looking.” If the idea of eating these mini greens makes you uneasy, take note that the way you prepare them determines how tasty they will be.

(Thinkstock)

Plums

“Plum mixed with yogurt and honey in a mask will improve elasticity and correct any sun damage that we’ve suffered from summer,” Vargas says.

(Thinkstock)

Pears

“Pears are full of fiber and that means a slower release of sugar into the blood,” says Shemek. “Sugar means wrinkles and sagging skin. Pears are also high in vitamin C, which is a critical nutrient for collagen growth necessary for wrinkle-free, firm skin.”

Products & Services, ~ FDA/USDA ~~ Alerts & Safety, ~ Live green Promote green Business/Political Action

5 Foods Americans Eat that Are Banned Around the World- a repost from 2016-

04/15/2022 Nativegrl77 2 Comments

by The Daily Meal |

The United States government has set several rules and guidelines in place to protect us from eating potentially harmful foods. Several dishes considered real delicacies in other parts of the world, like haggis in Scotland or fugu (puffer fish) in Japan, are banned from the U.S. food market because of potential health risks. But looking at the issue from a reversed angle, there are actually several common foods eaten in America that are banned in other parts of the world.

RELATED: 11 Banned Ingredients We Eat In the U.S.

The shocking truth is that many of our favorite foods, like boxed mac and cheese and yogurt, include ingredients that other countries have established as potentially harmful for health, and therefore are banned. Clearly, mac and cheese on its own isn’t poisonous in any way, but the yellow food colorings #5 and #6 have been shown to cause hypersensitivity in children, and are therefore banned in countries including Norway, Finland, and Australia. For yogurt and other milk products, it is the rBGH and rBST that some countries are concerned with – these growth hormones are banned in several regions including the European Union, Canada, and Japan because of their potentially dangerous impacts on the health of both humans and cows.

RELATED: 10 Foods and Drinks Banned in America

Though the studies and investigations showing the possible dangers of these ingredients are not to be taken lightly, food manufactures in America surely are not trying to poison the American people. Different countries have different policies and politics when it comes to food, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) assures that it is monitoring the safety of all ingredients available for American consumers. The varying food-safety laws around the world are good reminders for all of us to be aware of what ingredients are in our foods, and not to panic, but to use common sense and mild precaution when choosing what foods we eat.

RELATED: 150 Foods Worth Traveling For

1. Olestra (aka Olean)

Olestra is a zero-calorie fat substitute created to make healthier snacks such as fat-free potato chips. But olestra has been shown to cause side effects in the form of gastrointestinal problems, as well as weight gain – instead of weight loss – on lab rats. The U.K. and Canada are two places that have banned this fat substitute from their food markets.

2. Brominated Vegetable Oil

Brominated vegetable oil (BVO), is vegetable oil, derived from corn or soy, bonded with the element bromine. It’s added to many sodas and sports drinks prevent the flavoring from separating and floating to the surface. But bromine has also been shown to alter the central nervous and endocrine systems, causing skin rashes, acne, loss of appetite, fatigue, and cardiac arrhythmia. The chemical is banned both in Europe and Japan.

RELATED: 101 Best Hotel Restaurants Around the World 2013

3. Synthetic Hormones rBGH & rBST

These two growth hormones can be found in dairy products such as yogurt and milk. The controversy with cows injected with these hormones is that several studies cite rBGH as a cause of cancer. Due to these reports, many consumers in the U.S. choose to buy organic milk and dairy products, as well as those labeled “rBGH free,” and the hormone is totally banned at milk and dairy farms and in dairy products in the European Union, Australia, Canada, Israel, and New Zeeland.

RELATED: 13 Breakfast Plates Around the World

4. Azodicarbonamide

This chemical azodicarbonamide can be found in boxed pasta mixes, breads, frozen dinners, and packaged baked goods, and is added as an instant bleaching agent for flour. In Singapore, Australia, and most European countries, this chemical is banned due to reports of it causing asthma. Azodicarbonamide is also a chemical used in foamed plastics, like yoga mats.

5. BHA and BHT

Found in cereals, nut mixes, chewing gum, butter spreads, and many other foods in need of preservation, BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) are commonly used preservatives. The National Toxicology Program’s 2011 report on carcinogens states that BHA can trigger allergic reactions and hyperactivity and “is reasonably anticipated to be a human hazard.” The preservatives are both banned in parts of the European Union and Japan, and the U.K. doesn’t allow BHA in infant foods.

Click here to see more Foods Americans Eat That Are Banned Around the World

This article is from 2016. I am not sure if things have changed or the list updated… please let me know

~ In the Library, ~ Live green Promote green Business/Political Action

In the Library ~ Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson ~ Women’s History Month

03/21/2022 Nativegrl77

repost

Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring“, an early voice for our environment in 1962

Silent Spring

See why Carson’s analysis is more relevant now than ever.

Buy Silent Spring at Amazon.com

Rachel Carson, writer, scientist, and ecologist, grew up simply in the rural river town of Springdale, Pennsylvania. Her mother bequeathed to her a life-long love of nature and the living world that Rachel expressed first as a writer and later as a student of marine biology. Carson graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College) in 1929, studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and received her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932.

She was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts during the Depression and supplemented her income writing feature articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun. She began a fifteen-year career in the federal service as a scientist and editor in 1936 and rose to become Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

She wrote pamphlets on conservation and natural resources and edited scientific articles, but in her free time turned her government research into lyric prose, first as an article “Undersea” (1937, for the Atlantic Monthly), and then in a book, Under the Sea-wind (1941). In 1952 she published her prize-winning study of the ocean, The Sea Around Us, which was followed by The Edge of the Sea in 1955. These books constituted a biography of the ocean and made Carson famous as a naturalist and science writer for the public. Carson resigned from government service in 1952 to devote herself to her writing.

She wrote several other articles designed to teach people about the wonder and beauty of the living world, including “Help Your Child to Wonder,” (1956) and “Our Ever-Changing Shore” (1957), and planned another book on the ecology of life. Embedded within all of Carson’s writing was the view that human beings were but one part of nature distinguished primarily by their power to alter it, in some cases irreversibly.

Disturbed by the profligate use of synthetic chemical pesticides after World War II, Carson reluctantly changed her focus in order to warn the public about the long term effects of misusing pesticides. In Silent Spring (1962) she challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government, and called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world.

Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and some in government as an alarmist, but courageously spoke out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. Testifying before Congress in 1963, Carson called for new policies to protect human health and the environment. Rachel Carson died in 1964 after a long battle against breast cancer. Her witness for the beauty and integrity of life continues to inspire new generations to protect the living world and all its creatures.

~ In the Library, ~ Live green Promote green Business/Political Action

In the Library … Last Call at the Oasis, by Jessica Yu – Woman’s History Month

03/11/2022 Nativegrl77

The Global Clean – Water Crisis

The Scientists in Jessica Yu‘s documentary, about the global clean-water crisis, say that half the world’s population will no have access to adequate drinking water by the year 2025. The documentary is deftly constructed and devastating, the film is a stunning eye opener that will at the very least, have you taking shorter showers and turning off the tap while you brush your teeth. – jg Vogue

Last Call at the Oasis ~ the Book … edited by Karl Weber ~ the Video can be seen on youtube … Part 1 of 6 is below

Take a look at the Trailer below …

http://www.lastcallattheoasis.com/
https://www.facebook.com/lastcallattheoasis
http://twitter.com/#!/lastcalloasis

In select theaters 5/4

Developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media, the company responsible for AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, FOOD, INC. and WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”, LAST CALL AT THE OASIS presents a powerful argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century.

Illuminating the vital role water plays in our lives, exposing the defects in the current system and depicting communities already struggling with its ill-effects, the film features activist Erin Brockovich and such distinguished experts as Peter Gleick, Alex Prud’homme, Jay Famiglietti and Robert Glennon.