My study break shopping trip to Click: Nature Inspired / Nature Friendly

It is just too nice out to sit inside and read unclassified CIA documents or classic Spanish lit, so I made a homemade pumpkin coffee, grabbed my bike, and headed down the street with the intention of buying a broom (we only have a little hand one-- it is not cutting it) and a wall calendar.

I came home with neither, but I did score a great pair of flats at Click Shoes on Southport for 50% off. They are having a fall sale. Lauren, the buyer for the store, is amazing and does a great job filling the store with amazing pieces like the Matisse booties and the Bella Dahl tunic above. I wanted to integrate these pieces with some of the Eco-friendly finds from earlier this week.

Both the pieces from click have their own pro's:
  
Matisse boots, according to Lauren, last forever and hold up really well. Investing in quality pieces that do not need to be replaced is an environmentally friendly way to shop since in a year or six months from now you won't be tossing them out and replacing them.

The Bella Dahl tunic is made in the USA, and although I couldn't find any information on the cotton they use it's always great to support companies that make their products here.

Inspired by my study break shopping trip to Click: Nature Inspired / Nature Friendly by cloch1 featuring matisse shoes

Avant garde dress / Topshop black pants / Matisse shoes / Melissa Joy Manning diamond earrings / Brown glasses / Clare Vivier - Madeleine Petit

Friday Five: five little things I am grateful for this week

1. Elastic hair ties- These don't leave a crease in hair, which is great when I have to pull up my freshly dried hair because of the Chicago wind.
2. Iced Coffee- the taste, the ritual, the smell. It comforts me and helps me make it through long days and long articles.
3. Skype- Last night I was able to Skype a yoga class to a dear friend in Baton Rouge!
4. Pretty Paper Clips- make me smile while getting work done.
5. Epsom salts infused with lavender oil- I tend to make my own,  and these feel so great in a hot bath after a long, windy bike ride. 
Friday Five: five little things I am grateful for this week by cloch1 featuring stretchy headbands

Stretchy headband / Beauty product / Luigi Bormioli Glassware, Set of 2 Duos Coffee Mugs

New York Fashion Week: Crazy Beautiful World- keep it that way with eco-friendly fashion

Dress / STELLA McCARTNEY synthetic shoes / STELLA McCARTNEY handbag / STELLA McCARTNEY faux snakeskin handbag / Clare Vivier real leather handbag, $215 / Melissa Joy Manning clear stud earrings / STELLA McCARTNEY sunglasses / La Tropezienne 5"

Inspired by MBFW I want to do a post dedicated to designers that practice Eco-friendly and sustainable production. Not all earth friendly clothing is hippie-wear, you can find high end designer pieces. The fashion industry, for the most part, is not sustainable as is but a lot of companies are working to change that.

 Major clothing companies such as Zara and H&M are designing eco-conscious lines at an affordable price; BUT if I could splurge here are the designers I would shop:

       Clare Vivier- she does beautiful leather bags that use eco-friendly materials in the preparation and production of the bags.

       Honest by- they have amazing everything, on their website you can select various criteria                     for the products. i.e. - vegan, eco-friendly production, etc.

       Melissa Joy Manning- creates beautiful jewelry with gemstones and practices sustainable production as well.

       Shop Ethica- is one of my favorite shops I found while researching this blog. Great bags, clothes, and accessories; the colors and patterns used by the company are super fun.

      Coclico- beautiful shoes and boots made with sustainability in mind.


Link to information about second set of pictures

Pose of the week: restorative fish

School is back in full swing and for hours a day I am typing or hunched over a book. To counter the long days of poor posture, a supported or restorative fish pose feels amazing.

      Supta matsyasana

                               

Benefits:

- relaxes the nervous system

- helps relieve grief

-opens chest, spine, shoulders, and throat/ neck

Props and modifications:

- bolster or blanket rolled up and placed like picture

- can place the bolster long ways under the spine, the base will line up with your sacrum

- use a block and place it at the most comfortable height and line it up parallel with the bra line, for men, what would be your bro line.

-my favorite is to like the block up perpendicular to the  bra line with the corners of the other end resting  in the two little nooks that are on both sides of the knob that is at the base of the skull. It's like a mini massage.

- either rest in the pose or snow angel your arms for shoulder / upper back massage.

- feel free to use two blacks, one for the bra line the other for the head, or a combination of bolster/blocks

Coming into the pose:

 Take a seat on a mat or softer surface, set up your props ( it will probably take a few try's until you find the sweet spot with blocks), slowly lower yourself onto the props making any necessary adjustments, Relax!!

When you feel opened and refreshed slowly roll off the props coming to the fetal position on one side.out 

This is a great way to start or end class, or even to lay like this at home when you need a little relaxation.

                                             

Then feel free to totally accessorize or pimp your fish out

                                              

Photo3 midlifeexpress.com

Friday Five: five little things I am grateful for

1.  Gaia Adrenal Health: A friend introduced me to this herbal supplement last semester when the going got tough. The adrenal glands are involved in the release of stress hormones (cortisol), adrenal health helps the body regulate the release of these hormones.

2. Whole Foods Trail Mix Bar: I feel like a lot of trail mixes are either missing one key ingredient or have chocolate chips in it, I love the create your own at WF because I can make up fun combinations. My newest one was called Asian Invasion Kick in Yo Mouth. It had wasabi peas, seseme sticks, coconut, dried cherries, and tamari coated seeds. The lesson I learned is that shredded coconut is not ideal for trail mix it falls everywhere and is the only thing left in the bag at the end. Coconut flakes would be more ideal.

3. Dry Shampoo: This past week the door to our apt. ate part of my finger making using my right hand difficult. Washing my hair has been a pain and I have really appreciated my dry shampoo.

4. Bath Tub: What a better way to unwind, I am grateful for my white tub but would be super grateful if my tub looked like the one above, it's like a tub hammock.

5. Library: I am thankful that Chicago and Loyola have a great library and I can save oodles of money on school books as well as can read up on sustainability and design for free.










Friday Five: five little things I am grateful for by cloch1 featuring a dry shampoo

Klorane dry shampoo

Recycling furniture

When we first moved to Chicago we had very little furniture and when we went to purchase new furniture we discovered we had very little money--- dressers are dang expensive. I went to the thrift stores around the city but they were all highly picked over and overpriced. I didn't have tons of time to rebuild an old dilapidated piece so off to the suburban thrift stores I went.

I love Arlington Retail!! They have great stuff at a reasonable price, I was able to get the piece below for about $100, and it is a quality heavy piece. I look for real wood, fun details, and dove tailed drawers (my dad always said it was a sign of a well built piece).

Benefits of redoing a dresser:

1. Save money
2. Completely personalize the piece to be exactly what you want
3. Give new life to an old piece 
4. It's green- new furniture requires the use of materials and resources, often times the more affordable furniture is not as consciously made.
5. Quality pieces for less than a new lower quality piece

I knew I wanted a calming, earthy and elegant look to our room. The old doors below were some of my inspiration in color combinations. The first door is an old Indian door that now is a part of the Galapagos Safari Camp where we stayed last summer.

This is a door at the Salvaged place next to the Green Project in New Orleans- I can never remember the name of that place.

Who doesn't love Anthropologie knobs? They were my splurge on this piece, I think they ended up being a total of  $112--they had the combination of gold and silver that I wanted.

The paint color is Soothing Spring from the Home Decorators Collection

The  original dresser had this seventies shiny varnish on it so I took out my electric sander, laid down lots of old towels and sanded the shine away. It took awhile and I had to be careful not to sand off any edges or too much, but just enough so that the shine was gone and there was a slight roughness to the dresser.

After sanding I wiped it down with damp rag and prepared the paint supplies.

It took a few hours to paint, I would leave an hour between coats.

Lastly I added the knobs-- We were really pleasedwith our finished dresser. I must give credit to my dad who sat and watched a football game one afternoon and sawed off the excess end of the screw of the knob that is inside the dresser. I need to get a hot glue gun or something to cover just the very tip of the knob, the end of the screw sometimes catches my clothes and has caused a tiny hole or two.

Pose of the Week: Gomukhasana

 

Cow Face Pose-- a deep juicy pose in place of a juicy burger this Labor Day

     This morning's bike ride and this weekend's trip to Stone House Farms inspired my pose choice this week--go mooo kasana! We went on a beautiful Labor Day bike ride this morning (along with hundreds of other people) on the Lakeshore trail and during long rides I really begin to feel it in my hips and quads. This pose is always super intense for me on the outside of my hips, maybe it's from cycling or maybe it is old junk all tied up in there (partially caused by the hundreds of people on the trail that dangerously swerve into you or run out in front of you).

Although deep and juicy, some variation of this pose is accessible to everyone via a prop or modification. No, you do not have to be rocking a thong like cartoon yogi above, but maybe while you sit uncomfortably in this pose and try to focus on your breath you will relax a little or laugh when you think of doing the pose in that thong.

Gomukasana is a deep hip and shoulder stretch and really requires me to relax into the pose and focus my mind on my breath.

To Prepare:  gentle hip and shoulder openers

• ardha matsyendrasana- half lord of the fish pose 
• Marichyasana C
• Parivrtta Janu Sirsanana- wide legged seated stradle, gentle twist and side stretch reaching for the toes of one foot while opening the chest to the ceiling.
• Poschimottanasana- seated forward fold
• Virasana- hero's pose
• Haddha Konasana- seated bound angle (think butterfly)
• Dandasana- staff pose (seated with legs extended in front of you, reach through your heels to activate the backs of your legs and sit up straight while engaging the core)
• Janu Sirsana- one leg seated forward fold. 
• Uttanasana- standing forward fold

Counter Pose:

• Upavista Konansana- wide legged seated forward fold
• Adho Mukha Scanasana- Downward facing Dog
• Baddha Konasana 

Props and Modifications:

• break the pose down and do either just the arms or just the legs to start off, both feel great on their own
• if the shoulders are not opening enough for you to hook your fingers together grab a strap and drape it over your shoulder, slowly grab onto the strap with both hands and as the shoulders open walk the hands towards one another on the strap
• to allow both sits bones to root down into the ground bring a bolster or block under your seat if they do not reach the earth on their own.
• an easy way to enter this pose is to come into table top, extend the right leg behind you, cross the right leg over the left and place the r knee on the other side of the left knee so that the legs are crossed, slowly begin to sit your hips back between your feet, walk the feet out as wide as feels good (the more open the hips the wider the feet will be) you want your knees stacked on top of each other.)

This pose and I have a love hate relationship:: it hurts so good. I know I need it because I can't stand it but after surrendering and relaxing into the pose for a good number of breaths it begins to become less irritating. 





And as my fellow yogi and teacher Ben informed me: No guy ever likes gomukasana because there is just to much stuff in the way--so feel free to try different ways of coming into this pose and adjust as necessary.