How can a mama keep it "diva"... in an eco-friend manner?

Allow me to be just a little bit conceited for a minute...

I'm hot! I mean really, I'm HAWT. I've always thought I was cute, but admittedly I haven't always acted like it. And since Layla was born I've let a few things fall off, mainly my self-care and pampering time.

When I was little, I remember thinking my mother was Miss America. To me, she was the prettiest woman in the world. She took great care of herself, and even still today she does. She gets her hair done regularly, does her make-up every day, and always wears the nicest of outfits. Growing up, she took me to the salon to get my hair done every week and always made sure I had nice clothes. I dress my own daughter to the nines. I make sure the ribbons in her hair coordinate with her dresses. I match her cloth diaper covers to her outfits. She always looks like a little diva-princess. Me on the other hand, I haven't deep-conditioned my hair in entirely too long... and I need a trim BADLY. I haven't had a manicure in at least a year. I haven't had a facial in even longer than that. Make-up? Fuhgettaboutit! I'm lucky if I can manage to slap some Chap-Stik on my lips in the morning. I'm ashamed of how I've neglected myself.

I want my daughter to grow up knowing it's okay to take care of yourself. It's okay to sneak in a pedicure while you're running errands. It's fine to put on make-up even if you don't have anywhere to go. It's perfectly acceptable and sometimes even necessary to give yourself a sea salt scrub during your morning shower. Yes, I make sure she's well-taken care of, but I need to do a better job of leading by example. She needs to see mommy taking care of mommy, because nobody will treat you better than you treat yourself.

I came across a wonderful company called Soul Purpose. They are a "socially responsible" company that specializes in "highly differentiated, natural and botanically based beauty and wellness products." The founder, Nadine Thompson, used to be affiliated with a similar company whose products I once used, but that company has since folded. Since Soul Purpose had her name and stamp on it, I knew the products would be great. So I placed an order for a few items and I was NOT disappointed! The products -- from the solid perfumes to the body scrubs -- are wonderful... and eco-friendly! Oh, my personal favorite is the Zanzibar Girls Club perfume and body set. That stuff is sexy, honey!

I was so impressed with the company that I even became a consultant! I think what I'll do periodically on my blog is feature a few items that I particularly love. In the meantime, you can do a little shopping at the following link:

http://www.soulpurpose.net/esuite/control/ecommerceMain?REFERRING_USER_ID=YNGSP202716

If you see anything you'd like to try, be sure to use Consultant ID# YNGSP202716 when you place your order. And you can always connect with me if you have any questions. There's absolutely no reason NOT to take care of yourself, no matter how busy life gets. I'm learning that lesson day by day.

Bag Lady, you gon' hurt yo' back!

I have a bad habit of accumulating plastic shopping bags. When I come home from the grocery store, I put my food away and end up with a huge pile of bags. Growing up we always reused them as liners for the small garbage cans in our house, so I never throw them away. However, my husband and I don't use them for trash that often. We use them sometimes to clean out the litter box, but usually when we take out the trash we dump everything into one large bag. That includes the contents of the few small trash cans we have in our house. We really don't even use those shopping bags as trash can liners, so I'm keeping all these old bags for nothing. And I don't care what kind of fancy plastic bag storage system you buy. They NEVER look neat when you put them away.

I've issued myself a challenge: no plastic shopping bags for the rest of the year.

Besides the fact that they are terrible for the environment, they are cluttering my house! So I decided simply to not use them anymore under any circumstances. Thankfully, most stores now offer reusable bags for shopping. I like to think it's because we're becoming more concerned about the planet, but truthfully the stores can save money if they encourage shoppers to reuse bags. They don't have to pay for as many plastic ones.

But now I have another problem. I'm scatterbrained and very forgetful these days and I never remember to bring my reusable bags! What do I end up doing? I end up buying more reusable bags while I'm at the store. I even tried keeping a stash of them in my trunk, just in case I decide to make a last-minute stop at Target or something (I'm an addict!). But what happens is I'll use the bags in my trunk, take my loot home, and forget to put the bags back in my car. Inevitably, when I get my next Target jones -- because I so often do -- I have no reusable bags with which to shop. And I end up buying more. Even worse, sometimes I forget they're in the car altogether (like today) and I buy new bags when there are perfectly good ones already in my trunk.

So the mountain of plastic bags is quickly turning into a mountain of reusable ones. Saving the planet as always, yet failing to save space. One of these days I'll get it together.

ETA: And it just dawned on me that even though I took the time to spread out all my bags, take a picture of them, upload them to Blogger, and type out this whole entry, I STILL didn't bother putting them in my trunk once I was finished! What is wrong with your girl?