October 27th-29th was a very important date for Owlpoo, as I was able to exhibit my website and show my work to all visitors. Thanks to eye of Dubai, an online portal for everything Dubai, I was given my own space and large TV screen to show Owlpoo on big screen.

It was a very sucessful event which was greatly receieved and a lot of interest was formed. Owlpoo made numerous new contacts, clients and business opportunites.

Owlpoo will shortly be working very closely with schools and now we are working constantly to create Owlpoo into education software for children.

With new inspiration, new stories will be added soon. There will also be an option to translate the stories into arabic and have an audio feature.

See below, a new set of desert character have been created. These will eventually be stories promoting wildlife in the UAE. These are organic illustrations showing the gecko, caracal, camel and falcon.

Owlpoo can’t wait for next Dubai Character and Licensing show in 2010!

www.owlpoo.com
Organic Illustration

As you rest up this Thanksgiving weekend, check out this NYTimes Opinion piece, “And the Pursuit of Happiness – Back to the Land” by Maira Kalman.  It is a fun read in support of slow, organic foods and shows pictures from Alice Waters’ restaurant, Chez Panisse, Waters’ program, Edible Schoolyard, Michael Pollan, mentions Wendell Berry, and the first Edible Schoolyard in New York City:

How Alice Waters cooks her eggs!

The cooked egg on toast

I wish I could eat at Alice Waters’ house – not only for the food, but look at those divine plates!

As you read this piece, I hope it will give you a fun opportunity to think about where your food comes from, the current food system and a slower, better alternative.

Use this blend for aiding in reducing stretch marks.

100ml of Coconut oil with 25 drops of mandarin and 30 drops of neroli essential oils is excellent for stretch marks.

Apply after showering on a daily basis.

Remember that coconut oil absorbs quickly because of it’s small molecular structure, un like other carrier oils.

INTRODUCING HIGHLANDER GROGG IN 1LB RETAIL BAGS

Warm butterscotch notes along with heroic overtones of spiced rum characterize our classic Highlander Grogg coffee. You’ll want your sea legs before brewing!
Available at organic grocers and friendly neighbourhood cafes across Western Canada! Find a location near you.

Organic farming can play an important role in countering climate change, a new report suggests today.

Use of organic methods means that the soil takes up much more carbon, which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide to boost global warming, according to the report from the Soil Association, the organic food and farming charity.

Soil is a major store of carbon, the report says, containing three times as much as the atmosphere and five times as much as forests. About 60 per cent of this is in the form of organic matter in the soil. On average, organic farming produces 28 per cent higher levels of soil carbon compared to non-organic farming in northern Europe, according to the report, and 20 per cent higher for all countries studied (in Europe, North America and Australasia).

via ‘Organic farming may counter climate change,’ report says – Climate Change, Environment – The Independent.

SAME Café … Wonderfully Different!

Radiohead tried this this with “In Rainbows” and made a killing, largely because a few people, like Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, dropped large sums of money in the donation bucket, but I bet it’s different when running a small cafe. Anyway I think this is a wonderful, generous idea. As they say it, “Instead of a cash register, a donation box is available for one to pay what they felt their meal was worth, or to leave a little more and help out someone less fortunate. If a diner does not have sufficient money to leave, they are encouraged to exchange an hour of service.”

I heard this on the radio today, maybe this is my “National Day of Listening” deed. Anyway, check it out, and if you’re in Denver give it a whirl, I’ll be headed there as soon as I can, as soon as I can spare an hour or leave a fair donation.

Are there other places out there working this way? People of the Internet, what do you know?

A book of poems would probably fail within this model.

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-9434439-new-life.phprefnum=delihayat

hand holding a fresh young plant, symbol of new life and environmental conservation

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-9434439-new-life.phprefnum=delihayat

hands, concepts, human, care, hand, planting, unrecognizable person, growth, keeping, carrying, outdoors, conceptual symbol, new life, rural scene, humus soil, symbol, environmental conservation, giving, plant, dirt, palm, small, holding, leaf, green, finger, beginnings, gardening, protection, fragility, environment, agriculture, conservation, organic, environmental, hands, concepts, human, care, hand, planting, unrecognizable person, growth, keeping, carrying, outdoors, conceptual symbol, new life, rural scene, humus soil, symbol, environmental conservation, giving, plant, dirt, palm, small, holding, leaf, green, finger, beginnings, gardening, protection, fragility, environment, agriculture, conservation, organic, environmental

quince,yellow,fruit,golden,agriculture,food,fresh,garden,green,tree,leaf,nature,ripe,organic,dieting food,fruit tree

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-9415173-quince.php

yellow quince in autumn sun

quince,yellow,fruit,golden,agriculture,food,fresh,garden,green,tree,leaf,nature,ripe,organic,dieting food,fruit tree

‘Purepact organic range’

I absolutely love these products! The smell of the products is fantastic, especially the Lavender Conditioner which is like a mini spa in a bottle. I actually consider washing my hair now to be a real treat and feel like I am being transported to my very own spa in my bathroom!
I have quite dry hair and my hair feels so soft and shiny and the fragrance stays on my hair for the whole day. Just heavenly.
Since using the products I have had comments from two members of my family asking what I have done to my hair as it looked so great. I would definitely use these products again and have already started recommending them to my friends!

{This is Your Day to Shine!}

Available at my Etsy shop:
Magic Laboratory of Fashion
All designs are © Tatiana Agapcheva, please do not copy my work.

We have far more power, more knowledge, more capacity and more beauty available to us than we give ourselves credit for.

Today, of all days, BLACK FRIDAY, let’s contemplate and ACTIVATE our true potential as PARTICIPANTS in emergence. The market is merely a reflection of our chosen reality. Through our buying choices, we co-generate change, we co-create emergence, we “altar” reality. I embrace and invite fully conscious choice and participation… YOU IN??? Let’s be conscious consumers, conscious growers, conscious weavers, conscious dancers, conscious consumers. Above all, let’s be conscious co-creators of a new world! Love ~s

Check out:  www.foodincmovie.com

‘Relax enjoy life with Zest’
ZestStreet, the premier online retailer offering the full ‘PACT’ range of luxury hair care and beauty products, has opened!
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As specialists in all hair types and conditions, ZestStreet has the perfect product range for you. Our most popular brands include; Purepact – the wonderful organic and aromatherapy range; Hypact – for hydration and protection; Impact – the top luxury range designed using the latest L.I.N.C. technology and Sunpact – for fun-in-the-sun healthy hair. Not forgetting something for the guys Menspact – trendy and cool.
‘PACT’ has built a globally renowned reputation as an independent manufacturer of high quality hair care systems for professional hairdressers and top salons. ‘visit us at ZestStreet’

The team is proud to now offer you the opportunity to buy these environmentally friendly, eco beauty, natural haircare products directly. Our aim is to provide you with a luxury salon hair care experience in the comfort of your home.

‘Shopping just got easier with ZestStreet’.

Maira Kalman wonders about the patterns of food consumption in the United States. Stop what you’re doing and read this. (Please.)

Back to the Land [And the Pursuit of Happiness Blog]

I’ve continued to use the Truly Incredible Head to Toe Body Creme on my hands, arms, feet and legs.  I’ve never used a moisturizer that leaves my skin feeling so smoothe, without leaving a heavy gunk behind.  Aunt Odie’s is lightweight.  It lets my skin breathe while it moisturizes.  I’m very pleased with the results.  I put the creme on once in the morning and can feel it working ALL day.

I’m also using the Young Eyz, especially because I have some circles under my eyes.  I work long hours at a busy restaurant, and I’m often losing sleep.  But Young Eyz lightens under my eyes, tightens around them and makes me feel like my whole face is fresh and bright.

I’ve been using both of these products for about two weeks, and I’ll keep you posted on the results as I go.  Stay tuned for my review of the Toner Serum.

I’m giggling as I write the title of this post – I am sure that you all think I have gone nutty!

Today’s post is all about our worm farm and the “liquid gold” that is essentially “worm wee”. I wouldn’t normally spend my Friday nights blogging about such weird things, however I am terribly excited and just wanted to share it with you.

12 days ago, my little person (and my big person – aka “husband”) decided to do a spot of gardening. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping (ummm – how many more cliche’s can I fit in this one?) and it was just a super day to be outside.

I realised that the ugly garden bed, and yes, I am kidding myself when I call it a garden bed as it was really just a patch of dirt with a retaining wall around it, was the ideal place to put some veggies in. Full sun, long, high fence and a space that needed “greening up”.

We spent some time planting seeds – Lebanese cucumber, snow peas and capsicums in one section. Tomato plants (little ones that had started growing already) in the space next to them. In another section, we planted some parsley seeds, carrot seeds, broad beans and gerberas (my little person picked these ones!).

Now usually, I get all excited, plant some seeds and nothing happens. This time, we made use of the worm farm that we have been running for over a year now and took out some of the super composted soil that the worms have been “farming” in for all this time. We spread this around the tomato plants, and then heaped in on top of the areas where seeds were planted. Water from our catchment bins was used to thoroughly soak the ground and then we settled in to wait. Being skeptical of my gardening abilities yet again, I did not expect to see little plants pushing through the soil after just 4 days! My little person was so excited and every day we have been out to check on their progress. Water that passes through our worm farm (as we keep them moist) is tipped on the plants every other day, and they have grown at an astounding rate over the past week. I am convinced that if we had not used the soil and “worm wee – liquid gold” from our worm farm, that they would barely be poking through the soil as I blog. The tomato plants have tripled (if not quadrupled) in size, and I expect that the flowers popping out at the moment will turn into cherry tomatoes any minute!

How the worm farm works – We have a “Can-O-Worms, a layered farm, which houses our “colony” of composter worms (different to earthworms which live deeper in the ground). The worms feed of household scraps – anything such as veggie peel, rice, leftovers, bread, newspaper, tea leaves/coffee grounds and filters,  vacuum cleaner dust, eggshells (crushed), pizza boxes/egg cartons/cardboard (soaked in water first) – and the list goes on. Great for reducing landfill, you are also creating an amazing organic fertiliser by feeding and watering the worms – all of their “castings”, the products/waste that they create from eating the scraps, is amazing to use in the garden and contains no chemicals whatsoever.

I am amazed to have just read that we can expect our colony to have around 15,000 to 20,000 worms in another year or so – I knew there were lots, but never thought it would turn out to be that many. You can buy your own worm farm from any hardware store or Bunnings, and they are great, practical presents to give to a little person or family for Christmas.

So this weekend, grab your gardening gloves, get digging and plant some veggies! Your little person will love to help and get their hands dirty – don’t worry if they aren’t planting precisely, you can always replant later when they seeds shoot (if you are concerned) and once the veggies start to grow, you have a special activity to do each day – crunch on healthy, home grown veggies! I guarantee your little person will love it, and develop a taste for fresh and healthy food, while learning that not everythign we eat comes in a little plastic package off the shelf in the supermarket!

I’m a great believer that things happen for reasons.  So the day that our regular café ran out of lunch, at 1.30pm (!!) and propelled us ( me and polly) straight into the arms of one of the best cafés in Crows Nest, didn’t surprise me in the least.  Montagu was a great find and perfectly positioned at the end of the Crows Nest piazza teetering on the edge of a cobbled lane way.  

The styling is very clever – funky but  minimalist with big and little visual statements that tie it all together.  The chalk board menus are spectacular.  Rob ( cafe and moustache owner ) says that people want touch them just to see if their real!  I love the table numbers made from the keys of an old cash register and the little ‘ art installation’ of eggs that sometimes makes an appearance on the counter. 

Montagu uses great ingredients, organic meats, breads from Brassiere, freshest salads and fabulous little apple and pear tartlets.  The BLT was declared as the best in Sydney by ‘the italian’ one Saturday morning as we prepared for a day of shopping -  not his favourite sport.  

And the coffee… well you’ll just have to go and find out for yourself – or perhaps not.  No, maybe best you don’t, after all we found it first…sssshhh.

the perfect mac

This is my content…

Say whatever you want to say here…

I need to put picture here

Sabar and Pak Agung at Bedugul, Bali

http://www.rumahtulisan.com/25/05/2009/kliping/revolusi-hijau-menjerat-petani-dengan-racun.html

Well, who would have ever thought it…  my rice plants are blooming! Here, in Tofino, in November!

I brought them inside at the end of summer – you can read about them up to that point in my September 5th blog entry.  I thought that was that – a “technical success” in that I had plants, but no actual rice.  But the plants were just too beautiful to throw out, so I brought them inside, to the south-facing window in my bedroom.

I didn’t think that the plants were doing much there, but now looking back to those September photos I can see that they have definitely bushed out.  Interestingly, I left one bucket of plants downstairs, on my heated tile floor at my front entrance: more heat, much less light.  Those plants have died.  So clearly the light is what they really need.

I haven’t paid a real lot of attention to them – not even watering them to the point of keeping them always saturated like before (I wonder if that is what has stressed them to bloom?).  But they’ve been looking great…  And then, this morning, I went for a closer look and noticed that two of the plants (of a total of  12) have little blooms coming out – and it looks like  few more will bloom soon.

So, the Tofino rice experiment is not yet over!  I don’t anticipate getting more than a tablespoon or so of rice – but even if I can start to select for a line that is more cold-tolerant and faster-maturing, well… that will be a good start.

Next year I will do two things differently:

1.  I will try to get a seed that is already from a colder climate (these were from California; I’ll see if I can get some from Japan).

2.  And now that I have a garden in sunny Port Alberni, I will move some of my plants out there to see how they do.

And you know what is the most interesting thing about this?  On this blog, I can check the stats, to find out what search terms people are using to find my site.  And you know what the most common search term that leads people here is?  “Growing rice in Canada”.  So, even though this is not being talked about a lot in the media, it is pretty clear that it is on a lot of people’s minds.

I’ll keep you posted on what happens, so be sure to check back!

No, I cannot stake a claim to organic milk.  I cannot say the farmer’s field that contained the corn, or other grains in my feed, was never sprayed with anything other than natural fertilizer.

What I can tell you is this, my hay is raised by a local Mennonite neighbor that does use natural fertilizer.  The fertilizer comes from our local dairy barns, including mine.  There are no chemicals used on any of the dairy farms.

The feed that I use is a recipe that I developed.  It is mixed at a local mill, and the grain comes from local farms.  I know of no farms that use artificial pesticides or fertilizers in this area.  My farm is never sprayed with pesticides.

My dairy animals are not given growth hormones, nor do they receive antibiotics or chemical wormers while they are in milk.

I believe that is about as close to organic standards as you can get without the USDA stamp of organic.

Thank you for your questions, I hope to cover more here, to share with others!

I have finally trained my brain to bring my own reusable bags when shopping. It only took about two years. Now that most grocery stores charge for bags, it is rare to see someone walk out the store with a cart full of plastic. Green thinkers and frugal shoppers are now on the same page. It’s a beautiful thing. 

Today I stood at the end of a long line at Loblaws. A woman at the front had full cart of groceries and forgot her bags. The cashier in a booming voice said, “Do you need to buy plastic?” The woman sheepishly whispered yes. I have been in her shoes feeling judgement ooze down the line.  Moments like that reinforce the need to bring my own bags… and why I own about 30+ of the suckers. Avoiding the dreaded plastic = no panic sweats and red flushes. (Oh…and it helps the planet.) It is not a good environmental story, but there is a bit of truth to that.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. throws away 100 billion plastic bags each year and less than 2% gets recycled.  Planet Green writes “The petroleum to make 14 plastic bags could drive a car 1 mile” and “Over 100,000 marine animals die every year because of plastic bags”.   Disturbing statistics.

It has always bothered me that I use plastic bags to buy loose produce like beans, mushrooms, and fruit. I discovered a store here in Ottawa called Nayla Natural Care that sells reusable produce bags and ordered a few to try. Turns out, they were an excellent purchase.

Steward Bags makes 100% organic cotton reusable produce bags in various sizes. Located in Cornwall Ontario, it is a growing Canadian company. Their strong mesh bags have an easy drawstring closure and are washable too. Steward Bags’ mission is to support fair trade labour, and help fund regional environmental projects.

You can find a retailer near you buy clicking here or order directly from the company. Ottawa residents can buy them this weekend at the Nayla Natural Care Open house Saturday Nov.28th from 10 am-2 pm. I will be going to pick up more to ‘wrap’ holiday gifts. (act surprised Mom) 

If you are concerned about reducing the amount of plastic in the landfills, I recommend trying this product.  Happy shopping!

Today I woke up to some Kashi Crunch cereal, plain Oikos Greek yogurt, and a little protein powder.

And left to workout, when I got home I had some lentil soup, with a multi grain cracker flat.

Today I met my friend S.R and we hung around the mall for awhile “black Friday = intense madness at the mall”. And went to see a movie, 2012 it is!

I enjoyed a nice cup a Joe from Nordstroms cafe, yes a department store with a cafe. The coffee however was a little strong for my liking but was better than any 7/11 coffee.

My 2012 review…

I’m not a movie critic, but I think I could give an honest opinion on the movie. I think they rushed the beginning, they made 3 years pass in a matter of 10mins, way to fast! And since when does the world sink after a few slight cracks? I don’t want to ruin the movie for you so ill let you decide for yourself. My rating 6/10.

A place I do want to try…

Pizza Fusion, 100% organic multi grain pizzas. Sounds good enough for me!

Thanksgiving breakfast was a crack “peanut butter” sandwich, with honey and a mini luna bar. Peanut butter& co makes peanut butter taste so good that its hard not to devour the whole jar in one sitting, I sometime hate buying it because of that very reason. However my breakfast of champions was very good and I was off to run a turkey trot in North Park

While waiting for the race to start many people bet life savings, cars, stock money, etc on me winning 1st place.

unfortunately the competition was a little harder than expected, and I took 2nd. Sorry for those who bet everything they had to live for! lol…

I had a 4.5mile finishing time of 29mins! I wanted to get under 30 and I did, so I’m thrilled!

After the run I snacked on a fullbar, pretty much a glorified rice cake. It kept me full up until thanksgiving dinner so I’m happy.

It even killed my craving for some of the delicious post-race snacks they had inside the boathouse. Who ever had one of those cinnamon rolls I want your feedback! Looked so worth the calories!

After thanksgiving dinner my family and I made a gingerbread house!

Which turned out awesome!

And crushed awesome, some for everyone!

Thanksgiving day was a blast, and today’s lesson is… Be thankful for everything, even if you dont make 1st in a race, be number 1 at work, or receive a perfect report card. Because being thankful for what you have is what thanksgivings about.