Say hullo to Paranoid Pinkink (it’s been so long since I’ve been able to make anything and it feels oh so nice!) who is now inhabiting the store… check it out!
Paranoid Pinkink
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Monthly Archives: August 2009
Rayon oh Rayon
Over at Inhabitat they’ve put up a little post about the mysteries of Bamboo fabric. Apparently, in order to make bamboo the plant into bamboo the wearable fabric the fibers undergo a process involving some intense chemical. Inhabitat links over to Organic Clothing for a description of this process:
“Most bamboo fabric that is the current eco-fashion rage is chemically manufactured by “cooking†the bamboo leaves and woody shoots in strong chemical solvents such as sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide in a process also known as hydrolysis alkalization combined with multi-phase bleaching. Both sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide have been linked to serious health problems. Breathing low levels of carbon disulfide can cause tiredness, headache and nerve damage. Carbon disulfide has been shown to cause neural disorders in workers at rayon manufacturers. Low levels of exposure to sodium hydroxide can cause irritation of the skin and eyes. Sodium hydroxide is a strong alkaline base also known as caustic soda or lye. In its dry crystalline form, caustic soda is one of the major ingredients of Drano. This is basically the same process used to make rayon from wood or cotton waste byproducts. Because of the potential health risks and damage to the environment surrounding the manufacturing facilities, textile manufacturing processes for bamboo or other regenerated fibers using hydrolysis alkalization with multi-phase bleaching are not considered sustainable or environmentally supportable.”
Right now the FTC is going after a handful of companies who have been marketing their bamboo products as 100% bamboo and environmentally friendly because, at the end of this process, the bamboo fibers are not only not very environmentally friendly but they also become something known as rayon (a fiber that can be made from the cellulose in a plan or tree). Crazy huh? Inhabitat still makes a good point: “Isn’t the Rayon made from bamboo technically more sustainable than Rayon made from other types of plants that need tons of pesticides to grow and do not have the ability to regenerate as quickly?”
Yep.
The Final Countdown (but only if you sing it like Europe)
Well… it’s week eight. The last week of summer camp. Down to the last few days. Oh man it’s been a long summer. There have been marker mustaches, felted rocks, poop found in the strangest places, gnome chapels, cardboard robots, a hot dog costume, bee stings, rope swings, onesies, songs about killer rabbits and washing chickens. And that’s where I’m going to leave it. But I’m also going to leave summer camp talk behind with a few last pictures…
Zombies versus Pios…. because sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.
My short stint as “Sweet Android” the android with a mustache. I tried really hard to make it through dinner wearing that thing but it wound up disintegrating pretty hard before we finished.
The last cabin photo. And…
One of my favorites of the summer. They weren’t my favorite cabin by any stretch of my imagination, but this is a pretty sick photo.
I know I still have the rest of today, tomorrow and Saturday left, but I think this is as good a time as any to say good bye to camp and hello to regular showering, sleep and other nonsense.
Felted Bits
It’s week 6 at camp which means that it’s COLOR WEEK! I’ve been wearing some spandex in the mornings for Pio Aerobics (there’s something about making little kids do lunges all the way to breakfast that makes me giggle every time) and as much color as I can scrape together. You know how I sometimes break out the wool roving and make felted rocks? I’ve been doing some felted rocks with my cabin too for the last couple of weeks. We trek down to the beach and they each pick out a nice, round rock of their very own. Then we wash them off down by the horses, trek up to Arts & Crafts to grab a bucket for water, some googlie eyes and a hot glue gun and then walk back to the cabin and get all soapy and wet for an hour or so. The little faces they come up with are so great and wonderful! Here are some from this and last week. I love the rabbit rocks they’ve spontaneously started to make from bark chips… Mine is the little felted guy in the middle a little green head poking up from the edge. I might name him Frampton.
I hope these make you smile as much as I do…
Favorites
Camp is a place full of bizarre happenings, cute things and busy busy children. One of my favorite quotes from the past week happened during my cabin’s river swim. One of the girlies was paddling around in front of me at about waist level when she starts to prance around. “What are you doing?” I asked her. “Oh, I like to make art in the water with my pee…” she answered with a dreamy little smile. My eyes got bigger and I looked up at the life guard who is making up the other half of our supervision and we get our “Oh…. huh” faces on and try not to back away too quickly. Nice. Anywho, enjoy these pictures from the past week and a half or so.
Why not add some hair when you have all of this sweet moss lying around?!
We were playing Holy Grail tag. Essentially people can tag you on the limbs and when a limb gets tagged you lose it and so you have to hop around or tag people with your remaining limbs, whatever’s left. Think the black knight at the bridge in Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Anywho, I was down to a torso and I had to wait for someone to tag me on the back so I could join the dance party on the “out” bench.
The ragger’s ceremony that happens every Friday. For once, I don’t have any rags to tie! Last week I had two more than I wanted to do and it turned from something rewarding into a stressful mess.
Bubbles cure all evils.
The Teen XL program did an epic hike last week and this is by far one of my favorite pictures. If you put your finger over the right 1/3 of the picture you think “ahhh… what a lovely photo of people who have just accomplished something amazing” and then you take off your finger and think “OH MAN! What the…….!?? Who is that DUDE?”. That would be Like Fire. This is part of the tradition, the hiking muumuu tradition. This makes me so incredibly happy.
Looking at different kinds of sticks during our Tuesday night camp-out on the beach. I really love the questions Pio kiddies ask about things like bugs and rocks and leaves.
Like Fire with Capture the Flag warpaint.
Ace make a killing during water anarchy. Water anarchy is basically a structured water fight of epic proportions during heat waves.
Some of the felted rocks the girls and I made during our cabin time. I wanted to try this with some kids, I’ve done a ton of felted rocks on my own but it was so much fun with ten, 6-9 year-old girls… and look at their little faces! Oh man, this made my day.
You wouldn’t believe how popular Sponge Bob is. I mean really, it’s like he is the Elvis of Pio-aged children. Most arts and crafts related things are about SB, skits are about SB and pool time is all about SB. Goodness.
Etsy Shop of the Week -Lemmikkiapina-
I was looking at Kitty Genius’ blog post about Lemmikkiapina’s etsy shop and I knew I had to post about her amazing little creatures. I love the proportions of their lovely bodies and the texture of their fur and how sweet their little poses are. These make my heart melt a little… no, wait, more than a little. I would love to buy one of her lovelies, set it on a shelf and covet it for the rest of my days.
Top Notcher
My sister has been staying with my Aunt and Uncle in New Hampshire this summer and I just found a little video of a triathalon she finished this past week. Congrats!