25% Oeuf!

Use the Daily Candy code: candy25 for 25% off at Oeuf, a lovely baby/kids shop, they've got cool nose and tail sets for Halloween, darling clothes and fun toys! I adore their decor as well, this heart garland has my heart :) They stick by their fair trade ideals and help women and children in Bolivia! Feel good shopping, done.

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Get your Green Kicks, err Keds!

Keds (yes! Keds!) is back, and now they're boasting an organic line of shoes to boot (or to sneaker actually). They are affordable, wearable and will bring you right back to childhood, that will be enhanced of course if you decide to decorate yours with puffy paint or pull our your bedazzler!

(Image: from Keds site)

On the Road with Weleda

Weleda makes some lovely products (cue pen and paper for beauty buy list!), and they're taking it to the streets (in a biodiesel truck no less) to turn your routine around. Check out their site for a stop near you!

From their site:

We’re driving our Biodiesel truck from one side of North America to another to spread our message that what goes on you goes in you, and to share our wonderful products.

We will be stopping in six cities. When you stop by our truck, you’ll learn more about the benefits of natural personal care, experience our beautiful Weleda products and film your own video to be able to win a trip to our Weleda spa in NYC. Check out our home page to view all the videos and vote for your favorite one.If you can’t make it to the truck, visit our Facebook page to take our natural beauty quiz and get a coupon for $2 off any Weleda product.

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A Photographer in the Family

My lovely Mama has been taking photos forever (as seen here in Urban Branches of course) and has shared her latest project 'Barns' with us! Thanks Mama :)

Pangea Organics Day 1 {Review in Progress}

I've had blemish prone, oily skin for what seems like my entire life (ok so technically it started when I was about 12/13) and I've basically heard, tried and complained about it all. I've been do derms who've scared me outta there with treats of insane treatments, I've had my skin plucked and poked at during facials and have lived to tell the tale.

Anyone who has "troubled" skin knows how it can break your confidence, and when a product comes along promising to help build that confidence it's looked at with heavy suspicion. I received Pangea Organincs Facial Cream in the mail to review, it's been sitting on my bathroom shelf, eyeing me for weeks now.

Pangea Organics is a sweet skincare line based in Boulder, Co. (Made in Colorado too!), they support Women for Women International , print their boxes on 80% post consumer paper with vegetable inks and their products are chock full of organic ingredients. They also have a catchy 'Always' and 'Never' list that breaks things down easily: (from their site)

ALWAYS: Nurturing, Handcrafted, Organic, Fair Trade (whenever possible), and Cruelty-Free
NEVER: Petroleum, Sulfates or Detergents, Synthetic Preservatives, Artificial Colors or Fragrances, or GMOs

The box claims it is for "oily to blemish-prone skin" and the ingredients claim to regulate my oil and provide calm to my irritated skin. Sounds great! After many weeks of staring at it, I finally pumped some cream into my hands and smoothed it on my face.

Observation 1, it goes on lovely, smells heavenly and left a matte finish. Happy, check! I usually avoid lotions in the morning because they end up leaving behind an oil slick, yuck. The cream claims to "helps to calm surface inflammation while nourishing and protecting with powerful antioxidants and essential fatty acids that help revitalize and restore damaged skin." It's only day 1 but I am a happy girl so far! Update to follow...

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Milk It

I know I've been a bad blogger lately, I've been busy out and about with Juliette, going out of town on the weekends and catching up during the week on what seems like endless errands and chores around the house. I promise I'll be posting again soon, lots of reviews to come as well as inspiring photos, recipes and more!

Ok, now that that is out of the way, I am still nursing at night and while doing so, I do a lot of online reading via my blackberry, and last night I was skimming HuffingtonPost and read a great, easy to read and understand article about the different kinds of milk and the pros and cons to all. We currently drink Cow's milk, grass-fed of course. I've thought about swapping to almond or rice, but notice their protein content is very low, and since we're not huge meat eaters (a few times a month at most) we need the protein where we can find it. So for now we're sticking to Cow's milk, but I am going to be checking out Hemp milk soon, review to come!

Check out this article: Hemp,Rice, Raw and More: A Guide to Milk and the Planet and pass it along, has great concise tips for choosing your milk of choice.

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Time to make something from scratch

Put away those box mixes with tons of extra (and often undesirable) ingredients and make something from scratch. I flipped through one of Juliette's "kid cookbooks" and whipped up a batch of Applesauce & Banana Oatbran muffins this afternoon. And yes I've already eaten 2 myself. So pull out a favorite cookbook, ask a loved one for a good recipe or check out one of my favorite food blogs Smitten Kitchen for some homemade inspiration! Oh and of course make sure your ingredients are 100% certified organic and as local as possible!