Archive for the ‘Stuff to Get’ Category

Back in the day, when the Wee Lass was known around these parts as the Diapered Darling (or, more frequently, Demanda), I was a complete eco-vigilante about the products that were used on her. No phthalates, no parabens, no artificial dyes and fragrances, no this, no that.

There was a real reason for that; infant skin is extremely thin and permeable, and highly reactant to irritants.

But now that she’s a big kid, and busting moves in her Wednesday afternoon hip-hop classes, I’ve lightened up on the all-natural front. And I don’t know that that’s especially brilliant of me. In fact, I’m pretty sure it isn’t.

That’s why I’ve invited Wendy Lucas, General Manager of Desert Essence – the much beloved all-natural personal care line – to be my special blog guest today.

Wendy and her team have just developed a really lovely organic baby and nursery line, so I knew she’d be the perfect person to shame me into doing right by my daughter.

So let’s all give a warm welcome to Wendy, and dive into a little Q & A.

MOMOVER LADY: Now that my tot isn’t so little – 5 1/2, to be exact – the products in her bathroom are a mix of “good” stuff and “bad” stuff. From your research in developing this new baby range for Desert Essence, do you believe that it’s important to stay vigilant about using the good stuff – even for kids who aren’t babies anymore?

WENDY: It’s very important to keep using natural products on children, as they’re in a period of growth and development all the way through their teen years. Once your children are teens, it will be hard to control everything they use. If you set them up using natural products, you’ve set up a healthy foundation for them. I have a 5 1/2-year old myself, and as long as I pick what she uses, I stay with natural and organic products because her skin is still delicate. Once she’s a teenager, she’ll probably use whatever she likes best. I sure hope she likes Desert Essence best!

MOMOVER LADY: If you had to pick the product that is most important for moms to go the natural route with, what would that be? Diaper cream? Body lotion?

WENDY: I think anything that stays on a baby’s skin is very important, so body lotion and body oil for massage. Diaper Rash Cream is probably the most important, as it’s applied many times during the day.

MOMOVER LADY: You’ve been in beauty a long time. Did you ever think you’d see the day when you’d be creating topically applied personal care products that are nut-, wheat- and soy-free? Navigating the allergy mine-field seems trickier than ever.

WENDY: I’ve worked in both mass and now natural products, so no, I didn’t think I’d be navigating such stringent restrictions on personal care products. At the same time I joined the natural business, I had a beautiful baby girl who happens to be extremely sensitive to additives in products. My other daughter’s best friend is highly allergic and his mom has to bring everything from home for him to eat wherever they go.

I think that any company that can help these moms find products that contain limited ingredients – and perform – are the companies I want to be around and support.

MOMOVER LADY: I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for setting me straight. The Wee Lass’s bathroom is getting an overhaul, stat.

Happily, I’ve pretty much recovered from my shoe meltdown of last week.

Why am I on the mend? Because of a Saturday shopping spree wedged between a 2pm showing of Moneyball (if Brad Pitt doesn’t get an Oscar nod, there is no justice in the universe) and dinner with Hubby. As he waited outside for me in the car, I bought three pairs of boots in 10 minutes flat.

Pretty good, right? I thought so.

I’ve been shopping at Moo Shoes on the Lower East Side for a few years now, and the selection just keeps getting better and better. While earlier I might have considered their offerings “pretty cute for cruelty-free,” I now consider them “pretty cute – period.” That’s a huge shift. And it makes me want to turn a cartwheel right here in this little ol’ home office.

Okay, so here’s what I bought, all linked-up so you can take a look-see:

1. Colorado Boot in brown by Jambu. So freaking cute. And wildly comfy. I’m gonna get them in black, too.

2. Sand Moccasin Boot in brown by Hearts of Darkness. I’d been looking for an alternative to Minnetonkas, which are real suede, et voila. I’m eyeballing the short versions as well. Possibly in off-white. My Native American ancestors would be proud. (Although theirs were definitely not faux suede…)

3. Zaney in black by Madden Girl. I’m on the fence about these. Might be too Eighties, and I hate the Eighties. But I dig the side snaps. And they were only $70 smackers, so no big deal.

Because I was completely in a panicked rush, I didn’t try on any actual shoes. (I have tiny feet, and shoes are always much trickier for me than boots.) So I intend to either head back down to Orchard Street for some more power-shopping, or take my chances online with these:

4. Chelsea Boots in black by Marais. Sharp, right? With the wood heel, they remind me of those Swedish Hasbeens clogs, only comfier. Actually, in brown, they’re even more Swedish Hasbeen-y.

And / Or:

5. Ricky K Boot from Novacas. These are a lot like the little Isabel Marant cowboy booties that the fashion world swoons over.

And something with a bit of heel or wedge, comme ça:

6. Echo Boot in black by Big Buddha. A little Prada Sport-y and après ski-ish.

7. Fantizy Boot in black by Madden Girl. I like the toe peep. I’d like to think I can still rock a tiny bit of toe-peep, especially if the rest of me is bundled up.

I just accepted my first all-grown-up digital job, so I figured I might as well throw a spotlight on my last (at least for now) hurrah for print.

And the fact that it can help you Momoverettes achieve world domination – and flatter abs – makes me super duper happy happy.

Okay, so it’s one of two special annual beauty issues of InStyle, and rather clearly and obviously, it’s called Makeover.

The other special beauty issue is called Hair, and I worked on that one, too. But this one is on the newsstands right now, thus it’s fully nab-able.

I was part of an amazing in-house team that busted its collective tush all spring to get this out. But since in-housers don’t get bylines, I wanted to tell you which pieces are mine:

Secrets To a Sexy Stomach

Start Today, Look Younger Tomorrow

The 10 Biggest Diet Mistakes

I interviewed scores of experts for these articles, too many to mention. But here’s a short list of the smarties whose brains I really picked, all linked-up so you can learn more:

Joy Bauer

Charla Krupp

Kendall Farr

Frank Lipman

Joe Dowdell

Rebekah Forecast

Also, also – clearly and obviously – there are about a million other articles in Makeover that I didn’t write. All of which are just what the mama ordered, packaged in InStyle’s crazy-addictive signature style.

While my own particular patch of New Jersey was spared during Hurricane Irene (or Tropical Storm Irene or whatever it’s called now, how about Really Horrible Storm Irene?), so many other parts of the state were decimated by flooding.

Last weekend, in fact, after a last hurrah at the town pool we go to in nearby Cranford, we were really sad to see the ruined contents of so many basements parked on the sidewalk for garbage collection.

Block after block of destroyed toys, furniture and other gear families had spent their hard-earned money on.

And I know that’s there are still plenty of folks, up and down the Eastern seaboard, whose homes are submerged by floodwaters. It’s brutal.

So here’s what you, and I, and all the other mamas with Wee Lasses can do to help: Nab this extremely hip faux shearling coat from Garnet Hill. It also comes in brown and bright blue, and is a very reasonable $69.

As part of Garnet Hill’s “Shop With Heart” promotion, for every full-price kids’ coat or jacket purchased, $20 in merchandise (up to $50,000) will go to K.I.D.S. to help the East Coast disaster relief efforts from Hurricane Irene. And you’ve got from now until October 4 to plunk down that plastic.

I’ve posted about K.I.D.S. (Kids In Distressed Situations) on the Momover Facebook page before. It’s an extremely cost-efficient non-profit that totally swoops in when trouble hits, providing brand new clothing, toys, shoes, baby products, books and more to children and families who are hammered not only by natural disasters like the storm, but other life challenges like poverty and major illness.

I encourage you to visit the K.I.D.S. website to read their mission statement. And then head right over to the Garnet Hill site and start shopping for your tots. And while you’re there, might as well pick up a little somethin somethin for yourself, right? I thought so.

Jesus. Between shoving furniture up and down staircases during the big home-office re-org, and thwacking myself hard on the shins with my trusty tennis racket, my legs are a total disaster.

Sure, it’s finally looking good here in Momover Central. And my backhand has improved. Yay! But I’m black and blue from hip to toe and I hate, hate, hate that.

If only I had some grown-up Crawlers, the genius-y bumper-pad pants created by one Kristi Clark.

Kristi’s a friend of a friend, and I don’t know her that well. But she fled the hustle bustle and grime-y grit of NYC after 15 long years – to the loveliness of Hermosa Beach – so that in and of itself is applause-worthy. “I enjoy the slower pace and the sunshine,” she told me recently. Consider me officially jealous.

But back to those pants, because the backstory is so adorable.

As it turns out, Kristi’s Oregon-based mommy – Kay – is a kick-ass sewing machine. Well, not an actual sewing machine – a Sewing Machine. So when Kristi, after watching her many nieces and nephews take tumbles and spills all over the place, decided to press Mom into service for some bumper-pad pants prototypes, Mom obliged.

“She learned to sew from my grandmother,” says Kristi, “and is old-school and extremely meticulous. She was always doing creative projects when I was growing up – Halloween costumes, prom dresses.”

Prom dresses??? If you trust your mother enough to make the frock you’ll be wearing on the biggest night of your life, she’s right up there with Miuccia Prada.

Understandably, Kristi’s had some trust issues moving her Crawlers base of operations from Mom’s cozy sewing lair in Eugene to the big, bad world. But she had to, because her super-cute line (which also includes amazing dresses hand-stitched by You Know Who) is growing really fast.

In addition to her online business, Kristi just landed her first retail account, Magpie in Manhattan Beach. Oooh, how circle-of-life is that? Girl flees Manhattan, and winds up selling her cheerful and practical bumper-pad pants to one of the hippest shops in Manhattan Beach. Fairytale-esque, I’m thinking.

You know how some peeps are real roll-with-the-times types, embracing an endless stream of new fads, trends, gadgets and gew-gaws?

I’m not one of  ‘em.

I mean, I do like to learn. And even though I’m finally – thank the frigging universe – a very happy mama camper, I’m still on a never-ending quest to tweak and improve myself. That’s why they call it Momover, folks.

But in digging out my office, and deciding what gets to continue living on my bookshelves and in the drawers of my beauteous new “Antique White” desk, I’ve been struck by the fact that the stuff I love and want to learn more about hasn’t changed a whole hell of a lot since I was in high school.

Here’s the tidy list of topics I semi-hoard books and info about:

1. Dutch genre painting: I’m obsessed with the 16th-century works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and have many gorge coffee table books of his lively, colorful and psychotically detailed paintings.

2. Français: In my office cabinet (and there’s more in storage), I have workbooks, dictionaries, CDs and DVDs by Berlitz, Rosetta Stone and Living Language. The Rosetta Stone was très spendy, nabbed at one of those handy dandy airport kiosks when a flight got delayed. I think it’s high time I finally used it. But then again, I find the Living Language materials so much more Luddite-y and compelling…

3. Fashion: I’ve been on a tear lately, snapping up advice books right and left. But the ones in heavy rotation right now are Style Evolution by Kendall Farr, That Extra Half an Inch by Victoria Beckham and I Heart Your Style by Amanda Brooks. Love.

4. Crunchiness | Grooviness | Spirituality: In addition to an alarming number of tomes by the Dalai Lama (a byproduct of my Richard Gere fixation, me thinks), I have soooo much great stuff on meditation, crystals, rituals, etc. But you really have no idea how happy I am that I unearthed my precious Angel Cards. They’d gone missing for a while, just long enough for me to forget how fun they are. There are lots of ways to use them, but I like the daily approach. You just think about something you’d like to accomplish that day, or a problem or hurdle you need to get around or over, and then pick a card from the shuffled deck. Each of them has a quality that you should focus on to help you work your magic.

Right now, it’s 7 a.m. and I have a very full day in front of me. I’ve just shuffled the deck and the card I’ve chosen is…

PLAY

Whoa. That’s wack. I’m starting a new job today.

Here’s what the Angel Cards book says about PLAY: “Maximize every moment of aliveness. Experience pleasurable involvement in all your activities and enjoy what you are doing. Have fun!”

Bingo. This is support from the universe telling me exactly what I’d already been thinking: That after a glorious summer off, I need to bring that spirit of happiness, lightness and balance into my work. I can do an amazing job and keep the stress under wraps. And still have lots of Q time for Hubby and the Wee Lass.

That’s kind of the challenge for all of us mamas, right? B-A-L-A-N-C-E.

Oh. Eminem. Gee.

In my next life, please let me come back as the Wee Lass. She and her coddled kindergarten pals have a “staggered” start to the new year at their school, so that means they’re only clocking two hours per day there until next week. I barely get through drop-off when it’s time to go back and fetch her.

Still, I’m not complaining, because she’s in one of the very bestest rooms, with a stunning view of the Hudson. And she’s right across the street from our condo now, and not at the Hoboken campus. I mean, really, how much did I whinge about schlepping her to school last year through the wind, snow, sleet and hail? A lot.

Plus, when I put my mind to it, I can be quite time-efficient. This morning, as soon as I got the urchin parked in place, I bolted to the city for a fashion press event in SoHo, and a bit of impromptu shopping directly thereafter.

I have no idea how this happened, but until today, I had yet to step a foot inside a Uniqlo. You’d think it’d have my name written all over it – super-inexpensive and very, very minimalist. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m completely stuck in a 90s minimalism time-warp, and the late great Carolyn Bessette is my style idol. I spotted her up close and personal once, at some schmancy beauty luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria, and I damn near hyper-ventilated.

So in honor of CB, I nabbed an extremely no-frills navy v-neck pullover and this down vest, which has soooooo much going for it.

Like what, you ask? Well, it’s hooded. It’s stretchy. It has extremely mama-friendly zip pockets, which you can cram with your keys and cell phone, thus keeping your hands free to swat your tot. Kidding. I’m not a swatter. A fly-swatter, maybe, but not a tot-swatter.

I’m building quite the collection of down vests, but this one from Uniqlo is all that and a big bag of Kettle chips. And if you happen to eat a big bag of Kettle chips (yum), that stretchy down will come in mighty handy.

I think I told you that I’m taking a home study course with organizing whiz Sue Rasmussen, right? With the intention of excavating my office?

Well, the re-org isn’t going well, and it certainly isn’t Sue’s fault.

Turns out that the spendy wood Kathy Ireland filing cabinets I bought didn’t fit, and had to be shipped right back. That was tons of fun. They weigh about 2000 pounds apiece and my office is on the second floor of our pad. Suffice to say that Hubby was not happy about this sitch, especially when he found out I hadn’t even bothered to measure the area in which they were intended to live.

Oops!

But according to my (imaginary) bestie Nate Berkus, not breaking out the tape measure before ordering costly and extremely heavy furniture for one’s home is a very common problem. So take that, Hubby!

Anyway, until I make other arrangements (I just ordered this gorge desk in Antique White) I really need to keep on trucking, and tossing unnecessary files, projects, etc. That way, by paring down the mountain of existing paper, I’ll make way all sorts of groovy new hobbies and obsessions! Oh, and “real” work, too. Grrr…

Yesterday, during my daily dig-out, I came across this handy little wallet card, the contents of which I’d like to share with you.

It’s a list compiled by the Environmental Working Group (that DC-based watchdog agency that monitors dodgy chemicals in our foods, beauty prods, sunscreens, etc.) of the produce we absolutely should buy organic, and those that we can purchase without worrying our pretty little heads about.

Before I get into the list, you can go here to print a PDF or download it to your phone. If you’re a Luddite like moi, you could always scribble them on the front and back of a plain white index card chopped down to wallet size.

So here it is:

High Pesticide-Load Fruits & Veggies (Buy Organic)

1. Celery

2. Peaches

3. Strawberries

4. Apples

5. Blueberries

6. Nectarines

7. Bell Peppers

9. Spinach

10. Cherries

11. Kale & Collard Greens

12. Potatoes

13. Grapes (Imported)

Low Pesticide-Load Fruits & Veggies (Aka Don’t Worry Your Pretty Little Head Abouts)

1. Onions

2. Avocado

3. Sweet Corn

4. Pineapple

5. Mangos

6. Sweet Peas

7. Asparagus

8. Kiwi

9. Cabbage

10. Eggplant

11. Cantaloupe

12. Watermelon

13. Grapefruit

14. Sweet Potato

15. Honeydew Melon

Isn’t it cool that the low-pesticide list is longer than the one of the fruits and veggies that have been sprayed to smithereens? I think so. But I’m still keeping a big bottle of my favorite produce wash on the side of my kitchen sink in case I blow it from time to time.

Because as my Kathy Ireland Filing Cabinet Fiasco clearly shows, I am not always the smartest shopper.

To celebrate the latest Mama Guru featuring fitness whiz extraordinaire LaReine Chabut, she and I have cooked up a devious little get-your-ass-moving scheme.

If you email me (DanaWood@Momover.net) and share your post-baby getting back in shape story, we’ll pick the most motivating “you go girl” tale and reward you handsomely with:

1. A copy of LaReine’s book. This one, although she’s written like a million.

2. An exercise ball sized to fit your specific bod. (Why? Because they are deeply awesome and because LaReine and I finally figured out that we first met when I included her Exercise Balls for Dummies book in a pregnancy fitness story I wrote for Cookie back in the Stone Age.)

3. The opportunity to tell the Momoverette community about your fitness routine when I host you (and go all Barbara Walters on your –s) as a Special Blog Guest. Trust me, being a Special Blog Guest is tons of fun. Just ask artist mama Tish Johnson Cook.

Okay, officially standing by to hear all about your poochy belly triumphs. And remember: It’s not about whether you look like a mom-babe. We just want to know how you’re working your way back to fighting form.

UPDATE: LaReine (big old meanie) wants me to set a deadline of next Wednesday, 8/31. So get scribbling, vacay be damned.

DOUBLE UPDATE: I’m overriding LaReine and lifting this deadline due to the hurricane and the fact that this is literally the biggest vacation time-frame of the entire year. Tell us your fitness tale whenever you can!

Welcome to Part Two of Summer 2011 Pool Paranoia!

Is it a little late in the season to be obsessing about the effects of chlorine and multi-syllabic sunscreen chemicals? Yes and no. A good chunk of the fun in the sun is already behind us, but we still have roughly six more weeks to perfect our goo-slathered drowned-rat routines.

(Plus: We’re about to take our first-ever va-cay on the Jersey Shore, and I am COUNTING. THE. SECONDS.)

Recently, as I was plastering the Wee Lass’s mug with her daily pre-camp dose of Hawaiian Tropic Baby Faces & Tender Places (her bionic nose goes bonkers over the lovely scent), several thoughts ran through my feeble brain:

1. “We’re running low on this precious Baby Faces stuff, not to mention that Panama Jack I bought in Jamaica that Hubby loves.”

2. “It’s August, can’t we just get through the next month with the drips and drabs of goo we already have?”

3. “No we can’t. But I forgot to get all freaked-out about sunscreen ingredients. What’s in this s–t? Should I nab some physical sunblocks instead of these chemical concoctions? I really need to be more freaked-out about chemicals.”

4. “Blech. I hate physical sunblocks. They sit on your skin like a wet white sheet.”

Besides the fact that I actually do speak to myself like this, here’s where it gets truly scary: Someone must have planted a chip in my head, because within 48 hours of conducting this internal rant, a big box of physical sunblocks arrived.

So last weekend at the town pool, Team Momover Lady played water-logged guinea pigs. We slathered. We un-slathered. (A few point-blank refused to disappear into the skin and could be spotted at 50 paces. None of us are down with that.)

And by the end of the day, we had some new, natural-ish, un-hyper-chemicalized friends to tag along in our beach bag.

This is what passed our cool-for-the-pool test:

From Sunbow:  SpongeBob SquarePants Sunscreen Stick SPF 45 (goes on yellow, dries clear); Dora The Explorer Sunscreen SPF 30 in a tube (goes on pink, dries clear); and Go Diego Go! Sunscreen SPF 30 liquid spray-on (goes on blue, dries clear)

From Kiss My Face: Face Factor Face+Neck SPF 30; Sun Spray Oil SPF 30; Sport Clear Spray SPF 50

Based on its core premise that our skin absorbs 60 percent of what we douse ourselves with, the Kiss My Face products contain “no nanoparticles.” That was the first time I’d seen that phrase on a sunblock, so I guess nanoparticles are the latest thing to get our knickers in a twist about.

I can’t tell you how many beauty editor presentations I’ve sat through that positioned nanoparticles as the second coming – all that great anti-aging technology, seeping right down to your cells! – but now it’s looking like they’re the utter personification of evil.

Aargh…I just want to go to my happy place. Like when I blog about the utter Zen fabulous-ness of the Kiss My Face patchouli bath brews. My my. Those are all that. But so is this nanoparticle-free sun protection.