A Much Better Blog

Piggy Paint Non-Toxic Eco Friendly Nail Polish In Stock

2010-09-04T03:48:06Z

Piggy Paint Non Toxic Nail Polish

We are delighted to now have Piggy Paint Nail Polish Sets in stock. Piggy Paint is a unique, non toxic, biodegradable, odorless, waterbased nail polish that you can let your little one use without fear of nasty and dangerous chemicals. They are safe for use on babies, children and even for use during pregnancy.

Brielle and Bianca love the stuff and could not wait to get their hands on a few bottles. In her enthusiasm to try all the colors, she left an open bottle on the couch and I knocked it all over the rug. This would be catastrophic with common nail polish but in this case I used Piggy Paint’s equally non-toxic nail polish remover directly on my carpet with no ill effects.

Piggy Paint is available in array of gift sets that come with 3 Nail Polishes or 2 Nail Polishes/1 Remover, in a cute organza bag. The colors range from frosty blue to bright orange and the sets are diverse enough to suit all tastes from adults through toddlers.

Sets start at $24.99 and are available now at A Much Better Store. Check them out here and use code BLOG for 10% off your order.

Hazelwood Healing Necklaces in Stock

2010-08-28T13:17:52Z

We are pleased to now offer Hazelwood healing necklaces for babies and children. They are in stock now and ready to ship.

The Hazelwood Children’s Necklace has the medicinal property of neutralizing the body’s acidity, therefore reducing it. The necklace is a traditional remedy for teething, eczema, reflux and rashes. Your child’s body’s acidity is absorbed as the hazelwood darkens. There are two sizes and fourteen colors to choose from at the low cost of $19.50 each. Order yours today!

Book Review: Organically Raised – Conscious Cooking for Babies and Toddlers

2010-08-20T19:13:42Z

adrian's lavender cupcakes with lavender swiss meringue butter cream

Do you find the idea of feeding your children processed food off a shelf distasteful? Would you rather see your baby eat food that you are willing to eat yourself? Do you think life will be easier and more fun down the road if you child grows up into a person who loves fresh produce and has a diverse palette and loves to try new foods? Do you value family time and mealtime community? Yes, yes, yes and yes? OK. Seriously, check out this book.

Organically Raised – Conscious Cooking for Babies and Toddlers by Anni Daulter is a delightful recipe book created for families who want to provide the best possible nutrition via a meal prepared with love. Like many of us, Anni had an aversion to feeding her baby shelf stable, processed baby food and began making her own which led to a prosperous fresh baby food business in LA area which resulted in this wonderful book that makes the recipes, concepts and flavors available to all of us.

More than just a cookbook, Organically Raised includes information on breastfeeding, satisfying picky toddlers and the importance of meals as a mindful way of bringing the family community together. She also includes information about herbs in baby food, organic and seasonal fare, food allergies, vegan, and gluten free issues, a handy feeding journal, and inspiring “Mama Mantras” to help parents prepare meals that nurture their children’s bodies, minds, and spirits. In addition, the book carries a cheat sheet on pantry stocking and basic equipment needed to set up the ideal kitchen.

This book will help you get your children started right with whole, fresh foods. The recipes are created with fresh, organic foods that maximize the use of color, texture and taste. Awaken your child’s taste buds with many flavors and variety rather than overcooked, chemical laden, over processed jarred food. Baby foods include purees, blends, cereals and yogurts and the toddlers enter a more adventurous area with snack foods and international flavors. These meals will not cost a fortune or take any more time to prepare than any other quick baby meal or snack.

The children are as organic as the food

One of the best features of this book is the outstanding, mouthwatering collection of images of food in addition to fantastic images of children dressed in yoga inspired clothing, baby leggings and amber necklaces that look as organic and healthy as the food. We honor our children when we include them in the preparation and meal decision making process and images of this quality will ignite more food passion than a childish cartoon recipe book.

Author Anni notes that Organically Raised is, “A hip, holistic guide that allows parents to create delicious, healthy, and organic meals for children ages 6 months to 3 years old.” I disagree. I think the book holds soups, snacks and sweets that older children, teens and adults can enjoy. Brielle is five and could not wait to pick out recipes to try. Snacks are timeless for children of all ages. While I wish I would have had this book before Brielle was born, there is no reason that I cannot make great use of it for another five years.

Organically Raised will get you out of the rut that many parents, even those with the best intentions, usually find themselves in once they find meals that work for their kids. This is an excellent book that belongs front and center in any enlightened family’s kitchen or available to any family who cares about creating healthy habits but is not sure where to start.

Resources Section:
Want to try before you buy? Test these out:
Zac’s mac ‘n’ cheese twist
Austin’s Italian sun dried tomato wheel pasta with fresh basil, capers, and parmesan cheese
Available at Amazon.com.
http://www.organicallyraisedcookbook.com
http://www.consciousfamilyliving.com
Organically Raised on Facebook

June Sale on All Potty and EC Products

2010-06-06T02:59:24Z

Get 5% off all Potty and EC products with code EC5

Use code EC5 through the end of June to get 5% off all EC and Potty products in our store. EC and potty products include organic training pants by Under the Nile, Imse Vimse and Little Beetle as well as EcaPants drop front training pants, waterproof training pants, tiny organic undies, wetbags by Bummis and more.

15% off All Native Remedy Natural Health Products

2010-06-06T02:40:38Z

Use code NREM1 for 15% off all Native Remedy products through June

Use code NREM1 through June for 15% off all Native Remedy products. Native Remedy is known for their homeopathic and herbal formulations for pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, postpartum and new baby.

How I Inadvertently Pissed Off Flickr and Lost Over 11,000 Pics of My Kids

2010-06-14T05:03:56Z

The other day I was working on Flickr tagging a picture of Brielle catching her very first fish. I hit the save button and got a funky error message. I hit the back button and tried again. A different weird error. I was sent to a login screen where it told me to set up a user name. I tried to access my user name, photostream and main account. My heart rate picked up and panic set in as I quickly realized that my account had vaporized……along with over 11,000 pictures of my children.

Why Flickr?

Mom Cry by Brielle Jolie

I started using Flickr when Brielle was about a year and a half old. I had been using a photo gallery that my brother set up for me. I had been using the gallery since I lived in Europe and had about three and a half years worth of pictures stored there.

I decided to transfer to Flickr because other members of my family were visiting the gallery to make fun of pictures of me and Brielle (true story). I know it sounds ridiculous and if it happened today I wouldn’t give a crap, but at the time I was still coming to terms with being thrown into poverty, moving a bunch of times, birth trauma, leaving all my friends behind and, oh yeah, that little ‘escaping with my life’ thing.

Being kicked while I was down was too much to bear. So I set up a Flickr account and only made the pics available to those would be happy to see them. Feeling like nobody was lurking in cyberspace to criticize our hair or clothes, I uploaded with impunity. I loved Flickr, sang their praises, tagged like a fool and upgraded to a paid pro account.

Then a few months ago, in a move that still baffles me, my brother transferred all the galleries to a new server but inexplicably decided not to transfer mine. This decision effectively wiped out the photo albums with Brielle’s baby pictures, my wedding pictures and my beloved Europe pictures.

My brother tried to console me by reminding me that the pictures are not deleted but just stored on the old server where I have absolutely no way of seeing them. I am not entirely clear on how that is helpful. It is the equivalent of losing all your photo albums in a fire but being reminded that the negatives are in a shoebox in the basement. I still can’t see my pictures (without a tremendous amount of time, money and effort).

This only served to reinforce my feelings that something as important as family photos should not be trusted to family but rather a corporation, with large servers, backups and the inability to eradicate an account. Or so I thought.

TOS…Wait…WHAT???
So I have been gleefully using Flickr since the fall of 2006. I have my pics in random files on a few different computers but I did not back up my Flickr account. I considered Flickr to BE the backup. Once they were on Flickr, I could breathe. They were safe. I trusted them with everything. I would sit down monthly, dump everything from my phone and camera and even from other people’s cameras and then tag my favorites, tag the people in the pics and breathe a sigh of relief until next month.

Here is where I went terribly wrong. I thought of Flickr as photo storage rather than photo sharing. Is there a difference? You bet. It probably doesn’t matter for my personal pics but I used Flickr to store about 5 or so pics for my website and store. Yes 5. Five out of 11,500. You do the math. I used Flickr for those pics because I was testing the front page design. It is just easier to upload to Flickr than send them to my site when trying out a number of pics.

Here is the deal. Every time someone would go to my homepage, Flickr would have to provide the pictures for people to see. On a worldwide scale, this could cost them tons of money if people use Flickr to host images for that purpose so it is clearly and expressly against their Terms of Service (TOS) which I simply never read. It just never even occurred to me that it would be a problem. I never thought twice about it. I loved Flickr, used them every day and totally forgot that those couple of images were still hosted there.

Once my account vaporized, I frantically Googled why an account would disappear. I figured it was a glitch on their end. I found they will delete entire accounts with no warning for a TOS violation. I thought “I don’t do any of those naughty things” but finally clicked on the TOS anyway. I emailed Flickr immediately (and other than a computer generated reply, I have not heard back). I still hadn’t even thought of the pics on my homepage and could not figure out what I did wrong. I honestly thought Flickr took offense with a breastfeeding or EC photo.

As the realization sunk in, I bawled. I stopped eating. I stopped sleeping. I laid awake all night long until about 5am and suddenly it hit me….it is those four lousy images on my home page (that gets about 900 stupid hits a month). I put them on last July and forgot they were even on Flickr. I checked the homepage in the morning and sure enough, the offending images were deleted.

I visited my blog and could still see the images of Brielle and Bianca and had read that Flickr will delete your account but the images are still accessible if you have the direct link. I breathed a sigh of relief. At least my 3.5 yrs of blogging was safe and the creme de la creme of pictures were still available.

'Mad Mom' by Brielle Jolie (complete with fangs and snot)

So get this. I have my own storage on my site and store. I have nine self hosted wordpress blogs. I have a hosted ecommerce store. I can store as many pictures as I need to. I did not NEED Flickr at all but I just loved using them. I was not trying to pull one over on Flickr or get free hosting. I am not a criminal or a rule breaker (intentionally).

One email from Flickr could have saved everything. One notice. One warning. One heads up. They can’t see that I have 11,500 pictures of CHILDREN and I would probably do anything in the world to save them? I would have paid five grand to save my pics. I would have done ANYTHING. I would have stayed up for a week straight saving pics and looking for offending images.

Flickr apparently prefers the “blindside” method. They have some sort of fierce ‘zero tolerance policy’, presumably to set an example from people like me who choose to blog about it. I guess. Who the hell knows why they would not give me a chance to fix it.

Needless to say, what they did was cruel, horrible and rotten. But you know what? It is their party and they have every right to kick me out (it is not the first time I have been kicked out of a club for partying too hard) . They are my pictures but they are stored on their property. Just like you can’t store a dead body at your local storage unit, you can’t hotlink images on Flickr. Their TOS were clear as could be I am just a trusting fool who never took the time to read them. It actually makes perfect sense to me now and in all honesty I SHOULD have known better. I am not saying it serves me right, but I am saying that I don’t hold a grudge against Flickr.

Where do I go from here?
That has been the primary question on my mind. I am NOT going to go through seven years of pictures (probably 13-15,000) to create sets, tags, favorites etc. It is just NOT going to happen. I wont do one year over. I might do a month or two. Seven years? Absolutely not. Ironically, the only pictures I have access to now are the hard copy photo albums from prior to 2002.

I put such an unbelievable amount of time and effort into my online storage. All gone. Wasted time. No freaking way will I do that again.

This whole ordeal has also shaken my love for the internet monoliths to the core. Can I expect the same treatment from Google and Amazon? My livelihood? Vaporized? I can understand not trusting a relative on the west coast with a server in their garage but Google? Amazon? If my darling Flickr can turn on me this quickly….then I don’t think I can trust anyone.

I logged into my blog yesterday to see what pictures are left and I see that Flickr has deleted everything. My blog is empty. That was the final straw. I have no record of the last 7 years of my life. Gone in an instant. I feel despair, depression. I feel like giving up on everything. What next? What else will I lose that I worked so hard for?

Words have come into my head like ‘catastrophe’ ‘devastating’ ‘worst thing ever’ etc. I was hit with the enormity of what I lost and felt like the world had struck me a blow of overwhelming proportions. Then I thought, OK Sheryl….seriously….catastrophe?? I am still breathing. My children are still breathing. We are all very healthy and well. We can still smile. I have all my senses and all my limbs. I am not drowning in oil. I have clean water and food. I did not watch my child die in my arms from starvation, an earthquake, a tsunami or cancer. On a global, historic scale, my distress is absurd. Its a freaking Flickr account. How many billions of people around the world would love to have the problems that I do?

On a more personal measure, I used my standard line that I use to determine if something is “worry worthy” or not. “Will it matter in ten years?”. Actually, yes, it might. I love seeing pictures of myself as a baby and young child and I appreciate the time my parents took to put together photo albums. Now both girls are going to ask, “Why don’t you have any baby pictures of us?” I am going to have to say, “Here is the zip drive. Go for it.”

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I have been seriously considering the possibility that the universe is screaming at me to STOP TAKING PICTURES! Just stop it. Why? Because every time I am looking into a LCD screen or my phone, I am not looking my kids in the eye. If I am holding a camera, then I am not holding their hand or a ball or a frisbee. If I am tagging, then I am not coloring or tickling or talking with my kids. I am the photographer not the actor. I am observing, not living.

I have occasionally seen pictures that Brielle has taken of me when I have a camera held up in front of my face or I am staring at the laptop on my lap. I thought with horror…”holy mackerel….is this how my kids see me?!?!” But I didn’t stop.

Every time I sit on the couch with my laptop and upload and tag pictures, I am not existing in the present, I am existing in the future, when I can look at the final pictures. When I am looking at the final pictures, I am living in the past when the event actually took place. The whole process serves to take me away from what is happening in the here and now. Even if I am working while the girls are asleep, I am taking away quality time from myself by focusing on pictures I took in the past and will look at in the future. It is an exercise in insanity.

The Best Book EVER

I am a huge (HUUUGE) fan of The Four Hour Work Week. Tim Ferriss is my hero (but that is another blog post). If you are not familiar with the book, the general idea is how to automate and outsource your revenue stream to free up time for stuff that gives joy and meaning to your life. I am slowly freeing up my work time but I have still been spending a ridiculous amount of time on pictures of my kids. Do you think my little girls care if I am working on my store or tagging a picture? All they see is mommy staring at her laptop instead of doing something WITH them.

I think its time to stop. Life has given me a spanking and I didn’t like one little bit, but it was a wake up call. I think someday when my girls ask where the pictures are, I can tell them that I chose to play with them rather than point a camera at them. I ~~think~~ hope they will understand. There is something exciting, scary and liberating about enjoying the moment and letting it disappear into forever. I am uncomfortably attached to the concept of clinging to every moment with my girls by capturing all of it on film. I need to rethink everything and just savor the precious moments while they happen and if my friends and family want to be part of it, they should visit. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to put my laptop away and go for a Sunday stroll with my girls to have a Mimosa and feed the ducks.

Image source: Since I don’t have any images anymore, I commissioned Brielle to do the artwork for this post.

10% off Baby K’tan Baby Carriers

2010-06-06T02:24:30Z

Bianca in the Baby K'tan last summer

Visit A Much Better Store in June for 10% off one of our favorite baby carriers, the Baby K’tan.

The Baby K’tan is a cross between a wrap and a pouch. Made from a soft, stretchy fabric that will remind you of your favorite t-shirt, the K’tan is comfortable for both you and your little one. It has all the benefits of a wrap without the actual wrapping. The double loop design is ergonomic and easy on your back. Available in eight great colors and eight sizes for a comfortable fit.

Imse Vimse Swim Diapers Now in Stock!

2010-06-05T18:15:38Z

Taking your little one to the pool just got a little easier. The Imse Vimse Swim Diaper gives your baby the comfort of a swim diaper and a bathing suit all in one. This reusable swim diaper has an excellent fit so your little one can move easily in the water. The soft elastic at the waist and legs and a PUL inner-fabric keeps everything contained. The Imse Vimse swim diapers come in four fun prints and are more comfortable and economical than disposable swim diapers. They’re ready to use , requiring no insert or diaper needed. It’s public-swimming-pool approved! The Bummis Easy Fit Diapers are priced at $13.70. Find them in stock now at A Much Better Store.

May 2010 Portraits

2010-05-27T20:17:47Z

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645176727/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645174071/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645179567/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645792946/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645178587/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645792058/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645177231/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645175313/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645175125/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645174529/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645173193/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylandbrielle/4645174321/

Today Show Babywearing Segment

2010-05-27T04:12:17Z

Have any of you seen the babywearing coverage on the Today Show? I have to say that the portion on the recall was impartial and very accurate. I also have to say…..LOVE the Moby, Boba and Ergo. (of course). I was a little disappointed that they didn’t show any babies in cradle hold or breastfeeding friendly positions. They also failed to cover how to safely wear a newborn. Those small observations aside, I am fairly pleased with the segment and I think it represented babywearing in a positive light.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy