Luna in the Stars

With the encouragement of family and friends who have heard me advocate for chemical and plastic free skin care, I am thrilled to introduce Luna in the Stars skin care products. I will be handcrafting the products I use myself, and making them available for anyone looking for eco-friendly skin care.

I will be launching Luna in the Stars with two of my favorite products: vegetable based eye makeup remover and lavender sugar scrub. Alongside the skin care products will be hand sewn reusable cotton flannel rounds that take the place of disposable cotton balls, which can be used with the eye makeup remover or to apply toner.

Luna in the Stars will be available on Small Business Saturday at RSSA Vintage & at Voici Holiday Pop Up Shop during the month of December. Both are located at 423 S Brookhurst St in Anaheim, CA.

In the meantime, cue up the elevator pitch please:

The Sunshine Grove believes in providing the most eco friendly products while cutting down on waste and the use of plastics. Whenever possible we try to source our materials locally, reducing our carbon footprint, and supporting other local businesses. We believe in nourishing our bodies from the outside with chemical free products that come from nature.

Luna in the Stars skin care products are vegetable based and handcrafted using oils without synthetic preservatives. We are proud to offer simple and clean skin care products for everyday use. Our products are packaged in glass containers that can be reused again and again. To encourage the reuse of our containers we offer a 50 cent credit on our customer’s next purchase with the return of one of our empty containers. Any paper products used for packaging are made of recycled material and can be composted.

America Recycles Day

Today we are going to talk about 3 things; recycling, our welfare and convenience. Last year President Obama’s America Recycles Day proclamation, opened with some sustainably vintage facts: “During the First and Second world Wars, Americans showed their patriotism by participating in scrap drives and salvage collections. A committed citizenry gave up their personal typewriters, joined in volunteer efforts to harvest oil-producing peanuts, and donated old tires in a nationwide push to conserve and repurpose resources vital to our common welfare.”

What it meant to recycle back in the early 20^th century is much different than what recycling means today. Back then it was about taking kitchen grease, donating it to your local war office and having it sent to a factory where it was broken down and repurposed into ammunitions. A little dark, but it fits the bill for the true meaning of recycling. These days consumers are encouraged to recycle plastics, because let’s face it, plastic is all around us. Without plastic packaging the things we buy would just spill all over the place. All jokes aside, a majority of the food, drinks and products that most Americans buy is wrapped in plastic, unwrapped at home and hopefully tossed in the recycle bin.

But then what? Remember, according to that proclamation recycling our goods is vital to our common welfare. Let me remind you that our welfare is defined as “the state of being happy, healthy, or successful.” So recycling really means convenience, right? Say you walk into a grocery store for an apple and this grocery store individually wraps their apples in plastic for your convenience. It’s been prewashed and ready to eat after you unwrap it, which makes you happy to not have to eat a dirty apple or have to find a place to wash it. It’s healthy because it’s fruit, and feels like success because you’ve just contributed to your healthy eating and it didn’t take too much effort.

The real effort came in making that piece of plastic in the first place, followed by the energy used to recycle it. When you compare the amount of fossil fuels and energy it takes for the convenience of a clean apple versus purchasing an apple just in its skin, giving it a good rinse and then enjoying it, take the second choice. It’s better for the environment.

Don’t get me wrong, I think recycling is great, but don’t give yourself a reason to recycle out of convenience. The 2013 proclamation asks for activism, for “a new generation of environmental stewards.” Today I ask you, can you go without that plastic? Can you do without the conveniences plastic has given us for the sake of being gentler on the environment?

If you are looking for a (excellent) rant about America Recycles Day, visit Tree Hugger.

It's a Blogiversary!

Have you noticed it has been quiet around here? Yeah, me too.

I have a confession to make. Last month I almost bagged up The Sunshine Grove, tossed it out and had a vision of starting over. Then a friend of mine pointed out that The Sunshine Grove was an ambiguous place. So ambiguous that it could become anything I wanted it to be. If I wanted to talk about vintage and picking up trash, and sometimes add a book review or two, I could. Why? Because The Sunshine Grove is an extension of me.

Finding the perfect content to blog about took finding me.

To be happy and satisfied with The Sunshine Grove, I needed to put more me in what I wrote. So that is what you will find. I’ll share my adventures (and failures) in being chemical free, low plastic, low waste, and more often than not, freaked out by the facts I learn. I will continue to look at the past for inspiration and ideas for living a greener life, because to me living a vintage life isn't about looking the part, but acting the part. Since I’m a sucker for furry dogs and a good book, I’ll probably share stories about those too.

It is with a hearty thank you to all my readers that I celebrate this 3^rd Blogiversary with you. Here’s looking to another year, sharing my sustainably vintage life!