Come On Lucy, Let's Stomp Some Grapes!

In the episode: "Lucy's Italian Movie" from I LOVE LUCY, Lucy goes to Italy to "soak up local color," stomp some wine...and stomps on a local wine stomper!! While travel to Italy and France for the vendange may not be on your list of places to jet set this weekend, grab a friend and head down to one of VA's best kept secrets - Irvington, VA between Richmond and Kilmarnock - and stomp some grapes at White Fences Vineyard. Try not to stomp on the locals...I hear they are really cool!


"White Fences Vineyard (804-761-4866) is a relatively new addition to the area, but it's already added a thoroughly entertaining annual event to Irvington's town calendar. The Irvington Stomp, a grape-stomping harvest festival, takes place this year on Saturday, Sept. 3. Dance on barrels of grapes to the tune of live beach music, while also enjoying tethered hot air balloon rides above the vineyard, farm animals, a petting zoo, face painting, hay rides, delicious barbecue and the vineyard's first-ever batch of wine." -Katherine Houstoun from Richmond.com's ONE TANK TRIPS: Irvington: "Do Nothing, or Do It All"

Richmond.com features a cool page: ONE TANK TRIPS at http://www.richmond.com/travel/index.aspx.

When gas prices aren't astronomical, this is usually a good deal and still could be if you get a group and carpool. There may be an entrance fee to partake of the wine and stomping festivities. But it's all for the fun of smushing grapes between your toes, right??

Living Green

Yesterday I was reading Utne Magazine and I fell on an article entitled "Home Chemistry: Do you know what's really in your cleaning products?" The more I am opening my eyes to being environmentally friendly, as well as friendly to my own body, articles like this POP off the page to me since my answer to the title's question was, "No." I've noticed more and more articles popping up in magazines and not just in publications like Utne but even in mags like Glamour and Real Simple all concerning being "green" in your home. According to the article: "The average American household uses 40 lbs of these chemicals [synthetic chemicals hiding in popular cleaners] each year....Consumers have little to go on beyond mandated signal words like 'danger, warning, and caution.' These words tell us what will happen with acute exposure, but nothing about long-term exposure." A friend of mine who just moved to Colorado has been a huge inspiration to me. She makes all her own cleaning products. Thinking of her I hopped online to further research making my own. I found some great sites (some easy to navigate, some filled with oodles of info that I didn't know where to click first). Check out these great sites:

Healthy Living
http://www.care2.com/

Natural Home and Garden
http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.com/

How to Make Your Own Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/344

Seventh Generation-Get $10 in Coupons
http://www.seventhgeneration.com

Utne reprinted "Good Housekeeping" tips from Natural Home and Garden (March /April issue) seen below:

All-Purpose Cleaner
1 qt warm water
1 tsp liquid soap
1 tsp borax
1/4 cup undiluted white vinegar
Mix ingredients and store in a spray bottle. Cleans: Countertops, floors, walls, carpets, upholstery

Scouring Powder
3 parts baking soda
1 part borax
Use as you would any powdered cleanser. For lighter jobs, use baking soda alone

Glass Cleaner
4 tbs lemon juice
1 gallon water
(Or use 1/4 cup vinegar and 1 qt water) This recipe came out by Consumer Reports in 1992!

Toilet Bowl Cleaner
1/4 borax (Pour into toilet bowl and let sit overnight. Then scrub)

Look Mom, we made the news!

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.

We're all feeling mighty proud 'round here today. Sigh.

Read it on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/16/computer.frenzy.ap/index.html

Shoe Fetish, or How A Grad Application Got Me to Plug A Shoe On This Blog

A dear friend is applying to a marketing graduate program, and as part of the application she is interviewing several people on their shoes. What are we wearing? What attracted us to the shoes? How do they make us feel?

I wrote a small essay on my current love, the Earth shoe. (Many thanks to Lara and Alyssa who have again inspired me to follow in their, ehem, shoe buying footsteps.) I ended up doing a little research myself, and uncovered amazing little tidbits about this brand.

• The creator, Anne Kalso, was a Danish yoga instructor who had spent time in Brazil admiring the posture of the natives. When she realized that their footprints in the sand showed their heels sinking significantly deeper than their toes, Kalso designed a shoe with a negative, or "minus,' heel that would keep the toes up and the bodyleaning slightly back, the belly pulled in, and the spine straightened into proper alignment.
  
• Apparently they were THE shoe of the 70s! The shoes got to the United States by way of a New York couple, Eleanor and Raymond Jacobs, who discovered them in creator Anne Kalso's store in Denmark and then opened their own in lower Manhattan on April 1, 1 970. That date also happened to be the first Earth Day celebrated in the United States, and to attract the crowds of eco-minded hippies cavorting in the streets, Eleanor Jacobs stuck a hand-painted sign in the window that advertised "Earth shoes." A name, and a fad, were born.
  
• After a some 20-year hiatus from the market, French-born U.S. shoemaker Michel Maynard bought the rights and resurrected the shoe in 2001.
  
• The company markets that their shoe "effectively makes you walk at a 3.7% incline on flat ground. [They] say the unique design provides a more strenuous workout that burns more calories.
  
• I thought of my dear pregnant friend Jenna, when I read this article: "Now that you are carrying such precious (and heavy) cargo, your shoes not only need to be cute - they have to be comfy, too. We tested all six pairs of slip-ons and made sure there's no need to bend down-and once she arrives, no need to put the baby down-to get dressed. Just step into them and be on your way."

I bought my first pair the other week and have been loathe to ever take them off again. So I thought I would spread the word.

Girlyman

Girlyman plays at the Gravity Lounge, Charlottesville, September 13th at 8pm. Give them a try; it certainly did not take me long to fall in love with their harmonies. They used to open for the Indigo Girls, if that gives you any indication!

67th National Folk Festival

Also, beginning this year from October 7-9, and for the following 2 years, Richmond will play host to the National Folk Festival! This is a big honor, folks, and we're going to get to hear a lot of great music. Find out more here.

VA Sustainable Future Summit

I thought this looked cool! September 13-15 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Find out more here.

Good Food

Have I told anyone how much I LOVE Good Food? "Sure, Lauren, we all love good food." What I mean is Santa Monica, CA- based radio station KCRW's Good Food broadcast. Check out the site for all sorts of fascinating stories about food and drink and the people who are obsessed with cooking and consuming it. The best part is that you can subscribe to their podcast (I find this sublimely easy to do through iTunes) and listen to it whenever you please. Give yourself an hour, and be prepared to be inspired to cook up all sorts of creative meals. And drink fine wines and unpronounceable beers.


This broadcast is what finally got me up early enough before work to head down to the farmer's market and pick up all sorts of fresh local produce. This morning, as Deb ladled cucumber-and-tomato-salad-marinated-in-balsamic-vinegar-and-olive-oil into her lunch container, she peered over at this morning's chilled cilantro cucumber soup concoction and tentatively asked for a taste. She loved it, and as she added some to her lunch, she informed me that fine, I won, I had convinced her that vegetables are divine, and meat does not necessarily a meal make! :> Just wait, I've got a plan for grilled portabellos and manchego cheese up my sleeve...

Another Limited Rebellion

So much cool info that I don't know where to start. So go to the source, Richmond designer Noah Scalin's rebellion newsletter. Check out any one of the issues and feel that silly grin spreading across your face as you realize just how many motivated, creative and (x)-conscious people there are out there.

Floyd Fest '05

This past weekend I attended my first ever music festival, the kind where great bands play nearly 24 hours/day and loads of grimy people pitch their tents and settle into a makeshift town in the middle of the country. Ohhhhh... I was in heaven! I never knew how much fun this could be! The cherry on top was headliner Ani DiFranco asking FloydFest organizers if they could fit her in their schedule, ending her tour with us in an intimate, rainy setting. I will be there next year, and am on the lookout for other fests if anyone has any suggestions. In the meantime, check out FloydFest here.

Chocolate T-shirt

Ooh, who can resist... just in time for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: www.ChocolateShirt.com. No, you can't really eat them, but beware of people who will try...