I am so thankful to have a fledgling business. Well, its not such a fledgling anymore. It has some feathers on its back and webs between its toes and is beginning to paddle along. Lime Green Monkey celebrated its one year anniversary at the 2010 Earth Day Celebration in Santa Barbara.
And, thankfully, a local paper called the Daily Sound responded to a press release, interviewed me and wrote their own write up about Lime Green Monkey and our organic cotton handkerchiefs.
http://www.thedailysound.com/results/041710snot
I am so happy to read so many positive comments about our handkerchiefs in the comments section of this article!
I also learned from history.com that an estimated 1 billion plus people will be involved in Earth Day celebrations this year! That is incredible!
There were several complaints that the Santa Barbara Earth Day celebration has become too corporate and leaves out the little guy. I would not have been able to participate if Women's Economic Ventures hadn't sponsored a booth for its green business graduates. So, I too fall in that category of little guy who would have dropped off the green revolution radar, despite the fact that I'm starting the handkerchief revolution, which is all about green if you know what I mean.
Anyway, it is a debate, because change does need to happen on a big level for us to make an impact. Yet, over and over, we hear that it is the little steps that make a difference as well, and if we don't support people and businesses in the fledgling stage of making such changes, we are missing out on future opportunities and niches of ecological friendliness.
Should I rejoice if Walmart offers eco-friendly products, or should I continue to steer clear of this mega store due to its history of low wages and exploitation of workers, and its tendency to wipe out downtown storefronts across America when it comes to town and undercuts all competition, regardless of longevity or local history? I think its all about gray. Yes, its a good thing that Walmart is going green, even if it is just based on a desire to improve corporate image to keep the bottom line strong.
I digress! Yet, tomorrow is Earth Day and this makes me very happy! Another chance to celebrate!
Kindness everyone and Happy Earth Day to you! I certainly hope we not only have it in us to save the environment, but that we take action every day.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
On the Dark Side--Thinking of Self Defense
Tonight, I met up with three friends for a self-defense intro course with Santa Barbara Women's Self Defense instructor Teri Coffee McDuffie. I've always known Teri was bad ass, but not in a tattoed, Harley Davidson riding sort of way--but in a finely-tuned-instrument-of-precision-and-power way that does nothing but raise her stature as a dignified, empowered woman who's primary goal is to empower as many women as possible by arming them with the skills of self defense, presence and confidence.
I would never joke around about her power, such as "I wouldn't want to piss her off," because that is not where her power lies. She is not flippant, or vengeful. She is about the flow of energy, and being present in your surroundings. She is about giving women the tools to defend themselves in bad situations.
I left the flyer in the car that outlines the four principles. But, in general, the tools are first and foremost, attitude. Walk with intention and awareness. Exude your big energy and most people will leave you alone, based on the basic flow of energy. This is just the opposite of walking with victimhood written in your posture, your stance, your downcast eyes.
Be present and observant in your surroundings.
I think this would be self explanatory, but it takes practice.
Learn self defense.
I plan to sign up for her 4 hour course this summer. The basic moves I learned this evening already make complete sense, but they take practice. I found myself thinking about the moves, rather than feeling them as reflexes in my body. The most common reflexes we have when faced with an assailant are unfortunately, usually the wrong reflexes: screaming, flailing arms, moving backward without intention, deer in the headlights sort of thing. I want that palm to the chin punch to be ingrained in me, like catching a ball--quick, with precision and purpose.
The number one goal is to avoid an attack all together. But, if you are attacked, the goal is to give the attacker pause, if not scare them away completely with your lion roar. Hear me roar! Actually, I hope I never have reason to roar. But if I do, I will roar! not squeak.
Escape.
Defense is about keeping your senses, getting in a few blows if necessary to ward off, scare off and break contact and then getting the heck out of dodge to a safe place, where there are people, or a business, or a general sense of order.
These are life skills to have, and a one hour intro won't do the trick. Looking forward to getting in touch with my bad ass, hear me roar side very soon.
Thank you Teri Coffee for an awesome intro!
For more about SB Women's Self Defense, you can check out Teri's website at sbwselfdefense.com or call 805.252.9099
Guys, I get the impression its just for women, but I could be wrong ;)
Signing off!
Noelle Aguayo
I would never joke around about her power, such as "I wouldn't want to piss her off," because that is not where her power lies. She is not flippant, or vengeful. She is about the flow of energy, and being present in your surroundings. She is about giving women the tools to defend themselves in bad situations.
I left the flyer in the car that outlines the four principles. But, in general, the tools are first and foremost, attitude. Walk with intention and awareness. Exude your big energy and most people will leave you alone, based on the basic flow of energy. This is just the opposite of walking with victimhood written in your posture, your stance, your downcast eyes.
Be present and observant in your surroundings.
I think this would be self explanatory, but it takes practice.
Learn self defense.
I plan to sign up for her 4 hour course this summer. The basic moves I learned this evening already make complete sense, but they take practice. I found myself thinking about the moves, rather than feeling them as reflexes in my body. The most common reflexes we have when faced with an assailant are unfortunately, usually the wrong reflexes: screaming, flailing arms, moving backward without intention, deer in the headlights sort of thing. I want that palm to the chin punch to be ingrained in me, like catching a ball--quick, with precision and purpose.
The number one goal is to avoid an attack all together. But, if you are attacked, the goal is to give the attacker pause, if not scare them away completely with your lion roar. Hear me roar! Actually, I hope I never have reason to roar. But if I do, I will roar! not squeak.
Escape.
Defense is about keeping your senses, getting in a few blows if necessary to ward off, scare off and break contact and then getting the heck out of dodge to a safe place, where there are people, or a business, or a general sense of order.
These are life skills to have, and a one hour intro won't do the trick. Looking forward to getting in touch with my bad ass, hear me roar side very soon.
Thank you Teri Coffee for an awesome intro!
For more about SB Women's Self Defense, you can check out Teri's website at sbwselfdefense.com or call 805.252.9099
Guys, I get the impression its just for women, but I could be wrong ;)
Signing off!
Noelle Aguayo
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Breaking of the Soil
So exciting to learn how to post video! Here is footage of my little gardener taking the weeds in his Tonka dump truck to the "city". We will post some video or picks of the finished product once we get it all in. Good night :)
Let the Spring Garden Begin!
On Saturday morning, the spring weather led me to contemplate the lush green weed beds in our backyard. Could we transform them into their former gardenhood glory? I needed more inspiration than the weather and the stretch of a long day ahead of us. And then I remembered a post on facebook from Healing Grounds inviting us to a "Spring Organic Garden Workshop."
We had no firm plans for the day, so I looked up the details and after a bit of cajoling, I had the whole family packed into the car and we drove out of Santa Barbara all the way to Carpinteria to Island View Nursery. Despite growing up in Santa Ynez valley and living in Santa Barbara on and off over the last 20 years, I had never ventured down to visit the lush farmlands of Carpinteria--not an orchid farm, not a tulip field, nada. My abstinence is now broken. Island View is a beautiful, rambling rectangular stretch of a nursery. Sculpted figures of fish, deer, sea horses and other creatures are placed throughout the meandering stone paths surrounded by plants for sale. A spacious greenhouse style interior area, with Buddha statues, and other zen garden decorations spans across several rooms with a wide variety of beautiful plants, seed displays and other garden supplies.
I had only seen 5 RSVPs on the facebook invitation, but clearly, word had been distributed in other ways. The parking lot was close to full when we arrived. As if the setting for a garden wedding, wooden folding chairs were lined up, facing a central table with plants upon it placed in the shade of a large oak tree. Oscar Carmona, owner of Healing Grounds stood, ready to speak.
I knew Oscar during my time at UCSB in a past lifetime. We played in a saxophone quartet together, he on tenor, and I on alto. Back then, he talked of starting a music therapy offering, long before I'd heard the idea anywhere else. He always had a penchant for organic processes, and his metamorphoses into a master gardener and wholesale seed and plant business owner is an understandable development. The workshop began. He spoke gently, perhaps even a bit awkwardly at first. But once he was warmed up, the information flowed from his deep well of knowledge. My hand longed for pen and paper to write it all down, but then I remembered the flip camcorder in my pocket. Of course I brought it to record my toddler in action, but capturing Oscar talking so eloquently and effortlessly about Spring gardening was a worthy use of my limited footage. Did you know there are between 200 and 300 varieties of tomatoes?
Did you know that its hard to grow Beef Steak tomatoes in coastal areas, because of the fluctuating temperatures? Did you know that you can grow almost anything in the Santa Barbara area because of our temperate weather? Do you envision your garden as a series of micro climates? One thing that Oscar repeated, as if for me personally, was that he doesn't believe people who say they have a brown thumb. Because gardening is easy as long as you are present and invest the time in being in the garden, observing, paying attention, and taking the time. If you turn your back for a week, or even a few days, you can return, shocked at all the changes taking place. Plants need water for instance. If you forget about that, sometimes they don't make it. Zucchinis can turn into gargantuan squash if you turn your back for a long minute. Mint can take over your whole garden. Lettuces need the cool, shady microcimates within your garden. There are no bad bugs. The bugs we consider as the bad ones are snackfood for the beneficial bugs. The best fertilizer is your household compost.
Other highlights of my visit to Island View nursery were two kids on dirt bikes. They saw us looking for certain plants and they shot us information. "These are all organic," the one kid said. "Hey, grab a tray of kale" the other said to his companion. "How do you know so much about plants?" "We live next door and we grew up gardening." My bigger vision for Ezra's relationship to the earth, the food chain, and his knowledge banks on how it all worked crystalized as I observed these earth loving kids on dirt bikes.
It wasn't until today after church that our family spent the day in the garden weeding, moving soil around, emptying our compost bin and plotting out which plants would go in which micro-climates. Ezra used his largest Tonka truck to load up weeds that I pulled and take them to the "city" and Arie Jan used the pick axe to airate the soil. I tried to appreciate the thick black sludge at the bottom of the compost bin. I could get my head around its value to our organic gardening process, but oh the stench! By 3pm, we had two beautiful beds of tomatoes and lettuce planted and four more beds cleared of weeds, awaiting the tiny organic vegetable plants still standing at attention in their plastic trays, longing to unfurl their roots in a long stretch of soil.
We had no firm plans for the day, so I looked up the details and after a bit of cajoling, I had the whole family packed into the car and we drove out of Santa Barbara all the way to Carpinteria to Island View Nursery. Despite growing up in Santa Ynez valley and living in Santa Barbara on and off over the last 20 years, I had never ventured down to visit the lush farmlands of Carpinteria--not an orchid farm, not a tulip field, nada. My abstinence is now broken. Island View is a beautiful, rambling rectangular stretch of a nursery. Sculpted figures of fish, deer, sea horses and other creatures are placed throughout the meandering stone paths surrounded by plants for sale. A spacious greenhouse style interior area, with Buddha statues, and other zen garden decorations spans across several rooms with a wide variety of beautiful plants, seed displays and other garden supplies.
I had only seen 5 RSVPs on the facebook invitation, but clearly, word had been distributed in other ways. The parking lot was close to full when we arrived. As if the setting for a garden wedding, wooden folding chairs were lined up, facing a central table with plants upon it placed in the shade of a large oak tree. Oscar Carmona, owner of Healing Grounds stood, ready to speak.
I knew Oscar during my time at UCSB in a past lifetime. We played in a saxophone quartet together, he on tenor, and I on alto. Back then, he talked of starting a music therapy offering, long before I'd heard the idea anywhere else. He always had a penchant for organic processes, and his metamorphoses into a master gardener and wholesale seed and plant business owner is an understandable development. The workshop began. He spoke gently, perhaps even a bit awkwardly at first. But once he was warmed up, the information flowed from his deep well of knowledge. My hand longed for pen and paper to write it all down, but then I remembered the flip camcorder in my pocket. Of course I brought it to record my toddler in action, but capturing Oscar talking so eloquently and effortlessly about Spring gardening was a worthy use of my limited footage. Did you know there are between 200 and 300 varieties of tomatoes?
Did you know that its hard to grow Beef Steak tomatoes in coastal areas, because of the fluctuating temperatures? Did you know that you can grow almost anything in the Santa Barbara area because of our temperate weather? Do you envision your garden as a series of micro climates? One thing that Oscar repeated, as if for me personally, was that he doesn't believe people who say they have a brown thumb. Because gardening is easy as long as you are present and invest the time in being in the garden, observing, paying attention, and taking the time. If you turn your back for a week, or even a few days, you can return, shocked at all the changes taking place. Plants need water for instance. If you forget about that, sometimes they don't make it. Zucchinis can turn into gargantuan squash if you turn your back for a long minute. Mint can take over your whole garden. Lettuces need the cool, shady microcimates within your garden. There are no bad bugs. The bugs we consider as the bad ones are snackfood for the beneficial bugs. The best fertilizer is your household compost.
Other highlights of my visit to Island View nursery were two kids on dirt bikes. They saw us looking for certain plants and they shot us information. "These are all organic," the one kid said. "Hey, grab a tray of kale" the other said to his companion. "How do you know so much about plants?" "We live next door and we grew up gardening." My bigger vision for Ezra's relationship to the earth, the food chain, and his knowledge banks on how it all worked crystalized as I observed these earth loving kids on dirt bikes.
It wasn't until today after church that our family spent the day in the garden weeding, moving soil around, emptying our compost bin and plotting out which plants would go in which micro-climates. Ezra used his largest Tonka truck to load up weeds that I pulled and take them to the "city" and Arie Jan used the pick axe to airate the soil. I tried to appreciate the thick black sludge at the bottom of the compost bin. I could get my head around its value to our organic gardening process, but oh the stench! By 3pm, we had two beautiful beds of tomatoes and lettuce planted and four more beds cleared of weeds, awaiting the tiny organic vegetable plants still standing at attention in their plastic trays, longing to unfurl their roots in a long stretch of soil.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Provision
Dear universe,
Thank you for kindness in the world. Thank you for connection. Thank you for provision. One the eve of Ezra's 3rd birthday party, an unexpected package arrived from Connecticut. I unwrapped it in surprise. What could possibly be in this package? As we unwrapped the presents, we discovered a Flip Video Camera. All of our videos of Ezra in the first 3 years of his life are grainy, poorly lit little videos.
This video camera seems to transform even a dimly lit room into a kindly lit setting, and we have already filmed Ezra in action. Thank you to Lauren and Nico, for sending such an unexpected gift that has returned daddy Arie into the Paparazzi of Ezra's first years!
Kindness,
Noelle Aguayo
Thank you for kindness in the world. Thank you for connection. Thank you for provision. One the eve of Ezra's 3rd birthday party, an unexpected package arrived from Connecticut. I unwrapped it in surprise. What could possibly be in this package? As we unwrapped the presents, we discovered a Flip Video Camera. All of our videos of Ezra in the first 3 years of his life are grainy, poorly lit little videos.
This video camera seems to transform even a dimly lit room into a kindly lit setting, and we have already filmed Ezra in action. Thank you to Lauren and Nico, for sending such an unexpected gift that has returned daddy Arie into the Paparazzi of Ezra's first years!
Kindness,
Noelle Aguayo
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The Passage of Time in Toddlerville
Before I gave birth to Ezra, many told me to value and cherish his babyness, because it would disappear in the "blink of an eye" and many other iterations of the same message and metaphor.
I do my best to enjoy every single moment with him and I thought I was in the moment until today, when he quite suddenly turned three. Yes, three!
Last night, I held Antara's brand new baby girl Aven. I looked into her tiny face, eyes closed, no longer than my fore arm, and I wondered how it could be that Ezra was ever this tiny and fragile.
Aven's peaceful countenance, her little squeaks and chirps, her creatura nature was a powerful reminder of the state of fragility in which we start our lives and how incredibly we depend on our parents, our community to nurture us along the way.
In that vein, I am blessed to be in the circle that will love and cherish baby Aven, and I am so blessed to have such a wonderful community of friends, family nearby, and family overseas who send their love and consistency despite the distance.
On Ezra's birthday, I send thanks to the universe to have such a beautiful, loving, humorous, intelligent and joyful son who connects me so fully to the life process.
Happy Birthday Ezra Cole!
I do my best to enjoy every single moment with him and I thought I was in the moment until today, when he quite suddenly turned three. Yes, three!
Last night, I held Antara's brand new baby girl Aven. I looked into her tiny face, eyes closed, no longer than my fore arm, and I wondered how it could be that Ezra was ever this tiny and fragile.
Aven's peaceful countenance, her little squeaks and chirps, her creatura nature was a powerful reminder of the state of fragility in which we start our lives and how incredibly we depend on our parents, our community to nurture us along the way.
In that vein, I am blessed to be in the circle that will love and cherish baby Aven, and I am so blessed to have such a wonderful community of friends, family nearby, and family overseas who send their love and consistency despite the distance.
On Ezra's birthday, I send thanks to the universe to have such a beautiful, loving, humorous, intelligent and joyful son who connects me so fully to the life process.
Happy Birthday Ezra Cole!
Monday, November 16, 2009
My Lime Green Monkey Business
I recently hired Santa Barbara photographer Lindsey Eltinge to do a photo shoot for my business, Lime Green Monkey. Here are some adorable shots of some of my models with Snottykins. All models seen are owners and users of Snottykins organic cotton handkerchiefs. Just as soon as another block of time arrives, I will update my website with our latest designs at www.limegreenmonkey.com
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