Notre equipe French Handmade, nos createurs et leur animaux

http://www.frenchhandmade.org

Aujourd'hui j'ai décidé de vous parler de notre équipe Francophone. Partie d'une team sur Etsy, nous nous sommes developpé, toutes desireuses de faire connaitre les créations francophone - forcement géniales - de manière internationale. Notre travail peut etre trouvé sur Alittlemarket, Artfire, Dawanda, Etsy ou sur nos sites personnels.

Anny fait un travail formidable sur tous les plans et dédicace une bonne partie de son temps à gérer notre equipe ainsi que le site, la promotion et j'en passe. 

Au lieu de vous présenter simplement nos créateurs, j'ai demandé a ceux que cela intéressaient de me présenter leurs animaux, domestiques ou passant par leur jardin. Les artistes ont souvent un grand amour pour les animaux, et dans notre cas, cela n'a pas raté! 

Allez voir leur boutique et leur travail, vous ne serez pas déçu.

En premier je voudrais vous parler de Marie et son Lapinou. Le pauvre Lapinou, 8 ans, vient de se faire opérer, et il ne mange plus. Marie pense qu'il va bientot nous quitter. J'en ai les larmes aux yeux pour elle. Courage Marie!!

Une petite boule de douceur, de tendresse qui m'accompagne dans tous les moments... un vrai petit compagnon de vie ! - Marie

http://www.kazamarie.com/boutique

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Et puis notre devouée Anny et son chat Catou.

Nous sommes allé la chercher à la Société protectrice des animaux, elle avait 1 an. Elle a un très beau manteau de fourrure... j'aimerais bien être équipée comme çà pour l'hiver - Anny

Elle a un très beau manteau de fourrure... j'aimerais bien être équipée comme çà pour l'hiver - Anny

http://www.annymay.com

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 Céline et Isabelle et leur jolie chienne, Gaïa!

  Gaïa, adoptée par mon mari et moi à l'âge de 4 ans à la SPCA. Les photos ont été prises en camping il y a 2 ans. Il y a Céline, Gaïa et moi sur la première photo. C'est notre bébé! - Isabelle

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CelibelleQc

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Et puis Catherine, "ses" renards et sa formidable histoire.

Chaque printemps, les renards font des petits. Il est vrai qu'ils sont très très rusés. Il adorent s'amuser au crépuscule vers 4-5 heures du matin, ce qui est génial pour un réveil surprise. Leurs jeux favoris? Le toboggan, ou ils montent l'échelle puis dévalent le toboggan à tour de rôle comme de petits fous, cache-cahe sous la bache et... je ne vous ments pas, le Trampoline ! Imaginez 4 renardeaux qui sautent , glissent et s'en donnent à coeur joie , Je ne m'en lasse pas.

 http://shop.catherinemarche-designs.com/

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Florence et ses jolis mimis: Sasha, noire et blanche et Milou, tout noir. 

Sasha, notre chatte. Noire et blanche, soeur de Milou. La spécialiste du ronron ! Adore faire des calins.

Milou, male tout noir. Grand et mince. Très bon chasseur. Il adore sortir le soir aprés le diner. Ou va-t-il ? Retrouver des ami(e)s ? Ou chasser des rats ? - Florence.

http://www.creationsdeflorence.etsy.com

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Oh et puis évidemment les meilleurs pour la fin :p. Ulysse et Louna.

Mes bébés. Ulysse, coureur à la retraite et adopté lorsqu'il avait 3 ans, à travers une association qui s'occupe de sauver les lévriers à la suite de leur "carrière". Les lévriers sont adorables. Il est mon premier chien, va avoir 12 ans et est le meilleur chien de monde. 

Louna, trouvée toute petite dans le jardin d'amis un soir de pleine lune. Aussi grande que ma main et à peine sevrée. Elle a maintenant 8 ans. Parfois des crises de folie mais elle s'est beaucoup adoucie avec les années et est ma petite princesse. Elle a une peluche pieuvre depuis qu'elle est bébé et qu'on appelle la Poupoute. Lorsqu'elle croit etre seule dans la maison, elle transporte la poupoute en hurlant à déchirer le coeur: abandonnite aigue!

J'espère que vous apprecierez ces portaits un peu spéciaux et n'oublierez pas d'aller voir et nos boutiques et notre site French Handmade!

Nezida - Recycled Top - Sold

Trop contente!

Vegan and cruelty free products : ethic choices

It has been years I wanted to put together a list of the products I use. I am vegetarian but not vegan. I eat fish and dairies, as well as eggs in home made pastries. But when it comes to my cleaning products for the home, body and skin care, I am vegan. I have been researching all the products I was using and found out awful things. Carcinoginous ingredients, petrol derived products, health threatening products and the worse for me: animal by-products, awful vivisections and tests (when most of these tests can be made chemicaly with no arm done to anyone, but eh, it costs more and the corporation makes less profits).

I have tried a lot of brands, some are using the organic and vegan angle only in a marketing way: more profit. It is always about money.

I can't advice you a lot of brands but these I have research a lot. But I can link great websites like the Leaping Bunny and the Cosmetic database which really helped me to research the best brands.

My favorite brand is Desert Essence. Their products are not only vegan but they use only natural (pay attention to that because natural doesn't always mean healthy) and other safe products for you and animals.
So the prices may be a bit more expensive than your drugstore brands but it really worth the investment.
I especially love their body and hair products.


For bath products, I use Kiss My Face. They have some great bubble bath. Their shaving cream used to be great but they changed an ingredient and the texture was difficult to use. They also changed an ingredient in face moisturizers and it can provoke allergies in some people.

Edited to add : after a new search on Kiss My Face, I have seen they don't have the Leaping Bunny label (knowing also labels are what they are and sometimes can be just bought!!!). But they claim they don't test on animals. That being said, research their products. I was wondering why their prices stayed low I got it now. There is more and more armful (cheaper) ingredients in their products.
I also found that link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/fashion/expanding-efforts-to-keep-cosmetics-testing-from-animals.html?_r=2

Some of these companies though, to survive financially has been bought out by corporations, but they made the pledge to keep their product safe. I still like Tom of Maine ( mouth rinse and toothpaste) and Burt bees (bought by Colgate), especially their honey and milk hand and body lotion.
I still use 7th Generation recycled papers and other products, even though they made the choice to get contracts to distribute their products in Kroger and so on.
It may not seems a good ethical choice but at least it offers a greater availabilities of their product and it expose it too a greater audience, which cannot be wrong. I never got any allergies, nor my pets to any of their products and they really are made of great and simple ingredients.

There was a site fighting Kleenex in order to stop them hurting ancient forests. They won their battle and unfortunately the website is not updated since 2009 but is still a good source of information. You also have to research where the recycled paper comes from and how it is processed.

For my make-up, I do not have great choices and I am still looking for a good brand. Manic Panic products are vegan but I haven't use a lot, exept their white pressed powder, that is ok but cakes in the wrinkles... (their hair dyes are awesome).

I am pretty allergic to mineral make-up, they have most of the time nano particules which has been proven to get in your optic nerves and many other internal organs. Also when you know a bit about mineralogy, the mineral used are like some stones in which the structure can stay the same down to the microscopic elements. Some of the mineral parts are squares and angular types, and irritate eyes mostly.
That is what happened to me, I got serious internal lids abces and cornea problems, and pain of course. Most of the time, the incriminated ingredient is mica.

The best thing I can advice is research and more research. Boycott compagnies who torture animals, who use petrol derived products. Choose cleaning product that won't hurt the earth. This is some work, this can be time consuming. But for us, time is not money. Time is ethic, time is life, time is taking care of the planet we live on, time is protecting animals and their inhabitat.

Also I wanted to make a little shout out to my favorite artists. I really respect artists who are using their position  and their money as a power to touch the greatest number.

Thom Yorkes of Radiohead had a wonderful impact for the climate changing and so many other issues, mostly in UK and against G8.

Trent Reznor donates so many of his money to a cause so close to my heart: rescuing Greyhounds. He has been auctionning so many of his instruments and other things to help Greyhound in California. He adopted 2 of them and has made several videos for Peta. Say what you want, this is the only case money is important and Peta, even if some of their methods can be contastable, does an amazing work.

If you have any questions or advice to share, don't hesitate!

Pastel purple dreadies

Pastel purple dreadies, originally uploaded by Recycled by Hyena.

Got tired of the whitening, too damaging for my dreads. I still have to bleach my roots again. I am pretty happy with the color though.

Absence

I have not been very present here. I have been quite sick for months. Different things and it is still going on.
Anyway I decided to post my whole article about recycling and the different ecological problems we face. It is in French for now. A translation will come later.

Un vert à-avenir