Earth Day Organic Fabric Giveaway Extraordinaire

Last week, I was approached by Jan DiCintio, the fantastic bundle of energy and talent behind Daisy Janie, to participate in a giveaway to promote Earth Day and organic fabrics. It took me all of 1 second to sign on, and, luckily for you, 11 other designers (in whose company I am humbled to be included) did, too!

Now, before you get to the goodies, how's about a few useful factoids?

Even people who carefully seek out and are willing to pay a premium for organic milk or produce for their families may not see the value of organic cotton—it's not as though we are eating it, right? But when you stop to consider that, when grown conventionlly, this non-nutritional crop uses 25% of the world's insecticides, it's clear that the way cotton is grown has a profound impact on the health of our water supplies, our soil, and our farmers.

Although there are several different certification bodies for organic cotton, the central premise is the same: organic cotton should be grown free of chemical pesticides or fertilizers and from naturally occuring, non-genetically-modified seeds. Although organic cotton production is on the rise, it still represents less than 1% of annual worldwide cotton production. We have a long way to go, but there is momentum building.

As demand for organic cotton grows, so will its carbon footprint shrink—the bulk of world organic cotton production is in India, which means organic cotton still has to travel a pretty far piece to end up in most people's homes around the world. But as farmers see demand for the product rise in their own countries, they will plant more acres and serve their local and regional markets more effectively.

The Goods

The giveaway works like this: each us is giving away our organic fabric designs to a lucky commenter on each of our respective blogs. The giveaways open April 21, 2010 at 6PM EST and close on April 26 at 10PM EST. Visit each of the links below to hop to each giveaway:

Betz White • Birch Fabrics • Cloud9 Fabrics • Daisy Janie • Harmony Art • Homesweet • ink & spindle • loop • Monaluna • Swanky Swell • Umbrella Prints

The winner of my giveaway will receive 4 organic cotton fat quarters or 2 full yards of organic cotton sateen in the patterns of your choice from my Spoonflower Shop. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post—what would you do with free fabric?

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Ice Cream Sundae Sunday

© 2010 Cameron Blazer // Cottage Industrialist
After a long winter, ice cream is finally in season, no permits required, so I decided that we should haul the ice cream maker out of storage.

I'm the kind of person who, even at just-shy-of-35, plants herself in front of the oven window and watches cookies bake from start to finish. And my son is just like me. So, ice cream making is the perfect bonding activity for us. Our ice cream maker is electric-powered and open at the top, so he and I can watch cold cream turn into ice cream in a matter of minutes. Nerd heaven.

Ice cream making is easy as can be. The only challenge is deciding what flavors to make. My son's all-time favorite is...wait for it...vanilla. And while vanilla gets a bad rap for being boring, it is a great canvas for other flavors, so that worked for me. And since this week marked the beginning of the local strawberry season, we agreed that we'd make strawberry as well. Oh, and I, uh, sort of told my little boy that just this once we could have ice cream for lunch. What? 

Continue reading for recipes and ice cream tips . . .

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Spring Fruit: New Fabric Designs

© 2010 Cameron Blazer // Cottage Industrialist

It's been a quiet spring on this here blog. I've been tending to several projects behind the scenes that haven't left much time for writing. But it's time to take the lid off of some of what I've been working on.

Mankolam, pictured above, is a collection of fabric designs that I put together in March from bits and pieces I'd been playing with for more than a year. Once I knew what I wanted to do with it, I was amazed at how quickly it came together. Mankolam is the sanskrit word for "mango design," or what we have come to know as paisley, thus the name. I have always loved the color and movement of paisley designs, but I wanted to do something with them that also reflected the more buttoned-up elements of my personality. So the paisley is on a background of pin stripes. The earthy buttons are neatly arranged because, as my dear friend Emily would say, "a polka is my signature dot formation." The over-the-top floral is kept in check with, well, a check stripe. And the fluttery gossamer wings (which are my favorite) float in tight tandem with one another.

Continue reading? This one's chockablock, I promise. Go on, you know you wanna click!

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Really Good Stuff I Already Have

I began the year reflecting on my desire to eat more seasonally and more sustainably. And I'm happy to say that we have definitely improved the sourcing and quality of our diet in the last three months. But with the bumper crops of spring approaching, there is a looming challenge I cannot ignore if I am going to keep this up: I am a compulsive, impulsive produce shopper. And thinking seasonally about food has only made that worse, so afraid am I to miss out on a brief growing season or a particularly good harvest. And I'm no good with a grocery list, either. They only work if you look at them, you see.

Continue reading . . .

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Holiday Nesting

© 2010 Cameron Blazer // Cottage Industrialist
Easter and Passover are nearly upon us, and I haven't dyed the first egg. But I don't feel bad because I have whipped up these sweet little birds' nests and filled them with candy eggs.

Continue reading Holiday Nesting . . .

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