Phewy, Buoys!

CUTE HONEY BADGER JEWELRY ON MY ETSY SITE!

When you think of tenacious, brave, die-hard animals, you need to be thinking of the honey badger. This girl is tireless. She catches most of her prey by digging, and in a 24-hour period, she'll travel 25 miles sporting her signature jog-trot, digging up to 50 holes at a time. And this chick is tough; you don't want her eyes set on you. A general carnivore, Mellivora capensis fuels up on anything she can clinch her claws around: scorpions, lizards, rodents, birds, but then also extremely poisonous snakes like the adder, cobra and black mamba. She relentlessly follows her prey till it's exhausted and can flee no more. She even takes down adolescent jackals, foxes and wildcats. Predators such as the lion and leopard will make a meal of her when they can, but they must be super hungry if they've decided to go after a honey badger, because she'll give them a ferocious battle and can sometimes save herself from these stronger competitors. She gets her name for her love of bee brood (larvae). Another example of her bravery, she'll face the fury of the hive to gobble these goodies. With Miss Honey Badger--there's no doubt, no fear, no giving up. No wonder she's considered the most fearless animal on the planet. With this animal athlete, it's always on!

So was I a honey badger this past Saturday when I participated in the Lone Star olympic distance triathlon in Galveston? Well, I definitely wasn't tireless.

After this weekend, I was supposed to finally be able to say that I've done a triathlon. I've always turned my nose up at them, quickly concluding that I'm only interested in marathons. Well, that interest has been a struggle for me lately, and my solution was to shake things up and try out a tri. Unfortunately, though, Mother Nature wasn't cooperating; it was a windy morning--too windy for the buoys which wouldn't stay in position, so the swim was cancelled. So instead, I can now say I've done a duathlon. Disappointing, for sure, but it's just as well, because whoa--I was not prepared. I had only gone on three bike rides, with just one of them being a brick. Whatever! So silly. But I felt great on the 24.8 mile ride. It was fun. But the moment I stopped the bike to dismount, that confidence and fun evaporated. Major leg cramps--my calves, my thighs, even my groin. And my 10K run felt like the last 6.2 miles of the marathon. I was running cradling a medicine ball. I definitely PR'd for walk breaks in a 10K. I knew going into this that it was going to be humbling for me, but geez--did it have to be so much so when I didn't even swim? A humble pie smashed in my face!

So, no--I wasn't Miss Honey Badger with her amazing athleticism and her inspiring, tenacious heart. But I did step out of my comfort zone, and I did cross the finish line. So there's a little bravery and die-hardness in me, right?

Click here to check out an awesome honey badger video!

"How to Be an Eco Fashionista" by Fauna Extreme

Today I participated in The Woodlands 20th Earth Day Festival. My booth was an overview of eco fashion. I'm for sure not the authority on the textile industry, but I did the best I could. During this last year of creating Fauna Extreme, I've done a lot of internet surfing on eco-friendly fabrics and screen-printing and dyeing. Really, animal athletes were/are the focus of my line. But it just seemed natural and important for my shirts to be green since they were about embracing wildlife. And so my interest in the world of sustainable t-shirts began. Some things I learned before I chose what kind of tees to make, and many other things I didn't know until all was said and done. There's just so much information and so many pros and cons to the different ways of making an eco-friendly tee. Click on the two photos of the informational flyer I put together--about fabrics, about screen-printing and about dye. Whoa--so much. It's crazy. In addition to the flyer, though, I want to elaborate a little more on a couple of things (But look at my flyer, too, please! I put a lot of effort into it! And keep in mind that I'm no expert. Something could be off, in the flyer and in this blog entry. I'm trying, though!):


1. Yes, bamboo is a super amazing crop that grows organically--without pesticides, or fertilizers or irrigation, and she loves to snack on CO2, which helps big time with global warming. But--she goes through some chemical trauma to become that lovely, smooth fabric that feels so good to wear. And so on the internet, I read from those who criticize the fabric and question its spot in the world of eco fashion. And then I read from the bamboo clothing lines and manufacturers who remain confident that they've got an amazing product that has every right to call itself eco-friendly--that the critics are too harsh on this amazing fabric resource. What's my take on it all? Well, even the critics on the net that I've read from, all admit that bamboo is an incredible, renewable resource. That she's a total badass. And leaps and bounds better than the evil that is conventional cotton and synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon. Bamboo viscose is not perfectly green, no, but she deserves her strut on the eco catwalk. And speaking of not perfectly green, that brings me to the next point...

2. Organic cotton. Reading up the past few days and getting my flyer ready for the Earth Day festival, I learned that only 7% of the world's organic cotton is grown in the United States, which means that most likely your organic cotton garments that were made in the USA came from cotton crops that were flown in from thousands of miles away--from India, Turkey or China (where Fauna Extreme's tees were made, and I will say from a great guy from the US who owns his small factory of 70 employees, spends over half the year in China overseeing it, and is super proud of his responsible and ethical operation. Here's his site: Bamboo Textiles. Thank you, Rich, for all your efforts!) Anyhow, I'm in no way dissing organic cotton. She's superfly, too, but she's not perfectly green either. Since the US is having a hard time getting out of its abusive relationship with conventional cotton, she has to get shipped here from far away, which adds to her carbon footprint, for sure. And she's a thirsty gal--drinks a lot more of the planet's precious water than bamboo or hemp. And people like to add things to her when she leaves the fields, like bleach and heavy metal dyes and finishers with toxins (But the garment she turns into after these things happen can still be called organic. Did you know that? I didn't. Huh.) And one last thing, though, that's so cool: Out of that 7% that the US produces, I found out this week that Texas leads the way in organic cotton crops. I love that!

3. Then there's the screen-printing. A whole world of it. Click on the flyer pic. And for info about dye, too. Geez.

But to conclude about my tees: Pros--1. made with organic bamboo, an incredibly renewable resource. 2. made with organic cotton. 3. screen-printed with Permaset Aqua, a 100% nontoxic ink, more so than any other water-based. 4. Dyed with low-impact, fiber-reactive dyes. 5. Such a high-quality garment--you'll keep it forever! And the inspiring animal athletes--very cute and fun. Cons--1. viscose from bamboo goes through a chemical process with caustic soda and more. So that's a bummer, but I'm confident that my manufacturer traps, contains, and recycles these chemicals and strives to be as green as possible. 2. made in China, so shipped from thousands of miles away to get to me. But that's it about China, meaning that my manufacturer takes good care of his employees, creating a safe and sweatshop-free environment and overpaying his staff. Plus, Rich (with Bamboo Textiles) is the only guy I could find who offers low minimums (500) to create a custom shirt, which is what I really wanted--a feminine fit and not the usual box-shaped t-shirt. 3. The dyeing. The dyes were low-impact, fiber reactive, but it took a lot of water to do the job. That AirDye sounds really cool that A Lot To Say uses. (Did you read the flyer?) I wish I didn't have to do this part of the process separately from the manufacturer, but with the small number of shirts I got, I had to dye them myself in order have a variety of colors. 4. Perhaps there's another environmental con or two, I don't know. The spandex in it? You gotta have some spandex, though, right? :) The personal con, for me, is that these tees were pricey to make. Should've, could've, would've. Sigh...

Time to end this blog entry. But let me just also mention one more point that I've read online about trying to make a green t-shirt: It's important to work local and not have your product travel around so much to get made. Wouldn't it be amazing if I could have Fauna Extreme be a "totally Texan tee" or "totally Texan tank"? Organic cotton from Texas. Manufactured, dyed and screen-printed in Texas. "Made in Texas." How awesome would that be? We Texans are notorious for being obnoxiously proud of ourselves. Speaking and emailing with a couple of Texas farmers, though, this isn't possible right now, at least not in a way that makes fiscal sense. We've got the sweet cotton, but we don't have the spinner, the knitter and the sewer all hanging out together. Sigh again... So "Fauna Extreme, a totally Texan tee" is just a dream.