GlassDharma glass straw review and GIVEAWAY!

I have a surprise for my amazing followers! I know some of you will remember a post I did a little while ago where I mentioned my love for Glass Dharma straws! Well, the makers of the original glass straw want to give YOU an opportunity to own and love one as much as I do- for FREE!

As I mentioned in my first post about this amazing glass straw- handmade in the United States- I've had mine for almost 3 years now! They have withstood being carried in my purse, dropped in the floor (although I don't recommend doing it on purpose), tossed by the kids, moved to 3 different dwellings while we were stationed at Fort Bragg, and not a single ONE has cracked, broken, or chipped! And if it had? Guess what! Their Lifetime Guarantee Against Breakage would have handled the replacement!

Bear in mind that they are not unbreakable, just guaranteed! Glass Dharma wants it's customers to be completely satisfied with their products, so if you're not 100% satisfied, they want to know and they want to correct it! If your straw breaks, they want to know and they want to fix it- or replace it! Now, THAT is customer service as it should be.

I believe that all of us here are planet-friendly people, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I realized just how huge a problem plastic straw waste is! Imagine just how many of those things end up trashed every year!? How could something so small be an issue?

According to Glass Dharma's website, in 2008, McDonalds ALONE claimed to serve 52 MILLION meals a day. How many of those do you imagine included a drink with a plastic straw? One little straw is no biggie, but tens of MILLIONS of straws being trashed every day (from only one company!) easily becomes the straw that broke the camel's ecological back! What an environmental disaster (waste created) and biological disaster (chemicals leached from the plastic)! Using glass straws from Glass Dharma is the perfect way to completely avoid contributing to the problem.

I was sent a box of straws- one Beautiful Bends (super cool bent straw), one Simple Elegance (the kind I've had 3 of for almost 3 years and loved!), one green Decorative Dots (a long one), and one amber Decorative Dots (a short one). Also included was a hemp carrying sleeve (natural hemp) and two cleaning brushes, which I will tell you makes cleaning them a breeze.

The Beautiful Bends straw is 9.5mm wide and 9" long, retailing for $8.50. The bend makes it perfect for use in a taller glass and I actually used mine while I was online researching the effects of plastic straws on the environment! It hung over the side of my glass slightly, so I never had to take my eyes off of the screen to ensure that I wasn't about to knock my glass off of the dining room table. Even if you're not a lazy sipper like me, they just look absolutely beautiful in a glass! 

The Simple Elegance straws come in a variety of lengths and widths. As the most cost effective straw, they are fantastic to have on hand for use by the entire family. Their simplicity makes them ridiculously easy to clean- and I truly think that my drinks just taste better when I drink them through a glass straw- these are perfect for the minimalist! I have taken to keeping mine in the fridge- talk about refreshing! While I usually don't drink hot drinks, thus keeping my straws in the fridge, they are perfectly suited for cold OR hot drinks, so use them in everything without worry of damaging them. They were made to be used!

The Decorative Dots straws are so neat! Doing this review was the first time I'd seen one of them, even though I've been lusting after them since I bought my first  set of straws. I love how fun they look and what's impressive to me is that there is no paint to make me concerned and no fading to take away from the beauty of your straw. The dots are colored glass (that come in blue, red, green, or amber), the same glass as the straws, which means that they are made of borosilicate glass, the strongest commercially available glass! The tall Decorative Dots straws are stunning and the shorter straws are now my first choice for my kids. They're strong, beautiful, and the colored dots make them perfect for color coding- no more mixing up the kid's cups!

I have been carrying my straw in my purse wrapped haphazardly in a cloth napkin for dining out, so I was really excited to try the hemp carrying sleeve! I was instantly hooked on the look and texture of the sleeve- it just looks environmentally responsible! I was sent the natural hemp sleeve (that retails for $12.00) to try out and that is definitely the one I would have ordered for myself. The fabric swatch, pictured below, gives you an idea of the color options you have if you're interested in a sleeve that isn't the natural hemp color- purple dawn, ocean blue, deep moss, and black pearl (that retail for $15.00 each). Regardless of the color, you can choose from 3 sizes to get the best fit for your straw!

Since I've had plenty of experience with the Simple Elegance straws and there were two of the Decorative Dots straws, we tried out the amber Decorative Dots straw and the Beautiful Bends straw to let you know how they work and what we thought of them! Do you know what that means for you guys?! I have two straws and two cleaning brushes to give to you!

Up for grabs, we have two gift sets, courtesy of Glass Dharma.

Set one:
A green Decorative Dots straw that is 9.5mm wide and 9" long. This straw does not normally come with a cleaning brush, but for our giveaway, it will! The cleaning brushes normally retail for $5.00 each. The green dots are absolutely beautiful and as an added bonus, keeps that pesky straw from rolling off of the table! Retails for $9.00 each on their website. (A total value of $14.00)

Set two:
A Simple Elegance straw that is 12mm wide and 9" long, making it perfect for drinking smoothies, even ones with fantastic fruit pieces that normally get stuck in the straw or never make it in! This is the mac daddy of glass straws and we have really enjoyed ours over the years! This straw has a cleaning brush in it's box! Retails for $8.50 each on their website, plus the cleaning brush! (A total value of $13.50)

This is mine, yours is new in the box!

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to communicate with the incredible people at Glass Dharma while we were planning this blog posting and the giveaway! What an incredible company selling handmade products, all made in the U.S- even the sleeves and brushes!

To win one of the two gift sets, here is what you do:

Mandatory entry, include your name and email address in this comment:
- follow "Where am I?"

Extra entries, please leave 1 comment per entry:
- like "Glass Dharma on Facebook" and let them know how much we appreciate this giveaway!
- suggest something you'd like to see more of here at "Where am I?"
- suggest "Where am I?" to a friend (and/or create a blog or Facebook posting about this giveaway), having them follow and let me know YOU sent them!

All in all, you can have 4 entries each.
I will use random.org to choose a winner on Friday, May 20th!

"Sip the world, taste the difference."
(and Happy Winning!)

Make it Yourself Monday!!!

Since I came out of the No-Pooing closet, quite a few people have messaged me interested in getting recipes for some of my homemade products, mostly beauty related or bath related. I decided that every so often (i.e. when I run out and need to make more), I would do a post with recipes that I use to make every day products!
Introducing my favorite product of all time: Castile Soap!! This can be used for everything from scrubbing floors to washing babies. It's super concentrated, so keep that in mind when you see how little of it is used in recipes!
Yes, my kitchen is a mess...
I like Dr. Bronner's and Dr. Wood's castile soap, but I've found that the Dr. Wood's is a lot less price-wise than Dr. Bronner's, although Dr. Bronner's is more widely available. You can find it at Target now!
This is castile soap with peppermint essential oils and organic shea butter, so this is what I use to make bath products. Keep in mind, this has no numbing agent like most shampoos, so watch out for eyes.
Since this has the peppermint essential oils, keep that in mind when using it on kids. There are mild versions, especially good if you have a little one with sensitive skin or a diaper rash. Some kids are more sensitive than others. But for us, personally, the little ones really enjoy the minty smell (and Keelin likes the cool tingle, Jackson has yet to comment- LOL)!


This is a jar that once held my favorite oil cured kalamata olives! I'm craving them just looking at the glass jar!

For the kids, I fill the jar halfway with hot water and dissolve about a 1/4 of a cup of castile soap. I called a mommy friend of mine who uses the same thing on her kids and she says that she uses 1 part soap to 5 parts water- gives loads of suds and isn't tough to wash off.
There is no magic measurement, just make sure that you use a lot more water than soap- it's really concentrated!

My no poo recipe is still being adjusted. I make a thick paste out of baking soda and water, scrub it really well into my scalp, and then work it down to the ends of my hair, rinse with cool water, and then rinse with some diluted apple cider vinegar (organic and unrefined ACV is best, but you can use white vinegar in a pinch). Definitely works for me!
I've been reading online and a lot of people seem to use a thinner mixture instead of a paste. The common ratio seems to be 1 TBSP of baking soda to 1c of water. I'm going to try it later!

And here is something I am really excited to share!!!
Homemade dishwashing detergent!
Isn't it pretty?
Recipe:
2 cups of Borax (I bought "20 Mule Team" brand borax at Harris Teeter for $2.50)
2 cups of Baking Soda (or washing soda) (I bought Arm & Hammer, huge box, for $2.50)
4 small packets of sugar free lemonade Kool-Aid (you can also use 4 tablespoons of citric acid--if you can find it) (I accidently grabbed Orange- LOL, hence the color! - $1 for 12 packets)
White Vinegar until it's really wet and soft ($1 for a HUGE bottle)

You use about 2 tablespoons per load and I have had really good results with it so far today!
For $7, I got enough to make enough dishwashing detergent to last for a YEAR!!! That is half of what I used to pay for one small bag of my all-natural dishwashing tabs that lasted not even a month and a half... We cook at home a LOT, hence a ridiculous amount of dishes.

EDIT: My mixture dried solid within a couple of days, which I am sure is caused by my jar not being air tight. Since then, I have mixed my powder together in the jar, using the vinegar in the rinse aid compartment in the dishwasher instead of mixing it with the dry ingredients! Hope that helps!



Next time:
homemade deodorant,
facial cleanser,
moisturizers,
styling spray for no-poo'ed hair,
and homemade laundry detergent!!

18 weeks and 1 day

So, I popped my due date into this little thing-a-ma-jigger and it told me that I am more than 18 weeks pregnant. Uh. No. Could I possibly be almost halfway through this pregnancy?! No way!!

*sigh*

Denial won't change it. This pregnancy is getting away from me. I swore I'd enjoy every minute of it- and I am, so why is it going by so quickly?!

I have his newborn cloth diapers ready, I have some little newborn wool sleep cocoons (will post pictures next week when the custom I ordered gets here), some little teeny clothes that I'm planning to dye when I dye his prefolds all sorts of beautiful colors.

Basically? This baby boy could make his grand entrance tomorrow and have everything he needs, except for a carseat! But of course, he needs to stay in for another 22 weeks- which gives me that much longer to obsess about it. And the nesting hasn't even kicked in yet. I am in such trouble... even though I'm totally going the handmade, minimalistic route with this little boy's items!

18 weeks and 1 day with baby #3

I think I popped a bit since my last picture! :)

Where do you put the batteries?!

I was playing with my munchkins this afternoon and decided to snap some photos of them playing. I can count on two hands the toys these kids have that are battery-powered. Most of our toys are kid-powered :)

We used to have all of the light up, noise making, Disney character covered plastic junk. The more I researched, got headaches from the noise, and realized that the mess was NOT something I wanted in my home, we started slowly but surely minimizing the number and type of toys in our house. At last count, we have 7 toys that require some sort of power, including the tv that I have in the back of the house for the kids to watch the occasional movie on. The rest is mostly wooden, imagination requiring, and I love it! And so do they!

Keelin trying to use a wooden pizza cutter on a wooden apple stuck together in the middle with velcro. She's wearing a bioME 5 "K for Kangaroo" shirt.

Click here to see bioME 5's organic clothing options for kids!

Here is Jackson playing with the apple and Keelin playing with the darn pizza cutter ;) She's cutting a wooden loaf of sliced "bread" held together with velcro.

They were pretty hung up on play food this afternoon, but you can also see the Plan Toys lace up shoe, and the Melissa and Doug toys- the word matching game, the tool set, etc. We love Melissa and Doug, even though their items are mostly made in China and we wish they would make them here in the U.S.A.

Jackson, making a pizza for his big sissy!

Little mess maker! Keelin would run away before I could take many pictures with her in them. Don't know why she was being camera shy today :-/

So there ya go, y'all! Just a little peek into the toybox. So many people act like our kids are deprived because they don't have TONS of toys or the "latest and greatest," but shoot, they are happy kids and I feel good about what they have to play with. Kid-powered is the way we like to do it at our house :)

Sweet Saturday!

Today was super chilly, but I got up at 7am to meet my friend Dana at one of our local farmer's markets. I really got some amazing things, but more on that later!


Here is a picture of my strawberry and rhubarb pie filling! The strawberries are from a local farm (by local, I mean 3 miles away!) and my Dad picked them last year, cut them up and froze them! So on a cold, rainy day in early Spring, I have beautiful strawberries to use in a pie with some gorgeous, but bitter, rhubarb. The rhubarb is soaking up some of that glorious strawberry sweetness before I bake it into something incredible using my late grandmother's cobbler recipe.


This, my friends, is raw milk. In the state of NC, it is only sold "not for human consumption," BUT we consume it. It is pretty incredible, albeit expensive, and we can't get a hold of much at a time since the people we get it from are very small scale, but it's absolutely incredible. It is unpasteurized, so it does carry some risk of contamination, but so does pasteurized stuff. That's my disclaimer :) The people we buy it from sell it for pet use or product use, so they do their part and follow the law. We are the "bad" ones.

I have some pretty serious lactose issues, but for some reason raw milk (cows and goats) doesn't kill my tummy, so I'm willing to search it out and pay for it.

I used my raw milk this morning to make a smoothie with a whole banana, raspberries, lots of kale, honey, probiotic powder, yogurt, ice, and flaxseed oil. My hubby said it was like a salad in a cup (I think I might have used a bit much kale for his liking- haha), but that it was good! My little boy hung out drinking it and "yum!"-ing to himself this morning. Precious.

At the farmer's market, I got some humanely raised and butchered lamb ( from the same guy that gave us the free eggs and sold us the sausage a couple of weeks ago- I told you he had a customer for life!). I got a ton of kale, some free range eggs (6 different colored eggs- love the variety) even though we are hoping to get a few grown chickens this week to get a start on laying, since our chicks are still way too young to lay. Also got some goat cheese, olive bread, and bacon pimento cheese for my dad and husband to enjoy.

I made a killer lunch this afternoon- baked winter vegetables (winter squash, parsnips, potatoes, and cabbage) and honey cornbread! My husband and father were here watching basketball (please, let March Madness be over SOON! I can't take it anymore!), both gave me funny looks when I served lunch (because there was no meat, I guess?), but they both really enjoyed it and went back for seconds of one thing or another. :)

Oh, I almost forgot... Tim and I got down into the basement while the little guy napped and went through quite a few boxes that were never unpacked from our move in August. The amount of clothes the kids have outgrown, toys they wouldn't play with now, things I'd forgotten about- it was just incredible. I boxed up a ton of stuff to take to Goodwill, pulled out the clothes to wash and freshen up before passing on to friends with kids smaller than mine, and really noticed that we had a lot more room, but ran out of time this afternoon. Will continue another day! Minimalism makes this mama's heart happy. Clutter steals time away from what you truly love.