Hydrogen peroxide: It removes mold and disinfects. You can even dip a cotton swab in peroxide and use it to disinfect your computer keyboard. If you stain your linens, pour on a little peroxide, allow it to soak for 30 minutes, then rinse. Start with a mixture of half water and half peroxide. If the stain is still there, soak again using a stronger solution, then rinse.

Club Soda: Use it to clean and shine windows and fixtures. It also shines up a scuffed stainless steel sink. And the old club soda trick really does work on rug stains, since the carbonation lifts up the stain to the surface and makes it easier to clean. If you catch the spill in time, cover it with cornmeal to absorb the liquid then vacuum it up first.

Vinegar: Cuts grease and lime deposits and soap build up. You can also use it to clean countertops, deodorize the toilet and, if you are using white vinegar, clean your grout without staining. Vinegar removes film on floors as well. It works on linoleum, but when diluted, is gentle enough for hardwood flooring, too. For bathroom surfaces, you can heat until just warm, and then spray on for 15 minutes before wiping clean. DON’T use vinegar on marble because it might ruin the surface.

Baking Soda: It scours and removes smudges or scuffs. It is a natural abrasive and can be a good substitute for cleaning powders. Pour some onto a damp sponge to scrub sinks and bathtubs. For tougher stains and grime, make a paste out of baking soda and water or lemon juice. Spread the paste across the surface and leave it there for 10-20 minutes, then scrub. Mix with vinegar to clean stainless steel.

Lemon juice: Removes grease and tarnish. It kills mold and mildew and is a streak-free window cleaner. Use a lemon half to remove stains from wooden or plastic cutting boards. You can also rub lemon juice onto stained plastic food storage containers. Let them dry (preferably in the sun), then wash. Lemons have the added benefit of making your house smell clean without artificial fragrances. Put your lemon peel through the garbage disposal to clean and deodorize.

Salt: Mix it with water to destroy bacteria. This also works in place of baking soda when you need a tougher abrasive. Oven and stove spills can be cleaned by covering the spill with salt and allowing it to sit for a while. The salt absorbs the liquids and makes them easier to clean up. This works especially well with grease and oils. You can also toss some into a burned pan, right after it has happened. The burned spot should wipe off easily.

Olive Oil: Use it to polish wood furniture (mix 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar for a cleaner shine). To prevent drying or cracking of rattan or wicker, lightly brush them with oil and rub in with a soft cloth. If you warm the olive oil first, it thins and can be applied more easily. You can also polish leather shoes with just a drop or two and a clean cloth.

And, don’t forget, those Old Wives’ Tales can often be true:

Don’t rub it in; dab it off – in other words, blot; don’t rub it in more.

A stitch in time saves nine – get to it as quickly as possible to avoid more work.

Out, then in – start on the outside of the stain and work your way in.

Don your French maid costume along the way? Who knows what can happen.
xoNatalie

Some of these products have been staples in my daily wear for ages; they’ve held up to the test of time. I look forward to incorporating newer products into my lifestyle for years to come. Please share with us your experience with these makers, as well as any other companies, artisans, or manufacturers from the United States that have a presence in your wardrobe, and life.

I’ve been on a quest for the perfect t-shirt for years and years, seeking the right cut, fit, and feel. I hope Alabama Chanin will one day manufacture our perfect t-shirt (more on that later). Until then I have found comfort and quality in Three Dots, whose factory and corporate headquarters is based in Garden Grove, CA. My casual days at the office (of which there are many) include one of these basics with our swing skirt.

I’ve written many times on the art of wabi-sabi, referencing the Japanese beauty aesthetic in design. Earnest Sewn takes that aesthetic and applies it to the design of their jeans, while incorporating denim’s “Americana past.” The denim (and clothing) manufacturer prides itself on “workmanship and commitment to authenticity” in each pair of jeans. Part of their brand concept: “Each piece of Earnest Sewn is hand-crafted to perfection right here in the United States; the end result, a byproduct of our obsession.”

While in New York for MakeShift, we stopped in at 3×1, a storefront in SoHo with a jean manufacturing facility in-house. In the beautifully lit space, glass walls enclose a cutting and sewing room and allow you to see the making process in-store (by 11 sewers on staff). You may design and customize your own pair of jeans, or purchase from their already made collection.

Soft Star Shoes (shared in the comments of our last Made in America post) provides a customization service of shoes. All their shoes, including men’s, women’s, and (adorable) children’s shoes are handcrafted in their workshop loft in Corvallis, Oregon. Made to order, the shoes are comfortable and fun.  They are crafted using materials such as USA sourced leathers and vegan options.

Lastly, Zkano, a family-operated organic cotton sock manufacturer, is very close to home. Not only because they are based in Fort Payne, Alabama—a three hour drive from Florence—but because of the company’s ideals: all organic. They care about the quality of the product as much as they do its environmental impact.

Fort Payne has a similar story to our textile manufacturing community. NAFTA and outsourcing led to an absence in the textile industry jobs; however, Emi-G Knitting, a twenty-year old sock manufacturing company remained in business. Around three years ago, daughter Gina, began working with her parents’ company to make organic active, crew, and fashion socks. Read more about the company here.

We realize there are many, many more artisans, crafters, companies, and manufacturers that are producing here in North America. We’d like to thank these ‘makers’ for their commitment as we continue to highlight the beautiful, ethical, and passionate work that is Made in the USA.

xoNatalie

I have been revisiting our Wabi Sabi posts as I move into the holiday season and start to get my house ready for a slew of visitors. I am so excited to be cooking up a storm from all of our new holiday cookbooks, playing games, and laughing – but, first, my house needs a good cleaning. While I love the Wabi Sabi Cleaning Cupboard, I also enjoy splurging from time-to-time on my favorite Mrs. Meyer’s Lemon Verbena cleaning supplies.  June put together a lovely cleaning kit of all my favorite supplies, with some of our organic cotton scraps to use as rags for my deep clean.  Perhaps I really don’t like cleaning but I do get great satisfaction from taking my time, touching every surface, and relaxing at the end of the day in a house that just smells good. All is right with the world.

From Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi Sabi House by Robyn Griggs Lawrence:

“Homemakers in the Depression era knew wabi-sabi (even if they never uttered the phrase). In their homes, things were patched and mended but scrubbed and clean, handmade or chosen and paid for with care. Their linens may have been thin from many washings, but they were crisply white from lemon-juice treatments. Floors may have shown the wear of many feet, but they were clean and warmed up with a rug that had faded gracefully from brilliant red to pale rose. Wood had scratches, but it was polished to show off its grain. For those indoctrinated to believe that anything less than perfect should be replaced, our ancestors’ hands-on frugality is enlightening – welcome respite in our prosperous age of planned obsolescence.”

Indeed.
xoNatalie

The Wabi-sabi Cleaning Cupboard

Hydrogen peroxide to remove mold and disinfect

Club soda to clean and shine fixtures and windows

Vinegar to cut grease and lime deposits and soap buildup, deodorize toilet, remove film on floors

Baking soda to scour and remove smudges or scuffs

Lemon juice to remove grease and tarnish

Salt mixed with water to destroy bacteria

Baking soda with vinegar rinse for stainless steel

Olive oil to polish furniture (mix 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar for a cleaner shine)

Below you will find some answers that Robyn graciously agreed to supply. They appear in their original unedited form, her prose was too lovely and thoughtful to alter.

Other than washing the dishes by hand, are there other simple ways one might ease into the practice of mindfulness and wabi-sabi?

Here are a couple of ideas that I pulled from Simply Imperfect:Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House:

—Pay attention to your daily bread. Is the food you’re eating in season, and is it available locally? Through the meals you choose and prepare, you can connect with the earth’s cycles and with the place where you live—and live a healthier life. Buy food from your local farmers’ markets and ask the produce manager at your grocery store where different items came from.

—Next time you sweep the floor, consider it a meditation. Opt for the broom over the Dirt Devil whenever possible.

—When you’re invited to someone’s house or even just to a meeting, bring a small gift—nothing extravagant, just a small gesture (a jar of homemade jam, apples from your tree or a luxurious bar of soap) that lets them know they’re appreciated.

—Offer everyone who comes to visit a cup of tea. Serve it in pretty cups with a little something sweet. If no one comes by, enjoy a cup of tea by yourself in the late afternoon.

—Keep one vase in your home filled with seasonal flowers–gathered, if possible, from your backyard or neighborhood.

—Take a walk every day. Let this be your opportunity to open up your senses and to experience the changing seasons.

—Learn to knit or crochet (or sew).

—Next time you buy something, stop and ask questions. Who made it? How was it made? Where does it come from?

How does someone with your resume manage to take an unplugged vacation?! Is it difficult to turn everything off? Do you have any advice for someone wanting to do the same?

I first realized how awesome it is to say, “I’m not reachable” for a week when I went to the Burning Man festival in Nevada two years ago. There’s no cell service or internet in the desert where the festival is held, and no one wants it. Spending an entire week with 50,000 people interacting with art instead of their iPhones was amazing, and I decided I’d make that happen every year–even if I couldn’t make it to Burning Man. It has taken vigilance, a lot of prep work before the plug is pulled and I go offline, and a supportive staff willing to cover for me while I’m  gone.

This year, my kids and I spent two weeks at Rancho Margot, an organic farm and ranch on Lake Arenal in Costa Rica. We were mostly unplugged, although I wasn’t vigilant enough about the electronics they brought. I kept myself honest by leaving my laptop at home, but the kids brought their iPods and indulged in Facebook and FaceTime when they could get wi-fi in public areas. My advice, if you truly want to unplug–especially with teenagers–is to consider all gadgets. For the first couple of nights on the ranch, my kids satisfied their TV withdrawals by watching movies on their iPods. It took a couple of nights for them to settle in and get happy with talking or reading instead of media entertainment. By the end of the two weeks, I could barely get them to put their books down.

Was there a major turning point or catalyst that made you begin to “slow down and take notice?

There really wasn’t one moment that stands out. When I first discovered wabi-sabi, more than a decade ago, I was drawn to it because it promised so much that I craved. I was a busy working mom with two young kids and an insane travel schedule, and I knew that I was missing out on crucial moments in all of our lives. I believe we write the book we most need ourselves, and I wrote The Wabi-Sabi House, the first edition, as a means of cultivating the slower, simpler lifestyle I did not have. When I had the opportunity to rewrite the book seven years later as Simply Imperfect, I realized how far I’ve come. My life gets simpler, by degrees, every day–and I have wabi-sabi to thank for that.

Have your priorities shifted throughout your career?

Yes and no. As a writer and editor, my motivation has always been to share knowledge and ideas in beautiful ways that inspire people. That doesn’t change. The thing I love about getting older, though, is that I see so many ways to go about that–especially in this changing media landscape–and I’m less attached to being at the top of a masthead. I’ve been so fortunate to spend the past decade writing about and sharing ideas that I’m passionate about, and I’ve come to realize that those ideas and the people behind them are what have made my career so satisfying.

What are your plans/goals for the future?

Oh, what a good question! I have a Buddhist friend who tells me that we never need to plan more than three months ahead, and right now I’m taking solace in that advice. After decades of secure employment, I’m leaving my day job next month. I plan to write more, spend more time with my kids and get down to Costa Rica, a place that enchants me, more often.

For the first time in ages, I don’t know exactly what my future looks like, but I know it will entail spreading the word about the beauty that can be found in living simply and consciously.

Are there things that aren’t very wabi-sabi that you have a weakness for or feel are worth the indulgence?

My dream car is a Mustang convertible. That’s not wabi-sabi or environmentally friendly, but I’m having something of a midlife crisis. (I’m not likely to get one any time soon, but I’ve learned to stop berating myself for wanting something a little more fun than my ancient Honda Civic Hybrid.)

If you could put this book in the hands of one person knowing they would be open to its message, who would you choose?

Dare I say Oprah? She has the reach and star power to spread the message to millions. (I do know that every author puts Oprah on their wish list. But I’m pretty certain that she would love wabi-sabi.)

Mending is not something we – as a culture – spend a lot of time doing these days.  Fast fashion and mass consumerism has taught us to simply throw older or imperfect items away and replace them with newer versions. I am all for the “Sewing Schoolyard” – let’s teach ourselves and our kids to mend – a satisfying task.

My favorite, 10-year old tea towels have seen better days; but, I just can’t find the perfect replacement.  I use our Alabama Chanin Tea Towels for most kitchen tasks but these have just given me so much kitchen love that I can’t bear to part with them.

In perfect wabi-sabi style, Olivia – our Studio Assistant (and budding pattern maker) – mended my old tea towels using scraps of our organic cotton jersey and Button Craft thread.  Using applique in combination with seed, whip and eyelet stitches, she repaired the holes and covered the stains.  Perfect.

(If needed, you can find instructions for applique and a variety of stitches in our books.)

I love my tea towels now more than I did before – kitchen love indeed.

It’s been written before BUT, Sister Parish said it best:

“Even the simplest wicker basket can become priceless when it is loved and cared for through the generations of a family.”

“Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness,

Wabi-sabi is ambivalent about separating beauty from non-beauty or ugliness.  The beauty of wabi-sabi is, in one respect, the condition of coming to terms with what you consider ugly.  Wabi-sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something else.  Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view.  Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.”

While working on my own wabi-sabi this week, I came across the work of friend

I was reminded of the importance of these six principles:

1. Reveal:  Slow design reveals spaces and experiences in everyday life that are often missed or forgotten, including the materials and processes that can easily be overlooked in an artifact’s existence or creation.

2. Expand: Slow design considers the real and potential “expressions” of artifacts and environments beyond their perceived functionality, physical attributes and lifespans.

3. Reflect: Slowly-designed artifacts and environments induce contemplation and ‘reflective consumption.’

4. Engage: Slow design processes are “open source” and collaborative, relying on sharing, co-operation and transparency of information so that designs may continue to evolve into the future.

5. Participate: Slow design encourages users to become active participants in the design process, embracing ideas of conviviality and exchange to foster social accountability and enhance communities.

6. Evolve: Slow design recognizes that richer experiences can emerge from the dynamic maturation of artifacts and environments over time. Looking beyond the needs and circumstances of the present day, slow design processes and outcomes become agents of both preservation and transformation.

“Slow Design’s manifesto urges designers to ‘satisfy real needs rather than transient fashionable or market-driven needs’ by:

Creating moments to savor and enjoy the (human) senses
Designing for space to think, react, dream and muse
Designing for people first, commercialization second
Balancing the local with the global and the social with the environmental
Demystifying and democratizing design by reawakening individual’s own design potential
Catalyzing social transformation toward a less materialistic way of living”

This seems like a great place to start with any project.
Natalie

1. All things are impermanent.

2. All things are imperfect.

3. All things are incomplete.

To me, this seems the essence of wabi-sabi.  When I read these, it is like I have been given the okay to just be me today, and every day.  Sigh, what a relief.

On my daughter Maggie’s birthday each year, I send (or do my best to send) an invitation to celebrate that includes the following text. Today, the invitation is for me:

“Join us in celebrating 50 years of life.

No presents please, plant a flower or a tree for me.”

Thank you for all your support for Alabama Chanin… and me.

As my father reminded me: “This is going to be the best decade of your life!”
xoNatalie

P.S: For those of you who have been asking, my cleanse was a success – or should I say a beautiful and permanent change of lifestyle:  25 pounds lighter and I feel 10+ years younger.

Now, on to cleansing my life, home and studio! It is going to be a wabi-sabi life – starting today…