Finslippy Challenge

I read is Finslippy written by Alice Bradley just about every day. I really like her writing because she has a perspective on life that is raw and it feels like she is describing my life so much of the time it's weird. I also wish I had even half the talent. Alice is a professional writer and has contributed to the books "Things I Learned About My Dad (in Therapy)" and "Sleep is for the Weak."

Right now, Alice is having a challenge on her blog. She explains it here:

Donors Choose is an incredible organization that matches teachers in high-needs schools with people who are willing to give. Teachers register with the site and describe what projects they need sponsored, and donors can pick and choose which projects they want to help fund. So the Blogger Challenge is just a bunch of us bloggers competing over who can raise the most money. If I win the Blogger Challenge, I will reenact Pat Benatar's video "Love is a Battlefield" in its entirety. Because I am dimly aware that this challenge is about helping teachers in need, and my desire to WIN WIN WIN or your desire to see me shimmying and gyrating in a torn dress and too much eyeliner.

Product Body is offering a FIGGY PUDDING gift box (not yet available to the public!!) over at Finslippy as a give away to a random donor this week. I am honored to be a part of this effort, even if it's just a small donation. I urge you to go help, even if it's just five dollars. If you haven't checked out Finslippy before, you should, but you might get hooked.

And if she wins, we get to see her do Pat Benatar. We need a little comic relief from all this political fog, don't we?

We are strong...

Attention Beauty + Product Junkies!

Anyone who has a plethora of soap, shampoo, body products that you don't want, here is a place you might want to send them to. I share this letter from Outside In that I received and I think you all may have something in your bathroom you can give up if you feel this is a cause you'd feel good about. I know I will.


Dear Get Product,

The experience of being homeless is frightening, debilitating and fraught with risks. Access to basic survival needs such as food, clothing and shelter are daily challenges. The added challenges of neglect and abuse in early childhood, medical and mental health needs and emotional trauma make a life off the street seem almost inconceivable. But if given the chance, and offered the right resources, building a sense of confidence that moves homeless youth into employment, college, stable housing and improved health occurs every day.

Outside In’s mission is to address the changing needs of homeless youth and other marginalized people as they work toward self-sufficiency and improved health by providing them innovative social, medical and mental health services and material resources. The Employment & Education Program enhanced and expanded learning and employment options for 336 youth this past year. 50 youth completed an advanced Job Readiness Training curriculum, learning critical skills to obtaining and maintaining employment. 91 youth received educational services, including 22 youth attending college. Along with extensive training and support, our Employment & Education Program provides homeless youth with basic hygiene supplies.

Any donation of soap or other hygiene supplies to Outside In would be sincerely appreciated. It would be great to get travel size soaps or a large piece and we can cut it for distribution. If you have any questions or want to learn more about Outside In, please contact me at 503.535.3866. www.outsidein.org

Sincerely,
Matt Weatherly
Development & Communications Assistant
____________________________________
Matt Weatherly | Outside In Development & Communications Assistant
1132 SW 13th Ave | Portland, OR 97205
www.outsidein.org Direct:503.535.3866


Help spread the word. Change can happen when people know about it, so post this on your blog or pass it along to someone.

Free Stuff Contest Deadline Approaching!

The Free Stuff Photo Contest is in its final approach and so is the Farm Sanctuary charity effort. Both promotions end on the last day of September (one more week!).

The Free Stuff Photo Contest: The most original photo sent to us with Product Body products in the picture wins a goodie box from us: Product Body scrubs, bath melts and other goodies. Details.

Farm Sanctuary Partnership: We are donating 10% of all online sales purchased on productbodyshop to Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the abuse and general mistreatment of farm animals. Details.

Now Available Online

As I spoke about my fear of being copied or taken advantage of, I had removed my ingredient list of each product from our website. I didn't like the idea of things being stolen. Recipes....but the reality is, no one can know my recipes, they can just guess and try to replicate. As Anne-Marie (from Soap & The Finer Things) states, "...imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." This I know, but thank you Anne-Marie for reminding me. In fact, I try to remind myself of that but sometimes my brain fails me. AND, I have to help my daughter understand this concept, too, when her little brother runs around doing what she does (even though sometimes he can be parrot-like).

So now, vegans can know if a formula is vegan, or natural or both, or not. Because of our Farm Sanctuary charity donations and involvement, we have had many vegans asking me what the ingredients are. Funny, how that came up after months of me not thinking about it, and then it becoming an issue for me just days before the emails.

Here is the link to the ingredient page. Each product has a link at the bottom of the description of each product, too. This will make it easy for everyone to know what they are really looking at.

I had some temporary insanity regarding removing the ingredients, but I am back and completely sane and together.

Farm Sanctuary Gala

Farm Sanctuary had a Gala last night at the Beverly Hills Hotel in order to raise money for their cause and I am hopeful that they raised a LOT of it! As I mentioned in my last post about Farm Sanctuary, they are a not-for-profit organization that’s fighting to stop the abuses of industrialized farming and trying to bring awareness and understanding about farm animals.

In addition to regular folk, their are many celebrities that are a part of the cause. To name a few: Alicia Silverstone, Margaret Cho, Ashley Judd, Gillian Anderson, Kevin Nealon, Joaquin Phoenix, Ellen DeGeneres, David Duchovny (excellent in Californication), Forest Whitaker among others. The Gala was hosted by Emily Deschanel of the show "Bones".

Cheers to all that supported them! Do not forget that 10% of proceeds of every online orders during the month of September at productbodyshop.com will be donated to Farm Sanctuary. So treat yourself and feel good about where your money is going at the same time. Stock up on gifts, start taking lovely baths, buy Mom a gift becasue you love her, whatever!

Get and give at the same time! And if you aren't familiar with our products, we make them fresh every day so you know it hasn't been sitting on some shelf in a hot warehouse for months. We make it just for you... :)

Our Partnership with Farm Sanctuary

Danielle Schreier of Farm Sanctuary contacted me a couple of weeks ago inviting us to participate in their upcoming Gala at the Beverly Hills Hotel in L.A. on September 8th. Farm Sanctuary is a non-profit organization that fight the abuses of industrialized farming and to encourage a new awareness and understanding about farm animals.

Quoted directly from their site, "Our rescue and education work continues, as we advocate for laws and policies to prevent suffering and promote compassion. We are reaching out to legislators and businesses, and working to bring about institutional reforms."

We are happy to announce that we have donated Crush On You for the gift bags at the Gala this coming weekend (picture above shows the pile of yum) and we are going to donate 10% of proceeds of all website sales made on Product Body Shop for the whole month of September. Every time you or anyone else purchases from our website, you will be helping Farm Sanctuary continue their rescue, education and advocacy work. Below are a few pictures of a few animals they have rescued that now live on their farm.

Aren't they sweet?

Let's join together and make September our biggest month ever, so we can give Farm Sanctuary a boost!

A reminder: We do NOT test on animals and never will.

Good Search

This was sent to me by my most excellent cousin, Leslie in L.A.:

"GoodSearch.com is a search engine (“powered by Yahoo”) that donates money to your favorite registered charity each time you search. I changed my home page to GoodSearch. Thought you might be interested in the possibilities, either to supporting a cause already there, or getting a non-profit that you love registered for fundraising purposes."

I chose Friends Of El Faro (FOEF). Their goal is to purchase land and build the orphaned children of Casa Hogar Sion a new home. In the mean time there are hungry children to feed, to shelter, keep safe and send to school. So if you feel the need to give while you search anyway, use GoodSearch and fund FOEF unless there is another non-profit you'd like to help.

Let's all do our part. (This one requires no work at all, so there is no excuse.)

I'm Not A Plastic Bag

The re-usable tote bag has become quite a fad these days, but a fad that helps the environment is a win-win situation for everyone. Any "un-plastic" bag can be re-used to carry home groceries and limit the ever polluting plastic bags that we, as consumers, use for grocery shopping.

The two here are quite sleek and not at all frumpy like the older canvas Barnes and Noble ones we had in the 70's (did I just date myself??). There are quite a few out there that have hit the market and have become wildly trendy, such as the "Paper Nor Plastic" bag (below) that has sleek lines and is more sturdy looking than the Anya Hindmarch's bag (shown to the left).

The "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" says, “We are what we do” on the back and is made of polyester and vinyl, it's sturdy, and doesn't create the hassle of storing a bunch of bags in your kitchen pantry (or wherever you stuff them all). The bag was designed by Anya Hindmarch in collaboration with We Are What We Do, a group dedicated to change for the environment, communities and health. It's an interesting organization or "movement" as they call themselves. "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" can be found at the Anya Hindmarch site.

The "Paper Nor Plastic" bag can be found here at papernorplastic.com. They have a section on their website that sheds light on the impact we are having on the planet. I will quote directly:

"According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the United States in 1997 alone used 955,000 tons of paper bags. That means approximately 14.8 million trees had to be cut down.

+ According to the EPA, 11 barrels of oil are saved when one ton of plastic bags are reused or recycled. One ton is equivalent to approximately 132,000 plastic bags. And according to the ELC (Environmental Literacy Council), it is estimated that somewhere between 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are consumed each year throughout the world. Can you imagine how many barrels of oil can be saved?

+ According to the San Francisco Department of the Environment, San Francisco shoppers consume about 50 million bags each year. An environmental study also shows that the city spends $8.5 million each year to dispose or remove bags from streets
and storm drains.

+ According to the EPA, ELC, The Ocean Conservancy and many other agencies, plastic bags pose a threat to marine life. Sea turtles and whales have mistaken plastic bags for natural prey like jellyfish and squid. Ingesting plastic bags can cause blockage to the digestive tract which leads to starvation. In 2002, a whale washed up the coast of Normandy had 800 grams of plastic elements, including plastic bags, in its stomach."

They are originally $15, but are on sale for $10, and buy three get one free. So if you want one, go get them while they are cheap!

Enough said. I remind myself all the time about everything in life: Baby steps. Baby steps.

A Letter About El Faro

Back in May, I blogged about a great group, Friends Of El Faro, an organization who work with orphaned kids in Tijuana. My dear cousin, Leslie, told me all about the cause and her immense participation in it. Thought I'd share this letter from her to me:

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Hi Jo Jo,

I just got back from spending yesterday in Rosarito and Tijuana. We had a big excursion and took the kids to Fox Studios Baja (where they filmed Titanic) then headed back to El Faro to hang out. I thought you’d like to see a few pictures of some of us with the kids, just a representative sampling. You must feel like you’re getting to know us a little by now!



Cooper Fan Club – Stephen & Hannah are our FOEF (Friends Of El Faro) staff. They met through FOEF, and are now married. Cooper is their 8-month-old son. Here with some kids at EF.






Dat Dat – Stephen playing one of the hand-clap games with the kids.





Gena & Jenny – Gena is your big Product Body fan. She and Jenny here in the toddler room.

James – On the EF playground with one of the boys.

JJ Silly – Juliette in the toddler room.







None of me. I’m the photographer! Thank you so much for supporting our kids! Can’t wait to see you in July!

Love you! -Les

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Friends of El Faro

There are always dilemmas that go beyond the obvious daily decisions that are difficult in business, but this one was easy. My cousin Leslie Abbott recently tried my products and loved them. Then, being the thoughtful sweetie that she is, decided to send all of her friends a bit of Product to try (thank you for the support honey!). As you might infer from that, Leslie is a kind and generous woman and it's no surprise to anyone who knows her that she has always been wildly active and done charity work all over the world. Recently she sent me an email with a suggestion about a way I could make a difference and help out one of the wonderful projects she is involved with, an excerpt of which follows:

"I have been going down to an orphanage called El Faro in Tijuana for four years. The group of people I go with head down from L.A. periodically for the weekend, and just play with the kids, do fun activities with them, love ‘em up, etc. We also raise money in the U.S. to support them. The kids are great. In July, we are holding an auction online with EBay. I’m asking you to donate a package...."

Could I possibly resist?!? Of course not! We have made donations to charities and charity events a priority in the past, but over the last month or two (or three) have been swamped (I've blogged about some of our projects, and have some other surprises coming soon...), but a reminder of what really matters to us was just what we needed. As I mentioned, we are busy busy and are almost missing the deadline on getting the goodies off to them, but I wanted to share with you how important this is to them and to me. How often do we involve ourselves in really making a difference? We're just lucky to be in a position to have people present these opportunities to us and be able to help.

So go see their website and see how you might get involved. I take my hat off to Leslie and everyone else who goes down there, leaving their jobs, homes and families to spend some time with these kids and make a difference! Here is my hat Leslie! And my donation is on its way. I love you!