products I love: bogs

Anders and I have been wearing Bogs footwear for the past three years or so. We LOVE them. They are easy to slip on, have great traction, are waterproof and, best of all, they keep your feet warm (maybe sometimes a little too warm). They have all sorts of plain colors for guys and cool patterned ones for girls. I have these and have these ordered. I wear mine all the time. Seriously. I garden in them, commute to work in them, go to the dog park in them and take walks in them. They are fantastic, and we are big fans. The Bogs company is nice enough to supply the entire fish market with work shoes, and we all know those boys work a lot. If Bogs footwear can hold up in that kind of physical, wet, hard working environment…what can’t they accomplish, you know? The Bogs company asked Anders is he would like to be an ambassador for them, and given the love we have for the company, he said yes! You can check out his cool story here, and I’ve also linked to a video the guys at the shop did about the shoes. Check it out!



* And, as always, I was not paid to write this :)

products i love: camelbak all clear

Anders and I travel a lot abroad and with that comes the issue of drinking water. In most of the countries we visit, it isn't safe to drink the water, and since I don't know exactly which countries it is safe, we just stick with the don't-drink-it-ever rule thus resulting in the purchase of many (wasteful) bottles of water. However, before we left for Peru, I purchased the CamelBak All Clear water bottle, and it filters water for me using UV light. Stream water! Tap water! You name it water! It's so simple. All you have to do is fill the bottle from the tap or stream or well, push a little button on the top to power the UV light and shake for 60 seconds. The water is fine to drink after that (you can read the more specific details here). Easy! 

This is probably my new favorite toy ever. Although please note that it doesn't actually change the taste of the water. Therefore, tap water still tastes like tap water. I personally didn't have a problem with it, but it freaked Anders out.

This is me filtering water in the middle-of-nowhere, Peru.

products I love: zum bars

I had a pet goat when I was growing up. I named him Djolly after a character in a book I had read. I'm pretty sure you aren't actually supposed to pronounce the "D" in Djolly, but, as a kid, I didn't know that, so I called my goat Dee-Jolly instead of just Jolly. I really loved Djolly, and I'm pretty sure that having a backyard goat today would be seriously cool, but, unfortunately, my husband and dog have a different opinion. Someday!

Anyway, I love goats and I love goat products. My Mom got me these pretty incredible goat's milk soap bars from a company called Indigo Wild. Here is what they have to say about why these bars are better than regular bars.

"This natural soap has the good stuff of goat's milk, 100% pure essential oils, veggie oils, herbs, natural glycerin and natural mineral pigments. But why? Well, it's better than stuff like tallow (beef fat) or PEG-6 methyl ether (a thickener) or tetrasodium EDTA (water softener) or lard (yeah, no explanation necessary).

The bad stuff in un-natural soap is obvious, but some wonderers wonder, "why use goat's milk?" Well, there's an udder difference in the pH balance of goat's milk. Goat's milk makes our natural soap more akin to the skin than anything else - not too alkaline, not too acidic, but just right. So it doesn't dry skin or leave it feeling oil."

After using the Zum bar for a month, I can totally agree. It's the best, and I just wanted to pass along the info. to you guys as well. I think DJolly would approve too!

(oh and just for the record, I'm not being paid to write this. I just really like them!)

products I love: rainbow maker

Anders got me the coolest gift for Christmas. It's a solar powered rainbow maker. A what? Yes, it's a little contraption that you suction cup to your window. There is a little solar powered motor that turns a crystal and, when the sun is shining, creates little rainbows all over your room. It has been raining non-stop since Christmas, so there hasn't been much rainbow making going on over here. Well, the sun came out today and woohoo! We've got living room rainbows. Awesome.

Here is a video I made on Vine of the product in action.