From Heal the Bay

MALIBU VOTES TO BAN PLASTIC BAGS

City council takes Southland’s most decisive step to protect environment

Malibu, CA (Tuesday, May 13, 2008) –
The Malibu City Council voted unanimously Monday night to ban retailers from distributing single-use plastic shopping bags within city limits, joining dozens of other progressive cities that have recently moved to curb the proliferation of wasteful packaging.

Malibu’s ban is the most aggressive action to date on plastic bags by any Southland city, as it applies to all retailers, from grocery stores to small boutiques. It forbids the distribution of both plastic and compostable carryout bags.

Grocery stores, food vendors, restaurants, pharmacies and city facilities have six months to comply with the ordinance. Smaller sized retailers have one year until the measure is operative. The City Council also directed staff to research imposing fees on paper bags, in a bid to drive consumer adoption of more sustainable reusable bags.

Regional environmental group Heal the Bay provided input to city staff that drafted the approved measure as part of its yearlong fight to promote the use of reusable shopping bags statewide. One-use plastic bags clog landfills, foul our public spaces, waste energy and threaten marine life. California taxpayers spend more than $25 million a year to collect and dispose of the 19 billion one-use plastic shopping bags distributed annually.

The city of Malibu should be commended for taking decisive action to protect the environment and improve residents’ quality of life,” said Sarah Abramson, Heal the Bay’s director of coastal resources. “Hopefully other cities are taking notice and now realize that the writing is on the wall for plastic bags.

More than two dozen nations and metropolitan areas have recently enacted limited bans on plastic bags, including China, San Francisco and Paris. Santa Monica officials are now drafting an ordinance that would forbid the distribution of all single-use plastic shopping bags within city limits and require that store owners charge shoppers a fee if they request a paper bag.

Malibu measure was broadly supported by the local community, including the Malibu Surfing Association, Malibu Green Teens, Surfrider Foundation and other citizen groups.

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Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco-Friendly Spa Products
Gentle on your body…
Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

This weekend ended up being a busy one!

Saturday hubs and I went grocery shopping, ran some necessary errands then I took the granddaughters (8 & almost 11) Mother’s Day shopping. Since it will be near 80 degrees here by Friday (woot!!) I also took the g’daughters summer clothes shopping. We spent a whole 3 hours shopping and having fun which I really enjoyed since I have not seen them for about 3 weeks.

Sunday was Mother’s Day and as sometimes happens plans change and it was hubs and I for most of the day. He took me out for breakfast then we stopped at a local nursery and he purchased a wonderful planter filled with succulents (like chicken & hens, sedums etc.) and little black pebbles. I really love the look of these plants and they are perfect for planters….in fact we have a big clay pot that is being overrun with herbs that I hope to transplant this coming weekend. We will then redo the clay pot with the above mentioned plants and for this one I would like little white pebbles!

For Mother’s Day our daughters got me a Toddy Coffee Maker (thanks girls…I love you!). I never knew there was such a thing and I am thrilled!

I LOVE coffee but it kills my stomach (and no, I’m not giving it up any time soon…I don’t smoke and I don’t drink but I will drink my coffee!). The Toddy Coffee Maker is a cold process method and is supposed to reduce the acid content of the coffee by 67% which should make my stomach happier!

Last night I set up the Toddy maker to brew overnight and this morning I let it drain into the carafe. There are several recipes in the instruction booklet that sound very, very good…one is made with ice cream! I will let you know which is my favorite recipe as well as how it effects my stomach….it may be an option for those of you with sensitive bellies!

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

We would like to wish all the mom’s in the world a Happy Mother’s Day!

As for us, our daughters and respective families will be coming over for dinner and visiting. I think hubs plans on bbq’ing hamburgers and hot dogs with a little potato and fruit salad thrown in for good measure….

Oh! and baked beans!

I’m writing a note to myself right now to blog the recipe next week on these beans…you cook them in the crock pot and they are divine!

Have a nice weekend and we will see you next week!

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

After reading through this blog I’m starving!!!!

Who knew you could do so much with CAKE!

Check out Bakerella’s blog for sweet inspiration!

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

But there is the rare moment when you just want to kick ‘em in the hiney!

We have two adult Bull Terriers (1 male/1 female, both fixed)..

Our male is a pretty easy going guy…feed him his biscuits and give him a pat on the head on occasion and he’s a happy camper.

The female on the other hand is the guard dog and is constantly on perimeter patrol…which is fine during the day.

It’s at night that it becomes a problem….for me.

Take last night….woke up around 1:30 am…to her highness barking at the back door. It was obvious by her tone of voice that ’something’ was out there (this dog can be sound asleep in the bedroom and will hear hubs peeling a banana in the kitchen-she knows he will give her a bite).

So being the good mom that I am I let her out….and wait….and wait…. and wait. I poke my head out of the door and hear this low growly sound and think great…she has a racoon cornered and a fight will ensue.

I grab the flashlight and in my pj’s and bare feet (sorry honey, I know I should have slipped shoes on)(there is a story behind me and bare feet and a massive bacterial infection that I just will not go into now) go trucking out back really really hopeing it was a ‘posum and not a racoon (thinking that ‘posum’s would be less agressive than racoons and ‘possum’s don’t carry rabies like ‘coons do).

Her highness had jumped our garden fence and had a black cat cornered behind our garden shed.

Great. Now we have to deal with sharp cat claws and how in the heck am I going to get her highness away from there before she attacks the cat..which she will do given the chance.

After several minutes of trying to distract her and yelling (softly so I didn’t wake the neighbors) her name she finally broke eye contact with kitty kitty and I was able to grab her collar and drag her back in the house.

I laid back down to go to sleep..or should I say I laid back down to TRY to go back to sleep. Her highness parked her piggy butt at the back door and whined to go back outside. There was no way in hell I was going to let her back out…she did NOT need to get the kitty kitty.

So from 1:45-3:25 am she stayed by the back door making noises to go back outside thus ruining my nights sleep. I did manage to doze off and on during her rantings but it was not a restful night at all. Finally at 3:25 am I let her back outside and once she realized that kitty kitty went home she promptly came back in and went to sleep. Nice….I now have a little over half an hour before I officially have to get up.

4 am - I’m up, showered and waiting for my first cup of coffee. Her highness comes in to see what I am doing and I see she has cat scratches on the top of her muzzle…..one of them just missing the corner of her eye. We narrowly avoided yet another vet visit. I will keep an eye on her muzzle for any signs of infection but she should be fine.

Meanwhile I’ve been awake off and on since 1:45 am…..

Oh….you wonder where ‘the boy’ (our male) was? Sleeping….naturally!

It’s going to be a long….long…..day.

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

There are sooo many social networking websites…I just can’t keep up with them all!

We are active on Myspace as I find it easy to use and I love linking to other small indie people and those who love unique products, services and music. We are however very careful who we approve as friends…no vulgarity, nudity or otherwise offensive people will be approved.

We also ‘Stumbled‘ for a while but time is in short supply and we haven’t been back for quite some time.

We have a Facebook page and if I remember correctly I may have also set up a Linkedin page but honestly I just do not have the extra time to do anything with either one of those..it’s enough just keeping up with this blog, our website and our Myspace page.

And now……there is…..Twittering!

I had heard about Twittering a while back but I resisted the temptation. Do people really care what you are doing at any given moment? Is this the newest thing or a fad soon to die out? Would I really have time to update it on a regular basis and would we have any followers?

Well a couple of days ago I broke down and created a Twitter account. My friends are doing it and their friends are doing it so I thought I would do it too….or at least give it a try! Our Twittering will be a mixture of both personal and business musings, goings on and any other random blathering.

Twittering is just a matter of making quick, short posts letting everyone know what you are doing or thinking of doing or just jotting down any random thoughts that may run through your brain.

And I am finding as I Twitter that it IS interesting to see what others are doing…or thinking.

So if you want to give Twittering a try check out our Twitter page and ‘follow’ us. You can read about us and in turn we can read about you!

If you would like to join up with other Twitterers post your Twitter page link in the comments section (you will have to register first) and we can all Twitter together!

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

I love mac & cheese but it has to be home-made…no boxed crap stuff for me…I want real cheese (yes I realize that Velveeta is processed cheese but let me bask in my cheesey moment just a little longer).

I found this recipe on the Kraft Foods website and we love it. It is really easy to make and it makes a lot (13″x 9″ pan).

Note: I did not use the cracker crumbs. I doubled the recipe for a 13″x 9″ pan AND I added cut up sausage type hotdogs! Hubs and I ate on this for most of the week.

Velveeta Mac & Cheese

1/4 c. Butter, Divided

1/4 c. Flour

1 c. Milk

1/2 lb. (8 oz.) Velveeta Cheese, cut into cubes

2 c. Elbow Macaroni, cooked & drained

1/2 c. Cheddar Cheese, shredded

1/4 c. Ritz Crackers

Preheat oven to 350. Melt 3 Tbls. butter in med. saucepan on low heat. Add the flour and mix well. Cook 2 min. stirring constantly. Gradually add the milk stirring until well blended. Cook on med. heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Add the Velveeta cheese and cook until melted, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

Add cooked elbow macaroni and lightly mix. You can add cut up hotdogs at this point if desired. Spoon into lightly greased 2 qt. casserole dish, sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese. Melt remaining 1 Tbl. butter and toss with crushed Ritz cracker crumbs. Sprinkle over mac & cheese.

Bake 20 min. or until heated through.

Enjoy!

Register for our blog and submit your favorite Velveeta cheese recipe!

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

Here are the last of the Mother’s Day gift baskets that we put together as examples.

Reminder: Mother’s Day is next Sunday. Place your orders in the next two days (before Monday) and we will ship USPS Priority Mail so it will arrive in time for you to put your gift baskets together. Also don’t forget to take advantage of our Mother’s Day discount!

Chocolate Gift Basket

This basket includes products in our Pure Xocolatl line. Products include soap, whipped body cream and sugar scrub as well as a couple of boxes of gourmet chocolates. Obviously this basket could use wayyyy more chocolate!

Spa Basket

We did up a simple spa basket using all of the soaps in our Essentials collection. We also added a Celtic relaxation cd and a plush washcloth. You can use any combination of our products along with any bath/body enhancements (massager, cd, gift certificate to her favorite spa etc.) and make a great customized spa basket!

You do not have a lot of shipping time left so order today and give mom a personal gift basket created with love by you!

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

Coffee is a staple around our house and I am one of those people that is not entirely nice sane awake until I’ve had my first cup.

Help mom wake up and suprise her with a Coffee Gift Basket. Not only can she enjoy a gourmet cup of coffee but she can also enjoy coffee in the shower with our Almond Mocha spa products!

This gift basket includes our Almond Mocha Soap, Sugar Scrub and Whipped Body Cream. We have also added a pound of gourmet coffee and a hefty coffee mug.

You can have fun with this theme and add chocolate covered coffee beans along with a gift card to her favorite espresso stand!

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

Here we have a Mother’s Day Tea Basket.

Components include soap, lotion and sugar scrub from our Herbal Teas Collection.

We have also added a tea cup and matching saucer, a box of hot tea and also a box of Crystal Light instant tea that you mix in a bottle of water.

You could have fun with this theme and add bottled water (for the ice tea), a tea ball or tea spoon, a tea cozy and a gift certificate to your local tea shop! You could also line the basket with tea themed material instead of shred.

Tomorrow we will post a coffee basket!

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com