☺ Inspirational: Motivational Mondays!☺

It's that time again! Who's excited for a while new week? I can't hear you!!!!! Well let's see if those cheers are any louder after this week's Motivational Monday tips! ;) 

☺ Get in touch with an old friend... or even if it's a friend you just haven't seen in a while. Friendship is fabulous and it's always fun catching up. Arrange to meet up in person whenever you can.

☺ Stay focussed on those Positive Affirmations!! They reaaaally do make a huge difference in your day, your week, your life! So remember to repeat them daily... just in case you're like me and get forgetful sometimes. 

☺ Give your change to the next busker... I lived in a big city for the last three and a half years and so you get used to bums asking you for change. You even get used to young adults asking you for change because they are too lazy to get a job... but this is a whole other topic in itself... my point is, it's nice when you see people busking, performing, working for that change. Some of them are also quite amazing. So reward their efforts, you probably don't really need that change anyway so give it to the next busker you see. There's your random act of kindness assignment for the week ;) 

☺ Turn off all media... for at least one day this week. Turn off the tv, the computer, your cell phone, and all the other many devices we are attached to in a day. Take a media break. Too much time spent on these things can deplete the soul, so get back to some more natural hobbies and activities. 

☺ Take a nature walk... anywhere close by. Even if it's just a walk down a quaint little neighborhood. Take in all the different trees, flowers, insects, and birds. Gaze up at the sky. Enjoy some fresh air. 

☺ Say Thank You! It's one of those words that is either over-used without true appreciation or under-used altogether. Say thank you with meaning, to the bus driver, the cashier, your partner, a friend, show your gratitude. 
☺ Give someone a big hug! And tell them how much you love them. 

Have a fabulous Monday and make the most out of your week! Make it FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC!!!! 

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.

☺ Inspirational: Motivational Mondays!☺

I feel soooo fantastic today! It's been super sunny out lately so I've had lots of time to play in the sun with some awesome people, lots of spontaneity and fun adventuring :). I am also soooo grateful and thankful for everything in my life soo.... Here's to a fantastic Monday and week to come :)  

☺ Be Appreciative...  of your job! Whether you enjoy it or not, it gives you money, so focus on the positivity that comes from that. And if you don't enjoy it, start! It's all in your attitude! Learn to have fun with it! I live in a small town where work is hard to come by. So appreciate any job and make the most of it!     

☺ Be Spontaneous! And be open to the spontaneity that comes your way! A friend dropped in on me this weekend, I had no idea she was coming, just knocked on the door and stole me away for the day. Be open and welcoming to such adventuring. Go with it ;)  

☺ Have fun outside! I know, I mention this one a lot, but it is lovely being outside. Make the effort to go outside every day and enjoy it for at least a little while. It's been sunny all week for me, however today rainy and I still plan on enjoying it.  

☺ Make a list of your Positive Affirmations... Now that I finally wrote up the article on "Positive Affirmations," write up your list and repeat them daily! Seriously, you'll be amazed by how quickly things can start happening! I've been focussing every day on my Positive Affirmations and have already been seeing them come to reality :)  

☺ Smile!! Another one I mention a lot, you can see I'm trying to get some Positive Affirmations already going in your lives ;). The power of a smile is contagious and beautiful and it makes you feel good! Having a smile on your face while repeating affirmations is also very powerful in bringing that positivity and determination to your desires. 

☺ Don't let fear control you... I'm going to expand on this topic soon because it is one that governs much of our limitations. They are silly but most of us have them. "Courage (is) not the absence of fear or despair, but the strength to conquer them."  

☺ Eat Real Food! I keep reading about the things added to food these days. I also finally watched "Supersize Me." It just amazes me how many people eat garbage all day, how people eat food that isn't food at all. Start eating REAL food!! You want to be happy and healthy, then that's where you need to start!     

Now go on and have a fabulous lovely day and week!! :)  

Peace & Love,

xo

~Bianca  

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.

☆ What's Going On: Separation from Nature ☆

In every sense imaginable, we have made "Nature" our enemy. Mankind has created this notion that, not only are we above nature, but we must defeat and conquer it. This thinking would imply that we can live without it. We cannot. Sorry to burst that bubble. Mankind has placed itself upon a pedestal of which we are everything and the world is ours to control, conquer, manipulate, and destroy, and there will be no consequences for our actions. There are in fact dreadful and deadly consequences but we will continue to ignore this matter. Why? Because we have been taught to trust and believe that technology can save us from anything. 

We have forgotten the love. Let's find that love again. Not all hope is gone, not by a long-shot. We can certainly be Happy again and love nature again and have blissful beautiful wonderful fantastic lives. Better lives than we are living right now. By a long-shot. 

We have been conditioned to believe that we need to be protected from the natural world, when really it needs to be protected from Us. We have lost respect for the natural world when we should be opening our eyes to its wisdom, to respect, recognize and understand that wisdom and use it to help us instead of having it work against us. In this way of thinking, we have thrown our survival and our happiness out the window--in the form of garbage and litter and pollution and angry anti-social thinking. Science and technology are the answer to everything and so we continue to push away and detach ourselves more and more from the natural world. We have lost harmony with the planet and in doing so push ourselves closer and closer to the brink of destruction. I'm not just talking about the destruction of our home, of Mother Earth, I'm talking about ourselves, our mentalities, our beings, our Happiness. In today's day and age, the only thing we need saving from is the technology that got us into this mess in the first place. Pollution, cancerous chemicals in our beauty products, islands of plastic in our oceans, clear-cutting forests that filter our air, pesticides and fertilizers contaminating our soils and food; it all amounts to one rather obvious conclusion; the way we treat our planet is no different than the way we treat ourselves. 

We have been made to believe that the Earth is evil. That the soil is dirty and so we must be squeaky clean with cancerous anti-bacterial soaps and sprays that rapidly diminish our health. God-forbid should we play outside in the dirt and soil, it's evil and gross and will get our brand-name clothing messy. Stay inside where it's "comfortable" and where technology will save you and give you unending convenient distractions away from the natural world, numb your mind and make you miserable. And let's not forget those animals, those possessions and accessories of ours, filthy little things that don't have feelings or emotions. 

The further we disconnect ourselves from nature, from the natural world, the more miserable we become. The less we are actually Living at all. 

Children these days are said to be suffering from "nature deficit disorder" in which they no longer experience, explore, and enjoy the gifts of the outdoors and nature, and instead are lost to the enclosed world of electronics. Nature has become a stranger to them, much as it has to us. They don't know what fresh air is, what being immersed in nature feels like. They don't climb over rocks, discover the living creatures under their noses, or appreciate the beauty of a tree or an ocean. Because of this, it is no wonder we do not care for our planet, how can we when we don't even see it anymore? Children, and even adults, these days have lost the pleasures of swimming in lakes and oceans, of camping in the wilderness, of enjoying a bike ride, of climbing a tree, walking in the sand, going for a nature walk or hike, observing the birds and animals and insects. We must teach our children, by example and exploring with them, that nature is beautiful and wondrous and more important than a video game or the internet or television program. 

"This is a problem because the way we treat the world around us is a direct reflection of our values and beliefs. Compare the way we treat another species when we believe it is our biological kin rather than just a resource, commodity, or opportunity. The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it, and we will only protect what we know and love."

Let's face it; we are living in some fantasy world, immersed in the illusion that we are actually "content" with our "stuff" tucked away from nature and life. People are becoming increasingly anti-social, and, as humans, we are extremely social creatures. We rape and pillage the earth without regard, consume without thinking for two seconds where it was made and what resources were exploited. We treat animals like unwelcome beasts, whether it's an animal behind bars or the spider that just crawled into your home. We fear nature, from the soil to the living creatures, instead of loving, embracing, being in harmony with, and living amongst it. There is too much money to be made off of destroying the planet instead of preserving it. Which is why we are made to believe it is evil. What then when there's nothing left? Well in this fantasy world we don't need to think about that! Remember, there are no consequences, right? Hopefully you can see that this way of thinking is seriously flawed. It is getting us into deeper environmental turmoil and making us all unhappy beings when we could be prancing around with smiles on our faces playing in the sunshine and grass.

  

We cannot manipulate the world to our perfected liking. Playing God has only brought us further disaster. We cannot control nature, and in attempting to do so we are disrupting the careful intricate natural balance that doesn't need to be tampered with at all. Nature works for us, giving us real food, fresh air, and renewable resources. Humankind can never replace what Earth does naturally for us. We should not be afraid of the natural world, for it brings us balance, beauty, and happiness naturally. Is it not "infested" with animals and creatures. It is not "wild." It is not "savage." It is beautiful, tame, and so intricately perfectly connected to everything--including ourselves. It does not need "fixing." Our way of life needs fixing. We just need to reawaken to what we already know and feel but have long forgotten. We need to get our hands dirty, play in the soil, hug a tree, grow our own food, swim in its waters, observe animals in nature instead of as prisoners behind bars. We need to reconnect with Mother Earth and return to the natural way of things. Any true wisdom will tell you that true unblinded Happiness comes from letting go of this separation to the natural world and to return to it and be in harmony with it instead of being against it. Money does not buy happiness. Exploiting the Earth does not feed happiness. It is a lack of appreciation, of not being in the Here & Now and not accepting Things As They Are that is causing all of our problems and our depressed states of mind. 

Break free from this backwards way of living. Reconnect and appreciate and enjoy and love this world around us. Teach your children to love and respect their planet and the creatures and life that exist here. Teach anyone you can to love the natural world, to live among and in harmony with it instead of making it our enemy. In the end, it's all we really have and all we'll ever need. 

Take time out of your every day to be outside, to feel your bare feet in the grass, soil, mud, ocean, or lake. See and experience and explore all the joys that the real world has to offer. Give back and it will return that love to you. 

Get lost and find yourself. Reconnect with Nature. Reconnect with your Self. 

Peace & Love,

xo

~Bianca  

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.

☆ What's Going On: Why Say No To HONEY ☆

This question has been on my mind for a while and I have been meaning to look more into it. I haven't been eating honey but without fully knowing why, just knowing that there is a reason it is a "No-no" for Vegans. So, for myself and for you; why we shouldn't eat honey...

Firstly, as a Vegan, my ethics are based on kindness and equality towards all living creatures. 

Veganism promotes these loving points; non-violence, non-stealing, and non-violent eating. Put simply, eating honey violates all of these. 

As a result of disease, pesticides, and climate changes, the honeybee population has been nearly decimated over the years, declining by as much as 50 percent since the 1980s. The demand for their honey and other products however remains high, so these tiny animals are factory-farmed, much like chickens, pigs, and cows are.

A bit about Bees...

Bees have unique and complex colonies consisting of different types of workers with very particular jobs. They, like most creatures, are complex beyond what we would like to believe. They have a complex central nervous system, which means they are able to experience pain and suffering.

"Studies have shown that bees are capable of abstract thinking as well as distinguishing their family members from other bees in the hive, using visual cues to map their travels, and finding a previously used food supply, even when their home has been moved. And much like smells can invoke powerful memories for humans, bees use their sense of smell to trigger memories of where the best food can be found." 

Violating Non-Stealing..

Most of us know that honey comes from beehives and therefor that it is the workplace and home of Bees and the honey they produce belongs to them. 

Beekeepers Steal their Honey. 

The honey they produce is intended to nourish bee offspring. And they produce just enough to feed their young. Instead, Beekeepers take it up from the hives and replace it with sugar water. This is not a nutritionally viable substitute for them, leaving the young bees susceptible to sickness and attack from other insects. When diseases are detected, beekeepers are advised to "destroy the colony and burn the equipment," which can mean burning or gassing the bees to death.

Honey is essentially "bee spit" or "bee vomit." Bees collect the nectar from flowers, swallow it, then regurgitate it. It is used as food stores in the hive during winter months when little or no nectar is available to them.

"One worker bee will produce about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in the course of her lifetime.”

So you can imagine how many suffering bees it took to give you that little bit of honey you're using in your tea, on your toast, or what have you. 

There are PLENTY of alternatives to honey so there is NO reason we should be stealing it from them.

Violating Non-Violence...

"At peak honey-production time in 2003, an estimated 155 billion bees, from 2.59 million colonies, were exploited in the U.S. to produce honey for human consumption."

In commercial beekeeping, the same unethical practices associated with farming factory come into play. Profiting from honey requires the manipulation and exploitation of the insects’ desire to live and protect their hive, leaving them to be victims of unnatural living conditions, genetic manipulation, and stressful transportation.

"Swarming" (the division of the hive upon the birth of a new queen) is the natural reproductive activity of the colony. But it can cause a decline in honey production so (surprise!) beekeepers do what they can to prevent it, such as cutting off the wings of a new queen, or confining her if she is trying to start a swarm. This is also why the Queens are killed every six months (in nature they can live for as long as seven years) and replaced with virgin queens that are mass produced by specialist breeders. These virgin queens are artificially inseminated by sperm collected from crushed males. 

To get all that honey, beeswax, bee pollen, royal jelly, propolis and venom for human uses is not a painless process. Beekeepers regularly have to disturb the bees' homes to remove the honeycombs from the hive. When this is done some bees will inevitable be injured or crushed, and any bees who sting the beekeepers will also die.

Honey is usually taken from the hive in the spring and fall. In the fall is when beekeepers will replace their honey with that sugar water, or they will kill off the colonies to avoid maintaining the hives throughout the winter.

Messing with Nature...

To increase crop production, beekeepers often transport colonies to areas where crops are in flower so that the bees will pollinate them. However, the consequence of this is that it drives out the native pollinators, such as bats, birds, moths, butterflies, and other winged creatures. This creates a monoculture of pollinators that is subject to disease and death. Hence the recent alarming decline in honeybee populations in the U.S.

What's worse is that honeybees aren't as good pollinators as other pollinating creatures, but farmers continue to rely on factory-farmed honeybees for pollination instead so that the honey industry can continue to make 174 million pounds of honey every year, at a value of more than $157 million.

We are essentially messing with nature (as usual) without really knowing the full consequences of those actions. 

Beekeepers are also notorious for spreading disease. Because it has become increasingly difficult to find healthy honeybees, farmers will truck diseased colonies across the country to healthy colonies. But they fail to recognize or treat the disease, they purchase infected equipment, and they keep colonies too close together, and leave dead colonies in apiaries. 

Conclusion... 

Avoid honey, beeswax, propolis, royal jelly, and other products that come from bees. There are soooooo many Vegan alternatives out there to choose from. You can find Vegan lip balms and beauty products Everywhere! Soy candles are readily available. Agave Nectar is my personal favorite to replace honey in food, you can also use rice syrup, molasses, sorghum, barley malt, maple syrup, or dried fruit or fruit concentrates.

See? There is no Good reason to be stealing Honeybees. You can try to justify it however you want but it doesn't change the fact that bees are suffering for human pleasures. I also can't ignore the environmental impacts. Bees are amazing and necessary creatures for Earth's survival and, once again, we are destroying their natural populations and trying to play God when we cannot predict our consequences for such actions. 

Be Earth-smart and be Animal-friendly! Yes, Bees are animals too! Practice Equality for All Living Creatures.  

Peace & Love,

xo

~Bianca

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.

NeWS & UpDaTeS: Spring Cleaning...

Spring is finally in the air! After some debatable snow, it has mostly cleared and there is a warmth and freshness back in the air. This evening, the sky is a beautiful mix of pinkish-red hues as the sun sets, finally at a decent hour, overshadowed by clouds that promise rain some time in the next few days. Nature is a beautiful thing....now where was I? Ah yes, Spring Cleaning...

I've mentioned previously that I would like to put so much more time into the Alter-Eco Blog. It's admittedly slow-going, but it will and is happening. I thought this would be a good time to check in, say hello (HELLO!), and give you all an earful of updates. ~_^

Firstly, the reason the Blog has remained a little slow... Alter-Eco Clothing is BOOMING!!! I seriously can't thank all my amazing supporters and customers enough! Orders have been piling in and keeping me intensely busy this New Year! And it's just so awesome to see more people supporting Sustainable Fashion! Go Eco-Chicks!!! ♥

I have two exciting New lines coming very soon; "Tattooed Zen", and "Alice In Wonderland". Saturday was the much-anticipated "Alice" Photoshoot, done with the talented BlackBird Photography, and everything just went so smoothly! I'm so excited to get the photos back!! You're going to Love the new designs!!

Since Alter-Eco Clothing is growing, it seems the appropriate time to bring Black Widow Clothing on an end. The line will be phased out by the end of May. For you music-lover, don't worry! I will be altering used Band shirts still at Alter-Eco and still be taking custom orders. So go raid your boyfriend's closet for your favorite shirts, remember the importance of Recycling! ~_^

This brings me to next bit of news; WE'RE MOVING!!!! The time has finally come for me and the hubby to leave Alberta behind us and return to Beautiful British Columbia. For those non-Canadians, this is a Big deal! BC is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and Alberta is, well, cold and flat and dry and windy and ugly and, well, you get the idea. We live in Edmonton -- Oil country...hardly fitting for an Eco-freak like myself :p. So we're moving back to the land of forests and trees and nature and water and all things awesome ^_^. With the move, we are also taking some much needed time off and exploring this great country (and possibly dipping down into the States). What this means is that, sadly, the Etsy store will be closed for 1-2 Months. Don't Panic!! I'm telling you this for that reason, and to assure you that the store will be back open when we return and even better than before :D.

Soul-searching and spending time out in the wilderness and reconnecting with ourselves and mother-nature are a must for both of us. Life is Now and it's about new experiences, and we've put off this trip for much too long, especially as we both feel more and more importance for our planet. And we will have lots to share when we return. ^_^

The Blog will also likely be on hiatus until I return from our travels. But on the bright side, I'm sure it will give me even more to blog about ~_^.

Life is busy, busy, busy in the meantime. I'm starting to get my foot in the door with some more modeling. Been keeping connections with friends and family before the move. Starting to figure out our plan for the trip--and start packing :S. I'm also still getting my beautiful huge back Tattoo worked on--which I can't wait to share with you all once its finished ^_^. And my sister is due with her first baby any day now, as well we have a new one month baby nephew. ♥

Really, just a reminder to breathe and enjoy every second of this beautiful Life, hectic or not, and to focus on the positive. "There are No Ordinary Moments"

Love you all!

xo

~Bianca

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.