The Made Local Marketplace will be closed on Monday, May 27th, honoring Memorial Day.  

Growing up, Memorial Day was a day off of school.  For many, it is a day of shopping, barbecues, and the beginning of summer.  

Being a shop that sells barbecue sauce, you think we'd love this day and want to be open.  However, Memorial Day is a day of remembrance.  It is a day for those that have died in service to America.  Whether or not you agree with the wars, those men and women did what they felt they had to and made the ultimate sacrifice.  

I don't know any one that has died in war.  My grandfather served in the Korean War, but was not in combat.  I have a few friends that have been in the Marines, the Air Force, and the Navy, but they have all come home.  It's harder to have gratitude for people that are more abstract.  I will do what I can to be grateful to those people I have never met.  

While contemplating those soldiers that are faceless to me, I will think of family that has passed on.  I will be blessed with the family and friends that I have with me.  I will wish for peace, so that we don't have to add more names to those we honor on Memorial Day.      

If you would like a community activity to honor the fallen, the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery is having a decorating day.  It begins at 1:00, meeting at the Franklin Gate.  

This coming weekend, May 18 & 19th, is the 350 Home & Garden Challenge, which the ShareExchange is excited to be a partner. 

The 350 Home & Garden Challenge is a collaborative, grassroots initiative led by Daily Acts and iGrow, to locally grow more food, save water, conserve energy, and build community!  Now in its fourth year, it is a call for mass mobilization of collective and individual actions to address the adversities of this pivotal period on our planet.  The Challenge aims to inspire, encourage, and support people to take practical steps toward a more ecologically sustainable future.

In 2010 the 350 Challenge motivated 628 garden actions, and in 2011 Sonoma County communities coalesced to summon 1,044 home and garden actions, in 2012, the goal was to activate 2012 actions and over 2300 were registered! This year the goal has been courageously raised to 3500 bold actions for lasting change in a single weekend!!!   

Rooted in Sonoma County and grown from the cooperation of cities, local businesses, government agencies and our vivacious community, the 350 Home and Garden Challenge is beginning to sprout up in other areas, e.g., Marin County, Contra Costa County and nationally!

Have you registered your action yet? The Made Local Marketplace is here to make participating in the challenge easy! We have owl boxes you can hang in your yard to encourage wildlife, vertical planters to create a garden, fun clothespins and clothespin holder bags to make line-drying simple, and lots of organic veggie starts!

To register your actions, visit www.dailyacts.org! Stand up and be counted for moving towards a more sustainable and vibrant community!


The ShareExchange's actions include their employees committing to ride their bike to work, becoming a Green Certified business, and encouraging sharing by our swaps!  See you at at Media Swap this Saturday.  

Wednesday, May 8, 2013
7-9 pm, doors open at 6:30 pm
Glaser Center, 547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa
Tickets: $10 in advance or $15 at the door.
Student rate $5 in advance, $10 at the door
Advance Tickets: neweconomy.brownpapertickets.com

Richard Heinberg, author of ten books including the award-winning The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality, will survey three over-arching global trends that provide the context for smart local economic development and planning here in the North Bay.

After Richard's talk, three prominent local leaders will join us for a panel discussion:
* Marc Armstrong, Director of the Public Banking Institute,
* Ann Hancock, Director of the Climate Protection Campaign
* Stacey Lawson, CEO of Ygrene Energy Fund



We will end the evening with 1-minute presentations of these inspiring initiatives:
* Transition Santa Rosa  
* Sonoma Clean Power 
* WeGo Rideshare Program 
* North Bay Small Business Incubator
* North Bay Made Campaign 
* 350 Home & Garden Challenge
* Slow Money - North Bay Group
* Leadership for a Sustainable Future Program
* Aqus Community
* Mondragon & Italy Cooperatives Seminar Abroad
* Creating Personal Resilience and Well Being
Share Exchange is joined by the following community partners:
* Aqus Community
* Climate Protection Campaign
* Create the Good Life
* Daily Acts
* Euston Video Production
* Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy
* Living Wage Coalition
* Mendocino Economic Development Corporation
* North Bay iHUB
* North Bay Organizing Project
* North Bay Slow Money Group
* Post Carbon Institute
* Public Banking Institute
* Share Exchange
* Sonoma County BEST
* Sonoma County Water Agency
* Sustainable Enterprise Conference
* Transition Santa Rosa
* Transition US
* Web and Interactive Media Professionals
* WORK Petaluma
* Ygrene Energy Fund 

Doors open at 6:30pm, talk starts at 7pm.  Join us!

Here's a blurb from the Sunflowers for Santa Rosa Facebook page:
Want to meet your neighbors? Want to live in an awesome neighborhood and community? Want to make Santa Rosa an even better place to live?
Then plant sunflowers in front of where you work, play and live and watch your community grow!

A sense of community is one of the most important factors to our physical, psychological and social well-being. What better way to build community than spend our summer outside with our neighbors tending to our sunflowers?

We've planted some sunflowers outside our back gate by the large parking lot.  They look pretty small now, but I can't wait to see flowers on them!  

Earth Day doesn't start and end on April 22nd at the Made Local Marketplace and Share Space.  In our mission to incubate the local economy, we want to protect our local (and global) environment, too.  After all, if things are make locally and jobs are created locally, we don't have to ship things as far or drive a long way to work.   

We have every day practices here that help take care of our planet, little acts at a time.   

1. 1.   We use fans instead of running the air conditioning.  We love to keep the door open in the front and back in the Health and Wellness Studio to keep air flowing through the shop.  

2. Thanks to John Lloyd with Eco-Lighting, we're moving to LED light bulbs.  Besides having crisp, beautiful light, LEDs last a long time and use very little energy. 

3.. We clean with rags instead of paper towels.  Sorry there isn't a more glamorous picture of cleaning rags.  ; ) 

4. We're working on making 5th Street (and beyond!) a Bike Friendly Business District.  Many of our employees walk or bike to work on a regular basis, including, but not limited to, Kelley, Joanne, Melissa, Adriann, Laura, Chris, and Jessie.  

5. At our events, like Green Drinks,  we use real dishes, not disposable ones.  

What do you do to help the environment?  Do you hang your laundry to dry?  Do you use eco-friendly cleaning products like vinegar?  Do you buy organic or bulk?  Every little bit you do adds up!  

We here on 5th Street are cooking up an awesome project.  The Bike Friendly Business District!  

Ah, the misery of being sick.  I've finally caught some of what's been going around.  Maybe my teacher husband brought it home from school.  Either way, I've got it. 

One of the nicest things to do while sick, possibly even nicer than napping, is taking a hot shower. 
Which leads me to tell you about my new shampoo bar.  I know, it's a weird segue, but I had already planned on writing about my shampoo bar.  Now you also know I'm sick. 

Anywho...
I've been washing my hair with my new shampoo bar.  "What is a shampoo bar?" you inquire.  Well, it's like a bar of soap, but for your hair.  Because it's a bar and not a liquid that comes out of the bottle too fast it will last longer since you won't be using too much product each time.  

I love how it smells.  I've got the lavender and tea tree oil bar for my curly wavy hair.  My husband has the rosemary orange for his finer hair.  We're both really liking them.    One of the things that really surprised me was it didn't take any time for my hair to adjust.  My hair didn't freak out because I switched product types.  Of course, my hair being fabulous is par for the course. ;)  

"So, how do you use this wonderful shampoo bar?" you are thinking.  I get my hair nice and wet, I lather the bar (it makes lovely bubbles.  People are very attached to the idea that (bubbles = clean)), I rub the bar over my hair, front to back for a little more soapiness.  I then shampoo as usual.  I still use conditioner, as I do have very enthusiastic hair.  
 
There you have it folks.  A fabulous, locally made, practical product.  We all need shampoo.  Come try Emma's.  

Here's a picture of Emma and her wares on a chilly farmers market morning.  

Below I've included the fancy marketing stuff that Emma put together.  Enjoy!