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!  

Jessica Buickerood is the super talented lady behind Katzi Designs.  If you've been in the shop you've certainly seen her fabulous screen print work on recipe cards, T-Shirts (the artichoke is my favorite, with Beets Me at a close second), dish towels, and more. 
You may have even seen Jessie on a Wednesday morning working in the shop. 

There's one more thing I want to make sure you see.  Every week she puts together a sweet feature.  It used to be the "Featured Artist of the Week".  It's grown into "Local Spotlight" and "Featured Item".  This way if there is someone or a group in the community that we really want to acknowledge, her piece have the flexibility to include it.  We are nothing if not inclusive at the Made Local Marketplace, Share Space, and Share Exchange. 

Her piece goes out in the Share Flash, but for those of you that love the blog, I'll be posting her work here every week as well.  Welcome, Jessie! 

See that space beyond the curtains?  That space is now more Made Local Marketplace!  There is just so much good stuff made in Sonoma County that our shop has to expand again to attempt to contain a sampling of it all.  Our first expansion, last October made such a huge difference to our artists and our shoppers.  We got to carry more fabulous items and you could walk around the shop more easily, bring in a stroller without worrying about knocking something over, and really step back to see everything.  

It's our goal to make more practical items available to you, the customer.  We have more and more every day items.  I know we aren't going to put Target out of business, but you can shop local first.  We have laundry soap, bath soap, clocks, dish towels, BBQ sauce, wash cloths, aprons, t-shirts, re-useable snack bags, just to name a few of the more useful (not just gorgeous) items we carry.  

This expansion let's us fulfill this aspiration. 

Stay tuned for info on our expansion party!  I think it's totally worth celebrating. 

Tonight I'm going to dinner at my in-laws' house.  It's the first night of Passover (Pesach) and we'll be reading the haggadah, using the seder plate, and drinking a lot of wine as mandated by tradition.  It's a pretty cool holiday, even for a non-jew.  My mother in law is taking care of most of the food.  I've been asked to bring something either vegetabley or starchy.  So I figured my Roasted Root Vegetables would do a great job of counting for both.  Passover is a time when my husband keeps kosher, so we won't have any leavened bread or dairy in this dish tonight, but I'll give you those directions, too. 

I'm really excited about using ViVO Vinegar in the recipe tonight.  This dish really lets the flavor of balsamic vinegar shine. 

Roasted Root Vegetables
For Passover leave out the bread.  Leave out sour cream, too, if you're having meat for dinner.
Makes a Big Pan
Keeps well for days
Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes, until veggies are fork tender

Adjust amounts of veggies or limit types as you please*.  Chop things smaller if you need to cook it faster, but the chunks are usually about 1 1/2 cubed.

Ingredients:
2-3 Carrots, cubed
1 onion, cubed
2 parsnips, cubed
1 rutabaga, cubed
1 turnip, cubed
head of garlic, peeled
4 yukon gold potatoes, cubed
1 red beet, cubed
1 golden beet, cubed

ViVO Vinegar
Olive Oil
Thyme
Coarse Sea Salt
Fresh Cracked Pepper
Loaf of Crusty Bread

Directions:
Sprinkle veggies with coarse sea salt, thyme, and fresh cracked pepper.  Toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Cube a loaf of crusty artisan bread.  Toss in the bowl from the veggies with more olive oil.   Toast in the oven until golden, about 10 minutes. 

Toss the veggies and bread together.  Serve with sour cream.  

*Mushrooms haven't made a good addition.  They just shrivel and burn.  Still with the hardly veggies if you want to add something new. 

This month we're supporting an awesome non-profit, the Community Child Care Council (4Cs).  Much like we did with our Local Shopping for Local Schools fundraiser last October and November, we're giving a percentage of our sales to this worthy endeavor when shoppers mention they want to help.  It doesn't cost the customer anything, it doesn't cost the artists and artisans of the store anything.  The 4Cs get the big benefit of 10% of the sale.  So the more you shop, the better for them!   

Here's a statement about who they are and what they do from their website:
"The Community Child Care Council of Sonoma County - known as 4Cs - is a non-profit agency located in Sonoma County, California. 4Cs operates 12 child development centers and preschools throughout Sonoma county and has a central office in Santa Rosa. 4Cs is dedicated to supporting and providing quality, accessible and affordable preschool and child care services for children, families and child care professionals through education, resources, and direct services. "

So come on down, do some shopping, and mention you support the 4Cs! 

I'm kind of a Pinterest addict.  I love just scrolling through what other people have pinned.  It can inspire me to make a new craft (which may or may not turn out like the picture...), to make something super yummy for dinner, or just a tip to make doing something easier (photocopy the back of something you need to hang, like a power strip!). 

My love of Pinterest is now being harnessed for the Made Local Marketplace, Share Space, and Share Exchange under the name Local Works.  (www.pinterest.com/LocalWorks).  Why Local Works?  It's the name of our Flexible Purpose Corporation (the business behind it all). 

Our boards include a bunch of the categories of goodies we carry in the Made Local Marketplace like ceramics, kids' stuff, and jewelry.  I've also got some boards that encompass what we love, like Sonoma County, Biking, and eating locally.  Events, recipes, things to do all get pinned here for you to peruse and get inspired. 

A few of you may be asking, "What is this Pinterest Adriann is talking about?"  Well, it's like a cork board on the internet where you can "pin" images from websites.  This allows you to have a quick visual reference to go back and visit that page again later.  For example, you liked a blog, so you'd pin a picture from it to a board called "Blogs I Liked".  When you're in a blog reading mood, it makes it easy to browse your board and pick something to read.  I personally use Pinterest boards for interior design ideas, recipes, workout motivation, craft ideas, and wishlists. 

Come check us out on Pinterest to see what's going on in our world at Made Local Marketplace and Share Space.  You may just be inspired! 

I have a drawer in my kitchen CRAMMED with dish towels, pot holders, and my cheese cloth.  
Some of these dish towels never see the light of day because a) I have so many I don't rotate through all of them and b) they aren't as good as the other ones.  

What makes a "not good" dish towel?  Weird discoloration from years of use, less desirable fabric, and large pictures printed on them that makes them more cute than useful.  

One thing I never expected was to have an amazing dish towel.  A dish towel is a dish towel, right?  Wrong!  I now own two AMAZING dish towels.  When I brought them home, my husband rubbed their ridiculously soft hand woven fabric on his face and said, "When we're rich, we'll have Pam weave us sheets like these." 

Here's some of Pam's other dish towels:

My new dish towels wash and wear so well.  They seem pretty indestructible. 
Which is great, because I am pretty hard on things.  I really like to use what I own. 

I also want to own LESS.  I'd rather own a few great dish towels than a bunch of only okay ones.  Melissa, the Member Director of the Share Space, is moving soon.  Seeing a friend move is such an inspiration to purge what I don't need.  I also hope to move to Petaluma this summer and am mentally preparing for that. 

Here's my pile of reject towels:

Odd smells, unpleasant texture, weird pink bits or other colors from washing with all of my red things (I do LOVE red) or stains of who knows what.  Some have the persistent smell of bacon grease, which isn't as nice as you'd think it would be.  One is pretty scorched on the edge.  Things happen, you know?  

This lovely pile of rejects is ready for a new life.  Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County is happy to take things like this.  Not for selling in their thrift store, but for taking care of the stray cats they help.  This pile represents bedding, a drying towel, or clean up in the spay/neuter clinic.

Another cute dish towel option we have at the Marketplace is Jessie's screen printed towels.  I have one with sweet oak leaves on it.  She has roosters, paper airplanes, strawberries, whatever suits your fancy.    

You now have no excuse to not have fabulous, pretty, locally made dish towels.  Remember to send your old ones on to a good cause! 

Here's a teaser of what's been going on at the Made Local Marketplace.  I've been painting! 

If you've been in recently, you've seen the colors from the second half of the store, the clean, neutral beige "Milk and Honey" and the fabulous mint/teal/blue/green "Fun & Games". 

As of this post, the purple in the front of the shop is GONE!  The green is being encroached on, and their is only a little bit of white wall left.  In another two weeks, the transformation should be complete.  We'll miss the lime green, but the new blue really shows off the work.  And it's the art that you all come to see. 

Stop by the Made Local Marketplace to check on my progress! 

It isn't as cold as when I started this train of posts, thank god!  It was nice and foggy yesterday morning and it's still gray out right now.  And just because it isn't COLD, it's still winter and we're entitled to snuggle up and be warm.

For full cozy contentment, brew yourself a hot cup of coffee, pour it in a nice mug and just breath a minute.  Hand made mugs aren't a luxury to me, they're part of what makes home.  My mom is the best artist I know (sorry Made Local Marketplace Vendors, you've got a tough standard to meet), and I grew up using mugs she and her friends had made.  I love being able to pick out a different mug for my mood. 
I will admit, I'm not a coffee drinkers.  That being said, I love Bella Rosa Coffee.  The owner, Jon, is a really great guy.  He takes a lot of pride in his work.  The coffee beans he uses are as environmentally friendly/fair trade/hippie as coffee beans get.  He also roasts them in a way that makes their pH less acidic.  A mellow cup of coffee is a happy cup of coffee.  My grandmother really liked the bag I sent her for Christmas.  If Grandma Joy is happy, I'm happy.         
I love using my crock pot to make soup in the winter (and pulled pork).  While making a big pot of tasty soup for dinner munch on Sweet and Spicy Nuts by Earth's Bounty.  That little bit of spice will give you a kick of warmth from the inside.  Use a Soup Booster pack of Immunity Herbs to add some fortification to your soup.  Steep the herbs in your soup for 20 minutes and you're good to go.  The herbs come with a cotton bag, so you don't have to worry about finding your cheese cloth.  And if you just use it with a can of soup, I won't tell anyone. 
Now I want to try the Soup Booster with my all time favorite warm-me-up (lazy) dinner of Tomato Bisque with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.  Yum! 

If you aren't pleasantly snug now, it's time to move to a tropical island.  Not that that would be so terrible.  

I know I promised to conclude our series, "Things to Keep You Warm", but this pesky holiday snuck up on me.  Did it sneak up on you, too?  Well, if you want your Valentine to be the thing to keep you warm, you better stop by the Marketplace and pick up a lovely gift. 

There is a plethora of gifts to chose from for whomever your Valentine may be.  Macho men might like Pegleg Aftershave, geeky guys and gals might be into a Robot Light Switch (that's what I got my Valentine.  A Red Robot/Octopus Light Switch, to be exact.  Don't worry about him reading this, I can't keep gifts a secret from him for that long anyways.)  Of course, there is always chocolate for every type of person.  Delicious salted caramels by Sonoma Chocolatiers.

But what I really wanted to talk about are locally "grown" flowers that won't die.  I LOVE getting flowers, don't get me wrong.  However, hot house roses on a predictable day (when they are super $$$) isn't special.  Get me flowers just because.  Even pick me a flower, just because. 

These flowers are fabulous because you can nod to the tradition, find something in any price range, and your sweetheart will have something that won't die in a week. 
 

Don't worry, you'll still get to find out what "Part 3: Things to Keep You Warm" contains next week.