Finding Clothes Made in the USA

I have made a commitment to give first choice to clothing and accessories made in the USA or Fair Trade Certified. You can read more about why at this post on Connections and Conundrums. It's a challenge to find everything we need, but it is possible. Here's what I've discovered so far. Made in USA is almost always more expensive; however, most places do have sales. Once in a while, you discover something that is less expensive that what you might normally pay, like a pair of hand-made leather sandals for $13, a leather wallet with a lifetime guarantee for $16, and an adorable girl's swimsuit for $18.99. The hardest items to find seem to be bras, and children's shoes and children's athletic wear. Oh, you can find bras if you're willing to wear sports bras all time or little skimpy all cotton ones. That doesn't work for me! Just about everything else is findable. Here are the best resources I've found so far. Always double check the item listings because sometimes the search brings up things that are actually imported.

Shortcuts

1. Pinterest.
Type "made in USA" into the search box, and you'll get tons of pins and boards. In order to follow the links, you have to be signed in to Pinterest. I have a board of my own called Ethical Consumption. As you browse, you'll discover brands that have items made in the USA, and you can start keeping a list.

2. Nordstrom.
Type USA into the search box. This is another way to discover brands that include American-made items.

3. Amazon.
Search on "made in USA," then narrow the search down to the types of things you want.

4.Overstock.com.
Again, search USA.

5. Good old Google. Just search Clothing "made in USA"

Brands and Stores

You might be tempted to think that iconic American brands like L.L. Bean, Pendleton, Lands End, and Woolrich would automatically be made in USA. Nope. While some of these have a few items, most of the clothing is imported. Lands End is starting to catch on to folks like me, though, and is providing a category of American-made items now. There are a few good men's items, but almost nothing for women and children.

I'm happy to have discovered some brands I really like. In most cases, I'll have to watch for sales because I just can't justify some of the prices, especially for my growing girl, but sales do happen!

FOR GIRLS
1.  CWDKids has a section for Made in USA
2.  Fresh Produce XS - XL
3.  New Balance athletic shoes
4.  Socks and tights at Maggie's Organics.
5.  Brands at Nordstrom:  not every item is American, check the listing. Roxy, LA Social, Soprano, Zunie, Modern Lux, Splendid, and many more.
6.  Eternal Creation - not made in USA, but Fair Trade. Good sales!

FOR ME
1.  Gaiam offers lots of made in USA options.
2.  Matatraders is not made in USA, but is Fair Trade and is affordable.
3.  Fresh Produce - 80% of their items are made in USA, but check the item description. Made in USA says so, but imported says nothing.
4.  Eternal Creation - Fair Trade
5.  Okabashi shoes
6. MadeInUsaForever has lots of stuff from apparel for men, women, and children to household items
7. Sbicca shoes, also available at Zappos.com
8. Haystacks clothing
9. Aqua at Bloomingdales
10.  Karen Kane at Bloomingdales (some plus sizes here)
11.  New Balance athletic shoes
12.  Maggie's Organics
13.  Starlet
14.  SOS fromTexas - clothes, socks, kids & baby, and fabrics
15.  Kate Boggiano 
16.  Kino Sandals
17.  Meesh and Mia - their angle seems to be for the college crowd and they make fashionable skirts, tops, and jackets with college logos. However, it looks like you can buy them without the logos if you choose.
18.  Not Your Daughters Jeans are Made In USA and available at Macy's, Bloomingdales, and Nordstrom. Expensive, but watch for sales.
19.  All American Clothing - jeans and more.
20.  Texas Jeans
21. Oka-b shoes
22. Impact Fitness - workout clothes
23.  Vermont Flannel - pajama pants, robes, shirts, even dog jackets!
24. Bikini Sunshine - women's swimsuits, and they're not all skimpy bikinis!

Next post:  Finding men's clothing Made in USA. Please feel free to share your sources in the comments!

Flu Preparedness - The Practical Side

I have the flu. I should be sleeping right now, but I'm coughing like crazy and restless and shivering. This is day 5. I'm kicking myself now for not opting to take Tamiflu, but I was hoping that if I stayed completely in bed and took good care of myself, it would resolve quickly. Alas, it's going to run the full 7 days or more, I think. My daughter is well now, but she had it and it turned into pneumonia. Here's the real kicker. We both had the flu vaccine - and we had it several weeks before getting sick, so it did have time to be effective.

It's looking like it will be a bad flu year, so I'll distract myself from the misery to share some advice. First, do get the shot. Obviously, it's not a guarantee that you won't get the flu. There's a fair bit of controversy about how effective it really is. The claims range from not at all to 70-90%. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. If it even provides a 20-30% chance of avoiding what I'm dealing with, it's well worth it.

I think there are a fair number of people who don't really understand what influenza is and that may contribute to their decision not to get the shot. It's not a stomach bug. It's also not just a very bad cold. It's not even close to being a cold. Almost universally, the flu includes a high fever (102 - 105), sometimes over an extended period, with headaches, body aches, chills, sweats, and general misery. Getting out of bed can be almost impossible. It can include a sore throat, runny nose, and a nasty cough. I have coughed until I pulled a muscle in my back, which makes continuing to cough just loads of fun. If the words "just shoot me now" aren't occurring to you almost hourly, it's not the flu.

Second, especially during flu season, do all of the common sense things you need to do to stay healthy. Get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet, get some exercise, and perhaps most importantly, keep your stress level under control. Why did I say "most importantly?" Because stress can actually negate your flu shot. That may very well explain why I got the flu.

This is pretty much where all of the "flu preparedness" web sites stop. Hmmm. Whoever writes those web sites has never had a fever of 103 with a daughter who had to be gotten to school, fed, provided with clean clothes and driven places, dogs that had to be cared for, and all while dad worked a 12-hour shift with an hour commute on each side, or worse was out of town on a business trip. There's quite a lot more to the practical side of flu preparedness!

From now on, I will be making a Hunker Down Kit every fall. Now, this is practical flu preparedness! Have you watched the TV shows where people make stockpiles of supplies to prepare for some future disaster? Most of those disasters are a lot less likely than the possibility that your family might get knocked down all at once by the flu or a stomach bug. It just so happened that this year, I coincidentally had a little stockpile of things from a recent couponing expedition, and it was a huge blessing that I didn't have to make a grocery run in those first few days! I had 2 boxes of crackers, cans of soup, a 2 week supply of dog and cat food, plenty of tissues, plenty of ibuprofen and cough medicine, a loaf of bread in the freezer, the kind of lunch and frozen b'fast items my daughter likes, and an adequate supply of toilet paper. I had my favorite tea and honey to sweeten it with. There were a few things I did need, though. I needed a new filter for the cold mist humidifier. It would have been good to have a few frozen crockpot meals that required no prep other than thawing. I had only 2 eggs. So, my preparedness plan will include a stockpile of non-perishable items as well as a plan to buy enough of basic perishables like yogurt and fruit to always have some in reserve as we rotate through. I'll also make sure I never completely use down my stockpile of crockpot freezer meals, which I had, sadly, just done.

When I get over the current bug, and get past Christmas, I'm going to create a Hunker Down kit to get us through the rest of the winter, and I'll write about it here, so stay tuned!

Reading Aloud To My Elementary School Child

The munchkin's school offers an optional independent reading program called The 100 Book Club. In the elementary years, students work toward a goal of a specified number of pages, not 100 actual books. It's a great program, and we support it, but this year, we've opted out. Here are my reasons for doing so, and a description of what we're doing instead.

The 100 Book Club program allowed students to read anything they chose, as long as it was at an appropriate level. My daughter's books of choice are The Cupcake Diaries and graphical novels like Diary of A Wimpy Kid. Nothing wrong with those books as entertainment, but they don't stand up to classics that I might choose for her. I wanted more balance between my daughter's choices and the classics.

Another issue for us was that it created a sense of pressure. The homework load is heavier this year. We are involved in a program of daily Bible reading for Sunday School. The munchkin has piano practice obligations and tennis lessons and practice. We ask her to do a daily chore. There are days when we barely get everything done by bedtime, and then I was saying, "You've got to hurry up and get in bed and start reading or we'll never get in all of the pages for 100 Book Club." This seemed to thwart the whole idea of reading for pleasure.

Finally, we were both missing our summer tradition of my reading aloud to her. We both treasure those quiet, cuddly moments when the world can fall away while we get lost in a story together. I read books to her that are harder than what she'd choose, and she is learning to love great literature this way. So far, I've read most of the Little House on the Prairie series, The Secret Garden, and Black Beauty. There are real benefits to reading aloud - besides stirring a love for literature, it allows the reader to model good prosody which improves comprehension and fluency. (The importance of prosody) Reading aloud can nurture a wider vocabulary, especially if you read books that are beyond the child's current reading level.

I love reading with my munchkin. I have a degree in English and secondary education, and while we chose not to homeschool, I still want to employ more of my teaching skills with my own child. Since reading is NOT the munchkin's first love, then there is no better thing I can do for her, educationally, than to use my own expertise and love for books to nurture her literary growth.

So, that's the why of it all. Here's the how. We've set a few goals. The munchkin will read 7 books of her own choosing this school year, apart from the reading she does for school assignments. She's already read 3. She will read two books of my choosing. I have chosen Pippi Longstocking and a non-fiction book, Case Closed?: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science. I am reading to her the following books this year:  Julie of the Wolves, Peter Pan, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom is a book she is unlikely to encounter in school these days, and one I'd prefer to explain myself, anyway. At the end of the school year, when 100 Book Club participants are rewarded with an ice cream party, if we've met our own goal, I'll pick her up from school and we'll have our own ice cream party. We are already deep into Julie, and loving every minute. The munchkin gets into bed on time so that there will be time for reading and begs me not to quit at lights-out. I don't like to interrupt our reading with a bunch of comprehension questions or vocabulary explanations, but I will be following up each major section of the book with a few of those. We'll also map out Julie's path through the Arctic tundra and learn about Inuit traditions and tundra wolves.

If you'd like to read or teach Julie of the Wolves, here are several resources you might find helpful!

Listen to Jean Craighead George tell about herself and read an excerpt of Julie:

JCG's web page includes a biography, videos, and lots more

Find links here to help plot Julie's path through the Artic tundra

Facts about wolves

More facts about tundra wolves

About the Inuit

Lesson plans for teaching Julie of the Wolves

Photos From Fall

Lots of water has passed under the bridge since the last post. The munchkin is in 4th grade now, and our schedule is busier than ever! Here are a few photo highlights.

First day of 4th grade!

We had a sleepover for the munchkin's 10th birthday party. Here they are painting fingernails.

We had a mystery-themed party, and used the Slumber Party kit from Dramatic Fanatic. I highly recommend these party kits! The directions were very easy to follow and the girls had a great time. Check out the cute cake my friend made to go with the theme!

For Halloween, we decided to continue the mystery theme. The munchkin was Shirley Holmes, girl detective, and our beagle played the role of her trusty sidekick, Watsonya. I found the pattern for the costume at the Martha Stewart site, and I found a huge cut of houndstooth polyester for less than $3 at Goodwill! Can't beat that!

 

One of the biggest highlights of recent days was Mary Beth's tennis tournament win. First place in girls 10 and under at a USTA Satellite tournament!

She won 4 matches to win the trophy. In two of the matches, she lost the first set then came back to win the second set and ultimately a tie-breaker to win the match. I suspect that it was her "never give up" attitude that won the first place price. Later, I asked her about it. "Well," she said, "some kids get all frustrated when they're losing, and it makes them not play as well. I decided that I would not let it bother me, and I wouldn't get lazy. I should just keep trying my best."

Wish I could bottle that.

Freezer Cooking

I've been a busy bee in my kitchen today. With the munchkin's school starting in just a little more than a week and my piano teaching term starting the following week, I'm feeling the pressure to get some food prepared and frozen to make our busy year a little easier.

I've set a goal for myself to make 28 freezer meals by mid-September. This will give me at least one meal prepared to throw in the crockpot, oven, or microwave for every full week of my piano teaching year from October forward. I also want to have several recipes of soup frozen in single serving packages to make them easy for hubby to grab and go for work lunches and several recipes of muffins for breakfast and school snacks.

Today, I've made a double batch of spaghetti sauce, enough to freeze one and have spaghetti for supper tonight. Since I have already frozen chicken pot pies, a bag of Chicken Cacciatore, and another of Honey Garlic Chicken, I've still got 24 meals to go. Sounds like a lot, but I have a plan.

In September, I'm going to host a Wildtree freezer meal workshop! They've developed a great little program for putting together freezer meals that are economical and healthy. You buy a packet of seasonings and oils, bring your meat and vegetables, and then at the workshop, we all assemble 10 meals in zip bags to freeze. I plan to use the seasonings I have left over to make another 10, meaning I will only need to make 4 more meals before the party, and I should have all of my 28 meals done with ease!

Here are the recipes I've used so far or know I will be using. (These are not the Wildtree recipes.) None of these are specifically written to be freezer recipes, but there's no reason they can't be. There's nothing in them that can't be frozen.

Chicken Cacciatore
Combine ingredients in a zip-bag and freeze. To cook, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then follow recipe directions to cook in the crockpot. `

Honey Garlic Chicken
Same plan as above

Spaghetti sauce - no recipe, just browned ground beef and jarred sauce. Cook, cool, place in zip-lock and freeze. Thaw overnight in refrig, then warm in the microwave.

Chicken Pot Pies
These are frozen already cooked. Thaw overnight in refrigerator then warm up to eat.

Crockpot Peppercorn Steak

Ham and Cheese Sliders
I froze these to take on our beach trip, and they came out great. I assembled the sandwiches without the topping, then froze them in a single layer in zip bags. I put all of the sauce ingredients together in a small zip bag and froze that, too. Then, I just thawed the sandwiches, melted the sauce ingredients in the microwave, and followed the baking directions in the recipe. You'd never have known any of it was frozen. (BTW, I just used mayo on the sandwiches. Don't care for the Miracle Whip.)

Split Pea Soup With Ham

Broccoli Cheese Soup
I've read that cream-based soups can separate in the freezer. The trick seems to be to thaw it slowly (like overnight in the refrigerator, not quickly in the microwave), and then be prepared to use an immersion blender to blend it all back together. As long as it tastes good, I'm not sure I care much.

Pasta e fagioli
Purists will say that the pasta should be added later after thawing because it will become soft in the freezer. Again, I'm not that picky.

Pumpkin muffins

Blueberry Muffins

This is the recipe my mother uses. I've tried several recipes, but keep coming back to this.

2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 cups plain, all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup blueberries (I usually use a little more.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the sour cream, then the eggs. (I do it this way because I usually melt the butter in the microwave. The sour cream cools it off before I add the eggs, and this keeps them from cooking in hot butter.)

Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the blueberries. Fold berry and flour mixture into egg mixture until just blended. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins.  Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Makes 16-20 standard-sized muffins, depending on the size of your tins. If baking mini muffins, check them for done-ness after 13-14 minutes.

High Fiber Energy Muffins
These sound too healthy to be tasty, but I love them, and even the munchkin likes them.

1/2 cup plain, all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups bran flake and raisin cereal
1/3 cup chopped dates or raisins (optional)
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. low-fat milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
2/3 cup applesauce
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Mix first 9 ingredients (through milk) together in a large bowl and let stand for 5 minutes. Combine egg, applesauce, brown sugar, and butter. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture just until moistened. Fill muffin tins until 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 15-18 minutes.

Scenes from Summer

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