From hobby to reality - taking a small business live

bad hippies becomes a reality...
Many moons ago Mark and I talked about all the junk we consume both internally and externally. 
Yuck. 
Think about any average American on any given day and think about the amount of crap we consume every single day.
From fast or pre-made processed food to the shaving lotion, shampoos, conditioners, soaps, styling products, not to mention the crap we wash and dry our clothes in and then put them on our largest organs (our skin people...our skin). 
Oh and then we started to think about what happens when you wash all the stuff down the drain...where does it go? How do we get rid of it? Is it doing harm to our beautiful Mother Earth? 
So, we did some digging and it wasn't pretty. In fact it got downright ugly. We decided to make a change. 
A change for us in our tiny corner of the world. We made an intentional decision to reduce our carbon footprint. Did we go all militant about chemicals? Nope, but we did make some small and easy changes (that every single person can do without really noticing) to make our lives a little less harmful to the world at large.

So what does all of this mean?

Here is the story of our tiny company and how we can to be.

bad hippies...a brief history
As I explained above Mark and I wanted to get rid of some of the nasties in our lives like sulfites and sulfates and sulfra-all-the-things. So we looked up how to make laundry soap and we were taking our first steps into all things hippies.

Off to the store to buy Super Washing Soda and Borax and fels naptha soap. A few bloody knuckles from grating soap later we were in business.
But wait...what is in fels naptha?
Sodium tallowate.
What is sodium tallowate?
According to howstuffworks.com:
Sodium tallowate is a true soap made by combining the fatty tissue (or tallow) of animals, such as cattle and sheep, with lye, typically sodium hydroxide [source: Cavitch].
Yep, you read that right. 

 From the Merriam Webster Dictionary Website:

Definition of tallow

: the white nearly tasteless solid rendered fat of cattle and sheep used chiefly in soap, candles, and lubricants


Tallow is made from animal fat and as a veg head I was not so down with that.
So, what are our options? Enter castile soap for the win!

There are many amazing castile soaps out there and we were happy to use them...for a while. Then one day we thought - hmmmmm- how hard could it possibly be to make our own castile soap? 

That is our story and I am sticking to it!

Now we are soapers.
Fast forward a few years and now we have a mess of soap scents and when we make soap we save and use the bits left over to make our laundry detergent. It is the ultimate in recycling. It makes your clothes happy and it makes your skin happy too! Oh and no crap heading into the water system and it makes the world a little less full of the sulfra-all-the-things!

We are also dabbling into making laudry pod type thingies, but we aren't quite sure how to best package these bad boys in an efficient and eco-friendly and cost effective way, but super cute way.

Are you curious about our products?
Visit our website: www.badhippies.com

Share with us how you are helping make the world suck a little less...

This hippies first tie-dye experience

What kind of horrible hippie am I?
I have never tie dyed anything...not even the obligatory summer camp tie dye. I have no idea how I managed that, but here I am 42 and a tie dye virgin.

As many of you know I run two small businesses and one is call bad hippies <<< (click there to check it out & of course buy stuff) - well I have earned that title with my lack of the quintessential hippie tie dye experience.

NO MORE I SAY!

As a beginner I did what we all do and googled tie dye kits. I grabbed two varieties made by Tulip you can get these all over the place including here. And since I am all about instant gratification I grabbed one for a local store and grabbed a pack of v-neck 100% all cotton undershirts. You will need to make sure you are using an all natural fiber shirt and not a blend, because the dyes won't adhere. And ain't no one got time for a tie dye fail. I also grabbed a twin set of all cotton white sheets to dye for a table covering and possibly at some point to hang in our craft booth like tapestries. Oh and one 18 month all cotton t-shirt for grandthing #2s first birthday.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of how to tie dye, for that you just head to YouTube and catch up on a few videos and you are good to go.

Start by pre-washing whatever you are dying. New clothing can contain sizing and such that will screw with your tie dying. Do NOT use any type of fabric softener and use the most natural laundry soap you have. I dyed right out of the washer using the wet method...
Some sites recommend soaking the items in soda ash prior to dying to help the colors adhere and such. One of my kits came with soda ash so I used it on my second go around.

HINT: Soda ash is sodium carbonate...which you can find in lots of grocery and super stores in the laundry aisle labeled as Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda or you can get it on Amazon click here to see what it looks like.

Yes, wear gloves or make sure you have on hell of a good exfoliator for after...(this is coming from a woman who dyes their roots about every two weeks and never ever ever ever wears gloves for that - this is way different!).

NEXT:
The dye is super easy to mix, you just add water and shake it like a shake weight. The directions that came with the kit were pretty easy to follow and the patterns were surprisingly easy to achieve.

Break out the rubber bands!
Now to twist and swirl and band up your items and get crazy with the dye. As I have mentioned in previous blogs sometimes I am really horrible at documenting these journeys, but you will get the idea. If you are seeking to create something specific I am quite sure YouTube and Google have you covered.

I went with a few of the basics and classics.

I moved outside with the banded goods and sat on an old drop cloth in the back yard and went to town! There are zero right ways and wrong ways to tie dye there are no bad color combinations so just jump and make it happen.

It did get messy and I am sure I could be more careful in how I apply the dye and how close to the bands you get...but I was a fan of some of the blending of colors and yes yellow and blue do make green!

HINT: Another lesson learned was...if you scoot around on the drop cloth, you will dye whatever touches it, including yourself. The next day at an event I realized I had tie dyed my legs as well.

Now comes the hard part. You put your dyed items into a plastic bag(s) and then your hardest to forget about them for as long as possible. From what I have read the minimum they should sit is two (2) hours, but the longer you leave them the more vivid the colors and penetration.

After the looooonnnggg wait you unbag those bad boys and remove the rubber bands. I took them off, but some cut them - just be sure not to cut your fabric.

Now the rinse. Fill a big bucket with water and start the dunking. You will need to change water several times and you want to get to where the water runs clear. This can take a while and you need to get your hands in there to un-bunch the fabric.

HINT: WEAR GLOVES WHEN  YOU ARE UN-BANDING THOSE SUCKERS. GLOVE FAIL!

After that you are going to wash the dyed items. Use the warmest water you can get away with and you may need to run it through more than once...

Now let those suckers dry and bam you have created something amazing. See you can do creative!

One of the t-shirt creations.

The twin flat fitted sheet. I love this!!!

And here is the baby tie dye!!!
It turned out super cute!

Go now...you know you want more tie dye in your life...

What should I tie dye next?