We love tree-hugging, especially now as a tree hug is a hug possible even during the difficult COVID-19 social isolation.
Did you know that tree-hugging can provide mind-body benefits helping us to feel more grounded and soothed?
Hugging a tree can increase levels of oxytocin in the body just like hugging a person. Oxytocin, also known as the “love hormone” combats cortisol, the “stress hormone,” leading to increased calmness and a sense of tranquility.
Below are shops we love that sell fair-trade, made-in-Chicago, sustainable or vintage items within some of our favorite neighborhoods in the beautiful city of Chicago. These shops are all located within the Logan Square, Wicker Park and Ukrainian Village neighborhoods in Chicago, which means you can reasonably visit them all in the same day.
As Shirley Kienitz, co-owner of Wolfbait & B-girls, pointed out, “Shopping locally has grown to mean supporting the micro businesses unique to each neighborhood, whether down the street from your own home or while traveling. Shopping locally is crucial to preserve individuality and promote economic growth within our communities. Shopping ethically has to do with buying products that are sustainable, and made by people who are paid a living wage and are provided safe healthy working conditions.”
We love having options here in Chicago that allow us to shop local and ethical.
Why not try these local shops for your last-minute holiday shopping needs?
Face masks are a great way to show your skin some extra care, and address issues like breakouts, dryness, sunburn, and general concerns such as slowing the aging process.
Ideally, it is good to use a face mask at least once per week, and up to several times per week in your skin care routine.
Two of my most favorite natural skin care ingredients to use are raw honey and lavender essential oil, the most soothing ingredients in this DIY face mask, which also incorporates unrefined virgin coconut oil.
What is better than an easy to make DIY face mask that is anti-aging, soothing, healing and all-natural?
See the recipe below followed by more information on the skin soothing ingredients.
In honor of fashion revolution week (23-29th April 2018), I’m re-reading “Slow Fashion: Aesthetics Meets Ethics,” by Safia Minney, the founder of the Fair Trade UK fashion label People Tree. This beautiful, educational and inspiring book is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn about the challenges and possibilities of a sustainable supply chain in the fashion industry.
We stopped into Left Coast recently to try the fast casual daytime dining spot that was dubbed, “As California as Chicago’s going to get,” by Urban Daddy.
The menu is a veggie-lover’s delight. The atmosphere is busy, yet comfortable. And the philosophy of the owners is true Journey to Good-ness. Read on to learn more about why we love Left Coast.
After conducting a national health survey from 2002 to 2008, the National Institute of Health estimated that 8% of U.S. adults meditate. That’s 18 million people. And we expect that number has risen greatly in the last decade and will continue to increase.
Anne and I love drinking wine.
It’s generally our alcoholic drink of choice. It helps us relax, it’s fun with friends, and it potentially offers us a few health benefits.
Being enthusiastic wine drinkers, we were happy to discover that there’s a method of making wine that possibly reduces terrible hangovers and headaches, and is better for us and our environment.
We had to try it.
These special thoughtfully-sourced wines are sold in a quaint corner shop in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood called Red & White Wines. They’re known as “one of the first natural wine retailers in the US.”
Matcha green tea has become very popular in recent years, and I'm sure you've seen matcha lattes at your local coffee shops. Green tea usage dates back over 800 years, and matcha is the most potent and nutritious green tea on the planet as the entire leaf is ground into matcha powder to be ingested. Many key nutrients are typically thrown away in the process of making regular green tea as matcha is the only whole leaf version that maintains all the leaf's fiber, chlorophyll, and vitamins.
I find that the energy from matcha is less of a spike and more of a sustained boost throughout the day. Matcha contains the amino acid, L-Theanine, which combined with the caffeine in the tea, is absorbed slowly by our bodies to provide a steady 3-6 hour energy boost without your typical "caffeine crash". L-Theanine is also associated with improving mental clarity on top of increasing natural energy. Moreover, matcha contains high amounts of antioxidants (up to 137x the antioxidants of regular green tea) compared to other fruits and vegetables (hello, anti-aging benefit).
It's an expensive habit to purchase matcha drinks out every day. Also, when buying your drinks out you can't control the ingredients and make your latte exactly to your taste and health preferences.
Hence, I knew I needed to figure out my own healthy DIY matcha latte to make at home each morning before work. I wanted mine to include powerful adaptogens to increase the balance within my body as well as my energy.
Below are my favorite versions of a healthy homemade matcha latte followed by some more information on the ingredients I'm using. These recipes take only 10 minutes or less to make, and are delicious.
Intimate, cosy and delicious. A tiny inviting space complete with hanging plants and delicate flowers on the wood tables. The perfect BYOB restaurant to cure your winter blues, that happens to also be plant-based, vegetable forward and supportive of local farms.
Cellar Door Provisions is a 20-seat BYOB restaurant in Logan Square “crafting farm-to-table American fare, country bread and pastries.” They are unique in that they state their food comes “almost entirely from local farmers whom we know personally.”
Their menu changes at least weekly, and they make almost everything in house (no wonder it tastes so fresh!). The food from scratch and beautiful dishes, all a little different, further adds to the homey feel provided by Cellar Door Provisions.
The 2017 holiday gift guide season is here, and our feeds are flush with gift lists from Oprah, The Verge, and people joking about Tiffany’s ridiculous new collection.
A problem with most gift guides: They aren’t ethically focused. It’s rare to find a gift guide that lists where products originate or who made them.
At Journey to Good, we’re thinking about ways to shop ethically this holiday season.
PMS symptoms have affected all of us ladies to varying degrees.
Cramps and pain in the lower abdominal area are some of the worst symptoms, so we wanted to share an easy to make DIY anti-cramping and pain oil blend. This can be applied topically by rubbing onto your abdomen to reduce cramping and other PMS symptoms.
Below are the recipe and steps to make this oil blend, followed by the benefits of each ingredient.
It was the morning of Monday, October 16 and my husband and I had arrived in Dublin the previous day, just in time for ex hurricane Ophelia to hit Ireland. After watching the local news, we felt safe enough to venture out, as the storm was not scheduled to reach that part of Ireland until 1 pm.
It was our first time in Dublin and we were looking for a full Irish breakfast experience. It only made sense to enjoy a good meal before hunkering down inside at the recommendation of the newscasters who had strongly encouraged, “No unnecessary journeys” that afternoon.
As we walked the streets it became clear that the city was shutting down. We knew schools were closed, but we were surprised so many shops and restaurants had already hung signs in their windows indicating closures due to Ophelia.
We consulted my Google Map where I had starred several restaurants we were interested in trying in Dublin. Two of the first three we walked to were closed. Then we made it to Cornucopia.
Honest. Wild. Beautiful.
The tagline for the skincare line that I use every day, Annmarie Skin Care. That mantra not only describes their products but also goals for their customers - to provide honest natural products that are organic and wildcrafted to give their customers beautiful skin.
It can be very difficult to find pure and nontoxic skin care products in America. A few years back, I was discovering how unsafe and toxic my daily skin care products were, even those I thought had been of high quality (such as Kiehl's).
I realized how important it was to me to find truly natural and nontoxic skin care products, and I know it’s important to many others. And, not just for beautifying reasons, but also because we don’t want to support companies selling products that cause harm.
That’s is why I am so grateful I discovered Annmarie Skin Care. They know the challenges in finding safe, quality skin care products and created their “worry free formulas with real results” to feed our skin with organic and wildcrafted nourishing ingredients.
Read on to learn more about Annmarie’s offerings and the products I personally use.
Winter is coming, and that means dry hair. In this coming season, we want to combat dryness and improve our hair's strength, growth, and appearance.
So, we started with this easy-to-make, invigorating and nourishing DIY hair mask that we wanted to share with you all. Below is the recipe and steps to make this hair mask, followed by the benefits of each ingredient.
One of my new favorite travel hacks that I found earlier this year is Next Vacay.
I booked an amazing flight deal to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam from Chicago for a mere $530 round-trip over a holiday weekend (!), Labor Day, on United Airlines. It was my lovely vacation at the end of August through the first week of September.
Anne is currently on an epic trip through Ireland and Portugal, and booked her round-trip tickets for her and her husband from Chicago to Dublin for only $375 a person on American Airlines through British Airways. (That’s unheard of cheap for ORD-Dublin!)
Both of those flight deals were found and booked thanks to Next Vacay’s email alerts.
Read on to learn more about this fantastic travel service.
Anne and I both love yoga for its many physical and mental benefits, and our mats can get very sweaty and dirty after practice.
YogiApproved.com writes “When you roll the mat onto the floor, and roll it up again later, you’re rolling whatever mystery goodies (or not-so-goodies) up with it – rolled onto the side that you put your hands and feet and face on too.” Additionally, they note “In a lab test conducted on several different yoga mats, some of the mats were found to have Staph, yeast build-up (a form of fungus), fecal matter, allergens, and millions of bacteria, to name just a few of the findings.” Seriously gross, right?
We know cleaning our yoga mats is essential, but the problem with most yoga mat cleaners is that they may contain harsh or toxic ingredients one should avoid touching and inhaling (even the “all natural” sprays & wipes may contain questionable emulsifiers, chelating agents, surfactants, and preservatives), can be expensive, and waste resources if they come in a non-reusable plastic container (among additional packaging).
I say skip those overpriced and potentially chemical filled store-bought yoga mat cleaners and make your own natural cleaner in 10 minutes with these easy DIY recipes below - all with items you can reuse.
Earlier this month I wanted to book two flights for myself and a family member to visit Japan using my American Airlines miles.
Unfortunately, there weren't any great options searching reward travel on aa.com (American Airline's website) for the route I wanted on my travel dates, despite the fact that I was searching 9 months in advance of travel.
I knew that American Airlines was in alliance with Japan Airlines, so I was frustrated that there were such limited award flights available to Japan considering I was searching well in advance of the trip.
I started researching the best ways to utilize AA award travel and discovered the way to use American Airlines miles to book award travel through AA’s partner airlines, such as Japan Airlines.
The trick is so easy!
You simply need to search for the award travel flights on a partner airline website (such as Alaska Airlines or British Airways), and then call American Airlines AAdvantage at 1-800-882-8880 to book over the phone.
It really is that simple, and but below is a more detailed guide on booking this way, and my personal experience with this travel hack.
When ordering business cards for the blog, we were happy to learn about a new alternative to business card paper. We found business cards made entirely out of 100% cotton scraps discarded by fashion companies.
The company MOO.com is offering a new line aptly called “Cotton Business Cards” that are made from 100% cotton t-shirt scraps (a.ka. leftover fashion industry waste).
According to MOO’s website, “The world loves T-shirts. But the process of making them creates a lot of leftover fabric. So we decided to put those scraps to good use and make Cotton. Our first tree-free paper.”
We ordered these cards, and they look beautiful.
Since they are made from white t-shirt scraps (not used or recycled t-shirts) they are bright white and feel great to the touch.
Check out the photos below of our new cotton cards made by MOO.