Eco Tip: Skin Deep

I've always been concerned about our environment and conscious about the things I put into my body, but in recent years I've also become more aware of the things I put onto my body. Your skin is your largest organ and whatever is put on it seeps in and can affect the rest of you. I've more and more been making an effort to use personal care products with all natural, organic ingredients. I've been a long time fan of Lush (especially their bath products), but also like to support my crafty sistas, too.

I've been known to indulge in bath products as well mineral cosmetics from Lollibomb. By the way, Luca (of Lollibomb fame) is a doll and her products are amazing. I had gotten her six month subscription and had so much fun opening a box of goodies every month.

I also fell in love with the Veggie Deodorant originally offered by Sugar Lips who passed the torch onto Wicked Clean.

Pink Quartz Minerals has the best ever under eye concealer called Goldenrod (I use this stuff religiously).

Lately, though, I've been taking matters into my own hands.
Above, you see some awesome sugar scrub that I talked about in a previous post, some baking soda style 'tooth paste', a vinegar rinse for my hair, and some lemon hairspray. The vinegar rinse works great, but took a little getting used to (my hair went through an adjustment dealing with the different ph). As I mentioned, I love this sugar scrub. I'm still deciding on the lemon hairspray: my hair is either super fly away crazy or kind of gunky when I use it. Since it goes from one end of the spectrum to the other, it may be another factor (like the weather), so I'm giving it some more time. So far as the tooth paste goes, my teeth have never been whiter and I love how clean and not chemically they feel. My only concern is the lack of a protective ingredient in it. I have read that there's more fluoride in tap water than ever before, so does that mean I'm getting all the fluoride my teeth need through my drinking water now?

**Did you know that only 11% of ingredients in beauty products undergo premarket safety tests? If this concerns you (it certainly does me), check out Skin Deep. First launched by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group in 2004, the website provides information on more than 25,000 personal care products and nearly 7,000 ingredients. Searchable by brand, type, and ingredient, the site ranks products according to known risks. Ever question the wisdom of appying chemicals like phenoxyethanol to your delicate skin? I would.**

Blog / flickr Mosaic Game

Blog Game
Originally uploaded by Athena's Armoury

Thanks to my friend Cat over at The Green Cat blog, I discovered this fun little game. Because I love flickr, here we go:

The Game:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image. (Like Cat, I can be a bit of a rebel, too, so I also used whatever page I waned--so there!)
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Janine
2. What is your favorite food? Italian (duh)
3. What high school did you go to? Farmingdale
4. What is your favorite color? blue (used to be purple, then black, now. . .)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Harrison Ford
6. Favorite drink? mmmm. . . beer (well, that's the fave 'drink' drink, I also love water, tea, coffee)
7. Dream vacation? Italy (or just about any beach)
8. Favorite dessert? rainbow cookies!!
9. What you want to be when you grow up? This is tough as my career path continues to evolve. I think I'm going to take a cue from Cat on this one: Happy.
10. What do you love most in life? Freedom
11. One Word to describe you. Here's two: Woman Warrior.
12. Your flickr name: Athena's Armoury

Athena's Armoury is Awarded the Arte Y Pico

Thanks to All About Cats for giving me the Arte Y Pico award! This award recognizes a blog's creativity and overall contribution to the blogger community. Thank you!!



Once you've been selected, please follow these guidelines and pay it forward:

1) Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language.

2) Post the name of the author and a link to his or her blog so everyone can view it.

3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.

4) The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the Arte y Pico blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) Please post these rules!

Okay, so I'd like to award the following five blogs:

1. The Green Cat
2. MrsDragon
3. Handforged by Kirsten Skiles
4. Battlemaiden Studio
5. The Happenings at Up from the Ashes

Fantasy Artists of Etsy Street Team Charity Event

I am a proud member of the Fantasy Artists of Etsy Street Team: it is a fantastic group full of friendly and supportive as well as amazingly talented fantasy artists. Right now, we're trying to support one of our team members who is going through an extremely trying time. Nora of the Etsy shop Nora Blansett has undergone some very serious surgeries and continues to undergo treatment and further surgery. It is hard to explain just how much she has been through without disclosing details, but suffice to say my heart goes out to her and her family.

A long, long time ago, our team endeavored to do a round robin project. We had two teams working on two separate fairy dolls: a Light Doll and a Dark Doll. We decided that we wanted to auction off the Dark Doll (I contributed a chain maille breastplate to her) in honor of Nora. All proceeds from the sale of the Dark Doll will go straight to Nora to help pay her doctor's bills. Right now, the Dark Doll is getting some finishing touches put on her by a team member, but once she's done, I'll post some pictures and tell you how you can place a bid.

In the meantime, the amazingly talented Valorie of Battlemaiden Studios has done an original watercolor called Brief Respite which is currently up for auction at her blog. The auction will end at 11:59PM July 15th. At that time, Valorie will list the painting in her Etsy shop for sale to the high bidder. Shipping to the US is $5. To win, just comment at her blog with your bid. Be sure to check back and make sure you haven't been out-bid. Be sure to include your E-mail address so she can contact you if you're the high bidder. Want to contribute, but can't necessarily afford an original? You can also buy a print or bookmark from the Nora Section of Battlemaiden's Etsy shop.

Thank you so very much in advance!

Three Happy Surprise Features!

I just very happily discovered that Athena's Armoury is featured in not one, not two, but three different places over the course of the last few days!

First, I received a notice through Blog Catalog from FishHawk informing me that I was featured in his Five for Friday feature. FishHawk says: "FIVE FOR FRIDAY is a weekly feature on this blog that is meant for the SOLE purpose of calling attention unto sites that I think that many would find interesting." He featured my Euro 4-1 stainless steel bracelet with lovely lavender glass dangles:

Thank you FishHawk!!

I was just scrolling through the referring URL's of people who visited my blog and noticed that quite a few people were coming from two different places over the course of the last few days: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories and The Scarlett Rose Garden.


The Scarlett Rose Garden is a totally charming blog featuring (among other things) fantastic vintage clothing. Nikki at Scarlett featured my blog post on Rosie the Riveter for her "How to look Rosie for the 4th!" blog post.

Thank you Scarlett Rose Garden!!

And lastly, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories did a fantastic tutorial on how to make your own DIY d12 Handbag (of Holding) . In their intro, they linked back to my blog post featuring the alternative use of my Chain Maille Dice Bag as an evening purse.

Thank you Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories!!

Quizes, DIY Videos, and Boredom

It's been a very, very slow day at work for me. I've literally spent the entire day taking online quizes and watching DIY videos at Threadbanger.

The first quiz of the day informed me that:

53% Geek

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

The last quiz I took, determined which Tarot card I am:

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?Take the Test to Find Out.

Yup, I'm bored. . .