Dress For you Body Type. 5 Tips for a Flattering you.

Whenever I am designing a new item I like to take into account what its going to do for the person that puts it on. We all have had an item that hugs us in all the wrong places and makes us feel like we are on the way to Frumpville. Then we have also had the great luck in finding a piece that shows off our best and highlights what makes us beautiful. Those are the items that we keep for years and wear until there is nothing left to them. My favorite moment is when I manage to come up with something that looks great and flatters all the right places on a lot of different women.

The most common complaint that I get from women is that clothing hugs their tummies and backs. Another concern of course is the thigh area. I have compiled some of my best advice for diverting attention (yours mostly, no one else thinks much about your tummy and thighs by the way) away from the areas you don't totally love into areas that you adore.

1. Determine your best feature and build your look around it. Love your eye color? Compliment it with color and tone. A great tip is to find a color wheel and then find the color of you eyes. Bring it out by finding the color on the opposite side and wearing that. For example orange colors bring out blue eyes. Wearing colors that match your eyes also tend to bring them out more.

2. Style lines, Style lines, Style lines. A well placed style line is a woman's best friend. Want to whittle your waist? Grab an item with an hour glass style line on the front. Slim your thighs? Look for length wise lines down the legs of your bottoms. Avoid cargo pockets on pants if you want to slim down your legs. Our classic Candy hoodie (shown above on Leah Oke) in Organic Cotton and hemp has a great cut, toning your midsection with out all those boring sit-ups.

3. Color and Darks. Wear your dark colors on area that you want to minimize and lighter brighter colors on areas you want to draw attention to. Large on top and small on bottom? Pair a black top with a bright colored bottom. This will balance your figure more evenly.

4. Ruching is the bomb. Runching is deep gathers on a garment used to create folds. They are great for covering bumpy areas that you want to keep to yourself. Gathering also works great to add volume if your very petite. Our Wave Check EcoFriendly Hoodie has Ruching along the front with a waist whittling style line to give you a double whammy of flattering effects. Check out our Zen Jacket if you want to add some bulk to your figure.

5. Draw the attention of your admirers where you want it to go. This works terrifically in all areas of your life. The obvious example if the mighty bare cleavage but there are subtler and classier ways to pull the technique off. Use brighter colors and interesting details to draw admiring glances where you want them. Try a great necklace to enhance your beautiful neck or a hair pin to draw attention to your luxurious mane. Grab some great jeans if you like your bottom half better than your top and wear a plain dark shirt minimize your top. Then put on a smile to show off your pretty soul.

Hope these tips help you to look and feel your best. If you want some more tips come stop by Salts Clothing at 2052 Otter Point Road in Beautiful Sooke, BC on Vancouver Island and speak to one of our stylists. Of course your can always shop for Salts Organic Clothing online.

With Love,
Jenny

Designer, Salts

Check out: Designs by Amber from SaltsSpring Island BC

One of my favorite designers to carry in the Salts Boutique is the lovely Amber Churchill from SaltSpring Island, British Columbia. She has a unique style that can easily rise above the masses of jewelery designers out there. Her big delicious pieces (like the Brazilian Agate Necklace shown at the top)are my favorites. Though I don't think I can pull them off, maybe I can...let me know.

Churchill is also a talented screen printer, feltress and Doll makers however. Which makes her my hero. She uses great eco friendly or recycled supplies in her handcrafts. Her jewelery has also been worn by the likes of Kelly Rowland from Destiny's Child, which makes her even more my hero. Amber darling, I am afraid that I want to be just like you.

Check out more of her items at the Salts Boutique in Sooke, BC.

Natural Herbal Pesticides for your Organic Plants! 7 Simple Tips for Organic Growing.

My garden it being attacked! I have to save it quick! What should I do?

After some research I have stumbled on some good tips to deter pests and weed in an Organically grown garden. My biggest problem here on Vancouver Islands West Coast is slugs. Next up is weeds. If any one has any suggestions about what has worked for them, I would love to hear it. Until then, here are some tips I found and am going to try out. I will update later with the results.

1. For nibbling pests one gardener suggests a concoction of crushed garlic and hot peppers such as cayenne, added to water and sprayed on your plants. Steep one gallon of water with 1\2 teaspoon of each and dilute to about 25% before spraying vegetables.

2. For pesky weeds in sidewalks or other places that are hard to dig the roots up, pour a mixture of boiling water and vinegar on them. Beware of hitting neighboring good organic plants though.

3. Use tonnes of mulch. Through your grass clipping around your plants. Or put compost, bark mulch, hay and leaves. This will help keep the weeds down.

4. To deter slugs and add calcuim to organic soil, save you eggshells and surround your plants with them.

5. Stop cutworms with a simple cutworm collar. Cutworms are the pest that cut throught the base of your Organic Plants when they are just new transplants. To make a collar, cut a toliet paper roll in half legnthwise and then cut a slit through the side to allow for the collar to slip around the seedling. Put around the stem of your plant and push down slightly to stop the cutworms.

6. Iron phosphate has proven to be an effective and completely safe way to keep slimy nocturnal creatures like slugs from eating your hard work. Commercial brands in pellet form include Sluggo and Escar-Go. Simply sprinkle the pellets around where slug damage is evident. Pellets need re-applied every two weeks or so.

7. Some one told me to hang bags of human hair in netting around the garden in order to repel deer organically, this seems a little dark to me. Smelly soap does the job too with less of a weird factor. An egg wash with one egg mixed into a spray bottle of water and sprayed on plants will deter deer from eating. Lemon dish soap spray is also a good mix to keep predators off your goods.

Let me know how these tips work for you and your own Organic Garden. If you want to see some organic gardening proffessionally done, be sure to visit the Harbour House Garden Tour in Sooke, BC. They have one of the best edible gardens on the island.

Dress Pure,
Salts

Organic Hemp Cookie Recipe!

I needed to make some delicious cookies for the one Year Anniversary party at our store! Thats right the Salts Studio Boutique home of Organic Clothing delights is now one year old! Our full service boutique is beautiful Sooke, BC features clothing in sustainable fabrics for Men, Ladies and Children as well as little eco-friendly goodies and gifts. Salts Boutique has a large selection of handmade jewelery, art and accessories made by local Vancouver Island Artisans. We are located at 2052 Otter Point Road. While you are here be sure to check out the Little Vienna Bakery down the road, they have recently switched to Organic Flour in some of their breads. They have the best soups on Vancouver Island. If you make the trip up to Sooke you will be glad you did, our clothing store features a verity of hemp, organic cotton, soy and bamboo products as well as some recycled clothing. Fun!

So heres the recipe....Me likes the hemp!

Salts Hemp-y Almond-y Cookies

- 1 cup whole-wheat organic pastry flour (if you can find it)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons unrefined sugar or cane crystals (Level Ground Trading has a nice sugar)
- 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons organic almond or cashew or peanut if you prefer...butter
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/3 teaspoon blackstrap molasses (VERY important ingredient)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (we get ours from our Mexican Grandma)
- 1/3 cup vanilla hemp milk (Manitoba Harvest is great)

Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).

In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the sugar, and stir until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine the 1/3 cup of almond butter with the maple syrup, blackstrap molasses, and vanilla extract. Add the wet mixture to the dry, stir through, and as it is coming together, stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of almond butter leaving chunky bits of almond butter for delicious surprise bites.

Place medium spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet greased or lined. Bake for 10 minutes, until the cookies are slightly crisp on the edges, but still soft in the middle. Let cool for about 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then remove cookies.

Makes 12 medium cookies

Add chocolate chips, raisins or nuts if the mood strikes you.

Enjoy.

Dress Pure.
Salts

Photo above is us at the Clothing Store!