I don’t want to assume that you’re doing it wrong, but we could all use some pointers. Especially while living through a pandemic, it has been challenging to live as waste free as we would like. With a little effort and preparation, we can successfully make low waste grocery shopping a thing again! So without further ado, here are my best low-waste shopping tips that help better the environment:

1. Avoid Plastic. Gosh, I can already feel that I’m coming on strong and judgmental to start with. Hear me out. Let me first say that it is entirely impossible to be 100% waste free. It’s just impossible. It is ideal, but just plain not possible. So with that said, I give you the reminder to avoid plastic the best you can. Look for the same item in a paper or glass container or see if you can purchase it in bulk. Many foods and personal care items can be purchased in bulk which brings me to the next tip…

2. Buy Local. Refilleries and bulk stores are popping up in cities everywhere! You can even find bulk shopping options at your local chain grocer. If you’re looking for other options that you may not be aware of, check out this website to help you locate zero waste grocery stores near you. Don’t forget to check out local farmer’s markets! You can purchase produce and more straight from the farmer/butcher/maker. Local breweries and coffee shops have options to purchase drinks in bulk as well. Thank outside of the box!

3. Bring Reusables. Now that we’re shopping bulk and avoiding plastic, we need a place to store all those goodies. Use this list as a guide and you’ll be well on your way: reusable grocery bags, reusable produce bags, reusable bulk bags, up cycled glass containers, mason/canning jars, etc. You can find a lot of brand new options on our website (*nudge nudge*) or just use what you have! I know this is an unnecessary reminder, but make sure to skip the produce bags, even if they’re “compostable” (they still take resources to manufacture, so it’s not necessary to utilize them if we don’t NEED to). So many grubby hands have touched all of the produce already, so you’ll have to wash the produce when you get home anyway.

4. Shop when you aren’t hungry. Wow. I feel like I need to take my own advice. Overall, you’ll shop a lot more consciously when you aren’t ravenous so just make sure you feed your body before you make your trip to purchase more nourishment. Adhering to your intentions and your grocery list (this should be tip #4.5) will be much easier that way. Note to self.

5. Zero Waste Kit. Store your reusables in your car or on your coat rack or wherever you can remember to grab it before you head out. I keep reusable grocery bags in a drawer in the garage so I can grab some on my way out the door. I have another reusable bag filled with mason jars and up cycled spice jars so I can grab that if I’m headed out to a refillery or bulk store. And always bring a shopping list. Your shopping list will act as good accountability to keep your blinders on while shopping to just get what you need and nothing more (helping the planet and your pocketbook. You’re welcome).

6. Do the best you can. If you don’t follow these tips to a T, you’re still doing awesome. If you forget your reusables, don’t kick yourself. If you make a shopping trip when you’re so hungry you could eat a horse, it’s ok. The point is, we aren’t perfect and will never be. Shopping consciously, or at least having the skills to do so, is what is important. You are living your life and you are trying to do the best you can with the circumstances you’ve been given, and that is a wonderful thing! You go, being! You can do this and you are doing this! You live your eco-conscious life in whatever way works best for you! I support you and I think you’re doing great!

Being fully immersed in society has made slowing down something that needs to be practiced in order to become a habit. If this past year has taught me anything, it’s that I need to spend more time slowing down, especially having a 4 and 6 year old at home who never slow down! I’m sure many of you feel the same! Now that we’re slowly creeping back into the world, I’m hesitant to fill up my calendar and put too much on my plate - as I’m guilty of this! I’m learning to say “no” to more in order to reduce stress and cling to more of my sanity in an effort to make slow living more of a habit.

As I’m focusing on my garden, spending time with my kids before I send them off to school in the fall (homeschooling was not for us unfortunately!), and building new routines for myself, you’ll find less options to customize products on my website. I am also taking a break from alterations and other custom clothing orders at this time. I’ll still be at markets throughout the summer and sewing up new eco-wares when I feel so inclined, but slow and intuitive living has me taking a break from the stress of alterations.

In the name of slow living, we built an extension of our back deck in the form of a patio (since lumber prices are sky high!) and bought our first patio set in the almost 9 years we’ve lived in our house! I see myself working on my computer outside and even taking my sewing machine out to work on my eco-wares! I’ve created more garden spaces in our yard so my food garden has extended beyond the 350sqft space we have designated for food. I’m looking watching my gardens grow!

How are you embracing slow living? We all could use some tips to make this lifestyle more of a habit.

Nearly two years ago I started teaching our beeswax wrap workshop in person around the West Michigan area. Once the pandemic hit, it took some time to figure out how to move this workshop virtually and crank out thousands of cotton face masks for sale and donation while also balancing personal life like homeschooling and our new normal at home. The struggle was real! I chose to take some time off late summer, early fall because my soul was craving a slower pace to tend to my mental health (I think many of us can relate to this. I hope you took some time to tend to yourselves too!). In October 2020, My Lovely Muse collaborated with Yelp! Grand Rapids and put on our first Virtual Beeswax Wrap Workshop. I put together kits with all the tools and materials and offered it on my website so each participant could have everything they needed to make three wraps, from a distance. This year, I’m offering one beeswax wrap workshop per month. Kits and additional solution bars can be purchased on our website.

Don’t know what beeswax wraps are? You aren’t alone! I often have people sign up for class and haven’t ever used these wonderful wraps before. Beeswax wraps are used as an alternative to plastic wrap. Use beeswax wrap to wrap half of an avocado, onion, or orange. Lost the lid to a piece of Tupperware? No problem! Use a beeswax wrap as a lid to cover your leftovers inside the Tupperware container. Larger beeswax wraps (I prefer at least 17” square) are great for covering half of a watermelon or a couple slices of pizza. Just remember to keep the wrapped food next to an ice pack if you’re traveling with it in the summertime, just so the wrap doesn’t melt to the food. With heat or warm water, the solution will melt off of the fabric wrap, so make sure to wash in cool water or keep next to an ice pack when traveling. To clean, since under cool water and use a mild dish soap. Easy peasy!

Here some details of what’s included in each kit (with alternatives/my preference in parenthesis):

• popsicle sticks (bamboo toothbrush handles or an old stainless steel butter knife)

• clothes pins (silicone finger potholders)

• upcycled cotton or cotton/polyester blend fabric

• parchment paper

• take-and-bake bread pan (double water boiler or small crockpot with removable crock)

• beeswax solution bar made with local beeswax from Freeport, MI, sustainably harvested pine resin, organic jojoba oil

Look under our Events tab or on socials to see when each monthly event is scheduled.

Shop for beeswax solution bars and beeswax wrap kits and sign up for your event! You can also purchase beeswax wraps already made if you’re not the DIY type.

Zero seems like such an extreme, all or nothing. But zero is just the goal, whether or not it will ever be achieved. Zero waste living doesn’t need to be intimidating. Start with one room or area of your life at a time and take baby steps until you continue to see growth. You can do it! Here are some tips to help you move toward a more zero waste kitchen:

Cloth Napkins. If you’re using paper napkins or paper towel as a means to wipe your face during a meal, it’s time to make the swap. Cloth napkins come in all kinds of prints and textiles. Don’t limit yourself to whatever matches your decor! You’ll be using these napkins everyday, so have some fun with it! Shop our foodie cloth napkins!

Paperless Towels. Like cloth napkins, you can eliminate the need to constantly restock your pantry with paper towels and instead replace them with cloth. The options for paperless towels are limitless! Aside from any print imaginable, you can choose to store your paperless towels folded up in a drawer or basket or have snaps added to them so they can snap together and fit on your paper towel holder. How handy is that?! If you’re on a budget, you don’t need to spend beaucoup bucks on a custom set. You can just as easily achieve the same experience by tearing up old bath towels or t-shirts to use to clean up messes in the kitchen. As long as it absorbs water, it should work as a paperless towel!

Reusable Snack and Sandwich Bags. There is too much unnecessary plastic waste on our planet, there’s no need to contribute more when you have the option to buy a reusable alternative! Reusable snack and sandwich bags can be found in fabric or silicone options and are meant to replace your plastic zip top bags. Silicone bags are best for long term storage, many times including freezer storage. Fabric reusable snack and sandwich bags are often lined with a food safe, water resistent or waterproof fabric like PUL or nylon. They can have a fold over closure, hook and loop, or zipper. Shop our reusable snack and sandwich bags in over 30 prints!

Bulk Food Storage. So many everyday products are offered in plastic and packaging that isn’t recyclable. More and more bulk and zero waste stores are popping up to help eliminate the need for so much unnecessary packaging. When shopping bulk, bring your own containers. You can bring glass jars (mason jars work wonderfully. Just remember to weigh the jar before you add product so you aren’t paying for the weight of your container) or fabric bulk bags. Storing your bulk ingredients in glass jars in your pantry makes it easier to find what you need and determine when you need to restock. At the very least, it makes for a beautiful pantry!

Wax Food Wraps. Plastic wrap (cling wrap) is another piece of plastic you can say good riddance to. With wax food wraps, you no longer have a need for plastic wrap. Wax wraps are most commonly made from beeswax, but can be found using candelilla wax as a vegan alternative. Wax food wraps are simply pieces of fabric coated with a solution of natural ingredients to create a sticky and waterproof layer to easily wrap your food or cover your bowls or plates. To clean, use a mild dish soap and cool water to wash off food particles (warm water will heat up and remove the wax coating). Easy peasy! Shop our beeswax wraps or sign up for one of our monthly Virtual Beeswax Wrap Workshops!

This pandemic has required all of us to make some difficult and sometimes life altering decisions over the course of the past five months. Being a parent and a small business owner, I’ve been given my own set of challenging decisions as well. We have two young kids who were signed up to go to public school in the fall: Addie who just turned 6 and will be in Kindergarten and Arlo who will be 4 next week and will be in Preschool. We had the difficult decision to make to send our kids to school or to continue schooling at home. As a former teacher myself, the answer was a no brainer. I already work from home and I have experience teaching. The safest option for my children will be to keep them home and school them here. This would have been my son’s first experience in school. I don’t want him to have his first experience wearing a mask and being much more isolated than previous preschoolers got to experience. I didn’t want him to have to sit in a desk most of the day when I know that he is a busy and kinesthetic learner who needs movement to succeed. I would be doing my children, especially Arlo, a disservice by sending them to school. I am aware that not all parents are as fortunate as our family is and some families have no other choice but to send their kids to public school. Unfortunately, there are no ideal situations (although I have always dreamed of homeschooling, so in a way this is quite ideal for me!). That said, I am needing to slow down and take smaller strides in my business to be able to take extra off my plate to make room for our homeschooling adventure.

I will not be shutting down My Lovely Muse. Far from it. I have many new things up my sleeves and in the works as we speak, so hold on tight, there is more yet to come this year! (we’re crossing our fingers that it all turns out WONDERFULLY contradictory to how the first half of this year has gone…)

I will be removing alteration services for the time being. The good news is that I have a fabulous local seamstress who can make all your alteration dreams come true! Her name is Anna Signor and her business is River City Sewing. You can find her via her website, facebook, and instagram. Anna is located out of Grand Rapids, MI. She is a seamstress I look up to and consult when I’m stumped myself. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

I will also be removing custom clothing services for the time being. In the past I’ve been asked to make car seat ponchos. I do have a very close friend of mine who runs a business focused on car seat ponchos. She is fun, creative, bright, and bold and you will LOVE her! Her name is Grace Churchill and her business is Kid Culture Co. You can find her via her etsy page, facebook, and instagram. Grace is located out of Jenison, MI (like me!) but ships worldwide. She makes other dress up items and continues to add amazing, magical, kid-approved goodies to her shop.

I WILL continue to update inventory that I have currently available on my website as well as selectively adding events to participate in person. I have many new prints for reusable snack and sandwich bags that I will be adding as soon as I can. I do still have the option for custom eco-conscious housewares that I will keep available on the website. If that ends up being too much, I will give notice, but for now that option is still available.

Remember to use code “LOCAL” to eliminate shipping costs if you choose to pick-up your order from Jenison instead of delivery or shipping.

We began homeschooling a week ago on August 3, so these changes are effective immediately and until further notice. I appreciate my followers and fabulous community in supporting me over the past 3 and a half years in business and I hope to continue to provide you with the best of the best in sustainable wares even if I need to take a bit off of my plate for the time being.

Remember to take care of yourself first, because if you’re not taken care of, you won’t be able to take care of others. I love you all. Stay healthy and keep on keeping on!

Consciously Yours,
Christina Threloff

We can all agree that 2020 has been a year for the books. As a small business owner, there has been a lot that we’ve had to modify to stay afloat during these times. With markets cancelled and local boutiques closed for part of the last few months, many of our streams of income have been eliminated. We've pivoted our business to create more of an online presence in order to make our products more accessible with the ability to ship or offer pick-up. That said, more marketing, social media interaction, and website updates have been required to make online shopping simple for our customers.

We’ve tried some online pop-up markets (check out the ongoing Merchants + Makers Online Marketplace) as well during this time to help spread the word of our eco-conscious products.

You can find more events, both online and in person, that we plan on participating in through the end of the year on our Events Page.

Prior to the Stay at Home order, we had been working with local art gallery, Lions & Rabbits to host workshops like our Beeswax Wrap Make-and-Take. Pivoting to be able to continue to grow during these unprecedented times, Lions & Rabbits teamed with Pack Elephant, a local gift box company that offers other LOCAL small business products in beautifully curated boxes, to create art boxes in lieu of in-person workshops. Check out our Beeswax Wrap Box and Handlettering 101 Art Box available now!

Lions & Rabbits has teamed up with local Kent District Library to host FREE classes (see our Herbs 101 class that aired early June 2020) and will continue to offer these free classes through the fall. You can look forward to a canning class as well as a paper flowers class through KDL (watch via their youtube channel or their facebook page).

Since My Lovely Muse’s foundation is a sewing business, it was obvious to pivot our productions to producing reusable, cotton face masks to compensate for the shortage of PPE for essential workers as well as the rest of the population once states started opening up and required face coverings in stores and restaurants. Production of our usual eco-conscious products slowed down substantially and at times, entirely ceased due to mask production. Within the first 2 months of the Stay at Home order we had produced over 1,000 masks, donating 1-2 masks for every mask sold. Just yesterday we launched a see through mask to offer more inclusivity to our deaf community, speech pathologists going back to work in the fall, and autistic people who rely on lip reading and expressions to communicate with others. We foresee another surge in mask production next month as schools go back in session.

Stay tuned for more information on the future of My Lovely Muse as we continue to adjust our business to fit into the demands of this pandemic.

TL;DR

Want to shop local but remain contact free? Check out the ongoing Merchants + Makers Online Marketplace.

See where you can find My Lovely Muse online and in-person through the rest of the year on our Events Page.

My Lovely Muse + Lions & Rabbits + Pack Elephant = contact free art box workshops delivered to your home!

My Lovely Muse + Lions & Rabbits + Kent District Library = a variety of FREE classes by local makers and artists

Still selling face masks - standard and see through style - for your safety. Bulk pricing available for orders of 100+.

Hi I’m Christina.  I’m a former special education teacher turned stay-at-home Mom to, my two energetic apprentices, Adelina and Arlo, and a mini-dachshund named Finley.  After leaving the workforce in 2016, I decided to turn my hobby into a legal business.  My Lovely Muse was born from a transitional stage in my life.  I was in my late twenties, a new mom, and I had just left a career that I had devoted 8 years of expensive education to, while only spending 5 years in the field.  I was looking at years of student loan debt while sacrificing my biweekly paycheck to be at home with my kids.  When Addie was born in 2014, this business had been a dream.  I spent hours and hours researching the legalities of selling clothing in the United States.  Those hours turned into almost 2 years before I officially signed the papers for My Lovely Muse, LLC in 2016.  From there I worked on building my inventory of business materials and supplies, promotional material, sew-in care labels, bookkeeping spreadsheets, establishing an online presence, and continuing to educate myself on small business legal information, social media management, fashion trends, sewing pattern options, etc.  It was overwhelming and expensive!  My brain was constantly running.  I was a wife and mom, but also the CEO and sewist behind My Lovely Muse managing production and inventory, research and development, purchasing, marketing and advertising, accounting, writing, sales, and anything else that came up.  I’m still slowly getting the hang of wearing all these hats, but that’s the beauty in being your own boss.  My children will be able to see me running a business that I created from the ground up.  They will learn the value in creating something from nothing as I work on my sewing machines to create practical apparel for the everyday person out of fabric cut straight from the bolt. It’s important to me that my children know these lost arts and are able to delight in the ability to be able to make something on the sewing machine.  The foundation of this business is based on my mission to rekindle these lost arts, particularly, making handmade apparel through the process of planning a design, selecting sustainable materials, and careful construction.  Beyond being able to sew practical items, I also want my kids to relish in their ability to preserve food that they tended to and harvested all summer long, to make bread from yeast, flour, water, and oil and pasta from flour and eggs.  I want them to know that food wasn’t born on a cold shelf in a supermarket, but from a local farm and from a garden tended to by human hands like theirs.  Opting for convenience and not even considering alternatives has become the societal norm.  I need that to change for the future of my children.  For their health and for their ability to appreciate things and not take so much for granted.  My Lovely Muse isn’t just a clothing brand, but also a family and community focused on being more conscious everyday. So here I am, living my dream and learning far more than I had ever imagined I would just by establishing a mission for my business.  There’s more to come, and I hope you’ll join me on this journey.  Until next time.

Consciously yours,
Christina