Sedona's Empty Vortexes, NY Times Article Calls Angel Valley a Graveyard

Front page of NY Times claims, "Sweat Lodge Deaths Deter New Age Tourists."   What do you think?  Did Angel Valley have anything to do with tourism falling off in Sedona or is it Governor Brewer?  The economy.  Bad mojo combo?  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/20sedona.html?_r=1&hp

Win a Trip to Sedona!

Win tickets to the Gift in Shift conference, January in Sedona. 
http://www.facebook.com/activatelove

Stay Healthy: What's Happening with Food

Art at the Sedona Plein Air Festival

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"Friendsource" A New Way to Find A Vacation Rental

Second Porch.com is my new favorite site for finding vacation trades and rentals.  It lets me see guests on Facebook and it lets guests verify me, too.

It works through your "extended" social circle and with 550,000,000 people on Facebook today, it could be powerful.  Certainly, it provides an element of transparency for the potential renter. They can see that you are a real person with a Facebook profile instead of a random listings -- infamously filled with fraud.

With more recent press than any other vacation rental site, they may be worth watching. Here is the link to the press http://www.secondporch.com/press

Red Hot Rate Special Saint Augustine, Florida $57 a Night

September Rate Special.  Riverview, St Augustine $399 a week.  Click here to check availability or make a reservation. 

The Curse of the Unwanted Air Freshener: Eliminating Lingering Scents | Healthy Child Healthy World

Another reason to stay in a healthy vacation home!

The Curse of the Unwanted Air Freshener: Eliminating Lingering Scents Healthy Child Healthy World

Is Arizona Dangerous? Or Safer Than It's Been In Years?

Weird Arizona: Your Travel Guide to Arizona's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets

Immerse Yourself In Nature

What are your favorite ways to reconnect in nature?

My three favorite practices keep me and Mother Nature healthy:

1.  Find Sanctuaries--a place or activity that allows you to step away from the day-to-day demands and recalibrate your internal and spiritual responses. 

2.  Free Yourself From Commitments—people and obligations you “should” do. Make sure all the things in your life are small, few, and simple enough to take care of yourself—your home, car, clothes, diet, finances.

 

3.  Do Something Other than be Entertained and Amused. 85% of North American households didn't buy a nonfiction book in 2007--and 90 percent of those who did didn't read it. But our TVs run an average of six hours a day.

Search Amazon.com Books for books on sale

A Good Home is a Healthy Home

Healthy home decorating can be a challenge. With most big box stores carrying the same inexpensive products from the same suppliers—what's a health conscious shopper to do?  How do you find fabrics and window treatments that don’t outgas harmful chemicals? And let’s say you do find some home-spun cotton—how do you know it’s from suppliers that treat workers and the earth with respect?

Black out fabrics may keep out the sun--making it easier to sleep late and lower your air conditioning costs.  But fabrics are frequently treated with flame retardants, sizing, and stain guards. These toxic additives are—at best—irritants to your respiratory system and at worst—disruptive your endocrine system or even carcinogenic. The chemicals get absorbed through the skin or released into the air when activated by heat from the sun shining in your windows. Who wants to breathe that? No wonder the EPA reports 90% of indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air.

One way to make healthy home decorating easier is to use The Ethical Shopping Guide which accredits and publishes a list of companies with responsible sourcing processes. The Natural Curtain Company, for example, uses 100% natural fabrics wherever possible--often inherently more attractive and ethically superior to synthetic alternatives.

“Ethical” means careful examination of how the company conducts business. Accreditation by the publisher, the Ethical Company Organisation requires responsible practices in four areas.

• Environment: environmental reporting; pollution; nuclear power; other environmental issues.
• Animals: animal testing; factory farming; other animal rights.
• People: oppressive regimes; worker’s rights; irresponsible marketing; armaments.
• Extras: genetic engineering; boycott call; political activity; alerts.

Check out over 100 fabrics and get free fabric samples at The Natural Curtain Company -- not only a resource for blinds, curtains, and window treatments -- their blog has tips on creating a green home and how to make your own curtains along with ideas for saving energy and improving air quality. Video instructions, "Made To Measure Made Simple" shows how to measure windows.

It’s no longer just people with allergies and chemical sensitivities that are concerned about using natural fibers and furnishings. A good home is a healthy home—for all of us.

Dana's Good News: Top Five Vacation Rental Deals and More

1. Wow, pull CO2 from the air and use it to make BPA-free plastics?  BPA has been linked to serious health problems, but now researchers have found a way to make plastic without out and reduce greenhouse gasses, as reported in this article.
2. Green your flight by going to the bathroom before flying?  Apparently, Nippon estimated it would save 4.2 tons of carbon dioxide a month on their planes.
3. Wondering what to do while the economy gets worse before it gets better?  How about growing your own food in a window? 

4.  Spending more time outside and breathing more air pollution is a bad summertime combo.  Check the Air Quality Index before heading out on hot days with just a click or two on the AirNow site.

5.  Last but not least, save up to $300 a week with a September rate special at the Riverview, St Augustine, Florida vacation rental.  Just $599 when you use the code Slurpee when booking.  Travel is up 25% to the east coast of Florida due to oil on the west coast--the best way to avoid disappointment is to make travel plans early before everything is booked.

Low budget vacation rentals for New England, Canada, and Florida

Little Tibet: Inner Journeys...Outdoors

My relentless hunt for earth and health friendly vacation rentals led me to Ladakh, India--long on the map for backpackers who stay in and around Leh--but yet to hit the radar of the adventurous, comfort-seeking travelers. The high altitude desert is dominated by rugged snow capped mountains, deep turquoise lakes, and traversed by strands of green, fast-flowing rivers making this my kind of destination. 

Often referred to as 'little Tibet,' Ladakh is geographically, anthropologically and culturally part of Tibet. However, its remoteness and sheer inaccessibility have meant that it was to have a very different history to the rest of the high plateau. Once part of British India, it was subsequently absorbed into independent India in 1947. Ladakh's geography protected it from the ravages of the Chinese cultural revolution that sadly changed the rest of Tibet beyond recognition. Today it contains one of the most intact Tantric Buddhist societies left on earth.

Responsible tourism outfitter, Shakti Himalaya offers a 'village house' experience that avoids the over commercialization of Leh and takes you out, off the beaten track to three unspoilt villages in the Indus valley.  And instead of driving into the Nubra valley like everyone else, they offer a Shayok River journey along the old Silk Route into the remote Nubra valley--an area rarely visited by any foreign travelers.

The Shakti Himalaya website describes their earth friendly practices this way, "[We're] committed to sharing the rejuvenating effects of remote surroundings – to provide privileged access to places far removed from the noise and clutter of the modern world, where space, peace and epic landscapes provoke the imagination and nourish the soul."

Shakti claims the trips make no environmental impact on the villages or trails. Village holiday homes/vacation rentals have been minimally and authentically refurbished, using traditional materials and crafts, and food and supplies are sourced locally. There is no electricity and ablutions are by bucket shower. The guides and porters are from the local villages and so act as conduits for conversations between travellers and the local people along the trail, as well as interpreting customs, history and folklore. Visitors bring in much-needed income and contribute to the maintenance of the traditional farmhouses. Monies spent along the trail go directly to local businesses.

Inspired by Nature

Staying home this fourth of July? What better way to enjoy a staycation than to transform your garden into a fairytale space for magical al fresco dining? Hang a few tea lights, add pretty butterfly embroidery and intricately crafted table cloths and napkins and you'll feel transported.

 

ALSO Home features ethically sourced, hand crafted cutlery and coconut white ceramics inspired by simple lotus leaves. Their Spring/Summer 2010 exclusive collection  of candles, laterns, and ceramics includes a modern take to a traditional Vietnamese design on plates and bowls, with shoals of blue fish hand painted on to white ceramic, hand crafted ceramics, baskets, candles, lanterns and vases.

The Truth About Sunscreens

You know the drill: when the sun’s rays are fierce, duck and cover.

But sometimes, you’re going to be out there in it. EWG’s Sunscreen Guide to 1,400 sunscreens, lip balms and moisturizers tells you what you need to know to find safe and effective sunscreens. EWG’s exclusive scientific analysis helps you avoid red-flag ingredients like vitamin A (retinyl palmitate) and oxybenzone. EWG gives you straight talk about SPF.

Tired of the hype? So are we. The FDA should wrap up sunscreen regulations it started drafting in 1978. Americans have waited long enough.  Basic sunscreen ingredients disrupt the endocrine system, promote cancer, and other health hazards. Read more...

Vacation rentals: How to make your summer vacation rental feel like home - chicagotribune.com

Vacation rentals: How to make your summer vacation rental feel like home - chicagotribune.com

On Location: A Tiny Victorian Cottage

Home & Garden, NY Times

Published: June 23, 2010
A cottage in the Catskills that she renovated herself fulfills a dream for a woman who was once homeless. See photos

You know how I love a retreat!  Small is the new big.

Photos by Trevor Tondro for the New York Times

KNAU:The Latest Info on the Fires in Northern Arizona

KNAU: Infared Cameras Used to Map the Schultz Fire (2010-06-22)

Where Are The Red Hot Rate Specials?

The healthy vacation rental homes in Florida are either empty from the oil spill on the west coast or booked from the overflow to the east coast. Discounts don't solve either challenge.

Rental restrictions on vacation homes and holiday rentals in Sedona, AZ means the only deals you're likely to find require a 30 day stay. If you can afford to take a month off, you probably don't need a rate special!

My current favorite site for good prices on vacation rentals is FlipKey.com With airline prices rising, I'd grab the lowest rate. In these times, it may be more important to look for a home that isn't in foreclosure than it is to get a rate special.

The Chemical Cocktail: Causing Obesity in the US?

According an increasing number of researchers, including UC Irvine biologist Bruce Blumberg who coined the term "obesogens," identifiable industrial pollutants are contributing to the obesity epidemic. How much so is still unknown, but preliminary research is disturbing. Read more: http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/the_chemical_cocktail_making_americans_overweight/#ixzz0r3RNB3g7

Summer Red Hot Rate Specials: Vacation Rentals for Deepak and Gulf Coast Vacationers

Affordable Resort Condo for Deepak Chopra Sedona Meditation Event Aug 21-28, 2010. Hyatt Pinon Pointe only $1000. 2/2 sleeps six, 1,200 SF.  Full kitchen, all amenities of the resort, mini kitchen. Studio can be locked off for privacy. Call 928-203-9197

Don't let the oil spills ruin your vacation. Check out St. Augustine, Florida May 15-30 only $499 a week. Mention you saw the Red Hot Rate Special and save $200.  Call 410-562-2281.