Lunapads Blog

A Diva’s Guide to Getting Your Period is the newest book by menstruation expert DeAnna L’am.  Who better to hear it from first than one of the world’s leading experts and pioneers of menstrual empowerment?  This is her first book written for teens and is appealing as it is quite a quick read full of beautiful images by Jessica of Vulva Love Lovely.

As a woman who has embraced her cycle enough to work for a company like Lunapads, I wanted to put myself back into the mindset of when I got my first period while reading.  I remember it being an overwhelming amount of new information to process and despite my mothers enthusiasm and support (she even bought me a book!), I still felt embarrassed about the newness of now being ‘a woman’.

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Moon Mysteries Giveaway
Comment below telling us about why you feel like there’s more to our cycles than shedding uterine linings (ie having your period ;-) for a chance to win.

I have just finished reading Moon Mysteries: Reclaiming Women’s Menstrual Wisdom (order here) and despite having my curiosity whetted for the past couple of years by our good friend and longtime Lunapads supporter Nikiah Seeds, was not disappointed. The book is truly a labor of love, written by Nikiah and Nao Sims, and illustrated and designed by Eyan Myers. There is so much that is rich and beautiful about this book and its authors and illustrator that it’s hard to know where to start.

I have read many useful books on the topic of women’s cycles, however none that inspire in quite the way that Moon Mysteries does. Reading it brought me back to a powerful place of reflection over my own menstrual history, leading me to realize how Lunapads itself can be read as a reflection of my own unmet yearning for honoring and connection as a menarchal girl. Moon Mysteries delivers this gift on numerous fronts, inviting meditation, celebration and awareness raising in every phase of the fertility cycle experience.

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I heard about Make Stuff Together through the marvelous Sarah Juliusson, a longtime Lunapads supporter whose resume in the natural birth/parenting/lifestyle/business department is too long to begin to list here. Suffice to say that when she asked if I’d like to review a book about crafting with kids I jumped at the chance.

Many of you will be familiar with coauthor Bernatte Noll as a cofounder of Slow Family Living and Mothering magazine contributor, or her coauthor Kathie Server via her work having been featured in Handmade Nation. What they have created is a warm, thoughtful and accessible guide to a unique collection of mostly textile-based crafts.

As a lifelong sewer, I was immediately drawn to the project ideas and media – fabric is such an inherently kid-friendly material, and it’s so easy to come by: everyone has a collection of old clothes, buttons and linens around the house. That said, a sewing machine would be an asset for many of these projects, as well as some experience with sewing, knitting etc. on behalf of the parent.

Even using just hand-sewing or for newbie machine operators, the instructions and photos are excellent, so I would also recommend the book as a way for parents and kids to learn together. The authors also provide great tips for thinking things through before you start, as well as knowing when (and how) to help without undermining the child’s sense of creative freedom or accomplishment.

My 6 year old daughter is particularly enjoying embroidering pieces of burlap, a suggestion that I picked up from the book.

The authors’ thoughtfulness, experience and values permeate the work. For example, I have seen the usual pot holders and aprons beginner sewing project ideas a hundred times. But have you ever heard of a Blessing and Sharing Pouch, Anticipation Calendar or Appreciation Banner? Neither had I. Not only are these intriguing projects great ways to learn to sew and be creative, they are moreover tools for mindfulness, gratitude and family connection. I was also thrilled to see projects that were specifically outdoors-oriented, encouraging activity and connection with Nature.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

I have the good fortune to be able to give away one copy of the book. To enter for a chance to win, please leave a comment below about how you imagine using craft to deepen your family connection beofore July 31, 2011. Oh, and don’t forget to “like” the Make Stuff Together Facebook page while you’re at it. Good luck and happy crafting!

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As someone who has dabbled in Twitter for almost two years, a person I started following early on was @unmarketing (aka Scott Stratten). I was particularly attracted to his Twitter name, as it implied someone who was unconventional and forward thinking. His posts did not disappoint me. After meeting Scott in person at a trade show in Las Vegas last October, Madeleine and I quickly realized why Scott is a such a highly regarded social media expert and sought after keynote speaker.

Knowing that Scott was going to be speaking in Vancouver to promote his new book “UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging” (a national best-seller and must read book that we are giving away below!) we invited him to Lunapads HQ to consult with us about our website & conduct an “un-audit”. (As a former auditor of the accounting variety, I was rather nervous but excited to be sitting on the other side of the table and learn what the expert thought about our efforts.)

So, what did he think? Well, this autographed copy of his book sums it up.

Please also check out the impromptu interview I did with Scott and hear what he has to say about social media and some of the new tools and apps he finds interesting. Bonus info: find out what Scott and Justin Beiber have in common!

Scott, thanks for your stamp of approval. We love your motto: “Be Awesome”. (And Scott, I thought you’d appreciate this quote from Jack Black’s Kung Fu Panda character that I over heard while my boys were watching TV… “There is no charge for awesomeness or attractiveness!”)

Our social media endeavors are definitely a team effort here at Lunapads. Morgan and Lisa deserve most of the credit being the voices of Twitter and Facebook on a daily basis. Madeleine and I (aka Luna_gal) tweet about Lunapads and our personal accounts. Our YouTube channel has several thousand views.

Social media is work, for sure — but it’s really never been a chore for us. In fact, we consider ourselves lucky because we get to talk to tons of interesting people who genuinely inspire and challenge us. And, as a way of thanks, we’re giving away an autographed copy of Scott’s book to one of our readers. To enter, simply comment below about where and/or why you enjoy engaging in conversations online (ie: social media!)

PS: A big shout out of thanks to Marc Smith of Amuse Consulting and his team for bringing Scott to Vancouver in December 2010!

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Roughly 1 year ago a friend recommended to me that i read the book Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. I took her advice and proceeded to receive the feminine education of a lifetime. This lovely, lovely book brought to my attention the concept of environmentally conscious replacements for the standard pad and tampon; an idea that had not once crossed my mind in my experience as a menstruating girl/young woman.

Upon first hearing about menstrual cups and washable menstrual pads, I found the idea interesting – but maybe not for me. A year later I picked up an issue of Bitch Magazine and – flipping through the glossy pages – found an ad for Lunapads. Here again was this idea of washable menstrual pads. I opened my laptop, typed in the URL, and was greeted by a fantastic and informational website made for women, by women. Never before had I been so excited about my own period! I decided I would give it a try. If I didn’t like the products then at least i would be supporting a really awesome company, and if I did – well, then I would be able to save hundreds of dollars over the years AND help the environment, too.

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I’d better write this post before the pile of books on my desk topples over on me! We have had a wonderful “influx” of books and zines at Lunapads recently and I’d like to tell you about some of them, as well as give some away – read on…

I can’t remember how many months ago it was exactly that I received an email from University of Massachusetts Women’s Studies professor Chris Bobel asking for help with finding artwork for the cover of her then-upcoming tome,  New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation, but I was instantly inspired to offer to have a contest asking customers for images based on the theme of menstrual activism. Helena Gonzalez Saez emerged as the winner from among over a dozen fascinating and inspiring submissions (and check this: Helena donated her $100 gift certificate prize to Pads4Girls, how cool is that?), and we received the finished book just a few weeks ago.

“Ask better questions… demand better answers!” reads Chris’s handwritten inscription in our copy – it’s a good summary of the book as well. While I am still working my way through it, overall the book is leaving me feeling more informed, inspired and grateful than ever for the work of our menstrual activist predecessors and contemporaries. Of particular interest for me are questions she poses around how menstruation’s meaning is changing in the era of gender politics: for example, what happens to discourse around menstruation when gender as a fixed, binary concept is a quaint, distant notion?

While its academic heft may be a bit OTT for recreational enthusiasts, I found it to be a welcome counterpoint to the more cursory, pop cultural approach taken to menstrual matters in recent offerings such as Elissa Stein’s Flow. Chris also has some kind words to say about Lunapads (both product and company), and included a Lunapads print ad that appeared in BUST magazine in the book, for which we feel deeply honored.

Speaking of menstrual activism, my second pick is a fine example. Fans of feminist indie zines will love Jen Vaughn’s comix Menstruation Station and Don’t Hate, Menstruate. The author of the acclaimed Mermaid Hostel is a major Lunapads fan, and we are pleased to report that it’s entirely mutual.

So… the giveaway. I have 2 copies of New Blood, as well as 10 sets of both of Jen Vaughn’s zines to give away. Let us know which you’d prefer to receive, as well as a few words about what menstrual activism means to you. Are you an aspiring menstrual activist? Just curious? A seasoned veteran with stories to share? Tell us for your chance to win! Winners will be announced in the September newsletter.

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It’s not very often that a book dedicated to the subject of menstruation gets published. So when I heard about the impending release of FLOW; the cultural story of menstruation back in November, I was pretty excited to get my hands on a copy.

At first glance, FLOW is quite the aesthetically pleasing little book, filled with images of vintage pad and tampon adverts and other “feminine health products” dating as far back as the late 1800s. Due to its visually compelling nature, FLOW would make the ideal coffee table book. And hey, aside from rinsing your menstrual cup in a public washroom, what better way to get the conversation about menstruation flowing (couldn’t resist!) than to nonchalantly leave a book about its history lying about the house?

Few healthy bodily processes have had such an effed-up history as menstruation and this book covers a broad range of topics from the archaic “disease” Hysteria and the origins of the vibrator, to the medicalization of periods and the recent introduction of Menstrual Suppression drugs. I often hear women linking the origins of our collective shame surrounding menstruation to fem-care advertisers and the negative language used to hock their products. FLOW digs deeper into the sources of the menstrual taboo weaving a history that is biblical, medical, pre-historical, cultural, spiritual and political in scope. It’s pretty engaging if you aren’t already aware of the history of menstruation and even if you are, there are sure to be some surprising tidbits that leave you quietly scooping your jaw up off the floor.

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Greetings Period Fans!

You all remember the little art contest we held for Chris Bobel’s upcoming book “New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation” Buzz is building for the book, due out in spring of 2010 and we cant wait to get our little mittens on a copy. Check out this interview with the author on Our Bodies, Our Blog to see what the book covers.

And, as if one book dedicated to our favourite topic wasn’t enough to get us excited, we’ve just discovered the impending release of another period-centric book; “FLOW: A Cultural Story of Menstruation.” According to the books website;“Flow tells you where it’s at about menstruation: what it is, what we’ve been told and how we’ve been sold, and what we should definitely know. It’s the most natural of cycles with the most unnatural of histories. It’s a funny, fascinating, and occasionally scary story of big business, advertising, feminism, gender roles, medicine, religion, world culture, and above all, good manners . . . in which every single female, young or old, will recognize her story.”

Sounds pretty good right? The new book by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim will hit stores November 10th and is available for pre-order on Amazon.com now. Order now and it might just arrive in time for your next period, perfect reading for those Heavy Pad days. It definitely looks like a fun read with loads of menstrual trivia and facty-bits. For Instance:

Check back here in the coming weeks for our review of FLOW. We might just have a free copy for one of our lucky readers too.

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We love the irreverent tone of National Post columnist and Green as a Thistle blogger Vanessa Farquharson’s new debut memoir, Sleeping Naked is Green: How an eco-cynic unplugged her fridge, sold her car, and found love in 366 days.  She is a major Lunapads and DivaCup proponent, and has a particularly humorous story to tell about Lunapads, excerpted below:

september 29, day 213
Eat ice cream in a cone rather than a plastic cup. I thought that writing about Jake Gyllenhaal was the best way to get
more hits on my blog — man, was I wrong. Turns out, there’s another subject that’s guaranteed to get twice as many hits as Jake, and that
subject is menstruation. It’s totally bizarre — I mean it’s not as though
the only people procrastinating in the blogosphere are women, let
alone women who are very in touch with their bodies and like talking
about how in touch with their bodies they are. Or is it?
Either way, I realized this at some point yesterday, when my post
about using Lunapads reusable cloth pantyliners got upward of forty
comments, many of which revolved around topics like how to
clean them in the sink or a bucket, whether to subsequently empty
the bloody water into one’s potted plants, and so on, going into
enough detail to spoil my homemade lunch.
A funny back story to the Lunapads, though: I’d already bought
my own but the company who makes them found my blog and
decided to send me a bunch for free. They asked for my address,
so I decided to use the one at the National Post. The day they arrived,
I wasn’t in the office, but my editor was. Ben ended up making
dinner plans that night with Kelly, one of the reporters who
used to work with us, who was in Toronto for a brief visit to see his
old friends. Ben decided to bring him some sort of welcome-back
present and went rummaging through the Arts & Life swag pile.
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Since meeting one another, Madeleine and I have shared many special moments both personally and professionally.  The summer of 2002, for example, was amazing:  Madeleine got married and I gave birth to my first son, Aiden.  Buying our own office space in 2007 was another important business milestone.  This past week saw another major highlight:  spending time with Peggy O’Mara, publisher and editor of Mothering magazine, and hosting a fundraising tea party in support of Pads4Girls with her as the guest of honor.

As Madeleine referenced in an earlier post, we bumped into Peggy last month at a trade show.  Knowing she was coming to Vancouver for the Healthy Families Conference, we invited her for tea at Lunapads.  As we planned the event, we also learned Peggy had no particular plans while visiting Vancouver, so Madeleine and I took it upon ourselves to be her host and show her our beautiful city.  After picking her up at the airport, we headed to Tojo’s, one of Vancouver’s most creative sushi restaurants (Peggy lived in Japan for several years in her teens) and, over a delightful west coast meal, we chatted about being moms and entrepreneurs. What immediately struck me was that despite her celebrity status (in my eyes, anyway!) Peggy is just like us: a devoted mother and mission-based entrepreneur with whom we share similar goals and business challenges.

The next day, we transformed our bustling office into a open meeting space.  Held as a fundraiser for our Pads4Girls program, 30 women, mostly mompreneurs in the birthing or baby industry, gathered to hear Peggy speak.  Madeleine and I savored the incredible energy that built up as each woman arrived.  We listened to Peggy talk about her career’s humble beginnings on her farm in New Mexico, raising four young children, and how she purchased and grew Mothering magazine to where it is today.  If you want to read more about Peggy’s story (and other inspiring passages) I highly recommend you refer to the Mothering site here for archives of Peggy’s editorials.

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