Plastic Fantastic - Apparently! #environment #recycle #greeneconomy

When we at WinC encourage you to wrap your gifts in cotton, or use one of our cotton gift bags, we are not only championing saving our forests, we are also preserving the world's ever diminishing fossil fuel reserves. Many of our gift wrapping products are made from plastic which in turn is made from petroleum products. These products are cute and yes they can also be re-used but they also pose an enormous problem to the environment once they are disposed of. I hear you say - we put it in the bin! And yes, that is fine but, even in landfill plastic is there forever. It simply does not break down. The big push for the banning of plastic shopping bags is for precisely this reason - plastic is virtually indistructible. A refundable levy on plastic drink bottles is also gaining momentum for precisely the same reason. Plastic is forever!

Much of our plastic does not even make landfill. It ends up in our waterways and our oceans creating a death trap for much of our ocean's creatures. The CSIRO has just finished a study of Australia's coastline and our beaches are covered in rubbish, with plastic making up three quarters of the marine debris. There are 5.2 pieces of debris for every person in Australia. CSIRO  collected data over 18 months at 100km intervals around Australia's 35,000km coastline. While many may argue that the rubbish washes up from other countries, this is generally not true with the majority of the debris being identified as originating in Australia.

Besides making our beaches look like rubbish tips, plastic in our oceans affects up to 650species including dolphins, whales, turtles and hundreds of smaller animals. To a sea turtle, a floating plastic bag looks like a jellyfish. And plastic pellets--the small hard pieces of plastic from which plastic products are made--look like fish eggs to seabirds. Drifting nets entangle birds, fish and mammals, making it difficult, if not impossible to move or eat. As our consumption of plastic mounts, so too does the danger to marine life. Plastic remains floating on the surface, the same place where many genuine food sources lie--and can remain so for 400 years. Plastic is durable and strong--precisely the qualities that make it so dangerous if it reaches the ocean.

The problem of plastic pollution is very real and far reaching. Simply by changing the way we present gifts we can make a significant change to the plastic pollution on our beaches and in our ocens and waterways. So make the change today to sustainable gift wrap and reduce the number of trees being harvested to make paper, preserve our diminishing fossil fuel reserves and reduce the plastic pollution of our landfill, waterways and oceans. You do not have to go back to the dark ages to make these changes, all you have to do is give a beautifully elegant gift that is wrapped in cotton.  This wrap can then be 'paid forward' to a new recipient who in turn can do exactly the same thing.

This concept is simple, effective and best of all it embraces the philosophy of 'pay it forward'. In a world where isolation is becoming increasingly prevalent any act of reaching out and connecting through the simple act of 'paying forward' can only improve the fabric of society.

“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”
― Jacques-Yves Cousteau


We acknowledge - Plastics in our Oceans by Kimberley Ameral
                           - CSIRO Study,2013

A Man's Best Friend!

The animal that we have the privilege to call our best friend did not always hold this position. The history of the man/dog relationship is somewhat cloudy and whether man domesticated dog or dog domesticated man is unknown.

The Victorian period was responsible for the defined breeds that we know today as they undertook severe inbreeding programs to enhance certain characteristics that they deemed desirable. This period gave us the relationship that we have with dogs today, where they are our unconditional companions.

As dog owners we take for granted that we can point to a ball or toy, and the dog will bound off to get it. The ability of dogs to read human gestures is remarkable! Not even our closest relatives - chimpanzee and bonobos - cannot read our gestures as readily as dogs. Dogs are remarkably similar to human babies in the way they pay attention to us. This ability accounts for the extraordinary communication we have with our dogs. Some dogs are so attuned to their owners that they can read a gesture as subtle as a change in eye direction. Is it any wonder we call these animals our 'fur babies'.

We keep ourselves fit through walking our dogs, they lower our heart rate, our blood pressure, our stress levels. But, Florence Nightingale was the first to recognize that a dog was a worthy companion for the sick. Their therapeutic worth today is well documented. Their presence in nursing homes, children's wards is invaluable in initiating positive outcomes in healing, mental well being and sense of purpose. Guide dogs were first used during World war 1 when they were introduced to help wounded soldiers. Whilst guide dogs for the blind are restricted to certain breeds, other breeds have since been used as support dogs for the hearing impaired, seizure alert dogs and dogs for the disabled. These loyal and faithful dogs change the lives of their owners by improving their life quality, instilling confidence and improving their self esteem.

In a relatively short period of time we have learnt that dogs provide us sport and entertainment, companionship, security and well being. They are highly efficient as service dogs to the disabled . They serve the police and military, showing enormous courage in war zones. they rescue people from mountains, earthquakes, and from drowning. They are educators to children and comfort to the elderly. They assist medical science to detect seizures, diabetic hypos etc. These beautiful animals have cemented their place in our lives. They are truly worthy of our trust and love.

To make sure that the special dog in your life is warm this winter, we at WinC have these gorgeous polar fleece or coral fleece coats for him/her. They are warm, easy to wear and easy to care for. When we said we wanted to wrap the world, we were not kidding. So wrap your dog this winter and keep him/her warm.

"There is no friendship on this planet as intense, profound, and finally mysterious as that between dogs and humans" (Masson)

We wish to acknowledge 'The London Dog Forum'  - A potted history of man's relationship with the dog. 
                                         'National Geographic' March 2013

Who wears the Pants in your House?

Who does wear the pants in your house? If you asked any one of us - we would all like to thing that we do! But, the truth is, usually in any house there is one that wears the pants when it comes to meaning who is the boss! I know in my house my husband often says that when we got married we made a pact. He would make all the important decisions, while I would make all the not so important decisions!!!!!  So far, there hasn't been any important decisions.

This blog is actually about everyone wearing pants. There was a time when women were considered of loose morals if they wore pants or slacks. World War 2 changed all that when women were seconded into men's roles when the men of the country went off to war. While there were shorts and pedal pushers for women in the Fifties, pants for women were still not really popular as everyday attire until the 1970's. Oh the outcry when they made women's pants with a fly in them!!! I can still remember my first pair of jeans (Men's, as there was no such thing as women's jeans) that I bought in 1972. They were totally the wrong shape, gaping at the back, but, I thought I was the coolest thing around. I wore those jeans till they were threadbare. They actually began making women's jeans not long after. Since then the style of women's pants has been as varied as your imagination will allow, from as short, to as wide, to as flared, to as tight, to as floral! The waist band has sat at every point from just under your boobs to just above your pubes. There have been studs, pleats, stretch fabric, toweling (Eeeeeuw), stone wash, and rips and holes.

Now just about every woman wears pants. I did not even own a dress for many years. I love the freedom that comes with wearing pants and cannot imagine having to worry about all the hassles that come from wearing a skirt or a dress.

Men's pants have also come a long way from the drill work pants or good trousers worn in bygone times. Men have almost as much choice in pants these days as women. Their jeans come in every colour or the rainbow and the variety of chinos, dress trousers, and shorts is a far cry from the short stubbies and blue demin jeans of the past. The evolution of men's pants has followed the path trodden by women's. They have been high waisted, low waisted, wide in the legs, stovepipes, flares, cuffs, pleats. You name it they have had it! I think that everything that goes around comes around and the fashion gurus are simply waiting for the next generation to come along before recycling the old fashion as new again. Mind you the new fabrics make wearing tight jeans a lot easier as they were simply cruel without the stretch!!!

Underwear is no different in its evolution. One of the biggest changes to undies came with the manufacture of elastic. Your drawers, as they were called,no longer had to be held up with a drawer string! The revolution for women was then Cottontails for women and Y-fronts for men. The bikini pants came out when I hit my teens and I couldn't wait to get rid of those huge knickers that we had to wear. Now knickers for men and women come in every shape and size - from the tiniest G-sting that would serve honorably as dental floss to shape underwear that pulls and tucks in the most persistent muffin top. Once again it is the changes in fabrics that has seen this transformation. The finest laces, silks, and cottons all conform to the body, through the use of elastane, resulting in the perfect line.

At WinC we have included both Men's and Women's lingerie in our lines. After all why shouldn't men feel sexy in the undies as well. When we said we would wrap the world in cotton, we worked out we can wrap everything from our butt to our bed in cotton. While not all our undies are cotton, they sure as hell are cute and sexy. They will make you fell good from the bottom up - literally!!

                        “Always wear pretty underwear, on account of you just never know.”
                          ― Jill Conner Browne