this Oregon resident tries to follow her own advice. “The Cradle to Cradle C2C certification helps,” she says. The C2C program is an eco-label authorized by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, co-founded in 1995 by William McDonough, the author of Cradle to Cradle. The certification process assesses a product’s safety to humans and the environment, plus its potential for future life cycles. The “program focuses on using safe materials that can be disassembled and recycled for another purpose or composted as biological nutrients. To date, hundreds of items, from building materials, bedding and linens, baby care and haircare products to personal and household cleaning products, have been C2C certified.


If you plan to ship gifts long dis- tances this gift-giving season, why not use the first C2C-certified consumer product—a U.S. Postal Service pack- ing box? It exemplifies how a complex good design makes a product people- and planet-friendly. All 60 of the prod- uct’s boxes, decals and labels, involv- ing 1,400 component materials, had to be certified, but the benefits are big: reduced costs for handling waste and disposing of hazardous materials; plus, the receiver may easily recycle the item with a free conscience.


“Imagine a closed-loop market system in which any number of items made from finite resources such as glass, paper, steel, plastic and cloth are designed to be reused in a near-endless cycle,” says Belew. “Imagine a world of goods designed for easy repair and maintenance, rather than obsolescence.” Belew, the designer of Will’s Bills, a form of complementary currency, also recommends buying items that have long-term reusability specific to our needs. “My daughter loves a particular curry sauce, which comes in a little glass jar with a screw-top lid,” she relates. Rather than recycle the jars, the family reuses them for storing small things at home. “They’re also the per- fect size for single servings,” she says. Sometimes, just a simple shift in perspective can change an item from trash to treasure.


Linda Sechrist is an editor of Natural Awakenings community magazines.


natural awakenings November 2011 41


TREASURES, TRADITIONS & TEA


Enjoy Some Enriching, Local ‘Social Capital’ at Audrey’s by Lee Walker


I


n 2004, Hur- ricane Ivan claimed Sonja Tilley’s home and Second Hand Rose consignment shop in Pen- sacola. Although the losses were devastating, it didn’t take Tilley


and her husband long to turn their back on misfortune and begin focusing on their blessings. “We were grateful that our whole family, including our five beloved cats, survived the storm and that we had a small condo in Naples to go to,” she says.


Their adversity contained a small silver lining. The 2005 move to Naples not only provided Tilley with the op- portunity to open Audrey’s (formerly Audrey’s Attic), one of Naples’ busiest high-end secondhand clothing, estate jewelry and antique shops, but also the tearoom she had always dreamed of owning. Tea with Me at Audrey’s, located adjacent to the resale shop, allows Tilley and her granddaughter, Ashley Means, to bring back their fa- vorite tradition: afternoon tea. In England, where teashops dot the landscape, afternoon tea was an integral part of Tilley’s day, just as it is now. “In England, years ago, we’d go shopping on buses and would pop in to Bobby’s for a spot of tea, and it was so gracious and posh, with silver tongs for


the sugar cubes,” recalls the native of Dartmouth, a town in the English county of Devon. Today, Tea


with Me guests are treated to a similar experience, enjoy- ing two varieties of tea sandwiches,


scones with clotted cream and pre- serves, assorted tea pastries and a pot of tea, all served on delicate, mismatched china that lends a bit of whimsy to the rather genteel space.


While Audrey’s resale shop gives Tilley the opportunity to do something she fancies, it also offers area residents a chance to support a locally owned and operated retailer, as suggested in this month’s Green Living, “Shop Smart: Keep Dollars Working in Local Communities.”


With any purchase of ladies’ ap- parel, costume jewelry, designer hand- bags, vintage clothing or accessories, shoppers also get to meet and chat with Tilley and her granddaughter, whose daily presence adds to the enriching social capital and genuine wealth of ev- ery shopping expedition and afternoon tea experience.


Location: 104 10th St. N., Naples. For more information, call 239-403-8322 or visit Audreys-Attic.com. See ad, page 57.


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