Youth Enhancing Facial Care Formulas

Interested in helping your skin look vibrant and youthful? Wedge Worldwide would love to tell you about a few special facial care products from Dr. Hauschka that will bring out the beauty in your skin. Hauschka's Firming Mask is an intensive mask that hydrates and deeply nurtures the skin (the ideal thing for lack luster, end-of-winter-complexions). Personally, I also relish using this mask as a facial moisturizer on days when I'd like to look my best. Firming Mask does an amazing job at temporarily diminishing puffiness, and it softens fine lines and wrinkles. Not only will you look fantastic, you'll also be strengthening the collagen and elastin in your skin thereby supporting it's overall resilience! Firming Mask is gentle, doesn't irritate my sensitive skin and tightens my pores as it moisturizes.

Luckily for us, Hauschka, in their infinite wisdom, has also developed a moisturizer specifically for toning the delicate eye area. Their Daily Revitalizing Eye Cream contains pineapple fruit extract, which is not only rich in vitamins and minerals, but also smoothes wrinkles and fine lines. This formula deeply hydrates and is absorbed quickly and completely, so there is no need to worry about eyeliner or mascara smearing.

Firming Mask and Daily Revitalizing Eye Cream are an excellent choice for those with mature skin, but women and men of any age can happily enjoy their benefits! Wedge Worldwide is committed to offering the purest, highest quality, all natural body care available. The facial and body care items from Hauschka are a great example of what we look for in the products that we carry. Hauschka's manufacturer WALA Heilmittel has been working with healing plant and mineral extracts since the 1940s. Their thirty-five years of pioneering work in holistic esthetics have allowed them to create the purest, most effective natural skin care preparations available. Dr. Hauschka carefully chooses every plant and mineral ingredient that goes into their products based on its individual effects and the way it interacts with other ingredients. Finding ecologically and ethically sound sources for their raw ingredients is also important to this forward thinking company.

written by Shannon

New Locally Made Jewelry

Wedge Worldwide loves to carry items produced by talented artist, crafts people and excellent vendors from our home region of Minnesota and/or one of our neighboring states. Buying locally helps support our community and saves on the amount of fossil fuels used in delivering merchandise.

One of our all-time-favorite local artists that we feature on our website is Robin Rifé, an amazingly gifted jeweler who makes one-of-a-kind pieces by hand. Robin lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but travels extensively to gather beautiful and exotic material that she later fashions into incredible necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Influenced by the traditional tribal designs of Native Americans and the indigenous peoples of Africa, Nepal, Thailand, and China, Robin is able to create high quality classic pieces with an ethnic feel and displays an exquisite sensibility in her use and combination of materials.

Take a look at some of the incredible items by Robin that we have recently added on Wedge Worldwide, like this beautiful necklace made with Chinese turquoise and Balinese silver, the fresh water pearls necklace with a sweet Indian pendant or these lovely faceted carnelian teardrop earrings. Go directly to the Robin Rifé section in the Fair Trade Jewelry area on our site to see all of her available pieces!

Free Books For Blog Readers!

3-25-08 Please Note: Thanks to all our blog readers for your interest, but the promo has now ended.

We will be offering a free copy of the book Prescription for Nutritional Healing to the next six blog readers who place an order through Wedge Worldwide! When you are in the checkout pages simply enter the code: blogpromo in the comments box and we will ship this handy reference guide with your order! With more than five million copies sold, Prescription for Nutritional Healing is the nation's number one-bestselling guide to holistic health. It normally retails for $23.95. Our employees at the Wedge use it all the time!

For ten years and more, people interested in alternative healing and preventive therapies have relied on this invaluable reference as a guide to improve health through nutrition and supplementation, avoiding traditional drug therapies. Part One lists and explains the various types of nutrients, food supplements, and herbs found in health food and drug stores. Part Two describes more than 250 common disorders, from acne to yeast infection, arranged conveniently in alphabetical order, and identifies the supplements that can be used to combat the conditions. Part Three is a guide to alternative remedies and therapies that can be used in conjunction with a nutritional program. In addition, self-diagnostic tests throughout the book offer in-depth coverage of a wide variety of topics.

Whether you are looking for relief from a particular ailment or simply wish to maintain optimum health, Prescription for Nutritional Healing quickly and easily provides an abundance of information to design a complete nutritional program.

Thanks for shopping with Wedge Worldwide and enjoy staying healthy with the aid of this great book!

Baby Body Care Products With Fair Trade Calendula

Wedge Worldwide loves Weleda, a German company that produces extremely clean and natural body care products, and we are in the process of bringing in some of their new personal care items! We wanted to highlight a few of our favorites: the Calendula Baby Shampoo and Body Wash (great for adults too!) and the Baby Starter Kit, which is filled with an array of wonderful calendula products for baby. All Weleda Baby Care formulas have been developed with the assistance of physicians and midwives so you can rest assured that these products are a gentle and wholesome choice for your little ones.

These products are a great way to care for your baby or child's ultra-sensitive skin. As a baby develops, so does the protective layer on his or her skin. An infant's skin is five times thinner than an adult's, making it especially sensitive to irritation and environmental influences. Weleda Baby Care helps to wrap a child in a layer of warmth and protection, supporting healthy and harmonious development.

Both of these items are made with Fair Trade calendula flowers! Commonly referred to as marigold, calendula is an annual herb from the sunflower family. These flowers blossom under intensely warm sunlight. This vitality is captured in Weleda's fresh-from-the-garden, soothing and healing formulations. Native to central, eastern and southern Europe, calendula is made up of single, yellow to bright orange colored flowers containing caroteniods, flavonoids and essential oils. This gentle and nourishing botanical possesses powerful healing and anti-inflammatory properties.

Approximately 800,00 biodynamic calendula flowers are hand-picked from the Weleda garden each year for the Weleda Baby Calendula Care formulations. Weleda's Medicinal Plant Garden in Germany is the largest biodynamic garden in Europe. Biodynamics is a holistic form of agriculture that takes into account everything from the cycles of the moon and the stars to the soil, plants, animals and people, with the ultimate goal of making each garden or farm a healthy self-sustaining ecosystem. Many people consider biodynamics to be a big step above organic products. As one of the pioneers of biodynamic agriculture, Weleda continues to develop and practice this holistic and uncontaminated method of farming. All ingredients are harvested according to the highest standards and under the strictest quality control guidelines. Located side-by-side with Weleda's production facilities, all plants can be picked and blended into tinctures that will be added to their products within the same day.

Some of the other Weleda baby care products Wedge Worldwide carries include calendula lotion, baby cream, diaper care and bar soap.

Safe, Earth-Friendly, Lead-Free Toys

Wedge Worldwide carries a wide selection of fun, non-toxic toys. Recently, we have brought in even more heirloom quality toys with finishes that are safe for little ones; like our beautifully hand-made Five Piece Train Set. The locomotive, passenger car, cargo car, tank car and caboose can all be taken apart and reconnected in a variety of configurations that will provide hours of creative play. Another great new item is the super cute Little Rollie Vehicle Set. These smooth rolling, durably designed toys are well-suited for active play. Both the Train Set and the Vehicle Set come in all natural wood tones that are finished with a food-grade, non-toxic, natural oil. Our vendor tries to use reclaimed wood whenever possible, and 100 percent of the electricity that runs their shop comes from wind and/or solar energy!

Other new playthings at Wedge Worldwide include the colorful and mesmerizing Domino Race game by the German Toy company HABA. This game comes with a wide assortment of bright dominoes, animal-shaped dominoes, domino bridges and even a little bell that rings when dominoes under it are knocked over. We have to admit that the adults in our office here were very tempted to play with this! Also from HABA, we carry the Ball Track Construction Set, an elaborate block set that allows you to build your own tracks for marbles to wind their way through, and the Colored Peg Set, a small, travel-ready game that encourages the development of fine motor skills in a playful way.

HABA products meet the strict requirements of the European Safety-Standard for toys. Their toys are regularly tested, and the company must continually pass European certification guidelines that guarantee their toys are of high quality, meet safety standards and fulfill environmental guidelines. HABA is the first toy producer in Germany to have passed the audit for ecological friendliness, and they are deeply committed to actively pursuing further environmental protection throughout every stage of production. All HABA items offered through Wedge Worldwide are produced in Germany using first class non-toxic varnishes and colored stains that never chip or peel. The materials they use for colored surface treatment of toys and their clear varnishes are fundamentally water-based and therefore, do not contain any harmful solvents.

We're proud to be your online source for eco-friendly, fairly made, safe toys!

Hot Off the Presses: Cookbook That Supports Flood Relief for Local Organic Farmers

Wedge Worldwide has recently added to its selection an excellent new cookbook that was put out by one of our favorite local organic farms. Tastes from Valley to Bluff: The Featherstone Valley Cookbook by Mi Ae Lipe, offers a collection of recipes that beautifully captures the flavors of Featherstone Farm while offering practical info on storing and preparing fresh organic vegetables.

Arranged by season, Tastes contains nearly 300 delicious ethnic and traditional recipes, two-thirds of which are vegetarian or vegan. Far more than just a cookbook, Tastes also features fun trivia, witty quotations, beautiful illustrations and many informative, thought-provoking articles about farm life, crop-specific topics and the environmental and nutritional advantages of growing and eating organically. Whether you are a CSA (community supported agriculture) subscriber, a farmers market denizen or simply a home cook curious about what to do with fresh produce, you will truly enjoy and constantly use this book.

Part of a good cause, a portion of the cookbook's proceeds will go toward the Sow the Seeds Fund. In August 2007, many farms in southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa and southwest Wisconsin, including Featherstone, were in ruins after storms and heavy flooding devestated the area. Shortly thereafter, a relief fund was started to help natural foods farmers rebuild. The Sow the Seeds Fund was able to raise and distribute over $385,000 for flood relief, providing assistance to more than 30 farms that applied to the fund. Further, your purchase will do even more to help organic farmers because the Wedge will also donate all profits from the cookbook.

Check out a review of the book on our brick and mortar store's website: www.wedge.coop

Post Holiday R & R

Wedge Worldwide hopes that you had a wonderful holiday season and that the year ahead will be an outstanding one! Now that the excitement and busyness are winding down are you feeling like you could use a little pampering and well earned rest? Allow us to recommend a few all natural products that will sooth your senses and calm your mind.

A hot, fragrant foot bath is a wonderful winter treat. This is an ideal activity to preform right before bed as it will deeply relax you and promote a great nights sleep. Simply fill up a large bowl with hot water and put a few pumps of one of our Dr. Hauschka Aromatherapy Baths in the bowl and stir. The bowl should be deep enough so that the water will cover your ankles. Sit back in a chair with a blanket as you soak and listen to soothing music. This is a great time to do some deep breathing and let your mind settle. Hauschka's Lavender Bath is the perfect choice for sweet dreams and easing anxiety and stress. The smell is amazing too! Or for those who are feeling chilled Rosemary Bath is excellent for cold weather as it is warming and stimulates circulation.

Looking for a little something to make your mornings special and give you some gentle get up and go? How about starting the day off with a warm cup of delectable, special tea? Wedge Worldwide offers a variety of organic and Fair Trade teas that are sure to please. Personally I love our Organic White Peony Tea. This tea has a subtle and beautifully refined taste. It sweetly stimulates my senses without the jittery caffine side effects. Or bring some olfactory fun to your shower with Pangea's fresh scented body wash with Canadian pine and white sage which is packed with organic ingredients and pure essential oils. Or try one of our customer's all time favorites, Stinky Hippie Patchouli Body Wash.

Be sure to check back with us throughout the new year as we continue to add more wonderful new products to our site. Happy New Year!