Tag Archives: eco-friendly

Happy Two Days After Thanksgiving Save Money Day From La Mushpa y Mensa!!!

November 30, 2013Art, craft, crafts, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Gay, Green, Latina, Lesbian, Organic, Queerart, Cara Reynolds, Christmas Decoration, eaten gingerbread man, eco-friendly, etsy, fashion, felt, gingerbread person, handmade, love, Maria Emilia Borja, Mensa, Mushpa, Mushpa Y Mensa, Mutated Gingerbread man, necklace, organic, plush animals, queer, recycled, stuffed aimalscara007

What can we say, after an amazing bounty of family, food and fun we are in a good mood and want to share that happiness with our Mushpa y Mensa family. What does that mean? Free shipping until we ring in the New Year!!! Nice…

Who are these little guys? They are a perfect “Bring the Cheer” gift you can find right here, right now. Our brand spanking new, limited time only, eco-felt, naturally holiday scented (peppermint or cloves), Gingerbread Peeps (GBP). They are so delicious that someone has already taken a bite off of their cute head and leg! Each one is unique in their own way. GBP are all made by hand, hand-stitched, hand-stuffed and such, right here in our Brooklyn studio.

We also have new iPad/tablet cases and gorgeous pillow cases all handmade using recycled fabric. Theses are fabulous, unique gifts…we’re just putting it out there. :] Something else exciting to look out for in the next few days is our handmade, out of recycled fabric, super fly coffee cozy!

If you are in the New York area and want to check out our art in person Saturday, December 7th and Sunday the 8th and Saturday, December the 14th and Sunday the 15th we will be at LIC Flea & Food @5-25 46th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. It’s indoors in a huge warehouse, free parking! :] There will be all sorts of vendors, food, live music, djs, Santa…so come.I think that is enough updates for now.

Chau!

La Mushpa y La Mensa

The Healthiest Dessert: Tofu Chocolate Pudding!

October 23, 2013DIY, Ecuadorian, Environment, Food, Food and Wine, Gay, Green, healthy, Homemade, How-To, Latina, Lesbian, Recipe, UncategorizedCara Reynolds, dessert recipe, dukan diet, dukan diet dessert recipe, dukan recipe, easy dessert, eco-friendly, fast and easy dessert, healthy dessert, healthy recipe, home-made, low fat sweets, Maria Emilia Borja, Mensa, Mushpa, Mushpa Y Mensa, organic, recipe chocolate pudding, tofu chocolate pudding, tofu dessertcara007

The yummiest, and healthiest dessert you will ever eat….

And you can make it in less than 5 minutes.

-1 package of Silken Tofu

-1 tablespoon of sweetener (We like Stevia/Truvia. Adjust if you want more or less. I started sprinkling and kept adding until I reached about 1tbsp.)

-2 tablespoons of powdered cocoa (adjust as well…I started sprinkling and mixing until chocolatey goodness was reached)

-1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Mix all ingredients in a food processor or blender….and boom! That’s it.
It was so good, that I realized that I should probably take a picture after I had finished it all!

-Mensa

The End of Summer

September 17, 2013Art, craft, crafts, Environment, Fashion, Green, Small Business, Womenart, Cara Reynolds, eco, eco-friendly, fashion, flip flops, green, handmade, lesbian, Maria Emilia Borja, Mensa, Mushpa, Mushpa Y Mensa, ocean sole, recycled, recycled flip flops, summertdaait

Well my friends it is the end of the Summer of 2013. I hope for all it was a fantabulous one! I know for us here at Mushpa y Mensa it was inspiring and wondrous! This entry goes out to those who are looking to do something creative with their old flip-flops of summers past. Check out this video!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzHUwmrOpFE&w=560&h=315]

Thanks Ocean Sole!

– Mushpa

Flick This!

August 15, 2013Clothes, crafts, Cuban, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Fashion, Jewelry, Latina, Lesbian, Photography, Queer, Stuffed AnimalCara Reynolds, eco-friendly, etsy, facebook, flickr, gay, handmade, homemade, instagram, lesbian, love, Maria Emilia Borja, Mensa, Mushpa, Mushpa Y Mensa, organic, plush animals, queer, The Market NYCtdaait

We here at Mushpa y Mensa had an Instagram (which is owned by Facebook), but decided like Facebook, it is a tantamount waste of time and a way for a large group of people to convince others that their lives are more exciting, interesting, happier than going out and making it true. Not only that, but people should be aware how Facebook makes most of their money is by selling your information. Not through ad clicks and charging people with business pages money to have their posts reach ALL their “Fans” and “Friends” as you may believe. Listen, I want to live my life not spend hours stalking others’ make believe life or promoting my own better than reality life. Been there, done that and every time it left a bad taste in my mouth. Thanks to Mensa pushing us we have been Facebook free for almost a year now and I have yet to miss it. Not surprisingly, I accomplish much more without it, so to my friends who tell me things like, “You would have known I was out of town if you had a Facebook“. I say call me, email me, hangout with me as I am never going back!

Next, people are always asking us if we have a Facebook so they can “Like” the Mushpa y Mensa page or link back to us. When we answer no they seemed shocked like for sure we will never be a success without Facebook or it will be soooo much harder. I find that to be a misnomer. We have already had movie stars, a big time movie producer and a composer of modern day operas among multitudes of other amazing human beings love and buy our art in the last 8 months since opening. We believe in ourselves, our art and the idea that if you do the work and right thing the Universe will always reward you and thus far it is working. I have asked other people with businesses and Facebook pages how much business it has generated for them and the results are nil to nothing. That says more to me. Honestly, you can’t use something bad to achieve good, that’s just the way it is.

Let me stop and get to the real point of this blog entry. Maria Emilia and I want to be able to take pictures and post them somewhere instantly, link back to them in our blog posts and document our journey through photographs of the making of Mushpa y Mensa, without using Instagram, so how can we? Flickr!!! Yes, ladies and gentleman we have a Flickr account now full of our fantastical photos!!! :] There are photos of our amazingly unique organic tees, of the fleas, fairs and markets we’ve worked, photo shoots, crafting, us and whatever else our little hearts desire. Go look at it and tell us what you think? I am so excited!

Never forget in life there is always a workaround, so don’t get stuck.

With so much love!!!

– Mushpa

Making some Organic Mayo….with Coconut Oil

July 25, 2013crafts, DIY, Environment, Food, Gay, Green, Homemade, How-To, RecipeCara Reynolds, coconut oil, curdled, eco-friendly, homemade, Maria Emilia Borja, mayonnaise, Mensa, messed up mayo, Mushpa, Mushpa Y Mensa, organicMaria Emilia

We bought a jar of coconut oil at the super-market the other day.

It was a bit hard to find a good use for it because even after trying some recipes, it of course didn’t behave like the olive oil which we use regularly.

I did use it as a hair mask, which was nice, but there was still a lot left on the jar….

So out came the idea to make Mayo with coconut oil. I looked up some recipes and it is totally possible and doable.

We used…..

1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon of fancy mustard
1/2 a lemon’s juicy juice
a good pinch of salt
some pepper
1/2 cup of Organic Coconut Oil
1/2 cup of nice Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Disclaimer.… if this is your first time making mayo (like it was mine), be careful and do it EXACTLY as the instructions tell you… After you learn, then you can experiment. I should have done so…

Do the following:

Mix your two oils together.
In a food processor, blender or bowl (if you are hand whipping with a whisk grandma-style) mix the eggs, yolks, mustard, lemon juice and condiments.
After all is nice and even start adding DROPS of oil to your mixture and continue the blending and whisking process. *** this is where I messed up***…If you add the oil too fast, the mixture will curdle and you’ll end up with oily egg juice… So sad.
Keep adding drops until it turns a lighter color…you will be able to tell if they start mixing well.
SLOWLY add little streams of oil and continue to blend…and just keep doing it slowly, oh so patiently…
After you are almost done with the oil (about 1/4 cup left) you can speed it up a bit if using a blender, and add the rest of the oil. It should start to become a heavier mixture….continue on until its silky smooth.
Let it set for 30 minutes in the fridge.

*** IF YOU MESS UP***

I saw many posts and recipes say how you could not save your mixture if it curdled….NOT TRUE! You can mess up and still have delicious mayo!

Since I had done it the first time in the blender and messed up, I decided to hand-whip it.

I added another egg yolk in a bowl and whipped it….and to that base I started to add the droplets of the curdled mix slowly, whipping it by hand. I followed the instructions clearly this time, and poured the messed up mixture in without having to throw it away! And it worked!

FANTABULOUS Home-made, coconut oil mayonnaise.

Since it’s home-made, with NO preservatives and whack ingredients, it only keeps in the fridge for about two weeks or less….but its worth it!

YUMMMM……

-Mensa

Happy Photoshootin’

June 18, 2013Art, Clothes, craft, Cuban, DIY, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Fashion, Gay, Green, Homemade, How-To, Latina, Lesbian, Photographyart, artist, Cara Reynolds, clothes, easy photoshoot, eco-friendly, fairy, fashion, fire escape, handmade, makeup, Maria Emilia Borja, Mensa, Mushpa, Mushpa Y Mensa, organic, originalMaria Emilia

A nice afternoon, two cold and delicious ginger lemon cocktails, a bright colored wall, some nice shirts and your everyday fire escape was all we needed for an amazing photo-shoot.

To make something beautiful pop even more, I really feel like you only need a couple of essential things. And that’s all we used:

Amazing light, music, and a nice camera…

Here’s a sneak peak to our latest photo-shoot….

cute….

boom!

-Mensa

Pridefest

June 16, 2013accessories, Art, Clothes, craft, Lesbian, Queer, Womenartist, astoria market, Cara Reynolds, eco-friendly, Fulton Flea, gay, lesbian, Maria Emilia Borja, Mushpa Y Mensa, NYC Pride, organic, Pride Fest, pridefest, queer, Saint Anthony's Market, The Market NYCtdaait

Working the Bohemian Hall Beer Garden is the Good Life.

We applied for Pridefest today. They asked us 2 questions, we have them below to check out if you’d like. It may help you get a better idea of who we are and how we think. Enjoy…

What are your group’s major accomplishments?

i.e., are you the longest running, oldest, largest of any kind?

A major accomplishment, well starting a business in January of this year for one. Secondly, people really loving our raw attempt at different types of art forms than we’re used to working with. Maria Emilia, being more of a painter, sculptor and I, a film major who fixes computers and builds websites. Nevertheless, people love our jewelry, which we design from a force beyond our own brains into our capable hands, magic felt dolls made out of recycled plastic bottles, 100% organic cotton tees with fantastical original designs like Binary Queer, which is Queer spelled out in binary code (check it out here http://www.etsy.com/listing/150007505/binary-queer-organic-cotton-t) and whatever else our maniacal minds may come up with. We didn’t really think of the selling part so much, but jumped right in after opening our Etsy store, www.mushpamensa.com. Markets we have done thus far are, The Market NYC, Fulton Flea, Astoria Market and we are doing Saint Anthony’s Market over on Sullivan and Houston this weekend. Maria Emilia and I really like being mobile. We also like meeting the people who buy our art. We tend to strike up conversations about their career choices, life choices, they laugh, relate, appreciate our shirts and generally are really good, interesting people themselves. These good people are drawn to our stuff (and us). That gives us hope in humanity. It sounds dramatic, but riding the New York City subway during rush hour, well that changes a person, people are at their worst then. People on a Saturday or Sunday walking in the sun, well they’re alright.

Give us a brief description of your main goals, functions, and/or mission.

PART 2

We are a small eco-boutique that moves around the city’s outdoor (and at times indoor) markets, advocating for local, eco-conscious, women-owned, queer-owned, small businesses all over the world, and of course also to sell and spread our art, messages, laughter, love, et cetera! We hope people see we love what we are doing (which is making a living selling our art), and get inspired to make small changes in their lives. Small moments become large movements. It’s true. Mushpa y Mensa is a small team with really big dreams.

Come check us out tomorrow at St. Anthony’s Market in the city from 10-8PM.

See you then!

– Mushpa

Art in Action.

June 9, 2013Art, Clothes, craft, Cuban, DIY, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Fashion, Gay, Latina, Lesbian, Queer, T-shirts, Woman Owned Businessart, artist, Cara Reynolds, eco-friendly, fashion, Fulton Flea, handmade, lesbian, Maria Emilia Borja, Mushpa Y Mensa, organic, t shirt designsMaria Emilia

Remember in science class we would do random experiments that would ultimately teach us something about our elemental world. Salt crystals, freezing flowers with liquid nitrogen and then shattering them, testing liquids and forming chemical reactions? Well, quite accidentally we did an experiment when dying a shirt this week and it was totally cool!

We dyed a batch of shirts with organic turmeric. Note that this was our first time using this specific natural dye for cotton fabrics. Pretty straight forward dying technique. Hot water + a good amount of turmeric + a natural mordant, like salt, y listo, we had yellow shirts. We rinsed them with water until no more dye came out, like three times. Perfect!

Then we wanted to double test the fabric so we warmed up some water with soap, dipped the shirts in the water….and…sayyy whaaaaaaaat? The water and shirts immediately turned red!!!! We had no idea what had just happened. Magic!?!? : ) It brought us back to doing those experiments in science class.

After a quick research we found out the following

“Turmeric has a pigment known as xanthophylls, which lends the yellow color to it. It also has a pigment called as carotene, which is reddish orange in color. When turmeric comes in contact with detergent, it reacts with the fatty acids present in the detergent and hence the carotene pigment gets more active than the xanthophylls and turmeric turns red. When turmeric is combined with any base liquid like soap it turns red in color while when turmeric comes in contact with any substance like that of vinegar, that is acidic in nature, it turns yellow.”

We had no idea, so for those of you who have bought our amazing turmeric shirts I would say make sure you wash them by hand, separately, just in case of any bleeding.

On to future discoveries.

– Mushpa y Mensa

p.s. – Come check out these amazing turmeric shirts today at The Fulton Flea (located at 650 Fulton Street between Fort Greene Place and South Elliott Place (near the intersection of Lafayette Avenue) in Brooklyn, NY.). We will be there from noon to 8PM. The market is right next to BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) http://www.bam.org/, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens http://www.bbg.org/, the Brooklyn Public Library http://www.bklynpubliclibrary.org/, good food and many other amazing Brooklyn sites! Make it a great day.

Compost This! An Update…

May 30, 2013Activism, DIY, Environment, Food, How-To, Latina, Lesbian, Organic Farming, PoliticalCara Reynolds, compost, easy compost, eco-friendly, freezer, Maria Emilia Borja, Mensa, Mushpa, Mushpa Y Mensa, recylce, reduce, reuseMaria Emilia

So composting at our home has been…well, I’d say it’s a definite challenge. Doable? Yes for sure. Draggin rotting stinky food on the subway or biking with it (much better option) to the nearest farmer’s market and compost disposal unit, is definitely a task. But I think it has been worth it.

There has been a couple of times where we got lazy, annoyed at the stink and threw it out in the garbage…guilty! Yet every single time we have gone and dropped it off at a compost site, it has made me take a sigh of relief and accomplishment. It feels good to compost, and it feels extra nice to be good to our Earth!

Last time when we dropped off the compost, I kept noticing frozen pieces of fruit and vegetables in the decomposing piles of veggies, fruit and grains. And then it dawned on me……

Duh! Freeze it!!!! Of course! Makes total sense. You slow down the rate of decomposure by sticking your compost bin in the freezer, and it reduces the smell and the hassle of cleaning by a “Fafillion” Percent!

So Do it! It makes it so much easier. Now next time we go to the farmer’s market to drop it of, we won’t be gagging cleaning the bin out every time. : ) That’s nice yo…

Until the next compost update!

-Mensa

Introducing Our White on Ocean Line

May 23, 2013Art, Clothes, Cuban, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Fashion, Gay, Homemade, Jewelry, Latina, Lesbian, Queer, Small Business, T-shirts, Woman Owned Business301 ECO-Series, alternative apparel, art, awesome shirt, Cara Reynolds, clay beads, cool shirt, eco-friendly, etsy, gay shirt, handmade, lesbian, lesbian shirt, Maria Emilia Borja, Matsui, Mushpa Y Mensa, necklace, organic, organic cotton shirt, plush animals, queer shirt, screen printing, t-shirtstdaait

We here at Mushpa y Mensa have been working hard to get new products out there for our people. Last week I decided to print all 10 of our designs using the white 301 ECO-Series by Matsui (which is an amazing, eco-friendly ink we use on all our shirts) on ocean colored scoop and crew organic cotton Alternative Apparel shirts.

White on Ocean Line — Working Hard in the Studio

You all wanted more white on ocean, well now you have it in every flavor!!!

Hit up our shop to order your very own organic, original, hand printed white on ocean fantastical shirt (or any of our other gorgeously designed shirts, jewelry, stuffed animals, etc). You’ll be helping two amazing ladies trying to make a difference while making a living doing what we love. That’s not so bad. :]

Much love to all!

– Mushpa