Kate Sheppard

1847-1934

Leader of New Zealand's Women's Suffrage Movement

Kate was born in Liverpool, England. She moved to Christchurch, New Zealand with her family when she was 21. There were several things Kate did not like about her new home. Women had to wear tight corsets, children were allowed to buy alcohol, women weren't allowed to have jobs, women weren't allowed to vote.

Something Had To Be Done!!!

Kate worked tirelessly, bicycling around and handing out pamphlets, speaking to groups and having petitions signed. She didn't stop until she she had a petition signed by more than 30,000 people in 1893. Because of her work New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote. Kate had paved a road of hope and inspiration to suffragettes across the globe.

Wednesday Woman--Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall

Age 4 Jane hides in the family hen house to discover how eggs are laid.

Age 8 Jane reads Dr. Doolittle books and watches Tarzan and discovers her love of animals

Age 10 Jane's mother tells her to work hard and never give up on her dream of traveling to Africa to watch and write about animals.

Age 18 Jane graduates high school but can't afford college. She begins working as a waitress to save money to travel to a friend's farm in Kenya.

Age 26 Jane meets some famous scientists in Kenya and studies chimpanzees. She learns that chimpanzees use tools, eat meat, can understand human emotions, and can learn to communicate using sign language.

Jane still travels the world speaking about the threats to chimpanzees and encourages everyone to take care of all living things.

Jane followed her dreams and made great strides in the understanding of animals and communication. 

Communication is so important in our lives. Jane has shown us how even animals communicate and show concern for one another. 

Jane set an example of following our dreams. Her story is a good reminder that we can accomplish anything we set our mind toward.

Just 2 crazy women making your life pretty.......pretty amazing

We have been hard at work for the last couple of months getting things ready to provide you with a shopping experience that will make you want to come back for more. We aren't just creating a shopping experience we are creating a place where women can be themselves, where they can get away from the cares of the day for a moment and laugh, feel pretty, make friends, and even learn something new. We set a goal of having this space ready by November 1st and we are so close, but there is still so much to do. There are over 200 bars of soap that will  be ready for gifts and your home, we are experimenting with some roll on essential oils and have a few ready for you to try out. There are lotion bars ready to soften your skin and exfoliating sacks ready for scrubbing. We have created wreaths, a gift basket for a giveaway, poured candles and painted walls. We even hung a chandelier.

So, just who are we? Alyeen is mom to 6 and is raising a niece and nephew, and Mamaw to 8. Cindy has 3 children and is Momo to 4 grandchildren.  Alyeen has studied natural health for over 25 years, she has certifications in breastfeeding education, midwifery, reflexology, herbal medicine and is currently working on her Doctorate in Naturopathy while apprenticing with an Acupuncturist and Chiropractor.  Cindy works as a Kitchen and Bath designer, is an amazing decorator, and has studied energy healing, and iridology .  We both have a passion for natural living and creativity. You will never find 2 items alike in our stock, even our soaps are not uniform and that is how we like it! We love looking for unique containers for our candles and keeping things fresh and different on our shelves.

How did 2 crazy women like us become such instant friends. Well you see 1000s of years ago.....  No seriously somewhere in
long forgotten lands and times we were friends or sisters or something. More recently we worked together at a local Herb Shop that closed up, we both needed something to create an income and so Curious Roots was reborn. We have since discovered that we have the same eclectic tastes and that our Daddies have the same birthday, and apparently the same personalities! We love our children more than life itself and we love helping people!

We are constantly working on our space and changing things around. If you drop by on any given day you will want to come back in a week, because guaranteed we will have changed something, maybe even our hair. You will find our creations to be as unique as we are, (who wants something that 50 other people bought from the same store?).  No two batches of soap are the same, the containers for our candles are always unique, and the wreaths are definitely one of a kind! Stop by some time and say hi, we have soaps ready take home and the reflexology chair is waiting for a warm body. We can have a cup of tea ready for you in a jiffy.

Hope to see you soon!

Much Love,

Cindy & Alyeen

Wednesday Woman: Helen Keller

Helen Keller

1890-1968

Why not start with a favorite? Helen Keller is one of my all time favorite women. She lost her hearing and sight at the age of 19 months. She was a very frustrated child, because of her lack of ability to communicate she often had tantrums to get her point across. Eventually her parents hire an expert teacher named Anne Sullivan. Anne was able to teach Helen to communicate with others by touching their lips, using Braille and signing into others hands. Helen Keller sparked my personal interest in American Sign Language and Deaf Culture when I was young. 

Helen's accomplishments include

--communicating in multiple languages including French, German, Latin and Greek

--first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree

--campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism, antimilitarism, and other causes

--she used her experiences to bring awareness and understanding of those with disabilities

Helen's accomplishments are many, however without the care and understanding of her teach and friend, Anne Sullivan she would have had a difficult time bring her beliefs and advocacy to fruition. 

Today we honor both Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, two strong, intelligent women with much to teach us about the importance of communication and education.

What difficulties do you face when trying to communicate with others? How do you overcome these challenges? 

Wednesday Woman

We can learn so much from each other. In bygone days women rallied around one another, supporting and encouraging. It was common for mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and nieces to be present and have an important role to play in the birth of a child. When sickness visited an household neighbors came together to care for the sick and step in where a mother was sick or caring for sick children.
These days we are all so busy trying to make ends meet, running to the various activities our kids are involved in and taking care of our homes that we have lost that important contact with our sisters in the community.

We at Curious Roots are dedicated to bringing you a space to relax and connect with women. One of the ways we are facilitating these relations is bringing you a Wednesday Woman each week. We will be highlighting a woman each week that has made a difference. Whether you agree with the political stand or the choices doesn't matter. We want to focus on what these women had the courage to stand up and accomplish. Let's celebrate success!

If you know someone who has made a difference in the community that you would like to see highlighted please let us know. We will be using this book as a springboard. It is actually a journal/activity book, each page is a short biography and an activity or journal prompt.

We are looking forward to learning about all the things our sisters have accomplished.


Much Love,

Cindy & Alyeen

Candles!!

We poured candles today and wow it smells so good in here!!

This batch of candles is poured into vintage crystal pieces that are beautiful!! We used 3 different scents Relaxation, Energizing and wonderful fall scent called Crisp and Candied. 

We didn't use any coloring in the candles we poured today they are just white and smell heavenly.

Wicks are trimmed and added to the shelves along with the soaps. It is becoming an amusement park for your nose in here!

Here is the entire collection in one place! Don't think for a second we are done, oh no, this is an ever changing adventure! We have so many plans of things to make, parties and events to plan, don't take your eyes off the blog or the Facebook page for very long or you may miss out on something great!! 

Much Love

Cindy & Alyeen

If we aren't grateful, then what are we?

I am sitting in our studio relaxing for a minute, taking in the myriad of aromas that are permeating the air and thinking how blessed we are to be here in this space. Two broke, wise women, doing their best to make an income and give other the women the chance to do the same.

We started with a simple idea that has grown into multiple facets all with the goal of helping families afford a more natural lifestyle. We bought ingredients for that first batch of soap, I think we need to keep one bar from that batch as a reminder, and since then every week we find a little more money to buy a few more supplies or ingredients. We now have over 200 bars of soap curing, even that seems like not enough to keep you all clean.

There are plans for lotion bars, herb gardens, consignments, reflexology, nutritional counseling, supplements, teas and the list goes on. One thing is for sure you will love our primitive cut soaps,  (who said getting clean has to be pretty, have you ever cleaned up a muddy child?).
So are you curious what scents we have? I know you are. Here's a partial list, just to tease you a little.

Lemon Olive Oil Face Soap
Rosemary
Lavender
Carrot/Turmeric (specifically for troubled skin)
a light Frankincense
Mint
Geranium Olive Oil Face Soap
Anise (Alyeen's current favorite)

Don't miss out on our events coming up just so you can get a whiff of all this wonderfulness!!


With Love

Cindy & Alyeen

We have two events coming up that you don't want to miss!!

On Nov 10 from 9am to 4pm we will be having an event to celebrate Tie One On Day.
Bring a dozen (or two) cookies and an apron to trade. You will go home with the same number of cookies you brought and an apron. We will have a clothes line for displaying the beautiful aprons.

We will also have homemade soaps and other handicrafts for sale to give you a jumpstart on your Christmas shopping.

Nov 21 Join us for a tea party while you take a break from your black Friday Shopping and all the Thanksgiving cooking.  Bring your lunch, get a mini reflexology session, visit with friends, make new friends, and just relax.

There will be a variety of homemade soaps and handicrafts available for those hard to buy for people in your life!!

Much Love

Cindy & Alyeen

We have been so busy getting things made, painting walls (and the floor), shopping for furnishings and having a yard sale to fund our adventure that we haven't had much time to create a blog post until now. 

We bring to you, in pictures, our progress thus far!

Enjoy!!

Much Love,


Cindy and Alyeen