t-shirts

Why You Shouldn’t Ever Leave Your Dog in Your Car

April 14, 2017 By cscheafer

Why You Shouldn’t Ever Leave Your Dog in Your Car

The warmer weather is upon us in Southern California and many of us are starting to spend more time outdoors. A lot of us enjoy the company of our dog while we’re out and about. While it’s ok to take your dog with you if you will be going to the park or beach, it might best to leave them home while you’re out running errands.

If you take your dog with you everywhere you go, it’s important that you never leave them in the car, even for a just few minutes. The consequences of doing so can be severe under conditions much milder than you might realize. The intense heat inside a vehicle, regardless of the make or model, can be brutal and unrelenting.

How dogs deal with heat

A dog’s primary defenses against the heat are panting and their coat. Panting releases moisture and their coat is specially designed to provide insulation against the sun’s rays. The average body temperature for an adult dog ranges from 99.5 to 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

What happens to a dog in a hot car?

When a dog is left in a hot car, they pant to keep cool. The more they pant the more body fluid they lose. Even after just a few minutes, a dog can develop symptoms of non-fever hyperthermia or heat stroke. The longer a dog is subjected to intense heat, the greater the chance that it will affect all of their vital systems. Even though senior dogs and puppies are at the greatest risk, dogs of any age that are left in a hot car can suffer from multiple organ failure and/or death.

How hot is too hot?

Vehicles are built from materials that trap, conduct and distribute heat. Parking under a shady tree, using a reflective dashboard or windshield cover or leaving the windows open only makes a very small difference. The interior of a vehicle gets extremely hot, very quickly. The air temperature only needs to be between 81 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit for a dog to begin showing signs of heat distress. If it is 89 degrees outside, the interior of your vehicle can reach 123 degrees within just 30 minutes.

What to do if you see a dog alone in a car

If you see a dog alone in a parked vehicle you should always attempt to locate the owner. Write down the vehicle’s license plate just in case legal action is necessary. Alert the local authorities. If you feel that you must intervene, remember that you do so at your own risk.

Threaded Daisies offers topical T-shirts for animal lovers. Please click here to view our products.

Teaching Kids Compassion

March 31, 2017 By cscheafer

Teaching Kids Compassion

Children are born with the natural ability to be compassionate. Kids typically relate and act compassionately to their favorite stuffed animal, other kids and their pets. Problems arise when their ability to be compassionate must compete with other developmental forces such as limited impulse control and the belief that their needs come first. This is why it’s not uncommon for children to hurt pets impulsively and have a hard time sharing with others.

Teaching Compassion

In a world filled with so much hatred, it’s more important than ever to teach our children to be kind to other people and animals. While this might seem like a difficult lesson to teach, it can easily be accomplished by setting a good example every single day. In fact, you’re probably doing this now without even realizing it.

How you speak to your child, how you help them solve conflicts and how much you encourage them to think about the feelings of others all play an important part in how compassionate your child will be.

Although studies show that the most important place that compassion is learned is in the home, for best results all adults in the child’s life should do their part. Children learn from what they see. Practicing compassion is the best way to teach it.

Consistency is Key

Some kids are naturally more tuned in to other people’s feelings than others. No matter which end of the spectrum your child falls, it’s always possible to teach them to be more compassionate.

Developing empathy is a lot like building muscles; the more you use them, the easier it gets. Children learn compassion through their experiences. Compassion is an emotional response and attitude that is deeply empathetic. Compassion allows us to connect to suffering with care and understanding. This enables us to act in ways that bring comfort to those around us.

Threaded Daisies creates topical T-shirts for the entire family. Our T-shirts are made from premium cotton to ensure the highest quality and the softest shirt. Our designs are all original and are printed with eco-friendly, water-based inks. For more information about our business, please click here. To see our shirts, please click here.

Raising Strong Women

March 3, 2017 By cscheafer

Raising Strong Women

Girls get so many mixed messages. They’re told that they can be whatever they want, but only if they’re skinny and pretty. They’re told to speak up and express their opinions, but only if it’s their turn to speak. They’re told that they have the right to say “no”, but that it’s ok for boys hurt them if they like them.

Life for girls is anything but easy. Being the parent of a girl is challenging as well. As parents, we want the best for our children. We want our girls to succeed and be happy. We dream of them becoming doctors and professors and being able to support themselves without the help of anyone else.

But we worry as well. We worry about the messages they hear from the media about their bodies. We worry about the boys that pick on them while the teacher shrugs it off with a comment like “boys will be boys”. We worry about the fact that women in the U.S. earn less than men. We worry that our daughters won’t be able to access reproductive healthcare when they need it. The list goes on and on.

Girls need to be strong to survive in this world. They need to be able to ignore the stereotypes and develop a positive body image. This might seem like an impossible task with every billboard and television ad working against you, but it’s not.

The way girls feel about themselves starts at home with you. If you feel good about yourself, your daughter is far more likely to as well. If parents set a good example by not worrying over their weight or other things that they have no control over, our girls will notice. They will learn to be resilient. They’ll learn to let these things roll off their backs. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

Raising girls today is scary. We all need to work together to banish stereotypes and teach our girls to be strong.

Threaded Daisies offers female-empowering t-shirts for the whole family. To learn more or to see our products, please click here.

The Problem with Conventional Pet Food

February 17, 2017 By cscheafer

The Problem with Conventional Pet Food

Individuals that are compassionate about animals might be surprised to learn that many conventional pet foods are inhumanely tested on animals. The subjects of this testing are usually confined in small areas and not provided with proper health care or socialization.

Conventional pet foods often contain parts from diseased or dying animals. They also contain hormones and chemicals that are dangerous for pets. Feeding your pet a cruelty-free diet is healthier and more humane.

Cruelty-free pet foods

By PETA’s standards, pet foods are considered cruelty-free if they do not involve animal testing in laboratories. There are healthy and humane alternatives to laboratory tests such as in-home testing where the test animal lives a normal life in a home with a family. Examples of cruelty-free pet food companies include Active Life Pet Products, Bravo Raw Diet, Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Company, Feline Pride, Halo Pet Foods, Newman’s Own Organics, Raw Advantage and Veterinary Nutritional Formula.

Vegan diet

Vegan pet foods can provide pets with the nutritional content they need while avoiding animal products. Dogs and cats can live a long and healthy life when provided a vegan diet and nutritional supplements. Studies have shown that diets containing meat products can have negative effects on a pet’s health. Vegan pet food companies include Evolution Diet, Natural Life Pet Products, Nature’s Recipe and Pet Guard.

Low cruelty options

While some pet food companies do not pass PETA’s standards for cruelty-free, they still provide a healthier environment for test animals. For example, Purina provides their test animals with social interaction and health care. They also adopt all of their animals out once they have aged out of the program.

Vegetarian Foods

Some companies that make pet food also offer vegetarian products. These products are kept completely separate from products containing meat. When switching your pet to a vegetarian diet, sticking to the same company that your pet is used to can help with the transition.

Threaded Daisies believes that every animal has the right to a fair life, free from cruelty. For more information about switching your pet to a vegan or veterinarian diet, please speak with an experienced veterinarian.

Becoming Vegan

February 3, 2017 By cscheafer

Becoming Vegan

Vegans eat and use absolutely no animal products. People make the switch to a vegan diet for a number of reasons including animal rights, environmental issues, health reasons and spiritual or religious reasons.

Making the switch to a vegan diet isn’t hard when you’re properly equipped with knowledge and commitment. The most important thing to remember is that you need to eat a balanced diet that includes the right amount of fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals. Speak with your doctor or nutritionist about adding supplements if you are concerned about not getting enough nutrients.

What vegans don’t eat

Just like vegetarians, vegans don’t eat meat. This includes beef, chicken, pork, turkey or anything that has a meat base in it. This often includes vegetable and potato soups in restaurants.

Unlike vegetarians, vegans do not eat dairy. This is because dairy comes from cows and vegans do not use or consume anything that comes from animals. Avoiding dairy means vegans do not eat milk, cheese, yogurt, butter or other milk products. Vegans do not consume eggs or honey. Although there are vegan alternatives, these ingredients are often found in bread and prepared desserts. Vegans must be extremely careful to ask questions and avoid suspect foods when dining out.

What vegans eat

Vegans eat a variety of plant-based foods including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes. Although many suitable foods exist, those wishing to follow a vegan diet must check the labels on all packaged foods. Most vegans find it helpful and healthier to prepare their meals from scratch.

Being vegan is about more than just food

Vegans don’t just change their diet; they also do not use anything that contains animal products. This includes leather, wool, fur and down. All cosmetics, soaps and shampoos used by vegans must be labeled as cruelty free. Vegans do not visit zoos or circuses where animals are used for human enjoyment.

Threaded Daisies believes that a well-balanced vegan diet is a healthy and compassionate choice over the standard American diet. We encourage you to learn more about the unique benefits of the vegan lifestyle. For more information about Threaded Daisies, please contact us today.

Custom Shirts

January 20, 2017 By cscheafer

Custom Shirts

Recently a customer asked me to make some custom shirts for his girlfriend. These were customizations of a shirt design that I had already created. I went back and forth trying to decide if I wanted to open that door. I ended up agreeing, and the process went extremely smoothly. It went so well in fact that I started to consider offering custom shirts to everyone. This decision was not easy for me because of my last business.

I used to sew children’s clothing and accessories. I had set styles and I offered custom fabrics. While I had a set number of fabrics that I offered, it seemed like everyone wanted something different. I would drive to five or six fabric shops looking for “blue frogs on a yellow background” or something just as specific. I lost pretty much all of my profit in gas back then.

After a while, people started asking me to make things that weren’t related to children. The requests got stranger and stranger and I ended up nauseous even looking at my sewing machine. I gave up that business and didn’t sew anything (including for my own children) for over three years. Needless to say I didn’t want to go down that road again.

However, I realized that I could do things differently this time. I could set guidelines for what I will and won’t do. Most importantly, I can say “no” if the request is too difficult. So while I’m not going to create any random idea that you can think up, I’m pleased to say that I will be offering customization of any of my shirt designs.

If you are interested in one of my designs but want different wording (or more words), please send me a message. For example, if you like my “Intolerant To” shirt but have different intolerances than what are listed, I can probably make that work for you. That is the design I recently customized.

Also, if you want a different style shirt than what is offered, please ask. I can’t make any guarantees on this one as there are only certain types of shirts that can be printed direct to garment. I promise to answer you quickly and honestly though. I will tell you if what you’re asking is possible and what it will cost you. I’m surprisingly easy to work with.

For all questions about customization, please contact me.