Two weeks before my mother's loss to breast cancer, she and I were curled up at home discussing potential names for a little girl, if I were ever to have one. The name we chose was Gigi. We chose it because we liked the movie "Gigi", but we initially started with the letter G in honor of my mother whose name was Geri. Mom wanted her grandkids to call her G.G. for Grandma Geri, so the name Gigi stuck.

A couple days before her parting, wrecked and lost, I asked my mom how in the hell I was going to raise a child without her, let alone a daughter if I ever had one. My mom replied "oh wouldn't that be special, a girl. You will know what to do." The day after my mother's funeral, I found out I was pregnant and 8 months later I gave birth to a baby girl. I had been living a "green" life a decade before my mother's diagnosis, but it was the threatening of her life and the birth of Gigi that caused me to amp up the changes in my life.

My mother was an avid smoker, a Big Mac enthusiast with a taste only for Coca Cola. She grew up on a golf course and didn't want to stress over where her food came from and what she was breathing in. She trusted that the government outfits being paid to keep her environment and food safe were doing their jobs. But the week she was diagnosed, she took her life into her own hands. She bought me a "Breast Health Cookbook" and started to change her own lifestyle. With the death sentence she was given, a lifestyle change was too little, too late. For all I know, it might be too late for me too - but I doubt it, and it most certainly isn't too late for Gigi.

Gigi is a vibrant, hilarious, witty, extremely affectionate and darling little girl and she is the only daughter I have. She is the greatest motivation for this business which is to make our transition as affordable as possible, and to share that savings with other parents too. My goal was to keep Gigi's clothes, cosmetics, toys, bedding and foods toxin-free. So far so good!

As the daughter and grand-daughter of breast cancer victims, and the mother of a 21 month old baby girl, living and sharing the stress-free route to a healthy and "green" life is very important to me. My research on living toxin-free is not a choice driven by fashion, but one of necessity.