How Do You Naya – Delia Montgomery, Founder of ChicEco

Delia helps influence manufacturing to become a sustainable process around the globe through imaginative collaborations and her business, http://www.chiceco.com/. Her mission is to help preserve our planet Earth by supporting designers and their businesses that recycle or create fashionable products in non-toxic manners and therefore enhance the consciousness of consumers. Her yurt home was erected on a tiny piece of Pahoa, Hawaii rain forest paradise early 2009 where she “walks the green talk.” For service details and more personal stuff, read http://deliamontgomery.blogspot.com/ with links to her sustainable living blogs that appease all forms of environmental enthusiasts!

How do you like to relax?

For more than 30 years, I’ve been a passionate gardener. Full-cycle organic and native with permaculture style is my favorite way to design and create. I actually enjoy sculpting with attractive weeds. What some people call “invasives” are gifts from nature to me. I greet each day with brilliant-purple morning glories and say goodnight with pristine-white moonflowers. It is important for me to have a gold fish pool and water lilies in my garden, then watch dragonflies appear from the unknown. Butterflies show up like messengers to say thank you. Whether solo or with a friend, my greatest gratification and form of relaxation is by admiring the results of my garden labor.

How do you help soften your footprint on our earth?

Determined to walk the talk, my tree-hugger lifestyle is serious in Hawaii. My 452 square-foot home office yurt is with conventional electricity, but I hold a strong vision to convert to solar. I’m pleased with typical water catchment plumbing in the rain forest that includes a tank-less water heater. Although there are screens on my windows, the doors and dome are usually open to wandering geckos that enjoy the sport of eating mosquitoes and flies. Composting is a natural in the tropics. Culinary linens are made from old clothes and my glassware consists of reused jars. In all, a vast difference from how I was raised as a blue-blood princess on a prominent Kentucky thoroughbred racehorse farm.

What is your routine before going to sleep each night? Any tips on how to sleep soundly?

Early to bed and early to rise is no longer an effort, but my preferred routine. In fact, I hold a strong desire to watch the sun rise with those morning glories each day. Yet I typically sense the full moon about a week before it peaks and sometimes look to nature’s gifts for help to sleep. In the pacific islands the kava plant blesses those who have difficulty snoozing. That works for me, but there are other plants and herbs. Lavender essential oil in my evening aromatherapy bath helps, for example. Thankfully, there are different strokes for different folks.

What is your favorite drink to help you relax?

Wine use to be my favorite relaxing beverage, yet my desire mysteriously shifted a few years back to lager beer. So glad there are organic options today. If my immune system is feeling fragile, however, hot chamomile tea with local raw honey does the trick.

Do you have a favorite song that helps you renew yourself?

By the power of association, “Summertime” is my favorite tune. The ultimate version is by the Ray Brown Trio (with Jeff Hamilton and Gene Harris): http://youtu.be/YuW26BKVJ3U

Do you participate in any outdoor activities that renew your mind, body or spirit?

I practice yoga or qi gong each morning with exception to guided monthly one-day hikes. Yoga is reserved for rainy days around my yurt home in this tropical rain forest. Qi gong is my outdoor exercise with feet properly balanced on Earth. Outside is my preference because I can exercise with many pauses to look closely at what’s going on in my garden. I may pull a weed, move a rock, or simply admire my blooms and produce. There are more than 23 climate zones on Big Island, which makes each hike a venture for the season. The treasured local guide includes recreation with each group hike, ? from swimming with sea turtles to bird watching near the volcano. When appropriate, I ecstatically bring an exotic plant home from the hike.

What is your favorite Naya shoe and why?

Presently, my fav is from the 2011 pre-fall collection. I adore the CASTALIA to easily compliment casual to dress fashions. Perfect for my warm climate and suitable for travel to colder temps. I can get clumsy on this rocky terrain between offices and home, so the suede is ideal for less obvious nicks and scuffs. Bordo is a grand practical and basic color that will match everything I wear. I’ve joined the Naya fan club because product developer and designer Kasey Gibbs proves that sustainable-conscious manufacturing enhances human creativity. It’s important for me to feel good about what I wear and Naya Shoes stylishly fulfills that need.