I am always looking for new resources to share with teachers on my favorite fiber! Years ago, a friend from the Mississippi Delta wrote A Cotton Pickin’ Story for Toddlers. There are also a number of publications available through the National Cotton Council. But I just can get enough of video! And when a friend sent this cotton educational video connected to TED, well, obviously I had to sit down and soak it up!

Cotton fits so many different courses of study, so hearing about history and how cotton offers such strength and flexibility. I love thinking about Incas using cotton as breast plates and other clothing for warriors. It’s why some of the most dangerous jobs still feature cotton so prominently in the uniforms and clothing guidelines.

There is a lot of information built in here including how cotton physiology works with seeds inside the cotton boll producing the fiber. Understanding what a cotton plant looks like and how the fiber inside a young cotton boll pushes to elongate and showing how the cell walls build out. And this is part of the reason Pima cotton and Egyptian cotton is so popular. Some of these pieces of fiber strength & length are tested in HVI labs.

The kinds of uses go through so many products we use. Sure we think about our favorite t-shirts and jeans but how many of us think about the uses like diapers and coffee filters? Students will once they watch this!

A Personal Cotton Aside

From the opening, when they quote none other than BB King about cotton being a “force of nature.” I am in! Close friends and family all know that BB has been a major music influence in my life.

While I was living in the Mississippi Delta for a bit more than a decade, I would regularly see BB play, but I also saw him when I lived in New York and Memphis. But it wasn’t until I lived in Mississippi that I heard him talk about cotton as he broke ground for a museum that would bear his name. That museum is in an old cotton gin! He talked about how the cotton gin was both symbolic and a physical touchstone for him and for so many others in the Delta explaining cotton is a big part of who Southerners are. And he even took time in the dreaded summer heat to ask for the much needed rain understanding farmers needed the break. You can see photos from my run-ins with him over the years on my other site, JPlovesLIFE

The post Great Cotton Educational Video appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

One of the great things about openly sharing my passion for my favorite fiber, is that by making people aware of that passion, I enable them to share it knowing I will greet their photos or tweets with excitement! That’s exactly what my friend Miss Dazey expected to get when she shared this photo of a custom-painted truck with me earlier today.

Miss Dazey’s dear husband, Mr. Bruce, is busily preparing for a presentation he will be giving this weekend to the American Truck Historian Society convention this weekend in Springfield, MO. With that presentation of 60 years of history in 45 minutes, he has been looking through his extensive photo files and when one was unearthed showing the truck above that had a custom-paint job for hauling in the Mississippi Delta surfaced, it got ear-marked as something I should see.

The truck was painted in the 1960s using Campbell 66 Express’ camel mascot Snortin’ Norton. It was common to paint the trucks in unique ways. If you move forward to today, I have to wonder if they were predecessor to the U-Haul trucks with various states on them. Gotta love that the goal was “cotton-picking good service” and that Norton was even hand-picking cotton which is interesting since mechanical pickers had already been introduced to the area and been gaining popularity but I have to admit that the cotton-picking camel is pretty darn cute!

The post A Custom-Painted Truck Sharing the Love of Cotton appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

A historic Levi Strauss ad painted on the side of a building in Jacksonville, Oregon

I was just scanning through some things and saw this bit of history from Cotton Inc:

On May 20, 1873, an American icon was born when Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were given a patent for their copper rivet fasteners for denim trousers. The blue jean has since secured its place in American culture and in world fashion as a “go to” garment. Changing fashion styles and attitudes altered the look of the blue jean over time, but until recently, the blue jean had remained true blue to its cotton origins. The recent influx of man-made fibers into blue jeans is not a good fit for many consumers, and could affect the care, wear and expected five-year longevity of their beloved blue jeans.

Seriously? Today is the birthday of blue jeans? And I’m stuck here wearing a sundress? Granted, I have on a denim jacket but wow, am I bummed I didn’t know this when I got dressed this morning.

The history of denim as being all cotton, comfortable and crazy durable earned it a spot quickly with folks who work hard physically like farmers and pioneers of the west. Denim and the beloved American blue jeans have continued to catch on and now you can find really expensive fashion jeans or cheaper work cuts. And when traveling in some foreign countries, I have found taking someone a pair of 501s is the fastest way to their heart!

I have to say, while the addition of a small amount of spandex or something to cotton to help jeans keep their shape, Cotton Inc hits the nail on the head when it comes to denim that includes higher percentages of man-made fibers.

CI’s Kim Kitchings says “Consumers love denim. We know from our Lifestyle Monitor data that U.S. consumers own an average of seven denim items and wear jeans an average of four days a week. We also know that 60% of consumers would pay a little extra to get more cotton back into those jeans.”

I definitely have more denim pieces in my wardrobe than the average Joe, but I can tell you the jeans I have with more synthetic fibers… they don’t come out of the closet much. They are not as comfortable, they don’t breathe with my body and they just don’t have that comfy feeling my other jeans do. I tried something different in buying one or two pair and I didn’t like it. My cotton awareness and prioritization though is unique according to CI:

Some fault may actually lie with the consumers and what Kitchings calls “label apathy.” “Today’s consumers have been wearing jeans most of their lives and are familiar with how to care for them,” says Kitchings. “The rules change when there are higher percentages of one or more man-made fibers.” Kitchings points to Lifestyle Monitor data that reveal less than half of consumers check the fiber content or laundry care labels when purchasing a garment.

So, I have to tell you, take the time to read labels and think about what’s on them. You may also want to follow these tips from CI’s Vikki Martin who says, “Always check the labels for fiber content information and care instructions; knowing what you’re getting and how to care for it will help extend the life of your jeans or any garment.”

Martin has the following tips on proper denim care:

• Before laundering, always check the sewn-in tag for specific care instructions.

• Invest in quality detergent to help extend the life of denim jeans.

• To preserve the color of denim jeans (especially dark washes), turn them inside out before laundering, then line dry.

• If denim jeans are overly stiff, soak them overnight in a washing machine with water and a cupful of fabric softener. Run the load normally the next morning.

• If denim jeans are not dirty but need a boost: wet them with water, let them spin in the washer, and then tumble or line dry.

You can see the original release Majority of Consumers Bothered By Man-made Fibers in Their Denim on the Cotton Incorporated website.

The post The Day Blue Jeans Were Born — Celebrating Levi Strauss & Denim appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

If you are a fan of Hayden Panettiere, you know the actress has made a name for herself by playing the tomboy daughter of a football coach, a high school cheerleader and hero who can produce fire and a rising star in Nashville who has more than a few personal problems. Well, she is drawing attention to my favorite fiber now as a new spokesperson for Cotton Incorporated.

Have you seen that Hayden Panetierre cotton commercial? The new commercials featuring Panettiere singing her own unique version of the memorable “The Fabric of Our Lives” theme song started airing in April. And if you haven’t seen it, you really should check it out. And to make it really easy for you, I’m embedding the video here!

How is cotton featured in Hayden Paniettiere’s closet?

One of the cool pieces of the advertisements over the past five years has been seeing the different styles the various spokespeople have had. Hayden Paniettiere doesn’t disappoint as you saw in the commercial! She has a wide range of cotton clothing — from clothes that are campfire perfect, to trendy pieces for a night out on the town to something more formal. I mean check out a few of the outfits in these photos.

And a really cool feature on The Fabric of Our Lives site is the ability to check out the pieces in Hayden Panettiere’s closet. You can click on a piece and see where the outfit is from and it even takes you to another video of Paniettiere talking about the piece, how she pairs it with other things in her closet, etc. There’s also a Q&A with her generally talking about clothes, fashion and of course cotton:

How do you feel about cotton as a fabric?

What could be better than cotton? It’s my go-to. I can dress it up and wear it as a form-fitting dress, or dress it down as a soft and comfy tee. I know I’ll be fashionable and comfy either way. When I can look good AND feel good, I’m happy.

via Cotton: The Fabric of Our Lives: Hayden’s Profile.

Why advertise cotton?

I’ve previously written a post on the reasons for the ad campaign on cotton. The ad campaigns for cotton are funded through a commodity program that seeks to increase the marketability of my favorite fiber. And Cotton Inc. comes up with the awesome creative. The ads are funded by cotton farmers and the people who import cotton. The ads are designed to increase awareness in cotton and cotton farmers have an interest in keeping cotton top of mind, especially since the makers of all the synthetic fibers like polyester have big ad budgets, advertising is part of it.

But there are other things to funded through the monies farmers pay into Cotton Inc — research and development of textile processes, cotton production practices, etc which help keep cotton competitive with synthetic fibers in other areas or even help discover new uses.

More Information on Cotton

I love putting information about cotton together for the blog so let me start this section with the various resources here on the blog.

• The cotton category of posts includes pieces of all sorts — news, information, photos, etc. If its about cotton and on this blog, it should have been thrown in this category. Any time you are on the blog and interested in finding this set of posts you can just go all the way to the top of the screen and select cotton and you’ll get that done too. 
• There are also some groupings of posts within that category that help you find something more specifically. 
  • My series of Cotton 101 posts has about 20 posts in it a few of which are highlighted on this Cotton 101 page. Cotton 101 posts are the ones that talk through some of the basics of cotton. I’d love to know what I’m missing! 
  • To better understand about how others think & feel about cotton, I have a series of cotton guest posts. If you’d like to join the series, please read

    What is it that you love about cotton? Please join a series of cottony goodness!

To find our more about Cotton Inc. and the kind of things they put out about cotton clothes and textiles, you can check out:

• Websites for Cotton Inc include the fashion-oriented thefabricofourlives.com,
• There is a Facebook cotton page  (who doesn’t “like” cotton?)
• Fashionable tweets go out from @CottonFashion.
• And great videos are on the CottonFabricofOurLives YouTube Channel.

The post What’s with that Hayden Panettiere cotton commercial? appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

When you wear your passion on your sleeve (or in your Twitter handle like @JPlovesCOTTON) it is really easy for other people to share that passion. This was part of the presentation I gave during the 140 character small town conference (140conf) that I’ve talked so much about. But I really hadn’t talked about what I was doing at the 140conf, which probably makes a few people scratch their heads but for others, I think you’ll understand that it feels like I’m patting myself on the back to share something like that.  But I recently got such a clear reminder of how making that passion known helps get others to share in it, I decided I would go ahead. That’s when it was really clear to me I wasn’t sharing this story from purely a personal interest but in trying to find others who share that interest. So here’s the audio on my passion that event on the 140 conference blip station. I hope some of you find it interesting or entertaining.

In this I talk about how less than 2% of Americans farm and when you look at cotton, it comes down to .006% of us are engaged in cotton farming (thanks to Shawn the magnificent at the National Cotton Council for doing that math!) I said that if I, as someone who had a daily awareness of cotton wasn’t willing to shout COTTON ROCKS now and then, then who should I expect to do that?

Before I went to the 140 conference, I got in touch with a bunch of people who I thought may be able to make the trip to Hutchinson – people I follow on Twitter who I’d like to meet, friends from college in the area, etc. One of the folks I hoped would be able to make the trip was Alexis Ceule (@AlexisCeule and her blog Confessions of a Social Media Mamapreneur). She couldn’t but took time to introduce me to a friend who was making the trip from Kansas City and she watched the livestream. We touch base now & then on various things but recently Alexis sent me a link to an eBay auction just like this one for a pamphlet on Cotton in series Coca-Cola produced called Our America! I’m sure the fact that Coke is as Southern as I am, has already come to mind for some of you – it sure did for me!

When I clicked on the link, I knew I HAD TO HAVE IT! What’s fun is it seems the seller (Weird Stuff Antiques @WeirdStuff) stumbled on quite a few copies of the pamphlet that Coke produced several decades ago (kind of sad it doesn’t have a date on it but it is sold in the 1940-1959 section ).  I bought two on my first crack but I’m thinking I should have bought some as off-beat but inexpensive Christmas gifts (pretend you are surprised if I am able to get more LOL!)

Its an activity book that lets you read about different parts of the cotton industry and some of the innovations that had been delivered then. The book is really interesting and reminds me of a lot of posts I should get to writing on how things are done now!

Rather than try to write this book all out, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves! At least until I think through whether I want to do a series of then & now. Here’s the dedication page to give you a flavor of the text!

To the Boy and Girls of the United States,

in infancy, surrounded by fabrics manufactured from cotton; living in homes in which cotton appears on every side; sharing in new and astonishing uses of cotton; to them we dedicate this book and these pictures.

To All Whose Labor Produces Cotton and Provides Material Made From It,

men who till and prepare land for the birth of cotton; workers who sow seed; stooping, patient toilers who pick cotton; operatives who speed cotton through intricate processes that change it into delightful fabrics for daily use; to all these, in gratitude for the gift they help to produce, we dedicate this book and these pictures.

To All Whose Patient Experiements Give Cotton New Uses,

makers of new machines, developers of new methods of manufacturing and using cotton fabrics, chemists who find ways of changing cotton into new forms of value and usefulness; to all men of genius who make cotton increasingly helpful, we dedicate this book and these pictures.

Do you like the idea of doing a then & now series on cotton, using this as the history base?

(By the way, the title of this blog post is a take off of a great mystery book by Kinky Friendman called Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola.)

The post Cotton, Kansas, & Coca-Cola: Results of Sharing My Passions appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Courtesy of Cotton Inc

I recently saw the following headline in the Delta Farm Press:  Dell, Ark., gin celebrates one millionth bale. The article was really interesting:

“Twenty-one years ago, Clarence called me about building a gin,” said Weiner. “I can’t remember how much money we were trying to raise. But it finally took root. It’s good to see a man realize his dream. We couldn’t have done it without Clarence.”

“Our philosophy is to treat everybody the same whether he’s got 40 acres or 4,000,” said Crosskno, chairman of the board for Cotton Growers, in a 2004 article on the gin, https://deltafarmpress.com/gin-introducing-new-lint-cleaners.

via Dell, Ark., gin celebrates one millionth bale | Cotton content from Delta Farm Press.

What’s that add up to? 

So, one million bales of cotton were produced in this one rural part of Arkansas. What would that mean to a consumer?  To understand that, let’s start with what you can make from a single bale of cotton. According to the National Cotton Council, one bale of cotton can make:

• 215 Jeans
• 249 Bed Sheets
• 409 Men’s Sport Shirts
• 690 Terry Bath Towels
• 765 Men’s Dress Shirts
• 1,217 Men’s T-Shirts
• 1,256 Pillowcases
• 2,104 Boxer Shorts
• 2,419 Men’s Briefs
• 3,085 Diapers
• 4,321 Mid-Calf Socks
• 6,436 Women’s Knit Briefs
• 21,960 Women’s Handkerchiefs
• 313,600 $100 Bills*

At that rate, all the residents of New York City (est. population of 8 million based on city government figures) could trace 27 pairs of jeans to the town of Dell. Or instead, more than 2 towels for each & every resident of the United States!  Who would have thought that  a small town in rural Arkansas in just two decades could have such a big contribution to our way of life! Thinking of all the other small towns across the US makes my head spin as I think about the contributions they have made!

The post A Million Bales of Cotton Impact From One Small Town appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Its getting close to reality and closer to a store near you. What am I talking about? Cotton clothing from UnderArmour, the brand that was not showing much love to my beloved natural fiber before. (A past blog post does more background.) But they are officially launching the Charged Cotton line and it will be shipping soon for March sales.

Wired magazine says the about face was led by the reality that their target customers (people in their late teens through 30s) have an average of seven cotton T-shirts for each synthetic shirt in their wardrobe. Yep, it’s the best way to grow the brand to use cotton fiber and then put a bit of UA spin to it by combining the vast majority of cotton with five percent elastane, which is the fiber that provides a stretch fabric. The result is comfort, wicking & dryability.

The production process starts with alternating yarns of hydrophobic and hydrophilic cotton. The hydrophilic part is responsible for cotton’s moisture absorption, which can extend to 25 times its weight in water. But the inclusion of a hydrophobic yarn, which contains molecules that reject water, helps athletes stay as dry as when they first put on the garment. “That’s what causes the sweat to wick away from the cotton and dry quicker,” Stafford said of the hydrophobic yarns.

Heather Mitts, a defender with the Atlanta Beat of the Women’s Professional Soccer league, explained to Wired.com that the cotton products she used to wear while training were too heavy. Not so with Charged Cotton: “You don’t really notice that you’re wearing cotton.”

via How Under Armour Learned to Love Cotton Fiber| Playbook.

I’m going to have to check the line out next time I’m at Sports Authority or Dick’s Sporting Goods. Wonder what the sales people will think when I mention how I have a bunch of cotton farmer friends…. and imagine the glaze over when I ask about the hydrophobic and hydrophillic yarns. I think I’m going to like this!

The post Under Armour Charged Cotton Coming Soon appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

The topic for this post came at me twice in the past week so I HAD to write it! The reason? The hoodie has become such a staple in my wardrobe, it took me a bit to think about life pre-hoodies. But alas, I am SO OLD, I remember it after a bit of jogging. I had the conversation about the hoodie with my niece Alicia and my good friend Cyndie too!

Hooded sweatshirts are the best! You get one of those 100 percent cotton, with fleecing on the inside and wow, you are so comfortably warm. Alicia and I were talking about them as I dealt with luggage… seems that fated trip to Atlanta where I got to enjoy ice made me really wish I’d seen ahead to carry a hoodie. Needless to say I didn’t want to make that mistake again. And simply commenting on the hoodie love resulted in Cyndie asking the question Alicia & I had discussed just days earlier.

@JPlovesCOTTON When did "hoodie" become a popular word? I don't think it was that long ago.

— Cyndie Shearing (@CyndieShearing) January 27, 2011

Recent chance to relax with college friends… hoodies rock!

So, I thought about it. I remembered a really awesome hooded sweatshirt in college. It was heavy weight, grey in color with maroon writing of the school’s name (Phillips University) emblazoned across the front and a pouch pocket to warm my hands in. And I had lots of other sweatshirts, mostly crewnecks and a turtleneck now & then to keep warm. But the history? Luckily Cyndie did a websearch and came up with this….

The hoodie is a variant of the popular sweatshirt, which of course come in various shapes and sizes, from pullovers and jumpers to cardigans and hoodies. It is thought the sweatshirt, so named because it was designed to draw the sweat from the body, was originally the preserve of the British fisherman, who wore it because it kept them warm and relatively dry whilst working on their boats. This is where the famous Guernsey, Aran and Fair Isle sweatshirt patterns originated, all are islands of the British coast that fishermen commonly lived or worked nearby. The sweatshirt and its offshoots gained mainstream popularity thanks to several popular 19th Century wartime figures, the 7th Earl of Cardigan, James Brudnell (who led the infamous charge of the Light Brigade) and Lord Raglan, Fitzroy Somerset (another officer of the Crimean War). The cardigan and raglan sleeve were popularised by these men respectively, the wider raglan sleeves actually being designed specifically for the one-armed Somerset who had lost his right arm in battle.

via A Brief History of the Hoodie.

If you go to that website, it shows the connection I think may be spot on. The hooded sweatshirt may have been around before rap and hip hop, but that’s when it gained traction!

The hoodie is definitely geared toward the younger generation.  The urban clothing industry is definitely in the lead for the creation and marketing of hoodies.  The trend can be traced back to rappers who wore them as a way of looking sinister.  Now the trend has taken off and any urban clothing enthusiast would have at least one hoodie in their wardrobe.

via Sweatshirts In The Hood.

And my guess is that’s when sales went up and growing out of the athletic wear set. We all started learning to fold those hooded sweatshirt so we could stack them! How many do you have?

(PS – Sitting in my hotel in St. Louis I’m very happy to have my hoodie and slippers keeping me comfortably warm.)

[polldaddy poll=4466886]

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DATELINE: Memphis, Tennessee Airport (644 miles from home), flying to Atlanta, Georgia (327 air miles from Memphis)

Hey Jake,

You know how much I travel for work? Well, I had a great trip recently and got to take Flat Stanley along! It was so much fun traveling with him and I got some special opportunities since he was along for the ride.

First step? Going to the airport and going through security. Since Stanley doesn’t fly as much as I do, I made sure he knew the rules before we went to the airport. Some of the rules are about liquids going through and others are about the screening. Sorry to say, the rules made me put Flat Stanley through a different machine than I went through but he went through it with a smile on his face the whole time. He went with my purse, jacket, etc and kept an eye on things.

People not made out of paper go through other machines called metal detectors & body scanners. That’s where I went through and once the TSAs were sure all was well, I rejoined Stanley and got ready to go to our gate & get on the airplane.

As we were getting on the airplane, I asked if we could say hello to the pilots and they were nice enough to show Stanley some of the controls! They even let us take a picture! And we got great seats in the front of the plane too so we could catch what was going on with other Delta airplanes & the ground crews handling our luggage & directing traffic! (Fun Delta Air Lines blog here I stumbled on.)

When we arrived in Atlanta, we got our luggage and needed to get to the hotel. We decided to catch a cab. There was a really nice lady working there who called cabs for us and she let Flat Stanley help! She seemed to smile as big as Stanley!

Then it was time to get to work!

Because I work with farmers, we were in Atlanta for some really big meetings with farmers from all across the US, We spent time talking to some of the people I work with about cotton farming. One of the people Stanley met was named Keylon Gholston. His job is finding new cotton plants that will do really well on cotton farms across the US. (Deltapine rocks!)

I don’t know if everyone in your class knows about how cotton grows from a seed to a plant to produce the lint that you find on Q-Tips, cotton balls, etc but my favorite use is the jeans and hoodies or t-shirts that I wear! Mr. Gholston even knows farmers in North Carolina who like to plant Deltapine cotton, Dekalb corn or Asgrow soybeans!

We also got a chance to visit with some farmers including Bob Walker – he’s a farmer who lives really close to Memphis. And we’re really good friends. In fact, he’s such a good friend that he let Alicia come out and “help” with cotton picking in October. I think you saw photos of that on the internet. We also checked out some things you can buy at the meeting like koozies with a cotton logo on them (but you know I already had some because I sent some to you & your family!)

I was working and in a meeting and my eye started bothering me. I have to tell you I got worried Jake. When I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, my eye was really, really red. It didn’t look like it was supposed to at all. And since I was so far from my doctor, I got a little nervous.

So I checked with some of my friends who know Atlanta really well and found a doctor there who could look at my eye and see if it was going to be okay. It kind of made it more fun to have Stanley along cause I had fun taking photos for your letter while I was waiting. One was just in the waiting room and then later I took one in the treatment room…. The doctor ran a lot of tests and told me it was kind of like a bruise and would be fine after a little while.

We had a crazy storm while I was there. And I was a bit worried about having Stanley out in all the freezing rain, snow and craziness. But he enjoyed getting a look at things from my hotel. We were on the 28^th floor so we could see a really long way. Everywhere we looked there was snow & ice! It was really weird to see almost no cars because Atlanta’s famous for traffic.

With the extra time in the hotel, we got to have a nice long lunch. I had soup and a sandwich but Stanley said he’d already eaten. Somehow he was able to make room for dessert though! Cheesecake with some blueberrys to go on top! We were making friends along the way too and enjoyed finding out our waiter was from The Netherlands. He thought it was cool that Nannae goes there for work!

One night that Stanley stayed at the hotel to watch TV and I went out in the bad weather, the bus service was escorted by policemen! Really, our bus had police cars going along with us. I guess Atlanta thinks farmers are really important people! It got to be a long trip though because the bus got stuck on a hill! The ice was too slippery for us to go up the hill!

But the roads DID FINALLY clear up and we were able to get a cab back to the airport. We were really happy to see the sun shining again and be able to head out again!

But first, we would have to do some things at the airport. There were a lot of people who had been wanting to go places so we went there early and patiently stood in line. We had to check our luggage and that line was longer than I’d like to remember but there were nice people there to chat with!

This time since Stanley knew more about what we had to do, I let him help. He even held my driver’s license as we went through the line to talk to the officers. But they don’t like you taking too many pictures so I won’t show those!

With extra time on our hands, we went to get our lunch at the airport but got distracted when we started talking to a guy who’s in the army. He’s stationed in Alaska and was returning to duty after having a break for the holidays. There’s an awful lot of snow in Alaska so we stopped complaining about Atlanta’s weather really quickly! The plane was able to leave and we were sure glad to get to fly out!

[slideshow]

The post Touring Airports & Atlanta with Flat Stanley & Farmers appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

On several posts previously I’ve talked about little ways to sort of wear agriculture on your sleeve so you serve as a walking reminder of farmers when you are going about the day-to-day. Things like wearing a where’s the farmer t-shirt, using a luggage tag that boasts your favorite crop or picking out a license plate that reflects your passion for farming. But this week as I’m walking around Atlanta, I will tackle another sense too — hearing. Well, I’ve actually done it for a while but I just thought to blog about it.

My love of music spilled over to my mobile phone the minute I got a phone that could play different tunes. I’ve done a number of songs to entertain while I was answering a phone call. One of my favorite summers of field days included “Blister in the Sun” by the Violent Femmes as the prominent ringtone. And as I made my first visit to a livestock show, I put George Strait’s “Cowboys Like Us” on the phone for a friend or two.

But it’s time for the Beltwide Cotton Conference and the American Farm Bureau annual meeting and that means all things cotton and agriculture, especially for someone like me who decided to take the moniker “JPlovesCOTTON” for Twitter and my blog. So this week I have a few different ringtones set for things but several of them will be cotton ringtones!

Before you start trying to think of all the cotton songs you can come up with, let me get more specific. I’ll be a walking billboard for Cotton Inc. If you don’t know about Cotton Inc, the organization is funded by U.S. growers of upland cotton and importers of cotton and cotton textile products. It provides the research and marketing efforts to promote upland cotton as well as improve the demand for and profitability of cotton. More information on cotton and Cotton Incorporated can be found at www.cottoninc.com.

So I’ll have snippets of the songs about the touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives playing. I have four versions of it. The music from this year’s advertising campaign artists Colbie Caillat and Leona Lewis can be found on thefabricofourlives.com/music (one of Cotton Inc’s websites). And a little looking around, you can see some of the cotton clothes in their closets (Leona Lewis link & Colbie Caillat). I really enjoyed last year’s campaign too — Zooey Deschanel and Miranda Lambert did songs for 2009-2010.

The artists and the versions of the songs are fairly diverse just like the people who love jeans, buttondowns, t-shirts and all the other great cotton that comes from the farmers who fund these ads and all the research that goes into Cotton Inc.

Rather than follow me around during AgConnect or the American Farm Bureau’s annual meeting just waiting for my phone to ring, you can just take a look and listen at the videos I’m posting them here. Snippets of this version and others are my ringtones.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NEJlz1-djY]

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