Alania Cowie and her husband Scott Lindquist have opened Indigo Baby, a store that provides natural and organic products for pregnancy, infancy and early childhood.

The business is in DeVargas Center and is close to the Atrisco Café and Bar.

Among the products that are available at the store are cloth diapers, organic clothing and bedding, skin-care products, locally made wooden toys and herbal remedies..

"In addition to our products, we host free community classes to share knowledge about natural parenting," Cowie said. "We offer bi-weekly breast-feeding support and 'New Mama Gathering' with a certified lactation consultant."

"We have a baby-wearing specialist host a class twice a month where you can learn about different ways of carrying your baby and children and try on different slings," she added.

Cowie answered questions about her new business last week as she nursed her baby and helped a customer, all at the same time, leading her to quip, "We like to multi-task around here."

Indigo Baby "is my first store," said Cowie, who worked extensively in the green industry before moving from Los Angeles to Santa Fe and having her baby.

'I've slowed down here," Cowie said. "Santa Fe is definitely a lot more mellow than Los Angeles. I settled in here, becoming a mother and stepmother."

Cowie then began to explore the possibilities of what the market in Santa Fe was for a store she had in mind, concentrating at first on the fact that she couldn't find a cloth diaper for sale anywhere in town.

"That seemed to go hand in hand with the natural lifestyle here," she said. "I was really surprised" cloth diapers were nowhere to be found.

The alternative, disposable diapers, was something Cowie couldn't accept.

"Eighteen billion go into our landfills each year," she said. "And they're using oil to produce them," as well as harsh detergents and anti-bacterial rinses that pollute the water.

Although she realizes it's a very personal decision, Cowie encourages people to fit into their own lifestyles a willingness to wash their child's own diapers.

"It will cost less in the end," she said.

With all that information gathered, Cowie put together a business plan and, with the help of a small bequest from her mother's estate and investments from her husband, who is a contractor, and her father, found a space at DeVargas Center.

Lindquist and some of his colleagues cleaned the place out and created what Cowie called "a really open, modern industrial space on a shoestring."

"We supported her as much as we could," Lindquist said. "Our big commitment here is that nothing (for sale in the store) is made by children, and nothing is made in China," Lindquist said. "We're committed to local products."

The store also includes a 600-square-foot community space that is used for a variety of classes, including a cloth-diaper class, art and movement classes for young children and multi-cultural art classes.

"Our instructor is currently an art-therapy student and shares her passion bringing arts to the children," Cowie said.

Indigo Baby also offers a register for baby showers and gifts.

The store's events calendar is at the Web site www.theindigobaby.com/
calendar.php. The cell-phone number is 954-4000.

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com