Please Follow Us
-
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Paula on DIY Light Fixtures From Repurposed Pickle Jars
- Mishelle on DIY Light Fixtures From Repurposed Pickle Jars
- eyelashes conditioner on Coke for Polar Bears
- Lily Walters on A Summary Of The World
- Lily Walters on David Mach’s Giant Gorilla
-
Pages
Tags
air pollution angel mothers art bamboo books bracelet Christmas contest cork design DIY eco-chic eco-friendly eco-friendly bracelet eco-friendly design eco-friendly jewelry eco-friendly products eco-friendly toys eco friendly furniture etsy etsy jewelry exercise fair trade fashion flu fuel consumption gardening giveaway infant loss insurance jewelry Kids life after miscarriage miscarriage natural organic organic kids clothes organic vitamins pollution recycled recycled bags recycled paper Toys weight loss weirdA few of our other sites
Blogroll
-
Archives
- April 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
Meta
Great Deals From Amazon
Tag Archives: Christmas
End of Season Sale for a Great Cause
‘Tis the season to get great deals on Christmas ornaments for next year! Check out the great selection over at Global Girlfriend where they have ornaments on sale from several countries made by women artisans. The ball ornaments are created with glass beads by women working at a trade co-operative in India. This trade co-op helps women to gain valuable skills, be paid a fair, living wage, have a safe working environment and even a retirement plan! The site contains a huge range of items made by women in fair trade work environments. The beaded ornament comes in four colors as shown and is currently on sale for $4.95 from it’s regular price of $6. Even better, with every purchase of each of these ornaments, Global Girlfriend will fund 1.0 percent of a microgrant for a woman in a rural community in Africa to launch a small business, through Camfed.
The middle ornament is an angel made from women in Kenya to represent peace and happiness during the holiday season. The angel is dressed in traditional Kenyan clothing and is completely adorable, imho. She’d make a great addition to any Christmas tree, regardless of culture, country or ethnicity. Global Girlfriend asks you to purchase these products “to help build a better future for girlfriends around the globe”. Great idea and company name! The angels are on sale right now for $3.50 from it’s regular price of $4.95.
The embroidered ornaments on the right hand side are made by women in India. The dragonfly ornament is currently out of stock but the cat ornament with sequins is still available. These ornaments are made at a women’s fair trade co-operative called Tara Projects which can be read up on in detail on the Global Girlfriend site. It even has short bios of two of the artisans fighting their way out of poverty with strength, perserverance, dignity, skill and hard work. It’s a pretty amazing read that really makes you consider how blessed we are. These ornaments are now $1 off — down to $5.95 instead of $6.95. The’d be a great addition to next years decorations as well as lending a hand up to women crafters in India.
Posted in fair trade
Tagged Christmas, Christmas Orniments, fair trade, fair trade co-op, Global Girlfriend
Leave a comment
Digitally Enhanced Christmas
Christmas is definitely going high tech these days. Rafeejewell from Flickr shared images of her visit with Santa in Second Life which is definitely a whole other world that’s going on out there that I can’t even pretend to understand. My daughter came home with letters to and from Santa printed off of the desktop computers of her daycare. She had asked for a baby, an angel and the Mulan movie which she already has… Whatever happened to the good old days of going to the mall to see the Santa that smelled like an ashtray and was still half drunk from last night’s bender? What about running around stealing people’s Christmas bulbs and smashing them on the side walk just to hear the fun sound? What about shooters in your Christmas stocking? Oh, the good old days… Kidding of course. It just seems like Christmas is not what it used to be — commercialized to the extreme with the family and joy nearly completely removed. Hopefully my kids will stay off their computers for a bit this season to bake some cookies, sing some carols badly and share a glass of eggnog with family and friends.
Not Your Traditional Christmas Trees: 15 Trees That Will Make You Scratch Your Head
|
|
Not Your Traditional Christmas Trees: 15 Trees That Will Make You Scratch Your Head Not everyone has or wants the traditional tree that the term Christmas tree brings to mind. Check out some of these alternatives to the regular standard trees. They don’t all scream Christmas to me but they’re definitely different! |
Foster’s Funeral Home
Mark and I went to a Christmas Candlelight Memorial service tonight at Foster’s Funeral Home in the NW of Calgary. They put on a giant, free service every year at the beginning of December. When we arrived, I thought that I must have had the time or day wrong. There were cars and people everywhere — it was much bigger than I expected that it would be. We walked into a huge chapel with hundreds of people. Many more were put into overflow rooms around the funeral home or lined the hallway outside.
The Calgary Boys Choir was there, singing Christmas carols and songs of remembrance. At the front of the chapel, there were two huge Christmas trees lit with clear bulbs and loaded with glass angels. There were also two huge candleabras flickering in the dim light. Each person received a candle when they entered and after a few songs and prayers, they were lit. The lights were turned down and the funeral home staff lined the aisle to pass the flame to each row of pews. Each candle was lit from the one before it, symbolizing the common humanity among people suffering from grief which can be overpowering, especially at Christmas.
There were more psalms read and more carols sung and then there was a slide show of all of the people that the funeral home buried this year. Our baby boy Kye was not one of the pictures shown. We have no pictures of him except for the precious ultrasound pictures taken at 12 weeks. By the time we had our 18 week scan, he had passed. It was heart breaking to see the pictures of everyone else’s loved ones and have nothing to show for our loss. I often wear his ashes around my neck in an infinity symbol and rubbed it during the service. I’m sure that he knows just how much he is loved and missed.