How would you like to give a camel, goat or donkey for Christmas? A charitable donation is a wonderful way to share the spirit of love and hope.
Christmas shopping in the mid-Valley is a great way to support our small business owners and boost the local economy. With so many choices for great gifts right here in our own neighborhood, why go anywhere else?
Do you need to know about wants-based versus needs-based retailing in Aspen? Yup. "Sky-high commercial rents," Nancy Lofholm reports, "a growing number of mostly absent second- and third-home owners, a commuting working class and the shopping proclivities of the super-wealthy are blamed for squeezing out businesses that cater to locals or are considered the types of places that are key for a community: drugstores, movie theaters, bookstores and restaurants where the daily specials are written on brown paper bags or where a $100 bill will cover a dinner date - with change."
Posts filed under 'Shopping'
Can’t think of the perfect gift for that “hard to shop for” person or the one who already has everything? Perhaps you want to promote a less materialistic tradition and participate in the season of giving in a more meaningful way.
Consider giving an environmentally or socially conscious gift by donating to charity on behalf of someone else. A certificate provided by the charity, or one you make yourself states the amount donated and ideally what the money will be used for, i.e. fifty Christmas dinners, twelve warm coats, or preserving an acre of rainforest.
You can even tailor the gift or charity to the person on whose behalf you are donating. For the teacher: a donation to a non-profit that provides educational materials, teacher training, or the building of schools in poverty stricken areas. For the avid cyclist: an organization that provides bicycles for transportation to people in remote locations. For the animal lover: a gift to an animal rights or preservation group. For the health care professional: a donation to a medical relief charity, or one that provides mosquito nets to malaria affected regions. For the gardener: a gift of seeds, agricultural training, or irrigation equipment to disadvantaged rural populations. With so many needy people worldwide, there’s a charity to satisfy everyone’s interests.
To get you started, here are a few online organizations to check out.
Alternative Gifts International
The global mission of AGI is to send authentic, life-giving gifts to a needy world--gifts that build a partnership with people in crisis and that protect and preserve the earth's endangered environment--to nourish and sustain a more equitable and peaceful global community.
How AGI works; Choose a gift from 38 life-sustaining, worldwide projects to honor family and friends. Select a gift card for your honoree and tell us what you want it to say. The card will be mailed to your honoree with an insert describing your gift.
AGI wants you to know that for the cost of a hair cut you can provide one children's book shared by hundreds in a year in Mexico. For the cost of a CD player you can provide one day in-hospital stay for one patient in Egypt. For the cost of a 30 minutes massage you can buy one share of environmental solution in Haiti. For the cost of an iPod video you can provide education for one child for one year.
Christmas Spirit Foundation
With your donations, Foundation programs support children, families and the environment. Programs include: developing online curriculum for teachers, contributing to camps that host underprivileged or ill children, hurricane relief, recycling programs and Trees for Troops.
Oxfam
How would you like to give a camel, goat or donkey for Christmas? Talk about going Biblical! Among other unusual gifts, from outhouses to attorney services, Oxfam provides life-sustaining livestock to impoverished rural families.
A charitable donation this Christmas season is a wonderful way to share the spirit of love and hope. It’ll make you feel good, make the person you’re donating on behalf of feel good, and best of all, fulfill a need for a worthwhile cause.
Happy inspired giving.
December 17th, 2008
I’ve had this easy chair since about 1995.
I have no particular fondness for this chair. It’s comfortable. It’s warm. It’s proven durable. But it’s a freaking chair.
It’s leather, with low back, and an ottoman. It used to be brown, but now it’s more of a beige. It’s got two holes in it, one in the seat and one in the left arm—skier’s left, that is. My wife has wanted to replace this chair for months now. In itself, that is fine with me. What’s troubling is that my wife shared her desire to replace this piece of furniture with my mother.
You know the saying, “two heads are better than one”? This is Balderdash. Hooey. Piffle.
Continue Reading April 5th, 2008
Hello Everyone! Anyone Hungry?
I need you all to go online or reply back to this email if you want one (or two!) of the October Boxes that I will be driving over next Thursday/Friday, even if you are on the Automatic Box Route. This is a box I don't count as automatic because so many people are out of town this time of year. I am trying to have all my orders in by Monday night, so I can round everything up for you all. Please stock up on Juices, Jams, Eggs, Beef, Lamb, Buffalo, Cheese, Leroux Creek Skin care, Etc at this time, because most likely I won't come over again until Thanksgiving week. Think Stews and Chilis!
Continue Reading October 17th, 2007
Another Valentine's Day will arrive and another one I will spend single...my on again/off again relationship is apparently off again. I have yet to understand why a person just walks away from a relationship...one of these days I hope to find a man who will actually live up to what he states. Years ago I had a boyfriend tell me "You are not the type of girl you date, you're the type of girl you marry". Well fast forward a decade and that ex-boyfriend has been twice divorced while I have never been married. Go figure? So as I sip a glass of wine and pick at the first cake I have made at 9500 feet that didn't fall I am in awe of all those who have made it to being a couple...wondering how did they do that?
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
The West has finally won out.
How else to explain what I was feeling as I looked out the tenth floor window of the JW Marriott Denver at Cherry Creek, with the carpet of the Rocky Mountains stretched out along the horizon like a sentinel. In the days and weeks just past, I had returned to my past--to New York, Boston, and Vermont--I had gone East, my friends, and found that there was nothing left back there for me.
Continue Reading October 29th, 2006
I am writing from Jerusalem, Israel. I have been here three full days. There are so many stories and details about the adventures so far, but here are some quick notes. I am sleep typing I'm so tired. It's been a go go go trip.
-Visited the Old City, three hour walking tour with Zion Tours (great guide! $15)
-Lots of outdoor vendors in the Old City who will try to engage you in conversation to get you in their shop "Eh, where are you from? Eh, do you speak English? Eh, let me show you something. Eh, what are you looking for? Eh, FREE FREE!" They will say about anything to get your attention.
Continue Reading May 12th, 2006
Got time on your hands? Go get your license renewed. Or try to get a new one. That’s what I did yesterday in Glenwood Springs.
Continue Reading April 20th, 2006
