BUYING LOCAL, GIVING HANDMADE

I love the holidays.  I love the gatherings with friends and family, full of overflowing tables and bars.  I love the traditions, consisting of Bing Crosby or Sufjan Stevens playing endlessly on our record player and getting inky at my annual holiday wrapping paper printing party. 

 Our annual Christmas "tree"

What I don't love, however, is the push for mass consumption.  As a maker, relying on a lot of sales during the holidays to keep myself and family afloat through slower months, this puts me in a great quandary.  While most of this purchasing is for gift-giving, which I love to do, it is still a mass about of money being exchanged throughout the world.  So how do you not feed into the over-consumption, supporting big business craze?  

I like to think the solution(s) can be simple.  Buy gifts within your local economy and support the businesses that you call neighbors.  Give something made by hands, preferably hands that you have seen and shook or better yet, your hands.  Donate gifts and money to people in need or folks across the globe that struggle endlessly through war, poverty, and illness.  

It requires us all to think about the power of money and who's hands we want to place it in.  It's the same ole song and dance that a lot of folks have been saying for some years now, but I thought that I would give an account of how purchases from my shop help me personally.

Here's just a sample of what purchases from my shop allow me to do:
- Pay rent, so that I can support my husband through the long road of med school.
- Take my dog to the vet, so that when that little jerk eats another piece of corn cob, he can be well taken care of.
- Yoga classes at my local studio, Amrita Yoga & Wellness, so that I can de-stress and stay healthy.
-  Buy more art supplies, so that I can continue making things with my hands.
- Gather starters and seeds from Greensgrow Farms, so that I can have a full and prosperous garden each year.
- Occasionally eat, drink, + shop at my favorite local spots, such as Modo Mio, Pizza Brain, and Art Star, so that I can continue to feed money into my local Philadelphia economy.

With all this said, over the next couple of weeks, I plan to highlight my favorite local makers + businesses - ones that would make fabulous gifts for friends and family.  I encourage us all (cause heaven knows I need the reminder too) to think about where each dollar goes as we stock up on gifts.  And to those friends, family members, and strangers that have already made it clear to me this holiday season who they choose to support, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 A sampling of goods that I design, print, & sew by hand.

Available here.  Enjoy 30% entire orders until midnight est 12/1 with the code: HOLIDAY30