Thursday, November 4, 2010

Weeks 24 & 25 Of the Grand Experiment!!

Well you're just gonna have to wait on the Starbucks thing. The research is a bit round-robin at the moment.
Instead, just in time for your holiday shopping needs, I bring you:

!!! ECO SELLERS OF ETSY !!!

Yes kiddos, it's closing in on the winter holidays and I thought, "Hey, how about I share some of my Etsy shopping knowledge with all my blog peeps!". It's taken me years to weed out some of the coolest eco and green sellers on Etsy, but now it can take YOU mere seconds! LOL!




Plus there is the added bonus of knowing that the money you spend on your holiday shopping is going DIRECTLY to the crafter / artist!!
Not to the CEO of some huge company who has absolutely nothing to do with the making of the item you're buying.
PLUS, you also know who made the item. Not a giant machine, or conveyor belt assemblage system, and NOT some starving 6 year old forced to work for pennies a month.



How cool am I?!?!? LOL!

So let's get started ya? Each of the pics I'm posting here will link directly to the shop of the maker so you can pop right in and look around. Happy shopping!!



Some of these things are organic and totally new, some are made from recycled materials...



....some are reusable, replacing the evil disposable items in your home.......




....some are vegan...............

........some have a message.................


...............but all these items will help to save the planet in some way AND improve your life!




See how much I love you guys!
Now...as for the eating / buying thing. Buying handmade or used, as you can see, is no biggie now. I even have a couple of trade sites up (one on facebook the other a ning site) to REALLY boost the 'out of the crap stream' idea! Again I say..."Barter and trade = awesome!"
But the eating thing...well local is getting harder as the weather changes. We've found a few sources for items that are local and have been 'put up' for the winter months. (Canned, jarred or dried.) So that'll help. But this is definately the more difficult part of this experiment. I'm baking my own bread now, and we have a TON of dried hot peppers from our own garden, and the City Market is stocking up on local items like eggs and cheeses. Turkey and chicken are easy to get from local farms....organic even! But MAN am I glad I gave up red meat! Farm raised beef is HUGELY expensive around here! Sausage is pretty cheap and easy though...pork AND turkey. The big thing is going to be the fresh veggies and fruits. We SHOULD be able to get apples, pears, potatoes, carrots and other root veg for a while yet. So that'll help. OH! We kind of cheated a bit too. When we were up north this fall, we picked up pure maple syrup and some Maine jams. Well they were local at the time!!! LOL!
Anyhow. That's the score this time.
Hopefully I'll make some headway on the Starbucks thing soon.
Keep tuning in folks!
(PS...here's the barter sites)