{"id":299,"date":"2012-11-27T15:42:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T19:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/welcome\/local-and-sustainable-holiday-shopping-ideas\/"},"modified":"2012-11-27T15:42:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T19:42:00","slug":"local-and-sustainable-holiday-shopping-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/local-and-sustainable-holiday-shopping-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Local and Sustainable Holiday Shopping Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am not really a fan of Christmas. I’m not a Christian and the holiday doesn’t hold much meaning for me. I’d rather give someone a present on a random Tuesday and share greetings and good times throughout the year than try to pack it all in to one hymn-laden, over-scheduled month.<\/p>\n

I’m not a total Grinch or anything. I still believe in getting presents for kids and letting them experience the magic of Santa Claus and all that. I like having a big meal with loved ones, singing a few carols and watching the 1951 version of Scrooge<\/a> (A Christmas Carol) with the brilliant Alastair “I-don’t-deserve-to-be-so-happy!” Sim.<\/p>\n

But I’m perfectly happy not to get any presents.<\/p>\n

However, I know not everyone chooses to opt out of the season to the extent I do. And if you are shopping around for holiday treats, I happen to have some great local, indie and\/or sustainable gift ideas, in Nova Scotia, in Toronto, and, as things go these days, online, too.<\/p>\n

Nova Scotia\/online:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. My new record Blackbirds<\/i>, of course. It’s available for sale at The Biscuit Eater Cafe and Bookstore<\/a> in Mahone Bay, The Power House Gallery<\/a> in Lunenburg and this Saturday only, from 1-6pm at the Holiday Artist’s Market <\/a>that is taking place at the Lunenburg Cultural Centre (I’ll also be playing music there, swapping sets with brilliant finger-style guitarist\u00a0Bob Ardern<\/a>). It’s also available online, shipping physical copies from Canada (i.e. my house) through Bandcamp<\/a>, from the US through CDBaby<\/a>, and digital copies through those two – and through iTunes<\/a> (did you know you can gift music through iTunes? You just need to know the e-mail address the recipient uses for their iTunes account.)<\/li>\n
  2. My Mom, Janet Barkhouse’s picture book version of my Nana’s novel, Pit Pony<\/a>. (Mom will be reading and signing books at The Biscuit Eater Cafe and Bookstore in Mahone Bay this Sunday, December 2).
    <\/a><\/li>\n
  3. My cousin Nancy’s awesome handbags. Check ’em out here at NPK designs on Facebook<\/a>:
    <\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Art from Power House Gallery<\/a> in Lunenburg, especially art by Lynn Misner, the genius artist who painted, “The Caretaker”, the piece that graces the cover of my new CD:
    <\/a><\/li>\n
  5. The Ark (655 King Street, Bridgewater): a great place to buy gifts and support a community of physically and mentally challenged adults at the same time. I love the things made by the folks at The Ark, especially their handcrafted rugs, cushions and woodworking.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    <\/div>\n
    Toronto\/online:<\/div>\n
    \n
      \n
    1. Firefly Creative writing<\/a>‘s on-site and on-line writing workshops, especially The Blog Shop, a weekend on-line workshop for aspiring and stuck bloggers.<\/li>\n
    2. A Nia Dance Party with Jenn Hicks<\/a>. Fun, uplifting, good times dancing with your friends.<\/li>\n
    3. Creativity coaching with Danette Relic at\u00a0<\/span>The Radical Creative Sanctuary<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. Life coaching from Jamie Ridler<\/a>. And, while you’re there shopping, make sure to sign up for Jamie’s motivating free newsletter yourself.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n
      Online:<\/div>\n
      \n
        \n
      1. Reflections: an inspiration journal from Paper Bag Press<\/a>: an art journal to inspire artistic creativity.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
      2. Feeling a little frisky? For those intimate friends, how about something from Kim at Ecosex.ca<\/a>?<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Oh, so many wonderful ideas\u2014gifts you can feel good about giving and that your recipients will love!<\/span><\/div>\n

        <\/div>\n
        Happy holidays!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        I am not really a fan of Christmas. I’m not a Christian and the holiday doesn’t hold much meaning for me. I’d rather give someone a present on a random Tuesday and share greetings and good times throughout the year …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,39,59,58,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blackbirds-2","category-community","category-investing-in-communities","category-shopping-locally","category-the-biscuit-eater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexsings.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}