Supporting Small Businesses (And Not Amazon) This Holiday Season

As with all things in 2020, this holiday season is going to look quite a bit different this year.

The presents you might usually wrap under the tree don’t seem to make sense right now.

Our mini Christmas tree a few years back.

A cashmere sweater? Mary doesn’t leave the house and exclusively wears sweatpants.

New shoes? Bob hasn’t been to the office in months.

A nice pair of earrings? The last thing Wendy dressed up for was the dentist.

This is all coupled with the fact that we probably aren’t going to be seeing all of our family members and loved ones this holiday season. I know our Thanksgiving and Christmas will just be my immediate family.

So maybe you will be buying fewer presents because you will be seeing fewer people, or instead you want to spread a little more holiday joy because you won’t be seeing loved ones. Either way, you have a choice in where those gifts come from and who your purchases support.

Your dollars count.

While I used to love Black Friday (when it actually meant shopping in store), I have since changed my tune. Unless you are buying a TV, the deals are usually not as great as you think. Instead participate in Small Business Saturday on November 28th or better yet, shop small all holiday season!

I still haven’t gone shopping in a retail store since March, which automatically punts all my holiday shopping to the internet. Not my favorite, but it will have to do this year.

The good news is that there are still so many ways to do your holiday shopping without leaning solely on the big box stores and Amazon***. Our local and small businesses are in dire need of our help anyway due to the pandemic, so the best way to finish off your holiday shopping is by supporting them.

***Full disclosure: While I am hating on Amazon here, we do have an Amazon Prime account that we use occasionally. We have a baby and sometimes 2 day or same day shipping is super necessary when you run out of diaper rash cream.

Here are a couple ways to shop small this season:

Local Businesses

Cute, small mom and pop stores have lost the walk-in customers they used to rely on. I plan to order some gifts from some of my favorites for curbside pickups this year.

In Chicago, here are some of my top shops for the following:

• Cute homey items: Neighborly
• Soaps and lotions, like amazing solid lotion sticks: Taylor Street Soap
• Plastic-free cleaning supplies: Meliora Cleaning Products
• Gardening materials, virtual flower workshops, and house plants: City Grange and Flowers for Dreams (I got my mom their flower subscription for her birthday and she loves getting a fresh, seasonal bouquet delivered once a month!)
• Stationary goods and witty greeting cards: Steel Petal Press
• Yummy foods: Local Foods

Etsy

I love Etsy all year round, but I am definitely shopping here this holiday season. One of my favorite features is being able to filter by shops in the United States, and then even by state and city. It is fun to discover local, nearby shops that don’t have a brick and mortar location.

Etsy is a great option when you are looking for something specific!

Local Restaurants

I am sure you have heard or experienced in your hometown, the intense impact the pandemic has had on restaurants and bars. Pick your favorite place around the corner or down the block and purchase a gift card for those on your list. High on our list is Lucia’s!

While in some cities and states you cannot eat inside a restaurant, your recipient can still use it for a special takeout dinner or save it until they are comfortable and able to dine inside again. Something to look forward to, I suppose?

Additionally, everyone loves a good baked good or a special treat on a Sunday morning. Our favorite local bakeries to support are Floriole, Spinning J, Bennison’s, and Dinkel’s.

Experiences

The gift of an experience is one of my favorite to give. A sports game, tickets to a musical, a membership to a museum or zoo are my usual choices, but this year some experience gifts are not an option.

Not all are cancelled though! The zoos and aquarium here are still open, but operate on a reservation basis and there are plenty of virtual workshops and classes out there.

Virtual Maker Events

Often, I would check off unique, handmade gifts for my recipients from craft fairs, like the one sponsored by my high school to raise money for the athletic boosters, to the more upscale artesian maker shows downtown and throughout the city.

Made in Chicago Market

My personal favorite, the One of a Kind Show, is going virtual this year and you can still shop all of the vendors, but unfortunately miss the great interaction with the artists.

Two other shows that I have shopped at in the past are Show of Hands and Made in Chicago Market. They are online too.

So while the fun of wandering past booths and eyeing items across the room is out for this year, we can still shop!

That’s it! If you are a family member reading this, you got a sneak peak, because you will definitely be getting something from this list!

A Secondhand Nursery

One thing I did not want to do once we transformed our guest room into a nursery was buy a whole bunch of new furniture.

The transformation process was pretty slow going because we had to move a ton of stuff out of the guest room to make way for baby.

We utilized Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist to sell a lot of the bigger items including the desk, some lamps, pillows, and other odds and ends. I also paid someone to recycle our mattress and box spring.

As things have left, we were able to start focusing on the items we needed and a lot of the main components of our nursery ended up being secondhand, coming from family members, strangers, flea markets, and online stores.

Here is how we ended up furnishing our nursery with pre-loved items:

The Crib

Our baby’s crib came from my cousin and it was previously another baby’s crib before that! Don’t worry. The issue with using a secondhand cribs is not knowing where the crib came from or if it’s super old with a drop down side. We know where it is from and no drop down side, so we are good to go!

The Dresser/Changing Table

I scoured Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for a vintage midcentury modern lowboy dresser to use as a changing table. The goal was to find a piece of furniture that could be used as a regular old dresser down the road and not look like a standard changing table. I ended up finding this one on Facebook Marketplace and am so happy with it!

The Rocking Chair

This rocking chair was actually my mom’s and she rocked me in it as a baby. Growing up, the rocking chair was in our computer room and I spent many hours talking on the phone sitting in it. Now I get to rock my own baby in this chair!

Additionally, the original cushion on this chair definitely did not go with the nursery theme, but luckily my mother-in-law was able to reupholster it!

The tallboy dresser behind the rocking chair is also secondhand, but we have had it for a number of years and it was bought on Craigslist. Luckily it matches pretty well!

The Clothes Tree

This kiddie sized clothes tree has also been around the block! It was originally in my mom’s bedroom as a child and eventually was in mine. It has been painted a number of times including yellow, pink, and now grey! It was already grey before we added it to the nursery, so we didn’t have to paint it again!

The Vintage Posters

As for decor, our theme is loosely “vintage science classroom,” and these vintage science posters were the inspiration. I found these at the Grayslake Flea Market and bought them from a retired high school science teacher who taught in the 70’s.

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The Vintage Map

The pull down geographical classroom map was the second piece we collected in the theme from the Elkhorn Flea Market. It sat in our closet for a few years just waiting for a baby to come along.

The Vintage Children’s Books and Microscope

To round out the theme, I found some smaller pieces for the tallboy dresser.

The vintage children science books are from the 50’s and 60’s and I found them on Etsy.

Also from Etsy, I picked up a vintage microscope to use as a bookend.

And there you have it! We do have another storage piece of furniture in the room with fabric bins (not pictured) and that came from Facebook Marketplace.

Otherwise, a majority of the rest of the items came from Target including both table lamps, the rug, side table, ottoman pouf and blackout curtains.

Not bad? I think we did a pretty good job of keeping it secondhand. What do you think?

 

How To: Not Buy Baby Stuff

We have not bought much for this baby so far.

I haven’t bought a cute outfit or a soft blanket. Really all we have bought is some stuff for the nursery and most of it was either given to us or purchased secondhand (that’s a post for later!).

Our first baby purchase were some little booties from our alma mater to announce the pregnancy.

The moment we found out we were expecting, we knew that it would be a slippery slope of baby stuff coming from every which direction, be it grandparents, friends, or a box being delivered on our doorstep.

For me personally, not buying stuff for the baby was not all that hard. Given that we don’t know the gender, there wasn’t much I could get anyway unless I wanted my baby to dress exclusively in grey and white (gender-neutral clothes are so lame <insert eyeroll>).

For others though, the urge to shower me in stuff was a little stronger and I had to have a conversation with both future grandmothers not to run out to Homegoods and buy everything in sight.

Right now, pretty much everything in baby’s nursery has come from someone else, be they hand me downs from other little babies in our lives or pieces of furniture.

This baby is going to get stuff though, even with the uncertainty of my baby shower even happening. I did my best to be conscious of what was going on my registry. I focused on multi-purpose items such as our bassinet/pack-in-play combo and a high chair that grows with baby. and quality materials such as wood, cotton, and glass over plastic.  Using Babylist, I was also able to ask for non-material items, such as house cleaning, babysitting, and home-cooked meals. I could even ask for preloved clothes and books!

Any advice for keeping the overwhelming amount of baby stuff at bay? Please share!

 

 

Patience

If you know me personally, patient most likely wouldn’t be your adjective of choice to describe me.

But I have been thinking lately about patience and that is mostly because I started a new job that I am very very excited about. I graduated 6 years ago and I have been through 4 jobs since then. Some were good and some were not, but I continued to search, to network, and to interview.

I got rejected A LOT. Since 2012, I have applied for 393 jobs and received 60 first-round interviews. That is a success rate of 15%. It was disheartening and frustrating, but I had to be patient. It was worth the wait.

Patience is also an important trait when dealing with any environmental/waste/green tasks. Our society has pushed instant gratification on us. We use something once and then throw it out. We want something new, we buy it right now and get it shipped to our door the next day.

It seems counterintuitive to go against this, and harder, more difficult, and inconvenient, but it makes a bigger impact.

Take an extra two seconds and collect your kitchen scraps for a compost service.

Search secondhand services for exactly what you are looking for and sell your items on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and ThredUp. Or donate your stuff.

Fix up what you already have whether it is a chair, jeans, or your dress pants,

Collect personal care products and plastic bags, save your beyond repair clothing, take in your running shoes to be recycled, and return wire hangers from the cleaners.

Grow your own vegetables or join a CSA.

Shave with a safety razor.

Take action on things you don’t want like junk mail, mail not addressed you and solicitations.

Choose the slower shipping option.

All of these things take TIME, but I value the outcome more than the time it takes to bring my plastic bags back to the grocery store.

It takes patience to do these things instead of just throwing stuff into the trash can. Sure, that is easier and sure, that is faster.

But properly taking care of what comes in and out of your life is worth the wait.

Spammed by Environmental Orgs.

Last year, we donated to Sierra Club post-election.

Which is great and all until you consider how much mail we get from them and now every other environmental organization under the sun (that’s an exaggeration, but it feels like it).

 

Not only do we get constant mail from the Sierra Club, but also the Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, EarthJustice, World Wildlife Fund, and Heifer International.

We have more return address labels than one could possibly use in a lifetime, and plenty of stickers, calendars, and notepads have shown up in our mailbox.

While I support these organizations, I do not support their ridiculous mailing campaigns.

Isn’t it funny that an organization devoted to our environment would waste so much on mailings?

That an organization focused on conserving resources is shoving them into our mailbox?

I have already covered stopping generic junk mail and it is no different with these organizations. I will now be individually contacting each one to ask to be removed from their mailing list, not because I don’t back what they do, but because I don’t want their spam filling up my recycling bin. #Sorrynotsorry

How To: Stop Junk Mail

Getting stuff in the mail is awesome.

Getting unwanted stuff in the mail is not.

 

We all have experienced it. You open the mailbox and find something addressed to you or the current resident (whom you have never heard of) and have no idea why you are getting this piece of mail. You don’t even know what this company is that’s sending you catalogs.

Besides just tossing it in the recycling bin, there are a number of ways you can keep yourself from getting junk mail in the first place.

The biggest thing you can do is avoid giving out your address, but sometimes junk mail will find you anyway.

Below are some resources you can use to be removed from all sorts of mailing lists.

• PaperKarma
• National Do Not Mail List
• DMAchoice.com
• CatalogChoice
• OptOutPrescreen.com (For credit related mailing)

 

Here are some of my requests I submitted to PaperKarma. Who are you King Ranch Saddle Shop?!

 

Another way to combat the onslaught of unwanted mail is to find the sender’s phone number, any number you can find, and call them to remove yourself from the mailing list.

Be warned that it takes over a month sometimes to be officially removed from mailing lists. A lot of the time, a catalog or a mailing is already in production and printed with your name on it before you make the call.

On another note, as much as I love giving money to a good cause such as a charity or non-profit, be careful. Sometimes when you donate, your mailing information can get shared with (or sold to) other organizations. For example, post-election, K donated to an environmental organization and now we get TONS of calendars, address labels (SO MANY), notepads, and more.

If you are looking for more, check out my friend Celia over at Litterless who also wrote a great post on getting rid of junk mail.

DIY: Saving My Favorite Jeans

My jeans always rip in the exact same place. Right in the crotch area.

In the past, I have had my grandmother patch them up for me. Sometimes the same pair would get repaired several times like the one below.

While folding my laundry last week, I noticed my newest pair of jeans (over a year and a half old) have finally achieved the dreaded crotch rip. I was not shocked or surprised. This was bound to happen eventually.

Besides this tiny hole in a not so noticeable spot, the jeans are just fine. There was no need to fret, I was going to patch them myself!

My sewing skills are even more sub-par than my knitting skills. I can sew buttons and seams together, but nothing this extensive (is this considered extensive?).

Now was my chance to learn a new skill that I could continue to use for years to come!

First, I needed some supplies I did not currently have in my possession.

1. pinking shears
2. fusible

I looked up what pinking shears cost and they aren’t too expensive, but so far I have gone my entire life not needing them, so there is no point in making that purchase now. Instead, I chose to borrow a pair from my grandmother. #vintage

After a quick trip to Jo-Anne’s for fusible, I gathered all my supplies and was ready to go.

First things first, I cut out a patch of denim from my now scrap pair of jeans. My plan was basically just to reinforce the crotch/thigh rub area so it would not rip any further.

 

I figured sewing the patch straight into the seam would help keep the fabric strong. To help, I used fusible, which basically turns your patch into an iron-on. I have never used fusible before and figured it could not hurt my pants any further.

 

Once the patches were ironed on, it was time to start sewing and this took a much longer time than I had thought! If I had a sewing machine this definitely would have been done sooner, but alas I do not. A used sewing machine is on my wish list (hint hint).

Sewing the patches too frustratingly long. I started this Friday afternoon and did not finish until Sunday evening, but hey, at least I can wear my jeans on Monday!

They aren’t perfect, but I think I did a pretty decent job for my first try and I know I have more to learn.

Have you ever tried to patch your favorite pair of jeans before? Do you have any better suggestions for the next time this happens to me?

 

How To: Gracious Gifting

My Christmas gifts are all finished, and they have been for awhile. If you pay attention to the people you are giving to throughout the year, it is fairly easy to come up with something. For example, I keep a note in my phone with gift ideas for my friends and family.

Giving and getting experiences is by far the best type of gift. Even if that isn’t an option, I want to be able to give something that truly has meaning to the receiver, is a need, and stimulates the local economy at the same time. Sorry, department store Christmas commercials, I will not be buying people random sweaters for the holidays.

Here is what you can do to be a conscious gifter:

Go Local

Help a small, local business out and get your gifts from them. To avoid a physical gift, gift cards to a favorite restaurant are always a good option.

Go High Quality

Make your purchase worth it. Going handmade and local usually means it’s going to be of higher quality compared to store brand. Go for brands that have lifetime satisfaction guarantees like LL Bean, Eddie Bauer, or anything on Buy Me Once.

Make It

The most memorable gifts I have ever given have been ones I have made with my own hands. One Christmas I spent countless hours knitting my dad a cable knit scarf and he wears it ALL THE TIME.

Have Someone Else Make It

Sometimes the thing we want to give others is beyond our own ability. If so, employ a local artist or someone from Etsy to help get your message across. I have sent get well cookies to sick friends and personalized flower vases for newly married couples.

Wrap It (Or Don’t Wrap it)

Wrapping paper is a huge waste. I refuse to buy it ever again, especially when we are daily subscribers to the Chicago Tribune. That provides plenty of newspaper to be used for wrapping. Additionally, I save every gift bag and bow I receive so I can pull those out if necessary.

 

 

How to: Get Excited Again Post-Election

Many of the people I follow on WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter expected last Tuesday to come out a little different than we thought. I woke up that morning at 4:40 AM to head to my polling place to serve as an election judge. I was excited. I was ready to contribute to and witness history. I had planned on saving my “I Voted” wristband, writing “11/8/16 Election of First Female President” on it and saving it forever.

So much excitement the morning of. 

 

Unfortunately, when I woke up Wednesday morning my world was a completely different place. I was in denial and not really sure how to accept the next four years of my life. For myself and my colleagues in the environmental field, this was a huge blow. I took Wednesday to sulk,  be sad and eat a bowl of cereal in bed. I avoided watching the news or looking at articles on the internet.

By the time Monday rolled around, I had come to a different place of acceptance. For those of us who care about our planet and climate change, we have to remember that this election was not a vote on climate. It wasn’t a hot topic and wasn’t talked about as much as it should have been. As much as we tweeted and emailed, it was never asked about in any of the 3 presidential debates.

Monday night, I attended a meeting with my fellow Environmental Defense Fund Chicago Ambassadors and others interested in talking about how EDF planned to move forward post-election. This meeting was already planned well before the results of the election were known and our gathering had a much more somber feeling than originally intended.

Everything is a little blurry still, but this is what we know so far:

• The President-Elect wants to end the “War on Coal”
• The President-Elect wants to eliminate the Clean Power Plan
• The President- Elect wants to abandon the Paris Agreement
• Myron Ebell will be leading the EPA transition

Unfortunately, we are fortunate that the battle for clean air and water has always been a battle. It was never easy in the first place to get the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the EPA established. So this time, it is no different. Fighting for the environment is all we know how to do. Protests, petitions, writing to support legislation, and sharing sound science are actions we are all very familiar with.

Richard Nixon despised environmentalists, yet he was the most pro-environment president the US has ever seen. His administration created the EPA and charged it with protecting human health and the environment. Our outcry was enough for Nixon to give in.

So what we have to do now is stand and fight. EDF will be working hard to defend the work they have already accomplished. This is going to go down to the states. In Illinois, our legislators will be voting on the Clean Jobs Bill after Thanksgiving. SO WRITE TO YOUR LEGISLATORS!

We need the public to tell this new administration we won’t stand for a rollback on environmental rules and regulations. We won’t stand for a president that does not believe in climate change despite the overall consensus from scientists AROUND THE WORLD.

It was a battle from the very beginning and that battle is not going to end in the next four years. Because it is a battle, the wins are that much more worth it. We will keep moving forward and hopefully, our destruction won’t catch up to us.

 

 

 

How Long Will It Take to Receive My Blue Cart? Part 1

Now that I am all moved in, it is time to get the City of Chicago’s Blue Cart Residential Recycling Program in my multi-unit building! Here is the timeline on how that went down so far.

Sunday April 3rd, 2016

Emailed my Alderman’s office asking how to get a recycling tote for my building. It didn’t explicitly say on their website how to go about requiring one, so I just emailed the office. This is what it says in regard to recycling:

“The Blue Cart program provides bi-weekly recycling services to single family homes and multi-unit buildings with four or fewer units.  By recycling regularly, you can help reduce the need for landfills, lower disposal costs, reduce pollution and conserve natural resources, such as timber, water and minerals.”

Monday April 4th, 2016

Received a response from a City Council staff member for my Ward asking how many units there are in my building. So I quickly responded with an answer of 4 units.

Amazingly it only took 8 minutes to get another response with the following information:

The good news: the request will be processed immediately

The bad news: it can take at least 5 weeks to receive a blue cart and  I was advised to “be patient.”

Tuesday April 5th, 2016

Obviously have not heard a response yet, but the recycling pile is growing….

Sunday April 10th, 2016

At this point the recycling has to go somewhere and I refuse to throw it out. Therefore it is now in my car until I take it to one of the recycling dumpsters.

Wednesday April 13th, 2016

The big boxes to recycle are still in my car. I have yet to make it to a recycling dumpster, but garbage/recycling day was today so I stealthily brought my recycling bin from the apartment down and dumped it in a neighbor’s blue cart that was out for pick up.

Wednesday April 20th, 2016

Finally brought the big boxes to the residential recycling drop off center at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. There are a number of these around Chicago and you can learn more about where they are here.

Monday April 25th, 2016

Still nothing. Now I am wondering if I get some type of email notifying me that my blue cart has been delivered, or just hope that it shows up one day next to our garbage cans?

I will keep you filled in! Look out for Part 2!