Buy Nothing Day and Giving Tuesday

If you read my post last week about how important it is to be thoughtful about what you purchase, then you might be able to imagine how unbelievably ill the holiday season of over-consumption makes me. Particularly the insanity around Black Friday. There’s an alternative – a way to speak out against the mindless mass-consumerism [...]

The First Fruits of the Harvest

This past weekend I got together with Kate over at the  Crafty Homestead and we made some fabulous peach jam.  The following day was the Peach Festival which my band plays at every year, and guess what we brought home?  Yup, peaches.  Emboldened by our success from the previous day, and now absolutely laden with peaches, Obo and [...]

January Update on the Compact

January, my first month of living with the Compact has come and gone, and we’re now well into February. How did we do? I ran up against an item that I guess I should have included in my exceptions at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t think of it at the time – [...]

I Don’t Do Resolutions – 2 Non-Resolutions for 2012

I’m going to call this complete coincidence – the fact that I have these two non-resolutions to put into place for 2012. It’s all about timing, really. Over the past two months I’ve been giving lots of thought to my blogging, (thanks to NaBloPoMo) what I want to get out of it, and give to [...]

Downsizing, Part 3

Our efforts to downsize are continuing this weekend; most exciting of all is that we involved our oldest son in the process today, and we gave away a box of toys and books. It helps that I’ve connected with a local consignment shop that also donates to a women’s shelter in the next town, so [...]

Buy Nothing Day 2011 – Who’s In?

Every year around Thanksgiving I’m reminded that there’s an alternative to “Black Friday” – annual Buy Nothing Day, which is meant to be the antithesis of Black Friday.  In my down-sizing, simplifying, non-consumerist, self-sufficient desires, this is the perfect opportunity to detach from the consumer-binging hordes and go against the grain. Is anyone else out [...]