Green Guelph

I have used your flyers as my wrapping paper this year.

Cam

So Here’s more updates for you on my December Challenge: No Bags month! Well….trying anyways!

Value Village: No bag

Bible For Missions Thrift Store: No bags

The Source: No bags

Fairweather: I used a bag

Starbucks: No bag

So I’ve been a bit better this week compared to last week.

Here’s an article in today’s Mercury about my friend Erica Harrison. She owns her own business called TigerLily Design.  Her website is www.tigerlilydesign.ca so check it out! I have used her services for choosing colours for painting within my home and I have actually purchased her cards last year to use and they are fantastic!!!! I have referred her to others and the feedback has been outstanding. She knows what she’s doing and now she’s also sending portions of her profits to help children in Africa. I never thought Erica could be a nicer person and now she’s proven me wrong. Please get in touch with her!

Article: By Katie May

A local interior designer is decorating homes to help build houses for children in Africa.

Erica Harrison, owner of TigerLily Design on Grove Street, is donating a portion of proceeds from all sales to benefit orphaned and HIV/AIDS-infected children in the South African country of Zambia, where about 700,000 children are homeless.

“My goal is to be able to provide built houses and places where they can live,” said Harrison, who creates custom stationery as well as offering design services.

Harrison will donate partial profits from every aspect of her business, including 10 per cent of the profits from design consultations and $5 from every $25 pack of notecards sold, to child care centres in Zambia such as Mother Teresa’s Hospice.

Harrison is planning to make a trip there in early spring, when she’ll deliver the donations.

“It just kind of touched my heart that there are so many children that are in that situation,” she said.

“It just felt right.”

Harrison has been donating proceeds for more than a month already, but she officially launched her Love One campaign earlier this week.

She hopes the donations will become an ongoing part of her business and she will continue donating proceeds after returning from Zambia.

I forgot to tell you all about my December challenge. Just for myself but hey, maybe you might want to try it out for the next couple of weeks.

My challenge was to not use any bags at all from anywhere for the whole month. I certainly didn’t pick the best month to try this as I’ve been out to a bazillion stores to buy Christmas gifts for people.  Okay maybe not a bazillion, that may have been a bit over the top. Anyways, every time I get to the counter I have to tell the checkout person that I don’t want a bag. The reaction has been interesting…

1. They ask “Why?”…so I tell them about my December challenge and so far 100% of them (and those around me in line) have been shaking their heads in support and saying that it’s a good idea.
2. They look at the amount of stuff I bought and depending on the amount they either say “Oh okay”, or “Are you sure? That’s a lot of stuff!” When it has turned out to be a lot of stuff I did have to do a little bit of a balancing act to make my way to the car with all of it…but I made it.

So how have I done you might ask. Well…I’ve actually been keeping stats. I have So far I’ve gone to:

The Source (2 times): No bag first time, used one second time to hide gift from my son who was in the car – fair enough.

WalMart: No bags

Sunshine Kids (2 times) : Bag first time again, the kids were in the car and wanted to hide the gifts. Second time – None.

Value Village (3 times): No bags

Canadian Tire: 3 bags. (kinda forgot about my challenge while I was there…sorry)

I still have a lot of other places to go and shop for Christmas yet so I intend on doing the following:

1. Don’t forget about the challenge. That’s probably a good place to start.
2. Bring my reusable bags!!! I have about 15 of them in my house and I just keep forgetting to bring them in. I really think it’s got be a habit for me. Before I leave the car I’ll have to make sure I have my keys, my wallet, my cell phone and those REUSABLE BAGS!!!!!

I’ll keep you in the loop as the rest of the month goes on. Although I’m not 100% it’s still been fun and it’s been good to try this. Maybe you could try it? Let me know if you do!

Cam Guthrie