Monday, November 28, 2011

Better Than Black Friday or Cyber Monday



Our favorite company is Patagonia.  They produce the finest outdoor apparel available.  Our son, Zander has been field testing products for them since he was 12.  Every new item blows us away not only in regard to quality but more so with the expanding company ethic.

In response to today's Cyber Monday and last week's Black Friday, they've created this new campaign called The Common Threads Initiative to highlight the environmental cost of consuming and to encourage us to not buy what we do not need.  Reduce, Repair, Reuse and then Recycle is a great mantra to pass on and a simple pledge worth taking.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

We Have a Question

What a failure the so-called Super Committee and all of Congress and the Senate have been to every American.

Why couldn't they do this?  We think it's pathetic.



Simon Abranowicz' Why? was done for The Fox Lane High School Auction benefiting The FLHS Art Gallery taking place on December 6 but the connection to yesterday's news was too hard to pass up.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

1st Dibs

Introspective Magazine, the online publication from 1st Dibs just published a lovely profile on Bill written by Susanna Salk.  You can read the interview and story here.

The cover features Andrea's photograph done on our honeymoon in Greece in 1989.

Hope For the Future

Casey Tierney, our friend and the Photo Director of Real Simple magazine sent us this photograph of her daughter, Ella, in her Halloween costume.  Ella told people that she was, "Patti Smith, a rocker from the 70s who was very important".   We think it's one of the best costumes we've ever seen and confirms, all is well with the youth of today.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Holidays Are Coming...Two great ideas

We are always on the lookout for meaningful ways to mark the holiday, and two recent ideas that crossed our desks strike just the right note in the spirit of our times. 

The first suggestion came via Jayni Chase, a Bedford neighbor and founder of CEE (Center for Environmental Education who urges us to kick the habit of buying cheaply made and foreign stuff this year, instead keeping holiday gift dollars within the community with things like gift certificates for services such as haircuts, car-detailing, or house-cleaning, tickets to a local theater or dance production, a gift card to a local, non-chain restaurant, or jewelry and other items by a local craftsperson.  Jayni says,  "Christmas/Hanukkah is now about...encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams."

In a similar red, white, and blue vein, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, no longer content to wait for our government, has teamed up with a group of community lending institutions to provide financing to small businesses that need support in order to grow and hire.  With $5 million in seed money from Starbucks and the proceeds from donations and sales of a $5 "Indivisible" bracelet available online and at Starbucks everywhere,  Create Jobs for USA will make loans to help create jobs in underserved communities throughout the US. 

We like the way Jayni and Howard are thinking!