An Ethical Christmas

So this year I want to go ethical for Christmas. I’m not talking about buying a goat for an African family on someone’s behalf from Oxfam as lets be honest you never really know if someone is going to appreciate it, even if they do say there is nothing they want. I would only do that if someone asked for it as a present or if they told me not to buy them anything. I don’t know anyone like that but if you do check out the Oxfam website, it is a brilliant idea. I still want to give people something special but without buying into the whole commercialism. So what I am aiming to do is hand make or buy my presents from charity, this could be new items or second hand ones. I already have some recycled wrapping paper in the form of the left over wall paper from our house. It will look gorgeous with a bit of gold ribbon. Not sure where I am going to get that yet; it may be the one thing I buy. And here is my most fantastic mind blowing idea, e-Christmas cards! Since leaving university keeping tabs on everyone’s postal addresses has proved impossible, not that in the age of social networking I have even tried. I have plenty of friends whose mobile phone numbers I don’t even know. All this will require is the collection of a few e-mail addresses and will be significantly easier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than sending cards. I even intend to draw a couple of pretty pictures to scan in and attach to the e-mail so that people don’t feel cheated out of a pretty card. Brilliant idea. The hardest thing is going to be deciding who gets on to my Christmas card list.

Sunday Lunch

Wow check me out with the daily posts. I am being such a good blogger. Expect that to stop once Global Xchange starts! Here's what I wore out to Sunday lunch today at a rather posh venue. I've been watching way too much America's Next Top Model so please excuse the pose.

It's a new dress I picked up in the New Look sale this week. I was only meant to be buying practical clothes that I could take to Stanstead and Kazakhstan but at £12 how could I resist? New Look is pretty much the only place I'm buying clothes at the moment because I'm on something of an ethics drive at the moment and it's the only high street store I know of that has something of an ethical policy though it's far from perfect. I suppose if you're going to get dresses for £12 you're going to be expoliting somebody. Hum... now I feel bad about my wardrobe. I wish I had the time and money to do the research and make the neccessary lifestyle changes to be more ethical. I am trying bit by bit.