A Weekend with Friends!

I had the great pleasure to celebrate a milestone birthday with a very good friend this past weekend. A surprise sleepover for a select few of her dearest friends. The surprise went off without a hitch and the rest of the evening unfolded with good food and very tasty margarita’s. It was the next morning when it came time to clean up that I had the idea for this blog.

As I reached across the other ladies all busily picking up this and that I asked the obvious question, (obvious to me) where should I put the recycle stuff? where is your compost? The laughter rose above the conversational tone in the kitchen as my dear, now older friend began to explain to the others “Jude is my hippie friend who doesn’t shop at Walmart and composts and recycles everything she can get her hands on, takes in strays off the street and uses only biodegradable products.”

My response was a referral to my carbon footprint which just resulted in more laughter as my friend went on to explain that I dry out and reuse my milk bags for heaven’s sakes!!

I must say over the years I have tried to lead by example. I am not the type to climb atop a soap box, when in the company of friends. I simply do what I do, if the topic comes up I don’t shy away from my daily practices but I also don’t preach. I have gained the reputation of a environmental Nazi in my family, my husband affectionately refers to me as such, but outside the home I take my hits but I always stand my ground.

I find it amazing that there are so many people out there who really don’t give it a second thought and these are good people, nice people. This friend I was celebrating with has been in my life since we were in 4th grade and we will continue to share special events for many years to come and we won’t love each other any less, we are just different. And as we all know variety is the spice of life, throw in a tangy margarita and life does not get any better.

I will continue to lead by example and when given the opportunity to spread the message I will continue to do so.

-Jude

YAY! Putumayo Is In!

Now I’m a big fan of Putumayo Music and their aim to spread their vast musical knowledge on an international scale; but I’m not gonna lie…being in the store everyday and listening to the same music can get a little redundant. But hurrah! A new selection of CD’s have been added to our musical inventory here at P’lovers!

Already, I know my preferred discs: Latin Jazz is high on the list. The brass section is just awesome in this disc! The CD also covers some well known jazz favourites such as Summertime. I love being able to access the sounds of various musical styles on a global scale, and hearing others’ interpretation of a song.

Another great one is Acoustic Africa. I love the sounds of mellow and relaxing tunes; in which is this disc is full of! In this CD, you’ll hear tons of drumming and shakers; basically an unlimited amount of percussion instruments!

Finally, American Folk is my everlasting favourite. While I do complain about listening to the same CD’s, I can never hear enough of American Folk. I find it suits our store environment to a tee — so soft and flowing, omitting many complementarity sounds — basically it lets you relax and take a break.

Not only does Putumayo Music select great musicians and songs, they are also compassionate and giving! A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each Cd is donated to the non-profit Putumayo Cross-Cultural Initiative. Putumayo describes its charitable cause as,

…Contributing to many non-profits doing good work in regions where the music originates. For the past years, Putumayo has focused its non-profit efforts on various local as well as international NGOs working in different parts of the world. We intend to keep on supporting these organizations and other specific NGOs working in the countries where the music originates.

Listed below this statement are numerous charities in which Putumayo supports, including Action Against Hunger, Amnesty International, Futures for Children…etc. just to name a few.

So come check out our selection of Putumayo Music discs! And, as a bonus, when you purchase two Putumayo CDs, you receive a gift CD which contains a selection of diverse songs deriving from a variety of Putumayo discs! Wooo — free stuff!

-Catherine:)

Buy Quality, Buy Canadian!

When I opened my local Port Perry Star newspaper this morning, I was delighted to read a letter to the editor from Colin Scriver from Newcastle.

The subject matter of Colin’s letter has been rattling around in my head for a while. It allows me to reflect on three inter-related themes that I think are incredibly important for all Canadian consumers — buying quality, shopping Canadian, and “walking the talk”.

Read on…

“I am a manufacturer and I too get frustrated with all the foreign imports, but I drive a Toyota. The reason you ask? Quality.

I have owned a lot of GM products (three trucks, five cars) and two Chrysler products from different dealers, and it is the same old story.

Extremely poor quality and no one to back it up. I got sick of it. I have never been mistreated and dismissed so much in my life than at a GM dealer.

I don’t get that at Toyota. Oh, and my 2008 Honda Civic has more Canadian content than most GM vehicles, alongside my made in Canada Toyota Matrix.

Both vehicles are made in Canada and both are serviced in Canada and made by taxpaying Ontarians.

But here is to all the GM employees who insist our economy is crashing strictly due to the fact that I bought a Toyota — wake up.

The majority of your daily purchases are probably products made in China. So, if you can come up with a way of eliminating that, your cars will definitely improve.”

As owner of P’lovers in Port Perry and principle product buyer, it is incredibly important to me to carry high quality products for our customers. As a consumer myself, I recognize that buying quality may come with a higher initial price tag, but it will inevitably be cheaper in the long run. It just makes sense that if I am replacing a product less often, fewer overall resources will be used in the process, resulting in a smaller ecological footprint. This truly is a winning scenario for everyone.

Buying Canadian is another important P’lovers purchasing principle and a goal that I share as a consumer. Minimizing the distance a product travels to get to my store (or my home) makes an obvious positive impact on our environment.

There is, however, an important economic benefit as well.

According to research conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, it is small and medium sized business that drives the Canadian economy — not the big chains or the multinationals.

Three to four times more of the money you spend is re-invested back into your community when you choose to shop at local independent stores versus the (cheaper, lower quality) big box alternative.  As Colin suggests in his letter, supporting the big box stores only exacerbates the problem.

When you choose to shop at P’lovers, you do so knowing we, in turn, have made a conscious commitment to support, whenever possible, small Canadian craftspeople and micro-businesses — Pheylonian, Nature’s Bodyworks, Ella’s Botanicals, Ringley, Zee Spot, Frank Glew, Arbour, A Slice of the North, Dog Bite Steel, Dream Designs, Snug Sleep, Green Beaver, to name just a few.

These products may come with a higher price tag, but will also be better quality than anything else you will find in the market. We choose this purchasing strategy knowing our support helps our fellow small Canadian businesses re-invest in their communities and succeed in the face of incredible competition.

In short, it is an good example of “walking the talk” and is simply the right thing to do.

-Steve

Swimming in the Sewer

Last week, the kids and I piled into the car and headed to beautiful Lakeview Park, at the foot of Simcoe Street, on Lake Ontario in Oshawa. A fantastic place to hang out with your kids, the park boasts a great playground, picnic areas, loads of trees and best of all, a brilliant sandy beach – perfect for both swimming and sand castles.

Imagine our dismay on this blazing hot day, when we get to the beach and see the Beach Closed sign posted by the Medical Officer of Health.

Now I’m not a ‘germaphobe’ and have never been particularly squeamish when it comes to these things, but I asked the life guard on duty what she could tell me about the posting.

She informed me that the water had a high concentration of e coli bacteria as a result of some recent heavy rainfall and Toronto’s overflowing sewer system.

The mental image of swimming in sewage was more than enough to persuade me to keep the kiddies out of the water on this day.

According to the Toronto Environmental Alliance, author of an excellent internet resource on the topic of beach and water pollution…

“Periodically, a heavy downpour can deliver too much volume to Toronto’s main sewage treatment plant too quickly. When this happens the City is forced to bypass treatment at the plant and send sewage out into Lake Ontario, untreated. This has been known to happen up to 14 times a year.”

How incredibly pathetic is that?!

-Steve

A Wisdom Book

One of my favourite books in the world is here on the bookshelf and also in the lending library at P’lovers. Upon my discovery of this book I began to sing it’s praises to one and all. I have purchased it for many of the important people in my life because I feel the need to share it.

The message is one of simplicity and one that bears repeating.

The Four Agreements are as follows:

1. Be impeccable with your word
2. Don’t take anything personally
3. Don’t make assumptions
4. Always do your best.

What more can I say, words would just get in the way.

For Christmas my daughter donated a copy of The Four Agreements to our local library in my name. I was touched, proud and happy to be able to share this meaningful message to others.

It is a book I refer to often when life becomes a little heavy or I feel I need a touchstone. Now I pass this wonderful book and it’s message on to you. Please drop by and peruse a copy, pick one up or borrow the copy in our lending library.

I promise you will not be disappointed.

-Jude

From the Author
Everything we do is based on agreements we have made - agreements with ourselves, with other people, with God, with life. But the most important agreements are the ones we make with ourselves. In these agreements we tell ourselves who we are, how to behave, what is possible, what is impossible. One single agreement is not such a problem, but we have many agreements that come from fear, deplete our energy, and diminish our self-worth.”

In this powerful book that has remained on The New York Times Bestseller List for over eight years, don Miguel reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. When we are ready to change these agreements, there are four deceptively simple, yet powerful agreements that we can adopt as guiding principles. The Four Agreements® offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.