This could be very cool and kinda weird…

or very weird and kinda cool.

If you’re in Los Angeles, check out Good magazine’s Local World’s Fair, offering up some crafty shopping options, food, music, workshops, film screenings, and lectures all vaguely related to doing good for the community, the environment or both. It’s open from 12/5- 12/19 and much of it seems kid friendly. Though if you can get them to sit through the entire wild yeast culture demonstration you’re a far better parent than me.

 

6824 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles 90038

Attention holiday shoppers? Anyone? Hellooo…

OK so the retail situation is a little grim right now. The good news, sort of, is that everything is on sale. As a person who rarely buys anything that’s not on sale, this is a temptation often too great to resist. So I end up attempting to shop, mostly wandering through stores in a fog. And then I end up having the same schizo conversation with myself. Does this sound familiar?:

Me: “Hot DOG! EVERYTHING is on sale!”

Also me: “I know! This is amazing!”

Me: “Wait, hold on. Why is this on sale again?”

Also me: “Nobody’s buying anything. At all. Because we’re in a not-so-great depression, remember?”

Me: “RIGHT. Right. So WHY AM I SHOPPING?”

[panic, sweats, hyperventilation, dash for the door, speed home] 

That’s why I’m so glad my friend Melissa in New York sent this link to the Gifts with Humanity website, and specifically the Angels With Attitude.

 

They’re made from recycled soda cans by Zulu schoolchildren (many of them orphans) in a region hit very hard by AIDS, and the kids profit directly from the sales. At about $5 each, they make great ornaments and stocking stuffers, especially with a card that explains who made them and why.

What’s even better is that I can buy them from home, and avoid the embarrassing echo of tires screeching in the parking structure.

p.s. That’s it for the devastating orphan posts today.