Yes, you CAN find it cheaper at WalMart!

Cold December morning but the vendors and crafty-folk bundle up and carry on.

One of the growing attractions in Folsom are the Sutter Street fairs, full of local small business folk and artists selling their wares. Last week's fair was full of wonderful sights and great gift ideas and I admit that although I was there to blog, I did some shopping as well...

Locally crafted ceramic bowl I bought while "working" on the Blog.

I picked up a few items like photographic cards as my Christmas cards (makes it much more personal than buying a bulk package) and I could not resist a booth of fine ceramics. The shapes were not that unusual but the glazes were AMAZING! I have experience with ceramics and for me the glazing process is a fascinating art. I was seeing colors and effects I had never seen before and immediately began talking with the artist. He told me he crafted his own glazes and I exclaimed at how unusual they were and how you could not find anything so unique in a chain store.   He replied that one woman complained that she could find cheaper bowls at WalMart. My knees nearly buckled I was so floored with disbelief.

Yes folks, YOU CAN FIND "IT" CHEAPER at some box chain store. "It" being a nondescript, mass manufactured bowl that you can get  everywhere and thousands (perhaps millions) of people have.

This is the thinking that cheapens our lives. We lose meaning in our everyday and forget the profound. It's no big deal if we are careless with our possessions as we can quickly and easily replace it at WalMart. The problem is that that carelessness bleeds into other aspects of our lives; our words become cheap, our actions easily forgotten and excused. We live faster lives, with MORE stuff but when you lay on your deathbed will you wonder, "Was it better?".

TRY THIS: Sit in your house for 20 minutes with all electronic devices off and experience the stillness. Look around you. What have you filled your home with? What meaning does it have, will it be in a landfill/recycling in a year or five or ten? Will it soon become outdated, meaningless garbage? Is that what you spent your time and hard work for?

I now at least have a lovely bowl with amazing colors, textures and a swirl in the center and I will remember the talented young man whose chest expanded in pride as I told him how amazing his craft was. I hope that, at least for a little while, he will remember me. That my words inspire him to make beauty in a world that so often would rather pass him by and get "it" at WalMart.

So maybe buy fewer gifts, smaller gifts, less trendy gifts but let them be thoughtful gifts that feed the soul, that support art and craftsmanship as well as your local community.

As this blog grows we will be showing where, how and why you should be visiting these local businesses and maybe adjusting how you shop and where your money goes. It doesn't mean you have to stop shopping at the bigger stores altogether just perhaps to become more aware of what your dollar does and who it really supports. Maybe, just maybe we can come back from the brink of our corporate buy-out.

You meet some fun (and feathered!) folk on Sutter Street.

For more fun pictures from this event, be sure to visit (and maybe like?) our Make Folsom Weird FaceBook page at: https://www.facebook.com/MakeFolsomWeird