shopping for the holidays - at camera-obscura

I had an idea late last week and would like to share it here and see if folks are interested. (ALSO: mystic-lit is hosting a similar shop for authors and their books!)

For the past two years we have done our holiday shopping locally. We're fortunate to live in a very creative area, with some wonderful small stores who carry interesting, unique gifts.

And we'll do that again this year.

But I want to add a new layer to the meaning of "local."

Certainly the internet affords us the opportunity to meet and engage with many people via blogs and otherwise to the degree that we form a community that I would argue is indeed "local."

Many of you who read and comment here feel like neighbors to me. Instead of having coffee while talking over the back fence, I sit at my desk each morning, coffee in hand, and visit blogs, commenting back and forth, and it's a cherished part of my day. I know many of you do the same.

And I know many of you are also talented, creative people who may have wonderful wares to offer.

So... I invite you to send me links and photos and any info you can share so that I can do a camera-obscura shopping week. Readers, new visitors, and I can then browse and hopefully stir up some business for you (and shopping fun for us) during this holiday season.

If you don't have my email address, send me yours in a comment (which I won't publish here) and I'll send you an email.

Books, calendars, artwork, photographs, knitted items - anything you make or create is welcome. Also any horse-related items - your own training DVDs, books, special tack. The bigger variety the better.

I'll try to get everything set up this week so the "store" can open on Thursday or Friday. I'll leave it up top for a full week - giving your items the best chance of being seen and giving ME a nice break from blogging!

Looking forward to it - if questions you can send those in a comment too. I'll only publish comments that don't include personal information.

Happy December!