Chitika

About me

I am a legal professional living in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.  I live with my wonderful husband-to-be, Tim, and our dog, Loki.  We live in a beautiful fairly quiet area in North Vancouver, and we genuinely love it.

My goal in starting this blog was to give people more options, or, more precisely, to make them aware of more options.  In today's consumer-oriented society, options are only widely available or known about that emanate from companies that market and advertise their products aggressively.  Otherwise, it's anybody's guess how the average consumer will ever become aware of most products.  Also, as convenience overtakes most other considerations in consumption, producers and advertisers work in concert to discourage consumers from taking the initiative to do much of anything for themselves, offering instead the siren song of the ready-made, store-bought version, that has a price that is much less than the inconvenience it would have caused the purchaser to make it himself or herself.  Or so he or she is led to believe.

An increased use and acceptance of packaging, a vehicle often used as a conduit for advertising that serves absolutely no useful purpose capable of justifying the environmental damage that is caused to generate it, is further exacerbating the issue.  An unfathomable amount of waste is justified based on the need for manufacturers to convince us that we need to buy their product instead of someone else's.  It would be far more efficient, and we as consumers would receive better value for our dollar, if the advertising costs were foregone and instead invested into improving the product, or better yet, not built into the price at all.

Anti-consumerism slant aside, my goal for this blog is to really focus on the "Three Rs" (reduce, reuse, recycle), and show at the same time that being kind to the environment does not have to come at the expense of your bank account.  I am not going to be shy to introduce products (even those by mainstream companies), but only if they are both more environmentally-friendly than the "typical" options presented and they make sense economically as an alternative.  By sticking to these goals, I hope to make a change, however small, in the lives of as many people as I can.  These pages are a true reflection of my enthusiasm for this subject. I truly hope that you enjoy your visit.

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

~Mahatma Gandhi