UEnd Blog

An Easy New Year’s Resolution

I’ve never kept a New Year’s resolution for the entire year. There, I said. They usually last the first two weeks of January. I make a “commitment” to run every day. I “promise” I will finally master that song on the guitar. But I don’t. Feel the same? Still bummed about those 10 pounds you didn’t lose? Or the trip you didn’t take?

Let’s make a different choice for 2012.

This holiday season we introduced the idea of gifting differently. We provided the ability to give the gift of giving through a UEnd gift card. Did you pick one up?

My family got them in their stocking stuffers! Family members who had never heard of UEnd were thrilled to hop on the ol’ internet and check out the website! It was my favourite gift I gave this year.

So with that warm, gooey feeling that made my heart grow three sizes this holiday, my resolution (a manageable one!) is to keep that feeling alive. Why does giving have to end there? We North Americans love our holidays, birthdays, weddings and so forth. So let’s keep gifting different year round!

And why do we have to treat other people? Buy yourself the gift of giving. Sign up for U:Powered or give directly to a project of your choosing.

Let’s not pick resolutions that will bring us down. Let’s pick ourselves up and end poverty while we’re at it.

Help Santa reduce his carbon footprint… haha.

At UEnd, we’re helping Santa cut his carbon emissions this Christmas:

The task, find 5 green gift items. Sounds like fun. Well, yes.

Green shopping is so much fun that just 5 items wouldn’t do at all. So instead I chose 5 green websites just for you because hey, the web’s where 78% of us do our pre shopping anyway. This just makes it easier.

Everything you need in 9 neat categories: http://www.treehugger.com/giftguide/

Mountain Equipment Coop: http://www.mec.ca/Main/home.jsp

You buy the carbon credits and they will plant the trees. Every three trees they plant off sets 1 ton of greenhouse gas emissions: http://www.thecarbonfarmer.ca/greengift/

Ahem: http://www.uend.org/give

For yourself, er, the family geek: http://www.envirogadget.com/

And of course to wrap it all up: http://www.squidoo.com/ecofriendlygiftwrapping

Santa’s Carbon Footprint - From our buddies at Ethical Ocean (http://www.ethicalocean.com):

via Ethical Ocean - eco friendly products, fair trade and vegan shopping.

5 ways to get want you really want/need this Christmas:

1) Make a list and send it to people via email, regular mail or smoke signal

2) Put little notes around the house (100 or so should do the trick)

3) When you see something you like, make a few “hints” to the person you’re with, such as: elbow jabs, feet-stomping, excessive pointing, or really BIG smiles :)

4) Think REALLY, REALLY HARD about the things you want… you never know!

And finally…

5) Throw the most massive tantrum you can muster until you get exactly what you want

This holiday season, we’re asking you and your loved ones: don’t gift bland, gift different. And, we’re making it ridiculously easy to do so. Just go to UEnd.org and give a thoughtful, lasting gift. Or, you can ASK for a UEnd:Poverty Gift Card by performing one of the above useful tactics. Happy Holidays!!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amberosie7/4289393412/

5 Gifts I Automatically Re-Gift When I Get Them.

Christmas can be the worst! There are always those family members/friends that you have no idea what to get. Maybe it’s because they already have everything. Maybe it’s because they’re tastes are so freaking weird you’d have to fly to Tibet to get them that specialty item.

I frequently find myself the receiver of terrible, terrible gifts. I think it’s because, in the angsty-est way, my family just doesn’t understand me. One day I’m running around belting Broadway musical lyrics on the top of my lungs, the next I’m quietly sitting listening to Dr. Dre and cross stitching a hand towel. Yeah, I’m not you’re average girl.

So, here’s 5 gifts I re-gift annually.

1. Bath Stuff:

Really? Do I smell terrible? And to be honest, your body shop collections make me smell even worse. When I use the passion fruit body wash from my aunt with the coconut shaving cream from my uncle, the mango exfoliate from my cousin and then use the vanilla cream from my mother, I smell like a f*cking Jugo Juice smoothie. No. No more smelly sh*t. Please.

2. Calendars.

I’m a girl growing up in the computer generation. I’ve had a cell phone before I even really needed one. Between my laptop, cell phone, iPod, and then the one singular moleskin day timer I keep, I don’t need to record your birthday on yet another device. Not even if every month is a different dog wearing a monthly themed sweater. I will re-gift a desktop calendar, wall calendar, a joke of the day calendar, any possible thing that can be bought at “Calendar Club” - it’s going to someone else. Not even if it’s a half-naked fireman calendar. (Err.. maybe that last one I’ll let slide)

yeah, magnetic poetry.. classic re-gift

3. Clothing

Back to the angst that never faded from my high school years, my family will never understand my style. For the last time, I don’t shop at Le Chateau. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because they want me to dress differently. Why isn’t it appropriate to wear a different band t-shirt every day? That Tegan and Sara t-shirt I’ve had since I was 15 still fits, so what’s the problem? I really don’t want to wander around The Bay or Sears for hours just to find one stupid item so I can use up that gift card that’s been in my wallet since last Christmas. No. Clothes.

No, Grandma, I love it…

4. Sleepwear

Very similar to number three, but it deserves it’s own category. Grandma, I DON’T wear housecoats. You know that fuzzy pink disaster you bought me last year? It’s now lining the bottom of my cat’s kennel (On the upside, she loves it). Truth be told, I am content wearing a tank and underwear to bed. I don’t need 8 different Christmas themed fleece panama pants. I don’t need animal themed slippers. All. Re-gifted.

5. Christmas Themed Junk

I’m starting to sound a bit cynical here, so let me bring out some cheer. As I’m typing this blog post, I have my head phones in and I’m grooving to the Glee Christmas album. I love Christmas, the whole Christmas season. I love decorating the tree, and Christmas Eve traditions. But the worst gifts are ones that sit in your crawlspace/storage unit and you only use from Dec15-26. These items include, Christmas sweaters, earrings, statues, cookie cutters, wine charms, Santa hats, reindeer antler headbands, and basically anything that is red and green and sparkly. The list could go on forever.

So please, for the love of my friends who get my re-gifted presents, and for the love of my acting skills that are wearing thin with the fake “thanks”, when shopping for me this year: Don’t Gift Bland, Gift Different.

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In true holiday spirit we want nothing more than to put a dent in global extreme poverty AND make it ridiculously easy for you to give a thoughtful, lasting gift this season.

So join the gift revolution, gift different and help change the world by giving someone you love a UEnd gift card.

#GiftDifferent w/ Instagram & UEnd

Have a few dull or lackluster gifts from Christmas past? Ever find yourself braving the Xmas crowds and wonder “WTF am I doing”? See something on store shelves and hope it doesn’t end up under YOUR tree? Snap it and share your photo with us on Instagram or our Facebook Page. It just might end up in our “2011 Bland Gift Guide” due out later this month.

Go to your Instagram app and search the #GiftDifferent hastag to see what others are posting. And be sure to follow UEnd on Instagram to see what catches our eye.

Here are a few gooders to get you started:

Ah, calendars

Ah, calendars.

More gadgets. Nice.