I vow to give...

Creative tithing - buying things from the creative community to put money back into it and support the artists.

Thanks to Caiti at Life is a Canvas: Creative Musings from Caitidid  for sharing this with her readers this past week. She first got this idea from Scoutie Girl. Please go and read their posts if you can, they have a really awesome way of explaining the whole concept!

So, I've been reading up on the idea since seeing her introduce in on her blog and I'm sold! I love the idea. And it's really got my brain going. The point is to buy things from the creative community where you might instead buy them from Target or Bath and Body or whatever corporate franchise you visit. I'm the worst at doing this - I will puruse Etsy for hours and favorite all these shops and items - but when it comes down to it, all my purses are a certain brand or my jewelry is purchased from a certain big name store. WHY? I would much rather be rocking one of a kind pieces and helping someone make a living - knowing that purchase truly impacted that person's life. And hope that they in turn, pay it forward, and one day those purchases will help me make some extra money!

For the month of April, I did my creative tithing and bought both my dear Moms Mothers Day gifts on Etsy. I got her this fanstastic print from corelladesign. It is called Chickens Love Tattoos and is a pencil illustration with digital coloring. I'm hoping she will love it for her kitchen - it is chocked full of roosters/chickens. I must admit.. I was drawn to the beautiful colors!



I also order her this mixed metal brag necklace from lauriebdesigns. Now of course, I ordered it with different names. This is the moment you may make fun of me, just a little. But her necklace will say, from top to bottom: Boo, Sushi, Sullee. Yes, these are the names of my dogs if you follow along with the blog! And they are my parents granddogs! Mom and Dad have basically given up all hope that they will ever have grandchildren, so they embrace the granddogs! I dig it!



So, my challenge to you is to do some creative tithing of your own. I'm going to try to share my purchases each month and make it a point to buy from the creative community at least once a month. Shouldn't be hard. I simply have to discipline myself. When I go to buy the new Coach purse or the dress from the store at the mall or whatever it may be, I just have to stop myself and ask, 'is this something I could buy from someone creatively or locally.' And then find it! I think it will be a great feeling and a fabulous way to spend my money!

What do you think about creative tithing??

Lots of Love...

~Manda Jane~