When I lived in the UK, I realized that there was no psychic speed bump like Thanksgiving to slow people down en route to the winter holiday season, just a scant 40-ish days from now.shift your shoppingOnce again this year, I have made the commitment to shifting my shopping from big box stores, multi-national websites, and impersonal palaces of purchasing to small locally-owned and operated shops.

I hope that you will join me in making the pledge to shop where you live. Of course, if you live in the high plains in Arizona, or the wilds of Alaska, you’re excused from this. shop locallyBut the rest of you – take the time to shop locally, shop at small businesses, shop on Etsy, shop someplace where the person helping you is happy to see you and even happier to help you.

Are you in? If you are, feel free to take a screen grab of either of the two images here and share them on your blog, your Facebook page or anywhere else it might make people think about where they shop.

Read more at Pigtown Design

Meg Fielding writes the local interior design and lifestyle blog Pigtown Design and is the past president of the Baltimore Architectural Foundation. She enjoys dual citizenship with the US and the UK.