Happy Belated New Year

A belated Happy New Year greeting to readers old and new. I hope this year is off to a great start for you.  Wishing you all the very best for 2011. 

This is a post I meant to write weeks ago but I have been distracted. For those who follow me on Twitter, you will know that I was laid off from my job in December. Yes, right before Christmas, not an ideal time. Since then I have been consumed with looking for a new job. I don't have the luxury of being able to enjoy this time off. I need to keep the duration of unemployment as short as possible. Online friends, real life friends and family have been a great source of support. A heartfelt thank you for all of your kind words. I am optimistic that a great job is in my future. As many have told me, when one door closes, another opens. I fully believe that is true. I have also learned some lessons from my last stint of unemployment, only 2 short years ago. This time around I am more positive that a new job won't take me 5 months to find. I will keep everyone updated on my progress.

As a new year begins, I have been giving a lot of thought as to what I would like to do on my blog. Most of the time I write about things as I find them. Posts don't follow any sort of theme, pattern or consistency. This year I would like to keep the focus on unique products, brands and stores and would like to branch out to showcase products from all over Canada. Currently I'm only able to write about products I stumble onto myself, mostly local Toronto stuff. If all of you help me, I can write about products/artists from across the country.

I thought I would organize the posts by region. A certain month will be dedicated to a certain part of Canada. If I could get 4 good subjects from each region, I can do a post a week for that month. Every other month would be dedicated to a theme to give me time to get the writing done. Products or brands can be from any sort of category, as long as they are unique, made or designed in Canada and not readily available at mainstream retail. Anything from food to jewelry is a contender.

I'm still working out what the themes might be. Here are a few I have come up with:

• Eastern Canada
• French Canadian
• Ontario
• First Nations and Inuit
• Prairies
• Western Canada

I would love to have input from the public on this. Whether it is suggestions for an area of Canada not on the list above or suggestions on products to write about. If you have something you would like to recommend, leave a comment or send me an email with the business name or website and the region. I will look into it from there. Look forward to seeing your suggestions.
This will also be carried over to the Not A Shopaholic Facebook page where I hope to get active conversations going.  If you don't already belong to the group, join now. Link is provided on the left hand side of the blog page.