A Little Something…

The best things in life aren’t things.

That being said, we all inherently like things, and we all inherently like to be given things.

But since the whole Irene-thing a while back, and the ensuing throwing-out of  copious amounts of my things, I’ve really tried hard this year to make sure that the things I give aren’t just stupid little things, but hold some sort of quality beyond just “being on sale.”

Lucky for us there are tons of incredible local business and shops in our ‘hood that have truly kick-ass gifts for everyone you can think of. Sure, these stores don’t have $2 waffle-makers and don’t have entire websites dedicated to the absurdity of their customer base. But when you spend your hard earned money at local businesses, you help them they employ our friends and neighbors, sponsor our softball teams and contribute to our communities in ways that no bargain box store could ever compete with.

So when you set out to do your last minute holiday shopping, here’s a quick list of places where you can find what your looking for without having to worry about being trampled.

• The Collection – lovely, cute, festive and absolutely beautiful gifts for the kids, for the lady, for anyone!!
• The Artisans’ Gallery – A great place to find unique Vermont-made artwork of all kinds, not the least of which would be Dug Nap prints for under $20!
• Kenyon’s – By jeezum, you can find tons of great gifts here! Breyer Horses, Carharts, hats, mittens, windshield scrapers, dog toys and more.
• Mad River Glen’s General Store – for the ski bums in your life, there are tons of great gifts big and small for the ski-geeks you know and love.
• Infinite Sports – for the rest of the ski and board bums in your life! Find some of the coolest gifts possible for the snow-lovers in the crowd.
• The Store – kitchen geeks and foodies will be so psyched to see the distinctive wrapping jobs on the presents from this kitchen mecca!
• Mad River Massage – Who doesn’t love a gift certificate for a massage as a gift!?
• The Tempest Bookstore – Give someone a copy of On the Road, or the Great Gatsby, or Harry Potter, or whatever. Books are great gifts, but that’s not all you’ll find here!
• The Waitsfield Wine Shoppe – When in doubt, it’s hard to fail when you give the gift of wine!

Of course there are tons more wonderful businesses in and out of the Valley, like the Stowe Street Emporium, Bridgeside Books or Sunflower Natural Foods over in Waterbury. And there are loads of great places in Montpelier too! It almost doesn’t matter where you go in our state – you can find a local place to shop if you just look! And it’s amazing what you can find!

Happy Merry and thanks for supporting local businesses!

ps – My Shameless Plug: If you need a gift for any newly-engaged folks in your life, please allow me to recommend one of my Wedding Walkthroughs for them! They are a great way to kick start the planning process and help couples plan with ease, stay within their budget and have a blast on their wedding day! And all they have to do is hang out with me for two hours!

 

 

Long Story, Short.

I was going to write a post about how the flood has effected me, good, bad and ugly, blah blah, blah. But we’ve all heard it before; the journey from tears of despair to tears of joy always follows roughly the same line, no matter how snarky or sappy one’s writing style is. So I’m just going to skip ahead to the end and tell you this: All I know how to do is to have as much fun as possible, even when things are at their utmost suckiest. And Irene has been the suckiest of the sucky. But those rediscovered family photos from our trip to Disney World are frickin’ hysterical.  And the Mummified Rat in our wall is still laughing at us for freaking out when we uncovered him. So take that Irene! Your mother was a hedgehog and your father smelled of elderberries! Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!

Long story short, I’m back to work in my new Meg’s Events Temporary Headquarters, nestled on the side of my friends’ kitchen (thanks guys!!) I’m right back to wicked late nights working on SIPtmeberfest, weddings, flood-recovery management, etc. Things are starting to feel a little more normal again…

A HUGE thanks to everyone who has helped me, my family and anyone else effected by this flood. You have been every bit the support we’ve needed and we will never forget your continued generosity, hard work, hugs or dirty jokes! xoxoxoxo

Meg's Events Temporary Headquarters

1. Wicked Fun Web Stats. The boring part of my job… and I’m a geek, so I don’t actually find it boring…
2. The Lone Survivor of my Meg’s Events computer files. Out with the old, in with what we’ve got left.
3. Fuel.
4. My next event, SIPtemberfest. Tickets are on pace to sell out so get yours now…
5. …and you could be standing right here, Saturday, September 24, at Mad River Glen!
6. May the Force be with you.

Screw You, Irene

So this time one week ago I was teary-eyed and muddy booted, picking my way through the damage that Hurricane Irene did to my home, office and community. My office was flooded within about 6-8 inches of the ceiling so I lost pretty much everything in there. My home was flooded 3-5 feet on the first floor throughout, so pretty much all of that is garbage too. I haven’t even had time to post, set up voicemail, etc until now, because I’ve been trying to salvage what I can, rip out sheetrock and all sorts of other gut-wrenching flood-recovery things.

But what’s keeping me going is the incrediible outpouring of support that we’ve had here in our communitiy. Friends, family, clients and people I’ve never seen before have been remarkable, doing the hard stuff I can’t bare to do (throwing out my beloved poppies on my wall, saving my books and photos… sigh) I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning if it weren’t for all of them.

Plus, this experience is making me stronger. Weddings and beerfests will seem like picnics after managing this mess!

So thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has lent a hand, donated to one of the various support funds in our area, dropped off food, supplies and told us dirty jokes! We are still cleaning up and have a looooong way to go, but we have Meg’s Events Mobile Unit getting organized as I type and we should be back to some regular work schedule very soon!

If you want to help, you don’t have to call or email me, just show up! Our town and many others are still in need of volunteers and we will be at it for probably weeks, so a couple hours when you can make it will be welcome! Below are some photos of our damage and recovery, as well as informative links for how you can help. Thanks again and here’s to the start of something even better than before!!

-meg

• http://mrvcommunityfund.org/
• http://www.vtfoodbank.org/
• http://www.vermont211.org/
• http://www.facebook.com/MRVpostIrene