New Westminster writer Sheila Keenan is committing to do all her shopping locally for the next year – and will blog about it to boot.

Wrapped up in nostalgia for wonderful garage sales past, this year we made some crucial errors in judgment at the annual Queen’s Park Garage Sale.

Mother’s Day is coming up. While thoughtful, free gifts of breakfast in bed and family outings to special places are always a great idea for mums, it also feels good to have someone splurge on you. Shop locally, and you can find a great gift for mum while also supporting our community. Here are my New Westminster gift picks for Mother’s Day.

Admittedly, I’m a little biased. I was recently appointed as the market manager for the Royal City Farmers’ Market, but I am so excited about the market’s reopening coming up!
The second incarnation of the Royal City Farmers’ Market is about to kick off June 25th with a special “Welcome to Summer Vacation” market, featuring kids’ activities including toys and crafts, a magician, face painting, and a special appearance by Mayor Wayne Wright who will start the market season off with a bang! The market runs June 25 to October 8 …

This is a guest post by Nancy Gephart from Clever Mink’s Gifts, ’the minksiest gift shop in the Lower Mainland,’ at 711 Carnarvon St.
Tourism New Westminster has a terrific new campaign this summer, the “Passport 150″. It is a part of the city’s 150th Anniversary celebration and it is an excellent chance to explore the city’s shops, restaurants, galleries, theatres, festivals and attractions. The way it works is simple:
1) Pick up a free Passport at any participating business (I have them here at Clever Mink’s Gifts) or at any of the …

Yellow tights, architectural shoes, and exploding drop earrings might just be the continuous run of New York fashion week, but when it comes to eye glasses that make a statement, you don’t have to go further than New Westminster.
Brilliantly innovative, local designer Traff Green’s designs, Reflections by Traff, are a unique medley of hand-picked colours to show skin tones at their best!   The carefully contoured and connected shapes of his designs will match any face shape and eyes.
The result?
Bold, impactful eye glasses for the everyday woman. And with limited …

This is a guest post by Brad Howard of Clever Mink’s, a great little gift shop at 711 Carnarvon St. If you’ve got an idea for a guest post, go ahead and drop us a line. 
Having never blogged before I found the idea daunting so I sought out some friends’ opinions. Some said you’ve got to open big to grab the reader. You’ve only got 4.3 seconds of their attention (that might be last year’s figure, this year’s is doubtlessly shorter) or they’ll move on to something splashier. Make …

Here at Tenth To the Fraser, our editorial team has been kicking around ideas for localizing our Christmas celebrations this year. Our family will attempt to source most of our food locally, and I had in mind to explore local shopping opportunities as well. One of our readers is taking it one better, and plans this year to do all her family Christmas shopping locally.

Hey there.  I just checked out your blog for the first time today at the suggestion of my husband, Blair Fryer [ed. note: Blair …