We are very happy to announce that we are moving Mirador to a new location in early January. Our new address will be 2106 SE Division, the building at the southeast corner of the intersection of Division, 21st and Ladd. Some of you may have known it as the location for CarSharing until they moved downtown last summer. This will double our space and help us develop the store further alonthe lines we always imagined. There will be room for a classroom area, more retail space and some dedicated parking spaces. Weíll be closing our current location as of December 31st and expect to be open for business at the new location by January 15th.
 
 

We are pleased to announce that Miradorís internet store is now online and open for business. We have started out with just a few items, but will be adding many more over time.

We have decided to charge a nominal shipping fee for orders under $50 and to ship free for orders $50 and above. This means that even those of you who live in the Portland area can shop online without having to worry about a shipping charge.
 
 

These clocks by Bellingham artist Ben Mann are keeping 12î LPs out of the landfills and adding art to our walls. Ben does an original painting and then, by a laser print, transfers it to a disc and adds a clock mechanism. These are really fun, colorful clocks!
 
 

Empowerment, Integrity, Forgiveness, Abundance and Gratitude. These pure essential oil blends include a meditation and are formulated to help us achieve these states through balancing the chakras. They can be used on the body, in the bath, in ceremony or in a diffuser. Blended in Portland, these oils are not only powerful, they smell wonderful!
 
 

We have two models in, each in different sizes. One has an elliptical cover that clamps down, and the other a locking pressure cooker cover as well as a standard cover so that it can double as a cooking pot. These are made in Italy by Aeturnum out of heavy weight 18/10 stainless steel, are easy to use and include safety design features. Europeans have been using pressure cookers for decades, but fear of explosions has kept Americans away from this wonderful kitchen tool. Rest assured, pressure cookers being made now are completely safe. We have one of their pressure cookers at home and can attest to their ease of use (and safety!).
And while weíre on that subject, weíve added GREAT VEGETARIAN COOKING UNDER PRESSUREby Lorna Sass to our cook book selection.
 
 

The Alkaline Batteries perform best in most household devices such as boomboxes, personal stereos, toys etc. They come fully charged and maintain power between uses and can be recharged up to 100 times. The Nickel/Metal Hydride batteries are geared for more demanding high tech devices. These you charge before use and recharge between uses if more than one week. They can be recharged up to 1000 times. We have Rayovac chargers that will handle both batteries.  We have had great success with these ourselves.

Once again this year we have wonderful holiday candles in four sizes, made with pure essential oils from Aroma Naturals: Peace with orange, clove and cinnamon, and Holiday with spruce and fir. We have tree-free paper for wrapping and pretty fabric gift bags that will keep on giving for years to come. Mirador has a selection of fun Christmas cards with a dragon theme (yes, you read that right) and for the new year we have a assortment of great 2001 calendars.

A few more ideas: A bag or wallet from Think Again, incorporating reclaimed industrial rubber with hemp and canvas. John has been at the drawing board again and he has some great new designs.

Clocks, picture frames, CD racks, book ends, bottle openers and more, all from recycled bike parts and made in Portland by Resource Revival.
There is much more, too much to mention, and we hope that youíll check us out if your plans include gift giving. For further inspiration, please feel free to use the coupon for all non-sale merchandise.
 

ViewPoint

At this time of year, our thoughts naturally turn to the upcoming holiday season. For many of us it means additional stress and demands on our time and not a lot of the joy that the season should represent.. Over the years we have taken a look at Christmas and made changes so we could  have our holiday and enjoy it too. For us, a lot of this has been connecting into a Solstice-based holiday, symbolic of coming back into the light and away from the darkness.

It seems that since the time we are born we are given a message about the holidays -- what they mean and what they should look and feel like. People having a ìMerry Christmasî have the right clothing, money to spend for gifts, lots of family around and plenty of free time to spend baking cookies and the like. For so many of us,  reality is just not like that and this can send us into a case of the Christmas Blues.

Whatever our particular situation -- married, single, single but partnered, parent, grandparent or no offspring, male or female -- with effort we can pull the holiday back under our control, lose some of the stuff we donít want and add back what is fun. A good way to get back some control is to decide what we want out of the holiday, to  make a list of what we like and donít like. Yes, there are always things we feel we must do and the key there might be to make some peace with the situation and decide to enjoy, especially if we know we have given ourselves permission to drop something else.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice or not at all, we wish you the opportunity to experience the joy and peace of the season.
 

--Lynn & Steve

One of our favorite places for breakfast or lunch in southeast Portland is Daydream Café. We love the fact that the cafe emphasizes organics and we have found the food to be delicious and the staff friendly.  All this good experience prompted us to ask Terry Kirk and Roger Swygart, the owners of Daydream, to tell us something about their history and philosophy.

Daydream Café opened in April 1998 with the idea of being a place to feature fresh food made with organic ingredients and organic coffee in a comfortable neighborhood atmosphere. The starting point was Cafe Mam, a shade-grown organic coffee from Chiapas, Mexico, grown by ISMAM. ISMAM is a socially responsible cooperative of native Mayan farmers who, besides making great coffee, donate 2% of sales to pesticide reform and work to restore songbird habitat. Their desire to share this outstanding product helped strengthen their commitment to educating their customers to the benefits of organic farming across the spectrum of food offerings.

The biggest challenge, according to Roger and Terry, has been trying to teach customers the seasonal nature of their products. People are unaccustomed to having very popular menu items being taken away because the specific produce is unavailable during certain times of the year, or running out of something due to crop failure. The idea that, if mangoes are available at the grocery store why doesnít Daydream have them? Organic food means more than just buying food labeled organic. Terry and Roger have to work very carefully with produce suppliers to make it known to local farmers what products they like and can use.
The response to the café has been great. The staff has now grown from just Roger and Terry to 7 wonderful people to work with. In the summer of 2001 they will add an outside sitting area to the west side of the building.

We suggest you check it out for yourselves. People following a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle will find plenty of delicious food to eat, while non-vegetarians will be very pleased too.
 

-- Lynn