Shopping Daze

*THUNK*

That’s the sound of me falling out of the blogosphere. Eventually, this will become a habit. If only a blog could give me a caffeine boost – then I’d be posting every morning like clockwork!

The holiday season has been on my mind lately, especially all the stresses that go along with it. Only 16 shopping days left – but is anyone shopping? Not me! Or I should say, very little. Partly because I’m one of those annoying people who have the bulk of their Christmas shopping done before Halloween each year. But also I’m making some of the gifts. (And still needing to carve out time to finish them – yikes!)

I took the pledge to buy handmade earlier this year and I’ve stuck to it very well. I have the most AWESOME themed gift for my kid brother – and I thought he would be the second most difficult to shop for. I’m tempted to tell more about it since he doesn’t read my blog. But I swear he has some kind of radar about this type of thing; he’s probably reading this right now… Anyway, his gift contains items from four different Etsy sellers, plus a small piece that I altered myself. And that’s all I’m telling for now.

However, I’m still stuck on a handmade item for my dad. I always find gift guides for dads to be baffling – they never include anything MY dad would want. Oh, wait, I take that back: there’s some BBQ sauce included in the Etsy Gift Guide for dads. But that’s one of my staple buys for Father’s Day… Yes, he is so hard to shop for, that my fall-back present is food. The real problem is that Dad is such an expert at his hobbies and interests that you need his direct input before buying anything. And where’s the fun in that? Dad may prove to be the handmade conundrum.

An Etsy Treasury

I've been included in an Etsy Treasury (2nd row, 1st on the right):

Thank you, VampVintage, for including me!

(Update: Unfortunately, Etsy treasuries only last a few days, so the one above has already expired. But you can browse other treasuries here.)

I'm in the box!

Who's in the box?


That's right, I'm in The Little Black Box for September! Okay, not me personally, but my samples are! I contributed 50 buttons (each with a valuable coupon for my Etsy store and a mini moo card) of vintage images - these buttons will be feautured in the next issue of MATERIAL zine that will be coming out around the end of the year, so it's a bit of a preview.

The Little Black Box goes on sale this Friday (9/26)! Mark your calendars, because each month the boxes typically sell out within a week of the sale date. And the line-up for the September box is looking good!

An Etsy Favorite

One of my favorite artists on Etsy is Kendra Binney. Her work is whimsical and sweet at first glance, but when you take a closer look you'll notice that it's also dark, edgy, and a bit macabre. I've been collecting her prints for a while and I now have a wall at home that looks like this:

This is my new favorite that will be added to the wall soon, "Disregarded Ghosts":

You can view more of Kendra's work on her website, which also has a few prints for sale that aren't in her Etsy shop.

The Little Black Box Arrives

Have you heard of The Little Black Box? It's a service that helps connect indie businesses with consumers who might never hear of them otherwise. Businesses send in their sample- or full-size items and/or promos, which are then available for sale as a little black box of surprises. You don't know exactly what you're going to get, but that's part of the fun. I saw it mentioned in the Etsy forums and immediately googled it. And the following week, my little black box arrived. (It's actually a bag now, in order to fit items of all sizes.)

Kimberlee Keane, who runs The Little Black Box, is very helpful and friendly. I contacted her before I made my purchase, because I have environmental allergies and I was concerned about scented products possibly being included. This is both bad for me (achoo!) and bad for the businesses, since their items would be wasted on me. Kimberlee came up with a solution and I got a scent-free box. (Hooray!) So even though I ordered a July box, a few items that were meant for the August box may appear in my pictures. July boxes are already sold out, but August boxes go on sale August 22nd.

Hmm, what's in the bag?

13 goodies in the bag; here they are spread out on my kitchen table.


1. Hand-dyed silk scarf by Made With Loving Hands.

2. Fabric covered mirror by Promos in a Snap.

3. Stone earrings by jaC Jewelry. (My photo doesn't do them justice - very lovely in person.)

4. Pretzel earrings by Amazon Creations.

5. A small jar of "Fray" eye shadow by Mixology.

6. Glass pendant by Designs by Tami. This pendant was hard to photograph and is very pretty in person.

7. Car hair pin by Always Amy. That's the reverse side of her business card next to the pin - isn't it awesome?

8. Print by 3 Lambs Design. I've already found the perfect spot to hang this.

9. Earrings by Starrlight Jewelry. Once again, lovely pair of earrings, but I obviously don't have a career in jewelry photography.

10. Fabric tissue pouch (with tissue inside) by Midnight Creations. This is the perfect item for me - I have allergies and I love shoes!

11. Bookmark by A Muted Pallette - Diana Crites Gallery.

12. "Bite Me" recipe card (LOL) by Terri Taylor Design. I particularly like the "That's not PMS. I'm just evil" greeting cards in her shop.

13. Two linen greeting cards by five dot design. Very generous to include two cards! What you can't tell from the photo is the wonderful texture and weight to the cards.

All in all, a really good haul! Goodies for me, a few Christmas presents, and a lot of cool shops to check out. And I've already signed up to contribute to The Little Black Box in September and November. More on that later...

More Zines on Etsy

Kawaii Zines

I’m in the midst of assembling 11 handmade books/zines about – and constructed from – cute Asian stationery. A lot of the stationery items included are rare and hard to find in the U.S. I created this zine last year for a swap and had enough to make extras, but I never got around to it until now. As soon as they’re finished, I’ll be adding them to my Etsy shop. And even though I made them for a zine swap, they're more like a handmade book.

Here are the 11 kawaii zines:



Five have covers constructed from Nyan Nyan Nyanko gift bags:


And six have covers constructed from Rilakkuma gift bags:


Here’s a preview of inside one of the zines:


These are only a few of the stickers that are going into these zines, one way or another:




I’m currently embellishing the pages with stickers. Then I’ll be stuffing stickers and mini memo sheets into the envelopes that are bound into each zine, stuffing more goodies into the back covers (they were originally gift bags after all), and lastly decorate the front covers. Phew. I better get busy.

Fabric Art Goodies!

I've been going through my art supplies to put together sets of goodies to go with each copy of FeltZine that I'll be putting up on Etsy. Above is a sample photo of one assortment of goodies. And below is an extra gift for my first Etsy sale, tied off with some vintage lace.

My Own Etsy Shop

Look! It's an Etsy widget on the right! Wow! I love how you don't have to know anything about how those things work to get them to appear on your blog.

Yes, after thinking about it for two years, I finally opened up a storefront on Etsy. A few zines are up so far; I'll be adding more over the next week. Check it out!