Another Handmade Holiday!

I just wanted to quickly note that another holiday season is upon us, and I am running a sale in my Etsy shop! When you make a purchase, enter the coupon code HOLIDAY25 to receive 25% off your total purchase before shipping! I also just relisted some great holiday themed accessories, and a few new items as well. A little picture preview:

Handmade Holiday Gifts and Coupon Code!

In every blog post, I promise not to let such a long time pass before blogging again... and it has been almost a month since my last blog. I won't make any promises I can't keep this time. You may have to wait a month for my next blog, but I promise it will be worth your wait! :)

The holiday season has kept me very busy. That's my excuse for the long break between blogs. I have been busy knitting presents for everyone I know, which keeps my hands a bit too busy for typing. In the last blog, I said my last craft fairs were coming up. That was a lie, apparently. A week after those craft fairs, I got invited to one more - the Bizarre Bazaar at the goth/industrial music club in Milwaukee, Club Anything. I was thrilled to pieces to be invited to this event, and I spent two weeks working on projects aimed specifically at this crowd. Once there, I was pretty surprised at the pieces people did buy - they were colorful, simple, not what I expected. I appreciated every sale though, of course! There were other very interesting local vendors there as well, such as Elsie717, specializing in Victorian style spats, collars, and capelets; Milwaukee Alt, a very fun alternative photographer, and Frankenstein Valentines, handmade cards with unique style - pin up girls, Halloween, steampunk, and more. (She has no website but her email is frankensteinvalentines@gmailcom)

So now that I'm for sure done with craft fairs for the year, I can again concentrate on those Christmas presents! There are a few people I don't have time to craft something for, in which case I'm turning to other (mostly) local crafters for some help. On my shopping list:
The Chic Boutique - opening soon in Watertown, she specializes in fun purses, scarves, and more.
Lily Kay Designs - gorgeous handmade jewelry.
Talk 2 the Trees - her shop is on vacation mode until the 20th due to her home flooding. She is a fantastic painter and knitter, so please support her to get her back on her feet when her shop re-opens.
Burnie's Rock Shop - a fantastic store in Madison; everything to do with rocks, stones, precious and semiprecious, fine jewelry, jewelry making supplies, and much more!
Sea Marie Creations - great handmade soaps. She is almost sold out!
KnotAGeek - knit and crocheted hats, cowls, scarves, and more.
Stoney River Soaps - delicious handmade natural soaps, lotions, lip balms, shampoos, and much more.

Rain's Obsessive Stitchery - unique embroidered towels, pillows, suncatchers, even shirts!
The Soap Garden - even more fantastic soaps. Some of her bars are like tiny soapy landscapes! Beautiful!
Dips 'N' More - yummy dips. I especially love her "Merry Christmas Dip Shit" holiday package! Lol :)
Luxury Lane Soap - yes, more soap! Kylee adds a unique geeky touch to her handmade soaps. Know someone into Dr. Who, Star Wars, gaming, and/or other geeky ventures? Tell them to clean up with her fantastic soaps! (Unfortunately, she is on back order and may not get your order in time for Christmas, but her soaps make great gifts at all times of the year!)
For Strange Women - handmade all natural perfumery, lip balms, bath salts, and more. I love her forest and Victorian - inspired scents. My favorite lip balm is the Absinthe Lips, and my favorite perfume is Winter Kitty. (Now through the end of December, $20 of each Winter Kitty sale is going to the Heartland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Heartland SPCA is Kansas City’s most comprehensive animal welfare organization.)

I'm sure there are many more artisans out there I missed this time around, but please check these out when doing your Christmas Shopping! Also, now through the end of the year, enter the coupon code HANDMADE HOLIDAY to get 10% off everything in my shop! (Excludes gift certificates)

Listening to: Regina Spektor

A Green Holiday

I'll admit, I'm a little bit of a tree-hugging hippie. I do what I can to be environmentally friendly. I am religious about recycling, to the point where I'll correct my dear husband's mistakes. I use a filter on my tap instead of buying bottled water, re-use every scrap of fabric in the house rather than throw it away, look for green household cleansers, and buy organic when I can afford it (not as often as I'd like...). Over the summer, when the opportunity to save gas by driving a moped instead of my car to work, I jumped on it. (I swear, it wasn't just because mopeds are hella fun. Lol.) So I started thinking this year about green holiday practices.

We never had a tree before buying our house, because our apartments were too small. For our first holiday, I insisted on a real tree. My family always used real trees. It was a family experience to pick out a tree and cut it down, and enjoy the pine scent in the house. The next year we had a puppy and kitten running around the house, so we weren't sure how to set up a tree without getting things knocked down or crawled up. Our solution was to buy a plastic tree and hang it from the ceiling. Yep. It was actually a lot of fun, and the pets never touched it, and we got a lot of compliments/jokes from family and friends. This year, I decided to do a bit of research on real trees vs. fake and which is better for the environment. I was a little worried that "murdering" trees would be the worst option. Plastic lasts for years, and live trees have to be regrown. Well, according to this article, http://yhoo.it/4vOvYg , real trees win. As long as you get them from a local sustainable tree farm, they are much better than all the polluting work that goes into making plastics. What am I going to do with my plastic tree? Well, I'll still use it this year. I already bought it, the harm's already done. But when it's time to get rid of it, I won't be buying another.

Do you send out an annual greeting card? Switch to email to get rid of the paper waste. Not many people hang onto cards for more than a few weeks anyway. Instead of buying plastic or paper decorations, go outside and find fallen evergreen branches, pine cones, or any other bits of nature to brighten up your house. Go to a local plant nursery and have a bouquet of seasonal branches and flowers put together. Upgrade to LED lights, and please remember to turn them off every night! I shiver in fright and disgust at the inflatable lawn ornaments people leave running all night long. Your energy bill is already being exhausted by turning on the heat as nights get colder and colder. Speaking of that, run a space heater in one room at a time, or wear slippers and sweaters and cuddle under blankets to keep your heating bill down. As we speak, I'm wearing about five layers, including fingerless gloves so I can still type. Lol.

What about how you wrap your gifts? I hate it when I see mounds of wrapping paper tossed right into the trash after Christmas morning. I recycle it all at my house, but I can't control what happens at other people's houses (though sometimes I try!). Still, re-use is always better than recycling, which is why I like using gift bags. I'll reuse those year after year, until they start to look pretty shoddy. This site, http://bit.ly/foqDdy , has a few other great ideas, including making fabric gift bags (great for a fabric hoarder like me!) or using last year's calendar to wrap gifts in. This http://bit.ly/8t23md site is useful too, with ideas like wrapping gifts in other gifts, like wrapping a wine bottle in a colorful kitchen towel.

Of course, local vs. imported plays a big factor in gifts. Speaking of wine, there are dozens of local wineries to choose from, with unique flavors and styles. You also know what I'm going to say about local artists and crafters! Or... don't give "stuff" at all. Gift cards, cash, or even better, donations to charities. This site http://www.charitygiftcertificates.org/ lets you buy gift cards, and the recipient can use the gift cards to donate to 100+ reputable charities. Even better, go down to any local non-profit place like a soup kitchen, food pantry, humane society, battered women's shelter, or other organization and make a direct contribution to your own community.

That's the end of my preachy post. I don't mean to be pushy, but if we all do our part, we can collectively make a big difference! Use your canvas tote bags while shopping, some stores give you discounts; even Starbucks says on their website that they give a 10cent discount if you bring in a reusable travel mug! Enjoy the holidays and don't get stuck in the snow!

Listening to: The Cure
Pics: Our upside-down Christmas tree! That's it today, as I seem to have lost picture files from our first holiday in the house :(