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I’ve been selling my crafty goodness on Etsy for just over two years and boy is it fantastic! If for some reason you live under a rock and have not yet gotten yourself a (free!) Etsy account, get on over there and sign up so you can start buying handmade, wouldjya? Happy Etsy Day! (currently an impromptu holiday, but hopefully by next year it will be a national day of recognition for all things handmade! represent!)
I made the little painting above in recognition of Etsy Day, it’s a love letter to Etsy, distilled to its basic essence surrounded by a collection of some of my hand-making-tools. yum.
To kick the year off right, I’m holding a little sale (starting today!) on calendars and holiday cards over in my Etsy shop.
I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and day so far… John and I had a chill night at home with some good friends and some good fondue. Delish! We also decided to kick the year off in a healthy way by denying our collective desire to go to Friendly’s for some greasy and fattening food for lunch/brunch and instead made ourselves some fresh-as-fresh homemade egg sandwiches. Someone told me once that fresh eggs are better for you than storebought, and I am choosing to believe that until I am told otherwise. They certainly taste better. And are a completely different color (more yellow, if you’re wondering) than most all storebought eggs I’ve ever seen. Just saying.
I’m hoping to be back here in the next few days with some sort of year end/year beginning profound post, but for now… go shop my Etsy sale! yes!
It’s a catchup day here on Willow Street. I’m pulling out all the piles of mail and such that I stowed away in the past week to create a semblance of calm and organization around the house. I’m also doing some shipping and maybe getting a new haircut. Still not sure what direction I want to go with that — John wants me to keep growing it out but most others I’ve asked (and I’m leaning toward) think I should go back to shorter… we’ll see what I decide at the last minute!
{ok, I just thought this photo was funny. Has nothing to do with anything. Jane is in a box of recycling, and Happy couldn’t take her eyes off her. Her herding instinct can be so funny!}
We had a wonderful Christmas time — I have to say this is one of my favorite times of year, for so many reasons including sparkly decorations, handmade gifties, my birthday, fun with family and, best of all, old friends coming home to visit! We had a lovely little holiday party with a crazy yankee gift swap, asking people to bring either a new gift, re-gift or object from their life that needed a new home. The best gift had to be a huge old coat rack that found a very happy new home. Hilarious! There were also some great mustache-related antics. Sorry guys, I just had to post these. Too funny!
And yes, in case you were wondering, I am now very, very old…
I’m still not sure what we’re doing for New Year’s Eve. Possibly just staying home and cozying up for some instant netflix movies and take out? Anyone want to join us? {did you know you can watch instant movies on netflix on a Mac now? We had cancelled our subscription last spring for lots of reasons but one being that we couldn’t watch them on my computer, which we hook up to the tv to watch tv-on-the internet. Looks like they just started letting macs have some of the fun, which was a fantastic suprise to us when we resubscribed last night as our x-mas gift to one-another. whoohoo!}
We’re feeling like lucky kids here today. Sitting at my parents’ house, with a dog beside me, waiting for my brothers (and my hubby!) to wake up. It’s Christmas morning and John and I decided to spend the night here, which made this Christmas morning pretty special for us pagans. 
That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Waking up to mom’s Cinnamon rolls and pancakes, and adding in some dogs really excited to be reminded we were here.
The sun just came out — fantastic.
(image above, my new “Lucky” print for sale in my shop here.)
I just had to share this little musical discovery I’m loving with y’all, hoping you will then go out and get yerself a copy;
“Winter Songs” from The Hotel Cafe (a seemingly awesome music venue in LA, who also do a tour) is FANTASTIC!! Original recordings and some fun old holiday tunes sung by a wonderful lineup of contemporary female singers! Whoo-hoo for the ladies! (I mean, I love Bing and all, but come on, it’s about time!)
Artists include Ingrid Michaelson, Meiko, KT Tunstall, Sara Barielles, Brandi Carlile and Fiona Apple! AND 50 cents from every purchase plus at least 60 cents from every download of their medly of “Auld Lang Syne” will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the cure. Couldn’t be better!
It’s available from iTunes and Amazon. And I’m not even getting paid to say that. 
Tis the season….
to be sending holiday cards out late!
If you’re anything like me, you find yourself too busy to get around to sending out holiday cards. But you want to send them out. You like sending them out. And you have vowed that one of these years you’ll streamline your address book and GET IT TOGETHER, will you?
hah.
So if you also don’t quite have those cards in hand yet, may I suggest some smashing new Bike cards?
This design was commissioned by my dear friend Ms. Sarah G.(couldn’t ask for a better muse!), these cards are perfect for a simple happy holiday wish. They are lovingly silk-screened (three passes thru the ol’ Gocco!) and blank inside for your handwritten or perhaps stamped greeting. I’d even be happy to add a stamped greeting for you, and this year I have “Merry Christmas” or “Peace on Earth” (and could probably get my hands on something else if the mood strikes you).
They’re available on white or blue cards with matching bright red envelopes. Single cards are $3 and sets of 4 are a steal at $10.
Ride on.
Tonight is warmer than it was all day today. Odd. And very unseasonable. It was just snowy this weekend, now kinda tropical feeling. Well, ok, not quite, but it’s feeling warm, and that’s kinda freaky.
But in other news, I got my decorating on this afternoon — I’m so happy to have had the time to do it! I wasn’t sure if I’d be crafting like crazy this week or not. Today was in the “not” category, but tomorrow probably in the “like crazy” camp. Which is a good balance, if I do say so myself. I pulled out all the inside decorations today, and tonight John and I put “It’s a Wonderful Life” on and trimmed the tree while HappyDog looked on with confusion. We actually haven’t finished the movie as our neighbor came over with some kind of plumbing issue and asked John to take a look, which he is doing right now because he’s a wonderfully nice neighbor. I think I’d like us as neighbors. Except when our dog barks at passers-by. Oh well. We’re working on that one. And tomorrow we’ll jolly-up the ‘hood with our outdoor lights and holiday merriment.
{gah! the timer on my tree just turned the lights off — must change that! Turing the timer to something like 1am… sounds more realistic.}
Recommendation: check out the new holiday album “A Very Rosie Christmas“!
hey hey I’m back from Boston — what a fun time! We really enjoyed Design Hive (Kari and Sarah joined me for the day, and Jaclyn, Vanessa and some other great friends stopped by!) — thanks everyone for buying my goodies and all the smiles and great feedback. It’s so fun to see people’s reactions to my work. And I’m happy to say that two of my new needle-felted birdies found a good home, which really makes it all worth while.
Also a few of my Peace Cranes made it to the Design Hive blog — thanks Val!
We also had a fantastic time shopping the Bazaar Bizarre, which was so inspiring to me. I brought home a few handmade holiday gifts as well as maybe a few things for myself (I only have so much willpower, really). There were some wonderful vendors there, including some of my favorites:
Ranunculae silkscreen cards and fabric goodies
Swallowfield Intricate art and fantastic-ness
1Girl1Boy Hand block-printed fabric goodness
Argyle Whale little illustrations of hedgehogs and goats and things
Campfire Goods T-shirts a-plenty for the type/geography/pop culture nerd in all of us
Egg-a-go-go Illustrationy crafty goodness {we all love the Button Collecting Bird!!!]
Family Dinner for One super star cliparty T’s
Fern Animals tiny soft sculptures
Mean & Wroughten welded art pieces (he was set up across from me at Design Hive, too!)
Miaow wonderful whimsical softies, so huggable!
Sewing Stars adorable plushies
Soto Softies more adorable plushies (sensing a theme?)
Traveling Rhinos Yarn and fiber goodies
Twigs and Heather gorgeous silver jewelry — my favorites are the maple seeds, I don’t think I’d ever take off a necklace so beautiful!
I also got some gorgeous earrings and a necklace at Design Hive from Erica Walker at Walker Silverworks, who was set up right near me — I’m wishing I had picked up a few of her star ornaments, since we’re about to decorate our tree tonight or tomorrow — they’d be so fantastically sparkly with the lights reflecting on them!
I think I’m ready, so I’m off to Design Hive today! Well, it’s not till tomorrow, but I have to be there early to set up, so Kari and I decided to head out today and hang around Boston for the evening. Come visit me at the Hive!
OH and guess what? I can now take credit cards in person at shows! whoo-hoo. I’m using Paypal’s Virtual Terminal for now. Though I’m thinking of switching to ProPay after the holidays, as it seems cheaper. I just went with PayPal now because I’m familar with the whole system and already had an account. Anywho, come visit me, and bring your plastic!
or at least thinking about it.
Today marks the first day of a crazy busy week. Well, actually two weeks. I have three (yes, three!) fairs coming up in the next two weeks. And the end of my grad school semester. Yikes. So, again, I may be a little absent here from blogland, as I try to avoid the daily distraction that is the internet. It’s also a rich source of information and inspiration for me, so I allow quite a bit of that distraction on a regular basis, but right now I’m feeling pretty full of information and inspiration (yay!), so it’s time to take a little break from all of that added information and inspiration. I still have to come online to work on my classes, so I’m not making any grand anti-computer statement, but I’m just saying.
Oh and I want to make some time to decorate for the holidays! I’ve been itching to do that for weeks now, but controlled myself since we were having an after-Thanksgiving party here this past weekend (thanks to all who came and had fun and brought food! yay for us!). Now it’s time for twinkly lights and sparkly wintery things, don’t you think? Though I must admit I’m enjoying the above-freezing temperatures today and a little sunshine. Of course it’s not directly shining on me or our house (never really is), but I can see it over there in the distance and it makes me happy. And not so cold as I sit here typing. No gloves today.
Here’s the list of fairs, just in case you wanted to visit me in person. Each one will be filled with a fantastic array of other wonderful crafters and their wares, you are sure to find something handmade for everyone on your gift list!
•Design Hive, Saturday December 6, 10 am to 5 pm at the Maria Baldwin School, 28 Sacramento St. (off Mass Ave. @ corner of Oxford St.) Cambridge, MA 02138
•Mass MoCA’s Shop Hardware Holiday Party, Thursday, December 11, 5 pm at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (psst! They’re still looking for a few more vendors, too — contact me if you’re interested!)
•Crispina and Friends Studio Sale, Saturday and Sunday December 13 & 14, 10 am to 5 pm in the basement studio at the former Notre Dame Church, 40 Melville St. Pittsfield, MA 01201.Whoohoo!
Oh and I must extend a huge Thank You to Steph and the ladies at Gould Farm who ran a wonderful fair-trade craft sale this past Friday and Saturday, offering a wonderful alternative to the icky “Black Friday” madness. They sold a bunch of my cards, cranes and calendars and I couldn’t be more thrilled! I’m so glad these wares went to good homes!
