William McDonough: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Todd Oldham: Handmade Modern: Mid-Century Inspired Projects for Your Home
Shoshana Berger: ReadyMade: How to Make [Almost] Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer
Meg Mateo Ilasco: Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business
Toby Hemenway: Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
Happy Fourth of July everyone!
I have family visiting for a little over a week, so my posts may be spotty.
In other news, apparently my camera should be back mid-week (we'll see) - yay! I can't wait to get it back! There will be lots to update you on, particularly with the shop, but I have some surprises too!
Do have a safe holiday!
I've been containing my excitement about other Etsians' work to items I have bought because truly there's so much amazing work on Etsy, the features would consume this blog! However, I found a shop named artbear recently (it's a new shop) that has some conceptual art that I find really powerful in it's activism. The work is by Emily Berezin and she, like myself, is a printmaker and sculptor (another reason to love this shop). The series that I'm going to share is Emily's "Parasitic Advertising." Here's a quote from the listings:
"For this project, I painted corporate logos on living insects, photographed them, and released them into the wild to infiltrate our homes and gardens with yet more advertising."
Now, here's a look at the work:
This one is Adidas Spider.
How about a Nike Water Strider?
Here's FedEx Grasshopper.
I don't think slugs can be painted, so this is really clever - Coca Cola Slug.
And a little Pepsi Ladybug.
The shop also has a set of 5 postcards with one of each image, if you'd prefer.
A few of my sachets have been in my shop awhile, so I decided to put them on sale. Now, I'm not going to have sales often (this is my first), except in a circumstance such as this. The sachets are still HIGHLY FRAGRANT; however it's time they have a new home. I have one Moss Peppermint Sachet that is approx. 10% off (it can also be used as a pincushion) and two Moss Clove Sachets that are 20% off (they really cannot work as pincushions). So, here's your chance to have a sachet at a bit of a discount! Here's what these lovelies look like:
I love that these scents are unisex and would also make great gifts!
I recently thought - why shouldn't I just allow my customers to choose which length they want when purchasing my pendants? So, yesterday, I changed all my listings noting that during checkout, you can leave a "message to seller" with what length you want your necklace, with a default of 18 inches. This is a win-win because I get a little note and I love little notes!
Here's some examples of pendants currently available in my shop:
This one is Cork French Knots Pendant (medium) 2.
I love this one, it's Cork Wood Burned Woodgrain Pendant (small) 1.
It was so fun to do a little printmaking of sorts for these, this one is called Cork Relief Printed Tree Rings Pendant (medium).
Last, but not least, Moss Pendant 3.
Happy Wednesday!
I got an email from MOO this morning and they now have regular sized business cards! They are $21.99 for 50 cards and each one can have a different image. I love that MOO is also a environmentally responsible company; here's a quote from MOO regarding the two choices of business card stock you have when ordering the new business cards - "'Classic', is just like MiniCard stock, sturdy and smooth, sustainably sourced. 'Green' is 100% recycled, and 100% recyclable and bio-degradeable." The cards also come with a cool holder. This thumbnail from the site should give you an idea of what they look like:
You can read more about all the options available for these new cards here.
For now, I think I'll stick to the MiniCards because they are so cute and different; they always catch peoples' eye. Here's a look at mine.
I've been in a couple of simply stunning treasuries as of late, and the reason I'm mentioning them is because one's a cork treasury and one's a moss treasury; the cork one has expired, but the moss one (as of now) is still active:
(edit: many thanks to jessicajane for the lovely cork treasury and whimsylore for the stunning moss treasury!)
The range and amount of cork seems to be growing on Etsy...I love when trends are ecological (hopefully it's more than a trend!). There are lots of favs on this cork list, but one new to me is that Cork Trivet by nothingasitseams - rad!
More moss! I never can get enough moss treasuries! This reminds me that in the update coming up, I will not only have lots of items for the Lichen Collection, but I've been meaning to make a Moss Brooch for a loooong time and there will at least be one included (DoorNumberFour's little brooch set is pretty cute!); the brooches will look similar to the pendants, but with a pin on the back. I'm also planning on making some Moss Magnets after one of my customers suggested such an item.
Happy Monday!
My friend Jenny's backyard is rather amazing and my son and I visited yesterday. I've been thinking about Jenny's Lemon Balm and whether or not it would be fragrant enough when dry to use for my sachets; while there yesterday, Jenny cut a bunch of the Lemon Balm for me to give it a try (there's lots of it - it and some mint have filled in all the nooks and crannies of the yard) and I have it drying at my home right now. So, when it's dry, I'll see if it'll work for the sachets; it smells really lemony so far! Since I'm cameraless, I didn't get any shots of the Lemon Balm in the yard, but here's a pic I found on the net (since it's related to mint it looks very similar, but has fuzzier, softer leaves and the texture on the leaves is less defined):
The bonus is that Jenny's yard is organic!
I'll keep you posted on how this experiment works out; if it does, there will be Moss Lemon Balm Sachets and Lichen Lemon Balm Sachets in the shop soon.
Oh, and Lemon Balm also makes a nice herbal tea!
Okay, I think I've mentioned before that we're air-cooled VW fans and I thought I'd share with you a super fun website dealing with these cars - Bus Selecta. I think you'll have fun with this site even if you aren't a VW fan (heaven forbid), or a car person at all. You get to pick the Model, suspension height, wheels (and tires or "tyres"), colors or "colours," and accessories for you virtual Bus (or Bug, Type 3, or even Porsche).
Here's a thumbnail from the site so you can get an idea of what it looks like:
Have some fun - hey, it's Friday! Oh, and I'd love to know what you think!
Happy Friday and have a fantastic weekend!
My son and I went to our local farmers' market today, and amongst the items we bought was a lavender plant - we love lavender! This reminded me that I bought the lavender for the sachets in my shop from Labyrinth Hill; the organic lavender is grown in a labyrinth:
What a lovely idea! The lavender is SO fragrant (and I triple seal the finished sachets in zip-top bags to keep that scent in as much as possible).
The farmers' market was bustling this morning and besides the lavender, we got some cherries (I believe they were "Queen Anne"), sugar snap peas, garlic, a sugar cookie for my son, a berry turnover for myself (hey, I ran out of the house without breakfast), and some tamales for lunch. After the market, I got some potting soil, and as soon as it cools down this afternoon (or at least when my patio is in the shade), my son and I will probably pot the lavender and the other herbs we got a couple of weeks ago in some proper pots.
The Ample Sample post made me think of carpet and when I think of carpet, I think of FLOR carpet tiles. I think that the FLOR is such a great company; the carpet tiles can be removed, cleaned and replaced and when the tiles wear out in a high-traffic area (or you want to replace them all together), FLOR will pick them up, take them back to their mill and grind them up into new product. Also, FLOR plans to be carbon-neutral by 2020. You can learn more about FLOR's green work here.
Now for the aesthetic reason I like FLOR:
There really are so many choices on the FLOR website, that it's hard to pick just a few I like. But, there's something about having carpet that looks like grass that appeals to me (bringing the outdoors in?) and since I'm not a fan of having a large lawn for environmental reasons, having a "lawn" inside is appealing. I love the name of this one too: House Pet in Frog.
Okay, here's another example of the highly decorative, but in a modern way, that I love. Also, I'm the only female in my household, so I dream of having a highly girly room for myself someday (until then, I will girlify my studio some). This one's called Amazing Lace in black.
Okay, another green one (what can I say?). I love FLOR tiles that have that bit of beveled edge (there are a few styles that do) because why try to hide that they're tiles? Emphasize it! This is Toy Poodle in Lala Lime.
I hope you're having a happy Wednesday!
