A Closer Look at Ottoman

Coral

Coral seems to be quite the color right now and I've fallen for it as well. Becka of bliss in a teacup had posted awhile back about a coral nail color she bought (Revlon's Craving Coral to be exact) and I picked some up the other day. I'm convinced that this color would look good on everyone...it's a neutral.

And, yesterday evening, I made a coral treasury featuring my Eco Etsy Team and my sis.

Now, I need to find some spray paint in this color! (let me know if you know of one...please)

I'm on cosa verde!

I'm very excited; I've joined some of my Eco Etsy buddies on cosa verde! cosa verde is a juried site dedicated to the environment that links buyers to one's shop (in my case, Etsy). But, here's what they say about themselves:

"cosa verde is a web-based market where independent artisans and craftspeople showcase their environmentally-friendly wares. Visitors to the site can buy handcrafted goods directly from the artists, shortening the supply-chain and helping small businesses thrive. Shoppers can browse by product categories or by ideology—browsing or narrowing searches by criteria such as 'cruelty-free' or 'recycled.'"

 I was accepted and I'm currently on the free version, but I hope to upgrade. However, sellers that do upgrade to a larger shop have 10% of their fees go to a charity of their choice! And, for every shop opened, cosa verde plants 10 trees! I had a couple of questions setting up shop and Liz promptly answered...and she's a sweetie!

cosa verde is also a beautiful site...here's a screen capture of the current state of my store:

If you decide to submit to cosa verde, tell 'em I sent you (I'll get credit if you do): http://cosaverde.com/referral/Ottoman/

Mushroom Pins

I just photographed the little mushroom pins that are freebies for Eco Etsy's MARCH MADNESS: FREE & GREEN PROMOTION! (You can read about the promotion here for how to get them.)

I've been sending a mushroom pin with some of my pincushions that I sell if I have them "in stock"; I like their simplicity and the little dots are of course french knots. I also experimented with making a different version (what a surprise...I'm playing on the same theme to see where I can push it - ha!), check it out:

I photographed these on Lichen Pincushion (V2) 2, if you were curious. Oh, and I'm not mentioning this in the shop, but for you blog readers...if you'd rather have one of these stuffed mushrooms instead of three un-stuffed ones (for lack of a better term), make sure you let me know in the note to seller when checking out. I don't have any of these listed in the shop as of now, so the only way to get them currently is through this promotion.

Okay, all for today!

Some updates and...you can win a Xenotees shirt!

Okay, updates first...Boo and I were at our friends Jennifer and Chris' house yesterday, so I haven't gotten my ducks in a row to post about the cute little mushroom pins for the Eco Etsy promo, but I'll work on that today. Also, you may have noticed that there haven't been any "Modified Manufactured" posts as of late...we've been really busy and haven't done much worth documenting; life goes in waves. I'm sure I'll have some more posts about the house soon, I'm going to start designing a built-in bookcase probably this week. Oh, and I haven't gotten all the supplies for the terrariums yet; I planned on doing that yesterday before we went to Chris and Jenn's, but we ran out of time. So, tomorrow, Boo and I are going to Jenny's and if we get out of the house in time, we'll get terrarium supplies first.

Now to the giveaway...perfect timing! If you recall, I recently posted about Noelle's wonderful shop and my Eco Etsy buddy, Cat of Uncorked and Polarity is doing a giveaway! You can win a shirt from the Xenotees shop (valued under $22)...check it out here for more info! You'll need to leave a comment about Xenotees shirt you like best; it's hard to choose, but I'm sure you won't be surprised when I say mine is the Japanese Star Moss:

 Also, Noelle just started a blog! You can check it out here!

Happy Tuesday!

Eco Etsy's March Madness Free & Green Promotion!

This promotion starts March 1, 2009 at 12am EST and will end March 31, 2009 at 11:59pm EST

With every purchase from Ottoman, you will receive three free hand-sewn red and white mushroom pins that are made from scrap wool-blend felt; they are perfect for any of my pincushions! You MUST provide the promo code "Free and Green" in the Message to Seller box during checkout to receive your free gift along with your purchase!

I will have a photo of these mushroom pins posted here ASAP!

For the complete list of participating Eco Etsy shops, visit: http://www.ecoetsy.com/marchmadness.html

2ReVert is giving away $200 worth of goodies!

Seriously, my Eco Etsy pals, Jann and Jeff from 2ReVert are celebrating their one year anniversary on Etsy and they are giving away $200 worth of goodies from their Etsy shop! Head on over to the 2ReVert blog to check it out! Here's a sample of items from the shop (all made from recycled skateboards - how cool is that?):

Recycled Skateboard Ring - Square - Size 7

Recycled Skateboard Necklace - Micro Dots - Gazillion-in-One

Recycled Skateboard Cufflinks

Ecofont

Okay, I must admit that I'm behind on keeping up with my Eco Etsy Street Team. But, as I started to catch up today, I ran across an email from Rikkianne of Chakra Pennywhistle about Ecofont. This is incredible font, developed by SPRANQ of The Netherlands, uses 20% less ink when printed. After much testing, it was discovered that small circles "punched out" of the font uses less ink, yet is still readable. Blown-up, the circles are obvious, but at a regular font size, it's user-friendly. Ecofont is based on Vera Sans "an Open Source letter, and is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux;" and according to SPRANQ, "works best for OpenOffice, AppleWorks and MS Office 2007. Printing with a laser printer will give the best printing results." AND...you can download and use the font for free!

Icing for the Kitchen

The kitchen hasn't even been started, but I can't help but find things I love on Etsy that I would love for it! So, this morning, when I noticed that Treasury West was going to open in about an hour, I decided to fill mine with lovelies for the kitchen:

Well, I just had to add in the eco-friendly and wonderful Cork Trivet again by nothingasitseems!

I have been a fan of artgoodies before I started selling on Etsy...functional and hand printed...what more can I ask? The squirrel is adorable!

In contrast, I just found bailydoesntbark and I love The Ant Porcelain Spoon - clever!

The milk bottles in porcelain by alyssaettinger are fantastic (and would go great with the milk cartons from this post).

EstherCoombs' work is fabulous and the cake stands are wonderful - be sure to check out the hand-drawn detail on these!

And, purposedesign is a must after my last post!

EcoKate is an Eco Etsy buddy, and these dish cloths are organic!

The simlicity of design and the fact that this cream and sugar set are white (and cork!) are perfect in my book...by paigerussell.

Another lovely handprinted tea towel, this time by skinnylaminx and the spoons are really sweet, yet graphic.

Okay, I just adore the carrot on these placemats by wonderthunder (and with a name like that, how could you go wrong?).

The smile glasses by WarauKoppu make me smile...'nuf said.

Ah, the tin food container elevated in porcelain - I love work like that! Taste by lorenabarreaueta is just a taste of the collection.

(a little reminder) and British Cream Tea

...that Eco Etsy's "Auction for a Cause" starts tomorrow; you can find out the details here. This would be a great opportunity to cross off a bunch of names on your list for the holidays.

We're not quite finished moving - sheesh. But, we have a lot to do to the new place before we can fully move it. So, posts may still be a bit spotty for now. I'm going to try to get all of our stuff in our old place to one room (plus the kitchen...well, just the fridge, microwave and a few dishes are functioning right now...the rest is off limits because it's packed and I want to keep the kitchen clean) so that it's less overwhelming. As far as the new place, we're re-doing the floors ourselves, so it's taking some time.

Therefore, I haven't had much time for crafting. But, if I find some time here and there, I may work on some more "...for your Wall" pieces.

In the meantime, I thought I would introduce a new shop on Etsy that I find utterly charming. I love to learn about cultural differences in food and British Cream Tea has the most adorable "Delicious British felt treats," and there's even a glossary in the shop announcement:

Biscuits = Cookies
Ice Lollies = Popsicles
Sweets = Candy
Puddings = Desserts (usually with custard or cream)

Okay, here's some pictures of these cuties:

Christmas Pudding - I love how the icing drips off the edge.

Fab Ice Lolly - Check out the embroidered sprinkles on this one.

Boiled Egg and Toast Soldiers - Stinkin cute little egg!

The photography is great in this shop and makes me want to have a tea party. Also, check out the descriptions on these items for a history on them; very clever!

All for now; I hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Auction for a Cause!

The Eco Etsy Team is auctioning off a basket of handmade goodies to benefit the Nature Conservancy! Here's the details:

About the Auction

The benefit auction started preparations in the spring of 2008, and each participant that donated to the auction basket were required to follow a set of rules for their items:

● Every item is Eco-related in some way. These include re-purposed, recycled, up-cycled,and eco-friendly products.
● Every item is handmade.
● Every item includes a small card that describes the item and how it relates to eco-practices.
More than 60 individual items are contained in this beautiful, eco-friendly auction handcrafted by people who care about nature and our environment. The total of all donations is valued at more than $300 retail.

Auction Details

Donation photographs will be available beginning October 20, the first day of the auction.These photographs can be accessed by viewing the album at http://ecoetsyauction.myphotoalbum.com/

Auction Start Date: October 20th, 2008

Auction End Date: October 30th, 2008

This auction is open to US residents only. This is to prevent any legal issues as well as preventshipping issues that may arise due to regulations that other countries have.

Bidding: Bids may be placed on the auction basket by emailing [email protected]. Updates will be announced regularly on the EcoEtsy blog (http://ecoetsy.blogspot.com/) with the highest bidding amount.

Please note that the monies raised will also be used to ship the donation basket to the winner.

The highest bid placed by 9 PM MST (-7 GMT) will be awarded. The auction basket will be shipped within one week of bid payment receipt – payment details will be sent to the winnerafter the auction via email.

About EcoEtsy

Eco Etsy is a group of like-minded people who are coming together to spread the word about reducing, reusing, and recycling. We concentrate on educating other Etsyians to be more aware of the waste we create when packaging our items, and therefore offer tips and tricks to help other members create a greener way of life in their shops and in their personal lives. EcoEtsy is open to all Etsy sellers who want to waste less in the process of creating, selling, packaging and shipping and to encourage buyers to do their part as well. Please feel free to learn more about EcoEtsy and the products we create, the tips we produce, and the efforts we are involved in byvisiting the following websites:

Eco Etsy Website: http://www.ecoetsy.com/

Eco Etsy Blog: http://www.ecoetsy.blogspot.com/

Street Team Page: http://team.etsy.com/profilest/eco.shtml

About The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy's mission is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To learn more about The Nature Conservancy, please visit http://www.nature.org/

Since their founding in 1951:
● They've protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of riversworldwide – operating more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.
● They work in all 50 states and more than 30 countries – protecting habitats fromgrasslands to coral reefs, from Australia to Alaska to Zambia.
● They address threats to conservation involving climate change, fire, fresh water, forests,invasive species, and marine ecosystems.