This Christmas...

The day after Thanksgiving I got up at 3am to visit my local Target with a friend. I figured I had never done the Black Friday thing before, why not this year? I am a hypocrite and maybe a poser because the day before I made my status "buy handmade and local this Friday! Stick it to the big business' and help the little guys!" But we go and it's just awful. I looked around the store and could find nothing that I wanted to give
 my family. It's all the same! 
   Now I've been on Etsy for a little over a year now. While I haven't sold much, I realized that there are 
some incredible Artisans on Etsy. Like these fantastic shoes http://www.etsy.com/listing/53597636/studio-jellyfish-comic-heels-in-yellow byStudiojellyfish. I adore them! You can find anything and everything. Or if you like to see and touch 
what you're buying first hand, shop local, support your local small businesses. I decided to make presents for 
my family this year and I shopped at 2 different yarn stores to get what I needed. Yes it can be more expensive 
but you're helping the little guys make it through these tough economic times too.
  The point of this long shpeal is this: I want to start a campaign to revamp Christmas. And I've even worked 
out a slogan! "Personalize it, Don't Commercialize it". So the next few week I will encourage you to do just that. 
For phase one of my campaign, I will bring you tips for homemade decorations, ornaments, great places to shop 
local around Atlanta and great items from Etsy. Of course for those new tech gadgets you'll need to go to you 
local giant chain...but why not by a nice casing and personalize it? http://www.etsy.com/listing/62788956/sale-peacock-water-resistant-padded?ref=sr_gallery_2&ga_search_query=ipod+cover&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=&includes[0]=tags&includes[1]=title&filter[0]=handmade 


Signing off until tomorrow! Happy handmade shopping!

A Foray into Book Making

I have always been interested in paper crafts. I have kept old magazines, books, wallpaper samples, in the hopes that I could make something out of them. And I finally am! I enrolled in a book making class and I am loving it! I have listed my first journal with coptic stiches and I couldn't be more proud. My favorite part of the book are the inside covers. I used pages from a 1947 copy of Nancy Drew and the Clue in the Jewel that I've had for a few months and was falling apart. I love that I could use it to make something new instead of throwing it out. I also used the orginal covers from the book to make a journal for myself. But that's just for me! Ha ha. I have no plans of selling that one :) Check out the picture below. I can't wait to share the box I made using old wall paper and the tape bound book I'm making now. :) Until then check out the photos of my first journal.