Monthly Archive for November, 2007

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

My Favorite Things, Part II

(…continued from Part I)

Instead of lining up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday, consider staying home in your jammies and shopping at Etsy.com. Support your local economy, support the global market, support an honest to goodness craftsperson and not a giant, nameless, faceless chain. Everything is listed in US dollars, and most sellers ship internationally. You can pay with a variety of methods, and customer service is wonderful. If you have a question about colors or fit or ingredients, all you have to do is ask the seller via Etsy Conversations.

On to my favorites for the home!

1. Candles smell great and add to the overall ambiance of a house, but they can also be pricey. I was used to buying candles at $15-30 a pop. It’s literally like burning money. Not so at Yancey Candles! They offer a variety of scents, and candles come in practical mason jars ($8) and 4 ounce tins ($4.75). I like self contained candles because they don’t collect dust, and I’m in no danger of dropping them and chipping the wax. These are candles that you can afford to use everyday.

2. Fabric can make a big impact in a room, but who says it has to be delicate silk or traditional plaid? Olive has great stuff like wall hangings and pillows that pop for nice prices. The collection features funky prints and bold felt accents. This modern flower pillow sells for $18.

3. Who says modern art isn’t for everyone? At Modern Art Everyday you can find reasonably priced prints on canvas in a variety of sizes, colors, and motifs that add a big punch to a plain space. This limited edition Red Dahlia print on canvas is 12×12 and costs just $45.

So what are you waiting for? Stay home already!

A Modern Thanks

It’s that time of year again.  It’s time to gather round a table with loved ones and dig into something delicious and be thankful for all that we have, because well…it’s Thanksgiving.

More and more I notice that people don’t know how to give thanks, and worse yet, I find that people don’t know how to accept gratitude with aplomb.  I’m an old fashioned Girl Friday, I suppose.  When someone has done me a favor I try to write a thank-you note.  I hoard stationary, so really it’s quite a thrill for me.  When someone should be congratulated I try to write a nice note expressing my sentiments.  Twice in the past few months I have done this and had the strangest reactions from the note receivers.  One person asked what the note was for, though I clearly appreciated her commitment and support at an event I’d hosted.  The second person said that my handmade thank-you seemed like a waste of time.

I can let all of these people discourage me from being me, or I can accept that most people aren’t thanked nearly enough for the work they do, for their kind spirits, or for the inspiration they provide.  I will continue to give thanks when I can and how I enjoy it—through words and sometimes pretty paper.

Lastly, I feel really lucky to have kind readers who pipe up out of the blue just to say they like my little blog.  Thank you for reading, especially you, Justin Accident!

Happy Thanksgiving!

You Get a Koo-Koo Clock, and You Get a Koo-Koo Clock!

Girl Friday’s Favorite Things

I’m not Oprah, and I can’t give you twenty pricey items for free, but I can introduce you to some awesome things that will satisfy your need for retail therapy this winter.

First of all, if you don’t already know about Etsy.com, you need to get your shop on. Seriously. Seriously! Etsy has changed my life. I discovered the site a few months ago and it has revolutionized the way I shop. I don’t want meaningless stuff and I try not to inflict that upon my friends when I give them gifts.

In September I was searching for mermaid themed items for Notorious M.A.G.’s 26th birthday. Etsy saved me time, sanity, and money. By simply searching for “mermaid” in tags, titles, and descriptions, I had hundreds of items to pick through. Most people would probably settle on the first thing they saw, but not Girl Friday. I poured over every item and finally settled on a necklace from Sea Treasure Studio and note cards from Lokness Press.

Sea Treasure Studio specializes in scrapbook pendants that are fun, funky, and totally vintage. The gift box was decorated and relieved me the duty of wrapping!

Lokness Press has an assortment of screen printed cards, but ultimately it was a gold mermaid printed on brown card stock inscribed with HOLA that won me over. (This is item is sold out, but equally cool is the Cynic Collection.)

I didn’t have to run myself ragged all over town, waste gas, and buy a bunch of things that I only felt luke warm about. (Don’t we all do that? Throw money at a problem and hope it goes away!?) Thus began my love affair with Etsy.

In the next few posts I am going to feature some of my favorite things.

Cue the music, Julie.