Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.
Dear Reader,
I have a huge fondness for ice. The naughty ice cube trick my college roommate taught me. The ice the nurse wrapped up in a diaper for post-birth relief. The Ice I rubbed on my teething baby’s gums. The half melted glass of ice I crunched loudly during my first big fight with my husband. The ice in the water that helped me make a decent pie crust for the first time. The ice that clinks in my glass at the end of the day when the house is quiet and sleepy.
Do you know someone who’s favorite book is Like Water For Elephants by Sara Guen? Have they read Geek Love by Katherine Dunn till their paperback has gone soft? Does this friend think it’s a travesty that HBO’s Carnivàle series was canceled? Then you my dear have a true carney lover on your hands.
Chances are one of their favorite sensations is flying weightlessly through the air on a creaky, metal carnival swing. Gift them with this fine art print (above) found in bomobob’s etsy shop, “Summer Dreams”.
The best part of carnivals? The food of course. Corn dogs on a stick, roasted corn, cotton candy and candy apples. Though most of these delicacies are served out of questionable trailer with neon lights, they are impossible to resist. Relive those sticky moments with KcSoapsNmore’s caramel apple soaps. Her shop is filled with other sweet delights like pastel macaroons and brightly colored ice pop soaps.
And keep the taste of that delicious warm funnel cake on your lips with themorbidthemerrier’s lip balm. Best part? You won’t choke inhaling the powdered sugar while you enjoy.
Vintage carnival art is a scrumptious clutter of words and color drawing you into strange and mythical attractions, like YeeHaw’s letterpress poster advertising mule sniffing and Earl the singing chicken.
And while we’re daydreaming of old time carnivals let’s not forget the bearded lady. At last we have access to the secret of her well groomed beard thanks to scodioli’s gorgeously dark Etsy shop.
Don’t leave the fairgrounds without getting your fortune told. I predict a trip, a dark stranger and wealth from a surprising source in your future. These vintage fortune cards from ImagineArt7’s shop were used to fill fortune telling napkin holders. I adore them and often use them myself to tie on top of a gift package.
Always happy to be your sideshow,
Lotta
My sister recently reentered the dating world and I found myself vicariously reliving her first kiss, first love, first embrace moments. And then I remembered the other firsts. The first fight, first awkward moment and the first heartbreak and realized I’m quite content to be her armchair guide to love. Her backseat romance driver.
And so I’ve compiled the best dating and marriage advice I can find via a selection of handmade gifts to give. Perhaps you have a friend or family member poised on the diving board and ready to plunge into the sometimes icy, sometimes refreshing dating pool too?
The best advice I could possible give anyone heading into potential coupledom is “You Must Be Present To Win”. Be your best self and get out there and try! The man or woman you are going to pair socks with for life isn’t going to walk into your living room. (Cable television doesn’t count.) Lulubug Jewelry (featured here and here) has cast that sentiment into a fine silver necklace on a drawn cable chain.
Sometimes the best counsel has been around for years, as is the case with Kurt Vonnegut (one of my favorite authors) and his quote, “There’s only one rule that I know of babies – God damn it you’ve got to be kind.” Captured by Ragamuffin Press on scrumptiously thick paper. Be kind to those you meet, date, and most of all to yourself.
MetalandMud has captured essential advice on simple, upcycled, white plates. The one I would share with my single friends is “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” Let yourself flounder, grasp and stumble in the dark while you look for love. And when you find your mate you’ll see that you also found yourself a bit along the way.
And when you are ready to commit to your love, consider these wedding invitations created in the form of a vintage train ticket by LetterBoxInk. Because my dear, it’s going to be a ride. A beautiful, bumpy, roller coaster of a ride. Buy your ticket, climb aboard, hang on tight and enjoy.
Love,
Lotta
Dear Reader,
The walls of my home are decorated with propaganda art. Not the “Loose Lips Sink Ships” variety though. We gravitate towards a subtle and steely push to maintain your good hygiene and manners. My particular favorite is a series called Character, Culture, and Citizenship. It’s a classroom series that came out around 1935. The colors are brilliant and the messages uttered aloud today have an almost ironic, guiding sweetness to them.
My most favorite propaganda style acquisition was inspired by the blogger Sweet Sweet Life. Etsy recently featured her pretty home – where she used vintage alphabet blocks and a wooden doll to create a fantastic vignette. 
I recommend taking the time to browse Sweet Sweet Life’s Flickr set. But do it after you read this because once you see it you won’t be able to stop nuzzling your screen it’s just that cozy and cute.
Step 1: Think about your message! Be kind and offer your guests or seat. Tell people to put the toilet seat down. Remind yourself to breathe deeply. Say whatever you like, and it will look all the nicer for being spelt out in alphabet blocks. I chose “Keep Calm Carry On” an expression from a wartime poster created by the British Government’s Ministry of Information.
Step 2: Find your blocks! If you’ve got the time, hunt down some great old blocks at a garage sale or swap meet. I ordered mine directly from an Etsy seller because they already spelled out my message. And, well frankly I gained about 10lbs eating corn dogs the last time I went to a swap meet so I’m a little scared to return. You can find them by searching the Supply section of Etsy with keywords like, “Block, words, sign”.
Step 3: Get some glue! I had a hunch that any blocks left lying around would be claimed by one of my children. So I opted to glue them together so they were an obvious decorating item, and not part of the general block miscellanea. This is slightly sadistic, but effective. I recommend using E-6000, but truly any wood glue will do just as well.
Step 4: Apply a small dab of glue to the middle of each block that you are joining. Wait a minute for it to set and then smush together. Sounds obvious, but if you smush too soon you won’t get a good bond. After they’ve been joined – lay them bottom side down and press gently. It’s ok if the letters are misaligned – it adds to the look in fact. But if they aren’t flat on the bottom they won’t be stable when you are ready to display.
Step 5: Join in sections, and then join those sections and so on. I made rows, but didn’t join the rows to each other. That way I can stack or make a long message on a windowsill.
Step 6: Allow them to dry overnight and display!
Love, Lotta
The theme for this gift guide is driving. Specifically, a summer night’s drive. The windows are rolled down in your car and your left arm is hanging outside. A warm breeze is rushing over your skin as you move your fingers through the resistant air current. The collective neighborhood smell of charcoal barbecues, fire pits, fresh cut grass and the occasional cigar enjoyed on a porch fill your inhalations.
Maybe you went out for milk, or are driving home from a night with friends. Either way it is driving weather and you are so glad to be in motion. As you pull up to your house the perfect song comes on the radio. The one that makes you feel 16 and wise beyond your age at the same time. So you smile and press your foot on the gas, pass up your house and circle the block one more time to listen to it.
Snowowl’s lino letterpress art captures the perfect marriage of music, driving and memories.
Sometimes if we didn’t have to be home right away, my dad would keep driving and time it so we got there right when the song was over. And we always had to have the windows down for the full effect.
Father’s Day is coming up and this personalized hammered copper and sterling key ring by ChipmunkHollow is the gift for fathers who stare longingly at the car keys when the fireflies come out to play.
TheBugGirl has a beautiful collection of art cards created from a found lot of 1960’s trading cards in her attic. The colors are rich and rubbed out, with great detailing. Buy them individually, or purchase and frame a set. Then stare at them wistfully when summer ends and winter forces you to roll your windows up.
Slide this ring onto the finger of a loved one that would rather road trip than fly, who prefers to cruise instead of hurrying to their destination. An abstract wood grain, tire tread patterned ring made by JewelrybyJohan.
It’s summer, it’s gorgeous and it’s fleeting. So turn the radio up, lean your seat back a bit, take a deep breath and enjoy the ride.