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Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.

Reflections on a New Year

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Print above is from The Big Harumph

As I write this, the New Year is just days away… Every year for as many years as I can remember I have had more resolutions than I could count: Eat less candy, workout more, save more money, be more tidy, and on and on the list goes. How about you? What kind of resolutions do you set each year?

This year I won’t set a single resolution. It’s not that I don’t think resolutions are valuable, I know they are! For me they’ve never lasted long, but I’m still glad that I kept each one for a week or two or three.


Image above is from The Wheatfield

This year I’m allowing myself to dream new dreams. Always a pragmatist, I’ll let you know that this is because I feel the time is right for me to try different things and to redefine what I value and what I would like my future to look like. So this means shifting my work focus, and spending more time doing things I love: decorating our family home, hiking, and hanging out with family and friends. It sounds simple, but something in me knows that this will fuel my creativity and my perspective.

Life’s disappointments often ask us to become jaded and to be fearful of trying new things. We so easily tell ourselves that we cannot accomplish the wonderful things we would like to do. This will be a year where my own voice grows stronger and as I work and rest and play I will remind myself that with diligence and persistence that I can accomplish new things.


Image above is from Valentina Design

I have heard experts suggest every year as we set resolutions that we be careful not to set too many, that we write them down and revisit them weekly. I am certain this is good advice, but this year – I’m choosing to dream and to believe that I will find growth both personally and artistically and that my life will continue to spring forth more beautifully than each year before it.

I want to hear your dreams and resolutions for the year ahead of us. It’s the perfect time of year for us to sweep away old disappointments and to look ahead with expectation!

Family Time

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Due to family commitments and an unexpected emergency I was unfortunately unable to get this post up the week it was written. Please transport yourself back in time a little and enjoy this wonderful post of Ellie’s with my apologies for the timing :) – Erika

It’s that time of the year – next Friday, or Christmas Eve as it’s commonly known, my husband and I will be travelling across the country to stay with our respective families for the holiday period. This may sound like a long trip, but being as how we live in the UK, it should only take us about two hours (snow permitting)! I love spending the holidays with my family, for the first couple of days at least, and in honour of this special time I’ve rounded up some fabulous, family-inspired handmade goodies. If you’ve still got gifts to buy, this little lot should certainly inspire you!

“Home is where the heart is” has always been my favourite cliched saying and in my case is certainly true. Although I haven’t lived where my parents are for nearly ten years, and although we own our own house here, I always describe going to my parents’ place as “going home”. So I’m really looking forward to spending some time there, catching up with old friends and re-visiting all my childhood haunts.

I may have mentioned once or twice that gifts for my family this year are almost all handmade, by me or others! I’m just a little bit excited about being able to offer my nearest and dearest totally unique items that are so different from the mass-produced goods I’ve bought in the past. I’m also hoping to receive a few handmade accessories of my own this Christmas – hopefully I’ve dropped enough hints with my husband…

Every family has its traditions for the holidays and mine is no exception. On Christmas morning, we eat avocado and bacon sandwiches while opening our stockings, then move onto presents before toasting the occasion with prosecco. My dad then makes the most delicious Christmas dinner you have ever tasted – no kidding – which we eat before collapsing in front of the fire to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special. It’s difficult to say what makes these simple traditions so special, but to me they really are.

I hope you all have a fabulous holiday period, whatever your plans are! I’ll see you in 2011, when I’m looking forward to discovering more wonderful handmade items!

Photo credits:
Preloved Penny Lane
Terrordome’s Extractionarium
Indira Albert
Cross Street Press

Bikini Babes

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I’m lucky enough to be going on holiday soon, so I’ve actually been the target audience to all the swim wear on offer in the high street. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted looking through rails of clothes and trying on various combinations of bikini tops, tankini tops, bikini bottoms, coordinating skirts and one-piece swimming costumes. It’s actually been doing my head in. You can’t do it quickly either! In order to try on swimwear, you have to take (almost) absolutely everything off! (Then of course, you need a different size and being a British citizen, rather than an American one, (and not shopping in high class, super expensive establishments), this means getting at least partially dressed again, scurrying across the shop and back to the changing rooms hoping for better luck this time.)

Ok, enough of my whinging. Shopping is supposed to be fun isn’t it? Well, it’s always fun on etsy! I can waste hours of my time window shopping on etsy, but it’s so much more enjoyable because the swimwear is different, unique and so much more a joy to look at. Unfortunately this didn’t occur to me until just now, and just now is too late to order something in time for my holiday. For some reason I suppose I assumed swimwear wouldn’t be available handmade.

One of my favourites is the one above by My Sugar Doll. Little poodles printed on the lycra fabric is genious! It’s very cute, but a little bit naughty as well.

I am always a fan of 50s style clothing and I actually discovered this swimwear maker in an article in an antiques magazine! Anna Winston makes them by the sea near Hastings, UK, where I regularly used to drive down to for fish and chips, usually in the rain, where we’d park by the shore next to the fishing boats and watch the waves crash on the pebbles! Ok, enough of my reminiscing – take a look at these gorgeous swimming costumes. I love them. “If a woman feels comfortable and elegant on the beach then she’s more inclined to enjoy herself,” she says. I completely agree.

I also love this electric blue bikini, made to order by LoveLucyBea. In her shop there are all kinds of unusual designs in lots of different colours. Definitely worth checking out. I just love all the ruffles!

If you’re wondering what I bought for my holiday in the end, well I bought a bog standard purple bikini and made myself a pixie style dress to wear over the top (from my roll of black lycra I usually use for waistbands), and cut little holes in it so the purple shows through.

My Mom Rocks

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A couple of years ago, a one of my mother’s friends took me aside at a family event and told me, “Your mom would move mountains for you, Rebecca. Remember that.” At the time, I took as an off-hand comment, but it was actually a prophecy of sorts. Just 6 months later, when I called my mom to tell her that I was planning to leave the West Coast and move back to the Prairies, she said, without skipping a beat, “Great. Rent a truck. I’ll drive.”

A few short weeks later, with Vancouver in the rear-view mirror of my Jetta and my mom at the helm of a packed U-haul, I headed home. It took us 3 days to make the 2000+ kilometre trip. My mom was Thelma, I was Louise, and the gas-guzzling U-haul was called “Piggy”. A lot of laughs, a few tears, and a couple slightly-sketchy hotel rooms were shared as we made our way across 3 1/2 provinces. At the end of our trip, when my belongings and I were safely in Winnipeg, my mom asked for nothing in return. She just gave me a huge hug, told me to behave, and hopped on a flight back to BC.

Someday, I hope I get the chance to pay it forward and do something like that for my own kid. (Except I’ll probably make him drive the U-haul.) In the meantime, since my mom is my rock, I have gathered up this collection of stone-cold awesomeness in her honour…and just in time for Mother’s Day!

According to Lindsay, unlike children, air plants require minimal nurturing to keep them alive. They don’t even need soil; just a sunny spot and a twice-weekly bath. This Tillandsia makes his home in a sandstone pebble planter, which has a lovely modern, organic design. Check out Lindsay’s shop of all sorts of unique and beautiful gifts for mothers (and others.)

Dean & Sue of British Columbia carve words and designs into stones that have been polished by the Pacific Ocean, using a sandblasting technique. They will carve all sorts of words and images into the stones, but I think these sweet little baby feet would be perfect for a new mom. The pendant pictured above, from the Monkeys Jewels shop, hangs from a silver bail and comes on a black leather cord with a silver clasp.

I love how these felted pebbles fool the eye. At a glance, they appear smooth and hard; but in the hand they are warm, soft and touchable. Taking her inspiration from nature’s organic forms and textures, Delica creates her tromp l’oeil rocks by felting natural merino wool. The set pictured above is made up of nine grey pebbles; each as unique as their stone counterparts would be in nature.

And, finally, some rocks of a different kind – the edible kind! These decadent mini rocky road cheesecakes (pictured above with the peanut butter cup cheesecake) from the Bakesalery are topped with loads of vegan marshmallows, ganache and chopped almonds on a chocolate cookie crust. The best part, though, is that they come in pairs; perfect for sharing with mom.

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 9th, 2010.