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Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.

Be mine!

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heart candy

I’ve got a preview of Valentine’s day gifts from all over the www to share with you today! Yes I know Valentine’s is almost a month away – and besides the fact that I love holidays, when you’re ordering handmade items I find it’s always good to order in advance. This is especially true if you live anywhere outside of the US as shipping delays can be lengthy at times. Heart shaped lollipops from Calabasas Candy Co

Print is from Rosy Designs

I feel like Valentine’s gets a bad rap some of the time, and I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the holiday. I do remember being single and that it was sometimes a bit discouraging not to have a special someone to celebrate the day with. Having said that I’ve always thought that Valentine’s shouldn’t just be a “romantic” holiday, it’s also a great time to celebrate love and to eat chocolate. Not that most of us need an excuse, but it’s great when it feels like we are justified to do so, and especially when it comes wrapped up in such pretty boxes!

Hearts bicycle necklace

Bicycle heart necklace from Rachel Pfeffer Designs

Did you know that Valentine’s day wasn’t originally a romantic holiday, but instead a religious one? I sure didn’t. It turns out that it wasn’t associated with romantic love until Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a poem to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia in 1381 (at the time of their marriage they were both only 15 years old)! The line from Chaucer’s poem reads: “For this was Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”

Heart Soaps

Conversation Heart Soaps from So Stinking Sweet

From there Valentine’s Day became increasingly associated with romantic love and by the early 19th century paper valentines had become so popular in England that they were assembled in factories, with fancy valentines being made with real lace and ribbons. By the second half of the 20th century the practice of exchanging gifts also became common, bringing us to the present day, where Valentine’s continues to be a very popular holiday!

More historical facts about Valentine’s can be found here on Wikipedia.

An enlightening day at the gallery…

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Inspired. That’s what I felt after visiting the Vancouver Art Gallery last weekend. My husband and I are members, so we’re free to pop in any time we like to check out the newest exhibition which is a great luxury. So much so that we may not even look into a new exhibit in that much detail in advance like we would otherwise, we’ll just head down instead to check it out in person. For some reason I wasn’t that excited about the WE: Vancouver exhibit. I figured, I live here already, and as much as I love it I’m not super interested in some kind of rah rah city pride type of thing. I found something very very different that encouraged me in more ways than one. (The Reclaimed Dress above is from Etsy shop, Adhesif.)

Seed Bombs from Visual Lingual

With the dawn of the internet, we’ve seen the rise of countless different types of sites – and I couldn’t help but wonder after visiting the exhibit, how this easy transmission of information might be changing our collective perspectives for the better. Now it’s altogether possible that the folks whose thoughts and work were on display came to these views without the internet’s helping hand, but there were three outlooks that I have heard expressed again and again by people online and by my own friends in the last couple of years that I can’t help but wonder if there is some kind of interplay there, and a really great one at that, that is making these types of views far more mainstream than they ever have been before.

Throughout this post, you’ll find handmade items that I feel fit the various themes of this post in one way or another!

Reclaimed Wood Vase from Peg and Awl

The first “manifesto” I came across in the gallery found it’s main focus in nature and architecture, and painted an enticing vision of individuals who find themselves deeply connected to the outside world in a sustainable way. If you’d like, read more here about Mari Fujita and Matthew Soules vision of a future where we commute by kayak and pluck tomatoes from our wallpaper, right here.

Next, a commentary on conscious consumption – reminding us to be in touch with what we eat and use in our day to day lives. Either by baking bread, or planting a fruit tree or any other number of things as Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon suggest here.


Reclaimed wood terrarium from Ecogro

Next stop – a display courtesy of Natalie Purschwitz, who for one year decided to wear only things she made herself. You can read more about her project here.

If you have a chance to read these manifestos or to peruse Natalie’s blog, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Are you inspired like me, or do you think these lofty ideas and ambitions are unrealistic or somehow unattainable?

Alternative Wedding Dresses

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Celebrities and friends are getting married all over the place and photos are appearing everywhere from Hello magazine to Facebook. Unfortunately I haven’t had any invites this year (not even from Kate Moss!) but I do love looking at all the wedding dresses. Of course the wedding of the year was Prince William and Kate Middleton, and whilst I did like her dress, I preferred Lily Allen’s vintage style dresses. The price for all of the ones we see in magazines are usually somewhat astronomical and out of reach for most of us, which makes handmade dresses on sites such as Etsy, even more appealing.

The dress above by blackmirrordesign is no doubt a brave statement to wear as a wedding dress, but if you like it; why not? Surely your wedding day is the best time to wear something that truly reflects you.

I have never understood why people pay so much for a dress that is worn for one day only and tends to look pretty similar to everyone else’s. Young girls dream of their wedding dress long before the boy has even been met; and the dream usually consists of stepping onto the aisle, the organ playing and everyone turning to look at you. I dreamt of a train so long it would reach the door while I was stood at the alter! In fact, it was only two or three feet long, and that got trodden on often enough! My wedding dress was bought in a charity shop for £5, which I then customised by opening the back and adding red ribbon lacing, tying ribbon around the medieval style sleeves and gluing on hundreds of beads to form a gothic style flower on the train. I was very proud of my dress and especially loved knowing that no-one else would have one the same.

I am still happily married, but if I were to get married again, I’d be brave and go for a dark red one. Something like this from thesecretboutique is just the thing.

My dress is packed up in a box in the roof, but there’s no rule to say you shouldn’t think of the future and get better value by buying a dress that can be worn on other occasions. Some simple dresses look absolutely stunning, and it does seem a shame that they often never see the light of day again. This dress by K T Jean Designs is so pretty and could easily be worn to a summer evening soiree.

Stress-Free Challenge.

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Some good advice from Claire & Me Designs.

We’re constantly being reminded that we’re living in a stress-filled 21st Century, then on the other hand we’re being slated for being stressed out. The truth is simple: stress happens. We just need to get better at coping with it.

We’re either ‘Too blessed to be stressed’ (the very idea of that is just utter garbage to me) or we’ve to ‘Keep calm and carry on’ (which works in the short term but is never a long term solution.)

I don’t have the answer to a stress-free lifestyle but it has become very apparent to me that stress is a Big Problem. After all, the newspapers are obsessed with it and it’s causes. Pharmaceutical companies seem to be making billions off the back of it. And we’re seemingly becoming more and more stressed out.

And I have reached the conclusion that filling your walls full of inspirational, quirky and fun stress-boosting posters might help. Such as this cute illustration by Laura George.

In all seriousness, though, it feels like we’re either doing too much or not enough with ourselves, our lives, our goals, our commitments.

We’re trying to juggle our happiness and meanwhile keep everyone else happy.

We’re smiling and nodding at the boss, telling them that yes we can do that bit of over time, all in the hopes of them furthering us up the career ladder.

We’re wives, mothers, fathers, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, daughters, sons and so on trying to deal with those relationships that life throws at us unprepared for and to ‘learn on the job.’

We’re crafters trying to push our latest project into making amazing sales. We’re photographers, dreamers, writers, intellects, artists and academics all looking for our break, our way into the World and for that penny-dropping moment of complete bliss and happiness.

Happiness seems like the anti-thesis to stress; wherever stress is, happiness is not. It’s like stress walked into the party and happiness walked out with it’s chin up in the air and a snooty snort as it passed stress as if to say; “Pft, I’m out of here! I’m not sticking around for any more of your drama!”

I definitely believe that happiness can be achieved in this life. I have experienced material happiness (as in the short-term burst of pleasure you experience when you buy something new for the first time) and I have experienced natural happiness (that long lingering and memory making happiness you get from wonderful life experiences) so I know this can be achieved. I also know that the majority of people in the World will have experienced the feelings I have described above – so happiness is real. It’s not some mythical creature that lives in a cave. It can happen to you.

There are no rule books on combatting stress (okay, well, not counting Chicken Soup for the Stressed Out Soul and all those like-wise books, of course) but there are techniques you can learn to avoid the impending doom of stress.

Again, here I go with the advice;

Befriend someone older than you. Most of my older friends have a much more laissez faire attitude towards life than I sometimes do. Like when I worry about wrinkles, my Gran will tell me; “You don’t have any wrinkles! Don’t worry about those things in your 20s, enjoy yourself!”.

Those who have more life experience just don’t care about life. In a good way. And spending time in the company of those who don’t sweat the small stuff will definitely have an effect on you. You will soon learn to loosen your grip on what does and what doesn’t matter – and wrinkles at 25? Perhaps, but what can I do? And does it really matter? Life your life without vain anxieties.

One time, while watching a programme about water-skiing my Gran (who can’t swim, let me remind you, but went down various water slides on a holiday in Spain when I was 8) advised me to “try things” in life. “I wish I had done that,” she told me, pointing to the screen where a terrified looking woman was being prepared for her first water skiing adventure. “You should do that.” Umm, while I don’t think I will take up water skiing just yet I think I will take her words to heart. Don’t sweat the small stuff, listen to your elders and heed their advice.

Do something you love every weekend. It doesn’t have to cost loads of money. What do you love? How can you do this for as little cost as is possible? Fill your weekend with things you love; eating chocolates and staying in your pyjamas all day? Doing housework while blaring music full volume? Taking pictures of old couples sitting on benches in the park? And if something does cost you some money, don’t STRESS about it – just let it be. You can make more money but you cannot buy a new heart (which will be in the firing line if you stress any more.)

Remind yourself that being a person is hard and you’re doing a good job. You’re not a terrible person. You’re not doing everything wrong (I go through these paranoid trains of thoughts about 1000000 times a day.) You’re not letting everyone down. You’re not disappointing your parents – and if they’re not happy with you, don’t sweat it, they’ll get over it and if they don’t? Well it’s still not worth stressing out over.

Get professional help if it’s needed. There are some things that need a professional. There is a lot of negative association with therapists, but if they work for people – how can someone say that is a bad idea? I have no stigma or issue with therapists. They provide a service and the process of therapy can really heal people. A lot of creative people suffer with mental health issues and it’s no laughing matter. Get help if it’s what’s required.

Knit happens. Knitting and other crafty projects can be very relaxing. Take on something relatively simple, something that won’t annoy and frustrate you and call it your Stress-Free Challenge. Whenever you feel the stress building up, take out the crafty project and work on that.

Take a chill pill. For years many have told me to “take a chill pill” and although I hate the sentence and every other emotion it drums up, it’s still true. Take a chill pill. Cool off and forget about things that don’t matter. If someone is being an opinion pusher and it’s stressing you – so what? They won’t change their minds about their opinions just because you’re right – in their minds they’re eternally right. Let it be.

Take time for a break. You make time in your day to eat, to visit the toilet, to do the basics so you can make time for a proper break in the day. It’s also very, very, very important that once you complete a huge project or task that you take some time out after it’s completion, stand back and take a deep breath. Appreciate that the hard part is done and now you can relax…until the next big thing.