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Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.

Made from Scratch

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Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life
“Discovering the pleasures of a handmade life was a longtime dream for urban homesteader Jenna Woginrich. At 24 years old, living in an apartment in Knoxville, Tennessee, and working as a computer designer, Woginrich was nurturing her dream of learning to homestead. Now, at 27, she’s settled on a rented farm in rural Vermont, where she cares for two working sled dogs, chickens, a flock of sheep, honeybees, a couple of geese, fluffy Angora rabbits, and a backyard garden that provides much of her own food.

Part memoir and part how-to manual, Made from Scratch recounts Woginrich’s growing independence and the successes and missteps she experiences as she learns to more fully live off the land. By turns upbeat, dramatic, and sometimes sorrowful, her story embodies the experience of the new homesteader  one who is committed to reducing dependence on commercially produced goods while still working a day job to pay the rent. Woven into the narrative, readers will find easy-to-follow instructions for making clothing, playing a musical instrument, preserving fruit, brewing the best pot of coffee imaginable, and much more. Now available in paperback, this new edition features additional material on moving from Idaho to Vermont, a topic that will delight fans of her blog.” → more info

Upcycle, recycle, bicycle.

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It should go without saying that as an environmentally-minded individual (and avid shopper), I am always on the hunt for cool, eco-fabulous handmade goods. The things that always catch my eye and win my heart are the ones that start off as ordinary household items, but become objects of beauty once they pass through the imaginations of clever, talented people. One such piece is this upcycled necklace by Danish maker PalePink, which I stumbled upon during a recent browse through the many “green” shops on Etsy. At first glance, you would never guess that something so lovely could’ve started its life as a common rubber inner tube! Each one-of-a-kind necklace is carefully cut by hand from a single tube in PalePink’s Copenhagen studio. Each piece is as unique as its wearer.

innertube_necklace

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A Handmade Life

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A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity
“William Coperthwaite is a teacher, builder, designer, and writer who for many years has explored the possibilities of true simplicity on a homestead on the north coast of Maine. In the spirit of Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, and Helen and Scott Nearing, Coperthwaite has fashioned a livelihood of integrity and completeness-buying almost nothing, providing for his own needs, and serving as a guide and companion to hundreds of apprentices drawn to his unique way of being.

A Handmade Life carries Coperthwaite’s ongoing experiments with hand tools, hand-grown and gathered food, and handmade shelter, clothing, and furnishings out into the world to challenge and inspire. His writing is both philosophical and practical, exploring themes of beauty, work, education, and design while giving instruction on the hand-crafting of the necessities of life. Richly illustrated with luminous color photographs by Peter Forbes, the book is a moving and inspirational testament to a new practice of old ways of life.” → more info

Lost in Jakarta

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This week was the final episode of Lost. There are may fan sites where people hypothesize about the details of the show, like where the island is supposed to be. We know it’s somewhere in the Pacific, some say Bali. Jakarta is also a pivotal location to the storyline, so I thought I’d showcase some local sellers from this magical place. Oraber is an Indonesian painter and printmaker who studied painting, but has evolved her craft to doing mainly printing, especially woodcut. This piece is a great image of many themes within the Lost series, which I attribute to the mystical energy of this part of the world.

As designer Maria Theresa says, the clothes we put on can be inspired by our constant changing moods, and can inspire or subdue them. This dress reflects the ethereal nature of the Lost story, if I were on the island trying to sort things out I think it would be just the thing to don. The designer wants each piece to be an extension of the wearer and reflect who that person is.

This pillow is named the “Tree of Life,” and it called out to me as I sat and watched the final moments of the show. Jakarta resident, Kainkain, is a talented embroiderer who now calls design her fulltime job since she discovered Etsy. This particular design is a fitting end to this story. The tree is both delicate and stand sure, and as such, it is a perfect reflection of how each and every one of us experiences life, no matter what far corner of the earth we find ourselves.

Eat Dessert First

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pumpkinfineart

I have always adored misshapen pumpkins most.

I have always preferred imperfection.

That’s why, when last weekend, as I watched my own two girls pick out their yearly jack-o-lantern prospects I was proud to see flattened stems and dented backsides making the cut.

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