Try Handmade

Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.

Amber Alexander

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Amber Alexander, whose work reminds me of a modern day Beatrix Potter, is an artist to watch. This Vermont based artist creates interesting characters with her paints and brushes. Her watercolor and acrylic work is stunning!

It’s rare to find art that can find a home on any wall. That is another great aspect of Amber’s work. You could hang any of her paintings in any room of your home and it would simply ‘fit it’.

You will find affordable prints, originals and even some cards featuring Amber’s artwork in her shop. There is a lot to choose from that will make your collection all the more special. Enjoy!

On Starting Small

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I Eat Locally Tee by ameliapmorris

I am incredibly goal-oriented and deadline-driven. Give me a deadline and while I may be a procrastinator, I will also be wholly motivated to meet it — even if at the last minute. Give me a challenge that needs conquering and I will become obsessed with accomplishing it.

It’s probably these inward tendencies that make me particularly fond of the Eat Local Challenge, a movement that as of October 1st entered its fifth year.

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Spring Organization: Gardening

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How many of you have been outside taking advantage of this beautiful, sunny weather? I know I have! Let’s get our hands dirty with some garden talk today.

If you’re in the works growing a vegetable garden, jazz it up a little with these colorful garden stakes by fromArtisanHands. If you’re new to veggie gardening like me, then you may need a little guidance with remembering which of your plant starts is which. These handcrafted stakes were cut from slabs of stoneware and come in a variety of fun colors. Not only do they come with vegetable names, but you can order them with herb names or inspirational words as well.

I have absolutely fallen in love with these handcut, recycled tire planters by DuchessCraft. Made from old lawnmower and trailer tires, these planters will make a huge statement when strategically placed in your flower garden. You can also use them inside the home to sort and organize your magazines, knick knacks, or even your recycling. Also, this artist donates a portion of the proceeds from these planters to the Second Harvest Food Bank where millions of pounds of food are donated to families in need all over the country every year. Visit the Second Harvest Food Bank website to see what else you can do to help!

Carry your gardening tools, seed packets, gloves, and other supplies with ease with this cedar wooden garden tote made by DesignByKohler. Cedar is perfect for this type of outdoor job since it is termite and rot resistant as well as lightweight for easy carrying. As their product description suggests, you can also turn it into a rustic style planter by simply drilling a few holes in the bottom and filling it with soil and an assortment of plants. DesignByKohler makes many custom designed and built wooden products for your home and garden from both exotic and domestic woods.

Now that you have some tools to get started on your garden, head over to Diana’s posts for some tips on What’s In Season.

The Wizarding World of Fashion

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Yes, I am not ashamed to admit it: I am a Harry Potter fan! So much so, we have saved up to take the family to Harry Potter World in Florida later this year, and we simply cannot wait to see the next film in the series next week. We have been the family who have queued up outside the bookshop at midnight when the new books have come out and read them non-stop; we bought the Hogwarts scarves, the wands, the wands the following year when the newer edition had pretty lights, and and we have also been the ones (husband excluded) dressing up to go to the cinema on the opening night.

Unfortunately this year my daughter’s still on her school camp on that first night, so we have to wait a whole 3 days! Now we are completely used to being accused of being very uncool as far as the Harry Potter thing is concerned (they either haven’t read the books or are jealous of J K Rowling’s success), but even I had my doubts as to whether dressing up not on the first night, is too much. Those doubt were quickly quashed though, and we are now busy planning what to wear!

A quick internet search reveals some amazing fan-made costumes, but sadly they mostly aren’t for sale. On Etsy, I absolutely love this one above by Bbeauty Designs of Bellatrix lestrange’s outfit. Evil and nasty though the character is, there’s no doubt that Helena Bonham Carter always gets to play the most interesting people and wear the best clothes.

The detail by limebarb that has gone into re-creating the uniform of the Beauxbaton students is amazing! It is just like the ones in the films.

Lastly I love this charm bracelet by 1luckysoul. What a fantastic idea. It has kind of a steampunk edge to it too and is so original.

The only sad thing is, this is the very last film!

RAGGEDedge

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I’m in love. I was searching Best of Handmade for ‘zipper totes‘ to find something to schlep all my junk to work, and I discovered RAGGEDedgeGear.

We use cutting edge fiber technology originally developed for aerospace and military applications to build you the ultimate civilian gear. Bags and wallets made out of carbon fiber, Kevlar, aramid and other high tech materials. You haven’t seen anything like it. Every item is handmade by us.

Like all things awesome, RAGGEDedge started as an idea in the mind of a smart and motivated individual. That was 12 years ago, sometime in the middle of 1997. Originally, the idea was simply to make ourselves useful stuff out of the pile of old sails we seemed to be collecting. We’ve evolved immensely since then, but at our core, our focus is still function and usefulness. Every product that makes it to our lineup gets there because it serves a unique purpose for us or for someone we know.

Truly amazing!