Whatever Weekend – Shoes and Tattoos!

Today, I fell in love.

With these:

 

Gipsy Dharma has some of the most beautiful, handmade, leather, festival-style boots I’ve ever seen!

I’ve wanted a pair of boots like this for years now, as the hubs and I frequent our local Scarborough Faire, and see handmade shoes like this on the regular. It doesn’t hurt that I secretly want to be a fairy. (Shh…) I’m also a lover of shoes that keep me close to barefoot, which is hard to find in a boot. If you’re curious about why going barefoot is so good, check out this link. As for me, I’ve always enjoyed going barefoot, and continue to do it for health reasons (as someone with FMS, it’s important to me to walk consciously to put less strain on my body,) but I am a girl, after all, and this girl loves her shoes! Could it get any better than custom-made by hand?

The designer is based in the UK, but she’s obviously accustomed to selling internationally. There’s no shortage of detailed info on her shoes and clothing, including measuring and sizing tips to help you avoid returns. She’s also eco-conscious, which, of course, I appreciate, and her customers are clearly very happy!

In other news, I’ve found a great tattoo artist who I’d like to do a tattoo I’ve had in mind for years now. Her name is Shanti (which means “peace” in Sanskrit, in case you were wondering,) and she specializes in Art Nouveau style. My idea is somewhat general right now – a celebration of life garden with specific flowers to represent specific loved ones and important events in my life, placed on my hip, and wrapping around to my lower back. I have plenty of notes on possible flowers, and would love a swirly, Art Nouveau style background to tie it all together. So, I need an artist with a good sense of botanical work, and I also want bold, rich color, and after looking at some of Shanti’s portfolio, I’m confident she’ll be able to provide just that. Look at this beautiful Iris (a cover-up, no less.) The color variation and attention to detail really drew me in.

 

I’m excited to work on sketching out some designs and meet with Shanti after I’ve saved up enough money to sit through at least an hour-long session!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Friday’s Favorites – Keeping It Local

Happy first Friday of 2014, everyone! It’s a good day.

We love our team Etsy Fort Worth linkup parties. If you have a Facebook page you want to share, click here for free advertising and networking:

 

We have two new favorite Etsy shops from the DFW area!

Wolf Blue Design creates one of a kind and custom stained glass pieces, ceramic art, handmade rustic tools, and more from Grand Prairie, TX. Just take a look at this gorgeous stained glass:

 

 

 

The Fairy Mermaid whips up wings, crowns, and other magical things from Arlington, TX! These charming, unique wings would look adorable on any aspiring fairy:

Plus, she really is a beautiful fairy mermaid! Check out her website to book her for events.

 

Now that I think about it, things are a little fishy around here today …

Share the Love,

Chelsea

 

Tuesday’s Treasure – Yuletide Cheer

Click on the images to shop DFW local, handmade small businesses!

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Chelsea

Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday – Where to Shop & SAVE!

So, if you’ve watched the news or have been on any social media site lately, you’ve probably witnessed, and possibly participated in, the disappointment many have felt toward the companies who have decided to open, and even have mega-sales, on Thanksgiving this year. So, if you’re looking for a way to encourage big businesses to allow their employees to spend the day with their loved ones on Thanksgiving, the obvious choice is to not shop there on the holiday.

You can even go a step further, though, and not have to sacrifice awesome discounts and deals, by supporting local, small, and/or handmade businesses! You see, there’s this nifty day beyond Thanksgiving and Black Friday called Small Business Saturday, on which small businesses around the world participate in giving Black Friday worthy deals to their customers. To top it off, most of us small business people have websites and online stores, and can participate in Cyber Monday, a day when we can all stay in the comfort of our own homes (and, let’s be honest, pajamas,) and still find good deals on merchandise that we may not have been willing to fight the crowds for during the big, in-person shopping extravaganzas. The best part is that if you buy from small businesses online, you’re more likely to find more unique and personal items, and you can still have a less stressful shopping experience while you help your local economy thrive.

As for us, we’ll be offering 20% OFF your entire purchase from Saturday, 11/3, to Monday, 12/2 in our Etsy shop! Simply enter EFWHolidays at checkout to receive your discount. Not only that, but most of the members of our Etsy Fort Worth team will be offering various discounts or free shipping, too, and we’re all using the same discount code to keep things easy. Click the image above to view a list of the participating shops, and their special offers.

We wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving, and a happy holiday shopping experience!

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Chelsea

We need your votes!

It’s that time! We entered this year’s Martha Stewart American Made competition for the chance to win anything from a gift basket full of goodies to $10,000 for our business and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to New York for the expo to display our work. You can go directly to our profile here:

I’ve had a late start reminding everyone of the competiton, because Mom’s been recovering from a knee replacement. It’s been almost three weeks, and though they made mistakes at the hospital with her medications, and she’s had a bad reaction to the pain meds they prescribed her, she’s finally feeling better and on her way to rehabilitation! We’re both excited to start building up our business after a long road of health struggles and other obstacles, and look forward to having our own studio workspace together.

We’ll keep you updated on the voting process, and if we win, we’ll share every step of the way with you. Please share the link to our profile with your friends – thank you for voting!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

A Gatsby Summer

I’ve taken a break from making treasuries for a while, partially because of time restraints, and partly because I couldn’t come up with any interesting themes for a collection. I have to confess, I haven’t read “The Great Gatsby,” but it’s on my long list of books. With Baz Lurhmann’s version out in film this summer, though, people are going wild for the the roaring twenties, a decade that’s been one of my favorites since I was about 12 years old.

So, here’s my nod to the 1920’s, with hints at Gatsby, and plenty of glamour.

Be sure to “favorite” and share anything that tickles your fancy!

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Chelsea

Make It Monday – Martha’s American Made Awards

If you look to the right of this post, below the photo of me looking very colorful, you’ll see a new button that looks like this:

Yesterday, a friend from our local Etsy team, Etsy Fort Worth, shared the link for our team members to nominate themselves for Martha Stewart’s Made In America Awards. The finalists from the six categories will receive an AM gift basket, and will be featured on the site and on Sirius radio. The first prize winner receives $10,000 to use toward their business, and a trip to NYC!

All you have to do to enter is click the green button on the right (or the picture below,) check out our profile, of course, and click the “nominate  yourself” button at the top right of the page. You’ll select your category, add any photos, videos, and links you’d like to share, then write a short bio about yourself/your business, and answer a couple of questions. You can save a copy of your profile before publishing it, and once you publish, you can edit your profile if you notice any mistakes or something you may have left out.

A sneak peek of our profile!

 

Voting starts August 26, so be sure to add our profile to your favorites list for later! Mom is looking for a house right now, and we’ve been planning out our studio space (who cares about the rest of the house, right?) So, if we win the grand prize, part of the money will go toward renovating one or two of the rooms to create a space where we can make and market together, and where we can invite customers to talk about custom orders, and host fittings for models. We are in serious need of a collective, designated space for our work, so that we can collaborate on projects, and store our supplies in one space. I’m especially excited to designate an area for taking photos, with different backdrops and a light box, without having to take it all down and reassemble it to save space in our current, small apartments.  

Of course, if we don’t win, we’re just excited about the opportunity for free exposure. By creating our profile, we’ll reach potential customers that haven’t heard of us before, who’ll visit our Etsy shops and other links, and get to know us better. If you or anyone you know has a handmade business, take the opportunity to put yourself out there! It could be craft, design, food, gardening, or style related. Nominate yourself (or make them nominate themselves,) because you never know who’ll fall in love with your product.

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Tuesday’s Treasure – Two to One

Here’s the latest Etsy Fort Worth treasury featuring items from both Etsy Fort Worth and some from their newest members from Etsy 817. Click on the picture below to visit the collection and shop each of the featured artists!

 

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Chelsea

Tuesday’s Treasure – Texas Harmony

Now that Etsy 817 and Etsy Fort Worth have merged, I’m seeing all kinds of new content from new people!

Here’s a look at the EFW blog, and the latest team treasury: http://www.etsyfortworth.com/2013/04/great-gift-ideasno-fooling.html

Here’s a pretty, springy green treasury by my friend Amy from Larkspur Studio:

 

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Etsy 817, Meet Etsy Fort Worth (And Happy Easter!)

Happy Easter, everyone! However you’re celebrating today, or if you’re just enjoying a nice spring day, we’re wishing you a good one filled with family, friends, and peace.

There’s big change going on in the Etsy team world this season. (Appropriate, huh?) Our local Etsy team, Etsy817, and another local team, Etsy Fort Worth, have decided to merge! This was a compliment to our smaller, newer team, to have Etsy Fort Worth, a group that puts on a large annual show and has a huge following, show interest in us. It’s also practical, seeing as our team leaders were planning on implementing some new team guidelines that Etsy Fort Worth also had in the works, and several of our team members were already a part of EFW. We’ll be working together to create a more active team collectively, and to promote handmade and vintage in the Arlington, H/E/B, and Fort Worth area, which covers a large chunk of Texas, y’all. We’re having our first meeting as partners in a few days, so I can’t wait to meet some new faces and talk about the game plan.

To learn more about Etsy Fort Worth, visit the website: http://www.etsyfortworth.com/

Like I said, we’re all about promoting handmade and vintage, so if you have a website or an Etsy store you’d like to share, be sure to list it on this week’s linkup post!