Etsy's best kept secrets?

Here's a few etsy artists with only a few or no sales. Such a shame really, considering they really have great work. They'll get their day though. We all do. It seemed like forever before I made over 5 sales.
I picked 5 of my favorites:
* http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23622602 by donnastruthers. These shell beads had me fooled from a distance. They're handmade from glass, and kiln fired. Well done.
* http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23992174 by AgapeGiftShoppe. A stunning dogwood bloom hair pin. This one is absolutely gorgeous, and sports a vintage jewelry center.
* http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23183143 by miraculousmosquito. A set of cute printable cards and envelopes for only $3.50. I love the pastel colors on these.
* http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22370546 by sweetlylovely. An upcycled pincushion in romantic pastel colors. I love the 'antique rose' feel to this entire shop. Beautiful stuff.
* http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22610113 by wisteriaprints. I love the variegation in this shot. This artist has many wonderful prints, it was hard to choose one for the blog.

Good luck to all five of you. I wish you all the best.

...Whoa.

I have to say, this is one of the most freaking amazing artworks I have ever seen.
Seriously. You simply have to see this.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXLp5CzkBU4YMZx57-Pv-83pMZBgta607RLjYQrpbuMFAYwoiUOz08wHtUwmRKS6osSj6at8aUxxqwWspldqfKrgx_Z0N59BE6_q4SXcYOjHrlPR1N7zCG0FUKqER3-DUQpzY8nNb7ix4I/s1600-h/PabloReinoso_1.jpg
Benches made by Pablo Reinoso.

Bored and creative. Oh no.

That's a dangerous combination for me, I usually get in trouble. Usually when I'm feeling bored and creative, I end up staying up til 2 in the morning making 4 different types of cookies and other desserts. Or maybe making waaay more cards/chopsticks/pendants in one night than is recommendable. Or maybe I end up grabbing a pair of scissors and hacking away at old sweaters. Who knows.

This time, I took up chinese brush painting. Oh boy, I love the occasional challenge. It's not as easy as it looks, folks. Trust me. But undeniably enjoyable, nevertheless. Here are my practice sheets.. 'doodles', you could call them. (The bird really sucks, but I had to try...)

I may look like crap, but I smell DAMN good!

My life's little pleasure is smelling good.
Yeah, I'm not hard to please.


Today was the ever-popular craft fair, the 25th Anniversary of the Bloomin' Festival here in Cullman, AL, and we had over a hundred crafters set up this time, or so I heard. It's always a very popular festival, but today, OMG. SO many PEOPLE! I sure hope all the handmade vendors did well today. With that kind of crowd though, I'm betting they had better luck than usual.

I myself purchased about 4 decadent soaps and some shea butter from the very kind folks at Sheer Pleasures Soapworks (http://www.spsoap.com/). If I might say so, I highly recommend the 'Amber Romance' and 'Orange Clove', but I'm a sucker for spicy scents. Honest to goodness, you could smell this booth before you got to it, it was so delicious!


Also, a couple of other fantastic shops to whet your pallet:

*Designs by R & R: http://www.designsbyrandr.com/ These folks make gorgeous jewelry, and seem to also be nature-inspired. They use a lot of precious metals and natural stones to achieve marvelous pieces of art.

*My Father's Woodworks, LLC: http://www.myfatherswoodworks.com/ This shop owner is actually the husband of my high school english teacher. He is a fine woodcraftsman, and makes a wide variety of tabletop items such as beautiful wooden goblets and napkin holders, even tables themselves! And let's not forget the ever-handy 'Golden Retriever'!

*Alex Fong (Chinese paper cutting): Unfortunately, try though I may, I could not locate Mr. Fong's website if he indeed has one. I see the gentleman every year at the festival, and somehow he remembered me when he saw me. He is always so excited to tell folks about his new additions to his crafts, and is always eager to demonstrate the art form. You can tell he takes great joy in what he does, and that is a rare pleasure to see. He creates fantastically detailed pictures using Chinese paper cutting, and this year added paper folding to his cutwork. Simply astounding.


If you're local and have never been to the Bloomin' Festival, what on earth are you waiting for, honey?!

Twitter. Or else.

I created a Twitter account the other day. I think I've made about.. oh, 4 posts? I'm still learning the ropes. At any rate, if you folks out there Twitter, you can hunt me up as WaRHandmades. I'll have that unmistakable clover shot down shown below as my background, so you can't miss it.

Etsy tips

I just came across this link today in the forums posted by wingsoflove, a set of tips for newbies to selling on Etsy. If you are new and need a hand, it's definitely worth a read. And if you're not a new seller, it's still good to look over as a checklist, of sorts. Take a look here.

A lovely rainy day!

It was a beautiful day today. A steady drizzle of rain fell throughout the day here, though only enough to energize a person. It was one of those misty rains that felt more like your skin prickling than raindrops beating down on you. After taking a few pictures of some chopsticks this morning, Bylen and I decided it'd be a lovely day to photograph some of our local flowers peppering various parts of our yard; sadly, the daffodils and hyacinth had already faded into the memories of early spring. Here's what we did find; we hope you enjoy the bounty of our rainy outing in the rain as much as we did. (By the way, zoom in on these babies for a better shot, I shrunk them so my blog wouldn't be homicidal on anyone's computer.)

My first showy victim, a patch of clover dusted with the afternoon rain:

Columbine, which miraculously came back out this year after dying off completely:

Two dandelion shots, drenched with rain:

Bylen's lilac bush; gee, these things smell terrific:

A water oak frond, for lack of a better term, the 'flower' of an oak tree (we call 'em oak worms!):

Pink dogwood blooms:

My rosemary is blooming! And a watery spiderweb on the same rosemary bush (poor spider...):

A wild azalea, such an interesting looking plant...:

And finally, a few white dogwood pictures: