$10 CHRISTMAS SUPER SALE on Scarves!

This is my first Christmas on Etsy, and I wanted to try doing a really big blow-out sale, and in the process clear out some extra space for new inventory while hopefully earning a bit of cash to finish off my own Christmas shopping. So here it is, the $10 Christmas Super Sale on scarves!


Select scarves (over 30 of them total!!) have been marked down by 30% to 50% today (Wednesday) and tomorrow (Thursday) only! All scarves in this section are just $10 each! So take advantage of this excellent deal on some lovely Christmas gifts, either for friends, family, or your very own self!

Here are just a few of the scarves I have to offer for just $10 each as part of my Super Sale!

Fuschia Scalloped Skinny Scarf



Cool Camo Warm Winter Scarf




Sunshine on a Cloudy Day Scarf




Adorable Striped Maroon and Navy Blue Scarf




Soft Blue Winter Scarf




Strawberry and Cream Lacy Cotton Scarf



All these and more for just $10 each! This is my big blowout, so be sure to check it out here!

Eco-Friendly on Etsy

I stumbled across this wonderful shop, thecraftpantry, while cruising the Etsy treasuries this morning. The below tote caught my eye, and, upon clicking on it, I found that it is made from recycled cotton, and is priced at just $20!


This classic tote is available with many different print options; cruise the shop and I'm sure you'll find something to fit anyone's taste. I've just included a few of my favorites here.


This "lovebird" design is just perfect!


And who doesn't like owls?


The Craft Pantry also has a variety of beautiful cards available, all printed on recycled paper.

Love the colors on these!


As always, I have linked the above photos to their corresponding product pages, so it's easy for you to just click through to their Etsy shop for a closer look. You'll also find gift tags (printed on recycled paper) lunch bags (made with recycled cotton) and many other lovely items in the shop. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Something a bit more fun

I love making scarves, cell phone cases, and other things to sell in my Etsy shop, but making gifts for people I know is even more fun. This week, I got to make a baby blanket for a good friend of mine who's expecting her first baby. It turned out really lovely, and so, so soft!


I had some yarn left over from the blanket, so I couldn't resist trying a hat and booties too. They're so adorable! I haven't made hats or booties since I was just a kid (I used to make them for my baby dolls) but I followed a pattern that I found online, and it was very easy. The photo doesn't do them justice (it was so dark and rainy yesterday it was hard to get a good shot) but all in all, I've very happy with the way these turned out. I hope my friend is too; now to mail them off to her!

Seaglass, Anyone?

I've always loved seaglass, and I can literally spend hours looking through all the gorgeous seaglass jewelry on Etsy, without getting the least bit bored. That's how I came across today's featured shop, newsprout.


I admit it was difficult to narrow it down to featuring just one seaglass shop today (and I may have to remedy that with more seaglass posts in the future), but what really set this shop apart is that I wanted to favorite just about every item in the shop!


I love the simple beauty and elegance of these pieces. The glass itself is so beautiful, it pretty much stands on it's own, and I love that the artist allows it to do that.


These earrings catch the light so nicely.


In addition to seaglass, the artist sometimes uses vintage sea-smoothed pottery pieces, as in this bracelet.


I really like this style of two coordinating pieces of seaglass together as a pendant, and it's not something I've seen in any other shop.


Again, with the simple, elegant beauty!


These earrings are just gorgeous, and the excellent photography shows them off so nicely. As someone constantly struggling to produce presentable photos of my own products, I really appreciate good photography when I see it!


There are many, many more beautiful items in the newsprout shop (I didn't want this post to go on forever, so there were LOTS that I wanted to include but didn't). If you like what you've seen here, then be sure and go take a browse around for yourself. I've also linked each photo to its corresponding page in her Etsy shop, for your quick-click convenience.

More Pretty Jewelry

For someone who doesn't really wear jewelry, I sure do blog about it a lot. Here are some more pretties I came across on Etsy.

These are from the Etsy shop SusansJewelryDesigns, and are not only beautiful, but appear to be very well made. They're also quite affordable; most of the items in Susan's shop are around $16, with some earrings priced as low as $11 a pair.

These would be lovely to add just a bit of sparkle to an outfit.

I think these Tuscan sun earrings would look especially nice on someone with dark hair. There is also a ring in Susan's shop with this same design here.


Striking, while still being simple and classy


These look good enough to eat!


As usual, I've really focused on earrings in this post, because in any jewelry shop those are what tends to most catch my eye, but Susan also many lovely handmade rings, necklaces, and bracelets. You can take a browse by clicking here.

The Ribbon Basket

I don't know anything about ribbon, and have never really used it in anything I do, but these photos really caught my eye.


When I first stumbled into this shop, The Ribbon Basket, I thought for a minute that these were art prints, rather than just product photos of ribbon for sale. They're just so nicely photographed!


So, just thought I would share them... Like I said, I know nothing about ribbon, but the prices seem very reasonable, and the ribbon looks lovely. I came across this shop through linkreferal.com, by the way, which is a link exchange site that I think has been pretty useful for me. You can read my blog post about my thoughts on linkreferal.com here.

Winners!

My Great Cell Phone Case Giveaway ended today, and the winner is.... drumroll... Mommy Kennedy! I'll be sending her the below cell phone case; the one she chose as her favorite.


Funny thing happened while I was getting the entries organized to randomly select the winner. A new message popped up in my inbox from Sadee at sadeeschillingstudio, saying I had just won her giveaway! I don't enter very many giveaways, but actually winning one really makes me want to participate in more! I got to choose any pendant from her store, and I chose this one:


Nice, right? I can't wait till it gets here! She's got lots more beauties in her shop, along with a variety of lovely art prints.

Hand-painted Glass Magnets to Dress Up Your Fridge

I found these beautiful hand-painted glass magnets in the Etsy shop SunnysWoodnGifts. Definitely a huge step up up from those magnetized business cards and other miscellaneous freebie magnets that are scattered all over my fridge.


The hand-painted image is actually behind the glass (instead of painted on the glass itself), so the magnet is smooth to touch and shiny.

Included in this post are some of my very favorites from Sunny's shop, but she has lots more, so be sure and check out her Etsy shop here.

Prices range from $7 for some of the single magnets, to $14 for some of the sets of 4. Sunny also has wooden key-chains and painted wooden magnets in her shop.


Love these blues!


And just had to include these as well; such great, earthy colors!

Pretty Handmade Earrings for Under $10!

With the economy the way it is, I think we're all looking for deals, all the time. Me, I'm pretty much on a "necessities only" kind of budget, though I do cheat occasionally (ok, maybe more often than occasionally).


These are some very pretty earrings I came across in the Etsy shop jaimiebdesigns. All are on sale from $5 to $8 a pair, so you can add a little bit of color and sparkle and "newness" to your wardrobe without breaking the bank. Jaimie has lots more lovely items in her shop too; you can check it out here.


Speaking of great deals, I'm having a fun giveaway on handmade cell phone cases. It's super-easy to enter, and the winner gets to choose any cell phone case they want from my Etsy shop to be shipped to them, free-of-charge, anywhere in the world. Scroll down, or click here for more info and to enter.

Bought these gorgeous handmade earrings for $5!

I rarely buy things on Etsy. Not because I don't want to. Far from it! Mostly because there are just so many things I'd like to buy, I can never narrow it down to actually making a purchase.

So last week, when I was taking a look through the beFreedesigns shop, I had no intention of actually buying anything. Again, not because I didn't want to. I had hearted a number of items in the shop before and was coming back to pick some out for a blog feature. But, lo and behold, one of the sets that I had hearted had been put on sale... on sale for only $5! I couldn't resist!


The earrings arrived yesterday, and I just love them! I actually bought them with my sister-in-law in mind, because she has these beautiful bright blue eyes, and I do not. But when I saw them I just had to try them on, and you can't give away earrings once they've been worn, right? Like, it's some kind of rule, right?


These earrings are actually much prettier in person... for some reason neither my photos or the shop listing photos really do them justice. I especially love the way they swing; and that the inside stone swings completely independently from the outer hoop, which also swings nicely from the hook. So all in all, very swingy! This was an unbelievable deal and one that I am very happy with.

Here are a few more of my very favorite items from the beFreedesign shop. Be sure and check out the actual shop; there are lots more beauties, at excellent prices too!

Essence of Seas Earrings... just $15!


A Night in Bombay Earrings... only $10, and free shipping too!

Thanks for reading!

Being My Own Model

With cold weather and Christmas just around the corner, I finally decided it's time to get serious about photographing and listing all the scarves I've been making all year long (yes, I make scarves year round). Since I don't have a model or a dressmaker's dummy, I've tried photographing them lots of different ways (on tables, on trees, etc), but often they just look like something unidentifiable, or, in many cases, like a colorful roll of toilet-paper. Which is interesting, but not exactly what I was going for. Observe; my tree-model and toilet-paper roll pose:










So I finally decided it was time to bite the bullet and be my own model. My sister happens to be a really good photographer (unlike me) with a kind of fancy camera (also unlike me). So the other day, when the lighting seemed just right, we went out to the yard to take some photos.


I put on what I deemed a nice, but un-distracting top, surprisingly free from the bleach spots, stains, and holes that adorn so many of my tops, and what I thought were my nicest jeans. After seeing said jeans in photos, I think maybe I need some new jeans. Luckily, my top half was really all that was needed for most of the photos.


So then we got down to it, and just "standing" is actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. Because you have to stand without looking strange, or awkward, or like you're missing a limb... all these things. And my sister the whole time giving me helpful tips, like "you look really weird when you do that" and "get rid of that hand." Get rid of it?


Amazingly, a lot of the photos turned out pretty decent (after some photoshop magic to remove some "skin imperfections" that my sister's fancy camera picked up in superb and unforgiving detail).


By the way, did you know you can edit your photos for free on Photoshop. com? I just discovered this little miracle. I know there are a lot of free editing programs out there (I usually use Picasa) but none of the ones I've used so far have the touch-up tool that I found so helpful in evening out my skin tone. It was actually really therapeutic. Zap, zap, zap, zap! I wish smooth, clear skin were so easy in real life!