Holiday Etsy Giving

The holiday season is upon us again. What could be better than some handmade goodness? Even though I don't make everything by my hands anymore i do try to buy handmade things from crafters for my loved ones.
Here are some etsy ideas:

recycled licence plate earrings by wearwolf found here:

linen reusable sandwich bags lined with nylon from country life naturals found here

hand printed linen napkins by madder root found here

mustache pints (I own two) by bread and badger found here

darling necklace by foundling found here

upcycled skateboard necklace (i heart these, hint hint) by seven ply found here

rigmarole's lovely star ornament found here

and lastly for that cook in your life fork tshirt by xeno tees found here

I Heart These

I have been lusting after these bangles made by Lynda Slade at sew new things. They are made from old knitting needles that she heats and bends. I think they are lovely.

One Year

Today is my one year anniversary.  Can you believe it?  Clearly I haven't been wearing my boggie shoes enough.
We had a bit of the "do we exchange gifts" debate and I sort of thought that something needed to happen to mark the year but nothing too serious, cause we aren't very serious when it comes to things like this, and nothing to big and elaborate cause that is not really us either.  So of course I turned to etsy.
Apparently the first anniversary is paper which was a least a place to start my search.  Since we moved last March my guy has become a bit of a farmer.  Well as much of a farmer as a city boy can be with a big back porch and plenty of squirrels to shake a fist at.  He is already talking about starting his seedlings for next summer which led me to this.

The gardening paper pot maker.  It is super cute and makes these great little pots out of recycled newspaper that you start seedlings in and can go straight into the garden once they are ready.

Etsy

Some of you may know about the wonderful land of Etsy and others may not. For those that don't know it is a place where crafter and makers of all kinds can sell their wear. I have a site, sadly with nothing on it at the moment but that is another story.

One thing you can do on etsy is post what is called a treasury which is a collection of things you like all together. I decided to do one on call The Not so Permanent Love of Tattoo's

which you can check out here

Starting 2010 Off Right

Somehow I my new job, which I love, has boxed me in a bit. I was given a cubicle which I am learning to live with, partially by holding onto my old desk and ignoring the small desk attached to it and partially through putting good things up on the walls.
One of those good things is this lovely calendar made by storybymia on etsy. Every time I look at it I smile, so things can't be that bad. :)

Good Stuff

Hello All-
We had our wedding shower this weekend, which was a lot of fun and we made out like bandits. I decided to create a special registry on Etsy. Truth is it was a lot of work because I had to contact each seller and get them to agree to hold the item, most folks were very nice about this some were not.
I thought I would share a some of these great things with you.
I have always loved mobiles as a child I would spend hours under the Caulder exhibits so this one is super special to me it comes fro http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29164046
and my lovely future sister in law got it for us. It is made of a special glass so that when the light shines though it it changes color from yellow to pale pink.

Very Cool Lamps

So our camera is MIA which has led to some bad blogging practices. Instead I thought I might show you all some cool etsy wears. I think these lamps are the bomb and we may just need one for our living room.
They are made by a lady here in NY and you can visit her etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5670728

A Merry Christmas to me

A friend decided to do a little shopping at Mahka Crafts on etsy and I decided to take the paypal payment and pay it forward through etsy. The thing about being unemployed is you rarely buy yourself anything. It has been awhile since I slurged on myself but given the holiday season it seemed fitting.
So I got my these lovely earing from metalicious on etsy. Aren't they just lovely! You can visit her shop by clicking here.

Green Bag Lady Extravaganza

This past Sunday I had the good fortune of running a small sweatshop for the Green Bag Lady project hosted by Church of Craft at Etsy labs. City Quilter in NYC was kind enough to send out a mass e-mail to all their friends asking for fabric donations to this noble deed. With the wonderful help of Abbie, Elisa, Sarah and Kristy we cut out over 40 bags and sewed 18. It was so much fun we are going to try to have a few more bag making days soon.

Blue Prints Handle with Care

I just had to share my latest plastic bag fusing project with you all, cause it's so darn cute! It is made from the clear bag I was given when I bought paper during a rain storm. It says “blue prints handle with care” on it. I made it to sell on Etsy but it is so cute that I am thinking we might need to keep it for beach trips.

The Proof Is In the Photo

Starting my etsy shop made me really think about the photos I have been taking of my work. My standard photos have been pretty good but not up to competing for sales. Not to give too many trade secretes away but my previous photos where taken on a spare sheet I spread out over my bed. The problem is that a: my bed needed to be made; b: the sheet always needed another ironing; c: the sheet was beige; and it needed to be light out for the photo to work out well. The other issue, which only just occurs to me, is that we have ivy that grows over our bedroom windows and was dead all winter and has now sprung to life reducing the light in the room.

So I decided to build myself a light box. This consisted of getting my guy to bring a really big box home from work; he also snagged some of that paper that goes over exam tables. I cut out three sides of the box and covered it in the paper. Now, no matter what time of day, all I have to do for a good picture is place the thing in the box and hit it with a light from the outside, the light is diffused and the piece look lovely.
Pros to the new system: I can take photo’s anytime of day or night. I don’t need to make my bed. Things don’t have to have a beige backdrop. AND I don’t have to iron as much.
Cons:
I have to store a really big box with fragile paper sides in a New York apartment.
Sadly, I think it is totally worth it, but you be the judge.

Photo of cool NY times zippy pouch old way

Photo of cool NY times zippy pouch new way

Etsy Site

I have been diligently fusing bags for the last couple of days so that I could start my very own etsy shop. You can check me out here or by searching for MahkaCrafts in the seller category or by clicking on that nice link over to the right that says "check out my etsy site". I am pretty excited about having my very own shop for all things reused plastic. I am also in the process of putting together a couple kits for those out there with craft fears.

In the mean time I thought I would share my profile photo. The photo on my shop page is pretty small but it is actually a flower made from, you guessed it, plastic bags. I did a couple different versions. I think they are pretty darn cool.