my new painting

We just acquired another wonderful piece of art from our pool of amazing local artists. This is an oil painting done by our very talented friend, Sarah Cook.

What is so special about this painting (aside from it being unbelievably beautiful!) is that it was painted just for me. I gave Sarah some ideas about subject matter and color, and she created something far more amazing than I had even hoped for! I am very honored to own this piece and to be able to say I helped inspire it.



It's going to hang in our dining room, and will be one of the first things people see when they come in our front door. It looks really awesome against the green walls in there, but I haven't hung it yet and couldn't wait to share it here, so I took these photos with it sitting on the mantel. I just know that getting it up in the dining room will help me get motivated to finish up in there- we sort of stalled out after we did the walls.

Thank you again, Sarah! I am deeply thankful for your talent and your friendship.

shop local

You might remember last year before the holidays I pledged to buy handmade items for all our gifts. I of course intended to do the same again this year, but we just found a way to take it a step further. Our local alternative newspaper, Flagpole, is promoting local shopping by sponsoring a giveaway based on pledges. You can sign up to "Shop your ATH off" (pledge to spend at least $100 of your holiday budget at locally owned businesses), and you are entered into a drawing for $100 worth of gift certificates to local businesses. After living here only a year we have been thrilled to see just how many opportunities there are in Athens to buy from local crafters, farmers, artisans, and musicians. So we wholeheartedly support any program which brings them more customers!

For all of our out of town readers, please consider seeking out local and/or handmade gifts in your area as well. Even if it doesn't get you entered in a drawing, it helps your community very much when you choose to skip the national chains and shop local.

i heart athens

Really. This place is so great. But we're getting ready to venture Up North today, so I'm moving the above button from my regular, Georgia winter jacket to my warmer, Minnesota snow jacket- to make sure and keep Athens on my mind. For any locals who want to show your Classic City Pride, go here and pick up your own button from Missy Kulik's Etsy shop. Good stuff.

*******

The kids and I will be gone for the next 10 days, but I'll be sending you all some virtual postcards from Minnesota whenever I get the chance. I'll shoot for one a day but you never know what my time will be like. Wish us an uneventful trip and lots of snow after arrival!

i know it is wednesday...

...and I promise I'll turn the computer off right after this :) I just couldn't wait to show off my very first art purchase for the new house!



This is a quilted wall hanging made by my friend Sarah. I had noticed it (and could not stop going back to look at it!) on our Locally Crafted website way back in December. Then Sarah saw me posting an introduction on a local parenting email list and invited me to join a small group of homeschoolers who were getting together regularly. Not long after that we went to their home for a Solstice party. As soon as I walked in the door I spotted this piece on the wall and told Jason, "Either she bought that on Locally Crafted or she made it!" Turns out she is an amazingly talented quilter and it was in fact her listing I had been drooling over.

After our offer was accepted on the house the other day I noticed that the quilt was still available, and we decided to get it. Not only is it breathtakingly gorgeous (the picture does not do the intricate hand beading justice), but for me it is a symbol of the wonderful new circle of friends we have been so fortunate to come across here. The group Sarah invited me to join consists of some really great families, and these are the people we are skating with every week, learning Spanish with, and chatting on the phone with. Attending birthday parties and making plans for the future. Even helping us buy our home! These are our local family, since our own family members are so very far away. And this piece of artwork, so lovingly made by such a special person, will remind me constantly how truly blessed we are to have them. I cannot wait to hang it on the wall the day we close.

pom-poms

Another recent Etsy find: pom-poms! These are made out of fleece, and attached to ponytail bands, so they can be used as a cute hair accessory or decorative item in lots of places. We purchased them as a birthday gift for one of the girls' friends, to adorn her new roller skates. The jingle bells are an added touch by us- as I remember having pom-poms with bells on my ice skates as a child.

So, if you are in need of some pom-pom action, check out the "Puff-Me-Knots" from Craftinator on Etsy! Great customer service and she'll do custom orders for the exact colors you need.

giving: etsy

I hope everyone had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year! Our evening was very low-key, as were the rest of our holidays this year. A little visiting with friends and a lot of staying home and hanging out together. We're still feeling less than completely settled so the simpler the better for us this year.

This post will be the first of several in which I will show off all the very cool handmade stuff we found and made for our holiday gifts! I want to share these because I have been so thrilled with all the good stuff we found to spoil our family with this year, and I hope you will remember these Etsy shops when you are in need of a special gift for someone you love as well. The handmade movement is growing so rapidly- it's quite easy to find something for absolutely anyone on your list.




For our roller skating fan, Hazel, I found this cool t-shirt. Since pink is her current favorite color, she was extra thrilled.



We were excited to find these little activity bags for 2 of the cousins- my own kids could not put them down when we got the package! All sorts of little items are hidden among tiny plastic pellets and a list is included. Hours of quiet searching fun are guaranteed! These would be great for car trips, waiting rooms, or anywhere else a kid has to sit and be relatively quiet for an extended period of time. Try finding the items in order for an extra challenge!



A set of 3 of these reusable produce bags went to my dad, along with 2 shopping totes that I sewed out of fabric from some thrifted draperies (which I failed to take pictures of!) Now he is set for some super green grocery shopping! I picked up a set of these bags for us as well and have been loving them. No more plastic to throw away after we carry our produce home!

I also got some really great customized return address stamps for my mom from Sweet Papery- and I was completely impressed with them! I won't post the pictures of the actual images because they have my parents' address on them, but if you go to the shop you can look around. She doesn't have anything listed right now due to the holidays but there will be soon. And if you click on "items sold" down on the right hand side, you can check out some of the great designs she had created. Really high quality, and excellent customer service. She worked with me to get the design just right before she made the stamps.

And it turns out Santa shops at Etsy too! Lyle got this great ball and the girls each got a cute zipper tote, a set of stationery. Daisy got a little frog mirror to match her bag, and Hazel got some rockin' rollerskate barrettes! Those were some stocking stuffed to the brim with handmade goodness, I'm telling you.

If you haven't been to Etsy yet, you've got to go check it out. Just do a search for anything that interests you (or someone you love) and I'm sure you'll find something you can't leave without.

Coming Thursday: Handmade by Yours Truly! Hope you have a happy Wednesday- our computer will be off and we'll be attending Story Time at the library and then back home to bake cookies.

new calendar

I have so many things to show off now that the gifts have all been given! I'll get my pictures organized and start with that on Monday. For today I'd like to talk about the super rad calendar I found on Etsy. If you haven't already bought one for your home or office, there is still time!



I decided this year not only to look for a handmade calendar but also to get a smaller one. I'd been buying a ginormous thing for the past several years which really would be great if you had many different schedules to keep track of, but I noticed the big boxes were often nearly empty (does this say something sad about our social life?) and the thing was just taking up a large amount of wall space. So when I saw this one over at the Magnolia Moonlight Etsy shop, I knew I was in love.



And now that it is in my hands I like it even more! I love the little wire hanger on the spiral binding. I love the bright colors and the quirkiness of the speech bubbles and mix-and-match typefaces. There is just enough room for me to jot down who's birthday it is or what our plans are for an evening out, and an ample margin at the top for notes if I need to take down a quick phone number or reminder. But what I was most surprised and excited to find was that the months were printed on both sides of the nice sturdy paper! I am thrilled to death when I see such little waste built right into a thing of beauty and function. And the little extras I have become accustomed to receiving as an Etsy customer were not overlooked either! A sweet little set of birdy badges was tucked inside for me to pin here and there. Very nice!

Here's to filling the pages of this snappy little calendar with lots of adventures in 2008!