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Make It an Artisan Handmade Christmas - 2022 - Week 9
Posted November 15, 2022
Christmas is barreling down on us like a runaway freight train! It will soon be here. Week 9 of the Countdown to Christmas 2022 has come and gone and the ever ticking Christmas clock doesn’t let up. According to what it says today, Santa and his traveling buddies will start their journey in only 39 days, just a bit over five weeks from now! The Countdown is a place for handmade artists to come together and share three of their beautiful (often one of a kind) creations and then promote each other. Need a perfect start / end to your Christmas shopping? Shop the Countdown to Christmas to browse and purchase that special piece! An excellent motto to follow this holiday season is : SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN! And, most of all, SHOP HANDMADE to support hardworking indie shop owners!
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Make It an Artisan Handmade Christmas - 2022 - Week 8
Posted November 8, 2022
It’s all going so, so fast: week 8 of the Countdown to Christmas 2022 has already come and gone, with only four more weeks remaining! The Countdown is a chance for artists to come together and share three of their beautiful gift ideas, each one a perfect gift for a loved one. The ever ticking Christmas clock doesn’t let up - according to it, Santa and his flying reindeer will start their journey in only 46 days! Need a perfect place to start / finish your Christmas shopping? The Countdown is the place to do just that! A good motto to follow: SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN! And, most of all, SHOP HANDMADE to support hard working indie artists!
Make It an Artisan Handmade Christmas - 2022 - Week 6
Posted October 25, 2022
It’s hard to believe that we’re already half-way finished with the twelve week Countdown to Christmas 2022! Yikes! That means Christmas is bearing down on us and will soon be here - two months away! According to the ever ticking Christmas clock, there are only 60 days until the jolly ho-ho-ho-ing Santa and his merry band of clattering reindeer arrive once again. Now is the perfect time to start your holiday shopping and the Countdown is the perfect place to buy unique beauties! Remember this motto: SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN! And, most of all, SHOP ARTISAN HANDMADE to support a small indie business!
Make It an Artisan Handmade Christmas - 2022 - Week 1
Posted September 20, 2022
Wow! It seems like Christmas was just a few months ago. It’s very hard to believe that Christmas is only 95 days away according to the ever ticking Christmas clock. With that in mind, it's definitely not too early to start thinking about all those people on your Christmas shopping list. What should you get them??? A perfect place to start looking (and buying!) is the 12 week Countdown to Christmas 2022 collections. Hosted by Julie and Harry of Blue Morning Expressions on their Shopify blog, the collections will be filled with a wide variety of artisan handmade / designed gifts. A new collection will be added each week through the first full week of December. This week, there were 27 shares from 9 handmade artists: unique jewelry of all types (earrings, bracelets and necklaces), baby gifts, party stickers / gift tags, fun thumbtacks / magnets, Halloween gifts and more. A good motto to follow through these weeks leading up to Christmas: SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN! And, most of all, SHOP HANDMADE to support small indie businesses!
Halloween - Spooky Artisan Handmade Goodies - 2022
Posted September 11, 2022
Halloween will soon be here, a little more than six weeks away! It’s a favorite day / evening for many with a steady stream of trick or treaters in creepy or cute costumes, grinning skulls, Jack O’ Lantern pumpkins, spooky ghosts and other notorious beasts. During the weeks before October 31, it’s fun to wear spooky accessories or decorate the home for Halloween. With that in mind, handmade artist friends were invited to share two Halloween-type items - whether symbolic or filled with the traditional colors or both. You’ll see a wide variety of spine-tingling jewelry, eye-catching photography, fun party items, a cute baby gift set, an orange cat print, unique lampwork glass beads and your choice of sugar skull pincushions. Each one of these handmade beauties, many of which are one of a kind pieces, are perfect to help celebrate that supernatural day of the year. I hope you enjoy these choices and will visit the shops of the talented artists featured for more amazing handmade beauties, some shuddersome and some not!
Oldies But Goodies - Unique Artisan Handmade Gifts
Posted July 5, 2022
Whenever someone says “Oldies But Goodies,” most people think of old songs (especially from a jukebox - remember those?), vintage cars, lots of items on the Antiques Roadshow or, possibly, themselves (after . . . *ahem* . . . a certain age). However the term, “Oldies But Goodies,” also refers to items in our artisan handmade shops that have been around for longer than the artist who made it would like. Whenever something is created and then listed in our shops, we always think it will sell right away. Some do. But, for whatever reason, some beauties sit there . . . and sit there . . . and sit there some more. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that particular item - not at all!!! It just hasn’t found that forever person to give it a forever home.
I asked artisan friends to share two items from their handmade shops that they considered “oldies but goodies.” Many of the items are one of a kind creations and would make a perfect gift for a birthday, an anniversary, for Christmas, or just because . . . I hope something catches your eye and that you visit the shops of the artists below. And that many of the “oldie” items find a loving home.
Hot Summer Fun - Artisan Handmade Gifts
Posted June 9, 2022
It’s hard to believe that we are already through a good part of the first week of June with most of the scorching summer still ahead of us - even though it’s not yet “officially” summer (June 21 at 3:14 a.m. MDT this year). Up until the last few days, summer here in the Desert Southwest has been relatively mild. BUT the triple digits have finally set in and the AC seems to run continuously. As everyone says: at least it’s a dry heat! June is usually our hottest month. And then the monsoon season sets in where we get most of the 9” of rain that is normal for this part of the desert. Everyone is praying that the rains do start soon on schedule, normally at the end of June. For the past several years, a big storm has shown up on the 4th of July where we can enjoy Mother Nature’s fireworks - and then the scheduled fireworks once the storm blows through, all from the comfort of our upstairs porch. Hope that happens again this year since it’s quite spectacular.
Make It a Handmade Christmas 2021 - Week 8
Posted November 9, 2021
Already, week 8 of the Countdown to Christmas 2021 has come on gone! It’s hard to believe that there are only four more weeks left! The Countdown is a chance for mostly handmade artists to share three of their beautiful gift ideas and for all to browse and, hopefully, purchase. The ever ticking Christmas clock doesn’t let up - according to it, Santa will start his journey in only 45 days! Need a perfect start to your Christmas shopping? The Countdown is the place to do just that! A good motto to follow: SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN! And, most of all, SHOP HANDMADE to support hard working indie artists!
Make It a Handmade Christmas 2021 - Week 7
Posted November 2, 2021
It is so hard to believe (at least to me) that November has already shown up and that we have only 5 more weeks of the Countdown to Christmas 2021! It’s also hard to imagine that Christmas will soon be here. According to the ever ticking Christmas clock, there are only 52 days, less than 2 months until jolly Santa Claus drops down that chimney and either leaves gifts or lumps of coal for deserving or not-so-deserving boys and girls. Since Christmas is looming, now is the perfect time to start your holiday shopping and the Countdown is the perfect place! Remember this motto: SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN! And, most of all, please BUY HANDMADE from small indie business owners!
Miracle of a Single Flower - Artisan Handmade - Three for Thursday
Posted May 20, 2021
If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change. – Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
Flowers are one of my favorite things. I wander the yard several times each day, visiting all the flowers I’ve planted and feel at peace and happy (even when I see the leafcutter bee has been at work). The types of flowers are varied. Knockout roses, verbena, gold columbine, geraniums, hollyhocks, sunflowers, zinnias, larkspur and more have all been planted (some from seed, some from bought plants) and are in various stages of growing / blooming. I'm also enjoying the mimosa tree which has just started to bloom with it's wispy pink flowers that are visited by countless pollinators and hummingbirds. And the bottlebrush tree survived the deep freeze we had here this winter, and even though it lost some limbs, there are a few blooms on it! Flowers are definiey miracles.
So, with all this blooming beauty (or blooms to be anticipated), I decided this week’s Artisan Handmade - Three for Thursday would be about flowers. I’ve chosen three floral items from three handmade artists: notecards, baby items and jewelry. The artists are: Roxanne of watercolorsNmore; Pamela of MagdaleneKnits; and, me, Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs. I hope you find joy in these picks!
