Blog entry

Make It an Artisan Handmade Christmas - Favorites - Week 3, 2023

It's amazing how quickly Week 3 of the Countdown to Christmas 2023 sped right on by . . . and a wide variety of gorgeous artisan handmade items have been left in its wake.  According to the ever ticking Your Christmas Countdown Clock, there are only 74 days until jolly Santa Claus and his merry band of reindeer are delivering packages once again. With the rapidly approaching gift giving season in mind, Julie and her wonderful four-footed sidekick, Harry, are hosting a twelve-week Countdown to Christmas 2023 of artisan handmade items on their Buy Handmade from Makers blog, part of their Blue Morning Expressions Shopify shop.  This week, there were 33 shares by 11 artists featuring a wide range of truly unique gift ideas: jewelry of all types, party tags, spiral notebooks, photographic and digital art, ornaments, throw blankets and a host of other beauties.  If you need a perfect start to your Christmas shopping, the Countdown is the place to do just that!  An excellent motto to follow is: SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN.  And, most of all, SHOP HANDMADE to support small indie businesses!

Each week during the 12 week Countdown, I pick a favorite item from each artist (hard to do!) and feature them here on my blog.  These are my favorites for Week 3:  

Happy Halloween - Spooky Artisan Handmade Goodies - 2023

Halloween will soon be here, only about five weeks away!  Halloween is a favorite day / evening / night for many, with a steady stream of trick or treaters in a variety of cute or creepy costumes.  Decorations are aplenty:  Jack O’ Lantern pumpkins, grinning skulls, eerie ghosts and other infamous creaturess.  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 / Day of the Dead / Autumn-inspired items - whether symbolic or filled with traditional colors or both.  You’ll see a wide variety of spine-tingling jewelry, eye-catching photography, fun baby gifts, 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 spine-tingling and some not!

Artisan Handmade Gifts - Thank You

Recently, I asked several artisan friends to aprticipate in a "Christmas in July - Artisan Handmade Gifts - 2023" blog promotion, involving leaving two items on an InLinkz.  Once the InLinkz ended, I pulled together a blog featuring the wonderful items.  All items from the InLinkz and the blog were to be promoted on at least two social media sites.  That's the usual deal for the many years we have been promoting each others items.  Twelve friends participated, making a total of thirteen counting me.  To thank the seven artists who took the time to stop by and leave a blog comment (as of writing this, Wednesday morning the 19th), I decided to pull together an "Artisan Handmade Gifts - Thank You" blog.  From each shop, I chose an item that immediately caught my eye and shared them here in the order of the comments left.  I hope you visit the shops of these wonderful artists.  And remember to SHOP SMALL and to SHOP HANDMADE.  

New Handmade Earrings and Necklaces - Jewelry by Shadow Dog Designs

Since the heat wave that set in about a week ago has not let up, I find it too hot to go outside and photograph new jewelry (which I normally do around noonish).  Photographing is something I really need to do, but I'll wait until it cools down a bit.  So I decided to pull together a blog that features the eleven newest jewelry designs in my SHADOW DOG DESIGNS jewelry shop,  three new necklace and eight pairs of earrings.  Each piece was designed and handmade by me and they are all one of a kind designs.  If something catches your eye and you would like to look at more photos and read more about the piece, please click on the picture or the description underneath to be taken to the item listing.  I hope you enjoy each and every piece as much as I love creating them!