HI TREE

Almost from the day I joined Etsy, I have loved Hi Tree. It is one of the very first shops I hearted. The originality. The texture. The color---green. If you haven't checked the shop out do it! And if you want to get to know the artist Tina check out her profile. Recently I discovered her blog. And just a little while ago Tina held a giveaway. Imagine how excited I was when I won! It made for a great Monday morning! I just got my prizes & they are even better in person. I had such a fun time photographing all the goodies. Tina must love doing that. Everything was so dang cute!

Song and Branch Studio

Last night I discovered Song and Branch. Twice. I took some headache meds that have caffeine in them so I was awake pretty late. A perfect opportunity to make a few Etsy treasuries. I started with Cloudy With A Chance Of Sun by FlyAKite featuring this adorable owl  . . .

Then I curated Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful by SylviaLouise and featured these fantastic snowflake ornaments . . .

I didn't realize they were both created by the same artist until I started sending out messages to the featured sellers. I discovered I LOVE this shop! Meet Karen from Seattle. Her porcelain miniatures are ADORABLE! Check her stuff out! Especially if you love owls. Having been a "Highlands Hooter" in elementary school I have always loved owls. I also really like these chickadees . . .

Cascarones

Cascarones. Wait what are cascarones, you ask?

Cascarones (ka-ska-ron-es) are colorful confetti-filled eggshells that are cracked over the heads of friends and family at celebrations. Cascarones are very popular in the southwest, especially in South Texas. The word is derived from the Spanish word "cascara" which means shell.  Gracieseggies shop announcement.


I discovered Gracieseggies on Etsy. I hearted her shop & guess what? I was her 600th heart. She offered to send me 2 dozen eggs of my choice! Free! WOW! I was so excited to get them. This is how they arrived. Boo.

I was really nervous to open the box. I thought everything would be destroyed. I held my breath . . .

. . . grass? Maybe everything will be okay.

The bonus eggs and a few of the ones I requested were broken. But I still had almost 2 dozen eggs. Yay! 

These eggs really seem too cute to break, so I got to have a little party in my box, see what they were filled with, and now I can keep the unbroken ones to celebrate a special occasion.


I couldn't resist giving the unbroken eggs their own photo shoot. After all, these are two of my favorite colors.

Christmas in July

Want a fun way to beat the heat? Stay indoors, crank up the A/C (or the biggest fan you can find), and do some online shopping on etsy.com. So many creative artists are offering incredible savings---discounts, free shipping, buy 1 get 1, etc. You can type in "CHRISTMASINJULY" to the search box on the main page to find all participating sellers.

50% off both of these featured bags!

Sylvia-Louise Handbags is getting in on the action too. One-of-a-kind handbags 25-50% off! Shop our Sale Section for amazing discounts. New items will be added throughout the sale. Our sale runs through the end of the month. Get a jump on your Christmas shopping and maybe get a little something for yourself! 

Etsy Front Page Feature

So excited to find our Tour of California Messenger on the front page of Etsy! And of course, the theme was THE TOUR DE FRANCE!

Thanks to beezus417 for curating the treasury!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA!!!

In honor of the 4th of July we are having some FANTASTICALLY FABULOUS sales promotions.

If you head on over to our FlyAKite shop USA residents get FREE SHIPPING on their entire purchase! WOW! What a great time to stock up for all those upcoming special occasions. Nothing tells someone you love them more than giving them a one of a kind greeting card.

And if you're looking for a little something special for yourself, our Sylvia-Louise Handbag shop has discounts 25-50% off in the SALE SECTION! We've never had such deep discounts before. The discount is reflected in the list price. How can you pass this up?

The sales for both shops run July1-July5! The entire holiday weekend! (But if you're reading this on Wednesday, the sale is already in effect. *hint*hint*)

All purchases will be packaged and shipped on Tuesday July 6th! Happy shopping! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA! Thanks for giving us freedom and an excuse to have a sale!

Earth Day Series Giveaway

This week I have discovered another AMAZING artist on Etsy. TheBrokenPlate. She recycles and makes beautiful jewelry pieces. Her thimble necklaces are my favorite. I would definitely wear one. A few years ago while in Kauai I found some hand painted incense burner holders. I fell in love with them and turned them into necklaces for myself. I've had lots of complements. I love the idea of taking something that doesn't belong and making it work out as something else---kind of my general philosophy of life.

Anyway, the rikrak studio is doing a series of giveaways in honor of Earth Day. This particular one features TheBrokenPlate.

Click here giveaway link to enter.

Emelia Jane Photography

My new favorite artist on Etsy is Emelia Jane Photography. I discovered her when I was searching out new artists to include in my "Oh . . . the stories I could tell" treasury collection. She is an amazing artist! And she's super nice. She created a write up about me and two other artists who included her work in their treasuries.  Her blog is fantastic and even has a "Thank You" section Sylvia-Louise is lucky to included in.

These are a few of my favorite Emelia Jane photographs.

Little Homes Have A New Home

One of my favorite artists on Etsy is thelittlereddoor. She makes the cutest little ceramic items. I've wanted to order something for a long time. I finally had a reason---DD was moving offices for her new position in financial aid and redecorating. I special ordered these 2 custom houses to match her black, white and red London theme. I've been watching the mail everyday for the past couple of weeks, and today they arrived! DD loved them, and since we were out and about we took them to her new office. Ta-da!

Even better? When I ordered DD's houses thelittlereddoor was having a buy one get one promotion. So I got a couple of houses for myself! Hooray! They are adorable. And I'm happy one of the houses actually has a little red door (because red is my favorite color).  They were too cute not to immediately take photos of and post.

SPRING SALE

Sylvia-Louise Handbags Spring Sale!

04/06/10-04/20/10

Hop on over to

www.sylvialouise.etsy.com

and check out all the recently reduced items in our "SALE" section!

Handbags are 25-30% off!

(Some actually have a deeper discount because I rounded down to the nearest 0 or 5)

Take advantage of these lower prices before they are gone. 

Etsy.com Treasury Obsession

It's official. I am obsessed with the Treasury feature on Etsy.com. Now that I know how do do one I can't stop thinking about what my newest treasury will be. What to title it? Which items to include? Is it worth staying up until 2 am creating and then emailing the featured sellers? I was just going to check my email quick and then go to bed, but when I saw that the main Treasury was about to open I figured staying up a little later wouldn't hurt me. It did. It was Saturday night---daylight savings. This photo was my inspiration. DD has been shopping around for London decor for her new office if she ever transfers over to financial aid, and this is something I stumbled across last week. I loved it! Hence the new Treasury.

The Saga of an Etsy Treasury

I love the Treasury feature on Etsy.com. I've been featured in Treasuries for both of my shops, but never tried to create one myself. Some of the ladies on Twitter were counting down until new Treasury listings opened up, so I hopped on over to Etsy to try my luck. Now, I could have done something wrong, but after I created my Treasury the whole system froze and it wouldn't load my page. When I checked back later only my title existed, but the wonderfully yellow collection of things I had gathered was no longer there. Grr!

Instead of trying to recreate my original Treasury I created a Treasury more appropriate to my title, "Yellow Submarine." Check it out for all things Beatles, submarines, octopus, and underwater fantasy.


I LOVE The Beatles. Was raised on The Beatles. Am listening to The Beatles right now.

FlyAKite is official!

"When you send it flying up there,

All at once you're lighter than air!

You can dance on the breeze

Over houses and trees;

With your fist holding tight---

To the string of your kite!"

 Inspired by Mary Poppins, our new Etsy shop is FlyAKite. www.FlyAKite.etsy.com Check it out! I'm super excited about how these cards turned out. Each card is handpainted on acid free 90 lb. cold press watercolor paper. The kite is cut from recycled fabric scraps. The tails are hand tied and machine sewn to the card. Each card is one of a kind. I'm searching for boxes so that I can sell note card sets in the future. Wish us luck!