Shhhhh……

I’m really excited about some of the handmade items that have blessed our home this Christmas.  With the multitude of shows and on-line orders that I had filling my plate this year, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to make a lot of my gifts.  But that’s okay, as I am constantly surrounded by handmade beauty each and every day thanks to Etsy.

I wanted to share a few of the awesome handmade items that I have bought for Christmas this year.. and a few that I have received!  I’m not saying who they are for… just in case 😉

Someone I know is going to be sporting these awesome earrings really soon!  SevenPly recycles broken skateboards into fun and beautiful jewelry.  I just adore her shop, and knew someone who would too!

Recycled Skateboard Stud Earrings

I love these sock monkey cup cozies!  I have actually purchased two now, one as a birthday gift and one for a Christmas gift.  CrookedHookCreations has some of the cutest crochet items I have ever seen.  And these monkeys are perfect!

Sock Monkey Cup Cozy

One of my favorite shops on Etsy is OrangeThyme.  Rachel makes some amazing smellies!  And I mean that in the best possible way!!  I’m looking forward to receiving this cute little soap in the mail soon.  Complicated Reindeer is the brainwork of both Rachel and her 6-year-old daughter.  A sweet-smelling soap with lots of red glitter…. just like Rudolph’s nose!  There is none of this magical soap in stock at this time, but let me assure you that there isn’t a bad product in this shop.  They are all amazing!

Complicated Reindeer Soap by OrangeThyme

 

I was lucky enough to have an awesome Secret Santa this year through my Treasury Tree Team.  Erica of BisonGirl makes some adorable baby booties.  Here is an example of her work:

 

Owl Booties!

I haven’t fit into baby booties for quite some time now, but Erica found some awesome items from other Etsy sellers and had them sent to me. 

TNTees is a shop after my own heart!  TNTees litterally stands for “Trash into Tees” and that’s exactly what Jenelle does.  She makes  gorgeous jewelry, adorable clothing and functional and fun items out of recycled t-shirts.  You can see why I love this shop so much!  I just love my new produce bags 🙂

Recycled T-Shirt Produce Bags

I was also fortunate to receive 2 amazing items from DirtyDeedsSoap from my secret Santa.  The lavender soap smells so lovely, and the Chocolate Truffle Lip Balm is absolutely heavenly.  I don’t know how Erica knew that I was a soap addict, but I want to thank her and DirtyDeeds  for helping fuel my addiction 😉 

Chocolate Truffles for your lips!

I most likely will be too busy to blog the next few weeks, so I wanted to leave you all with my Christmas wish….

I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season!  Bless you all and I will see you in 2012!

Another Featured Seller: Orchard Farm Soap

Today, I spent a wonderful morning with my Mother and Daughter at Artfest, an amazing art and crafts show in Spokane’s Browne’s Addition Area.  Artfest happens every year, and is always filled with amazing artisans, great live music and tons of delicious food.  My mother and I have been going for longer than I can remember, and Angie has been attending since I use to have to push her in a stroller.

 

Anyway, today at Artfest I had the pleasure to meet, in person, my fellow Etsian and Inland Northwest team-mate, Kate Jaeckel from Orchard Farm Soap.  Kate makes some of the most amazing cold process soaps I have ever had the pleasure to get my dirty little hands on!  She also makes lotion bars, salves, lip balms, teas, perfumes and candles… and much, much more.  And the best thing is that all of her products are made from scratch with fair trade, organic oils, and botanicals grown on her very own farm.

As I spoke with Kate and her wonderful assistant (I’m assuming it was her husband, but never actually asked), I checked out her wonderful products and fell in love with her soaps.  As I ohh’d and ahh’d at all of the products, my daughter Angie told me that I should really buy something from her, being that she was my team-mate and all… like she really had to twist my arm.  Angie knows that I am a total soap and lip balm junkie.  It’s my crack.

 

I love chai tea, so as soon as I saw the Rooibos Chai Soap, I snagged myself a bar.  It smells so wonderful… I can’t wait to use it.

I also let Angie pick out a soap.  Even though she makes her own soap, she always loves and is inspired by other soap makers.  She is always fascinated by cold process soaps, especially all natural and organic cold process soap – which she hopes to learn how to make some day.  She loves patchouli, so she was immediately drawn to the Patchouli Orange Soap Bar.

After she took a shower tonight, the most amazing aroma filled the upstairs….  it was heavenly!!  She loved the soap and said that it not only smelt great, it lathered wonderfully.

 

A big thanks to the lovely Kate (and to her wonderful assistant) for the soap.  It is always a pleasure to meet fellow team-mate!!

One Proud Mama…

My 12 year old daughter, Angela, came to me about a year ago wanting to open her own Etsy shop.  She was making soaps and scrubs and wanted to do more than just a few Elementary School craft fairs with me every once in a while. 

I initially told her no, because you HAD to be 18 to sell on Etsy… or at least that is what I thought.  Then one day I was reading an Etsy Blog article about a 16 year old that started her own shop with the assistance of her Mother.  You can read the article here:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/read/mentoring-the-teenage-artisan-9872/

After reading that, I told Angela about it and we began brainstorming ideas for her own Etsy Shop.  In just a few short weeks we opened Germaphobe Soaps, Scrubs, Sanitizers and Smellies.

Besides wonderful, rich goat’s milk soaps, she has also been making exfoliating sugar scrubs, hand sanitizers and assorted lip balms – all of which are available in the Germaphobe shop.  

 

I am just so proud of my girl!  She is becoming quite the entrepreneur!!

PS.  Soon to come… a lemon & green tea sugar scrub that is 100% natural and amazing!

Four Fabulous Friday Finds 4-1

Trying to get back on the Friday Finds!  Here are my latest and greatest…

This cute little bird soap from Orangethyme has actually been a favorite of mine for a long time.  It has to be the cutest little soap I have ever seen!  It makes me want to find a little ceramic soap dish in the shape of a nest so that I can give him a home 🙂

Always a sucker for finding new ways to recycle, I found this light to be beautiful and GENIUS!   Titye is an amazing shop with items like book lamps, tea cup lights and door knob coat hangers.  I love it!!

ConduitPress is another great example of taking recycling to a whole new level.  I absolutely love her leather journals, but my favorite are her book safes.  Charge your iphone, hide your money or conceal a flask… there is one (or two.. or ten…) for everyone!

Danielle Spector  at ReshapeStudio has the cutest and quirkiest handmade ceramics I’ve ever seen.  Her talent and sense of humor really show in her work.  I just love this creamer and sugar set! 

Don’t forget to enter my Avatar Contest.  You have until the end of the day Sunday, April 10th to enter.  Don’t delay!

Worky-Work… Busy Bee!

I still haven’t quite been able to meet my goal of posting here at least once a week, but I’m working on it.  As soon as Christmas is over, I am hoping it will become much easier.

In the mean time, I though I would share some of the items that I have been working on…

My “Choose Your Color” Recycled T-Shirt Necklace has been very popular this holiday season.  It has been featured in numerous treasuries and blogs, and even made it to Etsy’s daily email “Etsy Finds”.  I have received an immense amount of exposure because of it!

Considering each one is custom-made, I have been keeping extremely busy with orders for these.  Each necklace takes me several days to put together.  Here is a pic of (just) one I just finished this week…

I also have been working on some wedding jewelry for a friend of mine.  She is having a destination wedding in Hawaii and I am putting together a necklace and some earrings for her big day.  Here is a picture of the necklace…

And for those of you that don’t know, my daughter Angela has been working really hard on her Etsy shop, The Germaphobe.  She is currently selling the most amazing goats milk and shea butter soaps!  Scents like Apple Pie, Pumpkin Vanilla Cheesecake, Hot Cocoa and Creme Brulee have been filling our basement!  She is also selling sugar scrubs and sanitizers – and they all smell wonderful!!  Check her out!

If I don’t make it back her next week, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

x0x0,

Tera

Hosting a Bunco Party!

So, I know it was over a month ago, but I am just getting around to sharing about the lovely Bunco party that I hosted in July.  

I play Bunco every second Tuesday of the month with a wonderful group of ladies that were introduced to me by my sister-in-law.  Each month a different person hosts, and in July, it was my turn.  

Now anyone that knows me, knows that I love to host a good party.  I love to cook for people, and I LOVE to give gifts.  Lucky for me, one of the tasks of hosting a Bunco party is finding gifts to use for “prizes”.  I was so excited to do this, because this year I was determined to find all of my gifts handmade from Etsy.  Even better, I decided that all the gifts that I would buy would be handmade from members of my Eastern Washington Etsy Team.  The trick was finding things within the very limited budget that we are given when hosting the party.  I was going to have to put on my super frugal hat for this task!  

I chose items from 3 of my fellow EWAT members; Sentimental Stones, Orangethyme and Sagegold Soaps.  Each of these 3 sellers had great products, all different from each other and all within my budget.  

Sentimental Stones is an amazing shop run by Kim Murphy in the Spokane Valley.  Kim is a total sweetheart and an amazing artist.  She makes jewelry, coasters, magnets and other items from tile.  She also makes the cutest magnetic boards, which look so lovely with her tile magnet sets.  Lucky for me, Kim was running a special deal for 5 of her 2″ stone magnets (exactly how many I needed).  I chose 5 different designs that I thought would appeal to everyone.  They were absolutely beautiful, and extremely well made.  I couldn’t have been more happy with my purchase.  

Memo board with small magnet set (4), one 2" magnet and 2 coasters

Visit Sentimental Stones at http://www.etsy.com/shop/sentimentalstones  

   

My next purchase was something I was really looking forward to.  I had been ooh-ing and ahh-ing at this shop for quite some time.  Rachael O’Brien at Orangethyme makes the most amazing lip balms, soaps and perfumes and she has a second shop where she creates some beautiful jewelry pieces.  I myself had been dying to try her lip balms, so I decided that they would be a wonderful addition to my prize packs.  With scents like Creme Brule, Peppermint, Sangria, Pomegranate Lemonade and much, much more… how could you go wrong?  They were absolutely tremendous and such a HUGE hit!  

Lip Balm from Orangethyme

 You can pick some up for yourself at http://www.etsy.com/shop/orangethyme  

or visit her jewelry site at http://www.etsy.com/shop/rachel323  

  

Finally, I decided to purchase handmade soaps from Sagegold Soaps in the Tri Cities.  Kerry Biglin at Sagegold has amazing soaps and always has a great offer in her shop – 4 bars of your choice for $15.  All I had to do was purchase the 5th bar and I had one for each gift!  The big dilemma was choosing just 5!  They all sounded good enough to eat!  

Now, when the package came in the mail, I immediately opened it up and spent the next few hours just “sniffing” the soaps.  They were amazing!  They were deliciously fragrant, but not overbearing, and they were packaged beautifully.  

Sagegold Soaps

You can see Kerry’s shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/sagegold  

   

In addition to these gifts I threw in a pair of earrings made by me, and then I packaged them up in colorful tissue paper and some cute little decorative take out boxes.  The winners were very please.  And the losers… well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m jealous!!  

   

In addition to providing the prizes, the hostess also provides dinner and dessert.  Below is the recipe for my Margarita Ice Cream Pie – which was also a huge hit!  

Ingredients:  

1 (1.5qt) container of no sugar added vanilla ice cream 

1 (6oz) container of frozen concentrated limeade 

 1-1/2 cups crushed pretzels (I stick mine in the food processor to get a fine mix) 

 3/4 cup melted butter or margarine  

1/3 cup sugar  

 1 container cool-whip (thawed)  

2 shots of tequilla (optional)  

I prefer to use  a spring-form pan (like you would use for cheesecake) for ice cream pies/cakes, but a deep dish pie pan will do as well.   In medium bowl, combine the crushed pretzels, melted butter and sugar. Press into the bottom of your pan until you have a thick, flat layer.  Freeze for about 30 minutes. 

While the crust is freezing, in a medium-sized bowl, spoon in small scoops of the ice cream.  Add limeade concentrate and the tequila if desired (this doesn’t cook out, so if you are serving kids or pregnant women, you may want to leave it out).  With electric mixer on low-speed, beat just until blended. Pour over frozen crust, carefully smoothing it out to form an even layer.  Cover and freeze overnight. 

The next day top with the Cool Whip and freeze an additional 30 minutes or until ready to serve.   Serves 8-12 people.  Or 4 in certain families… 1 if I have had a really bad day…

Winner, Winner… Chicken Dinner!!

WARNING!! This post is sure to ensue extreme jealousy!  Please prepare yourself to be green with envy! 

  As many people know, I love winning prizes (just ask my local radio station). 

About a week or so ago, I entered a contest on Facebook from Two Crafty Chicks Handmade Cards & Gifts.  As a ‘fan’ (or a person who ‘likes’ them… whatever) I saw that they were having a give-away and decided to enter.  And… guess what?  I won!  Whoo-hoo!!!!

 I originally found Two Crafty Chicks on Etsy (http://www.2craftychicksonline.etsy.com) through the forums.  I instantly feel in love with their soaps (which sounded good enough to eat – or in some cases, drink!) and became a “fan” of theirs on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/twocraftychicks).  I highly recommend checking them out!!  Besides soap, they also make journals, notebooks, cards, tags and other misc items.

 So the contest was easy.  I simply told them what scent of theirs that I would like to see them make available in other bath and body products.  I chose their Cupcake and Cosmo fragrances, because again, they sounded good enough to eat or drink.  They chose one winner from every so many entries, and I was lucky enough to be one of the people chosen.

 I have to say, I didn’t really know what to expect.  They just said that I won a “prize pack”, which could mean anything.  I was really hoping it would be one of their soaps, since I was dying to try one – but I totally would have been fine with anything they had to offer.

 When I walked into the house after work yesterday, the package was sitting on my living room cabinet, right across from the front door… almost as if it was welcoming me home.  I dropped everything and flew across the room.  In a moment that was reminiscent of waking up on Christmas morning and seeing what Santa had brought you, I tore through that box like it was made of old pantyhose.  My eyes instantly lit up and a huge, gleaming smile came across my face.

 Here is a picture of all the amazing treats I won.

Oh my goodness! OH... MY... GOODNESS!!!!!

I received 2 regular size bars of soap (Tango and Cafe Au Lait), 5 sample size soaps (Indulgence, Queen Bee, Diva, Goddess and Brekky), 4 fridge magnets, 1 large pin-back button, 2 small pin-back buttons and an index card notebook.  I totally feel spoiled now!  I cannot wait to try everything out!

P.s.  Totally need to check this out -> Two Crafty Chicks has an amazing opportunity to help someone in need.  Purchase a bar of soap and they will donate it in your name to a local shelter.  They will also match your donation – so the shelter will get two bars of soap in your honor.  Go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/2craftychicksonline?section_id=6992905 to find out more!!

Mmmmm…. Beer Soap…..

So I decided to dabble a little in the art of soap making. However, I chose to go the easy, less time-consuming, less toxic route and tried my hand at the melt and pour technique. 

I’ve heard and read all about the different ingredients that you can put into soap and all the benefits that go along with them.  However, the one that has always intrigued me is beer.  It is said to be very good for the skin, plus I know what to do with the leftovers!

I bought some melt and pour glycerin soap at Michael’s that also contained goats milk.  I also bought some different essential oils at Super Supplements (and had a few on hand) like clove oil, orange oil, tea tree, lemon, lavender and peppermint.  I bought some Guiness, poured a can into a cup and let it sit until it was flat and could be worked with.  I melted the soap, mixed in the beer and oils, then poured the concoction into a soap mold.  I  let it sit for and hour or so and then released it from the mold.  Easy peasy pumpkin pie. 

Tip: I did read that your soap to liquid ration should be about 4:1 for it to set correctly.  I see this being a very important tip that may have saved me a lot of time and frustration in the process. 

One thing I really liked about making the soap is that if I didn’t think the scent was strong enough, I could cut up the bar of soap, re-melt it and then add more oil.  It was a no-brainer and I have the facilities for it (especially this time of year).

I am a pretty sensitive skinned person, so I tested some of the samples I made (leftover that I poured into dixie cups for testers) out in the shower the next morning and it was NICE!!!  My favorites were “Citrus and Clove” and “Peppermint”.  They lather up really well and leave my skin soft without irritating it.

I covered them in a little syran wrap, labeled them “Tera’s Drunken Goat Soap” and put them in Christmas cellophane bags with curly ribbon for gifts.  Finally, a craft project without a thousand hic-ups!!