♥ Valentine's Day Picks! ♥

So, you basically have 20 days to do your Valentine's Day shopping. And so what if it's a manufactured holiday? Chances are SOMEONE you know likes to receive a gift, no matter what the day! Boyfriend, girlfriend, BFF, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, the mailman, your local friendly barista, whoever! People like to receive. It's a fact. Gifts are fun.

So, like I had been promising, here's my Valentine's Day items... I had people convo me on Etsy, and found a few things myself, and here they are.

Ch-ch-check 'em out!




Mshalston.etsy.com
An inventive map of Boston-turned-anatomical heart! $2.50


HeartSpace.etsy.com
A dainty glass Valentine heart necklace ~ $15.00


blockpartypress.etsy.com
"What's In Your Heart" anatomical ring ~ $25.00


Enthral.etsy.com
enthral-enthral.blogspot.com/
A copper heart & vintage flower necklace! $22.00


ptitebaloue.etsy.com
A handmade cuddly teddy bear to keep you warm at night... $70.00


All of the shops are great! I encourage you to check the rest of their wares out! Thanks to those involved, and Happy Valentine's Day (early)!

Tattoo Masterpieces!

Holy moly, I just found this on Trend Hunter....

Check that out-



THAT. Is beautiful! No matter your stance on body art, you gotta agree, that's a beautiful illustration, as it were.

Look at this! It looks like a bookplate, seriously....


They are tattoos from a Bay Area artist at a studio in Oakland! I had heard of them before; I know they do good work.... Diving Swallow. Not that I could ever have the guts to get a tattoo. But I <3 looking at them

Valentine's Stuff/Weekly Feature

I'm doing a special Valentine's Day Feature on Monday, and I keep finding a lot of great stuff! People are convo-ing me on etsy, of course, but I also keep randomly stumbling upon things too.

I'm also going to go back to featuring an etsy seller on Wednesday after a ten million year hiatus. I love that I just got one shop down before I got sick and disappeared.

Project Wonderful

I wonder-- I don't have an etsy shop or online store, so I haven't made an ad to drive traffic to one of them. But, I wonder how Project Wonderful ads are working out for most sellers/bloggers/etc. I definitely have a loooot of bids on the adspace (it is free, of course). But in general, I wonder how effective it is; do people see sales from them?

Site Of the Day: Trend Hunter

So, I'm back in business.

Clearly you know you're running on empty when you have to take time off from your computer.

I'm so in the wrong business! Retail management is not for me... I've worn myself down between all the long hours and the stress and the being sick and not giving myself enough time to get over it... and so on. SO not a big deal, but it's high time I just take it down a notch, so I don't get the darn flu next time.

Anyway!

This is a website I started watching and joined not long ago-- Trend Hunter. It's just interesting, it depends on 20,000+ members to feed it new trends, things that are captivating people's interests... maybe you already know this! I am always the last to catch on. :P


So, I saw this on the front page just a bit ago and it grabbed my attention, because anyone who knows me can tell ya, my number one dream would be to have pink hair. I think it comes from watching 'Jem' as a kid.


So. Cool. Love it!

double - yoo - tee - eff

I was gonna do a feature yesterday but guess who got sick! Again! For what, the fourth time in 2 months? I am a walking germ magnet. Lame.

I guess it won't be an EVERY Wednesday thing, eh?

Do I ever leave the store? Seriously, I feel like I wake up and go to sleep in the furnishings department.

One bonus is that inventory is over. We "hired" outside help... by "hired" I mean posted an ad on Craigslist and had a slew of college kids show up for a few hours of work at a measly hourly rate. But it got it done and I didn't have to stay at the store later than midnight more than once.

So, I'm kicking back on my day off.... idly playing on websites, half-heartedly planning on baking cookies or going to Ikea.

Am I the last person to know about this site, Sea of Shoes? It's this teenage-looking girl posting photos of shoes. She's a little fashion maven. It's simultaneously envy-inspiring and just gross. Some of that stuff costs more than a month's rent in my apartment.



I could neeeever wear those. Louboutins, for crying out loud! Do they really exist outside of the world in 'Sex in the City'? People wear them?

All the same, it's a fun blog. I do like looking at fashion photos even if I get jealous or annoyed by the pricetag that accompanies materialism...



See? Fun to look at. Mostly because the pants are LOL worthy, but hey, fun.

Etsy Featured Shop - Makeshift Apparel

Every Wednesday I'm going to be featuring a different etsy shop. The first one up is DIY/screenprinting shop makeshiftapparel.etsy.com! I sent a few questions to Amanda, and she was nice enough to answer them. Behold!





1. Tell us about yourself-- who's the brains behind Makeshift Apparel?
My name is Amanda Weselman, I'm 20 years old but I'll be 21 on January 27th. I'm from Gilbert, Arizona. I love sewing, tattoos, and I play guitar. My favorite kind of music is thrash metal.



2. How long have you been running your business? How long have you been screenprinting or sewing?
I've been running Makeshift Apparel since May 2008. I learned how to screenprint about three years ago using the Speedball Screenprinting kit and then I got a job at a screenprinting shop where I learned a lot more about it. I started sewing in junior high just by hand, and then I got a sewing machine and eventually took some classes.

3. Makeshift's shop description mentions being environmentally friendly-- what does this entail?
Recycling fabrics and reconstructing clothes that may have ended up in a landfill into something new.



4. Work spaces and studios are always interesting to me... Do you have a special workspace or studio where you do all your work, or are you more scattered, working all over the place?
I work mostly on my dining room table, haha. Hopefully someday I'll be able to get a studio.



5. Between screenprinting and reconstructions, do you have a preference? What do you like to do more?
I enjoy sewing more than screenprinting, I love making unique clothing.


---

Be sure to find Makeshift Apparel on Myspace!

So I've been talking to the owner of a really great little etsy shop to be featured on the blog in the next few days.... I hope/plan to make this a weekly feature. A step or two further from just randomly finding something neato mosquito on etsy and posting it... which is cool too! But now I'mma be all talkin' to the seller and finding out a bit more about them and the items.



...It's hard to focus on this blog and watch a dvd simultaneously... so... gots to go!

I guess I spoke too soon! Yeah, I've been so so sooo busy since my last post. I've barely cracked open my laptop much less logged into blogger. Blah.

In other news, I'm going to definitely move ahead with my etsy seller feature on here... and I just got a Project Wonderful publisher account. That's a pretty neat site, I've been reading about it here and there; it seems like a great tool.