Calico Critters

When I was little, my best friend Brooke had all kinds of Calico Critter toys. I envied them, but for whatever reason never got any of my own. OK, the reasons are probably that they are sort of expensive and I had way too many toys anyway. (Littlest Pet Shop FTW!) I was shopping for my nieces and realized that ~15 years later, Calico Critters still exist! They are so cute!! For Christmas I bought my younger niece the Cozy Cottage and the Squirrel Family, plus twin baby squirrels. For her birthday next week, I am sending the freaking adorable Hedgehog Family, the Guinea Pig Family Stroller Set, and the Country Living Room set. So freaking cute. Just to get a sense of the excessive cuteness, here is a lovely Calico Critter photograph I found on Etsy:


Go and google Calico Critters if you like adorable toys, or check out your local toy store!

Munnies and Lightboxes!!

I have the best fiance ever. He bought me all kinds of awesome photography for Christmas, including light-boxes in different sizes and awesome lighting for them! I opened them today and immediately had to start playing with them. I think they will make Etsy jewelry photography easier for me. Below are two Munnies that I decorated.

This one I colored with Sharpie (bad idea, FYI) and decorated with pen "stitches," flowers, buttons and a little necklace.

This one I decoupaged with pages from a book! Also, painted the arms. Obviously. It came with glasses which I tried to paint black and totally messed up. So no glasses.

Pink and Purple Stocking Stuffers

I made a new treasury with items under $10 in pinks and purples. Lots of toys, sewing stuff and girlie things! Check it out here, or look at some of my favorites from it below!

Gifts for cats and their humans

My newest treasury shows some cute cat toys and cat-related art. Check it out here. Below are a few of my favorites from it.

Pretty Peppermint Party!

I made *another* treasury. Sometimes I get really into making them, and then I guess I lose interest periodically too. Lately I am rather entertained by them. This one features holiday items in red and white peppermint candy cane style! My favorites are below, you can see the entire treasury here.

Owl Stationary

So apparently my new thing is to buy people gifts that are a gift to me too! I just noticed that that's where I am going (inadvertently... mostly) with my Christmas shopping this year. For example, I bought a cocktail recipe book for me mom... that one is definitely going to pay off for me! My fiance is getting deployed to Iraq, and one of his Christmas presents is going to be some stationary! You can see my entire treasury here, and below are some of my favorites I am considering:

Pretty green things treasury

I am trying harder to make my treasuries nice. It would be super awesome to get one on the front page someday, so I am trying to get lots of practice! What do you think of my latest attempt? The full treasury is right here, and below are some of my favorite things I found while compiling it.

Etsy Seller Review: SpiritofGiving

My Christmas shopping has begun! My nieces are receiving adorable monogrammed, hooded towels, among other things! On October 19th I purchased two custom hooded, monogrammed towels from SpiritofGiving.Etsy.com. They arrived on October 26th. For a note about my scoring, go to this post.

Workmanship:
Really flawless. The stitching seems to be perfect, the flowers sturdy and secure... Really excellent embroidery and sewing!!

Creativity:
So cute! Hooded and monogrammed towels are not the most original idea, but SpiritofGiving carries it out really well with loads of options for ribbon, embellishment, thread and towel colors. The ones I actually bought are shown in a different listing, here, saying my nieces names. <3

Price:
Two towels with flowers, shipping and everything came to about $64 dollars. I think this is very reasonable for the time and materials. The embroidery alone would cost a good chunk of that price at many stores!

Delivery Speed:
About a week including the time spent making the towels cannot be beat!

Packaging:
Wrapped in ribbon and stuffed into a (very full) box. They were a little squished, but given that they are towels that doesn't strike me as much as a problem!

Overall: I totally recommend SpiritofGiving for your custom towel, baby towels and other related items. She does awesome customization, has great communication and many options for whatever you can think up!