Special Feature Friday: Sharon Tasker

Edition 47

I think Etsy is one of the best places to go to for jewelry, last week I came across Sharon Tasker, a Etsy shop with a nice collection of jewelry and fashion accessories.

In this shop we can find original pieces of jewelry with a playful twist to them. The jewelry offered is glamorous and wearable. Sharon, the owner of the shop, also offers a collection of original waist belts with highly decorative elements.

This belt is made from elastic ribbon with a gold plated filigree center piece. It's elegance will make it suitable for many outfits, both professional or casual. This belt will help make a simple dress into a dress for a fancy evening out. 

This necklace reminds me of a fragile butterfly wing. I love its fine lines and its gracious looks. It comes on a thin chain to really put the attention to the pendant itself. 

A very stylish necklace. The black and gold are a classic and timeless combination. An essential piece to every woman's jewelry box.

If you like to stay up to date with this shop I would suggest you follow Sharon's blog. She does not only write about the newest items in her shop, but she also makes great suggestions about how to wear them with the latest fashion.  

Sharon offers the readers of this blog a 15% discount with discount code: AISHA

The code is valid until the end of January 2015.

Special Feature Friday: Shakti Ellenwood

Edition 28

Shakti's story is a special one, first I like to share a bit text from her about page:

At twenty-nine I found myself very sick in India. With a high fever I was unable to look after myself. An Israeli man, Asi, who had a room upstairs from me took me in and nursed me back to health.

He was a jeweller and sat at a tiny bench on the floor hammering, soldering and sawing. Whilst I lay on his bed recuperating I became fascinated by the intricacy and delicacy of the work.

When it was time for me to leave he presented me with a gold ring set with a Tibetan turquoise. It was the start of my love affair with precious metals and colourful gemstones.

I had found my passion.

After Shakti recovered from her illness she traveled to San Francisco and trained to become a goldmith. In 2013 she started selling items via her shop Shakti Ellenwood. Shakti offers an interesting collection of gold jewelry combined with diamonds and other gemstones.  Shakti's inspiration comes from the many years she has lived in the Far East, the natural beauty of Ibiza, ancient civilizations and colors in nature. This is easy to see when you enter the shop. The items are unique and of high quality.

These attractive wedding bands are very simple. They are made of 18 karat recycled gold but can also be ordered in platinum. They can be personalized with diamond or colored stones.

This gorgeous pendant is made of 18 carat gold and set with 9 pink sapphires. The pink sapphires really come out great in the background of gold. The amulet is available for special commission, different colored stones can be used, and a gold chain can be added. 

Shakti is also available for custom orders, so if you have a design in mind it would be worth it to message her and see if she can help you realize your dream piece. 

You can stay up to date with Shakti and follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

Shakti has been so kind to offer the readers of this blog a 10% discount. The discount code is BLOG25 and is valid for 3 month's after this blog entry was published. I think this is a great chance to get a good piece of quality jewelry!

Special Feature Friday: Nikkimcl

Edition 15

Today's featured shop is nikkimcl, a wonderful shop that sells high quality hand made jewelry.
Browsing through this shop I notice that the items have a luxurious vibe.

This shop works mostly with high quality materials, like gemstones, pearls and crystal. The jewelry looks well made and sturdy, but is at the same time very elegant. Also I think the jewelry can be used for many occasions, weddings, parties and everyday live. It is always great to add some versatile jewelry to your collection!

I love these sophisticated green and gold wire wrapped earrings, the green beads are beautiful and work so well with the gold elements!

This wonderful necklace has a antique look, it looks very sturdy and at the same time elegant.
The blue color of the stone just springs out and will catch every-ones eyes!

Nikkimcl is situated in the US and ships world wide! There are over 170 items in this shop, so there is a lot more to discover.

Exclusively for the readers of this blog there is a Etsy discount code, you will get a 10% discount when you use this code: SECRETSALE10. The code is valid until the 15th of December 2013.

Handmade Monday, November 25.

November the 25th 2013 will be Handmade Monday. Now, I only heard about this a couple of weeks ago but the more I read about it, the more the idea speaks to me!

Last year a US family spent about $764 dollars on average per family, followed by Australia at $930 dollars per family, and a whopping average of $1000 dollars was spent per British family.

If only 20% of this money was spent on handmade items from small companies and artists, a sustainable, vibrant, creative and lucrative impulse for original craft and work would be created.

Handmade Monday is here to promote exactly this! Of course there are many big companies that sell wonderful gifts, but with buying a handmade item you are sure to receive something special and unique.

Shop owners and artists work hard to set up and run their own businesses, with high risk and often small returns. Even when everything goes right, it is still a huge amount of work. There are many little shops on the internet where every single thing was handmade with love and care. 

I know, handmade items are more expensive. Why would you buy a 25 dollar pillowcase when you can get one for 7 at that big store in town? And why would you spend that money on a handmade item if you can get it from a expensive brand?

I will tell you why;

What you get back for buying handmade is a product that you can't get in any store. Artists and crafters always work hard to improve their work. A lot of research is done before you can buy the items in the shops. A person running their own store often has years of experience, is highly motivated, and as said before, has worked really hard to get to the point where they are. They love to communicate with their clients, and what they want most is for their clients to be happy with their purchase. Handmade items are not mass produced and you are sure to have high quality item. No, you won't have a high brand item, people will not recognize your item as a Ralph Lauren cushion or a Tiffany&CO bracelet. But remember that these brands also mass produce their items, they might be expensive, but they are not truly unique. And your handmade item will be. This is great for you, but also great for anyone who will get a handmade Christmas or birthday gift!

Now, let's also think of the impact it would have on society when you decide to buy Handmade.

• You might help someone through college or university, many store owners sell because of this reason.
• You might help someone's daughter to have ballet classes, or someones son to go to soccer.
• If you buy handmade locally you will help your local businesses and economy.
• You might help a pensioner pay the rent, or a single mother pay for heating.
• Handmade items are made to last, you help the environment!
• There are many shops that recycle materials, also a great plus for the environment. 

These are just 6 examples, the list goes on forever! Really, buying Handmade will help many people.

You might have one reservation left: how can I trust a stranger on the internet to just send me these products after I paid for them? Well, here is great news; as a buyer you have a lot of rights. Websites like Etsy and DeWanda have strict policies for customers. After a purchase the shop has 45 days to get the items to the costumer. If this does not work out the buyer can open a claim and get their money back. This will also work with credit card companies and Paypal. There is really nothing scary about buying online from small businesses!

If you were never sure about buying handmade from small businesses, I hope I have helped you decide to go for it. Remember how positive it is to get your gifts and decorations from small businesses, either locally or from the internet. I am going to leave you with a link to a Facebook page about handmade Monday, here you can follow the latest news and updates. 

Have a great week and remember, Monday the 25th of November: Handmade Monday!

Vacation shopping

A better-late-then-never update about all the items I bought on my holiday!

As I said before, this year we went to the Netherlands and England on our holiday. Mostly to see family but there was plenty of time to do other things, for example, shop for my shop. In the Netherlands we went to this little quilt shop in Schagen, Aljona's stoffen. There I found some fabric in a peachy orange color, there where 3 types in one series, one had a tree and different kind of animals, it spelled "les amis de la forét" in the same series there was a fabric with foxes and one with branches and birds. The fabric came in a color I usually do not feel attracted to but this print was so cute, so I decided to get a fat quarter of each. However once I came home I felt like I should have bought more. I also bought 2 fabrics with a flower pattern.

We also went to Amsterdam where I got to go to 2 quilt shops, the first one, birdblocks, I have been there many times and often found a lot to buy, but unfortunately this time I only bought 2 Christmas fabrics. The other shop is called Dutchquilts, this shop is really quite special because they sell antique prints, Dutch but also others. It is really a nice shop to find some different kind of fabrics. Both shops are right next to each other, so if you visit Amsterdam it is really easy to visit them both!

The last quilting shop I visited was in England in Canterbury. I have been in Canterbury a few times before, and walked by the shop, The sewing shop , but I never went in. Well this time I did, and the shop is really cute. I was thrilled to find the fabric "Les amis de la forét" because at that time I really regretted that I did not buy more, so I took another fat quarter. I was especially happy with this shops selecion of Christmas fabric's, they already had a great selection, something I missed in the shops in the Netherlands.

As I would like to build a nice inventory with Christmas items this year, I need the fabric's early to get it done in time. So I was very happy to find a great selecion of winter fabric's in this shop. As well as some floral fabrics and a fabric called paint by numbers, this reminded me a lot of my childhood so I just had to take some. (but again, I should have bought more because it is a great print to work with!)

And then at last I found a shop in Weymouth where they sell wonderful beads, mostly semi precious stone.

I had a hard time finding semi precious stones in the shops, and it was great to find some here, I only took a little selection though because at this point there was not a single free spot left in the suitcase.

So, the holiday was a success, I am extremely happy with everything I bought. It was great to visit all these shops and I hope to be able to return to them again!

Vallon des Trésors

Special Feature Friday: MinkuLUL

Edition 6

We came back from holiday last week, we had a lovely time! Unfortunately I got ill so I did not get to do as much as I wanted this week.
From next week on I only have class in the morning though, so that leaves every afternoon to work!

For this weeks Special Feature Friday I choose a shop that sells the most beautiful hand painted silk scarves.
MinkuLUL has a great selection of scarves, painted in the most beautiful colors and designs.
The fabric used is silk, one of my favorite fabrics because it is so light and soft.

I can imagine it must be a lot of work to paint these scarves. They are so detailed I can imagine that a lot of love goes into making them.

I admire the craftsmanship that went into making these scarves! This is a great shop to remember for birthday and holiday gifts, I am quite sure everyone would be impressed with a silk scarf from this shop as a present. And of course, these scarves can be worn on many many occasions.

Shopping on holiday

Our holiday is going splendidly! I got to see my family and meet up with everyone. My darling nephew grew so fast, he is absolutely adorable. I was really glad to see him, and see all the new things he has learned. He just learned how to walk, whilst holding something or someone. It is adorable to see him wave, and it took a while but he got the hang of how to clap his hands as well. All very simple things but it is so much fun to watch a baby figure these things out. I am so glad to be up to date again!

And as planned, I got to go shopping for the shop, I visited about 3 quilt shops and the damage was substantial. I could not be more happy though, I just love shopping for fabrics and with the shop these experiences are only getting better.

So, a little preview of the fabrics, they are not yet washed or ironed since they are still in the suitcase for the second part of the trip, so please excuse me for the pictures being a bit messy.

It is August and time to start thinking of Christmas items, so I kept an eye out for Christmas themed fabrics and I have found quite a few nice ones, some very obviously Chrismassy (as we like to call something that looks like Christmas), and some a bit more subtle. I have a few more Christmas themed fabrics at home, and I think all together this can become a nice collection!

I fell in love with these fox and forest themed fabrics right away, they are so adorable, I now wonder why I have not bought more than a fat quarter of each. at first I was doubtful about the print because it is not a color I am usually attracted to, but the longer I look at it the more it starts to grow on me. Right now it is my favorite combination of all the fabrics I bought this week.

Owls, I love them, and I am so glad they are in the fashion, there are wonderful fabrics available with owls on them. this week I bought this fabric the owls look great and the color combination makes it appropriate for a baby room as well.

And at last the flowers, I always keep an eye out for flower fabrics, especially these are very detailed and very pretty, I went for blue and brown, mostly because it was very difficult to find another fabric in the right colors blue, but also because I thought the blue and brown looked like quite a match, and the colors in the raspberries are the same as the colors in the rose. 

So, my first week of holiday has been very fruitful! Thursday we will get on our way to the UK and I hope to find a couple more quilt shops there, I would still like some more Christmas fabrics and I really hope to walk into the fox and forest fabric's again. I also hope to find one or two bead shops, I checked out one bead shop in Amsterdam but was not greatly impressed by the assortment, so I did not buy much.

The last thing I would like to let you know that this week there will not be a Special Feature Friday. But I will make that up with you the week after, and take extra care of finding an extra nice Etsy shop to share!