Shop Small Business: A Guide to Holiday Shopping on Etsy

For the second year in a row there is a new movement in Holiday Shopping. No, it is not the ever more popular "open on Thanksgiving night to attract even more buyers" ploy of corporate retail chains across the country. This movement is different. This inititative is the Shop Small Business day, planned for Saturday November 26th, 2011. It is sponsored by American Express and encourages shoppers everywhere to participate by buying their holiday gifts at small business retailers. This could be the shop around the corner on Main Street USA or an online shop presence on the ever growing website Etsy.com. Being a small business ourselves on Etsy, we are totally into this effort. In fact, if you like on Facebook or follow us on Twitter you may already have an inkling as to how popular we feel this movement should be. 

So in light of all this we felt we should kickstart things a bit with a little Etsy Gift Guide we put together. After browsing their website we came up with a nice list of gifts that are affordable, handmade or vintage, and easy to purchase, while supporting small business all at the same time.

Left to Right from the top of the image we have:

1. The Blonde Package - 5 Elastic Solid Color Hair Ties that Double as Bracelets from Mane Message This one is for the lady who keeps a hair tie on her wrist just in case of hair emergency.

2. Caramel of the Month Club 12 Months from Have It Sweet For the gourmet sweets connoisseur.

3. Felt Kindle Case - Kindle 3 Case - Kindle 3 Cover - Nook Case - Kindle eReader Covers - Kindle Sleeve from Kawaii Owl  Design This one is for the tween who just got a Kindle and needs to keep it protected instead of on any random surface it lands on! (We have a tween, we know their habits.)

4. Mini Cactus from Lost In Zen Perfect for a co-worker or boss, help keep that office Zen feeling going strong all day and decorate the desk to boot!

5. Light Grey Wrap Dress With Short Ruffled Sleeves And Shirred Skirt from Lirola This one is for you, or your sister or your BFF so they will always have something simple, comfortable and stylish to wear!

6. Garden Bon Bons - Herbal Tea Selection from Garden Bon Bons This is for the gardener and tea drinker in your life, she can grow it and then steep it.

7. Circa 1950s Vintage Crate from GoSeek For the collector, a vintage item to treasure.

8. Manly Man Soap Set - Natural Soap - Handmade Soap - Unscented Soap - Mens Gift Set from Rocky Top Soap Shop For the gentleman, father, brother or hubby, something to pamper himself proudly!

9. The Big Lebowski (Yellow) - Pencil Set from OneUpDesigns For the cult classic movie buff, a simple and hilarious gesture to stuff the stocking.

We hope you will enjoy browsing Etsy just as much as we do!

Use the coupon code SHOPSMALL2011 to receive 20% anything in our Etsy shop on Saturday Nov.26th!

Inspiration Pinterest 8.1.11

Whew! We apologize to our readers for the delay in posting these past few weeks but we have been....drum roll please...MOVING! Ugh. I know I hear a collective sigh, it was rough indeed, who likes to move, raise your hand? We decided to do it all ourselves, the packing, the loading, the hauling, the unloading, the unpacking all in the 100 degree heat that was unrelenting for two weeks.

We both have substantially more sun on our skin now though, we don't usually strive for suntans :) I prefer to think of it as channeling my inner Nicole Kidman. (Nicole reportedly stays out of the sun entirely to protect her ivory epidermis, ensuring that sun damage is never going to be a problem!) And speaking of sun and heat and 100 degree weather, we are OVER IT! So in the spirit of anticipation (for fall of course) we would like to present to you our Pinterest Halloween Inspirations. Gasp! Say wha? It's only just August! Yeah we know but just can't help but think of all the wonderful and creative projects and sweets we could create this fall. And with the blessing of cooler temperate weather too! So without further ado...

Scary Candy Apples from Matt BitesWe are practically drooling over the spooky factor of these super shiny red and black candied apples. Amazing! We are thinking perfection for a spooky, sophisticated Pottery Barn-esque Halloween Dessert Table. 

Stocking covered pumpkin from Better Homes and GardensAnd what better to accompany our sexy sophisticated and shiny spooky apples than a sexy sophisticated stocking covered pumpkin? Say that three times fast we dare ya! Seriously though, how simple and awesome is that chic pumpkin?

Spider webbed balloons from Crafty CraftyOk this one just blew us out of the water, spider webs inside a balloon! Complete with little spiders too! Creativity knows no limits friends and we cannot wait to try this DIY out! How cool would these be if they were back lit with black lights perhaps?

So there you have it, our "We can't wait for fall to get here so we can cool the heck off and decorate for Halloween" inspired Pinterest picks. Click here to follow all of our Halloween Inspirations on Pinterest, there are surely more to come!

We would love for you to follow along with us on Pinterest. If you already belong, look us up on the link! For those of you who haven't joined the wonders of Pinterest, we encourage you to go forth and discover! And if you find yourself in need of an invitation, just give us a shout, we'd be happy to invite you!

Inspiration Pinterest 7.4.11

This week's inspiration is all about the cool refreshing cucumber! I don't know about you but there is just something so soothing about a cucumber. Maybe it is that cool green and slightly translucent look that has me swooning this week.

When I was younger my mother would serve tall pitcher's of ice-cold water with thin slices of cucumber and lemon floating about inside. They added just a hint of flavor to a refreshing summer-time neccesity. Check out these popsicles, they are kind of similar. 

Lemon Cucumber Popsicle by Family Fresh Cooking

Here is the recipe if you are dying to try them too!

• 1 cup julienned seedless Cucumber
• 1 fresh squeezed Lemon, remove any seeds
• 2 cups cold Water
• Natural Sweetener added to taste: use your favorite, I use Stevia. Maple Syrup, Honey & Agave are good too

METHOD

Slice lemon in half and squeeze it over a strainer into 2 cups of cold water. Sweeten lemon water to taste with your favorite sweetener. Fill popsicle molds 2/3 with lemonade. Freeze uncovered for about 1 hour. Take pops out of freezer. Scrape and stir any ice crystals that have formed. Add a spoonful of the julienned cucumber to the pop molds. Be sure to leave a tiny bit of room at the top of your popsicle mold so they don’t overflow when you add the stick. With a popsicle stick or a butter knife, press the cucumber into the mixture so it is evenly distributed. Add your popsicle sticks, freeze pops for another 3-4 hours until solid.

Cucumber Tea Sandwiches from Martha StewartWhat better to go with a cumcumber lemon water than a divine little cucumber tea sandwich? These visually pleasing sandwiches from Martha Stewart are just too cool. I kinda want to make some just so I can take pictures of them. Plain 'ole sliced white bread never looked so fancy!

Tazo, not only do you have appealing packaging but you also have appealing flavors. Perhaps your tea needs to date Martha's sandwiches? A perfect match made in cucumber heaven?

White Cucumber Tea from Tazo

As always, we would love to follow you and for you to follow us on Pinterest so that we can share in all the wonderful beautiful creative things our web has to offer! Visit us here.