Jenbevmit on Etsy

Sticking with the cow theme, I thought this little dress was too cute! It is handmade by jenbevmit.


Mandie

Thepaintedpoppet on Etsy

Dolls and puppets with loads of personality. Thepaintedpoppet creates these dolls for decorative purposes. Love the robot!




Mandie

DECAcandle on Etsy

Candles, lip balms, soaps and "melts" are what you'll find in DECAcandle's Etsy shop:

That's sandalwood soap!

According to the listing description, each melt will scent a medium to large room for approximately 8 - 10 hours. "Breakaway melts are highly scented wax chunks meant to be melted on a tart/melt warmer."

The colours look so good!

Mandie

Cupcakeperfumery on Etsy

Cupcakeperfumery sells delicious sounding perfumes and beauty products, yes, sounding, because I haven't tried them. I'm guessing that Marzipan, Coco Noir and Vanilla Truffle perfumes must smell amazing!


Yummy!

Mandie

HendersonArt on Etsy

Art appreciation is so subjective that I am hesitant to share paintings that appeal to me, because I might just be chasing away half our audience with my boorish tastes! For example, I recently read an article on Hitler's art and I thought "hey, it's not half bad!". However, Hitler was denied entry into Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts. Twice. And Richard Westwood-Brookes, who clearly knows his art, because just look at his name, feels that the pieces "are at best the standard of a reasonably competent amateur." So it is with some risk to my reputation that I present to you some paintings that appeal to me, but I was taught that it matters not one jot what critics say, as long as you like it. HendersonArt on Etsy created the following two colourful abstracts with oil on wood:



And here is another piece that is not abstract:

HendersonArt happens to have a degree in Fine Arts from the Emily Carr Institute of Art, if you care about such things. Me? I just like the pretty colours.

Mandie

Fullyhooked on Etsy

Recently some wooden earrings caught my eye on Etsy and the main reason I chose not to feature the seller on the blog, was because I couldn't figure out how the earrings worked! Maybe someone could explain it to me in the comments? Seems I'm still stuck on wood, though, because I found a new pair by fullyhooked and I think I could figure these out:

I really like the snaky effect of the hanging hearts. Here is a pretty, shiny shell necklace:


And another pair of earrings:


These items are not representative of Fullyhooked's shop, I just chose earthy, natural looking pieces for this post. She currently has 37 listings, so go have a look at the rest of her items and see if anything tickles your fancy.

Mandie

Cloud9dsign on Etsy

We've established that I'm a fan of cute, but I'm also a fan of squishy. Winter is on its way here in South Africa, so I'm starting to think about hot chocolate, warm blankets, fuzzy slippers and all sorts of cozy things. What I really like about Cloud9dsign's items is that they are cozy things with cute faces. Cute and cozy, can't beat that:

That's Mike, the travel pal. He doubles up as a travel pillow, as does Oliver:

Levi, made from denim, has a pocket smile! You can put things in his smiling mouth.

Wonky eyes, sticky-out tongues...I can't resist.

Mandie

MirkaDesign on Etsy

Mirka Kalmanova designs all her own patterns, then creates her items with beautiful fabrics. Look at the great fabric on this foam padded laptop sleeve:


Here is an unusual bag to carry over your arm (great dress, too) :

She also makes covers for books and will create a custom cover according to your specifications.

It all looks so fresh!

Mandie

Jrehnke on Etsy

When I come across old birthday or greeting cards during spring cleaning, I always feel a pang about throwing them away. But I throw them out, because I have seen what happens when you don't - you get featured in a tv show about the dirtiest homes in the country and end up on Oprah explaining you never meant to let things get that bad. Jrehnke creates greeting cards with a gift included, so that you can throw away the card, but keep the gift. Here is one of her cards, next to the necklace included:

The card is an original watercolour and comes with a red envelope. The necklace is acrylic on canvas. Here is another one that I really liked:


I liked this cherry necklace, too (it doesn't come with a card) :

She also makes other jewellery items that are worth a look.

Leave a comment if you have a great idea for using greeting cards in a useful way. Displaying them on the mantelpiece doesn't count!

Mandie

HeartandSoilBaskets on Etsy

I found these handmade baskets by HeartandSoilBaskets. Here is a sweet little one for a flower girl to carry at a wedding:


And a beautiful vegetable basket:


It looks even better filled with incredibly good-looking veggies.

I saw this quote on Twitter, posted by StickFigureMan: "Container Store Syndrome: The conviction that if you just buy enough plastic file boxes, your life will become organized." Yes I suffer from this, and while my plastic containers are very adequate, I say baskets are prettier.

Mandie