St Patty's Day Blessings in Green

Having a wee bit of Irish in me blood, I just couldn't let tomorrow pass without posting some clever handmade goodies that made me smile. Smiling itself is a blessing these days, and I hope seeing these bring a smile to you this Happy Saint Patty's Day.



Thanks to the artists behind these green pieces that were found while roaming the pages of Artfire and Etsy.

May God grant you every blessing, especially the ones you forgot to ask for.

Etsy Artists Help Fellow Etsy Artists

Visiting blogs is often like going on a treasure hunt. This past weekend, while checking out others’ blogs I found a wonderful, inspiring and uplifting nugget on a blog called “Bags by Melanie.” In the right hand sidebar, Melanie, who has an Etsy store also called Bags by Melanie, has a short write-up that Introduces H.O.S.T.

H.O.S.T. is the Etsy “Helping Others Street Team”, which is comprised of over 100 Esty artists who share the virtuous quality of compassion. HOST has its origins in a discussion thread started by Heather, of Heather R. Lange Art, at 3:15pm on December 20, 2007 entitled “Is Anyone in Need This Season?”

The response was overwhelming—almost 3000 posts in only 7 days. There were a lot of sad stories relating the need of Etsians and their families, but each sad story was answered by an outpouring of posts with words of encouragement, freewill gifts and donations, and leads on resources that might help meet a specific need.

Approximately five hours after the thread began, an Etsy buyer of handmade who goes by GeauxOrganic, commented “I think there needs to be an Etsy gives back street team.” Many participating in the discussion, agreed and 3 days later HOST became an official street team on Etsy.

I think Melanie’s mention of the HOST team caught my eye, because I recently wrote an article for HanmadeNews.org which was published in their Guild and Team Department. “Virtual Strangers Offer Surprise Support to Team Member with Cancer” tells the story of Etsy Artist Joyce Richards of Wild Orchid’s Beads of Glass who was recently diagnosed with Cancer and how members of her Etsy Twitter Team (ETT) reached out with the same kind of compassion that members of HOST show their fellow Etsians.

“Hosties”, as they call themselves, offer friendship, emotional support, help with shop promotion, and basic financial assistance. If you’d like to help the Hosties help others, you can become a member, go to their team blog and make a monetary donation, purchase an item from their team store or donate an item to their store. Below is a glimpse into the HOST Etsy Store.

I do believe that when we have compassion and act on our compassion, we make the world a better place. I also believe, that in a time when so many in our country are struggling, it’s wonderful, inspiring and uplifting to hear and share good news. I hope this brief article, warms your heart and stirs up even more compassion in all of us.

Copper Wire Caught My Eye

Recently, I was refered to the blog By Earth Expressions where artist Suzy of Earth Expressions on Etsy.com was showing off some of her latest handcrafted copper jewelry. I was immediately drawn in and found many of her jewelry pieces to be intriguing.

As a stained glass artist, I often work with copper wire as reinforcement as well as decorative embellishments for my pieces. I also enjoyed seeing the way Suzy used glass, wood, and resin to make one of a kind necklace pendants. So I thought I'd share the links to her blog and her shop with you, in case you have a minute to take a look.

For a quick trip to see either of these items in Suzy's Etsy just click on their photo. And, thanks Suzy for letting me use your photos.

Enjoy!
Coco

Military Musings

Once a military wife, always a military wife! And as a (retired) military wife I enjoyed reading the musings of Amanda, author and owner of the blog: Confessions from Household6. As soon as I read her subtitle, "life from my quarters to yours" I felt a connection. (For those of you that aren't military, our "quarters" are our homes especially when living on base in military housing.)

I don't know Amanda personally, but many of her stories made me smile as I reminisced about the good ole days when our kids were still living at home, and our life was full of moves, TDY's (involuntary separations due to Temporary Duty assignments), and ways to have fun without spending much money like BYO (Bring Your Own) meat BBQ's and neighborhood street parties.

Even though, because of PCS' (Permanent Change of Station), friends came and went as if through a revolving door, the friendships we made with other military families have lasted through the years and long absences just make the cherished reconnections by phone, email, facebook, and real life visits all the more precious.

If you'd like a glimpse into military family life that's told with a sense of humor, and yet smacks of a reality show, you might want to grab a cup of tea, stop by her blog, and settle down for a good read. But if you only have time for a quicky, I suggest her one (1) paragraph story entitled "Busted". Amada is a creative and disciplined blogger who takes her digital scrapbooking seriously and posts a new article virtually everyday.

Families of our military also deserve our thanks and our support. You can give her a boost, by leaving a comment under one of her blog posts. As a fellow blogger, I can tell you that it's always nice to know that someone read what you spent time writing. And, if Amanda ever turns her musings into a book, you can say you were reading her stories even before she became famous.

And speaking of supporting the families of our military... The next time you are in need of a present for a special occassion consider buying something handmade from a Homefront Artist. Homefront is a support community for the artistically talented military spouses of active duty, reservist, or retired United States Service members who are selling their artwork on Etsy, Artfire, or 1000 Markets.

I'm a member of the Etsy Homefront Street Team and our motto is: "We keep the homefires burning for our uniformed service members worldwide." To learn more about this group of artists, visit their blog by clicking here.

When you make a purchase from a member of Homefront, you are supporting a military spouse. Most Homefront Etsy artists have tagged their items with the words "Homefront Team" in order to facilitate a search for their items. However, the quickest and easiest way is to just click on one of the buttons below.

To Shop for Homefront Artists on Etsy.com

To Shop for Homefront Artists on ArtFire.com

To Shop for Homefront Artists on 1000 Markets.com

And, if you know of another Homefront group, please leave their link in the comments below.

Nature's Best and Giveaway #5

I'm intrigued by the NaturalKids team on Etsy. They have their own blog and their own store front where you can shop by category. But I had never heard of them until I read about their giveaway on a blog called Woolies-Woolies. The specific prize was not announced, but browsing through their items, I'd be happy to win anything.

To enter, all you need to do is visit two of their members' etsy store and pick a favorite item from each and mention them in a comment at the end of the Natural Kids Giveaway #5 article. Hope you have as much fun as I did.

One of their members named Sara is the author of Woolies-Woolies. She is an artist and avid knitter who has two shops on Etsy: Woolies & Buster and Boo. She creates knitted shawls, baby items, stuffed animals, as well as jewelry and accessories.

Here is one piece from each or her shops to whet your appetite. (Click on the image for more details.)

Diamonds for Your Shoulders

Photo courtesy of Woolies

Vintage Typewriter Key Necklace, the letter H

Photo courtesy of Buster and Boo

Enjoy!

Proud to be a Mainer and Even Prouder of My Fellow Etsy Mainers

Click here to read all about it!

Hunting for Treasure

The Treasury an exciting and much used feature within the Etsy Community. Introduced in August of 2006, the Treasury gave community members an opportunity to to act as a curator by personally handpicking 12 of their favorite items and posting the grouping for others to view. Each collection is based on a theme that ties all the featured artwork together for an effective display. These individual lists remain active for 2 days, often soliciting comments from viewers and potential buyers who, with one click, are taken to the featured item in the artist’s store. The best of the best of these member-curated collections are occasionally promoted to the front page of Etsy, making this a valuable promotional tool.

Many artists who belong to an Etsy Street Team will create a treasury to highlight and promote the artwork of their fellow team members. It’s always exciting to get an email from the creator of a treasury announcing that one of my items has been featured. But not all curators contact those whose art they have featured.

I just learned of a site, Craftopolis, that allows an Etsy Artist to search through all the treasuries to find any of their items that are currently being featured. To my surprise, when I entered my shop’s name, ByCoco, under the “Treasure Hunt” tab, it told me that I was a featured artist and gave me the link to the treasury. What a thrill.

On that same site, an artist can perform a gift guide search to see if they are featured in one of Etsy’s popular gift guides. Alas, just as I expected, none of my items are currently featured in a gift guide. But that won’t stop me from returning to Craftopolis every day or two to check again.

Checking for Etsy shop hearts on Craft Cult or checking to see if I’ve been featured in a treasury or gift guide on Craftopolis, may not be the most productive use of my time, but it’s fun. And we all need to mix a little fun in with the task of promoting our shops and selling our wares. So, if you haven’t already tried using Craft Cult and Craftopolis, I suggest you try them both and let me know what you think.

Claypatties from Manchester Maine

Potter, Kim Brennan, alias Claypatties on Etsy, is a fellow Maine artist. Her specialty is pottery and her creations are inspired by vintage Weller and McCoy pottery that she and her mother used to find at flea markets. “Those were the good old days,” she grinned. “I work primarily in the drippy greens, blues and earthy browns that are steeped in historical references.”

While reminiscing, she recalled stories of growing up in suburbia, playing hide and seek with the neighborhood kids, and trading prizes they found in Cracker Jack and cereal boxes. Her mother was an avid antique collector, and as a child, Kim, became fascinated with train sets. She says that it was the hours spent creating scenery and staging for the trains that sparked her work with dioramas.

Kim enjoys experimental and non-traditional firings and one of her platters was recently published in the Lark 500 series, “500 Plates and Chargers.”

Some of her favorite things in life include listening to all types of music, Air Stream travel trailers, dogs, New York City, and drinking beer under the stars while firing a kiln.

Living in the northern woods of Maine, I can certainly relate to the star gazing and hope someday to visit her studio in person.

A few of Kim's pieces are pictured in this article but there is also a collection of her pieces spotlighted at the bottom of this page. Clicking on any picture will take you to that item in her shop Claypatties.

Feel free to comment on her work or on this article.

Make Your Voice Heard

I’m not talking about voicing your opinion about the things going on in our nation…no, no, no. I’m talking about having a little fun.

Now’s your chance to vote for your favorite Eco-friendly item out of 60 selected by Etsy from their handmade categories. It’s quite an impressive collection and worth a look.

Want to see? Click HERE.

I found out about this contest from another blog called Circles Are Forever. As you can see from the photo, this artist upcycles bottle caps by painting them and turning them into other functional items. She sells these through her shop on Etsy. That’s worth a look too. I was amazed at all the different things she’s done with bottle caps. Her creativity runneths over…
Have fun and leave a comment if you wish.