Etsy Gives Me Multiple Craft-related Orgasms This Week

Thanks to some combination of the brief wet snow we had this weekend, my roommate forcing me to watch Jim Carrey's Grinch (awful,) and last night's snuggly YouTube-ing of the Charlie Brown Christmas, I'm really getting in the Xmas/holiday spirit. I dabbled in starting my shopping this weekend and have decided that I'm going to do all (okay, most, my parents really want a couple months of Netflix, what can I do?) handmade/hipster/local gifting this year. I figure that I'm going to be dropping some cash regardless of my financial situation, so I might as well have it go to a good cause - oo charityish!!

Hey here's something that I love: CRAFT FAIRS. Or any fairs where you can purchase goods that you don't necessarily need. This prob stems from the Santa Shops we had in elementary school. Did everyone have that? Or is that some white trash Upstate, NY thing?? They would basically set up some tables with cheap crafty-type gifts in our gym and my mom would give me $20 and I would knock out all of my Christmas shopping in the hour allotted for purchasing these fine artisan crafts. This is why my mom/aunts/grammas have a collection of things like jewelry boxes made of yarn and shitty Santa pins, and plastic wreathes. 

This past weekend I went to the grown up (and socially conscious, duh!) version of my beloved Santa Shop, Etsy's Handmade Cavalcade. It was wonderful - but I treated the experience more like window shopping as there are a whole slew of similar handmade fairs that will feature NYC indie designers in the next couple weekends. (And the place was PACKED so I didn't feel bad about just perusing for the time being...) After the jump, here's a list of what caught my eye, (and just might catch my credit card)

Fact and Fancy
Their adorable logo (love cuddly cute animals!!) had me, but I fell in love with some of the prints and totes they were selling (check out the website for more goodies from local artists). It's probably sold by now, but the "Recycle or be a Stupid Idiot" bag was my favorite! I'll settle instead for the "Recycle or we Will Eat Your Pants" tote.

                                          Dirty Clean

 Vegan bath products have never been so deliciously fun! Check out the site for soaps with personalities to match New York's boroughs and 'hoods. See right for the Williamsburg: Lager soap (yup, made with beer, you provide the dirty hipster). At the show they featured a lot of holiday scents - including the Lump 'O Coal soap for those on your naughty list - so they'd make perfect inexpensive (about $3-6 a bar) host/hostess gifts for upcoming bashes!

May Luk Ceramics

What more could a vegetarian need than the Pig Plate from Brooklyn-based ceramic designer May Luk? I think it would look great with my vegan pb cookies on it...

Holiday Cards from Molly Schulman

This card (complete with egg nog recipe) would be AWESOME for my friend Annie, who loves Christmas and all of its trimmings almost as much as she likes alcohol - and this is a perfect homage to all! Although we'd have to substitute the reg milk for some soy. If you've been around Annie after consuming dairy products, you know what I'm talking about...

Next up: I'll post about the upcoming New York City and Brooklyn shopping fairs so you''ll have lots of holiday shopping options if you're looking to go local, handmade, green, or all of the above!

Comments

[Adawgz]

TRUE DAT! HO-liday spiritz! Nothing beats out the anticipation of your peanut butter cookies.

I do have to share: trashy craft fairs at elementary schools are standard in the US of A.

I would spend 3/4 of my money on something I convinced myself was essential to surviving (RL Stein, one troll, Aliens Ate My Homework, etc) and would create something comparably shitty at home, pawning it off as a craft store-bought present.

Always the entrepreneur.

[Adawgz]

Hi, world?

It's me. Lactose Intolerant Annie-

THANKS FOR THE STELLAR INTRODUCTION. SURE TO HAVE ALL THE MALE-CALLERS BREAKING DOWN MY DOOR SOON ENOUGH!