UNik Creations by Sara Aviva and Many Buttons

Bags, earrings, necklaces, pedants, it's all there, at UNik Creations. In this shop you can find tons of fun items that will add a little bit of fun to your everyday life. Her items are unique, one of a kind and are made from reused/recycled materials.

I have Diamond for your Pennies earrings myself and they are adorable. It's a shame I can't wear them myself, but I'm sure my friend will love them just as much.

Unfortunately this shop doesn't have enough sales to judge customer service by feedback, but from my personal experience, customer service is great. I got my earrings very fast and they came in a handmade box that I fell in love with. Policies are well written and are easy to understand, so there shouldn't be any problems there.

And this is a video where I'm talking about this wonderful shop. Enjoy :)

Rouge and Whimsy

Rouge and Whimsy is a good place to find handmade hair accessories. I got yellow headband myself and Love it. It only took a few days to get here and shipping was very reasonable. No damages, no problems, all was very nice and smooth. Headband itself looks great, feels great and is very comfortable. I often had problems with headbands being too tight or too lose, this one fits perfectly.

I have little cousins who love cute hair accessories, I bet they aren't the only once. I can definitely see all the girls in school turning green with envy if my cousin was to wear one.

All in all, great headbands for both kids and kids at heart. Girls, go get them.

And for your viewing pleasure, a YouTube video of me wearing and talking more about it. Well, I'm talking about it at the end of the video at least lol.

Last but not least, This seller has 100% positive feedback and policies are very reasonable and easy to understand. Great seller, great crafts woman, great hair accessories.

Melody Milleker from Inky Strings and Recycled Goods

I ran into Inky Strings and simply couldn't not share it. It's so unusual and cute, so unique. I love finding such great artists with all these cool items in their shops. These earrings are made from paint swatches. Who would've thought of using it to make jewelry? This isn't all there is though, there are some felted key chains and last but not least watercolor and ink paintings. Those paintings/drawing are actually my favorite items in the shop, she has such interesting, style. Well, what am I telling you all this for, you can go to Inky Strings and see it for yourself.

What I do want to tell you about is that this seller is keeping her shop in good condition. All the policies are filled and they look really good. It's always good to know that if an item is defective I can return it or have it fixed. There are also some good deals you can find on Melody's tumbler. Since it's a new shop, there isn't much as far as feedback goes, but there is a coupon code for free shipping for the first 10 customers, so if you want to use it, hurry.

Edith and Lulu, the Button Jewels

Jewelry made from buttons is something I actually have never seen before. It's one of those things where you hit yourself in the head asking why you never though of it. Buttons are so versatile, there are so many looks and shapes of them. You can realistically make jewelry for absolutely anyone. Edith and Lulu has tons of beautiful necklaces and earrings for every woman out there. This is exactly why I love etsy so much, you can find things you will not find anywhere else. Just looking through items from different sellers gives me so much inspiration. All this stunning jewelry for insanely low prices, all there, on etsy. Oh how I love it. And yes, prices in this shop are very low, anyone can afford it, even in our economy.

Now the sad news, this shop is actually not going to be around much longer, the jeweler is going back to school and science classes can take way too much time. Believe I know, been there, done that. Now on the brighter side, because the shop is closing, everything is 40% off. If you like the idea of button jewelry, and who doesn't and would like to get some for yourself or loved once, this is the time and the place. Get it before it's too late.

This shop was up and running since 2008 and has great reputation. There is absolutely no way you will be disappointed if you buy from there. Policies are perfectly clear and easy.

Now a question I asked myself while typing the post: "why when posting jewelry I seem to always pick necklaces?" Is it because I don't wear earrings or am I just discriminating?

Karen Cooper and Handmade Bags

Have I ever mentioned I love handmade bags? I'm sure I did, but just in case... Handmade bags are the best. There are just so many great bags you can find when shopping handmade, the sky is the limit. I believe I also mentioned that I love everything recycled. Koop Designs combines both of these together. Karen Cooper uses a lot of items that have seen better days and turns them into something absolutely beautiful. How do you like a bag made from cowboy boots? It looks beautiful and there is no way you'll find half the town having the same exact bag. I feel a little bad for the rest of the items in this shop because as beautiful as they are, purses seem to be taking all the spot light. Well, at least that's what happened when I wondered in. Do check out the other items though, dresses made from pillow cases would be a good outfit for a hot summer day for example.

I don't know about you, but I keep on buying boots that at first seem like a good pair that fits well, but after I wear them for the first time they don't look as good to me anymore. I ended up having a few pairs that I know I will never wear again, being tortured once by each pair is more then enough. If you have the same problem or simply have a pair of boots that have seen better days, you can send them to Karen and get a beautiful bag out of it. Or you can just go to a second hand store and find boots you love but would never wear and send those. Or you can buy two pair of boots and have one turned into a bag so that you'd have a pair of boots that match your bag perfectly. Or you can get an already made bag from Karen and, she does have beautiful bags ready to be shipped after all.

I have one little problem with this shop, I must admit. Here we go... the prices are too low. I have seen mass produced bags with a couple more zeroes at the end of the price tag, I'm sure you did too. These guys are handmade, each of them was designed individually and you will not see the same bag anywhere else. It's worth so much more in my opinion. I would love to see handmade items of such good quality and design selling for at least as much as the Gucci that produces millions of bags with the same exact design. If you ask me, one of a kind or very limited edition bags that are also handmade are a lot more valuable. So, for all you ladies out there, and gentlemen who would like to make a lady happy, if you would like a bag that's worth thousands for a fraction of a price, this is the shop for you.

This shop is also a very safe place to shop. You will get a good customer service and since the policies are clear cut, you will not have a problem figuring out how to pay, when to expect it or how to return if it's not what you for some reason aren't happy with what you got.

Sisterly Creationz, Elegant Jewelry by Tiffany Coble

Elegant, beautiful, and with taste, what can be better? The only thing that can be better is all that plus handmade. This is exactly what you will get from this jeweler. I really love her taste, it shows in her jewelry designs. Combination of shapes and colors of the crystals is simply beautiful, on the necklace here for example it flows well, purple complements pink really well. This necklace has different cut beads, small smooth beads highlight the larger once. All in all a very good design with an elegant, soft look. As soon as I saw this shop, this beautiful style that can be seen over and over in every piece she makes, attracted my attention. Now, here is another thing I noticed. Very often when looking at handmade jewelry I find that wire doesn't look neat. It would look irregular and unprofessional. Tiffany has everything under control in that department. As someone who used to make dolls out of copper wire when I was little, I can tell you, shaping wire can be a pain. It's a skill that can be learned however, just takes a more time, the end result is worth it. The bottom line is, you can have beautiful, elegant jewelry made by a jeweler that cares about producing good quality product AND it's very, very affordable.


Now, I must be hones, there is one thing I don't like about this shop, she hasn't made a lot of sales. I know, the shop opened this year and didn't have much time to grow, but the jewelry there is too beautiful not to buy. What are people doing? GO GO GO SHOP THERE!!! With jewelry like that, there should be at the very least 10 sales a day... that is if Tiffany can keep up with it. The feed back is still 100% though, so as of now every person who bought from this shop, loved what they got, not that I'm surprised by it, it's freaking gorges.

Arts N Drafts Festival

Alright, I'm finally done putting the writing of this post aside. I spent a few days helping set everything up for the festival and drawing there and had to catch up on line, now I can finally tell all about this spring Arts n Drafts. I was happy to see that almost all of the artwork displayed was new, a few paintings were displayed last fall, but there weren't many of them. The way walls were set up this time worked really well, first of all they were more stable second of all they were placed slightly different in the building. It looked almost the same, but tables were a little further from the walls allowing you to see everything better. The downside of this season's fest was the weather. Usually they have tons of artists set up outside painting, but it was too cold this year. I think I was the only one drawing there, but I was inside and they didn't have much space to fit in more artists indoors. Music was great. My favorite band (Matty B. and Dirty Pickles) were there playing on Friday woo-hoo. I got to meet a lot of interesting people there, from artists to musicians to psychic. Yes, they even had a psychic there. A great thing about Arts n Drafts is that people come over from many states to hang out there. People came for different reasons, some to drink good beer, some to hear good music, some to see art, some for all to the above, but at the end of the day many bought artwork from there. One thing I learned from displaying there is that having many small and cheap paintings is going to bring the most sales. People who came just to hang out might easily drop $20 for a painting they like.

Well, I'll be waiting for the next season (this fall), meanwhile I'll be getting back to posting everything on line.

Stay tuned for the next post about some great hand made jewelry