Etsy Ireland in the Irish Times

Well, well, well - lots happening these days on the auld promotion scene! One of the teams I'm in got featured in the Irish Times magazine - how about that for some kudos?!

Big thanks to Alex who was the mover and shaker in making that historic event happen.

Now I know Christmas is about more than just sales and crazy over indulgence ... but for the whole hand crafted movement in Ireland this was a BIG deal!  Move over big guy ( < insert your favorite mass produced, unfair trading, exploitative store name).

But back to work here now ... I have a pile of very realistic looking onion ornaments on the floor that need to be somehow transformed into very pretty Christmas tree ornaments!  I'll spare you the details on how I managed to paint them into onion impersonators (unless someone, somewhere, needs a tutorial on how to make the perfect onion lookalike?) - nah, didn't think so.  The idea of trying to create a new craze of onion ornaments was contemplated ... but somehow I don't think that would fly. And even if it would I'm not a very good marketeeress.

I'll be back tomorrow with day one of the 12 Days of Christmas - when I'll be featuring some beautiful creations from fab course-members of the Etsy Organic, Crafty Ireland, Trashion and Eco Etsy teams I'm proud to be a member in, as well the Auld Irish folks who like to chat! Big thanks by the way to Ecoleeko for the great idea of the 12 days feature  and who will also be running a 12 days event on her blog :)

Winter Shopping Extavanganza

Got a lovely surprise this morning - woke to see that I'm featured in Reducefootprints Winter Shopping Extravangza list!

This is a fab list of global sellers who handmake all kinds of wonderful creations ... and a neat resource for those of you who like to buy handmade.  Look for the ** symbol for eco friendly products.

Reducefootprints has her own online shop Appealingtou where she sells her oil paintings, prints and earrings.

What a nice start to the weekend - thanks for all your hard work in putting the directory together.

For my own effort in promoting handmade this Christmas season I'll be running a 12 days of Christmas blogaganza!  Starting Tuesday the 1st December - through to the 12th ... I'll be featuring 4 different artisans whose work I love.  Hopefully you'll also love them and we can all support the small scale artisans out there.

There are many reasons to buy handmade - for me the two biggest factors are I get to buy something unique (not mass produced)  plus I know I am buying fair trade!  PLUS - I get a designer made product without the designer price tag.  Got to be good :)