Rare Bird Finds Holiday Gift Guide is back

I posted about this last year when they did this and they're at it again. Rare Bird Finds is a cool blog featuring interesting products. They've got a very thorough holiday gift guide again with all sorts of suggestions for those people in your life who are really hard to buy for.

Check it out here or click the blinking icon over there on the left. I really like that this blog has a subscribing service. I get an email every day with all their latest picks so I don't forget to look.

Handmade Arcade!

Please come visit me this weekend at Pittsburgh's own amazing indie craft fair, Handmade Arcade. It's held every year at Construction Junction. This year there will be over 100 vendors including a few people selling food and snacks.

Here's a list of the demos:

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10

11:15am - 12:00pm “Beaded Beads” Carrie Nardini, I Made It!

12:00pm - 1:00pm Book Binding Ian Short, Artists Image Resource

1:30pm - 2:30pm Yarn Dying Stacey Wettstein, Knit One

3:00pm - 4:30pm Illustrated Storytelling and Drawing Workshop For Children Joe Wos, sponsored by the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

4:45pm - 7:00pm Copper Bracelets & Olive Oil Soap Adina DeRoy & Adriane Pacella, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11

11:15am - 12:00pm “Beaded Beads” Carrie Nardini, I Made It!

12:00pm - 1:00pm Book Binding Ian Short, Artists Image Resource

1:15pm- 2:15pm Glass Bead Blowing Kim Hergert, Sweetgrass Beads

2:30pm – 5:00pm Copper Bracelets & Olive Oil Soap Adina DeRoy & Adriane Pacella, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

**Plus screenprinting make 'n take with Artists Image Resource AND create**

**Zipper pull with Pat Catan's.**

And get this: A free crafty swag bag to the first 100 visitors each day.

I've got a great spot right in the middle across from my friend Emily of DisCARDS. I'm really looking forward to this. It's so nice to go to an event that's pretty close to home in a town I know like the back of my hand. I get to stay with a good friend, take care of errands on Friday evening, and head home with an easy drive on Sunday. Yay!

There are directions on the website. Hours are from 11 - 7 on Saturday and from 11 - 5 on Sunday AND, it's about a mile from Trader Joe's so you can stock up on your Double Dark coffee beans on your way home.

Good news and bad news...

I was cleaning up my blog links earlier today and accidentally deleted the whole page element! Terrible news.

So luckily I had a window open with my blog that had the original list so I quickly cut and pasted the column into Word which (hooray!!) pasted the imbedded links as well.

It's going to take me hours to get the thing formatted again so I will not be doing that today. Blog links: Coming Soon.

That's Koko signing frown from this website.

Softies Central -- Go Vote!

Obviously, I'm not a finalist in the Let it Snow! Category but that bunny up there by my new friend over at Etsy is! Astulbee is going to be at the Bust Craftacular in Dec. with me.

Check out the finalists and do some voting over at the Softies Central blog.

Buy Handmade!

I took the Handmade Pledge this year and so should you! It doesn't mean that you have to buy ONLY handmade items but it means that you're making an effort. I'm about halfway finished with my holiday shopping and most of it has been off Etsy. I'm so glad these guys got together and organized this online event. It's really cool.

I'll be selling my stuff at two major shows in the upcoming weeks (Handmade Arcade and the Bust Craftacular, links to left). I always buy stuff at these types of events, even though I'm always rushing to see all the stuff from the other vendors. I love Etsy but it's really cool to meet the makers in person sometimes too.

Softies Central Holiday Softie Awards

I mustered up the courage to enter this year's Holiday Softie Awards sponsored by the amazing folks over at Softies Central. I've mentioned this blog before. They feature plush -- all day, almost everyday, on their blog.

I don't remember how I found out about them -- just clicking links, I think. Every year they have cool contest categories so I entered this bean into the Let It Snow category.

You can view all the entries in the flickr pool and more pics of my bean here. There's some really really really great stuff so I'm not expecting to win but it sure would be cool to get a mention, huh?

The front of the bean is the same amazingly soft faux fur that makes my yetis. The back is some super soft fleece that I picked up just for this. As always, he has a little Lemon Cadet label on the back. The rules for the category specify that the item had to be mostly white but you could use some color for accent. My favorite holiday colors are white and silver and metallic blue so when I saw the category, this is what came to mind. You know I gotta sport my Jewish heritage every now and then.

In a week, they will be announcing the top 5 in each category and I'll let you know when you can vote.

I'll post the winners as soon as I hear. And I'm sure you'll hear my shouts of joy if I'm one of them!

Wow!

Today I reached a huge milestone: 3,500 hits to the blog. Thanks so much for reading! What's really cool, is that the little number way down there on the left sidebar shows how many visits I've had. That means people are actually spending some time here.

I've had over 6,000 page views. Those are the quickies. I'd rather keep track of the real deal and 3,500 means a lot to me.

Above is a picture of the Dunleary Pier in Ireland. I went there on a visit to Dublin with a friend when I was a Freshman in college. I took a picture of this huge white rock on the side of the pier and said, "I'm going to tell everyone that this is the famous rock at Dunleary Pier." You know, 'cause once you're home, all your photos tend to look the same to the people you show them to and what harm would it really do.

When I was searching Google for an image of a milestone, I remembered that. Thanks to the people over at Reclaim the Sea for letting me use this awesome image that has absolutely nothing to do with my now over 3,500 page views nor does it depict that rock I once took a picture of. But I think that somehow it might give you some insight into where my designs come from...