Etsy Seller: Appetite

My Friday morning was pleasantly greeted with a package on the doorstep. For a brief moment I had forgotten what I had purchased. Ah yes, my Etsy order from Appetite!

I am so impressed with the quality of my items as well as the delicate detailing of the prints. The super-well-made pillow features a gorgeous fern design which is printed on both sides, in a two-tone green color. The wonderfully sturdy dishtowels have a beautiful yellow mertlemarx design. I just adore them!

Appetite is run by Portland, OR based artist, Erin Albin, who specializes in hand printed textiles and accessories. She has a lovely Etsy shop filled with all kinds of handmade goodies. And check out her flickr site with photos of her very cool studio and products. And if you are in Portland, you can also visit her at the Portland Saturday Market.

Have a great weekend!

Places I've Been: Iceland '99 & '00

Mav at port2port (wonderful blog!) mentioned Iceland in a recent post and thus inspired me to reflect upon my own travels to the fascinating country. I then decided that I would dig up my old travel photos and scan them in and share.

So, my first "Places I've Been" posting is Iceland. My husband and I along with some friends took our first trip in February of 1999. At the time, we were living in Washington, DC and could get a screaming deal out of BWI airport. Back then, Iceland was kind of an "exotic" place to go.

The landscape was like nothing I'd ever seen, you almost felt like you were on the moon with it's rocky topography. The people were very friendly and Reykjavik was very cosmopolitan. And of course we ate some interesting food...one item on the menu was puffin!

I will be posting more of my photos on my flickr site.

photo 1: View of Reykjavik.

photo 2: Parliament Square in Reykjavik, the Capital of Iceland.

photo 3: Somewhere out on the road outside of Reykjavik.

photo 4: Gulfoss, ("Golden Falls") on the Hvítá river in southern Iceland. The river is fueled by Glacial runoff

Etc.

New "hot pepper" gift tags, available here. I think they'd be cool on a food gift basket especially a Mexican themed one. There are five in a set for 3 bucks.

What else? Oh yes, I am doing Handmade Arcade again this year. I am really excited. It's Pittsburgh's indie craft show and was a total blast last year. Despite the horrid weather, throngs of people turned out and sales weren't bad. This year it is a two-day show...oh my aching feet! Luckily my sister will be here to help.

Tag, I am it.

Fun. I was recently "tagged" by Tara of Project Felt. I am now going to divulge 7 random facts about myself. Hmm...here goes...

1. I am DEATHLY afraid of snakes. No, I mean really afraid. Once I had a panic attack while hiking up through Fairy Falls in Oregon because I saw some little green garder snake. It's really quite ridiculous.

2. I own 7 parakeets and 1 very loud love bird named Inez.

3. I am a huge football fan and even have a fantasy team. (Go USC Trojans and Pittsburgh Steelers!!)

4. I am completely self-taught. I went to business school, not art school. To be honest, I did do one quarter at art school well after I had graduated from college.

5. I have driven across the country 3 times. One of the times was right after 9/11. We were supposed to fly out that day. We were in Pittsburgh and at the time lived in Portland, Oregon. We drove home. It was a very interesting experience, as we met many people along the way who were doing the same thing. I believe we made it back in 5 days.

6. I have been to 47 states. I only have N. Dakota, S. Carolina and Louisiana left on the list.

7. I love wine! Give me a full-bodied, oaky chardonnay and you've made a friend:)

OK, so there you have it. Now I am supposed to tag 7 peeps. Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about you: some random, some weird...all devastatingly interesting.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names, linking to them.
4. Let them know they've been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

I'm tagging:

Young and With It
Moontea Artwork
Tori Higa
Operation Papercut
Sugarloop
Lala Dex Press
Daisycakes Soap

Gift Tag O'rama!

This is what one can accomplish when one watches an embarrassing amount of football on a Sunday...

360 pieces of ribbon were cut and attached then packaged in 72 cello sleeves and labeled.

Nothing like being a productive couch potato!

Etsy Seller: Tori Higa Stationery

Part of owning a business is conducting marketing research, right? So, when I came across Tori Higa's amazing cards, I had to buy some...to see what the competition is doing, of course. (I have a whole, wonderful drawer full of research!)

Well, really I had to have them because they are truly creative and unique. Tori is a Southern California stationery designer who incorporates vintage fabric into her card designs. I love the elegant simplicity of her line drawings with the added punch of color from the fabric.

I can't help but notice that so many card lines look alike. With her distinctive style, Tori's cards are a breath of fresh air!

You can read more about her line here: Tori Higa Stationery and peruse her Etsy shop.

Where did August go?

Whoa, I guess I missed the whole month of August! Summer has just flown by, but I am happy to usher in Autumn. It's been a hot one here in Pittsburgh. And, I admit, I look forward to football season!

So, I've been quite busy lately with custom orders. It's funny, my Etsy shop has been pretty quiet, but I've had so many custom requests. A couple of cool orders are seen here.

The Hundred Grasses cards were for a Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture business. The lemon cards are pretty self-explanatory:) I love how they turned out.