Pucketty

travels

An especially warm weekend made for a wonderful mini-getaway in Charleston & Sullivan's Island. We enjoyed great eats at Freshberry and Cafe Metto and window-shopping on King Street. A great way for NIS & I to celebrate three years of being "us."

Favorite Craft Vendors

Creating fun crafts requires finding lots of good supplies.

I love thrift stores - so they are one of my primary methods of finding good shoes for projects and vintage elements like earrings (clip-ons are perfect for adding to shoes).

My favorites near my house are:

Goodwill on 355 (they often have really nice shoes)

Value Village in College Park (huge selection, tons and tons of stuff which is different every day)

And of course, the best online thrift store ever - eBay (where I go to get something specific)

I also really like finding yard sales or rummage sales (the Methodist church on campus has one twice a year that I've gotten some really great stuff at, like a box of vintage ribbon for $0.50!).

So far as general crafts go, there are a few good places to get new supplies:

Michaels

JoAnn Fabrics (great for general sewing supplies)

I also have used a couple of shop on Etsy to buy supplies - I like supporting my fellow shop owners and I've found some very specific and fun things I can use:

ChristopherPines (vintage millinery goods like ribbons, leaves and velvet flowers)

MaryNotMartha (more millinery, especially really lovely flowers)

GD Supplies (feathers and supplies for hair creations)

Beads N Bits (she hand-makes the most amazing velvet flowers)

Merelle (a huge selection of vintage jewelry at inexpensive prices)

Part of the fun for me is researching how to make a pair of really pretty shoes for someone. I love scouting around and picking up different things to create a specific look. I'm off now to keep working on getting supplies for 5 custom orders!

books! books! books!

photo credit: brewbooks via Flickr

ABE Books is one of my favorite places to find used, rare, out-of-print books that I really, really need. Like Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons. Or the wonderful Seamus Heaney.

One of the things that sets ABE apart from other websites like Alibris or Barnes&Noble is that rare book professionals use it as a way to keep tabs on current market prices. This means that the used books are well described and (fairly) well cataloged with their condition clearly presented and, if you're willing to pay, you can find unique items...like a signed copy of a childhood favorite for someone special, perhaps? (A first edition of CS Lewis' Wardrobe just sold for over $8,000).

They also offer guides to collecting books, so you won't get tricked and all of their books come from independent booksellers, so you get the satisfaction of supporting them as well...all of this clearly makes ABE the site for sensible readers of used books.

If I had some extra money right now, I'd snatch up Volume 1 of O.B. Miller's My Bookhouse.

A Poem

So I didn't know this when I set up my shop, but there is a poem that contains the line "Oxford is Heaven" and I like it a lot, so here it is:

But, in a word to say how I like thee, 
For place, for grace, and for sweet company, 
Oxford is Heaven, if heaven on earth there be. 
John Davies (1565-1618)

Exciting Times for Oxford is Heaven!

So a few days ago one of my pairs of shoes was featured on the front page of Etsy!

This was pretty exciting for me and something I've been hoping for while would happen. Etsy has been an amazing way of selling fun crafty items and I really like using it.

Here again is my shop (with tons of new stuff!):
http://www.etsy.com/shop/OxfordHeaven

Also, a lot of nice people have blogged about my shop! Here is a selection:
Molly & Mary - a fellow estyian and blogger who talks about "books, artworks, women, and places that inspire me."
Try Handmade - a group of bloggers that encourage people to get away from big stores and shop little!
Wuthering Iris - a blogger who hearts all my favorite stores.

I've also added myself to Project Wedding. My plan is to try to market my shoes as the perfect custom wedding idea for either the bride or the whole wedding party. It gives the bride the chance to have the a pair of shoes that go perfect for her dress and the bridesmaids to have matching shoes, but slightly different if they want.

In fact, if there are any readers from my home church, I'd love to do shoes for your wedding at a discounted rate to get the word out locally! Just contact me for more info.

quiet, but busy

Both RKP and I are busy right now, getting through final papers, presentations and exams. Not much time for crafting (even stress-crafting), but I am trying to stay on top of my holiday shopping.

Here are a few suggestions:
Burt's Bees! organic! local! (well, at least for me)...their products are lovely and work great.

This penguin filled with delicious Grade A maple syrup comes from Williams Sonoma and would make a sweet little hostess gift.

Or how about some scattering snow from Anthropologie? You know, for those holiday displays in the window...or, if you live in the South like me, beneath the palmetto trees in your backyard?

Or, if students you know feel tired of writing papers, how about a multiple-choice journal? Like the SAT but with none of the anxiety.

Or maybe luggage tags from J.Crew for the friend who needs to get rid of the nasty ribbon they put on the suitcase about 10 years ago? Or a subscription to American Scholar? Or letterpress bicycle notecards from Etsy seller larkpress?