I hope all of you have had wonderful holidays! It's been a busy, busy time. But also awesome! Lots of great holiday craft shows where I was either a vendor or a holiday shopper (or both), festive parties (including one where I won for Ugliest Holiday Sweater!), and general holiday fun-ness.
The cats tore all of the ornaments off of the bottom of our Christmas tree, and undid a fair amount of carefully-crafted gift-wrapping. I went with a black/white theme for the gift-wrapping this year, and was happy with the end result.
I did a lot of craft-show shopping, finding some unique gifts for family, like a hand-crafted wooden pen from Turned Wood (Gary Kaplan) for my dad, who collects pens, via the
Old South Church Christmas Craft Fair, and the most extraordinary (and expensive!) gold blown-glass earrings from
Melissa Schmidt via
CraftBoston Holiday. I must say, the earrings were so pretty, I had a hard time giving them away! I definitely shopped small/local this year, purchasing a bunch of gifts from Etsy sellers as well, like these
sparrow earrings for my sister from
ThisIlk on Etsy and this hysterical Ipad case for my other sister from
ReAuthored on Etsy. My sister has some sticky-fingered co-workers, so this incognito Ipad case is just the thing for her! And I'd coveted a few of
An Li Liu's items for years and finally got the chance to get a couple of her t-shirts, one for my bro with an awesome fox on it, and one that became a gift from me to me. Haha. Merry Christmas to me!
In addition to making/shipping December orders, I'm working on getting new items up on Etsy, and new photos of some of our existing pieces. I made a bunch of new pieces over the holidays; some new styles of terrarium necklaces and others, but haven't gotten around to listing them online yet, so that's something to look forward to! I'm hoping to do a Valentine's Day craft show or two, but I've gotta build up that inventory first! Amidst the Hieropice madness during the holidays, I had a lot going on in my personal life, including finding out I was a bone marrow match for an infant with leukemia. She's unfortunately not well enough to receive a transplant right now, but fingers crossed that she gets there! It's so bizarre, a family-member was awaiting a transplant as well, and was notified they'd found a match at the exact same time! The transplant's been post-poned unfortunately, due to the condition of the donor, but I'm hopeful another donor will come along! I had a bit of minor surgery myself, but I'm on the mend, and still working hard for my fantastic customers. Here's to an amazing upcoming year!
Cheers!
Dara
I was newly single last Valentine's Day, and decided to have a few drinks with some other single friends rather than hang out at home. Perhaps we'd even meet some other single folks out and about on V-Day. At our first destination, we were met with hanging paper hearts and couples draped over eachother, and we didn't last long. Same deal at the next locale, at which point, we gave up. A rather disappointing Valentine's Day all in all. But I think we were missing the point to begin with. V-Day could be a day to celebrate all of the loving relationships in your life, and honor your true friends, devoted parents or children who've made you proud, brothers or sisters who offer you support when you need it, and of course the furry pals who are always happy to see you (or indifferent, if they're cats). Gift some baked goods, send a card, make a gesture of appreciation for all the folks that mean something to you. This year, I plan to do Valentine's Day right! And, I've started by making an ode to Valentine's Day, in treasury list form. All red; crimson, scarlet, cherry, and wine as-interpreted by Etsy sellers.
I hope all of you have had wonderful holidays! It's been a busy, busy time. But also awesome! Lots of great holiday craft shows where I was either a vendor or a holiday shopper (or both), festive parties (including one where I won for Ugliest Holiday Sweater!), and general holiday fun-ness.