BUYING LOCAL, GIVING HANDMADE

I love the holidays.  I love the gatherings with friends and family, full of overflowing tables and bars.  I love the traditions, consisting of Bing Crosby or Sufjan Stevens playing endlessly on our record player and getting inky at my annual holiday wrapping paper printing party. 

 Our annual Christmas "tree"

What I don't love, however, is the push for mass consumption.  As a maker, relying on a lot of sales during the holidays to keep myself and family afloat through slower months, this puts me in a great quandary.  While most of this purchasing is for gift-giving, which I love to do, it is still a mass about of money being exchanged throughout the world.  So how do you not feed into the over-consumption, supporting big business craze?  

I like to think the solution(s) can be simple.  Buy gifts within your local economy and support the businesses that you call neighbors.  Give something made by hands, preferably hands that you have seen and shook or better yet, your hands.  Donate gifts and money to people in need or folks across the globe that struggle endlessly through war, poverty, and illness.  

It requires us all to think about the power of money and who's hands we want to place it in.  It's the same ole song and dance that a lot of folks have been saying for some years now, but I thought that I would give an account of how purchases from my shop help me personally.

Here's just a sample of what purchases from my shop allow me to do:
- Pay rent, so that I can support my husband through the long road of med school.
- Take my dog to the vet, so that when that little jerk eats another piece of corn cob, he can be well taken care of.
- Yoga classes at my local studio, Amrita Yoga & Wellness, so that I can de-stress and stay healthy.
-  Buy more art supplies, so that I can continue making things with my hands.
- Gather starters and seeds from Greensgrow Farms, so that I can have a full and prosperous garden each year.
- Occasionally eat, drink, + shop at my favorite local spots, such as Modo Mio, Pizza Brain, and Art Star, so that I can continue to feed money into my local Philadelphia economy.

With all this said, over the next couple of weeks, I plan to highlight my favorite local makers + businesses - ones that would make fabulous gifts for friends and family.  I encourage us all (cause heaven knows I need the reminder too) to think about where each dollar goes as we stock up on gifts.  And to those friends, family members, and strangers that have already made it clear to me this holiday season who they choose to support, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 A sampling of goods that I design, print, & sew by hand.

Available here.  Enjoy 30% entire orders until midnight est 12/1 with the code: HOLIDAY30

 

our anniversary

Each year on this date, I am reminded of commitment.  I don't remember details of the day, and I can barely recall half the names of people in our wedding photos.  We were so young, but so in love.  Ready to get hitched and begin our lives together in New York City.

What has followed, year after year, after that morning wedding in Athens, GA, has been a mixture of growth, struggle, laughter, pain, dinner parties, bicycles, moves, chores, tattoos, travel, and gardening.  Some days the love comes easy; some days you just have to believe that it's there somewhere.

I am so proud of our commitment to each other.  It has not been easy.  But we make one hell of a team.

Image by Eric Richards, 2004
 
~ Bonnie

weekending // adventures in . . . CELEBRATING!

This weekend, it was time to throw on a party dress and do some celebrating.  As of Friday, my husband completed his first year of med school, and since we knew this would be "the last summer of his life," it was time to party with our nearest & dearest Philly friends.  We even had some Brooklyn friends travel down for the celebration.

Here's how the celebrating played out . . .

1/  I love DIY party garland, and this is some of my favorite to make.  I simply used a 2" hole punch and went to town on some thick double-sided colored cardstock.  Then, I ran them through the sewing machine.  In about 15 minutes, I had several long strands of colorful garland to use for decorating.
2/  Our kitchen chalkboard is one of the first things guests see when they walk up the stairs into our apartment, so I wanted to take advantage of such easy visibility to set the mood.  I had fun quickly doing this before guests arrived, but if I had any early arrivers, it would have been a cool task for one of them. 
3/  This has got to be one of my favorite photos from the evening, snapped by my dear friend Nicole.  I always forget to have someone take a photo of me & Ben during parties, and this one is so candid and sweet.   
4/  You can't have a cocktail party without cocktail stirrers.  Well, ok, maybe you can, but I wasn't going to, so I made these DIY stirrers thanks to a great recent post on A Beautiful Mess.
5/  It was a fabulous evening if I can say so myself, and it was the perfect way to ring in summer with friends and to celebrate my husband's first year down.

~ Bonnie

last minute handmade cards for mothers

I meant to sit down much earlier in the week to create Mother's Day cards, but a handmade treat is better late (hopefully not!) than never.  Having recently discovered the true magic and wonder of art masking fluid, I was delighted to sit down for a minute to design some cards.

If you have never used masking fluid, it is basically paintable rubber.  Once dry, you can paint over it - as I did with some inexpensive watercolors - and once your painting is fully dry, you rub off the masking fluid using your finger or an eraser, leaving behind the design that you "masked."  What a lovely invention!  And it helped to produce some pretty Mother's Day cards if I can say so myself.

A few helpful tips:

~ Don't use your favorite brush!  While you should clean your brush immediately afterwards with soap and water, I have never gotten my brush to clean up to its original state.  So be prepared for a little brush damage.

~ Be sure to let both the masking fluid and the top coat painting fully dry before moving to the following step.

~ Test out your specific paper before doing a big project.  Masking fluid doesn't work as well on soft papers.

Overall, it's a fun and easy technique and if you are a little last minute like me.  I highly recommend giving it a go.

my mother, 11 years later

While chatting with my mom yesterday on the phone, I was reminded that exactly 11 years ago, my mother had surgery to remove her cancer.  That's right, she's been in remission for 11 whole years.  That's over a decade of additional time with my mother that I onced feared I wouldn't have.  I was in college at the time, studying for exams at the hospital, and feeling intense love for the woman I knew best.  Both then and now, I know, I am truly a lucky daughter.

So while we celebrate Mother's Day next Sunday, and rightfully so, let's also celebrate our mothers every day.  They are rock stars.

Image via Rifle Paper Co.

lessons from my grandfather

It's been a rough past week.  The unexpected passing of my grandfather last Friday morning left me in a panic to fly down south, to his hometown in Alabama, to be with family and spread my arms around my speechless mother.  Within 24 hrs, I was in the Nashville airport, meeting up with family that would drive me the rest of the way.

All the traveling, from Philadelphia to Florence, AL, gave me time to reflect on all the lessons that my 91-year-old grandfather, my Papaw, had given me.  They are life lessons in the truest sense.  Lessons that are honorable.  And lessons that extend beyond myself into the lives of others.

I believe, they are worthy of sharing.

Important lessons from my grandfather . . .

1.  DAILY EXERCISE IS ESSENTIAL. ~ Every morning my grandfather would go for a walk, a serious walk of at least 2 miles at daybreak.  I remember occasionally going with him on some of these walks, and although he was 60 years my senior, I could barely keep up.  Health was key to him.  He also knew that the more he walked, the more he could eat at suppertime.

2.  MARRIAGE VOWS ARE TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. ~ In 1943, my grandfather wed my grandmother.  That's right, seventy years ago this year.  They were a team.  A force to not be reckoned with.  And although my grandmother is currently stricken with severe dementia, my grandfather doted on her until his last day.

3.  WHATEVER YOU DO, DO IT WITH PASSION. ~ For my grandfather, his faith was the conviction of all his passion.   He believed in something, and he poured his heart into it. 

4.  LIFE IS FOR SERVING OTHERS. ~ Before both my grandparents' health declined, they put themselves in the service of others.  They were constantly cooking meals and delivering them to those in need.  This extended well beyond the notion of "southern hospitality."  This was loving on other people that needed love.   

I aim to take these lessons with me, always.  Thank you, Papaw.