Monday Moodboard

1. SuddenlyYou  2. Katlix  3. IoanaPhotography  4. P8Accessories

When the weather becomes warmer everyone loves to be outside :)

Have a great week everyone!
You can easily make your moodboard with the mosaic maker.
Please be sure that all featured shops are from the EuropeanStreetTeam.

Button wednesday...a day late

I know, I know, it is thursday, but this week somewhere we lost a day. I'm pretty sure that our week here had no tuesday, I don't know about yours.

Nevertheless we wanted to share some button prettiness with you. We are no button collectors, what is a good thing since it could easily lead to bankrupcy, but once in a while we just cannot resist, or I can't.

This cool, groovy pouch is a recent ebay score.

And these funny, handpainted wooden horse buttons I bought in a bric-a-brac shop in Amsterdam, some forty years ago. They were already vintage by then, only at that time they were simply called old :)
See more button facts at Kraplap.

Monday Moodboard

1. martket  2. Bartinki  3. missbabacilu  4. aplusdesignnn

A little dramatic touch for this week's moodboard, although I think every monday has its drama :)

Have a great week everyone!
You can easily make your moodboard with the mosaic maker.

Our Creative Space...

With the arrival of summer -yes, it is already upon us-, we feel the pull of the sea.

A new nautical themed bag is in the making, combining a vintage hand embroidered sea horse, blue and red vintage ticking and all kind of odds and ends found at the sea shore.

Some coral, old shell shapped buttons, remnants of a well used net and a tiny fishing float.

They are really a feast to make, these beach finding bags.

Will be finished and in our shop soon.

See more creative spaces at Our Creative Spaces.

Monday Moodboard

1. Joik  2. PamelaAngus  3. ILaBoom  4. baboucherouge

Circus is in town :)

Wishing you a fabulous week!
You can easily make your moodboard with the mosaic maker.

Happy Mother's day

Hope all mothers are spoiled today, Happy Mother's day to all the mums :)

Wild roses from the Sunday Bazaar.

Saturday Super Woman

Today, in our series of wonder women, the spot light is on Roxanne, owner of the vintage shop EarlyAttic.

We are in awe of all that Roxanne accomplishes. She lives in a small town in Illinois, where she and her husband own a horticulture business. Roxanne does all the office work for the business and helps in the field, yes sir, no problem.
Besides that, by shear power of will, she has got her husband through a very serious illness and takes care of her very old and ailing father.

Besides all that she sources the most tantalizing vintage stuff in estate sales, garage and barn sales and what not, which she lists in her Etsy shop at the crack of dawn.

In short, she is the kind of hard working, no nonsense woman, that makes the world a better place.

She alone is responsible for the obscene amount of antique lace, trims, buttons, fabric and such that we have. Her prices are too good to pass and  the stock is always fresh.
She is such a good friend that she buys for us stuff of those stone age sellers that refuse to ship abroad and consolidates the shipping for us. She makes us smile regularly with her very dry humor and self spot.

So, people, I am sharing with you today my very favorite adress for vintage notions, because I'm cool like that. Visit her shop and buy with abandon, she has the best stuff and the best customer service, only stay away from any flocked gingham when you see it, otherwise I will have to haunt you and we don't want that, do we?

Handmade Day

Today, more than four and a half thousand Etsy shops will close their doors for a day to protest against the deterioration of Etsy as a market place for handmade goods.

It has been called a strike, but of course, it isn't. A strike is done by employees to force the employer to hear their claims. Etsy is not our employer, but a provider of services. And this action is done as a sign to Etsy that we are desatisfied with the quality of their services. Stronger even, we feel that Etsy has failed to comply with the contract that has with us.

In our five years on Etsy, we have been disappointed in almost every contact we had with the Etsy administration. Responses to our complains were always erratic and seemed only aimed to be left in peace. Many jokes have been made on the forums and elsewhere about the Etsy admin being permanently engaged in the consuming of herbal tea and carrot cake, so we know better now than approach Admin with our concerns. Care for the community has given way for apathy in many members.

'Etsy works for me and I don't care about the rest' is a phrase that we have read in forums a lot lately. Well, Etsy has worked very well for us too, but we do care. There are lots of small indie artists out there who need a platform for their wares. They all deserve a chance to make a living out of their craft.

And those artists are going to be overlooked in the new huge Etsy who allows resellers, small factories and worst of all, importers.

But what really hurts, is the hypocrisy, the arbitrariness and favoritism.
We thought that we were associated in a community of indie sellers, but we are simply clients of a big company that poses as something else.

In the last couple of weeks, many shops have been closed as being resellers.That maybe true or not, but it is only to show that what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander after all. We are not equals in Etsy's eyes and this is hurtful.

We don't expect any improvement as a result of this day. We, personaly, see it as a kind of announcement to Etsy that we are ready to look elsewhere for a provider of services to indie sellers. Would our leaving hurt Etsy? Of course not, but a point shall come when Etsy will be a second Ebay and it will be obvious to sellers and buyers alike.

It is time to slowly (or not) wean ourselves off Etsy, I'm afraid.

Monday Moodboard

1. filofashion  2. ErikaPrice  3. clacontemporary  4. theYarnKitchen

Some color therapy to go through this Monday :)

Have a great week everyone!

Our Creative Space...

Today first the telefone line went and with it Internet, and than the electricity went and still no Internet, of course. We had withdrawal symptoms and went into the sewing room with a vengance.

Several new bags are in the making, for so far it can be done without power.

Pretty, isn't it?

Poor Estella is plodding along undeterred by her collar, what a trooper!

See more creative spaces at Our Creative Spaces.

Monday Moodboard

1. EvgeniyaMaslakova  2. anapina 3. Silvia66
4. mammamiaeme 5. ShebboDesign 6. zdrop
7. katinytis 8. andrea0503 9. skrynka

Our hands are clean but most often wounded.
We work with fire, needles and tools, but most importantly we work from the heart.
These pieces are all made by hand like many other pieces on Etsy, but unfortunatly slowly on, many resellers and mass producers are claiming our place.
When we are sad and broken hearted we can not create!

Protect Handmade, Protest with us on 10th of May, we will be silent and we won't use ugly words, we will be closing our shop for 24 hours, our words are not heard, so maybe our silence will be.

Join the thousands of shops here on Protesty, together we can make a difference!

Real Handmade

Most people on Etsy are by now aware of the huge blunder Etsy made with a Featured (re)seller on Etsy. Many people noticed that she had manicured hands although she was claiming to make furniture, if you are not aware yet why thousands of Etsy sellers are protesting you can find two good reports on Regretsy here and here.

So here we are after almost 5 years on Etsy working our bumms off, and me having a neck hernia on the age of 28 from endless hours spent at the workbench and the computer, and nowhere close to manicured hands while resellers are selling like crazy without getting their hands dirty, living in Malibu and making the big bucks on a so called handmade site :(

Monday Moodboard

1. SirliMosaic  2. JKphotography  3. SmArtAnna  4. yumusakseyler

Sunny days, blue sky and nature is waking up, the most wonderful season of the year!

Wishing you a wonderful monday!

Saturday Super Woman

This week's Super Woman is Elsa Mora, better known as Elsita. Originally from Cuba she moved to the USA in 2001 to be with the love of her life, her husband has a carreer in Hollywood so she also has a glamorous side in her life like attending the Oscar awards.

Everything she does is amazing, from original art to paper cutting, jewelry making, miniature books, ceramics, doll making, cloth making and I'm sure I missed or am not aware of many more hidden talents. She has the amazing amount of 5 blogs: Elsita, Miniature Artists Books, The Hidden Seed, Dolls Have Feelings too and All about Papercutting. You can drool over her blogs for a long time, be sure to hold your eyeballs in place :)

On her fashion blog, The hidden seed you can see her outfits, and often selfmade jewelry.

She is also the mother of two, and I think she hardly sleeps to keep up with her artistic mind :)

All her work has something from a fairytale, a magical world which I wish the world would be.

Daily life can also been seen but in the Elsita style, like this Rush Hour necklace, how fun this kind of rush hour would be!

This is just a tiny fraction of what she has made, you'll have to check her blogs and shop to get the entire picture of her talents.

All images are from Elsa Mora's blogs.

Stay tuned for more Super Women!

Our creative space...

We are always on the outlook for hand embroidered pieces to use for bags. I found six chinese beautifully embroidered pieces on Etsy, but the fabric is rag fine semitransparent silk.

I decided to applique them on felt with the help of a new needle punch attachment for the Bernina. For that you need wool roving in the same color as the felt.

Normal roving would do fine, but I found, again on Etsy, thin pencil roving and that makes things easier. First I go once all around the embroidery punching the roving on the felt and fabric.

Then I cut the silk close to the embroidery and go a second time with the roving and the needles.

It is a lot of work, but the result is an embroidery totally embedded in the felt and it looks great!

See more creative spaces at Our Creative Spaces.