There used to be nothing I loved more than settling into my craft space with a freezy mug of coke (or a hot tea, whichever was appropriate) and working until my neck hurt. For the past three months this preference has been overrun by the desire to do nothing other than stare at / cuddle / play with my daughter (and a combined five weeks of Hazel’s November & December 2008 Tour visiting family and friends in the states). After three months this is still all I want to do, but, perhaps becuse of the deep-freeze weather and layers upon layers of snow and ice on the ground, I am feeling like I need to do something other than fixate upon my child 24 hours a day or I will go mad even though I love it. So I’m happily returning to the Etsy world, knowing that if we get our wish and move home to West Virginia at the end of this year, we will most likely be incredibly poor, and having a smoothly-oiled Etsy shop once again will be a welcome little income. We’ll do anything to keep Hazel out of daycare for the time being, even if it means poverty and rice & beans. Being poor in West Virginia goes much further than being poor in the middle of Toronto, and either way we are very very Rich.

With our impending little one on the way last fall, we outsourced a lot of our Christmas gift making and found some great things on Etsy. Of course I couldn’t share then because they were secrets, so now I will show off things from some awesome sellers. Our brothers were the recipients of the bulk of our Etsy purchases, which I was happy about because it’s often hard to find handmade “guy things”.

Recycled beer bottle soap dishes by BigSky.

…and beer soap to go with them by Anderson Soap Company.

They also each got a custom record clock by my friend Steph at Toronto Originals, who does awesome work.

My sisters-in-law and my mom all got great necklaces that they love:

My nephew was born two days before Hazel, so my SIL got an “L” to match my “H” – both by Webby Sue.

Home Studio is one of my favorite sellers to deal with, and my other SIL got one of their great necklaces.

And finally, this glass gem by Images Under Glass for my master gardener mama.

We also found some fun little things for stockings from Barrel of Monkeys, Berndt Offerings, and Secret Lovers. Everyone was so wonderful to deal with, especially at such a busy time of year.

I hope to dive into some big projects soon, including things for Hazel and my shop. In the meantime, I’m going to try very hard to keep this going and continue to move everything gradually from stickinthemud to Tea & Laundry, which sadly grew a bit neglected shortly after it’s grand opening… but for what a good cause!

Listening: The Morgantown Rounders
Reading: The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
Working on: getting everything back in order!