Below The Belt

I'm a huuuuuge fan of etsy. I can spend hours scouring jewelry, ceramics, bags and art looking for new independent designers for the shop. I've purchased unique goods ranging from bags from Australia to salt and pepper shakers from my own backyard in Brooklyn.  But, admittedly, the site can be a bit daunting. There are so many vendors, so many things to distract you for hours. where you end up feeling like you wandered out of a labyrinth of trees without a thing to show for it. How to sort through it? I find the etsy blog to be super helpful and interesting; often taking me in a direction that I never thought of like wandering down a trail without GPS and happening upon a field of flowers, well, not in the Wizard of Oz kind of way, but you get the drift!  Here's a great little bit today about, you guessed it, items below the belt....well actually including belts! There are belts and buckles and  skirts and shoes....  From one blog to another, I dig it.

 

(1)flight path (2) ContriveToCharm (3) 1950s Shoes

Deer Valentine

If you, like many can't stomach the sickly sweet, outdated Hallmark card options for Valentine's Day, have a look over on Etsy. There are hundreds of beautiful and unique cards to choose from.  But then there's always the old school box of 20 in case you can't decide on just one valentine...

(1), Tandem (2) Deerest (3) Smoking (4) Like You (5) Lola 

And if you're in the neighborhood we have a few choice cards over here at POP too! 

Lunch Date

I live around the corner from my shop. I have two microwaves and two small refrigerators at the shop. I have no excuse; And yet I eat out nearly every day.  Maybe if I had a super cool lunchbox to sport I might be more inclined to bring my lunch.  I owned my last lunchbox in nursery school (we used to go home for lunch in elementary school because it was right around the corner, so the boxes got stored away and likely sold at a yard sale along with my Mad magazines many years ago....). As I remember it, the lunchbox had Mork and Mindy on it. Loved it.  Maybe it's a wave of nostalgia, maybe it's the fact that it's 2010 (really? really?!) Well, I wouldn't go as far as collecting the boxes  in shelves in my kitchen or swinging it as I skipped down the street. Maybe just slip in into my my messenger bag.  I am beyond positive that reviving the memory of drinking from a Holly Hobbie thermos is something that will make me smile. Most lunch boxes on Ebay and Etsy are $9.99 or less and a little worse or the wear. But just think how many memories they hold. Not to mention PB&Js. 

Hedgie the Hedgehog

While a hedgehog wouldn't be my first choice of pet (or third or fourth), especially since I came dangerously close to sitting on a friend's hedgehog that unbeknownst to me, liked to curl up in the couch cushions. That was years ago, but thoughts of pulling quills from my pants still haunt me! That said, that cute little face, the protected sweet little underbelly, they're adorable as decoration. No, I don't mean taxidermy! We just got in these too cute for words hedgehog planters, cactus sold separately, but a great touch! Some other examples for sale at etsy....

TheLightGarden

Kooklacreations

Jmulcahy

BeeLoveLee

Berkley

Little Pink Plum

Lucky Bee Press

CraveJewelryDesign

High Art, low prices

Christian Chaise

What to do when when you've long since moved beyond concert posters and collages of your friends and magazine clippings but still lack the cash (or desire) to become a collector of "art."  No worries. There are so many options for great looking walls that will still leave you with money in your wallet. Affordable Prints! Not the Urban Outifitters/Ikea prints that are by the thousands, were talking limited additions you don't have to see in your friends living room or on every design site (yes wer're talking to you "Stay Calm And Carry On.")  While originals are often investments, you can still get great looking prints that don't have to double as your 401k.  The obvious number one resource is Etsy but there are also tons and tons of amazing sites/artists on the web (links below prints).  I just discovered this fantastic site, 20x200.  The site, an extension of Jen Bekman's Lower Eastside Gallery, sells many beautiful/unique prints by emerging artists, for only $20.  Here are a few of my favs today from around the web...

Jaimers

Diana Sudyka

Lisa Congdon--Available when we launch later this week!

Jennifer Sanchez

Gingerlovesart

365 Days and Counting

Papersparrow

I can't remember the last watch I owned; definitely some time after the Swatch (the ones that had scented wrist straps. Remember those? Anyone?!).... Anyway, the cell phone made my watch obsolete.  Not so for the calendar.  Yes, my iphone shows the date. My computer screen has the old-school desk calendar prominently displayed. But paper calendars? Their just too pretty, too precious, too specially tactile for me to forgo. I usually get a pretty desktop one,  a large wall calendar, and sometimes, one for my cork board. (I'm not counting the "Grandma Moses" calendar my dad just bought me. Really, Dad?!)  Here are a few beauties I just found on etsy.

Cabin