Fabulous Fashion: Handmade

Click on each image to see the shop of each designer:

SWAPTASTIC HOLIDAY

I made it a goal to swap as many gifts as I could this year because there's just no need to be broke the whole month because you overdid it on the gift giving. I asked my friends to go easy on the gifts as well.

So I started by asking Etsy sellers who had items that my familyand friends would like if they would be up for a swap. AMAZINGLY, three different sellers I've never talked with before said YES!

One was James Steeno who runs jsteeno on Etsy. I saw the listing for the cards below and asked him if I could get an 8 x 10 of just the cardinal, my sister's favorite bird. He said sure and after checking out my shop selected my bike cards as a trade.

James is an illustrator and watercolor painter in Milwaukee, WI and in addition to the bird paintings, I really like his Milwaukee Skyline painting. He was super nice and matted the cardinal print and got it in the mail with plenty of time for the holidays!

Another seller, Brenda Gartman with the shop Bgartman is a Handmade Philly member with me and when I asked her about her dichronic glass necklaces and swapping, she said she has a certain family member who is into biking who might like one of my bicycle prints. When I shared the site with my mom, she of couse picked out the most expensive necklace

I also found this cute necklace for my sister who really loves owls:

Brenda was great about the swap and selected two other pieces from my ceramics shop to trade, a balloon pot and one of my new succulent planters. Today I'm headed off to Media, PA to meet her and swap the gifts (a huge help sinde ceramics can be expensive to ship!)

Finally, Tara of Sewtara, agreed to swap for this awesome coffee cuff:

She made it fun by saying she wanted a surprise! "Something cool in Philadelphia" so I looked through my print drawer and picked out one I thought wasn't too obvious but was awesome.

Her coffee cuffs are hysterical, like this Hello My Name is...

I'm still waiting on this one, but Tara's in Toronto, which is not too far away, but mail from Canada to the US seems to take forever!

Moving! (Not Far)

Yay sunlight!

Etsy For My Fantasy Home

Someday when I own a home I can decorate it anyway I like and if I had a limitless amount of money or alot of time to build it myself, it might look somethig like this:

UCAL SALE FINAL WEEK

Watch the Slide Show of the Opening Night here.



Some of my cards and matted art have sold, and one woman found her sister's house among the photos, so she's ordering a custom print as a gift for the holidays.

Stop by any day this week 3 - 9pm or Saturday or Sunday, 12-6pm, I'll be adding new work to the sale items.

My Lovley Clusters Cluster!

Recent Etsy Favorites

20% off all items in both stores

This Weekend Only!

http://www.allisonostertag.etsy.com/

http://www.allisonspaintings.etsy.com/

Edible Schoolyard and Shopping Local

I just ordered Edible Schoolyard by Alice Waters from the Penn Book Center (not the bookstore, but the Indie bookstore on 34th and Sansom). I'm getting really excited about building a garden at West Philly High School this summer, so I am buying books on all the ways to prepare every vegetable under the sun and I figured I would buy Alice Water's book since she was the first person who got me thinking about gardens as food sources and community builders at public schools.

Thinking about buying locally, (not from the Penn Bookstore which is owned by Barnes & Noble), Sansom Street between 34th and 36th streets is a great local shopping enclave that is dissapearing as we speak. The Saturn Club will close its cafe in about a week and focus on Salon space. Bucks County Coffee closed its doors on this block about a year ago (and the other stores were bought by Saxby's), The Black Cat gift shop is closing its doors and has been selling off all their stock since Christmas and the White Dog Cafe has been bought out by the folks who run Moshulu.

On the upside, AVRIL 50 is still going strong after 25 years and has every magazine you love but is hard to find at the big box stores or CVSes (Bust, Ready Made, European magazines, every subject you can think of) and espresso drinks, teas and gourmet import chocolates. It really is a place you need to see to believe. Decorated with covers of Interview magazines from the early 90's, he also carries notecards, International newspapers, wrapping paper, black and white postcards, calenders and planners. Located at 3406 Sansom Street.

Paper N Stitch Shop is Up and Running!

I really love this shop and I'm happy to be a part of it. The sellers have really nice looking stuff. Check out the shop and tell me what you think!

http://www.papernstitch.com/shop/allisons-paintings

Heart my shop if you like it. There is a prize for the shop with the most hearts!

New Etsy Shop Today

I was selected to be in a treasury of trains and I found this shop in the same treasury:

LocalWisdomCards from Stowe, Vermont

They have over 100 cards like this with a wide variety of quotes.
The collages are beautiful and very thoughtful and well crafted.