I love the opportunity my Etsy shop has given me to benefit my community – via financial donations, in-kind donations, volunteer opportunities and networking. I’ve met some incredible people and organizations through the charitable endeavors of my shop and I want to share some other businesses who give back! When you buy their awesome stuff, you’re not just supporting an independent business owner, you’re supporting a good cause as well!
Jewelry By Design – Philip Voetsch is the owner of Jewelry By Design and is also the designer of this gorgeous Blackberries cluster pendant. I know of this store in Kansas City through my friend Carrie who works there and has her own jewelry shop, Zarily, at Etsy. You can shop in the store or you can shop online, but whichever way you do it, purchasing something from the Blackberries collection means a donation will be made to Harvesters, the Kansas City area food bank! Jewelry By Design has a really active Facebook page where you can see customer testimonials. Jewelry By Design designs, creates and sells their jewelry and they can help you re-create old jewelry that you don’t wear any longer. If you’re looking for unique, high-quality jewelry, this is the place I would go!
Holly Knitlightly – Holly is a Twitter pal of mine, and dude – check out the awesome knitted stuff in her shop! She’s got a collection of cowls right now in a variety of colors and what I love is that she styles them on her models in a offbeat way. I would have just thought to hang that sucker around my neck! For EVERY ITEM sold in Holly’s shop, she donates a knitted square to the charity Knit-A-Square, which puts them together to make blankets for orphaned children in South Africa. Go Holly!!
Jac and Elsie – I got to know Jaclyn when we worked together on a blog post for the Handmade With Purpose blog earlier this year. Jaclyn’s shop offers a great variety of items because she works with new, repurposed and vintage jewelry and accessories! Certain sales in Jaclyn’s shop go toward Autism and Cancer charities, like this customizable necklace that will benefit Autism Speaks, which is the United States’ largest organization dedicated to the research, treatment and cure of Autism. Love to see handmade artists who give back via their shops!!
Sweatshop of Love – I’ve written about taking a knitting lesson from Allyson before. I just love her. She’s so funny and unique and is a knitting FIEND. She is what I point people to when I say, “Knitting isn’t just for Grandmas!” Well – Allyson has been working on a project for a friend who is establishing an organization called WORK+SHELTER that will help women who live in the slums of New Delhi, earn money to improve their lives. Allyson created 4 of the CUTEST patterns, which have been donated to her friend’s organization. The women in New Delhi will use those patterns to create knitted beautimousness that can be sold. Additionally, when you purchase one of Allyson’s WORK+SHELTER patterns (so you can knit them up yourself), 50% will be donated to the WORK+SHELTER organization! Thanks Allyson!!
Now, if all that shopping has worked up a hunger . . . and if you’re in the Memphis area, stop by Mama Mia’s Pizzaria and grab a slice! Ok, maybe they don’t sell by the slice – I mean, it IS Memphis . . . but you can get a whole pizza! Because you’re really hungry! From all that shopping! And supporting communities! Word on the street is that Mama Mia’s donates to local sports teams as well as the Special Olympics – I’m telling you, when I know a local business supports their community, I get loyal, FAST. So take note, all the rest of you pizzarias – give back to your community!
Check out the Handmade With Purpose blog. It hasn’t been active for a few months (it’s activity was concentrated in spring 2011) but there are still links in the sidebar to all kinds of shops that donate to their communities in some way. Plus, in the blog posts you’ll see specific items for sale in shops that give back. Get to clicking and see if anything catches your eye!
What businesses do you low that support their communities?
For today’s gift guide, I’m going to introduce you to some of the truly cool shops I’ve come across in the last year. Remember to include handmade items in your holiday shopping!
Mano y Metal is a shop in my Etsy team, the Chicago Style Crafters. Desiree has a variety of metal goodies, from stamped accessories like the bracelet above (which reads, “It has to get ugly before it turns beautiful – you know, like most newborns”) as well as other metal jewelry. One thing I love so much about this shop is the creativity of her photography.
Do Bats Eat Cats – another shop from my Etsy team. Darlene’s shop is mostly goth-inspired jewelry, which is not my personal style, but I love that it’s unique and serves a niche customer. She also has some pieces like the HOT bracelet above, which can work with almost any design aesthetic.
Blue Order – I got acquainted with Scott from Blue Order around a year ago, I think, after I selected one of his items for a Joy Division-themed treasury. I love the music and technology themes of his work as well as the way he makes art into items for practical use. I basically want to fill my house with all of his stuff, forever and ever, amen.
Spoonier – Spoonier is another shop from my Etsy team, run by Josh and Mike. They turn vintage spoons into rings and you can watch this cool video to see how. How freaking cool is this Washington D.C. ring? I’ll answer that: REALLY FREAKING COOL.
Cicada Grove – Cicada Grove is a shop in Iowa City run by my friends Alicia and Tony. They have a collection of prints that show up on tees, cards, posters, postcards. They have the best dang anthropomorphized State of Iowa I’ve ever seen! **Cicada Grove is launching a new shop in the next week so the Big Cartel shop I featured isn't open at the moment, but they are excited to email you when their new shop opens so you can check out the new digs! You can email them at cicadagrove@gmail.com and you won't be placed on a mailing list, no worries!**
Ododo Originals – I recently “met” shop owner Arimah on Twitter via a mutual friend, just a day or two later I am certain that I saw someone on my train wearing one of her gorgeous beaded hair clips! Definitely check this shop out!!
Remember when you’re shopping online this weekend, use these search terms in Etsy: Black Friday Etsy, Free Shipping Etsy, Cyber Monday Etsy – to find all the best deals offered! And don’t forget to shop at Big Cartel, too – they have sales just like the other sites!
So last week I was all EIGHT BLOG POSTS A DAY and this week . . .
*crickets*
Sorry, y’all! How about a general update?
Well, last week was my big birthday blowout, aka The 2nd Annual Sara and Ashley Joint Birthday Extravaganza! It deserves it’s own post, and that will happen, but I’m waiting on some photos from other people. I was too busy having the time of my life to take many. Expect a lot of foolishness.
We are, for the most part, settled into the new house. There are still some things that need a “home” and I still need to put away most of ok, ALL of my clothes. I’m living out of bags right now. I will scrub and paint and hammer and tear down and sanitize and dig and all that but PLEASE don’t make me put things away. I don’t know why I hate it, I just do.
I’m trying to get myself into the Etsy shop groove because we have now entered my busiest time of the year. I think I’m going to have to push a little harder because normally I’d have some sales already and so far, nothing. Eh. I love it but man, I am wiped out, you know? I know I’ll regret it come January, if I sit back and do nothing. Life is so hard.
This is a cup cozy I’ll be putting in the shop soon. I have a few colors – this green, a mottled brown, purple, a mottled cream. Each will have a different set of fabric covered buttons.
What else? Home is good, work is good. Vincent and I are going to begin working out to Bob Harper’s workout video. You know Bob Harper, right? The trainer from The Biggest Loser? This thing looks like a monster, I’m telling you. We watched it the other night (while sitting on the couch – I’ve also watched Jillian’s workout while knitting) and even the people he had doing the exercises with him couldn’t hang! They were dying and giving up. Vincent got 21 minutes into the hour-long cardio workout and quit. I’m excited for it to kick my butt.
I haven’t given up on Couch to 5K but I’m gonna shelve it until the warmer weather returns.
What are you up to these days?
I’m angry about Penn State and boys being raped and molested. I know you are, too.
I’m angry at the man who did it, and the men who knew about it and didn’t make it stop.
I think that anger is completely justified. I also think that it’s easy for us to say what we would have done, if we’d been in those circumstances. Now, hear me out – I’m not about to excuse anyone’s actions. No way. But I do understand the pressure to keep quiet about something bad, in order to protect others. I also understand that when faced with a trauma, people make mistakes. They make small mistake and they make huge mistakes. People make decisions and get embroiled in things that they wish they could get out of. That they regret and feel indescribable guilt over for the rest of their lives. And they can’t take it back. They’d give their lives to take it back, but they can’t.
Making mistakes when lives are on the line is something many people do. It is a normal thing. It is a human thing. Being scared shitless when faced with a huge, life-changing decision, and being frozen, that is also a normal, human thing.
Because of this, I can understand what all went down with Penn State and it’s horror show.
The thing is, all that is still not good enough. “I was terrified and I had enormous pressure on me to not bring scandal to the lives of many” is JUST NOT ENOUGH when we’re talking about lives, about children, about rape.
I suppose what I want to say is – you and I, the ones who are outraged and sickened and who have sobbed over what has happened to those children – we are human and capable of making those same huge mistakes as the Penn State guys did. Yes, we are. You may want to think you’re not capable of it, but we are all human and we all have the capability of FUBAR – fucking up beyond all repair.
Stuff typically tends to go FUBAR in the heat of the moment. You take that grad assistant coach and sit him down in a comfortable chair and read him a story about a kid getting raped. You tell him “What would you do if you walked in on it?” Bet you anything he says he’d walk right over and stop that shit. He’d rescue that child. Then he’d take the kid to the hospital or the police station or at the very least home to his parents. But he would stop it from going any further.
In the moment, that is not what happened, is it? And we say, “How could anyone, especially a 28 year old person in grad school, just walk away from that child?” I don’t know how he did it. I don’t think I could, but you know what? It didn’t happen to me.
NOW is the time we have to say to ourselves – NOW, when we are in our comfortable chairs and we’re reading the story in front of us - "When the traumatic thing happens in front of my eyes, I will not back away from it. When I come upon a situation where someone is being harmed, I will step in and do something. When I’m faced with telling the truth and possibly bringing a big mess down on my head for being honest . . . possibly destroying careers, organizations, reputations – I will do the right thing. I will do the very, very hard thing. I will do the courageous thing." We have to say this to ourselves now so that it won't be so hard to do, then.
I would like to think I am a better person than the Penn State people who turned the other way when they knew children were being raped. I would like to think that incredible success and wealth and pressure would not keep me from doing something so horrible. But I am human. I am capable of being just as evil as the next guy, if I let myself be. I don’t want to be that way. I’m guessing you don’t want to either. So today, we have to tell ourselves that when it’s in our face, we will do something about it. We have to build resolve, NOW. Because when the situation IS in our face and we have to make the right decision, our fear can ruin everything.
