Izile's Oddities

Valentine Specials

2012-01-27T13:36:00.007-05:00

So, it's been kind of groggy and I made some special goodies for Valentine's day for Izile's Oddities. In my last post, I talked about the new Magic Vial pendants I had made around various interpretations of the love theme. But after that, I made a new From Faerie offering as well. I have a single full sized 16 oz glass milk jar, and a single dose sample size (in a cute little red chiffon baggie with red ribbon): Leanan Sidhe bath fizzies!

I had talked before on this blog, though so far back I don't quite remember, about the bad rap the Leanan Sidhe get in modern interpretations, as just another form of succubus or vampire; but that's not really accurate, I feel. The Leanan Sidhe do feed on the life and love of their chosen partner, but in exchange for miraculous inspiration and divine insight. Not only that, but the Leanan Sidhe can also be made the submissive partner, if a man is strong enough to resist her charms, she will be beholden to him, much like selkies once a man captures their pelt. So, to emphasize the softer, more romantic side of the Leanan Sidhe, I made a series of heart shaped bath fizzies. Just

pop 2-3 speckled pink hearts into your bath water, and watch them fizz away with rose oil and rose petals! I even topped it off with a bright pink ribbon, over the usual From Faerie labeling.

And on the other side, you can see the sample size dose, for those who have to watch their pocket books just a wee bit more carefully.

Like most "From Faerie" editions, these are rather one of a kind creations. If response is good, I will find a way to make more.

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As I've mentioned before, not a lot comes up on etsy when you search for "leanan sidhe" or "sidhe" at all, (or even "unseelie" in the past). What does get a fair number of hits though, that's somewhat related is "rose fairy." Now that gives me something to look through!

And out of the blue pops Fizzy Claret! The floral fairy houses are some of the cutest, most eye-catching, original and fun pieces I've seen pop up on my etsy list in a while! They are each handmade out of polymer clay and finished in acrylic paint, and almost all seem to be less than 2" tall! They are excellently executed and so crisply done! It was very hard to pick a favorite to display, so I went with a themed set. ADORABLE!!

Long Time Coming

2012-01-21T11:33:00.003-05:00

Yay! I updated my etsy shop last night. Know it's been long delayed. And, with lots of Magic Vials themed around love charms, just in time for the next holiday!

I currently have both a soft pink Magic Vial - Love and Light which with rhodochrosite and rose quartz is based more on the idea of self love, healing and comfort for $12; as well as the more traditional Magic Vial - Love Charm (left), with rubies and rainbow moonstone for love, romance, and passion for $20; for the creatives, Magic Vial - Artist's Heart, with garnet and opal for creativity, passion, communication and friendship for $16; and lastly, another Magic Vial - Lil Love, with rubies and freshwater pearls in my smallest vial for all the best qualities of passion and purity in a tiny package for $12.00

Also, now is the time if you want any custom love charms made for your significant other to send me a note!

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I admit, my own V'day is not going to be very traditional. But I am lucky! My boss is letting me off two hours earlier so I can go to a Bourbon and Bacon tasting in Manhattan with my sister! Mmmm, Bourbon and Bacon!! Who needs flowers and candy?

So, this year, searching etsy, I decided what to see was out there for "Anti Valentines," because it can be a bugger of a holiday for a lot of people. (Another small self plug - charms like the "Love and Light" can be given to oneself, or could be given to a friend or family member who's been having a rough time of it. OK, last plug for me.)

Witch City Wicks grabbed my attention right off the bat with her Anti-Valentine's Day "Tainted Love" Candle. I love the skull and crossbones label against the pink candle. Not only that, but the scent sounds great! From the description: "will mend your broken heart with an incredible mixture of orange & grapefruit, cherry blossom, hydrangea, apple and peach." Yum! But, if you like the sound of the scent, but aren't so big on pink, or skulls, the exact same candle is made in a lavender color with a different label, sans skull. And, did I mention all her candles are all natural soy wax? Bonus!

Of course, her shop is full of lots of other scents of candles as well, if you're not in the "tainted love" kind of mood. Chocolate Wine might be a good scent to try for those more into the modern interpretation of a fertility festival. (Hey, there you go, anti-V-day people! How about we do like Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab does every year and bring back Lupercalia?)

SOPA/PIPA

2012-01-19T00:04:00.000-05:00

It's now the 19th, (at least where I am) so here we go.

I normally avoid all political discussion whatsoever; but since the broad and imprecise language of these proposals leave room to effect websites such as Etsy and Deviantart, I will make the tiniest of notes. I support all those sites (like Etsy) who oppose these propositions. Instead of getting on any kind of soap box, or anything of that nature, I will simply say to go read the bill yourself. Educate yourselves. Forewarned is forearmed.

All bills are up in entirety for public reading at OpenCongress.org . You can read SOPA HERE.

And that's all I'll say.

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For my plug today, to show how much I support Etsy, not just as the hosting sight for Izile's Oddities and a thousand other wonderful online stories run by independent artists, I thought I'd plug an etsy article directly.

Etsy's Blog: How-Tuesday: Micro Planters

This is an adorable edition. I absolutely want to do this! Though, I think I'll try making my own pots out of super sculpy to save money. It's January, a long time before I can even start to think about planting indoor seeds for my garden. We haven't even had our snows yet, and I've had dreams of what to plant this year. This may be the best way to scratch that itch indoors. I especially would like to see about how I might get a little miniature/dwarf thyme for a tiny pot. The stuff looks ridiculously minuscule when ever you see it, I think it might work perfectly! But first, I've got to play with sculpy to make little pots.

(side: I admit, I'm also tempted to look for old beat up doll furniture to make a tiny little stacked tables plant stand like they talked about HERE in a ReadyMade article - since I was never able to find the full sized table to make a bookshelf like that in my room)

Year of the Water Dragon

2012-01-12T15:57:00.004-05:00

I haven't had a chance yet to do my yearly research on what the year of the Water Dragon is supposed to bring us, but I hope it's good! The year of the Metal Rabbit had a lot of promise, but it got off to a very rough start. In some ways, it has stayed rough all year round.

At least I just came back from my local P.O. to find they had resolved one of my shipping issues. So, my Unseelie and Stardust bath salts have now been correctly marked as shipping for $6.00, instead of $8.00 with the understanding that I would refund the difference once the package was shipped. (I never liked that, but I got bit a few times with a P.O. that didn't seem to want to offer parcel post under any circumstances).

I know I'm terribly behind on making new Magic Vial pendants, but it just seems I'm having to juggle a lot of extra hats to keep financially afloat at the moment. I am very thankful to my friends, though, who are throwing me these little jobs and bones here and there.

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But enough of that! The year of the Water Dragon is coming!

There's only about 12 pages of items that come up when you search "water dragon," and a friend of mine who actually owns a pet water dragon lizard would be disappointed to know not many of those entries would have anything to do with her scaly baby.

I think my favorite is this fantasy print from Fantasy Paintings by Allen Song. The sweet look on the lady's face as she gently pets the baby dragon. They way he's painted the light and the slightly muted but still rich color pallet. It's a beautiful piece! We can only hope that the year before us will be as peaceful and serene as the setting in this painting.

The rest of Mr. Song's shop is a small collection of very affordable prints (Baby Dragon is $5.00), and even some large scale original paintings, priced accordingly. His acrylic work (the originals) does have a very different feel from the Illustrator digital art he creates for his prints (as seen here). A small but interesting collection, and worth a peek for sure!

First Post of the New Year!

2012-01-06T11:59:00.004-05:00

*whew* I've been gone just about a month this time! Sorry about that. It's been quite a hectic holiday season, and my trip home to see family was entirely too brief. And I'm slowly trying to get everything for this year back into gear. I did upload at least one of my new items for Izile's Oddities on etsy lastnight. Finally took a picture and uploaded the From Faerie: Stardust bath salts to the lists (seen here at right). It's very similar to my Seelie blend, but incorporates Starwort flowers for love and patience, which helps add to the hints of purple (along with the lavender buds) amongst the Himalayan pink salt base.

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I have also found another etsy shop - just last night while updating - that has really caught my attention.

Nix Creations has some of the loveliest polymer clay and wire wrapping pendants I've seen in quite a bit. I also like how the polymer clay can be used as a scent carrier. (I had noticed this when making my polymer clay lollipop hair sticks, you could rub fragrance oil into the lollipop head to make it smell like candy. It doesn't last forever, but it would last for a few days.) They tiny details on the flowers and the intricate way of wrapping the sterling silver combined are just gorgeous! It's hard for me to pick a favorite, and I think my favorite examples are actually on his DeviantArt gallery. They are all "custom made to order" so you can pick and choose flower style, color and such; but this is my favorite example currently displayed on his etsy (seen left).

He does carry other kinds of jewelry, including fused glass, and glass eyes - though I admit, I have never understood the appeal of glass eyes, or why there was a trend there for a while when taxidermy glass eyes were considered steampunk - makes no sense to me. But he has lots of them, if that's more your style.

He also has tutorials, which is generally a good thing, but I will admit I do have one criticism here. He has a $19.99 tutorial on how to "fracture marbles" and then make the interchangeable wire wrapping for them. My only thing here is . . . fried marbles are not a new and original concept, nor are they particularly difficult to create - we're talking going back to my grandma's days here - and there's nothing about it that's particularly secret. You can google "fried marbles" and get countless dozens of free how to's, including step by step youtube videos. Charging money for information so old that not only should it be free, but is free most places, is a little off for me. But that's 1 item out of PAGES of items, and hell, those flower necklaces make up for it. Now that's a tutorial fit to sell! How to make those tiny, immaculate, polymer clay flowers!

Dekalb Market

2011-12-08T11:28:00.002-05:00

OK, I've got a bit of a sinus infection, so I'm shutting down Izile's Oddities on etsy a day early to have more time to prep for the Dekalb Market in Brooklyn this Saturday (Dec 10th!) I will be there as a guest, sharing space with Dark Side Customs! If you live in the NYC area, come check out the Dekalb Market and come say hi to me and my buddy, Bobby! Had to come home early from work yesterday, and had an extremely rough and broken night of sleep. If I can get myself feeling just a bit better, since it is sunny out (though, damn, still 40's all day), I'll try and get to the Post Office to mail things that have already been purchased. I started popping zicam at the first sniffle, and have been diligent with it, the hot tea w/honey, and lots of comfort food. I'm already feeling much better this morning than I did yesterday - but I'm still a giant mucus-head with what feels like a brick inside my ear. Thanks for understanding, and please be patient.

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Now the question is what kind of etsy shop to you plug after that? I wonder if there's any home remedy sellers on etsy. . .

Well, I did find over 200 entries under "sinus relief" go look at that! Of course, the issue with these things is by the time they're shipped to you, you're better - so better to buy ahead, especially if you always get a sinus infections (I get at least one a year, damn chronic sinusitis). Because, right now, I would love to have something that would open me up. Last night I tried rubbing a bit of LUSH's Wiccy bar under my nose - not a thing, could not smell at all.

I think I'd be a fan of the bath teas, personally. My experience with oils is that they just don't work for very long. I even looked up some stuff on homeopathic "raindrop" treatments that said to put pure peppermint oil on your tongue then rub it into the roof of your mouth. It worked for like 10 seconds, and made me drool more than any adult should.

Clean JellyBean looks like my pick today. I know they don't look like much - but they're tea bags, it's what's inside that matters. You get 2 4oz bath for $5.00 that contain Eucalyptus, Peppermint, Elder Flowers, Willow Bark, Juniper and Fennel to help you breathe again!

Other than the tea baths, she does have some very pretty bar soaps -which I normally don't review because I can't really use bar soaps due to skin sensitivity issues - but she has a lot of variety and they are very pretty!

New Street Team!

2011-11-28T12:52:00.003-05:00

So, I just joined a new Street Team recently, to go along with the NewNew for etsy sellers in NYC and Fantasy Artists of Etsy. I recently found there is a small street team for people who are all fans of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab called simply TeamBPAL. So, as a huge fan of "the Lab," I joined!

I admit, I'm not the most participatory member of any of these, by far, but it's also a great way to find new artisans that you might have missed otherwise.

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So, today my featured etsy shop was found by searching, "TeamBPAL" to see what the other members had going.

And I found an amazing artisan and etsy seller under the shop of Sihaya Designs. She makes some of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry I've seen on etsy in the largely under $100 price point range in a while! My favorites, though, are her fairy wing pieces, and the pictured here at left piece of fancy purple labradorite. I love unusual colorations in gemstones, and this is a gorgeous specimen! I also like how the wire wrapping is elegant, but simple, to really let the gem make it's own statement without too much distraction. She only has a couple of pieces currently available in this style or gemstone and wire wrapping; but I would definitely say they are her star pieces out of her 8 pages of stock.

However, if you need something more under the $50 price point (as I know a lot of us do) her fairy wing jewelry pieces are fun, colorful, original and very playful! And they range from $36-$42. (Not to mention her current holiday sale for free Shipping & Handling on any purchase over $35!) Pictured here at right is one of my favorite examples. They are charming little pieces with touches of iridescence in the translucent filament that makes up the majority of these wings. She also has earrings available in this design concept.

And if neither of these are quite your style, there's 8 more pages of various types including Victorian inspired cameos and more basic earring designs starting at $15.00. Definitely worth the time to take a browse!

Holidays

2011-11-23T15:57:00.002-05:00

So the holidays are here and across the country you can hear wallets weeping. I just found Plaid Friday today and fully support the idea of voting for economic change with your holiday purchases.

The idea of voting with your shopping dollars is simple: every time you spend a dollar you are telling the company you gave that money to, "I support what you're doing. Keep doing it!" If you take a moment to think about where your dollars go, what companies you're voting for, as it were, you might not like the way it feels.

Especially with the help of the internet today, there's no reason why you have to do your holiday shopping at massive chain stores that only feed the corporate monster. We have etsy and craft markets and independent artisans and even small businesses all over the country. And when you give them your money, you're not only telling them, "I support what you're doing. Keep doing it!" You're sending a message to the big companies' bottom lines, saying just the opposite. And the more people vote with their money, the more of an effect it will have.

And I want to support this. I've already planned to do the bulk of my holiday shopping at craft fairs, with local artisans, and through sites like etsy where my money will go directly to the craftsman. (There will also be lots of homemade gifting)

But how to get Izile's Oddities as a participant. I will (hopefully) be vending at at least one local market during December (more details once confirmations are in), but I also want to do something on line.

I haven't exactly decided yet what the sale will be, BOGO half off, buy 2 get 1 free, free mini gift with purchase. . . I dunno what would work best at this point.

I do think I'm going to reopen Izile's Oddities to the barter system, however. If you see something in Izile's Oddities that you would like to get someone as a gift, but are a little strapped on cash (as aren't we all!) and you can barter something that I need/want to give someone as a gift, then we can trade!

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So, speaking of plaid, let's see what pops up when you enter that into etsy's search engine.

I can't even elucidate why, particularly, but The Swan Art just compels me. Brightly graphic prints with clean lines and clever silhouettes, that somehow come across as homey and even a bit autumnal. Maybe I'm just projecting my feelings onto my favorite pieces, but there's something comforting about the plaid printed deer head . . .

I will also note that there are other deer head poses, lots of color options, including plain color blocking with no pattern; and there are also prints of silhouettes of chairs and a few different styles of chandeliers. All very interesting!

Cocktails, Anyone?

2011-11-18T16:04:00.003-05:00

We're just going to skip over what my week's been like and skip to the plug!

Today's search them was how people interpret classic cocktails into non-comestible crafts.

And I'm skimming over things like "cocktail rings" and "cocktail dresses." I'm thinking more like margarita bath salts (but not those specifically, 'cause I sometimes make those for in person sale only (the weight of a full 750ml Patron bottle full of dead sea salts and lime is very prohibitive to shipping and handling).

The first thing I came across made me laugh. I hadn't really thought I'd type in "cocktail" and hit quirky greeting cards, but Frantic Meerkat just spoke to my snark-side too loudly to be denied. And yes, they do tie into drinking! It's hard to pick only one to feature, but since the theme is cocktails and drinking, I thought I'd stick with the first one I read that made me laugh (though, "Let's get drunk and eat waffles" came close second!)

Another Week

2011-11-10T16:58:00.002-05:00

and things are slowly getting back into a familiar rhythm.

I really don't have much to say, but I want to try and get back to updating my blog on a regular basis, even if I do nothing more than just plug various other etsy shops.

So, that's what I'm doing tonight.

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Today, I thought I'd plug a fellow FAE (Fantasy Artists of Etsy) member. Remember, whenever you want to get a touch of fantasy in your etsy browsing, search, "faeteam."

And Red Robin Masks just stole my attention almost immediately with the most unique looking pair of goggles I have ever seen - and I go to Steampunk stuff sometimes!

These goggles are hand sculpted with resin, glass, metal and feathers; definitely a one of a kind piece! Also, as it states on the front of her shop - where she sells other amazing OOAK hand sculpted resin masks, "Have an old pair of prescription lenses? I can turn them into steampunk goggles! Just drop me a line either through the Contact link to the left."

Well, excuse me readers, but I have some myopic steampunk friends who need to hear about this ASAP!

FLASH SALE!

2011-11-02T22:04:00.003-04:00

Suddenly and without warning! I want to seriously craft like mad this weekend. I've scraped up enough cash (thanks to an extra laborious cater-waiter gig - not normally my area of work - ) to order all new bottles, wire and supplies.. . SO, to make room (in my mind more than anywhere else) I'm JUST RIGHT NOW, marking things down like crazy mad in my etsy store to try and make it more empty. Out with the old so I can make tons of new! The prices are already marked down, so you don't have to do anything different. Just click THIS ETSY LINK and grab what little is left! Sale will not last long (as it's just a whim that just hit me).

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Latherati Soap Foundry - a friend of mine has a couple of her Dry Body Oil Sprays and let me try them. LOVE! Unfortunately, she's sold out of almost all of them at the moment, but restocking doesn't seem to take that long; apparently I'm not the only one who's been eyeing these. Besides the Dry Oil Sprays, the entire shop of bath and body goodies is founded on literature. (double love!) There are solid perfumes, roll on perfumes, soaps and lip glosses; but I can personally vouch that the dry oil sprays have a wonderful consistency, light feel that is quickly absorbed leaving skin soft and smooth without any oily residue and the scents are evocative and beguiling!

FAE Team Exhibit

2011-10-17T16:55:00.003-04:00

Month is getting crazier. I probably should have just put everything on hiatus for October the way it's run. Roommate has moved out, and my parents are coming to visit for the two weeks before the new roommate moves in. I've been working over 12+ hours a day (8-9 hours at jobs, then 4 or more once I get home) to get the old room redone so I can move in, and get my old room clean for the new girl to move in. Parents show up either tomorrow or Wednesday, and the room still isn't done yet. So. Tired. I do appreciate everyone who's been so patient with me. Just barely had any time to even eat and sleep, after all the work has been done, and I can't really do much of my etsy work while I'm at my day-job. Hopefully things will calm down once November gets here.

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In better news, the Fantasy Artists of Etsy have another exhibit! A spooky fall exhibit entitled, Midnight Dark and Dreary! Perfect timing guys and gals!

Click on the banner to go and see what the FAE folks of etsy are up to!

Renaissance Faires

2011-10-01T21:16:00.004-04:00

That's my excuse this week, though I admit it's not a very good one. It's just a hectic time right now, and I apologize. But I have been practicing to fight in a local ren-faire.

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So, onto the related plug! However, I couldn't find anything particularly "renaissance-y" that caught my eye and was in my normal price caps. However, I had suddenly remembered and was telling a story on how I got to see the "Glory of Baroque Dresden" exhibit in Jackson, MS back in 2004, and saw some of the bizarre trophies of Castle Moritzburg. I liked how all the deer heads at the exhibit were carved out of wood, and the voice on the audio tour explained that some of the red deer antlers bizarre because of a belief that deer with weird or deformed antlers were somehow touched by God, and thus extra special hunting trophies. I've looked everywhere for photos, but can't find what I saw at the exhibit (not unusual. Those foreign exhibits back in Jackson frequently got items that wouldn't even be on the tours if you went to the original

foreign location and took a tour there.)

However, it kind of sparked off my interest in not-quite-right taxidermy. Either completely fake (like plush-idermy, or felt-idermy) or like gaffs (real critter pieces used to make impossible animals).

Tonight on etsy I found Misfit Menagerie, which definitely falls into the first category. I think the pictured Ram is my favorite. It's cute, and still yet just a little wrong, but in all the right ways. The print with the picture of the more realistic ram on the center of the forehead is a nice touch as well. She has other plushies, pillows and monsters, all with a very similar quirky feel that I find adorable. Definitely take the time to visit!

Sideshow Soap - Reviews!

2011-09-20T15:08:00.004-04:00

Sorry I haven’t kept this up to date better, but as of late, work and life have been beating me down relentlessly and leaving me very little time for the things I love. However, I come to you today with an extra-cool blog post: A company/product review! I went to the 2011 Maker Faire in NYC this past weekend, and fell in love with the most delightful etsy company. I spent time talking to the owner, and went home with a bag full of goodies to try. So, in this post, I’m actually able to put my personal stamp of approval behind everything I’m talking about, because I bought it, I own it, I use it, I LOVE IT!!

So I started opening the tester jars and snuffling away at the blends of scents that were refreshingly different, while Jessica was more than helpful to chat and explain and answer all my questions and sometimes overly-enthusiastic gushing. Also, to the left and right of her center stash, were laid out sidelines: Victory Garden, Werewolf, and what I would assume was just Autumnal.

The company is Sideshow Soap Company (For Clean Freaks), run by Jessica Morgan of New York City. So, wandering the giant spread of the Bust Craftacular at Maker Faire, her booth caught my eye because of the packaging. It’s all very stark black and white, but the nod to the Victorian stands out clean and crisp and drew me in. Once there, I could see the names: “Freakshow,” “Sword Swallower,” “Albino Alligator,” all with tiny vintage-styled illustrations on the labels and adorable descriptions printed right on the side of every container. This marketing was right up my ally!

The Victory Garden is a small collection of three scents that were so fresh and realistic as to be truly surprising. Bibb Lettuce, Green Pepper and Tomato & Vine are the three scents available in this side line, marked a little differently by the bramble inspired font on the label. She currently only sells these scents in solid bar soaps and whipped soaps.

The Werewolf line for Halloween takes on a much deeper, woodsier tone in Werewolf, Huntress, Gibbous Moon, Full Moon and Moonflower. Currently only bar soaps are available in her shop of this line; there were others at her table, so there might be more coming in that line, or she might have sold out – I know before the end of the day Saturday, when I was there, she was almost sold out of a couple of things, and still had all of Sunday to cover. I did get a bar of Werewolf, and while I can’t use bar soap, I gave it to my fella’ with instructions that he was to use it and report back to me in great detail.

From the main Sideshow Line, I picked up their “Sensational Scrub” in both Albino Alligator and Sword Swallower; and a lip balm in stick form.The “Autumnal” line (if it had another name, sorry, I forgot) was another short three scent line called Hearth, Cider Oak, and Pumpkin Seed. The Pumpkin Seed I know sold out because there was only one jar left by the time I found their table! These were available in whipped soap and small lotion pots. I got a small pot of Cider Oak lotion.

So now for product reviews:

I’m going to start with the lip balm because I think it’s a funny story. So, I picked out a lip balm I wanted to try: Dragon Lady (asian pear). But, I guess, in my giddiness, I grabbed the wrong tube, because when I went to dig it out later, it said “Carnival” and smelled decidedly of bubblegum. At first, I was really bummed, because I really don’t like bubblegum scents or flavors. But I tried it anyway. I love the feel of the lip balm so much, that even though I don’t like the scent, I can’t help but keep putting it on over and over again. So, while the lip balms aren’t up on her website yet, I am definitely stalking and waiting, because I want to get the right one, because if I can’t quit using the one I don’t like the smell of, I’m going to burn through the one that feels AND smells like I want. Will be perfect for the coming winter to avoid chapped cold lips!!

Next, the Werewolf Soap, as stated above, I cannot use bar soaps, so I passed this one off to the fella. He used it that night and called me to say that he really, thoroughly enjoyed showering with the soap. Said it foamed up quickly and smoothly, had lots of suds, smelled great, and rinsed clean and clear with no residue, either sticky or slick. The smell lingers slightly after the shower, but isn’t overpowering in any way, but when I met him hours later, there was still just a ghost of a scent lingering, if I got really close and snuffled for it. He was very enthusiastic about it; and to get a straight male enthusiastic about a bar of soap is quite an accomplishment!

I also had taken my new goodies into the shower almost as soon as I had gotten home and went with the Sword Swallower Sensational Scrub. I got out of the shower and raved to my sister that she HAD to try this stuff next time she was in the shower. I’m in love with their scrubs. It was a beautiful and exotic mix of ginger tea and coconut milk, it was smooth and silk and foamed just a bit into a light lather that I just kept wanting to rub in. Did NOT want to rinse off, it felt so good! And the tiny jojoba beads gave just enough scrub to brighten up the skin a bit. Cannot wait to use the Albino Alligator, as that’s her “southern belle scent” she said, and well, I am a Southern belle in NYC! She may have made me a convert off of shower gels. . .

And lastly, the Cider Oak lotion. I almost didn’t want to put any on after I got out of the shower, my skin already felt so soft and moisturized, but I wanted to try everything. It goes on smooth, (a little goes a long way with all of her products, it seems! These things are going to last, even if I use them all the time! Great!!) and it has a clean, not greasy, not heavy at all, but moisturizing light feel. Dries quickly, and the smell LASTS. I put more on this morning before I went to work and it’s 5 hours later and I can still sniff my arm whenever I need a bit of a mood pick-me-up for a little on-the-spot aromatherapy.

In short: Elf Need MORE! And highly suggests everyone go and visit her shop, read the descriptions and order it yourself! She even does sell sample sizes of the body scrub, which I cannot rave about enough. If you get anything, get a trial size of one of her Sensational Scrubs and try it yourself and see if you just won’t be hooked!

Birthday!

2011-09-03T15:03:00.004-04:00

Yup, the blog isn't being updated right now because I have taken the entire Labor Day weekend for my birthday!

Right now, I am baking a cake. I shall share a recipe with you, if nothing else. The Six Layer Toffee Torte. Mom used to make it for me some years, but she's over 1000 miles away, so I have to bake my own cake.

2 2/3 cups flour (I use White Lilly)
2 cups sugar
1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter (soft)
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (I find good quality Bourbon Vanilla to be the best)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 1/4 teaspoon instant coffee (I like espresso)
10 1.4 ounces Heath candy bars (or, if you can find them, two bags of the pre-broken Heath bits for baking. COULD NOT find them anywhere in NYC! In fact went to over half a dozen groceries and couldn't find Heath bars PERIOD!)
2 cups whipping cream
3 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour 3 8" cake pans. - I could not find 8 inch round cake pans for love nor money (what the hell is wrong with this city?) only 9 inch rounds. So mine is actually going to end up being a 4 layer toffee torte. Also, I like to line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper for extra guarantee that there will be no sticking.

2. Into large bowl, mix first 9 ingredients on low until just blended, scraping sides down with a rubber spatula.

3. Dissolve 2 teaspoons of instant coffee into one cup of boiling water. Add to bowl, up speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes.

4. Spoon batter evenly between pans. Bake 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean of the center of each cake. Cool cakes in pans on wire wracks for 10 minutes. Then invert onto wire wracks to cool completely.

5. Meanwhile, finely chop Heath bars (good to put them in the freezer for a bit first). In a cup, dissolve the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of instant coffee granules in 1 teaspoon of very hot water. Set aside and let cool.

6. With a serrated knife, cut each cake layer horizontally in half (so you now will have 6 layers (or 4 in my case).

7. With small bowl with beater on medium beat heavy cream, brown sugar and small amount of hot coffee (see #5) together until stiff peaks form.

8. Place one layer of cake on cake plate, evenly cover with about 1/2 cup of whipped cream. Reserve 2/3rds of the crushed Heath bars and set aside. use about 1/5th of the remaining Heath bars and sprinkle over the whipped cream.

9. Repeat layers until you end with a cake layer on top. Then cover the rest of the entire cake with whipped cream and press the remainder of the Heath bars all over the sides and tops until covered.

NOTE: as I'm baking 2 cakes in 9 inch rounds, I am finding that 30 minutes is not enough time in the oven, the centers are still very moist. Added another 10 minutes and will check back again. Best to follow the recipe as written when whenever possible, but living in a land with no Wal-Mart (and neither K-Mart nor Target seemed willing to help me out here with Heath bars or proper cake pans), I'm having to play a little fast and loose.

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Wow, there are over 1,500 hits for "toffee." I don't have time to sit there and look through them all, my cake will be dinging again soon.

Going by looks alone (because I obviously can't taste test or smell over the internet) I like th elooks of this Nantucket Artisan Toffee butter crunch dark by Small Town Girl. That stuff just looks amazing!! And you get 5 oz for $8.00! She has a lot of other sugar-works to look at. Mmm, making me hungry, time to go smash those candy bars and finish this cake!

Hurricane!

2011-08-29T19:00:00.005-04:00

So yes, the hurricane made it up to Brooklyn, it kinda died there, and we got away with almost no damage whatsoever, but I know others weren't quite so fortunate. My brother in Baltimore had 7 trees down on his property, one took out his deck and they're still without power, but all in all, that's not so bad either. I also had a friend who had a tree fall on his house in New Jersey, but he said no structural damage was done. A lot to be thankful for!

I had realized before the storm reached us that it was actually going to hit on Sunday, during the New Moon! How fortuitous a conjunction for a force of change and cleansing! So I decided to put out my non-lead crystal catching bowl and harvest water from the storm for this new From Faerie

item. From Faerie: Dark Storm Ritual Water. Water collected during the new moon, during the hurricane, and charged chunks of labradorite, one of the few gemstones that resonates so well with the storm elemental.

Obviously there is only a very finite amount of how many of these I can make, and once gone, they're gone. Hurricanes are very rare this far north, and the odds of another one coming up so high and hitting during the right moon phase just aren't likely!

Labradorite, the element of Storm, and the New Moon are all symbolically tied to deep cleansing as well as dramatic change and new beginnings.

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There's really not much on etsy under the "storm element" category, so instead, I just typed in "Storm" and sorted out to "Everything Else."

What I found was Savage Dryad Creations (great name!) and their Storm Call Incense. She also used the term "wildcrafting" which I've been seeing a lot lately but was not familiar with. When I looked it up on-line, it said it was the gathering of plant materials from their natural (wild) habitat for medicinal or herbal uses. I've been wildcrafting all this time and didn't know there was a name for it! Neat! I also like the fact she uses only 100% pure herbs, no fillers, oils or additives.

The shop has a very eclectic blend - which I like - of products ranging from a good variety of incenses, to jewelry, paintings, altered masks and even flutes! Definitely worth the browse!

Interim Ideas

2011-08-22T17:24:00.004-04:00

Wanted to give a little update and ask opinions. I am coming into a small stash of 15ml glass bottles, and been pondering what to do with it. I'm not entirely sure that this will fall under From Faerie, or if it will be more along the lines of my Magic Vial pendants. . . just not pendants.

The idea is to revisit one of my original concepts from years gone by and make magic oils for alter/candle anointing. They would be very similar to the formulas and intents in the Magic Vial pendants, but much larger and with enough oil to actually use. To start, I will keep it basic. One for each of the four elements, a lunar and a solar oil, and either a Fae oil or something along the lines of the more generically nature driven "Deep Forest" oil I had made all those years ago back in the Tennessee days. Of course, as always, custom orders will be available in case anyone wants to commission a bottle for a zodiac or a personal issue they'd like addressed (health, love, success, etc.) Also, to keep cost affordable, the percentage of gemstones used in the bigger bottles will be lower (it would take a LOT of gemstones to fill a 15ml bottle as full as my pendants look!) but since there is so much more room, I'll be able to really up the herb quotient.

Anyway, would love to hear thoughts, comments, suggestions, questions, about what any

potential customers might think about this.

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So, on a slightly related tangent, before all this I had found a new interesting shop called Wishing Thorn. They make some of the most beautiful old vintage style labeled bottles. This baneberry piece is a favorite of mine from their shop. And, I think it's a nice touch that she also sells these labels as stickers in a wide variety of styles and types, so if you have your own vintage style bottles that you'd like to decorate, you can do that bit yourself! You can also find, in a similar style, her own art prints, photography and book plates as well. Beautiful work!

FAE Exhibit

2011-08-15T16:02:00.004-04:00

New Exhibit from the Fantasy Artists of Etsy. This month the theme is "Sirens Song" for mermaids and other aquatic fantasies.

Finally!

2011-08-13T10:06:00.005-04:00

Well, there is an upside to being a little bipolar; when I have a manic upswing, things get done. It's far from all good (and thank God they're rare), but I've learned to channel at least a good bit of it. So, I've worked in my garden, have gotten a good start to a painting done, FINALLY made 5 new pieces for etsy, and did a lot of baking!

Mmmmm, made blueberry bagels and 2 blueberry pound cakes! The bagels end

ed up quite a bit bigger than I wanted; but this is only my second time ever making bagels, and I forgot how they swell during the boiling phase. The pound cakes, however, are beyond reproach! Mom gave me one of her big tips; says a lot of people skimp on the creaming of the butter and sugar together, and that since there's no chemical levening in pound cake you really have to whip the stuff for at least a good 5 minutes to get it super fluffy. And yeah, by the time I'd whipped the butter, and added the eggs (one by one), it was fluffy enough to almost overflow my Kitchenaid stand mixer! But gahh. . it's so moist and tender cake! *NOM*

And here's my new favorite piece for Izile's Oddities! I love the colors in this one! It's hard to get a really good red from natural rubies, but these turned out more red than just pink, like a lot of rubies turn once I've broken them down small enough to fit in the vial; and it's been paired here with deep orange fire opals. Beautiful colors and it just seemed to glow in the sunlight of the garden! (I hung it off one of my tomato plants, because it reminded me a bit of my cherry tomatoes.

There won't be any pictures of the painting until it's done and been given (it's a birthday present for a friend). Oh, I also got taken out yesterday to a martial supply shop and bought my very first training bo staff! I miss my swords, but it's hard to get them up to NYC, let alone move them around the city; but no one seems bothered by the staves, and it's something to help me from getting even worse rusty than I already am.

OH, and, (yes, chatty girl) I do have one small dose of a new mineral for those of you who sometimes ask about commission pieces. I have enough yellow sulfur crystals for about one pendant. They look a bit like this, and no, they don't smell.

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So, never had sulfur crystals before, so I'm curious what else pops up on etsy when you type in "sulfur." - Wow, and not much on point popped up. OK, well, I've been baking with blueberries, so let's try that instead. I know I'll get more than enough hits with "blueberry."

OK, maybe it's because I'm hungry (haven't eaten yet today), or maybe because searching "blueberry" is turning up some amazingly drool-worthy stuff. Some of it's not even food, just candles that look like food! But these, you could eat! Salt City Patisserie has some of the most beautifully shot blueberry lemon macarons! (Yes, macarons again) Her macarons are organic and come in a great variety of inventive flavors (like Neapolitan, strawberry, vanilla and chocolate, all in one!)

And if you're one of those people who hasn't gotten bitten by the macaron bug - yet - don't worry, she has other mouth-watering shots of other baked goods to tempt you!

Working Smarter, not Harder

2011-08-09T14:02:00.002-04:00

It's a goal at any rate. But see! I'm trying to blog more regularly again. I think the secret to cramming in everything is going to be in multi-tasking. (also, how much can I get done during my lunch hour and breaks at the day job?) I admit, out of all the balls I'm trying to keep in the air, my etsy shop is suffering the most this summer, and I kick myself almost daily about that, but still haven't had time to just sit down for a few straight hours and craft, and photograph and upload, etc.

My mint is finally starting to run (was able to put some orange mint in my homemade sweet tea last night) and the garden, though late, is looking good (except for the okra, didn't think okra would like Brooklyn). And I'm excited to make a piece with the pineapple mint which is bi-colored!

I also want to start curing some salts for more From Faerie products. I haven't been able to procure more Himalayan pink salts for a rate I can afford, but I do have plenty of Dead Sea Salts and Epsom Salts. And my homemade vanilla sugar is just about cured to the point where I could make more Green Woman Sugar Scrub; though I wasn't able to get chocolate mint for my garden, so this incarnation might either have straight spearmint or I might see how the orange or pineapple mint combines with it. I know pineapple isn't exactly a Celtic scent, but it does smell lovely and I bet it would blend well with the vanilla sugar! Yum!

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Think I know what to search on etsy for, then :-) "pineapple mint."

And the Frisky Bumblebee from Nashville, TN has a Pineapple Mojito line of products! Swank! They have olive oil based hand lotion, hand soap and even a soy candle in a bright blend of Pineapple, Mint and Cilantro! As an added bonus, there's free shipping in the continental U.S.!

If you fancy one of their other scents, you can find cleansers, scrubs, body sprays and even what they dub their "massage gloss" which can be applied straight to the skin, into the bath water, or right after a shower; and the sound of the lemongrass coconut milk sounds lovely (and also makes me want Thai food. mmmm. lunch time)

and with that digression, my lovelies, I leave you to browse this foodie-inspired bath, body and home shop and go to find my own lunch.

Strange Days

2011-08-03T14:42:00.002-04:00

August always brings strange days to my door. It's only a couple of days in and already things are getting odd - and for me, that's saying something!

Today, almost nothing has happened at all at work, except for a couple who came in from the building next door to complain that they couldn't sleep because our a/c unit was too loud.

I work in midtown Manhattan, by the way.

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But enough of all that. I recently met another New York etsy seller, and really dug their creations! So, here's my plug for today's blog as I give a shout out to Dark Side Customs!

As you might have guessed from the name, there is a Star Wars influence to some of their ideas, but don't expect to see anything overt, like tiny light sabers, or cuff links in the shape of Darth Vaders helmet in the shop! The general aesthetic is much more classical in the fantasy style with a good bit of Victorian and steampunk influences, particularly in some of his more recent pieces.

One of my personal favorites is the filigree ring with simulated opal. Though, if you want something a little more along the lines of cogs and gears, they've got you covered there, too! And with modest prices starting at just over $12.00, there's options that won't make your wallet shed a single tear!

Definitely worth the browsing, and we're looking to see lots more from them in the future!

How Goes It?

2011-07-28T13:37:00.003-04:00

I'm afraid I'm not being very good about keeping things updated this summer. The garden is coming back, but is still a work in progress. It's gotten completely cleaned up, and the ground's been reworked and the rain we've been getting has been great. However, unexpected expenses has made replanting a bit slow. I'm hoping that this week, as I had a little extra work the past couple of weeks, to be able to go buy herbs at the green market for the garden. I am STILL in great withdrawal over not having a bevy of fresh mints at my disposal.

But, there's progress, and the vegetables I planted well before the garden had its "problem" are rebounding well. Was able to feed myself last night completely from my garden. First time this year that's been possible and I was quite thrilled! The only thing that I think will not thrive is the okra, and I had kind of known that would be a gamble, trying to grow okra in Brooklyn.

I do finally have more 10.5 oz glass milk bottles for the From Faerie line, and another 5lbs of dead sea salts. So, once I have the herbal components, hopefully I can get that going again, too.

Sorry that I've been lax in my updates, here and on etsy (and even on Deviantart), but life just has a way of. . . well. .. being life.

Also, I've had a rash of people on DeviantArt contacting me about custom work, spending days discussing options with them, and then in the end, they back out of the commission. I think I'm going to start charging a $1.00 to be applied towards the final cost for all custom work, just so I'm not spending days working with people only for them to walk away with all the information and details and me end up with just a bunch of wasted time.

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So, I've been having massive issues with stress over the past few months for those who've been reading my sporadic updates. And all these little niggling minor irritations (like a bunch of people taking advantage of me as in the aforementioned DeviantArt issue) are not helping. DAMMIT PEOPLE! I'M BROKE! I do NOT have unlimited time and money to just give every single person on the internet FREE how-tos and information and step-by-step instructions or the people who just want me to give them things for free because, I dunno, they're just selfish and greedy I guess and don't care that every $10 MATTERS to me.

*huffs*

so yes, stressed.

So, what helps with stress? Bathes. Yes, yes, yes, but etsy is covered up with bath products. Hmm, how about, bathes and. . UNICORNS! A blast from my childhood, and. .

Wow, found Medusa's Apothecary (awesome name!) and Unicorn Horn Bath "Spell" ? An 8oz blend of Dead Sea Salt, Himalayan Pink Salt, Ultra Epsom Salt, Wet Salts and. . unicorn horn. I do like the packaging, gives it a real old feel!

I'm not entirely clear on what the scent is, this is the cut/paste from her description: "UNICORN HORN- The Side Show is about to begin, grab your Cotton Candy, Raspberry Snow Cone, Lemon Drop and other assorted treats." I would assume that would be the scent description.

The shop is fairly new, (1 sale) but has a few nice options of salts and lotions, all with very similar old world mythological styling - a plus in my book!

Good News!

2011-07-15T12:58:00.002-04:00

My garden is going to be back! Yesterday I came back from a trip to the beach to find my roommate and my landlord out in the garden area breaking down the construction waste that's been a problem since we moved in nearly 5 years ago. This had lead to several problems in the past few months that pretty much made my garden completely inaccessible. BUT, we pitched in and with 6 of us all working, got the yard cleaned up enough last night that today I've started cleaning out the beds. I'm taking a noon-time break at the moment, as it's just too hot out there. I've done almost all the weeding and have broken up the dirt on half the garden. I just need to finish a little weeding, break up the other half of dirt, and clean up. Either tomorrow, or soon at any rate, I'll mix in some top soil and good fertilizers into the neglected beds and replant. I miss my mint! Thinking of this time getting regular, some citrus mint variation, and if I find a good one, maybe pineapple mint, it as a really pretty variegated leaf that I think will look good in my vials, now that I'll be able to get back to them more regularly.

This also means that we can have summer cookouts again! Yeah! Finally, something is looking up

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So, my hands are a little rough and sore after working in my garden and getting most of the weeding done, so on that note I searched "Garden salve"

Herbolution got my attention with their name and their Gardener's Butter. All their products are 100% natural, 100% organic and eco-friendly. The Gardener's Butter is an extra rich blend of herbs, oils and butters with the added benefit of Chickweed for helping with itchy skin, insect bites, rashes and wounds, all things you can get on your hands from working in the yard too long without gloves. (I know, I know, I should, but I just can't use gloves, my hands are too small and I lose tactile sensation. So I'd rather get sore, slightly cut-up hands and just have a good salve than try and work in gloves. Besides, I LIKE getting my hands IN the earth itself.)

The rest of their shop is 8 pages of wonderful handmade, natural, organic joy. Facial cleansers, body polishes, lip balms, body butters, bath bombs, and just a whole lot more of options to browse through. Definitely worth the time. And oh lookie! SAMPLES!

Venting

2011-07-09T12:12:00.004-04:00

Summer isn't exactly going as I had hoped, sorry to say. I know my updates have been few and far between, and I've had to completely stall out on my From Faerie line after its blockbuster sell-out at my first street fair. Currently, I'm unsure if I'll even get to do a second street fair this summer.

Thing is, as I mentioned in the description of my new "Magic Vial - Summer" (pictured), my garden is a bit out for the summer. I won't go into the details of exactly what has happened, but I can't use my garden, I can't have people over in my garden, I can't cook out on my grill in my garden, I can't replant my garden, I can't even go outside and lay on the concrete in the sun in my garden. My landlord is 100% responsible for this, and was told a month ago of the issue and said she would take care of it, but as of yet has not fixed the issue and I'm getting mighty p-o-ed.

It's summer. I want my garden. I want to cook out. I want to play in plants and dig in dirt and have fresh herbs and veggies. I want to have people over to sit around my garden, grilling and drinking and playing games. I want to lay out on a quiet day in the shade in my garden and just enjoy it. And right now I can't do *ANY* of that.

Because, you know, I needed yet ANOTHER kick in the ass after the spring I had.

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I'm searching "mint" on etsy, because I have none; and I miss it. I tried to replant before I was aware of the "issue" but the "issue" keeps eating/destroying the mint every time I plant it. . . . so I have no mint. -_-

Wildroot must have plenty, however, to make these lovely sounding Hydrosols! Now, I wasn't exactly familiar with the term "Hydrosol" so I have quoted their definition straight from the pictured listing:

"WHAT ARE HYDROSOLS? Unlike water with essential oil added, hydrosols are made by distilling the whole plant and contain not only a small percentage of essential oils, but many of the water soluble components of the herbs, such as the natural alcohols, weak acids and tannins. They are more true to the essence of the plant and a more complete representation of it. They contain the same medicinal properties as the essential oils, but not as concentrated, so it can be used in more applications."

If mint or hydrosols either one doesn't sound like your person choice, there's plenty else at Wildroot Botanicals to browse through. A wide variety of not only other herbal hydrosols, but other products like straight essential oils, skin care, and even teas and chocolates.

Happy July 4th!

2011-07-03T10:00:00.003-04:00

OK, so I'm posting a day early, but I don't expect to have time to post a blog tomorrow. Didn't expect to have time to post a blog this weekend at all, but I woke up early and oddly refreshed after last night's party of waaaay too many beeritas (frozen limeade + tequila + lots of coronas).

So, while everyone else is asleep and ponder what my day will be (Aunt visiting, but huge thunderstorms all day today, mmmm), I blog!

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(and just so you know, there's no "beerita" results on etsy.) However, there are "Margarita" results!

And Batty's Bath has a homemade shower gel in Margarita! I'm not sure I've ever run across homemade shower gel on etsy before, but it makes me very happy! As someone who's dermatologist told her to stay away from bar soap over a decade ago, the thousands of interesting homemade soaps everywhere are always a little depressing. I don't think I could do a better job describing/paraphrasing Batty's own products, so I'll just quote from the listing:

"You'll love that Batty's Body Wash is made with hemp oil which contains natural vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and the benefits of Omega 3 and 6. It's also made with mild vegetable based cleansers, botanical extracts, and a high level of aloe (which can assist in alleviating irritation compared with low cost or commercial shower gels). You will notice soft, smooth feeling skin, plus a lighter conscience being that this is biodegradable and phosphate free."

I also totally love the cute labeling, and at $10 for an 8oz bottle, it's a pretty good rate, too! Also, her shop is 10 pages of amazing body products listed as "ecofriendly, cruelty free and all handmade" with solid shampoo, leave in conditioner, facial products, and yes, even bar soaps and a lot more options on top. Definitely worth the browsing!

A Post!

2011-06-26T20:45:00.004-04:00

I know I've been sorely neglecting this blog, and Izile's Oddities in general. Since the Festival of Ideas where I essentially sold out of everything, there's just been too much muck going on. I've fallen behind on bills and groceries and laundry and when you don't even have the time/energy to deal with those, well, etsy just has to take a backseat, I'm sorry to say.

But, today, I'm hoping to start doing better. (I just paid all my bills and am about to order groceries online, though laundry will have to wait for my next full day off.)

To those who reached out to me in email or mostly notes on DeviantArt, I appreciate it. Life has

been hard since April, and in all honesty, it's not going to be getting any less complicated or drama-rific on my side of the PC any time soon.

Oh, I do have a new toy! It was given to me by new friends who have been doing their best to help out with things since I got back from Mississippi after the tornadoes and all that.

Yup. Best I can describe it as an Elvish lightsaber. Now, I've been friends with a couple of the NY Jedi for a few years (love to the Melbat), but it's never been my scene. Now, I do love sword fighting, however. Fencing in college, some long sword after that, was even married to a ren-faire swordsman (regrettably) for over half a decade. And of course, I love fantasy of all kinds, and particularly anything with the classic bent of fantasy (elves, fairies, unicorns, dragons, griffins, wizards and all that). And I was absolutely speechless when I was given this beautiful thing (the blade is bright green, too! just out of batteries at the moment) and told if I was going to keep up my training (have been brushing up on my sword work and learning some staff work, too.) I would need something of my own. (I have a large collection of steel swords (some battle live, some stainless steel, some costume only) back in Mississippi, but it has proved problematic to get them up here - shipping being expensive and airlines frowning on that sort of thing.)

I am told it is a "Bob." Here's his Link: Advanced Light .Com

Go get your geek on!

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I'm still holding up my thing about promoting something/someone not-me from etsy every post. So, I think we can guess what I searched on etsy today.

However, life is funny like that. I get a little uncomfortable with some of the copyright stuff on etsy. There's a lot of it out there. Some of it is rather dubious and in a grey-area, and is probably fine, and then there's lots of just blatant examples of full out copyright infringement being passed off as well. So, I try not to promote anything that I'm uncertain about. So, I ended up searching "sword" and found these awesome wall decals instead! Go figure!

Vinyl Wall Accents caught my attention with the pictured decal. If that doesn't also catch your attention, I don't know what would. There shop has over 21 pages of designing options, so yeah, take your time and enjoy!

FAE Return to Renaissance

2011-06-14T10:37:00.003-04:00

Nope, things aren't better yet; but it's a work in progress.

In the meantime, look at the new Exhibit from Fantasy Artists of Etsy, just in time for Renaissance Fair Season!

FAE Exhibit

2011-04-12T12:09:00.004-04:00

So, the FAE team of etsy (Fantasy Artists of Etsy) - links below on right - has set up yet another great seasonal exhibit! This one themed with Fairies and Elves and Pixies, oh my!

You can see a great selection of pieces from my fellow FAE-ers, as well as a couple of pieces from my own "From Faerie" bath line.

Just click the banner to follow the magic!

Moisturize Me! Moisturize Me!

2011-04-05T16:50:00.003-04:00

Sorry, quick Doctor Who reference for comedy.

I have to admit, I'm not feeling terribly inspired in any new directions of late, and I don't want to rehash what I just said a post or 3 ago. I did complete the Tequila Sunrise salts for the Festival of Ideas coming in May. And I noticed this morning yet another empty bottle of Patron had been brought home for recycling, as well as an empty bottle of Makers Mark (something for the men?)

The only different thing that's really got my attention at this exact moment is shea butter. So

why not. The tricky thing when it comes to plugging etsy shops and items that deal with shea butter products is that the texture is what makes or breaks a good product; and that's just not something I can tell from reading/looking at pictures online. I know I restate these kinds of warnings a lot, but I also figure that people don't really back read through blogs like this very much, so redundancy would probably only be noticed by me, and any obsessive closeted stalkers that I might have.

That does remind me, though, I have gotten another 16oz milk jar style bottle and hope to be making more of the Fairy Milkmaid bath soak (shea butter pulsed with buttermilk powder. OH so lucsious and moisturizing in the bath!) soon.

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I have extremely sensitive and problematic skin, so I really appreciate shops that have discounted samples of their products. I know it's not easy to provide samples, and definitely doesn't help the bottom line in the end at all (when I can, I do try and provide samples of my sugar and salt scrubs as cheaply as I can). So, when I find a shop that has a good product, and allows those of us who have to be more careful and particular a way to test something out, it makes me happy.

I will add that I also eliminated any bar soaps from my results, because I basically can't use any bar soaps due to aforementioned sensitivities. So, if the odds are I can't use it due to skin sensitivities, then I'm not going to promote it.

Boondock G out of Arkansas caught my attention because of the wide variety of 2oz samples of her cleansing sugar scrubs which contain a moisturizing shea butter and olive oil base. Her fragrance blends are also a little different in a very inticing and intriguing way! Private Stash lists notes of "apricots, dark honey, vanilla, orange and rose, pipe tobacco and labdanum;" while I think my favorite sounding scent combo, "Yuzu Berry," contains "yuzu, grapefuit and mandarin, with plums, berries, and white tea." Wow that sounds good! And, she has a $5.00 flat rate shipping charge, so that's hard to beat!

Sunrise?

2011-04-01T22:52:00.003-04:00

I don't really have much to talk about this week, but felt I needed to update anyway.

Just finished blending my next cocktail themed bath salt for the Festival of Ideas mentioned before. Tequila Sunrise salts, pink on the bottom, little fade, lots of orange all in a Patron bottle. Should smell amazing after a couple of days of curing

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Searching "tequila sunrise" on etsy does come up with some gorgeously colored items!

For you knitters, I think the yarn is some of the prettiest options.

I think my favorite is the 20% bamboo, 80% superfine merino hand-dyed blend by MDKnits (Mother and Daughter Knits). The playful bright colors and gentle fading, it just really caught my eye.

The shop doesn't only sell hand dyed yarn skeins, though. They actually have 9 different sections for not only yarn but other knitting tools, and even some destashing beads. Cute little shop to peek around in, very colorful, and that's at least half the point of a tequila sunrise. :-)

Lil Update

2011-03-28T13:16:00.004-04:00

A little update on Izile's Oddities. I have now finished my first version of Izile's Oddities the Official Website. It's very basic right now, graphics and information with links back to my etsy shop. I will, eventually, be making a self-standing full website, but I'm still rehashing my HTML, picking up CSS and trying to learn Ruby on Rails before I tackle a more comprehensive site.

Also, From Faerie is coming along nicely, I think. I finally added the Urisk salts for men (or unisex) to the etsy shop, along with the last 2oz sample of my GreenWoman Sugar Scrub (at least until my garden comes back from the winter and I start having plenty of fresh mint to work with again.)

I have been working on another line of bath products, but because of the difficulty in shipping larger/heavier items, I will probably only be selling them at markets in NYC this spring/summer. These will not be based on the realm of Faerie or fantasy at all. They will be based on cocktails. I have already recycled a very nice bottle of Patron Tequila into a container for some amazing Margarita scented bath salts. Lots and lots of super-fine lime zest and 100% Dead Sea Salts. If you're in the NYC area and come to a fair where I'm vending this spring/summer, you'll have to open the bottle and smell to believe it! It's intense and amazing to smell! I will also be making Tequila Sunrise salts, and possible other salts based around Chambord (black raspberry liqueur) and a fancy whiskey (again, maybe something for the guys).

So far, it looks like my first vending opportunity will be the Festival of Ideas in Manhattan, May 7th, along with other members of the {NewNew} etsy street team. Anyone in the NYC area at the time should come by and check it out!

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So, the scent of the Urisk bath salts that I most recently put up is a wonderful combination of red cedar and cinnamon stick (such a different kind of scent when contrasted with "hot candy" smell that comes along with a lot of the essential oils.) And I actually baked a whole chunk of cedar and a cinnamon stick with the salts, and the smell when I pulled them from the oven was lovely! So I thought I'd look around etsy for other things similar to cinnamon and cedar.

I have featured them before (normally I don't like to repeat features), but this is a new product and technically a different shop, so consider it a bonus. Black Phoenix Trading Post has these new Sachets de Senteurs in their shop. The one here is Cedar, Cinnamon and Tonka, great for scenting your drawers or other intimate spaces.

The other shop that seemed to have the most to offer in the Cedar and Cinnamon scent family was Ten Digit Creations. Scents like "Witches Brew," blending cedar, cinnamon, patchouli and clove, can be bought as bar soap, body sprays, soy wax melts, perfume oil, solid perfume, scented sachets, and whipped body butter. With 22 pages of luscious stock and scent options, it's definitely worth taking a browse!

Macaron Day NYC

2011-03-20T15:45:00.009-04:00

So today (Sunday 3/20) was Macaron Day NYC. You could plot your way across Manhattan and Brooklyn, stopping at lots of participating vendors and pop in and get a free macaron! Now, I had never had a real macaron before today, largely because I'd never had one, and at $2 - $4 for such a small fancy cookie, I couldn't imagine it was worth the risk. However, wandering around Manhattan on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon to pick up free macarons to sample? Totally worth it.

So, I obviously couldn't go to all the shops, but I did visit 4. I got a different flavor at each place, then brought them all home with their business cards and proceeded to have a very intricate taste test to analyze each macaron and how each was different, not so much in flavor, but in consistency, texture, size, filling to cookie ratio, etc. I even took pictures!

So, we shall list them in order visited. First, I stopped at Macaron Cafe at 485 7th Ave (entrance on 36th St) and got a simple chocolate macaron. This shop seemed the most authentic and definitely French; even the counter girls all had very thick accents. It was a very pretty thing, seemed to even had the shimmer of gold dust in the meringue top. It didn't have much of an aroma, and when next to the others seemed small and thin. However, it was delightful to eat! It was more chewy than brittle with a slightly moist feeling to the interior, it was soft, almost no toothsomeness to the "shell" or "skin" of the meringue, and the center had a more fudge-y type of texture and flavor than a ganache or nougat. Very lovely! The flavor variety was almost overwhelming. Would definitely go back and try other flavors! They are $2.25 a piece, or $13 for 6, $25 for 12 or $49 for 25. So, even when buying en masse, you still barely beat the $2.00 a piece spread. That is a little steep for such a small cookie, even a very nice one.

Next I went to Cours La Reine who has a small popup shop inside the Eva Scrivo Salon at 50 Bond St on Fridays and Saturdays 12:30 - 7:30. There I got the cassis and violet. Roughly the same size as the macaron at Macaron Cafe, maybe slightly bigger, with a very slightly smaller selection of flavors, but what interesting flavors! I think she definitely had the most unique assortment. I kind of wish I would have tried the Citron and Yuzu instead. When I bit into this one, there was a definite barely perceivable soft "crack" as the "skin/shell" of the meringue broke and gave way to a light and airy, yet moist interior. It had the most amazing mouth feel. Lush is the only word I could think of as I ate it. My only complaint was that the cassis and violet, which is a very intense dark purple, obviously requires a great deal of food coloring. This has created a fairly unpleasant bitter/synthetic aftertaste. I will note, I AM a super taster, so statistically, a good 2/3rds of the population might not even be able to taste what to me was a jarring and disappointing finish to an otherwise superb epicurean creation. I might be willing to try other flavors that might not have such high pigment contents. And yes, I am aware of the flavor difference between the bitter note that can accompany cassis vs. what I tasted here. Also, there is no price list on her website and I neglected to notate it on her card.

Next I made my way to Bisous Ciao, at 101 Stanton St near Ludlow Ave. They had mad a special macaron just for today, a salted caramel and dark chocolate marked with a kiss print on top. They had a small neat snop with a bit less variety of flavors, but the flavors looked so appealing! I might have gone for the sour cherry had I been given a choice. This macaron is definitely larger than the other two, not so much by diameter, but by thickness. They really put a good amount of filling in there! At first bite there is definitely a thicker and more toothsome shell to the macaron than the previous two. The filling was smooth and silky, and the chocolate part of it was more like a proper ganache than a fudge or chocolate cream. The surprise was the hidden pocket of salty-sweet gooey caramel tucked in the very center of the chocolate filling. The salty/sweet combo with the lightness of the meringue and smoothness of the filling all balanced very well together. They sell for $2.25 a piece, 6 for $13 or a dozen for $25. Pity. I am curious about that sour cherry jam macaron. EDIT: I went back today (3/22) and bought a dozen assorted box. Not through them all yet, but the Sour Cherry and Raspberry jam filled ones are amazingly light and moist and very fruity and OM NOM NOM!!!

Last, but not least, I made my way to the Desert Truck Works at 6 Clinton St just south of Houston. They didn't have much of a selection at the time, and a lot of their flavors were things I'd be a bit suspicious of (butternut squash? banana?) so I went with the strawberry buttercream. I'm sure from the photos above you notice first off the size difference. The DTW macaron is easily 50% bigger in diameter and thickness. However, it wasn't really my favorite. There was no crack or thin crisp skin when I first bit in. it was exceptionally gummy and chewy more than light or moist. The pink peppercorn topping was a nice contrast to what might have otherwise been too innocuous of a flavor. I really expected more fresh strawberry flavor, and this was more strawberry confection flavor, which, yes, it is a confection, but the lush cassis filling in my other fruit based macaron above had me hoping for something similar here, and it just wasn't there. It was a perfectly fine little macaroon, however, and the blog seems to list them at $2.00 each, so it seems they may be the bargain in these four shops, getting the biggest macaron for the least amount of money. But still, at $2.00 a cookie, wouldn't you want something a bit more exceptional?

So there's my say on those four and my first Macaron Day in NYC.

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So, when I first started this blog I promised I'd never make a post without plugging an etsy seller. I haven't broken it yet! Obviously, I cannot give a review like above for an etsy seller selling macarons I have never tasted. However, I can read through, and see who I think might have the best options from what I can tell online.

I will state up front that one of the problems that comes from buying food off etsy, though it is sometimes worth it (I have bought and loved some edibles from etsy sellers!) is that the cost of shipping can make the per unit price slightly problematic. However, we often pay a premium to support hand made, small batch crafted goods on etsy. Also, obviously you can't really just order one macaron from a shop, nor probably would you. If you're a novice like me, I favor sampling sets that let you pick out the flavors you'd like to try.

My choice today has come down to The Whimsical Spoon. Her macarons look absolutely lovely, though there is one thing I am going to write a brief note about. The sampler box listing says to list the flavors you want to sample. . . but provides no list of flavor options. Listed in the shop are white chocolate raspberry (looks Delicious!), blueberry, cinnamon, dark chocolate, vanilla bean and pistachio. I would hope other flavor options are available and just as it's a new shop (just moved from an old name) that it is a soon to be corrected oversight. That said, I did find to celebrate her new name and new shop she is also running a coupon code for 15% off at checkout! "And right now, use coupon code TWS15 and receive 15% off your order!" which, even after factoring in S&H to the reduced price of the 24 piece sampler set, you end up with a per unit price less than $1.50 each! Woot! Cheaper than the DessertTruck and delivered right to your door! Now that's something to look into!

From Faerie - Leanan Sidhe

2011-03-16T12:24:00.003-04:00

The Leanan Sidhe are an interesting branch of study when looking over the various types of Fae. Most commonly these days, tales bend their mythology exceedingly dark, making them vampirish succubi. Mostly these confusions and different interpretations end up varying by location. Central and mainland Europe was much more given to the vampiric succubus stories, while the Irish treated her more as a life-giving spirit and source of inspiration. It was in later times that she was given the distinction of trading her love and inspiration to men at the cost of the shortening of their lives. However you prefer to think of your Leanan Sidhe (and there's almost as many spelling variations for her as there are interpretations of her nature), one thing holds over. She is the Fairy Sweetheart and seeks out mortal men to love her in exchange for her own love and gifts of inspiration and creativity.

I am working on a From Faerie product in tribute to the more favorable side of this particular Sidhe. Currently, I have the petals from 5 red roses sealed up in an airtight container with pink Himalayan salt, to desiccate the petals and infuse the salts with their natural oils. I'm not sure where I will go from there, just yet, but it is in the making.

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Leanan Sidhe and Bean Sidhe are probably two of the most widely known Irish fairy women in everyday society. Though, I think her sister, the Banshee (modern Anglo of Bean Sidhe) probably wins as the best well known, if not most commonly misunderstood, because of that, as well. But, sorry dear sister, today we are dealing with the Fairy Sweetheart. And while the proper name doesn't give very many results on etsy, some creative searches based around the meaning of the name did offer some relevant finds.

PixieGirl Felt and Clothing has some adorable hand felted hats and headbands that could definitely make you feel like a lovely fairy woman yourself. One of my favorites from her shop (pictured here) is this vibrant red headband felted from silk fibre, mohair and tussah silk. The shop has many color options as well as clothing and accessories. I would note, however, to be mindful of the S&H as they are based out of Australia. Etsy is international and you should always note where your crafts are coming from so there's no surprises during check out regarding international shipping.

More on Japan Aid

2011-03-13T13:27:00.004-04:00

I'm not really changing theme from my last blog post, I know, but I found another shop that had a listing to support the Japanese earthquake relief fund that I really wanted to plug.

Double Brush, based out of Hawaii, on the big island, by the way, is offering a 6 piece set of handrolled beeswax candles made to look like sushi. And, of course, 100% of the proceeds go to the Hawaiian Red Cross for the Japan relief fund.
Besides the listing for charity donation, this husband and wife team make a wide varity of beeswax and soy wax candles (in many more styles of sushi, and non-sushi styles as well), as well as soap, solid perfumes and other crafty goodness. It's a cute shop and the photography staging is well done and playful. Makes it fun to look over the 5 pages of stock.

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EDITED TO ADD:

For those who skip the comments, Double Brush was kind enough to extend a 15% off coupon to my readers: "save 15% off of your total order off of anything from our DoubleBrush.etsy.com store by using coupon code FavoriteMarch31 upon checkout. Valid till the end of this month. Thanks again!"

Japan

2011-03-12T11:03:00.003-05:00

Everywhere the news about the devastation in Japan and ways to help are showing up over the internet. Of course, wanting to do my part to help however I can, I started trying to think of how best to do it. I'm not a big enough company to do like Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab nor do I have the market base to make a successful "All Proceeds go to. . ." offer. (Read the details on their blog HERE, and by all means, if you're a fan of BPAL, it's a good time to buy and help out a charity.)

I decided the best way is for me to just take cash out of pocket and send it directly (you can find lots of ways to even text donations from the US and Canada not only at the above blog link from BPAL but on tons of twitter feeds as well.)

I still wanted to do *something* though. So, I looked through my shop and I have one Magic Vial Pendant that is somewhat "Japanese" themed: Sakura (pictured left). And so I decided, the first person to email me at Contact Izile with a screencap, e-receipt, or any kind of proof of donation to any Japanese earthquake related charity fund of $10 or more gets this pendant for absolutely free.

I wish that the cherry trees were already blooming, and I could make more of these and offer this to more than just the first person. And I may yet take some time to think of other Japanese themes I could make and continue this; not just be a one time thing. After all, these charities are going

to need support not just this week, or this month, but for a good long time.

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Lots of people want to give, and lots of etsy-ers want to find a way as well.

Vintage and Handmade by Jeremi has a series of photo prints for $10 each where all proceeds go to relief efforts to help Japan. All four prints are of photos taken in Japan and are brilliantly lush and green, as we hope it will be again, soon. Pictured here at right is one of my favorites of the four, taken in Kyoto.

GemsBerry is also selling a Sakura themed necklace with 100% of the proceeds going to help Japan as well. A collection of sterling silver, freshwater pearls, rock crystal and pink Peruvian opals.

There are lots of other etsy sellers out there who are offering items with proceeds going to Japanese Earthquake relief charities. I did, however, not plug anyone who either did not state the percentage of the sale that would be given to charity, or those who were only giving a certain percentage out of the sale. Those are personal judgment calls to be made by the buyers and sellers themselves, and not something I'll get into here. These sellers I have featured I did so largely because they used the phrase "all proceeds" (or some variation).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-10T20:30:00.004-05:00

(early). I already featured my greenest pendant last post for Mardi Gras, so I'll put up "Lil Sunshine" (which I think I featured before, but it's probably been a long time, and I have made a few incarnations of it) for orange instead!

Those of you who might remember last year (and possibly the year before)'s posts for St. Patty's Day know I can't help myself but point out the old tradition that I grew up with that has been forgotten by most of the US population these days. That's that on St. Patrick's Day, you're only supposed to wear green if you're Catholic, and you wear orange if you're protestant. (Of course, being from Mississippi and growing up Southern Baptist, plus my grandfather was a S.B. minister, it was also always pointed out to me, that *technically* Baptists weren't protestant

because they split off from the Catholic church long before Martin Luther and that "protestant" only refers to those denominations that split off during that particular reformation.)

Of course, these days, a lot of people who celebrate aren't any flavor of Christianity, one way or the other, so it becomes even more of a moot point. I just like the old trivia, no matter how irrelevant.

In a more lighthearted vein, last year I helped a friend who lives on the Upper East Side move her apartment on St. Patty's Day (yes, she was made aware how bad an idea this was, especially as both old and new apartments were only a couple of blocks away from the trade route, but as she said, "I'm a Wiccan Jewish girl who doesn't drink; I had no idea when St. Patrick's Day was!") and being a pale redhead came in very handy! Not only did I have no problem getting through the crowds as people yelled "Make way for Irish!" but one of our friends threatened to strap me to the hood of the moving car to see if it would have the same effect on traffic!

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Instead, today, St. Patty's is about celebrating not only for those of us with Irish blood, but (as they said in Boondock Saints, the movie, everyone is Irish on St. Patty's Day!) a day to appreciate what those people have brought to our country. (More than just Guinness!)

To thin out the results, for this post I searched etsy for "Erin go Bragh"!

And just because this post is rambling all over the place, loosely connected digression to digression, I thought I would plug this, because it made me laugh! The title is "Erin Go Braghless" *HA* from Deanna Danger Designs. I especially like the "Irish Cheer" tassels. As you might have guessed, Deanna's shop specializes in pasties! She also sells some other burlesque themed accessories, but it seems like her great variety of pasties is what it's about! And while I have never worn pasties, myself, I am a big fan of burlesque and am probably the only person in my apartment who hasn't worn pasties. (There is even a lone gold sequined pastie that lives with the knick-knacks on our tv stand.)

And if you decide you get a pair and don't know what to do from there, may I suggest the Burlesque Handbook by Jo "Boobs" Weldon!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Happy Mardi Gras!

2011-03-07T15:11:00.003-05:00

So tomorrow is Fat Tuesday and then onto Ash Friday. It's Mardi Gras!

I don't exactly have anything that would be a good offering from my shop, but in tribute to the Green and Gold and Purple of Mardi Gras, I'm going to go with Magic Vial - Lil Deep Earth (pictured). The "gold" is brass wire, and the "purple" is a much more pinkish-red tea tree flower, but it's hard to be greener than pure Malachite!

Regardless of where you find yourself this season, even for those of us long away from N'awlins, float parades, big bands and flying beads and Moon Pies, Happy Mardi Gras!

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I can already hear some of you out there querying, "Moon Pie?"

Old crowd chant (my family lived briefly in Mobile, AL) for Mardi Gras parades. "Moon Pie! Moon Pie! Come to me! M-O-O-N, P-I-E!"

They're basically giant, soft, sandwich cookies filled with marshmallow cream and then dunked in chocolate; and they get thrown from the floats just like bead strands (no flashing necessary!)

Searching "Moon Pie" on etsy was interesting, I guess I'm happily surprised to even see one page of entries.

For satisfying that Moon Pie craving without all the sugar, For Goodness Grape makes an adorable looking/sounding Moon Pie Lip Candy with shea butter.

And if Chocolate and marshmallow isn't your thing, she has over 11 pages of various products ranging from other shea butter lip balms to soild perfume sticks and more variants than I can even start to list! Definitely worth taking the time to browse.

March Madness

2011-03-04T13:16:00.004-05:00

or Mad as a March Hare, or so many other colloquialisms about March and being a bit loony. Is it the cabin fever of a long winter? Is it the way the weather teases us with hope of spring with bright sunny days creeping up into the 50s only to turn around and without warning slam us back into winter and freezing temperatures? Who knows, but it does tend to be a mad month. And I'm certainly feeling a touch of it myself. There's this sense of looming, waiting, hanging in the air. I can't say I care for it much. I was once told over a decade ago that once we know something and can define it, we can then begin to cope and deal with it. True suffering and misery comes out of not knowing; because if you don't know, and you can't say what it is, then how can you even begin to cope? That always stuck with me, and I've never cared for any kind of situation that leaves me in "limbo" for too terribly long.

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To go along with this little March madness rambling, next week is Mardi Gras! Not so much a big thing up here as it was back in the South, esp. closer to the coast and New Orleans. So, let's see what etsy has in the way of mad march mardi gras masks?

And that is how I found Black Orchid Designs. And wow, this is a pretty packed full etsy shop! 8 pages and 10 sections of goth, steampunk and "crazy stuff" including this carnival mask. She also has all sorts of falls (fake hair), clothing, and accessories. It will take you a while to look through all the great options, but it's a fun trip!

Discount Vials

2011-02-27T11:07:00.003-05:00

I kind of already went over this on my DeviantArt journal, but I figured I would repeat myself as the two blogs probably have two different readerships with very little overlap.

So, I've done posts before about "why buy Izile" over some of the other "magic bottle jewelry" that has popped up over the past couple of years (besides the fact that Izile's Oddities is the home of the original Magic Vial Pendant, and the first such item to show up on etsy or ebay or Deviantart - hell, when I had the original concept idea, I searched for any similar idea on not only those three, but google itself, and never came back with a single hit. . . . but I digress, they say mimicry is the most sincere form of flattery, so I suppose I should be flattered by all the mimics that popped up in the past 2-3 years.) One of the reasons was my gemstone quality, that I go to gem providers and buy, whenever possible, raw, untreated, uncut gems, and I break them down myself. Well, obviously it wasn't so. When I first started playing with this concept in '05 (etsy launch in '06) I didn't have access or funds to the "good stuff," so I did start off with some strands of chipped gemstone beads from the craft store - something that I got away from as soon as I could!

The other day, I was going through my gemstone supply and found some of those old gemstone strands from years back. They just sit at the bottom; and I thought, "I really should get rid of these." So, I've started making a small line of discount Magic Vials using some of the older supplies from when I first started out (the herbs are all still fresh, of course ;-). ) There won't be any sterling silver wire, or fancy designs, and the gemstones are as stated above, not my best, but that's why they're also starting at about $6.00, like "Like and Dark" shown here.

I'll still be making all my usual, higher quality vials, but until I can clear out some of these old bead strands, I will occasionally be putting up a couple of discounted vials like this here and there.

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For a completely random plug today, taken from my list of favorite shops, is Jennifer Carson The Dragon Charmer. She has some of the most adorable fantasy based plushie toys I've seen in a long time. Obviously, with her name, there are plenty of soft dragons as well as dragon prints for as little as $2.00! However, it was her floppy soft unicorns that I found so charming. Pictured here is "Balthazar" a child-friendly jointed unicorn that was a custom order for an etsy buyer. All her unicorns seem to be custom orders, but at least we know that means she takes customs! She also has soft fairies, and lots of PDF sewing patterns for those who'd like to make their own. Definitely worth taking a peek!

Dreaming of Spring

2011-02-22T23:05:00.004-05:00

So, I got a great review from the buyer of the GreenWoman scrub, so it prompted me to do another scrub. Sadly, spring is not due for some time, and so there is no fresh mint in my garden. So, thinking of a whole different type, I started with a base of my Himalayan pink salts (that I use in the Seelie bath salts) and ground them in with lavender buds, making a very fragrant mix of pink and purple. Then, for the extra fae element, threw in some fresh bicolored (yellow and green) lemon thyme, which is still alive in the garden, and blended that in as well with safflower and vitamin e oils. The end result is a lovely pink, purple and green salt scrub with a very lovely lavender-lemon thyme scent. It looks and smells like a spring garden, even if it is still another month or two away (depending on where you live.)

I also bought a new plant in my desperate pleas for spring to hasten thusly: a New Zealand tea tree plant! I am hopeful to soon make a couple of new Magic Vial Pendants taking advantage of the tiny plants tiny buds/flowers that look so very like extremely miniature roses. However, I have gotten a new day job and haven't yet had a chance to sit down and make my pendants since I bought the plant just this last weekend.

But, it is in the workings, though! And it gives me more time to read up and find out which gemstones would partner with it best.

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A little off to the side, but I think only a little, is I just found out one of my favorite dress shops in SoHo has an etsy page! And I say it's only a little off to the side because when I first found them, I found a blurb that had them self-described as ". . . a Victorian psychedelic fairy dream." and that seems pretty on target for me :-) So, I introduce, apparently built last September, MoMo FaLana of SoHo, now on etsy!

I actually went to the store once last summer and tried some things on, though sadly, very much unemployed at the time, the expense was not possible. However, I adore their work, it's beautiful and different and I've been thinking of taking a trip back now that I have more regular income.

The hardest part of plugging these designers, I have to admit, is picking just one dress to feature on the blog. It's a little easier since their etsy shop has a much more limited scope than the actual shop or their full gallery on their non-etsy website. (My favorite green and blue dress that I tried on last summer is not there, more's the pity.) This one, however, is a gorgeous example, though I don't think I'd ever be taken anywhere nice enough for one of their long gowns. Still, as a work of art, beautiful!

Flowers

2011-02-19T12:18:00.002-05:00

So yesterday, here in NYC, we had one lovely day of spring where it actually hit 60 degrees before being plunged back down into the freeze of winter for at least, probably, another good month or more.

However, that was long enough to get me bitten a bit by the spring bug and especially the gardening bug. Now, I can't really plant anything outside yet, but I've been considering starting some seed inside, and hopefully they'll be ready to transplant when spring gets here.

So, I've already bought one pack of seeds - Blue Forget-Me-Nots! I have high hopes for these little guys. They should do well in partial shade (which is my yard) and are supposed to be hardy in zone 6b. Not to mention that they are tiny blue flowers symbolic of love and remembrance, and I think they will be an excellent addition to my Magic Vial Pendants once they start blooming.

Now, I admit, I also have my eye on another plant, and I should be out at the green market right now asking the man what it is. I saw it yesterday while I was out and it's a fairly unremarkable potted plant, unlabeled as to what it was. . . but I noticed it's tiny red flowers, only a few millimeters across, looked amazingly like perfect little roses. Talk about something that might do well in my vials! It's obviously not a true rose, though, the leaves were all wrong, and I'm very familiar with all nature of roses, miniature, old fashioned, modern hybrid, etc., and this is absolutely no kin at all, just happens to have flowers that look very similar but in extreme miniature. Of course, without knowing what the name of the plant is, I can't do any research into learning about it's nature, associations or any possible symbolism that might go along with it. So, I really should get off my butt, brave the reasserted cold and crazy winds and go down to the market and ask the man, "exactly what is that thing?"

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And since I now feel obligated to go do so after I just said I would, we're going to make the plug short and sweet.

I bought my Forget Me Not seeds from Seven Acre Woods. I haven't gotten them yet, let alone planted them and watched them sprout, as I just ordered them yesterday, so an update/review will come much later, but if you want some Forget Me Not seeds of your own, I think these are the best. I will note I didn't just search etsy for seeds, either, I looked on google and ebay and amazon and everywhere else. (Amazon tricks you and says "oh, seed packet $0.75!" and then slaps you with $6.00 S&H. $6.00 S&H for a seed packet? are you kidding me? bugger off!)

However, I would like to point out that this shop sells more than just seeds! The owner is truly eclectic in their crafts and sells knit items, spinning fibers, and some other home crafts. I like the sleeping kitty soap pictured here.

From Faerie - Seelie Salts

2011-02-16T00:39:00.000-05:00

So, very late Monday I finally got in my Himalayan pink salts for blending the prototype of my Seelie Salts.

If I explained this before, I think I might repeat myself a little, just because, some people don't like scrolling back and I don't mind a certain amount of a certain type of repetition. The concept for my "From Faerie" line came from what I perceived as a lack in the genre. Maybe it's because fairies and high fantasy and all that aren't very "en vogue" at the moment. I had a lovely little rant some where before I decided to just go off and make my own on how I wanted more myth in my mundane, wanted more fantasy based things to look at. I believe my exact line was "DAMMIT! I want magic socks!"

So, after much frustration, I decided to start really brushing up on my research into C

eltic mythology and fairy folklore in specific. I wanted products that would be like they were from Faerie. Daily, ordinary, mundane things, like bath salts, from Faerie that mortals could possibly get if they could find their way to a goblin market at the edge of our world and theirs. So, that's where the ideas for From Faerie started - and it's still a concept in its infancy.

So, that said, I should explain that Seelie and Unseelie are the names of the two courts of Faerie. Now, the fae have very different concepts of "good" and "evil" when compared to moral man. We tend to label the Seelie court as the "good" court, as they are often of light and live above ground and tend to be more benevolent to humans; and likewise, we tend to label the Unseelie court as the "bad" court, as they are often dark and live underground and can be very malicious to humans. However, whole books can be written - and have been - dealing with the categories of fae, their own morality vs our own and the courts themselves. But I wanted to make a bath salt to nod towards both courts.

I reformulated the Unseelie Salts and listed a new bottle, omitting the fizzing powder to stop the clumping problem I had with the first batch when mixed with the dead sea salts. So it contains a blend of Dead Sea and Epsom salts infused with whole sprigs of Rosemary (from my own garden) and dried poppy flowers.

The new Seelie Salts are a blend of Himalayan pink salts with a good bit of fizzing powder, whole Lavender sprigs (from my own garden) and dried rose petals. (pictured)

I'm still mostly playing with prototypes and looking for feedback, but my sample baggies are all sold out, and before I listed these today, I was down to just the original "Fairy Milkmaid" milk bath soak as unsold. Even my reformulated "GreenWoman Scrub" got shipped off today. I have to admit,

things will move better and faster once spring is fully here and I can get my herb garden back into its previous splendor. And I still have to release the final prototype versions of my Urisk salts for men, and haven't even formulated my Daoine Sidhe or Unicorn blends yet. But so far the reception has been good, so I'm hopeful!

I even have some thoughts of building a Goblin Market website. . mmmmm. . .

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Well, we already know I've searched on etsy for "seelie" and "unseelie" and not found much.

Oh, and as a side note i

n case anyone was curious about why I spell "From Faerie" that way but then go to "Fairy Milkmaid." The best I can suggest is that you look up the non-fiction essay J.R.R. Tolkien wrote called "On Fairy-Stories" where he talks about the common misspelling of "fairy" cropping up and where it originated. The way I always explain it to people is with the sentence, "The Fae from Faerie was a Fairy." Faerie = place, Fae = anything or one of that place, Fairy = little winged person-looking creature from that place.

So, all things considered, I thought I'd look through one of my street teams on etsy, "FAE" (Fantasy Artists of Etsy). I've already plugged a lot of them, but there's bound to be lots of new members with new goodies!

Moon Glow Wishes I think fits right in with her collection of miniature fairy wands. Adorable little wands made out of glass, gemstones and/or wire wrapping, some are earrings, some are pendants, some are just tiny little fairy wands. Very cute!

Plus, it's always nice to see a shop with a good variety of their product, and the most expensive item is $15, and several options are under $10. perfect little pick me ups for a little magic in your day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T16:31:00.002-05:00

I'm skipping today right into the plugging.

I bought an item a couple of weeks ago from a seller on etsy and wanted to promote them immediately, but, the recipient of said gift does read my blog now and again, and I didn't want him to see it before I gave it to him. Granted, he doesn't have it yet, but I'm hedging my bets that he won't look at my blog at work between now and when he gets off.

So, I love this new fine, Sleepy Robot 13. When I stumbled across her shop, while browsing for plugs for my earlier V-day post, I knew I had to buy, it just became problematic which little robot to get. Her shop is also constantly being updated with new robots and even has a DIY kit if you want to build you own. Of course, this also means that your favorite choice could sell out quick! Not only is the one I bought gone, but all the other potential candidates except the one pictured here have flown off her shelves!

They are adorable in person, the shipping was fairly quick and the communication with the artist was friendly and timely. Everything was packaged very well and was just a great seller to deal with! Highly recommended!

Cooking Class - Longest Post Ever

2011-02-10T12:47:00.011-05:00

OK, we're going to diverge here today and have a blog update about something that happened in my life that's not really related to Izile's Oddities! My lovely roommate bought me a one day cooking class with Ger-Nis Culinary and Herb Center in Brooklyn for Christmas, and I attended their class on Southeast Asian, focusing on Laotian, Tuesday night. The picture is of their amazing spice rack in their class kitchen. I had to take a picture!

I arrived through stinging icy snow to a kind of warehouse-y looking part of south Brooklyn near the Gowanus Canal, and walked into a stunningly clean, warm and friendly environment. I watched as the rest of the class came in, mostly young women, like myself, either alone or in groups of 2 or 3. I believe there was one couple in attendance, and one very brave lone lad!

As the class was called to order, we all went to pre set

stations where we all had a glass for water (oh would I need that later) a clean wooden cutting board and a small but very handy knife in a sheath as well as our recipe list. Our instructor that night would be walking us through 4 out of the 5 recipes provided to us that night.

First off was the Malay Chicken (pictured at right). He explained the basics of the correct way to segment an onion, julienne ginger, mince garlic and chop cilantro, and we all took a bit of a different ingredient to practice. I worked on julienne-ing the ginger, as I can't say I've ever done anything with fresh ginger except maybe grate it a little. He also took time to explain ingredients that might

be exotic to us, like fermented black beans, their importance in

Southeast Asian cooking, and the proper way to use them in this dish. It was exceedingly spicy to me (did contain Thai chilies), and

more than a few of my classmates got a laugh as I did a mad dash for more and more water. Delicious, but if I remake it, we'll skip the chilies.

Second was the Laotian Spring Rolls (pictured left). These were a lot of

fun and I look forward to making them at home! (Small note, the one recipe we did not actually try out of the 5 was a recipe for Laotian Summer Rolls, so I'm figuring that would have just been too repetitive to do both.) Again, we all took some of the base ingredients and practiced breaking them down for the filling. This time I got the mushrooms, and since it didn't say what kind of mushroom, I basically grabbed one of every type! (I love mushrooms!) The thing I found a little surprising was, that in addition to the carrots and mushrooms, onion, garlic, and cellophane noodles was ground beef. I don't think I've ever had a spring roll with meat in it - but I love meat too, so why not! Probably the part that was the most fun was after we had the filling in a giant bowl, we all got to take spring roll wrappers and wrap our own. I did have a mini-flashback to my time in northern China, visiting a woman named Nicole and her trying to teach us how to make gyoza, and all the while we were trying to pleat and crease them, her fussing, "Make more beautiful!" and clumsy Americans, yeah. . . . my spring rolls weren't necessarily too pretty either. But once they were fried up, they were delicious!

Laotian Beef Salad, was the final savory dish of the evening. It was explained that traditionally, the meat would be served raw, "cooked" only by its exposure to copious amounts of lime juice. Obviously, that wouldn't be legally responsible for Ger-Nis to

teach, so they showed us a step around, how to cook the ground beef on low heat, without frying or browning, but making it completely safe to eat, before combining it with the other ingredients. The dull grey of the meat made it a little less pretty

and appetizing than some of the other dishes, but it's a cooking

class, you've got to try everything, right? It was actually much tastier than I could have guessed.

Lots of garlic, lime juice, and the cilantro wasn't too overpowering, nor were the Thai chilies this time, all wrapped up in a nice leaf of lettuce. I'm still not sure if I'll ever recreate this one, but I'm glad I tried it!

And lastly, of course, is dessert. Granted, the first thing we started with that night was technically the dessert, but it had to be done in

small sessions throughout the class. Sweet Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango (pictured at left). And it was explained that the rice had to be soaked at least 10 hours overnight before you could start, and then we steamed it for another 20-3o minutes while we did recipe 1, then took a break and drained it and soaked the rice in the coconut milk and sugar solution, then went and completed

recipe 2, and by the time we'd finished the Beef Salad, the dessert was just about ready to eat!

The entire experience was fun, entertaining, educational, social and I can't wait to get to go to another class!

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Now, how do I follow that with an etsy plug? Not like you can get cooking lessons on etsy, I don't think. However, there was something nice about the Ger-Nis teaching kitchen that I thought was a nice little touch that will also work for my etsy browsing; they had the most adorable array of aprons. Yes, they had plain black for the men, but they had some great prints, colors, patterns and even ruffles on some of their aprons for those who wanted them.

Now, there's a bevy or aprons on etsy in a lot of styles. Some people like clean and functional, some like screen printed quips or simple designs, and some like to go fancy for something almost dress-like. I will say that I'm only looking at whole aprons, not half aprons, because when I'm

baking/cooking, I'm much more likely to get things on myself from the waist up rather than just the waist down.

Handmade Cottage was the first to jump out at me. And I admit, her shop isn't all aprons, and she doesn't have many, and they're not super fancy or anything, but I love her

kitschy retro fabric choices for clean, simple lined aprons. For me, I think the neck is a little high, but I honestly adore both her bright vintage red cherry print on a crisp white

background, and the pictured red roses are also just an adorable fabric choice! (Those who've followed me much, though, know I'm a sucker for roses. My Mom even calls me "her rose.")

For a shop that focuses only on aprons and has 4 pages of apron-based stock, it's hard not to mention Dianne Designer Aprons. Whether you want something more simple, more elaborate, ruffles, plain, mixed patterns, some of her aprons even look like nice dresses and are shaped to give that more hourglass look! I highly suggest just looking through all the pages to see the variety yourself. Here, I've picked my favorite at left (though the "dragon lady" and "nature" designs are close runner-ups.)

And for those of you who just want a little simple screen printing? Sweet Harvey is what you're looking for. Screen printing her own original illustrations on nearly everything you can think of, she has a small but adorable selection of very clean and simple aprons decorated with her own art. I kinda like the little robot guy myself.

So, hopefully I've given you a good selection of ideas of what can be found on etsy for your apron tastes, and have fun browsing!

Postal Woes

2011-02-07T13:42:00.003-05:00

I hate my current post office. However, I really don't want to spend the extra $4.50 just to go to/from a post office in Manhattan.

I decided to write this up because there might be some confusion out there for people who noticed the fluctuation in postal fees on my etsy listings.

Oh, side note, this has nothing to do with my Magic Vial Pendants, I never have problems mailing them.

So, I have an item, I weigh item, I go to the USPS.com website and I calculate domestic postage. I see the price charged, add $1.00 for packing supplies like bubble wrap, tape, etc., and that's my S&H fee for my listing.

Except, with the heavier/larger bath items, my post office has been giving me fits. Now, I've talked on the etsy forums, and read the USPS.com website information, and all I can figure is, my local P.O. is being a dick just to be a dick. Go to post office, hand over package, they weigh it, and determine that they will not send it any other way other than priority shipping, too heavy for first class and they flatly refuse to ever let me send parcel post - no reason why - just won't. So I end up paying over double in S&H what I charged.

So what do I do now? I feel horrible trying to charge $10 in S&H for a $15 or less item! On the other hand, I just can't keep getting screwed by my ghetto P.O.

I dropped my S&H charges back down to the original prediction today, and I'm going to have to result to either one of two options. 1) I will attempt to argue and fight with the window people at my Post Office into letting me send a box parcel post instead of priority, or 2) I will take my happy-little-butt into Manhattan where the clerks actually do their jobs right without attitude and grief.

There, I feel a bit better for having ranted. It's just insane. I shouldn't have to eat 60% of the shipping charges, nor should my customers, just because some clerks at a post office in Brooklyn are in a perpetual bad mood.

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So, what do we plug on etsy after a post like that? Well, I'm searching "stress relief!"

And what did I find, but the most interesting The Dammit Doll Store. I had never heard of a "Dammit Doll" before, they look a little like poppets, or "voodoo dolls," and while it seems they might have some similar history, the intent seems a bit different. The owner has this to say about "what is a dammit doll?"

"Do you get angry, get into arguments or just need to relieve some stress? A Dammit Doll is what you need! These dolls take on a personality of their own and certainly do reliev

e stress. You can confide in them, yell at them and beat them up. They never argue and are very forgiving and best of all; they never tell anyone your secrets."

Sounds quite friendly, actually! And they are adorably cute and she has over 100 entries in her shop as well as being open to custom works. Since there was no "Postal Worker Dammit Doll" on her shop, I've picked the "Tax Preparer Dammit Doll" as I'm sure a lot of us are dealing with that right about now. Dammit dolls range from $6.99 to $12.99 and makes them a much cheaper alternative to therapy!

From Faerie - Unseelie Salts

2011-02-05T16:26:00.005-05:00

I'm actually afraid I'm making this blog post a little late. I wanted to give a little gap between my last blog post and this one, where I was going to announce the release of my next prototype, the Unseelie Bath Salts of my experimental "From Faerie" line.

I say this is a little late, because my Unseelie salts actually made it onto the front page of etsy.com last night, and were promptly purchased!

It's not entirely too late, though, as I do still have a $1.00 sample baggie of these same salts up in the shop.

I do hope to be getting some feedback on these salts, as they were quite problematic! I had wanted to just blend poppy flowers and rosemary with Dead Sea salts, but then I got the

bright idea to make them fizzy, too, and so added citric acid and baking soda. . . except I added too much of the fizzing blend to the Dead Sea salts, and I ended up with something very clumpy and strange, and half way to being a bath bomb rather than bath salts. So I had to mix in epsom salts, and that helped a little, but not a lot, so then they had to go into a very low oven for about an hour, and that worked like a charm, but then the salt was coarser than I would have liked, which then meant beating the stuff back down with hands, rolling pins, you name it and leaving it out to dry again for a day more.

I do believe my next batch will be JUST the poppy flowers and rosemary with plain Dead Sea salts - unless my customer(s) write back and say they actually loved the product as is, in which case, I'll have to find a much less stressful and labor intensive way to make the same experiment again. Hey, that's why they're prototypes, and that's why I sell them at basically cost (or no profit). This 10.5 oz decorated bottle went for $7.00 for all that I went through! I think that's a smashing deal for an experimental product.

The Urisk salts will hopefully be up soon, though I want to test them on a particular male, first. And I will be getting more bottles shortly, and hope to make my Seelie Salts prototype soon as well.

SMALL EDIT/UPDATE: I did relabel my old sugar scrub formula to work with the From Faerie line. "Chocolate Mint, Vanilla Sugar Scrub" is now "GreenWoman Scrub"

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Just out of curiosity, I thought I'd see how conversant etsy is with fae mythologies. I searched "unseelie" and came back with 17 results. Did a search for "seelie" and only got 8 results (though technically 3 of those were generic supply and had nothing to do with "seelie" or "fae" in particular at all).

One shop I did find, however was Unseelie Enchantments, "Mystical creations from the realm of twilight." I do love a shop with variety, and this one has a good mix of prints, jewelry, sculpture and other, that all have that dark fae edge. It's really hard to just pick one item to feature here, as there's several that I find interesting. But I think the General Grumpus Mushroom Faerie has just too much unique character to not picture. A great little representation of the darkling fae, as well. Definitely worth taking a browse!

February. . .

2011-02-01T14:50:00.008-05:00

and more snow. *headdesk*

So, it's starting: February madness. We have Groundhog's Day tomorrow, in which regardless of whether or not he sees his shadow, I feel confident that we will have at least 6 more weeks of winter. In fact, I would be overjoyed if we ONLY had 6 more weeks of winter, if by Vernal Equinox we could actually have even a little spring - I would be DELIGHTED. It's also the same day for Candlemas and Imbolc. Day after is Chinese New Year, which I've already covered in abundance, I feel. And of course, the week following is Valentine's Day. And a couple of weeks after that, even atheists will start contemplating the sacrificing of goats to bring about an end to winter.

I tried to clear off my stairs before the most recent storm hit us (or is going to hit us, I think only the early edge has hit so far and we're supposed to get more tonight). I'm posting a

picture to give you an idea of my frustration, I rely so heavily on my herb garden, even in winter, how vexing this is. I cleaned off the stairs, and when I got to the top. . . well, tell me. . . now what am I supposed to do?

I admit, I've skipped the whole V-day post in the past, because frankly, I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. I remember I always loved the giant "I ♥ U" made out of chocolate my Mom would always give me as soon as I came home from school, because she knew I'd never get anything there. (Nobody loves you like your Mama!) I also remember the strange, creepy, stalker-ish guy at college who was always trying to convert me to his own very special brand of Christianity sending yellow-orange lilies (see earlier post on flower meanings) to my dorm room with a tag that said "Happy friendship day! Jesus loves you!" My last b/f, some 3 years ago, did send a homemade card that I thought was pretty nice as it was filled with tiny, life sized, paper ladybugs he'd made (because ladybugs bring me sanity). Either way, point is, it always seemed like something for everyone else, I don't guess I ever "got it."

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Anyway.

Everywhere you go, everyone's advertising for Valentine's Day, I even saw little hearts stuck to the inside of the bullet proof glass at a subway attendant's kiosk.

I would not recommend trying to search "valentine" on etsy as you get over 250,000 page hits, and while some people have taken great care to make thematic items for their shop, a lot of people have just tagged everything in their shop with the word with no regard to any thematic relationship at all. Vexing.

So, we'll just skip all this and I'll look for something that reminds me of that giant amount of chocolate Mom would give me as soon as I came home from school. It would take me DAYS to eat that thing, and I loved ever moment of it.

Calabasas Candy Company actually had one of the best looking sets. They have a good variety of truffles, caramels and marshmallows, but I think their sampler box is probably the best for this blog topic. Beautiful 24 piece set of 6 flavors: Lavender Honey, Pecan Milk Chocolate, Maraschino Cherry, Rose Water, Dark Chocolate Fleur de Sel, and Champagne.

If their candies taste even half as good as their pictures look and description reads, then these would definitely be a good way to go! But also be sure to peek around at the various flavors of caramels and marshmallows as well, there are some very interesting options!

And Even MORE Snow!

2011-01-26T23:42:00.005-05:00

OK, I admit, I'm a little frustrated. I haven't been able to get to my herb garden in so long, I'm wondering if it's even still alive under all that snow. I've uploaded a picture from last week - it's worse now! See those tiny little sprigs over by the fence on the right? That's the tops of my 4 year old rosemary busy.

Makes it hard to make more vials when a lot of my component options are out in that. I did, after the first snow go out and attempt to take a shovel to a snow bank to get to my thyme - and failed.

So, in the

meantime, I look at what can be done with what I have. I have added two more, reformulated (yet again) Lollipop Hair Sticks (seen left). These are a bit bigger/thicker than the last few I made, but they also should be able to stand up to more. Of course, this also means that they're a bit heavier than the last ones, which means they would be best for thicker/longer hair. They still aren't as big as the one I made for myself (these are roughly 2" round), but they aren't the tiny delicate things I tried last time, either.

I continue to work on the "From Faerie" line of bath products, though, as they require curing time, the snow could possibly melt before I've got another one through testing and curing and ready to go on etsy.

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Frankly, I'm about ready for January to DIAF. So, that's the theme today, I'm searching for FIRE.

The first thing I found today that caught my attention is "Fire Mountain Cocoa" from Good 4 You, a provider of "herb love." The Fire Mountain Cocoa is all organic and fair trade blended hot chocolate with guarana, sweet cinnamon, vanilla bean and cayenne pepper. Sounds like a good way to fight off the cold and snow to me! The rest of the shop is a 5 page plethora of herbal teas, salves, baths, balms and syrups.

And, if you're snowed in and are fond of crochet or knitting, there's always keeping your hands warm with some lovely, fire colored, handspun, and hand painted, merino wool yarn from Chimera Fibers. There's plenty of other color options available at her shop, and if you aren't much for doing the yarn works yourself, there's also a good bit of needle felted sculpture.

Chinese New Year!

2011-01-23T16:35:00.002-05:00

OK, so I already -kinda- had a post about Chinese New Year, but it wasn't really about it and Chinese New Year is now just over a week away! (Thursday, February 3rd, day after Groundhogs Day - oh please may that fuzzy little bastard not see his shadow.)

So, 2011 on the Chinese lunar calendar marks the beginning of the year of the White Metal Rabbit. So, the Rabbit is the 4th sign of the Chinese zodiac and is considered very lucky. You would be a Rabbit if your birthday falls during the lunar years of 1999 (earth), 1987 (fire), 1975 (wood), 1963 (water), 1951 (metal), 1940 (earth), and so on, subtracting 12 years each time. I admit, I understand the 12 year cycle of the zodiac animals, and I understand the cycles of the 5 Eastern element, but why the rabbit is white, specifically, I have no idea. Would love to hear from anyone who has that information!

Me, I'm really looking forward to going to my first Chinatown celebration and see the parades and maybe go eat some dumplings and such. It's my 4th year here in NYC, and I just never seemed to get there; but this time, I'm planning ahead!

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Now, I'm not sure how much new there will be under "white metal rabbit" on etsy, as I did that search just at the beginning of January, and it tends to come up with a lot of Alice in Wonderland jewelry, mostly. So, I think I'll do a more generic "Chinese zodiac" search.

And wow, right off the bat I found a beautiful print for any of you out there who might be "rabbits" in this sense. Nicole Kristiana Studios has some very unique, beautiful and colorful prints, not the least of which is her 2011 "Year of the Rabbit." It's a lovely 13"x19" print of her mixed media original.

Her prints and originals make up a 5 page shop full of bright colors, swirling patterns, playful lines and shapes, and a lovely sense of whimsy. As I looked through all 5 pages, I even noticed an option to get select prints on tote bags, and that this particular bunny comes in a few colors choices, even black and white.

From Faerie

2011-01-18T15:06:00.005-05:00

So last night I finally finished the first prototype of my experimental "From Faerie" bath product line. The Fairy Milkmaid bath soak, a blend of buttermilk with shea butter with a slight fizzing effect blended with marigold petals and a sprig of thyme, is now for sale at Izile's Oddities!

I also blended up another experimental prototype for the same line today, but it will take some time to "cure" and then test before I upload it to the shop. Since some ingredients have proved harder to find locally and expensive to order online, I went with the "Urisk" theme next. Urisk is basically the Scottish variant of a satyr, but a good bit nicer/kinder than the more familiar Greek incarnation. "Urisk" is also blended to be more unisex/male-friendly. It's a blend

of Epsom Salts for soothing sore muscles and other body aches with buttermilk (could not get the powdered goat milk I wanted just yet, so we'll test the theory with the buttermilk powder I already own) for moisturizing and extra vitamin benefits. The scent additive (and why it needs time to cure) is because of the large chunk of red cedar wood in the middle of the bottle. "Urisk" is currently aging in a 10.5 oz glass milk jar, in contrast to the "Fairy Milkmaid" being in a full 16oz one. Plus, as there's significantly less buttermilk in the "Urisk" blend and Epsom Salts are much cheaper than shea butter, I'm expecting its experimental cost to be about $4.00 when launched.

We shall see.

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I've covered a lot of great bath and body companies on etsy on this blog, so I'm reaching a past the boundaries of the US and plugging a great shop out of Australia.

Sage and Mage out of Melbourne has a varied and eclectic variety in their shop, and I love their attitude towards "making the mundane magical. . ." They have jewelry, aromatherapy, perfumes, home goods, herbs and oils, but since today I'm thinking about bath, I thought I'd plug their great Gold and Sunlight Bath Milk. A lovely blend of full cream powdered milk, and fizzing mixture of bicarbonate of soda and citric acid as well as essential oils of orange, tangerine, vanilla and cinnamon leaf, and obviously, 24 carat gold flake. How lux! Bring on the sun to this long winter.

Zodiac

2011-01-15T11:03:00.002-05:00

OK, so the internet has been overly rife with all sorts of stuff over the zodiac hullabaloo.

At first, I tried my best just to ignore it, then I realized, oh wait, I do sell custom Zodiac "Magic Vial Pendants" on a semi-regular basis. So regardless of personal opinions, this might pertain to the Izile's Oddities part of my life. So, I posted a poll on my DeviantArt page to see, what, if any, difference this might make to my customer base. Feel free to go over and vote and/or drop a comment.

I was surprised at how many vehement and almost ranting comments were left under the poll. I voiced no opinion (nor shall I), personally; I simply asked, if making a custom zodiac request, how would this news affect your decisions. Seems like it's not going to make much difference to

my customer base, so I'm not bothered.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, THIS is a link to my favorite horoscope site.

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Some people feel very strongly about their zodiac (as I found out this week) and that's probably why, if you do a search on etsy for "zodiac" you get over 5,000 entries. Though, I admit, I don't keep zodiac pendants in stock because there's such diversity, even with the base 12, not mentioning the gemstone and herbal preferences of the individual, or the slight differences in focus depending if they were born early, central or late to that sign, the odds of pre-making one that would be "right" for hardly anyone is just too high. So, they remain custom order items only - and glad to do one for anyone!

My first feature is a little bit above my normal price-range cap, but Garnet Girl Designs had to be featured! Largely, because a couple of years ago, I had this idea for a kind of constellation jewelry, but I never could afford the equipment and materials to really learn/use PMC+ (precious metal clay). It's not the same, she uses real sterling silver and diamonds, but it's close enough that I wanted to plug Garnet Girl's constellation jewelry! Here I have pictured her Virgo necklace (though all zodiac constellations plus the Big Dipper and Orion are available in necklace

or ring form - even noted one in 14K gold and one in Argentium silver)

The rest of her shop is filled with pages of exceedingly profession, cut gemstone, precious metal jewelry. 14 pages and some amazing stuff! Definitely worth the browse!

Now, moving back south of the $100 mark . . . and even back under the $50 mark (which is my usual "loose" price cap for plugs) . . .

Julie Nolan Jewelry also had a similar idea, but in brass cuff bracelets with holes removed for the star positions. Pictured here is the cuff bracelet for Leo. The cuffs are all apparently 7", so be aware if your wrists run either particularly large or small. If the cuff isn't your style, she also has another style of bracelet featuring a flat oval disk on a band, as well as pendant pieces. And while the constellation jewelry does seem to make up just a bit over half of her 5 page stock, there are some very interesting other pieces worth looking at, and some good nature-themes, too.

More Snow!

2011-01-11T14:22:00.002-05:00

So, they say there's another snow storm headed for NYC late tonight and early tomorrow morning. I wasn't here for the last one, so I'm not quite as put-out and over-done about it as a lot of people are. However, it does mean getting to my garden is going to be even more difficult, not that trying to dig the herbs out from under the snowbanks worked, anyway.

I do admit, since I've already stated it elsewhere, that I've been a bit under the pink. I wouldn't say I was really ill, as it doesn't seem constant, though it seems persistent. I'm not exactly sure what has been slowing me down, but I'm hoping a new batch of vitamins and a freshly restocked fruit/veg supply might help fix whatever is putting me off-kilter.

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Now how I'm supposed to type that little tidbit of a blog post to a search theme for etsy is a bit too much of a stretch for me.

So, I'll just be random. I'm missing flowers. I think the snow is pretty, I like it, it's better than just cold and wet; but I do miss green and spring and flowers. It is amazing the difference a single flower can have on someone's day or mood.

Obviously, because of my personal craft, I do a lot of research and study regarding the meanings of not just herbs and trees, but flowers as well. It's something I think that's been too forgotten in our modern society.

Kind of reminds me of that scene from Kate & Leopold where Hugh Jackman's character is complaining about a bouquet of modern flowers and the conflicting messages being sent. Of

course, now I'm just rambling.

Just as a note - you might want to be careful with carnations, a few colors of them have rather negative connotations (yellow means rejection, striped means refusal or just "no") and an orange lily just plain means I don't like you! Roses are always safe, unless you happen to find a green one, which apparently means "I am from Mars." I did not know that. I also did not know that 11 red + 1 yellow (roses) = love and passion. Again, rambling. Am I ever going to get to the feature?

Of course, I'm not, but, if YOU wanted to declare yourself as a Martian, I think this would a brilliant way to do it. Lisa Burkin of Island Girl Designs on etsy is a maker of jewelry from real flowers suspended perpetually at full bloom by use of resins. Her lemon and lime green rose hair piece would definitely count as a lovely way to declare your Martian blood. If, like me, you're not a Martian, or you don't want to come out of the Martian-closet just yet, she also has many other lovely colors of roses and orchids (which are also pretty darn safe in the flower meaning department. No "I wish you a painful dismemberment" orchids exist, so it seems.) I'm sure my brother's wife will be glad to hear that, as she's the orchid girl.

Back and Updating

2011-01-05T11:17:00.003-05:00

Holidays are over, hope everyone had a good one and a great New Years Eve! Back in NYC and I'm slowly getting things back in order. Izile's Oddities is open again at etsy, and I've updated the DeviantArt page as well. Just refreshed all my entrecard advertising, and here I am a-blogging-away.

I'll have to get my own life in shape with banking and groceries and all that before I can start putting new things up on etsy, but they are coming. I've even picked out a new scanner/printer so I can finally launch that "From Faerie" (tentatively named) bath line. I was happy with the results of the Fairy Milkmaid Bath Soak I had mixed up and let cure for a good month or so. So all I need to do is top it off and make a label and my first prototype will be up on etsy. It won't be this week, or probably the next, but they are coming!

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But, otherwise, back to plugging random etsy-ers!

Well, we had our Western New Year, but the Chinese New Year isn't until February, and it will be the year of the White Metal Rabbit! Let us hope the rabbit is kinder than the tiger was.

Most unique and awesome result for searching "white metal rabbit?" Awesome hat/mask made by Kristin Costa. This sculptural piece is one of a kind from her own "Alice in Wonderland" themed runway. Gorgeous piece, wish there were more photos.

Snow!

2010-12-14T11:35:00.004-05:00

So we had our first real snow last night here in NYC. A light but constant flurry that seemed to persist for hours and did eventually stick enough for a light coating of white. It always makes the city so beautiful when the snow is fresh. It was a great way to finish a great night.

Also, little note, It is Tuesday the 14th, and I believe I will be putting Izile's Oddities on seasonal hiatus starting Thursday the 16th. So if there is anything any of you might have been wanting to buy from my etsy shop for Christmas, best to do so soon. The SALES listed a couple of posts down are still in effect until the shop goes on seasonal hiatus. I will be back January 3rd, 2011, and will probably have the shop open no later than Jan 4th.

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SNOW! I basically grew up without snow. Maybe we'd get a little snow that would stick once every

4-5 years back in Mississippi, but even then, it

was almost never enough to play with. No, we more got ice, if we got anything at all. So, yes, I still get excited about snow as an adult, because it's something I didn't get to play with or experience much as a child. Here is a photo from

"Snowmageddon" last year that my roommate took of me while I made a pitiful attempt to build a tiny snowman out in our back yard. I will say I have two things working against me when it comes to snowmen, 1) lack of experience, 2) Reynaud's Phenomenon. I won't go into details about #2, but feel free to google.

Now, back to snow on etsy!

So, "snow" results in more pages than I can shake a stick at. So, one of my favorite themes in snow are angry bluebirds. My grandmother did some birdwatching before she passed, and I remember books with lots of photos of puffed up "mad" looking bluebirds in the snow. Well, Makaio's Fotos has a couple of Eastern Bluebird photo prints. They don't necessarily look as ticked off as the ones I remember, but they are truly puffed up! There's also a great variety of other nature based shots to browse through.

And of course, when the results are too overwhelming, I know I can always check in and see what my fellow members at FAE (Fantasy Artists of Etsy) are doing. (You can always check out the items for FAE members by searching "faeteam" on etsy.) I try never to promote the same shop twice, and I've got a lot of the FAE artists covered, but Rainwater Studios has a great piece and is new enough that I've never had the opportunity to feature them before. At right is there Winter Fae Necklace. They've only had a very few sales and have 4 pages full of wonderful things to look at. Lots of great wire wrapping and fantasy themed creations!

Massage

2010-12-07T15:38:00.004-05:00

Oh, I'm so relaxed right now. So, sis gave me a gift card for a massage at a Manhattan spa for Christmas, and I just used it today. This was my first ever, professional, full-body massage. (I had a 30 minute, just back and arms done like. . . 5 years ago, back in Nashville). I am a puddle of goo in a person-shaped balloon. Or, if I want to try and sound slightly like Warren Ellis, I am a well oiled and steaming flesh-sack filled with jelly-meats.

At any rate, it gave me a little inspiration of something to blog about.

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Massage oils and massage bars on etsy!

I mean, seriously, is there anyone out there who doesn't like either giving or receiving a good massage now and again? even if it's just a cozy night in at home?

Now, as always when I blog about these sorts of items, please remember I'm going off product description, ingredient lists and photos. I have no personal experience with any of these

products.

Woo, and there's a lot out there!

For those of you looking for the most bang for your buck, and less interested in flashy packaging, bells and whistles, Moody Shop has the best deal. For her "moisture bars" you get 6 ice cube sized applications in your choice of 3 scents, or unscented, for $2.00 + S&H! That's a

great deal! There are also another 6 categories to browse under in her shop as well.

If you want a little more variety in scent, and gift packaging, Skinplicity has a very extensive shop. There are 9 sections to her shop, but under Herbal Body Butters you will find her own "butter cubes," sold in packs of 4 for $5.00 + S&H and come in over a dozen scent combinations.

Now, these so far are "single serving" products. Some people, however, want a single massive bar in a portable tin (a la LUSH style). For that style, I loved the looks/read of Love Your Body Essentials. She has 6 categories in her shop, but under "Lotions and Creams" you find two choices of either a solid massage bar with tin, or one in a push up style container (think like a giant chapstick tube). I also thing the logo design on the tins and tubes are beautifully done (pictured right).

Wow! Three just for massage bars and I haven't even hit the oils yet! I knew this would be a big post! But hey, lots of options and lots of ideas, right?

When it comes to massage oils, there are tons of options on etsy, but one seller who seemed to have a large selection of scents, great packaging and good information is AromaVana. This shop is brand new, and has yet to have a sale, also! The range is a little more expensive, but also it boasts only organic ingredients and pure essential oils only. Plus, it seems they offer free S&H inside the continental United States for their 100ml bottles.

*whew* well, I hope you enjoy poking through the shops I featured today, they're all definitely worth the browsing, and I hope none of you ever have to go 5 years between massages, and I know I'm never going that long again!

Winter Woods

2010-12-03T14:40:00.004-05:00

December is here, Happy Chanukah to those who celebrate it!

Just put up one new Magic Vial pendant - "Guardian Heart" and was splintering off some red cedar wood to finish it up. The rest is a blend of Obsidian glass and a single chunk of genuine Rub.

The garden has already started dying off, leaving me without basil or mint. The verbena is none too happy, either, and while the sage will be fine, it has stopped putting out fresh growths, which is where I find the

leaves small enough to fit in my bottles.

I need to go for a long walk through the "wilds" of the park and see about foraging winter woods from the ground debris. Maybe

while I'm home in Mississippi for Christmas, I can go wandering through a real old forest and maybe find some things there.

But, despite the cold and recent wet and wind, I feel the need to be amongst trees.

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That's an easy enough segue, isn't it?

I thought I'd start more specifically about cedar, because it's in the vial, and it was always a favorite back home. I remember when Mom was refinishing grandpa's old steamer trunks, she'd always redo the inside in red cedar. I still love going home in the winter, digging through the trunks that hold a wild variety of forgotten treasures and the warm smell of those old trunks.

Unfortunately, that scent is rather hard to synthesize, and I just ended up being a little frustrated and branching out more into the overwhelming general search of "trees." (Yes, Virginia, Izile spent many hours on this one little blog post, didn't she?)

The first thing I came across is a leather iPhone case. Now, I don't have an iPhone, but like everyone else does, right? (heh) Anyway, this is a beautiful piece of leather workmanship and a gorgeous peach tree. Tovicorrie's "Beautiful Skin" has a gorgeous selection of all leather iPhone, iPod and iPad cases as well as a few non-tech-centered leather items. The selections and designs are definitely worth looking through if you have any of those

tech pieces.

Slightly more abstract as how I got from "tree" to this is next plug is PetalMix who is self described as a maker of "hair accessories and brooch pins are a modern twist on the Japanese art of tsumami kanzashi." The "Wood Elf" piece is how I assume I stumbled across her shop (and is pictured at left), but there's a wide selection of colors, styles and fabrics, ranging from $17 to $40. Definitely worth the time to browse the options!

Holiday SALES & Schedule

2010-11-28T15:45:00.003-05:00

First off is the Holiday Schedule for Izile's Oddities.

My etsy shop will be on hiatus from December 15/16 - January 5(?)

My last Post Office drop before I go back to the South will be early Sat., Dec 18th. In order to guarantee timely shipping, all purchases made before 15/16 must be paid in full by no later than Friday the 17th by 5pm, EST.

So, now, for the SALE BIT!

Starting tonight (11/28) until the time of hiatus, I will be offering 3 different holiday sales.

To participate in any of the sales, just enter the "code" and any other pertinent information into the "Message to Seller" field. Depending on which sale you choose, you may have to wait for an adjusted paypal invoice before you pay. Please, if you do not enter any code or information, I will assume you are opting out of the sale and charge you normally!

SALE 1) - Get your choice of any MINI-Print free with any purchase (while supplies last) - CODE: "Free Mini" + which mini you want

SALE 2) - 1/2 OFF all full-sized prints! CODE: 50 Off. First print purchase will get their choice of a free bonus surprise in either Japan theme or NYC theme. Second print purchase will get whichever bonus was not chosen by first purchaser.

SALE 3) - BOGO 1/2 OFF MAGIC VIAL PENDANTS! - Yup, bringing it back just for these couple of weeks. Buy any Magic Vial Pendant and get any other (of equal or lesser value) for HALF OFF! The 1/2 off magic vial MUST be a premade vial already available in shop, but the original purchase vial can be a pre-made or a custom order. CODE: BOGO

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I was a bit scattered in my searching today. I wasn't really sure in what direction I wanted to look for a fellow etsy-er to plug. I admit, I even tried being a little more abstract and doing searches of song lyrics. I guess it just gets daunting, sometimes, when you do a search and it gives you over 34,000 hits. (but you can get overly particular, there's a great lack in the "murano glass hair clip" results.)

In the end, I came back to the one theme that repeats itself so heavily this time of year: "Baby, it's cold outside!"

OK. It's not my sort of thing, and it's above the normal price cap I put on items I blog about, but Obey My Brain Creations MUST be obeyed and must be plugged! After pages and pages of etsy, to have something pop up, smack you in the face and grab your attention by the short hairs, wow. Yes, this must be shown to all.Now, I wasn't sure how to talk about this product though. I really think it's something that needs to be seen first, and I can only imagine the impact of seeing one of these in person, and then poor attempts at verbalizing should follow.

I'm even giving this shop the rare two picture feature, because he does have a hat option under $50. It, too, is of the sort that if seen in public, must be envied, applauded, and then the camera phones must come out, because there's no way you're describing this in a text message.

Rock on, Mr. Freeman! We're glad you're out there.

Holiday Season

2010-11-22T14:17:00.004-05:00

Wooo, it's coming, isn't it? I've already got a few gifts out of the way, and some that will just have to wait a bit.

Thankfully, I've already started getting in the first of the Christmas/Yule/Holiday et al custom orders. As a reminder, I'm always up for custom work, just please note that I require 50% deposit before I create anything custom.

But, it's good. I need the extra paypal funds for my own family and friends. Which reminds me, I am TRADE/BARTER FRIENDLY to anyone who is able to offer a trade in something that I could use as a gift for one of my 4 siblings, 2 parents, 2 sibling's spouses and 3 -soon to be 4

nieces/nephews, or roommate/friends. I am a little picky, but it's something I've done in seasons past and has worked out well when artists/crafters are low on funds and have a lot of people to

shop for.

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In that thought, I'm featuring a couple of things I'm thinking about for other people (who I'm pretty sure don't read this blog.) As always, etsy only promotions.

From Gr0glmann, specializing in toy jewelry, I found these. Yes, purple lightsaber earrings. I kind of wish I'd seen these earlier, as my favorite little jedi is already bought for, and while she loves to kick ass with dual purple lightsabers, I'm not sure if she'd wear them as earrings. Still. Adorable!

Also, I know someone who's very fond of moons, and I cannot tell you

how much I really hate Twilight right now for all the flood of Twilight-themed crap on etsy that comes up when I start trying to look for a "moon" something.

Now, despite the pages of bogged down copyright infringement

items, I did find a lovely shop, Braithwaite Studios specializing in glass works. Beautiful handmade sun catchers, and now this is what you like to see when you search for "moon."

and last one before I have to run to my "day job," which is something I think would be funny for my brother's future first kid, but I'm not sure his wife would be amused.

The Design Vine has this hilarious baby-thing. I know, the photo had to be shrunk to fit and is hard to read, but go to the shop and browse around. See the full size images.

In fact, go to all of these shops and browse around and look at their awesome stuff. Hopefully, I might have given you some ideas for what to get your family/friends.

Weird

2010-11-17T18:28:00.006-05:00

I'm in an odd mood as of late. I don't really know how to describe it or go into it. I've started tutoring a little to help with the income, and it's definitely a "learning experience," in the words of my Mother. I can never tell if she's holding back some kind of sadistic laughter when she says that or if it's honest, genuine. . . . concern? maybe?

So. Yes. Odd.

Oh, look! A new Magic Vial Pendant! I haven't posted one on here in ages! There's two of these currently in my etsy shop at Izile's Oddities, and they're a little different than the rest - they're 50% bigger!

I had made a small ordering error and purchased a small amount of bottles in a size 50% bigger than my standard vials without realizing it. Now, I paid less for this size, but they hold a lot more, but in these cases, I've used some of the least expensive crystals for the base. This one is mostly filled with Rose Quartz with one chunk of Ruby, and then Rosemary and a whole Rose bud. In the end, it works out that they cost about the same as your standard vial pendant.

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Over 24,000 results when you enter the word "weird" into etsy. And there are some SERIOUSLY weird items (though, there are quite a few things that I do not understand how they are "weird" at all.) to be found under the category. There are some amazing "weird" entries if you sort by most expensive and look through the first few pages, but you know, on this blog, I rarely feature anything over $100.00.

I still think my favorite type of "weird" is faux taxidermy. I was never a fan of honest taxidermy as a child - though it was everywhere in the South (not in my house, though!) - as I was rather the type of child who would yell at people for shooting Bambi's Mom and say inappropriate things to friends of my parents, like "what a lovely room of death you have." (me, probably age 9?) However, I have a morbid sense of aesthetic appreciation for fake taxidermy, or gaff taxidermy using roadkill. (And those of you who know me know I left my rather rabid animal rights days behind me shortly after graduation from high school.)

Not exactly what I was thinking I'd find, but the first thing that caught my attention was Harem Royal: Screwpulous Jewelry. I don't normally cut/paste from the shop descriptions themselves, but I find it was too well worded on the front page for me to even attempt writing a better definition: "Deadly Gorgeous Glam Goth, Avant Garde Victorian Steampunk and Vampire Black Forest Taxidermy or just simply Screwpulous Jewelry. Beauty is a weapon, right? Can`t have the femme without fatale!" The prices range from just over $20 to a good bit over $200, to offer everyone a wide range of options for their taste and budget. Please do note, the shipping is from Europe and may be a bit steep for those of us America-side. "Susanoo: the Shinto god of seas, storms and thunder" is shown.

Other than that, I guess all I would say is, apparently my favorite trend of "plush kill" or "felt-i-dermy" is decreasing in popularity, as my favorite old shop seems to have poofered and am not seeing many new examples.

Ah well. Weird.

'Membrance

2010-11-11T17:51:00.004-05:00

I know I need to update this, so I will, but please pardon my melancholy. I tried to think of some way to put it poetically, "Sometimes, I forget to forget." or "Memory is not a safe place for everyone." Or some such, but it just seems. . . a bit vapid. But, yeah, I've been taking some trips down memory lane today, and they are not pretty streets that are well lit and decorated for the Holidays.

A friend of mine always quotes song lyrics when she's in one of these moods, but I'm not going to inflict that on any level of audience I might have.

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Instead, we shall skip ahead to etsy plugs!

Actually, my inspiration for what to search on etsy is taken from my mp3 playlist, as "melancholy dreaming" as it might have once been described to me (and I can't honestly argue with the assessment).

Guitars. I cannot play the guitar. I really have no excuse. There is one rattling around this apartment somewhere. But they work so well with true blues, blues inspired and blues derived musical stylings. Now, I'm not going to plug any real guitars today, because, mainly, I wouldn't be able to tell a good one from a bad one, especially over the internet. My uncle builds handmade guitars out in Brady, Texas, and I know there's a lot more to the buggers than just looks and shapes.

Well now, I found just the best thing to start of this set, today. A new artist to Etsy (registered in April, 2010) with one sale, and out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi (I'm from Mississippi for those of you who might not have picked that up at some point in the past). TKDChamp02 has a small collection of original paintings including the pictured image which is from an "Emotions of the Guitar" series. This piece is "Sorrow." Good luck and keep painting!

Now, I had fully intended when I started this blog post to feature at least 3 different people from etsy. But after this short stint, I'm feeling like I need some alone time with my piano. So, maybe we'll pick this up another time.

Change in the Weather

2010-11-05T11:30:00.003-04:00

Seems like fall is more a season of transitioning than a season unto itself in many ways. Had some cold and wet as of late - my arch nemesis.

Today I'm trying my first batch of fermented "no-knead" bread. It sat out on the counter for 18 hours yesterday, and is rising now. My Mom on her last visit brought me a cast iron dutch oven just so I could do this recipe. Since she makes the best breads I've ever eaten (and I do love a good bakery, but even those in Manhattan fall flat compared to my Moms decades of just making loaf by loaf, variety after variety, type after type, one at a time, all by hand, all from scratch.) I'm apt to believe her when she brought me all the equipment and told me to try this.

We shall see.

EDITED TO UPDATE: LOOKIE!! It's PRETTY!!

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So, obviously, I decided to search "bread" on etsy. . . but after that last statement, how could I plug bread I haven't eaten? Yeah. That's the trick. So, instead, I went under the woodworking subcategory to look at equipment for making your own bread.

Well, Delia Sophia and their hand crafted boards caught my attention right off the top. They range from just under $20 to just over $100 and have an equally wide range of sizes, shapes and even color/patterns. They also note that they're happy to do commission work. Pictured here is one that I find most striking, made of maple and walnut.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T12:26:00.003-04:00

Happy Halloween everybody!!!

Hope everyone has a great holiday, and lots of fun!

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And look! Just in time for Halloween (or Christmas) my favorite perfume makers have made an etsy store!

Their Etsy handle is simply Alchemy Lab and they're currently selling about 10 discontinued limited edition and prototype scents from years past.

That's all I really have time for today, but I did want to pop on and tell everyone HAPPY HALLOWEEN! one more time!

Ghost Chili Revisited

2010-10-28T23:32:00.002-04:00

They're RIPE! I've only found two people brave enough to take a single pepper each off my hands.

I'm still not touching them.

So, I put one up on my etsy shop. ANYONE can buy one. Though, the amount of warning and disclaimer I had to put on that listing. . . whew. . SEE HERE

I thought I should probably make something with one and sell that, like a vinegar or something. But frankly, I'm scared to death of the things. You shouldn't even handle them without goggles, a face mask and gloves.

Of course, you could always just dry it and harvest the seeds and plant one for yourself, if you wanted.

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Of course, if you'd like to grow a bunch of different peppers, and I know it's a bit of the wrong season, but seeds keep well, it looks like Azure Dandelion Garden is your best bet for variety in peppers on etsy!

I'm particularly curious about the variety of heirloom white habaneros! I had not known there was such a thing! Pretty! (though, again, too hot for me).

Of course, if peppers aren't your things, there's also a wide range of equally unusual heirloom varieties of vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, eggplants and much more. There's a good nine pages of stock to browse through! You could plan that spring garden early!

Halloween

2010-10-23T15:22:00.002-04:00

It's creeping ever closer. Just right at a week (depending, of course, on when you read this). I admit it's been a busy fall, and I feel I've been slack on my blogging and DeviantArt updating and my etsy shop hasn't had a good restocking in quite a while. I do hope to be addressing that this weekend, if not tonight.

Last I updated on my own projects, I was working on the From Faerie (still not thrilled with that) bath product line. My first batch, the Fairy Milkmaid bath soak should be just about cured by now, but I still need to test it. Ah, I fear I've got a watercolor temperament going on as of late, but all my projects are calling for oil painting patience. Maybe I should bust out the watercolors, literally, to give me a fast paced project. Or, really, I just just make some more, new, Magic Vial pendants for fall and winter.

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But yes! Halloween, where were we? Wow, the things you find on etsy when you search "Halloween" maybe I should revise it to something a bit more obscure. Ah, "all hallows eve" gives you a much narrower lot to search through.

22 pages ranging from cute and sweet to gorey and spooky, fun and comedic to serious practitioner supplies. It's a good mix!

The one piece that caught my eye, and I guess I'm still a bit in my silhouette phase, is this beautiful Full Moon pendant by Crystal Bouquet. Her shop specializes in these glass tile pendants, and has several pages of variety, from classic movie stills to more graphic pieces like this, and even more styled or "cartoon" images. It's a beautiful selection and definitely worth browsing through

Zombies

2010-10-17T11:47:00.004-04:00

Ahh, so life can now begin to get back into its rhythm. My family that was visiting left, and I had a lot of fun with some new friends at ZombieCon last night. Once I get the ol' bedroom cleaned up, I can start thinking about artsy stuff again.

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in the meantime, as there's still time before Halloween, some zombies from etsy.

I'm going to preface this by saying there are some amazing and very graphic zombie creations on etsy that I will not be featuring because I'm just not in the mood to try and handle that level of graphic rot and gore. If you like that, I recommend the zombie taxidermy heads. However, it's too early in the morning and my stomach is still unhappy from the zombie chicken wings at the Bawl last night.

It would seem like a crime to not feature Undead Ed and his shop on this theme. His pieces are still graphic and gory and very bloody. . . but they're toys. I was always a My Little Pony girl, so that's what I'm showing here. Other favorites in his 6 page shop of horrors include zombified

Care Bears, ninjas, baby dolls and rubber duckies.

And for those who prefer their zombies a little on the cute and cleaner side, Licorice Wits would be my recommendation. This

store displays impossibly cute hand painted wooden kokeshi dolls with a heavy leaning towards zombies and mummies. I liked the zombie nerd boy, pictured left.

And last for my feature, when one is joining a zombie horde, the question always is, "What to Wear?"! While I'm still wondering how much red tempera paint will wash out of blue jeans, you could buy designated zombie wear from Morose Melonhead . Her shop has pages of clothes that are cute, fun, pretty and even sometimes a little punky, creepy and of course, zombie. My favorite of her zombie inspired pieces is pictured here, but the style of her shop is eclectic enough that I think you really need to browse yourself to see.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-10-09T15:22:00.003-04:00

No, I'm not a Bokononist, but I will be this week. So, a short little update now, because my parents will be staying with me for almost a full week, so not much of anything will be getting done.

Went to New York ComicCon yesterday, and aside from just wandering around, basically did NOTHING but hang out at the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab booth for literally hours.

I suggest if you're not familiar with the company, you take some time and just look/read their webpage. And if you'd like to see more products, visit their Black Phoenix Trading Post. I has lusciousness in the form of Treatsie Bath Oil, Sagardoa Soap, and other goodies!

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and because I refuse to break my streak of plugging etsy sellers:

Well, if you were a BPAL addict like me, you would probably need a place to put all your bottles and samples and loot and swag and such.

Now, there are some beautiful, immaculate boxes, hand carved, inlaid wood patterns, amazing real craftsmanship for a few hundred dollars. However, those who might read my blog on occasion know I try and keep things, usually, a little more frugal. So I will be looking at catches my eye under $50.00.

Small Note: just in case any etsy box makers see this. Please remember to take at least one picture of the inside of your box. It matters.

Tims Green Thumb is the first shop that absolutely made me sit up and pay attention. I love the contrast and interest in his Handcrafted Recycled Wood Box (pictured.) It's made out of redwood and is still under $50, even after the shipping and handling! You can tell it's made of thick, good pieces of wood, and I love the contrast in the different colors of wood.

His shop is full of all variations of colors and styles of boxes. Beautiful workmanship and very reasonable prices! Great places to keep "the precious." :-)

Experimenting

2010-10-03T13:15:00.004-04:00

So, I've been experimenting in my head recently. Not finding what I want (which, I will admit, is made harder by not knowing what I want) has spurred me to try and create something to fill what appears to be a lack. I haven't really been finding much in the way of fantasy/fairy bath products. (Side note, I really can't use bar soaps because of my sensitive skin, so I'm not counting soaps). I've been looking on etsy, googling, and I'm just not finding the particular genre I want. I remember there used to be so many, so maybe the reason there aren't, anymore, is because they're not very popular. Could definitely be the case that the fae arent' as "trendy" as they once were. I found a few shut down, closing, or long abandoned webpages.

So, I present my first knock-up draft - just a photoshop creation at the moment, I'm still pricing ingredients - Fairy Milkmaid bath soak. Please forgive, it's a rough work up, just to get an idea.

"From Faerie" is just a working title for the subset of Izile's Oddities this would be if it happens and works out. I've had another friend suggest "Something Sidhe." Working on that, but I want something to convey that these aren't just going to be your regular products with lots of pink dye and glitter thrown in and a fantasy name

on the product. I've been doing my research and reading up on the Celtic Fae in particular. Reading up on what attracts different fae, what are their habitats, their connections. All the care and research I put into my Magic Vial Pendants, I'm putting into these.

The tiny script reads: "A soothing and moisturizing blend of buttermilk and shea butter infused with marigold and thyme."

In olden times, Irish milkmaids would churn marigold petals in with their butter to help enhance color, and as I have grown and dried organic marigold petals, this is an easy additive for me. The thyme, also organic from my own garden, is a favorite herb of fairies, and is said to help foster fairy magics. That combined with the moisturizing properties of shea butter and the enriching and vitamin packed properties of buttermilk - with just a touch of fizz to the soak - I think would make one heck of a product!

I've already got the rough drafts of 6 products, 3 bath soaks and 3 bath salts.

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Now, something that I DID find in the bath n body tag that is totally what I've been looking for. ..

but not -fae- is Pixxxie Pie and Posie. I know, with that name I was expecting high fantasy, too. But instead, am PLEASANTLY surprised to find probably some of the best steampunk bath and body products I've ever seen.

Every detail, from the thoughtful blend of ingredients, the cleaver wording of the listing, the detailed labeling, the beautiful photography. THIS. Just. THIS.

The pictured bottle is of her 4oz bath oil blend. Though, she carries a lot more in the way of perfume oils, she also has salts, bombs, butters, scrubs, and of course, lots and lots of bar soaps.

I highly recommend taking some time to look over her store. It's really quite fun!

Restless

2010-09-29T22:54:00.002-04:00

So, I've been a bit restless as of late. I haven't known what I wanted to create or work on, really. I've had a bit of a window-shopping bug as well, but haven't found much I really like.

Either my google-foo has gotten weak, or there just isn't the variety of independent business on the internet that have much of a magical/fantasy/fae-esque twist to them - except in art and jewelry. I seem to remember there being lots more fantasy inspired clothing designers, bath/body/candle shops, and other things best filed under "miscellany," several years ago.

I want magic in everyday places where I'm not finding it. I want magical socks and fantasy bath products! And, on the bath/body product front, I don't want the same old formulaic, generic churn out you find in the scores. Shops that resale the fake resin fairy sculptures from the 'anyone can be a wholesaler' catalog are no more inspiring and magical than people who go to an online wholesale company and order premade bases for lotions, bath salts, oils, etc., and then just add another prepackaged premixed scent oil to the base.

Also. Adding glitter does not automatically make something "magical" or "in the fantasy genre."

I'm restless. I'll keep looking for whatever it is that I'm not finding, but it is frustrating, because I have the feeling that years ago, there was much more out there. I remember a website that I

used to love to look at called The Faerie Tree that had the most original, unique and beautiful customized parasols. I can barely remember anything about the website or the parasols, but I remember it was beautiful and different and I loved it and I think the internet is a lesser place that it's not there, and apparently hasn't been for years.

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Now, how can I possibly plug an etsy shop after that diatribe? Well, today, it's not easy. It seems everything I've been looking for, for myself and for others, is just coming up bust on etsy. (Not finding the kind of Celtic torcs/torques a guy friend has been looking for, nor a similar style leather kidney belt. Have found basically nothing under "scuppernong" at all. And fairiesque lacy parasols are non-existent as well.)

I DID, however, find a shop to add to my favorites list. When in my quest for the still intangible desire for God only knows what, I actually started clicking on almost every single banner ad I came across, and looped and looped around until it landed back on etsy at Dark Fusion Boutique .

Gothy, romantic, whimsical and playful with the occasional nod to steampunk, they really gave me a break from what was becoming weary work. It was a joy to look at their webpage and their esty branch. (Yes, they also have a .com HERE )

I think my favorite piece currently for sale in their etsy shop is this red and black striped halter. They have a lot of variations on this basic garment, however, so if it's not quite your style, definitely look over the shop for different models. And if you just want to look at something to help recharge your aesthetic batteries, visit the website

Autumnal Equinox

2010-09-23T12:26:00.005-04:00

So, Fall is finally here. Thankfully, I am also finally caught up with all my custom orders. Pictures of all 12 Zodiac charms are up at my DeviantArt gallery. Hopefully, soon, that will translate into more, new Magic Vial Pendants!

In the meantime, my thoughts have really been lingering on food. I'm still waiting on those peppers to ripen, and have been doing some research into maybe how to make them into consumables for etsy. But, more so, after reading this month's Bon Appetit magazine, I'm thinking about mushrooms.

First off, besides being wonderfully tasty and fun to cook with, according to Bon Appetit, mushrooms contain CLAs that help fight cancer. You can read the entire blurb HERE. The magazine also had a lovely wild mushroom risotto recipe from Lidia Bastianich!

So, that's where my head is right now, dreaming of mushroom risotto, seared duck breasts, lamb shanks, and caramel apples.

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And, since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (why, as the above article says, you'll be seeing mushrooms in little pink containers), I thought it only right we look to see what Etsy-ers are doing.

The perfect etsy item for this blog to feature today? The Miniature Fairy Art Doll - "No More Tears."

This sculpture by Sandy Copeland has everything! First, it's a fairy, and as a member of Fantasy Artists of Etsy, I'm always happy to see something fae-ish. It's pink for Breast Cancer Awareness, and she's sitting on a mushroom! She's even holding a pink ribbon and has an awareness ribbon necklace to boot!

She has a lot of other fascinating sculptures as well, so definitely worth the browsing!

Bhut Jolokia Pepper or the Ghost Chili

2010-09-13T15:22:00.007-04:00

I should like to preface this with stating that I have no tolerance for heat. I cannot handle standard variety hot peppers, let alone jalapeños. I once, in a grand moment of stupidity, tasted a habañero out of my mother's garden, and will not soon forget that lesson. That said, what possessed me to plant two little Bhut Jolokia plants in my garden this year? Object lesson?

Well, one survived, and is pictured here for it's current state.

So, I don't know how long it will take them to go from green to red, but there's already a good 7 peppers on the plant in this stage, and as you can see if you look close, a lot of flowers and buds. It seems the one surviving plant is going to yield quite the bumper crop. Much more than my house needs.

So, I've been thinking of what to do with them. I've asked friends and there is very little interest in anyone trying one of the world's hottest peppers. My roommate has suggested I

make Ghost Chili Oil and Ghost Chili Vinegar to sell on my etsy shop. I am considering it.

Thing is, I'm unsure of a market for this type of thing. Google shows tons of people seeking desperately fresh bhut jolokia peppers (seriously? contact me) but when I look on etsy, there's not much in the way of hot pepper oil or vinegar, and none of the ghost chili variety.

Then again, I built Izile's Oddities on carrying things that couldn't be found elsewhere. So it would go well with my other experiments.

Would love to hear thoughts, comments, interest, questions, whatever.

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Now, that's not to say there's not hot pepper edibles on etsy! Oh no! I looked and I found some seriously curious goods.

Fusion Sweets probably has one of the most unique uses with their "Some Like It Hot Thai Habanero Butter Caramels." Now, this person has some serious heat tolerance, as quoted from her own listing: "**I thought the habanero burn was too soothing (I know... what's wrong with me?) so I added in Thai chili peppers for a more immediate kick.**"

And just to be fair, I should mention that they offer a lot of non-spiced treats as well, for those of us who can't handle the fire. In the caramel section alone, there's sea salt, matcha green tea, kona coffee, dark chocolate, peanut butter, English breakfast black tea, chocolate peppermint, vanilla flavors, and even a Halloween special where you can mix and match the above flavors into your own half orange/red hald black/brown (or other) layered caramels. Tasty!

DragonCon

2010-09-11T14:37:00.004-04:00

Yeah! Back, and I know, I was technically back on Wednesday, but it's been kind of weird/strange slow-ish week, and at least one day of hell.

So, first, I have yet to locate any *good* pictures of us from D*Con, have been scouring flickr and google and other as much as I can and so far, nada. So, if you see us, let me know. Might even throw in a thank you goodie of some kind.

So, a revamped of last year's Mad Scientists costume:

Goggles by: Darkly Sewn of Etsy

Both Lab Coat/Lab Coat Dress customs by: Aughra Moon (

roommate and pro seamstress)

Arm band Test Tube holder by: Lost Realm of Etsy

Thigh holster by: BoMoLuTra of Etsy

Raygun by: Agent of Chaos of Etsy

Boot spats by: Faitavec of Etsy

(and those are fiber optic hair clips I got off ebay, and the

pink stuff in the test tubes is X-rated, lovely neon pink vodka liqueur flavored with blood orange, mango and passion fruit. Nummy! And a nice way to spike a Sprite in the hotel lobby!)

And then there was our Steampunk costumes. This is our first year with them, and we'll both need a LOT of accessories before next year to up the steampunk factor.

Now, this is the ONLY picture I have of us in these costumes together, so this one is a HUGE - PLEASE - if you see a picture of us in these costumes, let me know! I don't know what happened, between my camera, Bentley's Iphone (which is one of the new ones with the actually decent camera) and our other friend, Mel's camera (this one was from hers).

Goggles by: Darkly Sewn of Etsy

Necklace, obviously by me, Izile's Oddities

Shirt by Lip Service Corset by: Timeless Trends

Skirt by: Aughra Moon (roommate and professional seamstress)

and Bentley's leather doublet and shirt are by: Ravens Wood Leather (he also wanted me to note that he did actual have pirate boots that he did end up wearing, they were just in the car and he hadn't gone and gotten them yet)

So, those were the costumes of this year, and those are all the etsy sellers who helped me put together these looks. And you know I'll be looking for more for next year!!

Also, one last thing. They aren't etsy sellers, but I love it so much I have to brag. DragonCon weekend always falls on Labor Day weekend, which is always my Birthday weekend (9/4), so while the whole trip is kind of a birthday present, this was my actual tangible birthday present from Bentley, from Brute Force Leather

DragonCon Prep

2010-08-30T10:51:00.002-04:00

Also, getting ready for DragonCon! I go Wednesday to crash at a friend's place so we can take the bus together to the air port Thursday to Atlanta for a whole extended weekend of Geekish Fun!

I found this seller on etsy yesterday, as I had just realized that I hadn't even thought about what to do with my hair for my new steampunk costume. I love her stuff, unfortunately, I do not have time to buy anything and have it shipped before I leave. Maybe next time. This stuff is awesome, though!

Antickquities is a shop that focuses almost exclusively on steampunk hair adornments. They range in price from $5.00 to $20.00 and are made at various levels of ornamentation and in a few different colors. Mostly, watch hands are her base, but I absolutely love the way she creates different shapes with basically straight lines. If only I had found her in time, I'd probably be wearing these at DragonCon!

Lag

2010-08-25T15:18:00.003-04:00

I know I'm lagging behind, but I haven't had a month as bad as August since March; and in some ways, March wasn't nearly as bad.

Haven't been able to have much time to work on pendants, as I have gotten a custom order for 19 pendants (5 elemental set, entire zodiac set and a couple of special requests).

I just want this month to be over, I wish it never happened.

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So, I'm going to pretend September is here, and think about Dragon*Con, and my birthday, and hope that September will be the respite from this horrible month.

The same shop kept coming up repeatedly while I was searching for "september sapphire" on etsy, so here, look at this lovely shop while I continue in the "F.M.L." vein.

. . .

2010-08-15T16:02:00.003-04:00

The only news I have to share is that I spent last Saturday morning in the E.R. trauma ward because I was stupid and landed on my foot wrong and spent the next week in a splint on crutches and nice pain pills. No splint or crutches or pain pills this week, but it still hurts a lot and I can't walk very far.

FML. Seriously. F.M.L.

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So, again, look at this instead:

?

2010-08-05T12:00:00.003-04:00

Sorry, I just can't right now.

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Look at this, instead.

Updating?

2010-07-27T11:18:00.003-04:00

Yes, well, I suppose I should. Things have been rather stressful the past week or so, and I've wanted to crawl under a rock and hide in my basement. Last night, I made myself get out of the house with some friends, because I knew it'd do me good, and staying home and sobbing for another day wasn't going to make my life any better.

Went out, had a great time, feeling so much better - AND - I won $97 at bingo!

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So, let's see what comes up on etsy when you look at "bingo."

Well, it looks like one of the hottest "bingo" items is the Bingo Book. There are a few different sellers of these on etsy, but I've picked Another Work in Progress for today. Bingo Books are blank books, perfect for doodling, journaling, or keeping score when playing your favorite game at the bar, that are hand bound between two vintage Bingo cards for the cover.

The ones for sale by Another Work in Progress are available in a variety of colors, white or rainbow colored blank pages, and range from $28 to $50. Exceedingly cute!

And if Bingo's not your thing, don't worry, they also sell a variety of other board game books, original spiral and hand bound books, and even some tiny book pendants! So there's plenty to browse through.

Sale Extension!

2010-07-17T21:09:00.003-04:00

Well, got no bites on the BOGO 1/2 off sale, and then I was reminded that there's Christmas In July going on at Etsy, so I have also added the choice, if you don't want 2 items, to just take 25% off the top of any single purchase! Just put "Christmas in July" in the note to sellers field and I'll send an adjusted invoice with the sale price.

I'm in need of new blank canvases. . . I used up my last one last night on this, my first ever acrylic painting, "Ghostly Trees."

There was a heat and air quality advisory here in the city yesterday, so I went and hid in the Natural History Museum. All the earth and space science makes me want to. .. paint? Yeah, not quite sure how that works in my brain either, but I came home and wanted to paint either trees, or a nebula. Well, nebula's watercolor, and I only had the one canvas left, which had been primed in acrylic by my last boyfriend over two years ago, and has sat, untouched, since. So, yeah for me, I painted over the canvas. Today I hung it over my piano. Still want to do a nebula, but will have to wait until I can buy new canvases. Thus, THE SALE!

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You can search "christmasinjuly" on etsy and find other artists trying to squeeze a buck out of this limping economy.

and what jumped out at me so quick, so bright, a little on theme with my latest painting. . . MADART! It is a four piece painting, each section of canvas being 8 x 24. The title is "Hot and Cold" and depicts one sprawling abstract tree against four variated backgrounds. MADART's CIJ sale is 50% off of everything in their shop until July 25th. That brings this piece down just under $80, for 4 canvases of high color acrylic painting!

And while this piece was the first to jump out at me, MADART has 3 pages of paintings, all gorgeously painted! There's also a good variety of styles, if you are a fan of less abstract forms, more classical lines, that's covered as well! More trees, and even some very detailed, realistic depictions of animal paintings are right along side with the more abstract and colorful. I highly recommend flipping through to see some great original art at really affordable prices!

BOGO SALE!!

2010-07-10T20:23:00.003-04:00

OK, so the Hester Street Fair didn't go so well. To boot, my unemployment finally ran out. . . and my ebay sales just ended pretty darn low. (I just sold a vintage Christian Dior tuxedo for $10.00 - wow). So, that means A SALE!!!

Starting right now, until, I dunno, maybe Friday? At least until Friday, BUY ONE GET ONE HALF OFF! *ANYTHING* at my etsy shop, Izile's Oddities!

All you have to do, is when you buy your items through etsy, put in the "Comments to seller" blank the word "BOGO." I'll see that, then I'll send you an adjusted sale invoice that you can pay through paypal.

Elfy needs to buy groceries. *sighs*

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I actually typed "BOGO sale" into etsy and almost immediately found this absolutely GORGEOUS print by Moonlight Photography! It's called "One Enchanted Evening" and is included in the sellers Summer BOGO sale, where you can get another print for free.

I particularly like the glowing seedpods that remind me of the center of shattered clematis vines like my Mom grows back home. There's also 8 pages of prints, so there's plenty to look through!

Quiet Summer

2010-07-05T15:16:00.002-04:00

I know it seems like it, but there's more going on live, I suppose. I'm doing the Hester Street Fair again this SATURDAY (July 10). So, if you live in the NYC area, and you missed me last time, I'll be giving it another go. I admit, I looked at weather.com today and had a bit of a groaner-moment. Last time, it rained from like 2pm-6pm, and being an outside market, that kind of killed the foot traffic. So, today I was watering my garden and thinking, "it's been a long time since we had some rain," and sure enough, weather.com is predicting "scattered thunderstorms on Saturday." I'm really hoping for much scattering, like, rain over in Brooklyn, or upper Manhattan, or Bronx or Westchester, and nice south Manhattan will be cool and a little cloudy, but no rain.

Again, because I want the most stock possible on Saturday, I'm not listing my new Magic Vial Pendants on my etsy shop until after I've had a chance to try and sell them in person. Also, like last time, I will shut down Izile's Oddities on Friday, just so there's no confusion of two people buying the same piece (one on-line, one in person).

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So, I hope everyone had a lovely July 4th, yesterday. We had a small get-together in our back yard with way too much food on the grill; but it was a lot of fun!

Now, today's plug came to my attention in an odd way. I have, in the past, mentioned I have a small addiction problem to collection Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume oils and other related goodies from their Trading Post. Well, one thing I like about the company is the community, and if you get a 1ml sample (often called "imp's ears") of a perfume oil and don't like it, there's a whole community based around trading and swapping these samples. . a lot like baseball cards for those of you from my parents' generation. Well, I had done a little swap and noticed an etsy address on the business card included with my "imps" and decided to give it a little peek.

So, that round-a-bout way is how I found new seller (as of May 08, 2010!!) Crafty Williows. She hasn't sold anything yet, but has 100% positive feedback as a buyer, and I can at least attest that when it comes to her shipping practices, she packages well, mails quickly and is prompt with communication. Also, her art pieces on her etsy shop are really nifty! It was a hard choice on which piece to put a picture of, but I think her "Crop Circles" necklace is one of my favorites! The copper wire and garnets with the swirling patterns (evoked from an actual crop circle) has a nice, warm almost fiery quality. So far, the majority of her items are in a similar family of wire-wrapped jewelry pieces, though there are one pair of etched stemware. Such a new seller though, I think we are only seeing the beginnings! So, go support new etsy sellers when we see them, and remember, dropping hearts on etsy is free!

Summer!

2010-06-29T11:42:00.008-04:00

Whew. I know I haven't been around this week, been a bit busy. Also, I'm trying to finalize the information and payment so I'll be back at Hester Street Fair on July 10th. A Saturday this time!

I'll need to make some more Magic Vial Pendant (which I am woefully behind on. Maybe today I can fix that, I've got some Burn Notice to catch up on, and I can do the basics of wire wrapping and stone breaking mostly in front of a tv.) and since they went over so well, I'll probably make more bath bombs! I did go, on the advice of other vendors that were there last time, pick up some plastic sleeves for my prints. I have a couple left over, so I'm thinking about running into the city and having just a couple more made. Also thinking of doing some smaller 4x6 sized prints. The two I'm considering adding as smaller prints are pictured below.

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Well, it's finally getting hot out there. I'm hearing a lot of completely complain, but I won't be one of them! (Even though I do not have a/c). This sun and heat is great for my garden, and as long as I keep up with my SPF, I enjoy the heat.

This weekend I actually had a job, out in the sun for several hours, as I worked the Governor's Island Polo Match. I had never seen polo before, but I love horses and look a lot of lessons when I was younger (hunt seat was always my favorite), so I was excited to get to see some of the

game.

It's funny, because more new things lead to more new things. For example, I searched "polo" on etsy, and look what I found! Whinney Wear, for horses! One of the items she makes the most of are polo wraps for the legs of your horse or pony. Now, my parents could never afford for me to have my own horse, but if I would have, I would have wanted these! Right around the end of the 80's, I was all about bright neon geometric patterns on black backgrounds. (Hey, it was the 80s, I was a child). If you (or your child) are more of a girly-girl (the kind that gets tempted with pink vegetable dye around Halloween hoping to turn your stable pal into a My Little Pony for the night) there's also a pink red and white swirly/paisley heart pattern set. In addition, I find the custom painted fly masks (with cartoon eyes staring at a cartoon fly) a funny piece of work; and she also has some equestrian themed jewelry to boot. For those of you lucky enough to be horse owners, I would highly recommend you take a peek at this shop.

Wow. What a Week!

2010-06-20T16:55:00.004-04:00

Busy, busy week! First, Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Secondly, yesterday was Mermaid Parade at Coney Island! Wooo! Here's a picture of me and my roommate, we marched with Princess Sunshine and her Resurrection Army!

Over on DA I half-joked about wanting to run a special contest. Find pictures of me and my roommate from the internet (that I haven't already found, I've got 3 so far form flickr, the rest from a friend's Iphone) and get 10% off for each picture you find. Of course, I don't think anyone would be willing to take on that challenge! Just try and type in "mermaid parade" into flickr and see what happens! That, and I'd have to keep running tallies of all the pictures already found,

otherwise, everyone would keep submitting the same 3 pictures. I know, I'm just being a bit lazy. All that posing for cameras every minute or so, I'm anxious for some payoff!

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Not much in the way of entries on etsy from "mermaid parade" but "mermaid" has a ton!

The first thing that caught my eye was Contrived to Charm's Hand-tooled, mermaid waist cincher. It's hard to tell in this head-on shot, but in the listing there's a tiny detail shot that shows the beautiful blue-green and silver-shimmer color of this belt. It is NOT the slightly shiny blackish brown it appears to be in this picture. Though, you can request this belt in two other color patterns, including "Dragon" (for black and red) and "Peacock" (for blue/purple and green).

Her shop is full of various kinds of these wide belts and waist cinchers in a great selection of colors, patterns and designs. Definitely worth the peek!

Blargum

2010-06-17T11:30:00.002-04:00

Exciting title, right? Just kinda how I'm feeling this morning.

So, the fair went fairly well. It did rain from almost 2-6pm, so no customers for that part of the day. I had a few experiments at table that are not on my etsy store. I had made homemade bath bombs. I had a "Blackberry Bramble" which was blackberry fragrance oil with rose petals and cocoa butter; and I had a "Sweet Summer Tea" that was lemon balm, lemon and peach fragrance oil with cocoa butter. Those sold out and most of them went pretty fast. I had only made 4 of each, so it didn't take much to wipe them out. Something to consider for future fairs. I also had made a batch of my "Demon Cookies" to give away free as product testing. Everyone seemed to love them, one lady told me I should be charging $3.00 a piece. Wow!

So, I guess now I just look for the next available opportunity.

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Well, it's slowly getting to be that time of year where my thoughts turn to DragonCon, my costume, and the Mad Scientists Ball.

Sadly, while steampunk gets more and more popular, and more and more a broad-spectrum and inclusive term, mad science just isn't really growing the way I'd hoped. Kids today, they just don't have the same global-domination dreams like we did when I was little!

I admit, I was looking for something particular. Remember last year at this time, I plugged this Mad Scientist Shooter Bar for drinking your shots out of test tubes. Well, I was told by a friend who went with me, that they saw a guy at the nearby liquor store who had the same concept, but built into a leather wrist brace. Apparently, he was standing at the counter, holding his wrist up to explain, pointing to the slots for each test tube saying "rum, vodka, bourbon, tequilla. . ." I wanted to see if such a thing was on etsy. . . sadly no. It's not as cleaver as the Steampunk Professor X who's steam powered wheelchair also chilled and dispensed massive quantities of any liquid, but I figure it'd also be a lot less labor, time and money.

Muah-ha! With persistence I have found Lost Realm's "Potion Holder" which, isn't 6+ test tubes around the wrist, but two off the belt is going in the right direction! Pictured left is the "simple" potion holder, but for $5.00 extra, there is another potion holder in a nearly black-brown leather with a D-ring for attachments and screw on metal caps.

This seller seems brand new. Joined in May of 2010, has four items for sale and 1 positive feedback and 1 sale. You know I always like to encourage everyone to help out the new guys! My costume doesn't have a belt (and wouldn't look right to add one) but I may have to talk to my guy-friend (who wants a belt) about this possible addition!

Hester Street Fair

2010-06-09T16:54:00.004-04:00

For those of you in and about New York City, Sunday, June 13th, I will be vending at the Hester Street Fair in lower Manhattan (corner of Seward Park at Hester St. & Essex St.) It is also (for the locals) 4 blocks up from the JMZ/F train Essex-Delancey subway stop and just a little over 1 block down from the F train East Broadway stop. Official Website for those wanting more information.

It was a last minute cancellation that made this available to me through the {New New} Etsy Street Team. Their links are always present on the lower right side of this blog. And if you are a New York City etsy crafter and not a member of the {New New}, then I might point out that I believe June is one of their joining months, so contacting them now about joining (only $5.00 a year) would be good timing. I will be sharing space with two other {New New} members, whom I will be plugging below in my featured section.

That said, so far I've, of course, got lots of Magic Vial Pendants to sell, and have just come back from the print shop and have a limited run of prints of my original watercolor paintings that will be for sale as well.

Hope to see some of you there, and keep your fingers crossed for me! This will be my first craft fair since the first Steampunk Day at the Brooklyn Indie Market.

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As mentioned above, there will be two other {New New} vendors also attending this Sunday.

Apeture Agog - described as Needlecraft Graffiti, Derby Action and Mischief. Has a very unique and interesting collection of crafts. Photography, t-shirts (those would be the Roller Derby items), and even night lights are in her

arsenal of artistry. I chose a picture of the Needlecraft Graffiti, because I think that that phrase is wonderful and needs to be seen to be grasped.

The other vendor, I'm a little confused about, to be honest. She's on the list to be there this Sunday, but Hester Street Fair is not included in her list of places she'll be on her etsy shop or on her blog. Hmm. Well, I'm a cautious girl, so I'll include her anyway. (hey, her stuff's good whether she's at Hester or whether the roster on the team page is a bit behind).

Claudia Pearson Illustration has cute and sometimes a little quirky drawings available as prints, bags, coloring books and even tea towels! She's got very interesting and detailed prints of local goods and "Brooklyn Bugs" but I really love the color saturation and design of her Summer tea towels - plus what a neat and innovative way to display a print! - so that's what's pictured here at right.

So, if you're in the area, come check out Hester Street Fair, and if you can't get here, visit us on etsy and keep an eye out for future markets this summer!

Blarg!

2010-06-06T15:31:00.004-04:00

Yup, what a title, huh? But I'm feeling a bit that way. I had posted a while back about thinking about prints and I've been chasing that down a bit here and there. I had a little "cafe-cash" from my old old cafepress accounts, so I bought a mini-poster print of my Kudzu and Honeysuckle from them. The paper quality was really good, and the print was fine, not sure I care for the glossy, and I had to have a couple of ends cut back so there wouldn't be white borders (and that cost me a couple of dollars to have done), and without the discount, yeah, not really affordable as a way for me to have prints made. So, I'm now testing out DeviantArt's print making services, though I'm already unhappy because unless you pay for a pro account, they don't give the original artist any discount off the cost of their own prints. It's $6.99 for you, it's $6.99 for me. That sucks. Trying a test print of my Fantasy Map watercolor painting that I had finished a few weeks back (pictured here). At least I was given the option of a matte finish. So, we'll see, but I seriously doubt I'll use them again.

So, back to the drawing board, and probably just burning a cd

and hitting the city on foot to see the prices of having prints made at various places around town. I don't really want to order 50 or more at a time, and I would like something that isn't just an 8.5 x 11 piece of nice paper. Blah, being picky.

Advice, suggestions, comments, always welcome.

Otherwise, it's finally warm enough out there that I can be outside 24/7 without having to worry about my Reynaud's. Which means I've started looking at craft fairs. Here's hoping I find something that fits Izile's Oddities (so much of my stuff is so small, and being unemployed - again - means I don't really have $150+ to throw down on a gamble, especially when most of my stock, is not only small, but under $20 a piece.) Would love to find other crafters who'd like to split space.)

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Personally, I've been feeling very lost and confused as of late. Just about everything. It's a bit disconcerting. Seems there's so much to fret over in our world today. It's easy to give in to the stress and worry.

Today, I'm featuring shops and items that are doing what they can to help with the Gulf Coast. I grew up in northeastern Mississippi, hours away from the coast, but this isn't just a local

tragedy that will only affect those living in the region. This level of disaster will touch us all personally, if given enough time.

Now, at the top of the list today is Happy Wren. She has a number of original oil paintings of wildlife, and depending on the painting, up to 90% of the sale price goes to charities to help animals in the Gulf. I will point out, just out of caution, that this seller has no feedback and no sales. Considering these paintings can be a few hundred dollars, and the majority of these funds are supposed to be ear-marked for charity, make sure you get your receipts and any paperwork you need to verify the donation.

Next, in the medium price range is Squirrel Bunny, based out of New Orleans, and she is selling this Sterling Silver whale pendant, with the net proceeds going to the

Audubon Society Oiled Animal Rescue.

Also, Yardia, Jane Austen inspired paper products, all the way out in Seattle, WA, is

dedicating a whole section of her etsy shop to the Gulf Coast. 100% of all proceeds from these pieces will go to Oxfam America's Gulf Coast Oil Spill Response Fund. These elegant drawings are a good way if you want to donate through an etsy artist, but don't have a lot of money at your disposal. Items in this section range from $14 to $30.

So, visit these artists, support their work and support the Gulf.

New FAE Exhibit!

2010-06-02T14:37:00.003-04:00

A new collection from the artists of Fantasy Artists of Etsy themed around all things oceanic.

And Izile's Oddities does have a couple of submissions this time, though, a favorite from the page (you can click the banner) is Keelaz Kreationz 's Mer-cat bookmarks.

So, take your time, browse through the watery deep, and remember, you can always find FAE goods on etsy by searching "faeteam."

Well then . . .

2010-05-27T17:03:00.003-04:00

. . . That didn't last long. OK, back on the dole. Well, on the up side, this will be a really long weekend!

Speaking of. . . . oh dear me. . . I'm trying to be social and throw together a last minute (kinda) cookout for Monday! Here's hoping it goes better than my previous attempts at being social!

And randomly, pictured left is a new Magic Vial Pendant, a bit of a throw-back to my original line made several years ago. This one is a bottle variation on the old Desert theme with genuine turquoise, quartz crystal, and sage leaves and flower buds in copper wire.

I also did succeed in listing my first print on etsy last week, the Kudzu and Honeysuckle image from my last blog post, and am looking into maybe making prints of other works as well.

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Oh, summer's coming, had our first day of 90+' weather! and boy was I happy about it, too! Won't be long before it's time to hit Coney Island.

So, today's search was the word "bikini."

Now, I'll admit, I've got a bias against expensive swim wear, because lycra is cheap and it doesn't take a lot of fabric, especially to make a bikini. If I think that it's an engineering miracle, that makes a difference, but I've seen very few swim suits that have the true architecture and amazing contour engineering to be worth 3 figures. (The only exception is chainmail bikinis, those things can be amazing feats of engineering AND take incredibly long to make AND the materials to make them aren't cheap. Love chainmail bikinis, wish I could afford a good one, but we're not doing that feature today.)

Now, for swim wear that will have you standing out, I like Fables by Barrie. She has a very cute line of swim wear dedicated to a very vintage pinup aesthetic. Lots of red, white and blue and lots of beautiful details and patterns to make you look like a calendar girl from yesteryear. My favorite (pictured at right) is this cute nautical bikini with sailor inspired high-waisted bottoms.

Barrie also has a small line of clothing that has a similar feel but much more daily life appropriate.

Job-Hopping

2010-05-18T22:06:00.004-04:00

Last few weeks I was working full-time in a law firm, tomorrow I start a P/T gig as a Gal Friday on the upper east side. Ah, the glamorous life of a temp! But, you know, regular work just doesn't leave much time for anything else. So, I have hopes for this new gig-to-be. It's open-ended, which means it'll last until they either decide that I'm superfluous or they want to keep me. The pay's not the best, - better than retail! - but I like the idea of 5 hours a day, 4 days a week, especially during the summer months! Should leave me plenty of time to still work on Izile's Oddities, my garden, cook, shop, hang out with friends, etc.

Speaking of Izile's Oddities, I know the official shop's been quiet this week, but the DeviantArt gallery has shown some non-sales activity (which might be sales later, all depending). I've finally gotten off my painting laurels (traditional and digital). I finished my first two photoshop paintings (both started roughly 2 1/2 years ago and not touched in over two years until this week). I also finally got around to cleaning up one of my most popular watercolor paintings and submitting it to a company for a test print. If it comes out to a high enough quality, looks like I'll be selling prints in my Etsy shop (oh, what the heck, see the painting in question at left.) (I've also ordered a smaller test print of a sticker of my "Swirly Frog."

I'm also very nearly done with an original watercolor painting of a Fantasy map. I recently finished watching the BBC 4-part mini-series "The Beauty of Maps" and it reminded me of these giant fantasy maps I used to draw as a teenager (did my first one in 7th grade. By age 16, I had one on either wall of my bedroom, one was 4 ft x 6 ft, the other was 6 ft x 8 ft - every inch hand drawn, colored, labeled and entirely laminated (with help from my Mom). So, feeling nostalgic, I've got a small watercolor map that just needs labeling. I can't decide if I should do it in English, Latin, or do each city in the corresponding language (Human cities in English, Elven cities in Tengwar, Dwarven tunnels in Runes).

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Oh, I'm chatty tonight! So, now onto the Etsy plugging.

I've also been pondering pieces for another DragonCon costume this year. I was thinking of a High Elf and/or Changling the Lost Sidhe (Muse or Flowering Fairest). I admit, I'm terribly picky, and have seen some great fairy, pixie, even a few wood elf costume pieces, but not much in the flavor of the genre I'm going for. So, not finding what I wanted, I predict that Alice in Wonderland will be *huge* at D*Con this year. (The costumes from the most recent movie were a-maz-ing!)

Now, one shop in particular has spun out their own take on the whole Wonderland wardrobe with a pretty fresh eye that looks neither borrowed from either of Disney's productions: Alter-Eco Clothing. They currently have five different listings for "Eco Alice" pieces. I do like the "Mad Hatter Waistcoat" but I think my favorite is the (pictured right) Red Queen Organic Skirt. And the shop says all their clothes are made from all Organic fabrics, recycled materials and non-toxic fabric paints - Bonus!

The shop's got a lot more than just Alice inspired and costume pieces, so definitely go give them a browse!

Rain, Rain, Go Away . . .

2010-05-12T16:57:00.003-04:00

Seriously, rain, and cold, moreso cold, the rain I wouldn't care about quite so much if it were over 75' outside, GO AWAY! It's the middle of May, you have no business being dark, wet AND cold!

*grumbles* The elfling does not do well without copious amounts of sun and warmth, particularly after a long, bitter, winter. Not to mention that I'm very worried for the garden I just planted. Last year my garden was almost a complete bust, because summer just DIDN'T HAPPEN in NYC in '09. Tomatoes rotted, fat and green on the vine, because there wasn't enough sun or heat to get them to rippen. My hot peppers, what few produced, were as mild as sweet red bells. I just can't deal with another summer like that. I will lose my everloving mind if May goes and October comes and summer gives NYC the miss - AGAIN.

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I typed in "Rain Go Away" into the etsy search engine and actually got two pages of results - and some cute stuff, too!

This little guy is my favorite, though: a handmade mouse with leaf umbrella from Myco Bocek Studios. She calls them "pom pom" creatures and says they are mostly between 5 and 6 inches tall. Besides the uber-cute bunnies, mice and squirrels, she also has a couple of birds, a skunk and even a miniature elephant. Each item has a lot of personality and its own little theme. Very worth the look if you're a fan of felty-cuteness.

Busy Weekend

2010-05-03T11:03:00.003-04:00

So, the parents left on Saturday afternoon, and I spent the rest of the weekend cleaning, organizing and crafting. I was able to update my etsy shop with 10 new Magic Vial Pendants (one of which, the Dragon Claw Willow vial, already sold). But I do finally have two Sakura pendants up, as well as multiple Lilac based pendants, and a couple of new things. The pictured vial is Spiritual Renewal #2 - Iolite, Moonstone and Lilac blossoms in sterling silver.

Looking forward, the Irish Broom is in full bloom, and I'd like to do at least one vial with that. I do need to reorder bulb bottom vials today, as I'm down to my last two - the need to reorder snuck up on me! Also, my roommate found a bottle of Blackberry Fragrance Oil that must have been mine and been misplaced. There's about 1/4th or less of an ounce left in the bottle, but enough that I could make at least one Magic Vial Car Airfreshener with it. Debating whether to go ahead and do that, or see if anyone wants to custom request that scent.

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I did make it to Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens this weekend before my parents left. It was a lot of fun and Mom and I really enjoyed all the flowers and trees. One thing I liked was seeing all the parasols. I think, quite some time ago, I had tried to blog about parasols and found very few entries on etsy at all. It's nice to see that there's a lot more on there now!

To stay on point, I should really focus on the Asian style paper parasols. I did find a very lovely one on etsy (seen left) in a vibrant red with cherry blossom branches by ARTIntersect. The parasols are custom made, hand painted and you are given the option to change the background color, just incase red's not your favorite hue. She does have one other design of paper parasol in a floral fan theme as well.

Back for Spring

2010-04-29T12:40:00.004-04:00

OK, I have returned from my wonderful trips down to Mississippi and New Orleans, where the sun was bright and warm and I was able to bask and soak up heat and vitamin D and all those other mood-lifting things you get from sunshine down in the South that just don't exist 3/4ths of the year for anyone living much north of the 35N' latitude line. Of course, I returned to NYC to the cold, the wet, and the generally miserable (weather-ly speaking). It's finally starting to get a little better, but it's got a long way to go yet.

In update news, I will be able to get back to work, kind of. For the next two weeks, I've actually gotten gainful employment back at a lawfirm, which is good for me being able to pay bills and buy groceries, but not so good for giving me time to just sit and create.

However, the lilacs are blooming, the Sakura festival at Brooklyn Botanical is this weekend, and I know I need to hop to it to start churning out my spring vials made with those very time sensitive flowers! (I have been a bit worried, because the little cold snap I returned to with lots of rain and even more wind is battering a lot of these flowering trees and making them drop their flowers/petals prematurely, as well as damaging the ones still on the tree.)

On an upside, my garden has been replanted, full of fresh herbs as well as new vegetable plants for summer. So, I think that catches everything up to date. I'm hoping by Sunday I will have uploaded a new batch of Magic Vial Pendants with cherry blossoms, lilac flowers and who knows what else.

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Quicky little plug, because I'm not going to break my streak, and I know some cities had their Sakura festivals last weekend, but Brooklyn's is this weekend.

Emiko Keller Designs has this absolutely beautiful hand felted sakura blossom choaker. I love the color and the bold flowers against such a delicate green cord. I've always had a thing for jewelry that looked like plantlife that grew and twined around you.

Her shop has many more items, some felted, some not, but all beautiful. I highly recommend taking the time to browse her pages.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T15:14:00.002-04:00

This may be my last post for a while. Tomorrow (Monday, 4-5-10) I will be putting my Etsy shop on hiatus, and mailing out the last purchases. Tuesday morning, I leave for Dixie (my family for to see). I'm not entirely sure what my schedule will look like while I'm there, so best to just shut it all down until I get back. That will be sometime in the last week of April, but might be as late as May 1st.

I'm going to figure on a lot of time on the road and out of pocket. A day or so in Birmingham before going home, a three day trip down to New Orleans to visit an old friend, and eventually, instead of flying, driving back up the East coast with the folks to visit my brother in Baltimore for his birthday. I'm looking forward to it, the food, the warm weather, friends and family.

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I kind of need this trip, things have not been going well since the Lunar New Year started . . . the year of Metal Tiger has *not* been kind to me. I'm hoping the trip will help this unlucky little girl blue. - which, btw, is the inspiration for my etsy search today.

I had almost figured that I had picked a phrase that just wasn't going to work well with etsy's search engine, and then I found The Little Fox. Particularly, "Little Outcast" print shown here. I especially liked the inclusion of the quote from William Blake: "Seek Love in the pity of others' woe,
In the gentle relief of another's care,
In the darkness of night and the winter's snow,
In the naked and outcast, seek Love there!"

There's something about the cupie-doll faces in her paintings (some smiling, some morose) that makes them charming; and the themes are very well thought out and inspired. She has many prints as well as original works, and even a couple of dolls made to look like her painting features.

Hey, there's even a lamb in this one, just for Easter.

Lady Sings the Blues

2010-03-29T13:47:00.002-04:00

March is almost over, the month of the blues for me. Really hoping for a better April - by the way - from April 5th until April ?? my shop will be on hiatus as I go to visit family and an old college roommate down in New Orleans. That gives you all about one week.

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Since I've been singing (and playing) the blues - it really is great therapy for the actually blues to bust out the old blues standards for piano and vocals - I thought I'd look on etsy for some related items.

hehe, wasn't as easy a search as I thought it might be. I did, under "delta blues" find this great print of a painting of Robert Johnson at the Crossroads by Bryan Federico of daddyb72. And while my tastes for singing, personally, run more along the line of the polished up big city blues, my Dad grew up on Highway 61 in the Delta, and the imagery and the music does mean something to me.

His shop is full of striking and colorful images including scenes and scenarios right out of New Orleans. Beautiful prints and definitely worth the perusal.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-24T13:08:00.006-04:00

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Gardening

2010-03-19T15:16:00.003-04:00

OK, so I know it's still too early to do proper gardening, but with the weather up in the 70's and sunny, it's a good time to clean the debris away and maybe even do some bed prep. I might even try planting some left over arugula seeds, it might not be too early for them.

I'm currently taking a break as I had to climb around on a chain-link fence like a spider monkey to get rid of all the dead vines from the lot next door. Horrible vine, breeds mosquitoes. I figured tearing it down when it's dead would avoid some of the allergy and other problems, as when it's green it stings a bit like nettles.

And now it feels like my hands are covered in a hundred tiny cuts. But I'm happy about it and the fence is clear! :-) Plus, I really do enjoy climbing around on things like a spider monkey.

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So, what do we find on etsy for the gardener?

Well, first off, of course, I'm still thinking about my hands. And I found what sounds like an absolutely lovely hand soap for gardeners (or other people who are hard on their hands) by Sacred Suds. The soap is blended after the Greek goddess of the green earth, Demeter, and contains oatmeal, shea butter, wheat germ oil, jojoba and coconut oils, and castor oil. She has blended the scents of lavender, rosemary, and lemon essential oils to create a very fresh garden-like scent inspired by Demeter.

As an interesting point, all of Sacred Suds soaps are inspired by different deities of, as they put it, "Our soaps are inspired by deities of ancient mythology - Goddesses of love, peace, and prosperity, and Gods of action, nature, and joy - and each soap is carefully crafted in a focused effort to channel those energies." The blends are all very thoughtful and the makers set out a very clear guideline and quality for their products

Rain, Rain, go Away!!

2010-03-13T12:52:00.004-05:00

One problem with being a Southern transplant to the frozen north is not coping real well with how long the winters are. By mid-March I'm in full cabin-fever mode and fidgeting to get out of the house. We had a small burst of days up in the 50's last week, but the past two days the rain pours and pours and it's cold and wet and nasty and it drives a girl a bit bonkers.

So, last night while trying to occupy myself, I busted out a new batch of Garnets I had picked up on one of the last pretty days out. Pictured is Magic Vial Pendant - Passion (haven't made one of those in a long time!) featuring the lovely new Garnets with a new gemstone to my rotation, a deep golden Topaz. Both gemstones associated with the fire elemental, passion, creativity, joy and energy.

At my etsy shop, I also made a "Lil Fire" vial in the straight miniature bottle with Garnet and Hematite.

Hopefully this year will have a bit more fire to it than its predecessors. (Or maybe there's too much Tori Amos on my playlist as I'm stuck inside - re: Take to the Sky lyrics - "I just want a little passion, to hold me in the dark, I know I've got some magic, buried deep in my heart, yeah.")

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So I looked under a few different words, but I just wanted something different. A continuation of the pacing mood, wanting something new, something different.

And that's when Bryan Collins caught my eye. The brilliantly flaming red background off sets the cool colors of the subject creating a very dramatic and aesthetically pleasing effect. The piece is entitled "He Loved Her Forever," and though the artist lists no such inspiration, it reminds me of the old fairytale Thumbalina.

The rest of his etsy shop is filled with other highly saturated, colorful and very graphic images in original, prints, ACEOs, t-shirts, journals and other merchandise options. As an extra bonus, he states that a minimum of 10% of all sales go to charity :-)

Fidgety

2010-03-09T15:25:00.003-05:00

and restless. So, it's the second week since the mild foot injury and the weather got gorgeous over the weekend. Which means, instead of resting it like I probably should, I've been out traipsing all over creation, as much as I can bare. Went past Central Park yesterday and it's still to early to go looking for fresh spring blooms (I have no illusion that spring has come so early to NYC). But it is getting me antsy for spring. I want to be in the garden, I want growing herbs and budding flowers -and that means my spring line of Magic Vial Pendants (and, when the time comes, the return of the very popular Sakura vials.)

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So, as I sit, trying to rest, all fidgety and twitchy, let's see what on etsy has me dreaming of spring?

Oh, I'm bending the rules (my blog, my rules) and featuring a piece that's well out of my price range. But, it's just soooooo pretty!! The Paradiso Bracelet by Claire Pearse is a jumble or gorgeously colored and brightly faceted gems. Now, for format's sake, I have to keep the images kind of small, but you really need to go look at the full sized close up shots of this piece, HERE. It contains Grape Amethyst, Pink Topaz, Pink Amethyst, Green Vesuvianite, and even some Ruby accents. And I'm sure I've stated before, I'm a huge fan of briolettes. I shall have to console myself at 7-8" in diameter, that it would have been many inches too big for me, even if I had a proper day-job at the moment.

However, for those of you who have pierced ears, her shop has more easily affordable earrings all showing great creativity, quality and beautiful workmanship! There's even a Paradiso set to match the bracelet! Truly, a shop full of eye-candy!

Earrings!

2010-03-04T12:08:00.003-05:00

I actually made real, honest-to-goodness earrings! Two pair, actually. I made a more "traditional" style, pictured here at left, all in sterling silver in swirls over freshwater pearls; and then a pair of muchly requested Magic Vial Earrings, at right.

As I've stated before, I don't have pierced ears (never have) so I know almost nothing about the ear wire parts of earrings. I bought sterling silver ones to better protect against allergies, I thought. The wires look awful tiny to me, I didn't think they might come in different sizes. I showed them to my sis (who wears earrings all the time, and she said the wire size was about right for how small my stuff is), but, if you have any questions, or I'm leaving out some kind of vital information, please let me know. This is all very new to me.

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Obviously, I'm going to be plugging earrings today :-) But goodness! That's 14718 PAGES. Yeah, obviously I'm not going to get to see everyone before I pick a couple of favorites. So, I shall go into the subcategory just for earrings, and look under "dangle" because those are my favorite kinds! (6709 pages, whew, that's better but still a long way to go).

I will make another addendum that there are some amazing earrings in the upper ranges, but considering my own bank account and the economy here in the US, I just don't feel right plugging jewelry that costs as much or more than my monthly rent.

At the higher end of the spectrum, Artwear by Mona really had one piece that jumped out at me. Her pastel pearl wire wrapped dangling earrings made from freshwater pearls and Argentium silver are beautiful and very unique! They are 3 inches in length and obviously required a great amount of time, thought and patience by Mona!

And with her etsy shop having 17 pages of goodies, ranging from $10 to almost $200, it's definitely worth the browsing to see if she's got something just for your style and budget.

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And in the $30 and under bracket, because I love briolettes, Nay Designs caught my attention with this simple but elegant pair of earrings. Plus, they are called her "Spirit Circle Earrings" and "Spirit" is the theme of my Magic Vial Earrings, so bonus ka for that. They're made with sterling silver and a 1" diameter hammered silver circle with dangling briolettes of onyx and opalite. Just lovely! She doesn't have a lot of traditional styled jewelry, but her shop has a very interesting variety of items including some very fun hair clips! Be sure to take a peek.

Ouchies!

2010-03-02T00:41:00.003-05:00

So, I got the stuff for earrings, and immediately wish I had bought more ear wires, and maybe bigger ones? I really didn't know they came in sizes. . hrrrmmm. Live and learn.

But, earrings are being made!

In other news, had a fun weekend hanging out with a femme friend of mine, and she invited me to go with her to her Parkour class. Wow, had no idea how out of shape I really was! But it was a lot of fun and I hope to keep going.

I did kind of twist my ankle a bit, apparently. It didn't get bad until that night, and while today (the day after) it feels tons better, it looks sooo much worse. So, Ibuprofen, epson salt soaks, and R.I.C.E.

You'd think I'd get a lot having to sit on the couch, but I've also been having a manic spell the past several days, and I'm just too jittery to do the delicate focused work required for my jewelry. And with my ankle, I can't even go outside and work it out of my system!

Will continue to try and keep you guys up to date.

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I absolutely love this piece from Laurie Jordan. Fresians are one of my favorite breeds, and with the deep blues and pale colors of the moon, it really catches the eye. I like the attention and detailing to the manes as well, since Fresians can often look like the Fabios of the horse world with their extremely long and thick wavy manes.

The rest of her store covers a wide range of paintings and products made from her designs, ranging from these beautifully printed $4.00 greeting cards to laser-cut metal welcome signs for over $200.00. Definitely a shop worth visiting for the horse lovers!

Whoopsie-Daisies

2010-02-22T14:52:00.003-05:00

Last week was a weird week. On a personal note, I just resubmitted a fresh resume to a new temp agency, since I'm still fighting with my last agency over a $100 check from NOVEMBER. In all fairness, I did get the check (in January) where it promptly bounced. Twice. I even got the $20 check reimbursing me for the bouncing fees. Just not my actual paycheck yet.

Oh, and after some interest written to me on etsy and DeviantArt, I decided to order a couple of sets of Sterling Silver ear wires and try making some Magic Vial Earring sets. I don't have pierced ears, so I can't wear most earrings, but there's been interest so I'll give it a go and see if there will be buyers.

Nothing yet, though, still waiting for the delivery of the ear wires (with some extra new sterling silver wire and maybe something else in there as well.)

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So on to the gratuitous plugging of etsy sellers!

By the way, I did buy some earrings as a gift for a friend just a few weeks ago, so I think I'll plug that seller, as I was very pleased with what I had bought.

Funny Sky has 30 pages of goodies! It took me a while to pick out just the right ones for this friend (needed something that looked sharp and pointy and was red, with hypoallergenic, nickel-free ear wires). So, I bought a pair of the origami crane earrings pictured left.

They were brightly colored, well made, well packaged and bigger than I had imagined. They are one of those "so cute" kind of items that I would wear them if I wore earrings. They were also only $5.00! And while there are many other shapes besides just cranes (just happens to be a favorite of mine) and the shop is not exclusively earrings, there are 145 entries under the "origami crane" section, so there is plenty of variety so you can find just the right color and pattern!

The only thing I would note, however. Is that there is no location listed on the shop page, so do be aware that they are shipping from Asia and to expect a bit more of a wait in the mail because of this. Otherwise, a very highly recommended seller!