.jpg "Crap I forgot to buy Christmas presents")
.jpg "Get Ready to Get Addicted: Shopping Etsy")
.jpg "Vanity + Photoshop = Awesomely Cheap...I Mean Personal Holiday Gifts")
.jpg "Made With (Brotherly) Love: Philadelphia Mother’s Day Gift Guide")
.jpg "aliciak")
.jpg "Throw a 1950s Dinner Party in New York")
.jpg "The Rainy Day Guide to New York")
.jpg "Plan The Ultimate Staycation")
.jpg "Hollywood Nightclubs and Nightlife: Best Clubs in LA, Guestlist, Bottle Service, Los Angeles Events.")
.jpg "Water Damage Opa Locka")
.jpg "Scottsdale Garage Door Repair")
.jpg "Garage Door Repair Dickinson")
.jpg "Awkward Family Portraits will make you say \"WTF?\"")
.jpg "Love is funny: Awesomely BAD engagement photos")
.jpg "The Best iPhone Apps For Women")
SPONSORED LISTINGS
Buying Handmade for the Holidays
- by aliciak
- -
- January 15, 2009
(3)
.jpg)
I have almost always made some of my gifts for the holidays (partly for financial reasons, partly creative), but now that one of my seven jobs is running an Etsy shop and shopping those goods around to boutiques online and off, I'm equipped to have a 100% handmade Christmas. Maybe you should too!
Why buy handmade?
Well, I’ll tell you! I like the idea of making gifts for people, and not just at Christmas, because you are making something totally unique and with your own hands. Even if you make a shirt you’ve made five times before, there are no two handmade items 100% alike! Additionally, more thought tends to go into handmade stuff, and more meaning can probably be derived from it. You aren’t buying something from Target or Macy’s that thousands of others bought too.
If you buy handmade, you’re buying from an individual artist or small group of them, who potentially make a living being creative and selling goods they enjoy making and believe in. You will probably have some kind of contact with them, even if over email, driving home that whole human factor again. There is skill and artistic talent involved, unlike mass-produced salt and pepper shakers or machine-woven rugs.
Handmade Nation: A Documentary!
It’s not out yet, but Faythe Levine is “documenting the rise of DIY and the new wave of art, craft and design.” A book has just recently been made available and the film will be released some time in early 2009. Woot!
If you do it, you can put this handy little badge on your website!
Take the Buy Handmade pledge!
I did it last year (but cheated) and will do it again year (will really try not to cheat)! What are you agreeing to?
“I pledge to buy handmade this holiday season and request that others do the same for me.”
Brought to you by the Handmade Consortium last year, the pledge was signed by 30,000 people!
Alicia + Snow-Proof Safety Cone
=Love
You may not be able to see Snow-Proof Safety Cone in its entirety, but let me assure you, he’s there! You’ll have to check out the above article to see the rest of him in the flesh! (oooh dirty!)
Buy Handmade AND Buy Local
A little shameless self-promotion here, but not really! I wrote an article for Brooklyn Based and Etsy, THE handmade site for all your needs and desires, and their Shop Local series. Choosing sellers based in Brooklyn, collecting their photos and writing up my own little schpeal on why I looooooove Brooklyn made up the bulk of the article. Even when you buy online, it’s possible to buy handmade AND local, and when it comes to Etsy, there is often a personal touch and warm feeling to boot.
*Buying Handmade Online*
Forget Amazon, Overstock and chain store websites, because the internet is teeming with handmade sites!
Etsy!!!
Of course!
Mintd
Kinda like Etsy…
Elsewares
Elsewares is a carefully curated selection of independent art and design, and they have handy gift guides for her, him, kids and the home. Oh, and the duo who runs Elsewares lives right here in New York!
Supermarket
Also brought to you by the design duo who runs Elsewares! I still don’t understand the difference…do the research and let me know! I can’t figure it out…
The “Holiday Market” at PoppyTalkHandmade.
Snow-Proof Safety Cone in a tree!
Handmade Handwarmer!
Infused with love…shortly before it blew up in the microwave and started a fire. I laughed and stared while my boyfriend got out the fire extinguisher. Then maybe I cried! Months and months later we broke up.
I refuse to see any deeper meaning in this incident…
Head to the park!
But what can I buy there??? When winter descends, so do the holiday vendors! They come in swarms, they make it hard to navigate certain parks and other venues in the city, but most importantly, they provide a variety of goods all in the same spot! The same cold spot, but nonetheless.
I wish all the oak and gingko trees in the park turned into gumdrop trees for the holidays.
Bryant Park
New York, NY 10001
Bryant Park really sets the Christmas scene the best, what with the skating rink (The Pond) adjacent to the vendors and now a new enclosed restaurant near the beautiful library that overlooks both. There’s something magical about this calm rectangular space just blocks from Times Square craziness that never fails to cheer me up.
Bryant Park really sets the Christmas scene the best, what with the skating rink (The Pond) adjacent to the vendors and now a new enclosed restaurant near the beautiful library that overlooks both. There’s something magical about this calm rectangular space just blocks from Times Square craziness that never fails to cheer me up.
Union Square
33 East 17th Street New York, NY 10003
If you go on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday, you get the added bonus of having the year-round farmer’s market right there. And now there are some interesting regular vendors, separate from the spiffy holiday stands, like the peeps who sell the “Blondes for Obama” tee, which I’m contemplating even though my hair is not quite blond enough (?)
These puppies get crowded though! Visit only at off-peak times (is there such a thing anywhere in New York?)
Union Square Holiday Market
Grand Central Terminal
87 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017
Holiday vendors NOT in a park, but that’s okay because it’s toasty warm inside Grand Central and like Bryant Park, it has that cheer-inducing quality despite the hustle and bustle. You can imagine the women in wide skirts, the men with top hats, the kids with wooden toys in hand, rushing through to catch a train somewhere for Christmas dinner.
Holiday vendors NOT in a park, but that’s okay because it’s toasty warm inside Grand Central and like Bryant Park, it has that cheer-inducing quality despite the hustle and bustle. You can imagine the women in wide skirts, the men with top hats, the kids with wooden toys in hand, rushing through to catch a train somewhere for Christmas dinner.
Columbus Circle
1849 Broadway, New York, NY 10023
If the same-old-same-old “Shops at Columbus Circle” leave you coming up empty, cross the crazy intersection that is Columbus Circle and check out the holiday market! (Note: the former American Craft Museum, now the Museum of Arts and Design, quite the handmade mecca, is also across the street!)
If the same-old-same-old “Shops at Columbus Circle” leave you coming up empty, cross the crazy intersection that is Columbus Circle and check out the holiday market! (Note: the former American Craft Museum, now the Museum of Arts and Design, quite the handmade mecca, is also across the street!)
Handmade is the best!
*Brick and Mortar*
I had never heard of “brick and mortar” before a year ago—is that weird? I like the ancient-ness sound of it though. Holiday fairs will come and go, but brick and mortar shops with handmade goods are here to stay! Well, as long as you support them. My own crochet creatures can now be found in two of the below shops, but you will have to visit them all to find out which two!
Treehouse Brooklyn Llc
430 Graham Ave, Floral Park, NY 11001
Treehouse is a quirky and tiny shop in Williamsburg that is part vintage store, part handmade designer showcase. And they LOVE owls! Remember that movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Some of Treehouse’s goods, including that blanket, were IN it!
Treehouse is a quirky and tiny shop in Williamsburg that is part vintage store, part handmade designer showcase. And they LOVE owls! Remember that movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Some of Treehouse’s goods, including that blanket, were IN it!
Fred Flare Inc
300 Kingsland Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Fred Flare has had a site for a while, but they have finally finally FINALLY opened a brick-and-mortar shop in Greenpoint. How they found all their pop culture, brightly-colored, weird stuff, I have no idea.
Fred Flare has had a site for a while, but they have finally finally FINALLY opened a brick-and-mortar shop in Greenpoint. How they found all their pop culture, brightly-colored, weird stuff, I have no idea.
“Brief Case” at Fred Flare.
Cog & Pearl
190 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
This is a more upscale handmade haven, kind of the opposite of Fred Flare when it comes to color and style, but when you’re looking for a tasteful grey bag, dainty earrings or simple journals, Cog & Pearl will hook you up.
This is a more upscale handmade haven, kind of the opposite of Fred Flare when it comes to color and style, but when you’re looking for a tasteful grey bag, dainty earrings or simple journals, Cog & Pearl will hook you up.
Artez'n Llc
444 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Artez’n is made up of almost all New York designers, with a majority from Brooklyn. (Woot woot!) Products include tees, soap, sewer coasters, Brooklyn-y onesies, Coney Island images on glasses, Brooklyn Fudge and lots of other New York-ish items that New Yorkers would actually want to receive! (No tourist Statue of Liberty mini statues I mean!)
Artez’n is made up of almost all New York designers, with a majority from Brooklyn. (Woot woot!) Products include tees, soap, sewer coasters, Brooklyn-y onesies, Coney Island images on glasses, Brooklyn Fudge and lots of other New York-ish items that New Yorkers would actually want to receive! (No tourist Statue of Liberty mini statues I mean!)
@Artez’n
- |
- |
- |
- |
- share this
.jpg "mswen")
-
I NEED ONE OF EACH. Seriously!!
.jpg "improbable")
-
Love the cone!
.jpg "Karey Ann")
-
So funny, Alicia. I saw only the picture and knew this must be an Alicia guide!! Thanks for the ideas . . .
Add Our Widget To Your Site
.jpg)
Discussions