I ♥ Etsy! The family edition

  

I come from a family of very talented and crafty individuals. I am about to partake in some shameless plugging of the familial kind (that actually sounds dirty and really wrong. Maybe by the time I'm done writing this I can come up with some better wording). Here goes...

This is my mom
(and Owen B'dowen or is it Benny Bugger? Crap! They look so much alike!)

She's on Etsy. You can find her shop, Adirondack Crafts, here. For as long as I can remember, my mom has been sewing. Whether it be Halloween costumes, clothes for our Cabbage Patch Kid dolls or clothes for my sisters and I. In fact, I have a vivid recollection of a shirt I had to have my mom make for me. One of my bestest friends in the whole wide world had this really cool striped shirt. I wanted one too. We hunted and hunted for the perfect fabric (it was perfect to me, me with no concept of how to sew or that any one fabric is more difficult to sew than another. I'm pretty sure my mom was pretty hesistent about it). I was so excited. So my mom whipped up the shirt, and.... the stripes were going the wrong way. I was devestated. I cannot recall if I threw a fit about this or not, but knowing me, I suspect that I did. Thanks anyway, Mom.

Nowadays, my mom sews for the grand kids and for baby showers and what have you. She also makes these little Adirondack* inspired balsam pillows that are available at her Etsy shop. Here are a couple of examples...

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This is my step dad  
(with classic step dad face)

He is also on Etsy. He shares a shop with my mom, Adirondack Crafts, that you can find here. He is one of the most talented men I have ever known. He builds stuff. Lots of stuff. He has, in fact, built me a jewelry box, two bookshelves and a coat rack. Not to mention numerous things for my siblings. I don't know how he puts up with us and our crazy demands, but he does, and we love him for that. 

My step dad was recently laid off (it's a tough world out there right now for carpenters. Please don't tell him I told you this, though, he's a very proud *ahem* stubborn man). He is currently making some really great wooden cutting boards and recipe boxes (he cuts and mills his own wood! I told you he was awesome, right?) that are available at the Etsy shop. Here are a couple of examples...

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This is my sister  

(last one, I promise. Isn't she just the cutest?)

 

She also has a shop on Etsy (duh, that's what this post is all about). You can find her shop, SMWartworks, here. She also has a website** featuring her other work. You can find a link to it on the right hand side of my blog under the heading, "Things I Think are Pretty." My sister has always been artistically inclined and has a BA in Metals, or something along those lines. My family and I look forward to Christmas every year just to score some of her handcrafted goodies, whether it be jewelry or a tear-jerking charcoal portrait.

My sister makes really cool silver jewelry, available at her Etsy shop. She recently moved to Maine and has started making seaglass jewelry out of genuine seaglass that she picks up from the beach in her own backyard, on the ocean! Lucky girl. If I had a job right now, I'd buy a good number of pieces from her. I'm not kidding. It's that cool. Here are a couple of examples, or four, whatever...

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* don't tell my mom, but I'm personally not a fan of the whole "Adirondack" style. I do however, like things that remind me of the Adirondacks. Click here.

** this website is currently under construction and may not be available yet. My sis is trying to find a new, cheaper host, or something like that. I don't pretend to understand. Check back later if the link doesn't work. 

UPDATE: I just clicked on the link mentioned above for my sister's website and discovered that it takes you to her NEW blog! You can probably find your way to her website through that, eventually.