Cool Gifts for Men

The gift-giving season is here and there's just enough shipping time for some online gift shopping. Although there are plenty of satisfactory gift items in malls and other stores, one perk about buying handmade gifts is that they'll be pretty unique. For those who are hard to shop for, I did some hunting on Etsy and found these pretty cool items! :) What do you think?

Sign Geekery by LukeLampCo

For the man child?

Are You Affected by the Weather?

I can't believe that it's September already! I love summer because I love the hot temperatures, sunshine, and longer days. Now it's all coming to an end as autumn slowly (or actually, rapidly) approaches. Just thinking about it makes me a little sad. I've noticed that my mood is directly affected by the weather and I think that's the case for many many people. Have you ever felt that your moods are tied to the weather as well?

What Summer Means To Me by Kristybee
Yes, I want to live the kind of charmed life evoked by these photos.

Thanks to studies done by psychologists (they never let me down), there is evidence that weather does indeed directly affect the moods of some of us. Now we can say we're not making this stuff up when we blame our crankiness on the rain (or the sun).

Reconstruct Your Old Clothing (part 2)

In continuation of last week's Part 1 involving reconstructing shirts and such, Part 2 focuses on sweaters. Some of these projects I found are so cool, I'm kind of tempted to scour Goodwill and other second-hand stores for high quality fibered sweaters, but that would defeat the purpose of me purging my closet and getting rid of stuff. Sometimes, the internet is not good for me.

Alpaca Wool Sweater Handbag, via The Inadvertent Farmer

Reconstruct Your Old Clothing (part 1)

I've been purging out my closet lately to make room for new clothes (and to generally get rid of stuff that I haven't worn for years and probably never will wear again). After awhile, I started feeling wasteful, wondering why I bought all this stuff only to not wear them?? If only I could scold Jen-of-the-past and tell her to stop shopping. Then I decided to check out the internet for ideas to revamp all my stuff. Boy, did I find a lot of stuff...

DIY t-shirt tutorials:

Petal Tees Tutorial, via Ruffles and Stuff

Coffee and Donuts May Be Good For You

Most people are addicted to coffee, and not just in the morning. Many of us notice and chuckle to ourselves at the stereotypical police car in front of the donut shop. Everyone has their guilty pleasures, but what if your guilty pleasure (of a daily donut and coffee in the morning) is actually good for you?

Hello, Morning 8x10 Fine Art Print by TheLightFantastic

According to an article on The Body Odd (one of my favorite sources of interesting information :), Spanish researchers have found that caffeine and glucose actually make you smarter. Apparently, the sugar-caffeine combo boosts your brain in terms of memory and attention.

Featured: Calliope AZ Creations

It's time to shine the spotlight on another noteworthy Etsy shop owner! This time, it's one of my favorite jewelry makers, Marianne of CalliopeAZCreations, who makes some beautiful, intricately-beaded necklaces. They're definitely worth treasuring.

Can you imagine all the time and work that goes into stringing those millions of tiny beads by hand??? It's amazing!
Shady Path Spiral Necklace

Name: Marianne
Location: Tucson Arizona (the Wild West)
Website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/calliopeazcreations
Shop: CalliopeAZCreations
Blog: http://calliopecreations.blogspot.com/


Tell me a little about yourself.
I’ve been beading, weaving, working with clay and collecting interesting natural specimens since I was very small. I seem to be doing pretty much the same things now but on a larger scale.

I'm primarily self-taught but have spent time learning from local artists willing to share their techniques. I live in Tucson, Arizona. When not working on my various creative projects, I can be found training and showing my Shetland Sheepdogs and my Border Collie in Herding, Agility and Obedience competitions. This takes me outdoors, out of town and into the country which provides inspiration and nurtures my spirit.

My work has been sold at the Tucson Museum of Art gift shop as well as in galleries in California and Arizona. Many of my pieces are in private collections across the country. I am delighted when someone likes my work well enough to purchase it. Hopefully, they enjoy wearing the jewelry as much as I did making it.

Most of my jewelry is one-of-a-kind or Limited Edition designer pieces featuring a variety of elements. These are eye catching pieces utilizing unique combinations of semi-precious gemstones, pearls, sterling silver, gold-filled elements, natural stone, seed beads and fibers.

Earth elements include small stones, feathers, natural and glass elements, small pieces of desert driftwood and anything else that catches my eye. To many, these are small decorative elements. To others, these have metaphysical significance depending on the contents.

Anemone Glass Pendant

Flowers and Jewelry: Pre n' Das by Enid

The Terracotta Headband by prendasbyenid

I wanted to share one of my favorite Etsy friends with you today: Pre n' Das by Enid. Her items are one part whimsical, one part dainty, and two parts eye-catching! If you like flower headbands, flower brooches, and a variety of jewelry and other pretty things, check out Enid's Etsy shop!

A Tiny Heart

You can also find her on her blog, Twitter, and Facebook!

Here are more of my favorites :)

Purple Flower in a Bobby Pin

Orange Soft Velvet Earrings

10 EcoFriendly Recycled Envelopes

90 Large Bobby Pins

Coffee Espresso Bean Necklace

My Coffee Espresso Bean Necklace was featured on Tyss Handmade Jewelry Blog! Yay, thanks so much! Check out her blog for more pretty jewelry finds.

Everything You'll Need for a Glamourous New Years Eve

Christmas hasn't come yet, but it's about time to start planning for New Years Eve (because NYE means parties, pretty dresses, and cute arm candy, am I right or am I right?) Found a couple knock out dresses that I just adore on Etsy. What's great is that no one else will have a dress like yours :)

The Scarlett O'Hara Dress by eelandermine

E V E T T E one shoulder cocktail dress by lovejune

I've seen a lot of white dresses on the red carpet recently, but you can order this one in lots of other colors too!

Single Strap Pure Tulle Wedding Gown by TingBridal

Black Lace Taffeta Dress by TingBridal

Simple Bubble Milk Tea Recipe

One of my favorite drinks ever is boba (a.k.a. bubble tea or tapioca milk tea), and coming from California (where boba stores magically appear on any street corner when a craving hits), I never realized how strong my addiction was until I moved to New York, where the ONLY good boba shops are in Manhattan Chinatown or Flushing Chinatown.

Tea Charm Necklace by FatallyFeminine

Because I live in the Bronx, it takes me over an hour to commute to either Chinatowns, so sometimes, I feel like killing a craving is not worth the commute. (Why do I live in the Bronx? Ask my husband, who thinks everything is an adventure). You can't just stock up on boba drinks and put it in the fridge because the tapioca balls only have a few hours of prime taste + chewiness. So out of desperation, I decided to make my own damn boba.

It's actually not too hard, though it may not taste exactly like what you'd get in a store. Different shops have their own secret recipes anyway so there's never really one exact taste.

Milk Tea Choker by ProteanJewelry

Here's what you'll need:

• Black tea or green tea (I prefer black tea)
• 2% milk (you can use 1% or fat free but it doesn't taste as creamy)
• Condensed milk (optional)
• Sugar syrup (recipe below)
• Tapioca balls (can be bought in any Asian supermarket or online)
• Any type of fruit (optional)

Triple Stranded Necklaces

I decided to make few triple necklace sets recently because I thought, 'How fun would it be to have three delicate matching strands of beads to braid and twist and wear separately, in a million different ways?' Okay, so you can't actually combine these in a million ways, but there are definitely a large variety of ways you can wear these necklace sets. You can go from day to night wearing just one set! Yay! :)

Triple Strands Necklaces Set One

Tripe Strands Necklaces Set Two

Triple Strands Necklaces Set Three

Long Pendant Charm Necklaces

Recently, I've decided to make a couple of necklaces in a different style than what I usually make, and this is what I came up with! I'm so excited and happy with them, I've decided to make doubles for myself :))) I can't wait to wear the mauve pink muscovite necklace with my gray sweater dress and the green leaf + agate sabertooth necklace with my cream cardigan. Yay! I love jewelry! (but what girl doesn't?) ^_^

Soft Romance Necklace - Mauve Pink Muscovite and Rose Quartz

Forest Treasures Necklace - Black Agate and Green Czech Glass

iPhone/Smartphone Holders Galore

So yesterday, as I was browsing through countless gifts for men on Etsy, I came across so many incredibly adorable iPhone holders that I couldn't decide which ones I liked best! They didn't all necessarily fit into the men's category so I'm dedicating this post to the super creative, cute, meticulous, and simply amazing iPhone/smartphone holders I've found. Any of these would be the stocking stuffer of your teenager/fun-at-heart's dreams.

Caution - Side effects may include the experience of receiving glowing respect and admiration in the gift receiver's eyes.


Here are a few of my favorites.

latelierdeluluu

Okay, this is for an iPad, but it's so awesome! Felt iPad Case

Retro TV Felt Case

yummypocket

Pocky iPhone Cozy

Cassette Tape iPhone Cozy

Holiday Lights!

What am I loving right now?

Christmas lights earrings! Check these out! Made by the fun and creative Cocoandrex. They are so adorable. Anyone know a group of BFFs who'd love matching earrings for Christmas? ;)