What better way to spend a Monday morning than with a little browse through etsy. Here are a few in my favourite items list right now…

I used to stock all natural, handmade soaps in my store and I do miss having such divine bath and body products on hand. But look what I found: Birch Bark’s Star Anise Bath Bar. Blissssssss. This lovely batch is curing right now, and will be sent out at the end of the month. Handmade with love using only natural ingredients by Nova Scotian Sherrieg . She also recently listed me amongst her favourite blogs when she was an etsy featured seller, it was such a surprise, thanks again Sherrieg !

And if I could get away with it, I would label everything in my home. and now that I spotted these babies, my labeling fetish just got fed. I mean people, they’re just four buckaroos! (‘buckaroos’ is aussie for ‘dollars’. well, i’m not sure about that, i actually just made it up.)

Who has not yet figure out that I adore repurposing, rethinking, and recycling stuff? But also that I have a very very picky palate for stylish, classy and well designed things? Well, the above find is your clue. These very sweet ivory poppies for your hair are made from repurposed blouses and are all hand cut by the very talented Betsy of foundling. She has a tonne more of the good stuff in her shop, so go check it out.

I have heaps more in my etsy favourites but good things come to those who wait. So I hope you enjoyed this segment of…

next up: have you packed your bags? have you got your sun lotion? sunglasses? your new lalesso hotpants? no? then get packing, I told you already we are off to my favourite island hideaway, chop chop!! plane leaves in a couple of hours…

…bloglines, blogcatalog, de.l.i.c.i.ou.s (where do all the dots go?!), or flickr. I don’t know how to rss feed something, and I have no idea what technorati is.

Are you surprised to hear this raw and awful truth? me too. it’s embarrassing to admit and right now my cheeks are flushed fuchsia.

BUT. what I have become familiar with is etsy. now i know most of you must be asking yourselves, “how ancient is this woman?!”, but look, here is the story…

Us stylists (any of you out there, lots of head nodding and “right on sista!” would be helpful here), we are more what you’d call “shop stalkers”: I mean, we have only just learnt that you can locate a shop by looking it up in the yellow pages on the internet, all this time we’ve been lugging the hard copy around on the front seat of our car along with our baby wipes, fabric samples, and multitude of tape measures (yes I’m looking at you jboo).

And, well, we have our faves (I’ve already mentioned this one and this one with plenty more to come), so we usually go straight to them when we know what we need, and then branch out from there.

My plan, I must reveal, has been to use the (blog)house as my branch. So as I find interesting items that I think will come in handy for shoots, I blog about them, for two reasons – first to support small businesses because g.o.d knows how much I know how much this is necessary; and secondly as a personal ‘pia’ pages (yes sorry ‘yellow’, you have been thrown out the window) for myself and my friends to refer to. Some stylists are known to hold on to their secret boutiques and craftspeople like it is gold, but I’ve never been one of them.

are you getting the gab of my gib now? good. so on and upward with who and what are among my favourites in etsy!

FOR ME:

I want this bag from Rome-based designer ninù. Check out her other awesome designs here.

The Lulu Satchel from Tennessee designer Erica Bazile. Beautifully made. Stylish. Classy. Funky. And all that.

FOR THE BUBS IN MY LIFE:

I don’t know what a windsee is, but I love Rita! and her friends Bettee, Bobee, and June – all handmade form vintage fabrics by Canadian-born, Melbourne-dweller One Girl. She also has a blog which is pretty cool.

Sofia Barão has added this sweet little number to her etsy shop. I think it would be perfect in a baby’s room.

& FOR ME, AGAIN:

Lovely Marie has just opened her very own boutique! It’s called Tissu and is fast becoming sold out with her first items (yes I left a bit of a dint after buying a couple of her beautiful crochet pins and garland, sorry guys but first in first served!).

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this first segment of:

You will also find an etsy category here now so you can check out my etsy favourites at any time. Happy Etsying!