Crafting Good Gifts with the Handmade, Part One

Of course they didn't have to make the Handmade Pledge website for me to be stocking up on indie stuff for my two (!!) families this holiday season - Devon's and (of course) mine. I can't possibly get everything handmade though, since I doubt Yankees merchandise exists in the indie community (Daddy dearest usually gets something in that area), but everyone will certainly be getting "a little something" handmade, if not their whole present!

I thought I'd post a little about the stuff I'm probably getting everyone - obviously, I won't be mentioning any names, and feel free to purchase one of a kind items out from under me (I probably have a bunch of alternates anyway). There's a lot of folks, so I'm going to divide this into a two-part post. Here we go with Part One!

I've mentioned these before, but the goldfish toys from Jezzi4ever on Etsy make my kitties go batty. They were so effective, I just special ordered a slew of them for all the kitties in our lives - for a grand total of ten! That's right, ten. We're cat people... if, you know, you haven't guessed.

These are possible bags for probably the hardest person to shop for on my list. I'd call her the fashionista of the family - very trendy, probably even "ahead of the trend". Needless to say, giftgiving for her... well, just a little intimidating. We do know she's getting a laptop from soneone else for the holidays, so we thought it would be cool to find a really unique laptop bag for her that mirrors her personality: sophisticated but still funky, but also altogether different. I love Pear Threads' Moby Messenger Bags in Emma (bottom) and Leah (top), both $159, that fit a standard size laptop and come with a matching purse. They all come with a vintage pin to make it extra special... how sweet! If I still had a functioning laptop, this might end up on my holiday list as well!

For my favorite tea drinker, I'm thinking that a sampler pack of teas from Herb and Ginger would be a lot of fun! The smallest size is a tube which can make at least a dozen cups, so it may be a "sampler" - but it'll still be plentiful! I'm definitely eying the Queen's Caramel Roobios Tea (pictured above) which sells for $8.00 per tube. How could you turn down cream caramel in your tea? I certainly can't, and I don't think my favorite tea drinker will be able to, either.