Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Catholic tchotchkes for everyone!

Happy Wednesday everybody! I've been writing book reviews on Wednesdays for the past 3-4 weeks, but sadly this Wednesday I didn't quite complete my current read, so that will debut a week from today instead. In case anybody wants to read along, my current review selection is Finding Grace by Laura Pearl:
This is a lovely coming-of-age story for Catholic young adults, TONS of interesting moral fodder in here plus interwoven inspiration from the saints - excellent! Look for all the details next Wednesday.

This Wednesday I have shopping on my mind, of the online variety, because is there any better way to shop when you're an introvert? I think not, dear reader. Since I am a person of the crafty persuasion (although if you ever saw me wielding glue in any form along with felt and uncooked macaroni or some other such three dimensional object you would doubt the veracity of that statement) I have quite a fascination with Etsy. I absolutely love handmade items, whether they are made by me or someone else. Every year I like to carefully choose some handmade gifts for my kids in crafts that I stink at am not particularly gifted. ;-) I like to tuck these things into their Christmas stockings, and as you know, I am a bit nuts about starting Christmas shopping right around the vernal equinox.

I've been doing lots of browsing and favoriting of new shops and items, and so thought it would be fun to share my ideas with all of you. I'm certain I'll do another one of these posts prior to the holidays, since this is certainly not an exhaustive list of Etsy shops that I find intriguing. But below are a handful that I've either purchased from recently or am plotting a purchase from soon. Perhaps it'll give you some ideas, and you can leave me your own ideas in the comments!

I've written about saint dolls before, because I sort of love them. Henry has a small collection of wooden ones that he displays, and Anne also has a few. I think this is a lovely way of helping children to keep their favorite saints in mind to intercede for them when something is bothering them. The store that I have previously purchased these from is no longer open, so I was looking around for alternatives. Thus began my obsession with St. Luke's Brush:

St. Kateri Tekakwitha
I mean, did you ever? The detail is *exquisite*. And the selection is second to none. Every saint that immediately came to my mind could be found there, including my confirmation patron St. Cecelia, and my favorite guy ever, St. John Paul II. Here is Henry's favorite saint:

St. Dominic Savio
And she has a custom listing for any saint you want. She will paint it. A-mazing. I found several that I want for my desk at work. :0 Including that St. Kateri featured above, she's beautiful!

This store also carries hand painted rosary cases:


...and I fixated on this First Communion one right away for Henry. I haven't ordered yet, and hand painted items can certainly add up in price because of the sheer amount of work and talent that goes into them, but I plan to carefully select a few saints to purchase in the fall, and will report back in. :)

I also found a few store selling soft saint dolls, and I'm interested in these for Anne. My friend Sarah on Twitter brought Saintly Silver to my attention:

Lovely St. Therese of Lisieux
These are made from felt and are very reasonably priced. She has an excellent selection, and will also custom create any doll you like that she doesn't have listed.  These would make wonderful squeezeable additions to a child's bedtime collection. :)

I also found Sanctus Stitches and while a bit more expensive, check out the detail:

We can tell she is one of my favorites: once again, St. Kateri :)
Gorgeous! Anne could create all sorts of adventures for this St. Kateri, just as she would any of her other dolls. I am positively *itching* to order this.

For rosaries, I have recently purchased from the lovely Rosaries by Allison:

Our Lady Star of the Sea
...and she is just the sweetest and does a beautiful job. She has some gorgeous designs which you should zoom right over to go look at :) and she will custom design anything you like. I have a few Christmas gifts tucked away from this store. *shhhhhh...*

Finally, a secular addition that is absolutely adorable. Anne loves the apron that I wear when I bake, so this immediately spurred me into looking for a child's apron for her, because seriously? PRECIOUS! I ended up ordering her one from  Designs by Dragon Lily:

!!!
I mean, SO CUTE. She was having a Christmas in July sale when I ordered, so I picked out an angels and 3 Wise Men design for Anne that I know she'll love. But so many cute patterns and extremely reasonable prices. She also sells makeup bags, which I'm thinking of getting for myself.

So, now it's your turn. Do you have a favorite Etsy shop? Do detail in the comments. :)

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the links--I visited Rosaries by Allison and loved that site! I'll have to keep it in mind for future gift-giving.

    And also, thanks for a hint about your upcoming review--you made my day. :)

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  2. I could get into a lot of trouble on Etsy for sure. The saint softies are so cute--and I totally would get the nativity if they expanded into softie animals--I mean, a softie donkey and sheep and camels? YES.
    So much to look at! I like the library-themed designs from The Bird and the Beard (I might need library due date card wedding invitations someday!), and I just got a reusable coffee cup sleeve from Crafty Staci (gonna test drive it when I'm a Saturday Librarian this week). I might have to go back to Crafty Staci to get camera accessories for my shutterbug teen nephew. I got American Girl outfits for my niece's doll for Christmas (including a Hello Kitty Christmas dress!) from Designs by Althea. They were so cute.
    Also my environmentally conscious friend LibraryElfDesigns does these awesome denim grocery/tote bags from recycled blue jeans.

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    1. Oh my goodness! LIBRARY DUE DATE CARDS?! I need to check this out. :)

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