Black Friday–Cyber Monday DEALS & STEALS!

"I got a real steal of a deal at GVK!"


ANNOUNCING BLACK FRIDAY–CYBER MONDAY DEALS & STEALS

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TAKE 10% OFF ANY TWO HANDMADE ITEMS
TAKE 20% OFF ANY TWO VINTAGE ITEMS

DETAILS:
Both offers are available to all customers for one time use anytime from
Black Friday–Cyber Monday. These offers are not valid towards items
in the clearance section of the shop.

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For etsy wide holiday sales search:
"etsyholidaysale"
"etsyfreeshipping"

and happy shopping to you!!

settling in

we're finally getting settled into our new place and i must say it feels so good to be here! The new apartment is so big and i'll admit to getting a bit teary eyed whenever i see one of the cats dozing in the sunlight...hey, you would too if you've had the experience of living in an english basement with only one window for way too long ;) I want to post pictures of the place but I do so love to nest and make every room "just so," otherwise you might glimpse our mountains of boxes or wires that have yet to be tucked neatly away and i would be a little bit mortified. It's a promise though—pictures to come when the moving in mess is a thing of the past!


In the meantime i'm sharing a treasury I made it into AND there are some new compress' in the shop with some really fun new kokka prints which i love. I try to stock up whenever i find new ones that fit my fancy so check them out in the nest.home.retreat section...

Hot Cold Aromatherapy Flax Compress with

Floral Herbal Blend of Essential Oils and
Little Red Riding Hood Kokka Fabric

The Big Move

There are a few new items in the shop, but for the most part I have been working behind the scenes to prep new items for the holiday seasons that are just around the corner now—get ready for sachets specially scented for christmas, compress' with some cute new kokka fabrics, and a new take on my café aprons! I've also been teaching myself to knit in the round, yikes! I have loved working with yarn and fibers ever since my godfather built me a loom many years ago; I took weaving courses for a few years but when I began high school I'm afraid I couldn't keep up with it in addition to sports, orchestra, and my studies. Knitting has been a fun way to work with so many beautiful yarns again though in a much more portable way and I do hope that I can someday share my handiwork on etsy.

In the meantime...we've found a new home at last! The last couple weeks have been so busy making plans for our big move that it feels as though my head might spin right off. Boston has always been in the back of our minds as a possibility but the comparatively good job market for John's work (as compared to DC) as well as a dream apartment settled the matter for us quite comfortably and so Boston it is!

my current (soon to be former!!) "studio" which really just consists of a small bookshelf
and equally small table for my sewing machine which sit in the corner of our bedroom.
(Apologies for the slight blurriness here)

Whenever we have been down and out, moody in our cavernous little basement apartment, and just positively itching for some kind of new opportunity after John's lay-off, we've sat and described to each other the kind of place we would like to make our new home in. A kitchen that is not just a hallway in disguise, an extra room for me to set up a real work space/studio in, windows everywhere (we have only one right now in the very front room of our english basement apt., ugh!), stairs to force the cats to exercise (ha!), and all of this nestled into some quaint little town with trees and paths and water for recreation. So as you might imagine, we were dumbstruck to find all of this just 20 minutes outside Boston!!! A doable commute, a peaceful place to come home to away from the city's dirt and noise....insert huge sigh of relief here.

So for the next week or so I'll have somewhat spotty access to internet. I am leaving the shop open though so that you may browse and purchase at your leisure! Simply allow an extra 1–2 weeks for your package to arrive for any purchases made during this time (October 19th–26th). And of course I will respond to any queries you may have via etsy convo as soon as I am able.

Hope to meet you back here soon—and coming to you from Boston!!

she's alive! and she's having a sale!

"o golly ethel, i hope it's on sale!"

has it really been so long since i last posted?! o my...you know how life happens occasionally and i'm afraid my blogging got pushed onto the back burner. I began a second job, i got sick; we went on vacation, i got sick; we adopted a new kitten, my fiance got laid-off, i started working more hours at work, we started plans for moving, and i got sick again. gee whiz!

we are still in good ole dc for now but will be making a move at the end of this october. and we don't know where yet which can really leave one feeling stressed the heck out if you're trying to plan for it and also trying to plan your wedding (which you really can't do at all because there's no way to say where it might be!!). le sigh.

in the meantime however, the shop is doing well and if you're still reading the blog here is a treat which i am extending to all of you—buy two or more items and get 15% off! I'll simply refund you your savings via paypal once you have completed the transaction (does not include items in clearance or live.work.create sections). Hurry! Offer is good now through Sept. 30th.

cheers...and i'll post again, this time without so much time gone by!

treasury time

I'm slowing approaching the 1 year anniversary for my etsy shop and with that is coming a bit more growth in sales and recognition. It's been hard to do on a super small start-up budget and so finally seeing some of this growth is really exciting for me. Even in just the past couple weeks, GVK has been featured in a handful of treasuries, which it had never been before! Unfortunately I was gone on vacation and didn't catch them fast enough to post here :(

Today we landed in another though(!) by pixiepaper. It's kind of neat how she put the treasury together in order to tell a rather interesting story from her weekend, and yet it's all still visually appealing. Just click on the image below and it will take you straight there; her story is right at the top of the comments list.

happy earth day!

we all know there are small and large ways that each of us impact the earth and its resources, but it's hard to figure just how much damage we each do. to find out what your own ecological footprint is (and how you can reduce it), just take five minutes or so to use this handy footprint calculator! you may need to zoom in on the screen as the type is a bit small but otherwise it has some fun little graphics and straightforward questions to show how our lifestyle is directly linked to how much strain is put on our planets resources.

and in the interests of honesty, here are my own results:

i've got to say, i was really surprised by the results! i thought my impact would be much less because i live rather simply (a nice way of saying i'm dirt poor, haha) and do not even own a car. our apartment does have a lot of old appliances though that are not energy efficient and i have a habit of indulging in taxis instead of taking the bus to work. our salvation is really that we try to buy lots of local food at the farmer's market and that we recycle almost all of our plastics, glass, and paper waste. I reduced my footprint from 3.7 to 3.3 at the end by commiting to buy more products made of recycled material and to hop on my bike instead of cabbing it to work ;) i hope you find some ways that you can help too!

fabulous felt finds

i've recently been attempting to teach myself how to do some needle felting. it was slow going at first, but now that i am acquiring some better tools, it's actually quite fun. I also love how many different types of things people are creating with this medium!

so to go along with that, i thought i'd post a of few beautiful felt items i found in etsy land in the past few days...just wish i had pockets deep enough to grab one of each for myself!

Rosette Fascinator - The Swan, By giantdwarf
Isn't this gorgeous? Sigh, if only people dressed like this all the time...

Felt Owl Brooch, By lovahandmade
actually, i have already bought one of these cute little brooches for myself to adorn my spring jacket!

Felt Laptop Sleeve, By Lusitania
I can't imagine how much work went into this piece, what cunning design sensibility!

Eunice, By Mummysam
"Eunice has just bought a new pair of glasses, and decided to head out to town to celebrate...."
hahaha, i just love this!