Handmade Love Wednesdays

Paper Love Wednesdays are temporarily on hold & in its place is Handmade Love Wednesdays. I believe in creative tithing (read this post if you're not sure what I'm referring to) & want to feature some favorite handmade items, not specifically geared towards paper.

So without further ado, here's today's double feature - straight from Columbus, Ohio - yeah!:

Who doesn't need or like soap? So why not have a sense of humor about it? Stinkybomb Soaps fills both of these qualities. Started by husband & wife team, Rob & Megan, these soaps push "the bounds of irony and cleanliness through fun, uniquely designed soap." And the best part? 1% of the proceeds of the grenade soap goes to the Wounded Warrior Project. Read their very unique and cool story here & shop here.

Credit for photos: Stinkybomb Soaps

The second feature is Alison Rose & is another husband & wife team that specializes in apparel, handbags & accessories. My favorites are these t-shirts (one of these is for you & your mother Andrea F.) Below are my favorites but they have a whole bunch of other stuff here.

Credit for photos: Alison Rose

 I had the pleasure of hearing Megan from Stinkybomb Soaps & both Alison & Nicholas speak at the Midwest Craft Caucus.  I hope that you enjoyed this new series & these two selections. Have a great rest of your week!

Creative Tithing - Support Handmade

Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday weekend. Today, I wanted to share some of the other items we bought from our trip here and discuss the concept of "creative tithing." Inspired by this post, Caiti writes about how she has started a monthly practice of supporting the handmade community & her motivation behind the practice of creative tithing.

By consciously choosing to buy handmade, you are supporting others not only financially but you're also contributing to & supporting a person's goals and dreams. You're recognizing their talent & the time & care that each person took in creating their product. Caiti hits close to home for me, when she says that she never purchases anything from Etsy but that she can go to Target & spend a lot of money on things she doesn't really need. I'm the last person to advocate against big box stores or companies because I so willingly purchase stuff from them. What creative tithing is about though, is finding a balance & to think about how you can support creative business owners, alongside the big businesses.

So without further ado, here are some of my handmade purchases:

These incredible vases are made from wood

Mark and Linda Milich are an adorable husband & wife team, from Marshallville, Ohio, who fashion these absolutely gorgeous vases from wood, found on their property, & elsewhere like Africa & South America.  The coloring is all natural; meaning the wood is not stained. Unfortunately they do not have a website, but their business is called Wood Art & you can leave a comment if you'd like their contact info. We bought the 3 vases below:

This is Walnut.

This is Maple & was a fallen tree. The lines running
throughout are actually mold.

This is Paduak & Cherry.

We also bought a lamp from DS custom concrete. The base is fashioned from concrete & the lamp shade is constructed from paper & wood. The artist, Dave Schoeppner, resides in Magnolia, OH, & works for his Dad's construction business. He also creates amazing tables, sinks, & other home decor, all made from concrete. You can check out his gallery here. Prepare to be blown away by his unique craftsmanship.

I haven't found a place for it yet, hence the
 floor picture. We're still waiting for furniture
 to be delivered & assembled.

I'll have one more creative business we bought from to share with you on Paper Love Wednesday. For handmade goodness, check out Etsy, Heartsy (you have to sign up for this & its like Groupon, where you pay a small amount for a lot larger amount to spend on handmade items at specific shops) & feel good deal of the day. (*Full disclosure: If you sign up for Heartsy or the feel good deal of the day, please let them know that I referred you because I can earn credit. Thanks so much!)

Thanks for stopping by & here's to a great week!