Team Tuesday - March 1 - CoveyleeCreations

This week's feature is about a member of the Etsy Blog Team. This is one busy Etsian, with three shops and an active blog. Besides CoveyleeCreations, there's also CoveyleeDecor and CoveyleeLighting. But, in one way or another, they're all about repurposing and upcycling.

CoveyleeCreations has upcycled leather cuff bracelets, assemblage art, and some other goodies.

I had a hard time deciding on a cuff bracelet to feature, but finally decided on this one, because it's handpainted which I think is great, and is sized personally for the buyer so can fit any size. I'd love to have the pattern as wallpaper in my kitchen:

This cuff is a little more representative of those in the shop - although that's hard to say because each one is unique. It can also be made in any size:

Here's an assemblage shadow box titled "Best Friends". I love the watch on the wall:

CoveyleeDecor is full of repurposed and upcycled decor for those who like Shabby Chic and Cottage Chic.

Since we're still hoping for spring, here's a "Spring Fling" collection of frames in great colors:

And a collection of candlesticks for which you can choose your own colors:

I had to add this cake stand/dessert display because it's so creative. Can you guess what two items it's made from? There's also a bonus the buyer will receive:

Our last shop this week is CoveyleeLighting. Not surprisingly, a lot of what's available here is also made from upcycled/repurposed found objects. Here's an "industrial look" cage light as an example:

This scalloped light is all new except for the shade, so you can have vintage without worrying about aging electrical wiring:

There's also a reading lamp made from a repurposed book. Pretty amazing lamp, but since the book was written by a literary critic who doesn't like Tolkien, you won't see a picture of it in this blog (which just happens to be named in honor of Tolkien)... We do have our priorities, y'know.

Last but definitely not least, here's a link to the Coveylee Creations blog. There are projects here that you won't see in any of the shops - at least, not yet.

Whew! This post was a lot of work - but a lot of fun, too, looking at some fantastic items.

The next three days...

...are the last days for the pre-Lent special for Lutheran prayer beads in my Etsy shop. The offer of 20% off any set of Lutheran prayer beads ends at midnight on Wednesday, March 2. I'll be going by U.S. Central Time, but if you're a little late because of a time difference, I'll still give you the 20% off. (In fact, don't tell anyone, but I probably won't change the prices back until I get up Thursday morning.) I chose March 2 as the end of the special because it still gives a week before Ash Wednesday for shipping.

To show how the prayer beads work as a Lenten practice, here's a picture of a set that's spread out. (The blogging program, of course, picked this time to insert a picture sideways. The stem should be hanging down.) In order to see a "zoomable" version of the photo, click on this one:

The stem is used for the first partial week of Lent. The four small beads represent Ash Wednesday and the following Thursday through Saturday. The larger green bead is for the first Sunday of Lent.

After that, you continue down from the juncture (center) with six sets of six beads each, for the six full weeks of Lent. The larger green bead that follows each set is for the Sunday at the end of that week.

Between the four small beads on the stem and the six sets of six small beads on the body, there's a total of 40 small beads (traditionally, the Sundays aren't counted as part of the 40 days of Lent).

At the very end, just before you get back to the juncture, is the Easter bead. It's larger and/or lighter in color than the other beads used. In this case, it's larger; it's also transparent while the other beads are opaque. One of the things I enjoy about making sets of Lutheran prayer beads is choosing the Easter bead - it's one more way to be creative. Incidentally, the presence of the Easter bead makes the set asymmetrical; you can't hold a set of Lutheran prayer beads by the middle and have it hang down evenly on both sides as you can with a Catholic or Anglican rosary.

The meditations in the brochure that comes with the prayer beads are taken from Luther's Small Catechism.

In order to see a full description of the set of prayer beads shown here, click on the picture. To see all of the Lutheran prayer beads that I have listed in my Etsy shop, go to the Ecumenical Rosaries section of the shop. If you don't see the color or style you want there, let me know using the "Contact" link. I won't have time to make any new sets before the special's over, but I do have some in stock that aren't listed in my Etsy shop.
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Tomorrow's "Team Tuesday" entry is a three-for-one special: a member of the Etsy Blog Team who has three Etsy shops (as well as a great blog, for which I'll also give the link). Hope to see you then.

"Here Comes Everybody"

It's a bit ironic that the title of this post is a phrase James Joyce used to refer to Catholics - and I'm using it to refer to Lutherans. I've been selling more Lutheran prayer beads than rosaries lately. In fact, I just had my first contact from a Lutheran who actually knew about Lutheran prayer beads before she saw them in my shop. Maybe the word is getting out. They might be selling especially now because some people use them specifically for Lent - my 20%-off pre-Lent special is still running through March 2, leaving a week for shipping before Ash Wednesday.

The person who'd heard of them wanted to see all those I didn't have listed yet, so I took photos of two views of each of them: an overall shot and a close-up showing the stem and Easter bead. I wouldn't normally list an item with only two photos, but I may do so with these rather than wait until I have five photos of each. Thing is, if I list all of them I'll have more Lutheran prayer beads listed than anything except "other rosaries". They'll definitely overpower the Anglican rosaries in the ecumenical rosary section!

BTW, James Joyce didn't mean "Here comes everybody" to be a compliment. But I rather like it. It gives me the same sense of pride as Hitler's designation of Americans as "the great mongrel race" - positive pride, I think, that even people that others look down on are welcome (at least when things are working the way they should). I'm happy to be catholic with a small "c" - which, if you look at their creed, includes Lutherans.

Here are a few sets of Lutheran prayer beads that I already have listed:

You can see more in the ecumenical rosaries section of my Etsy shop.

Team Tuesday - February 22 - HandmadeBlayne

With the new migration on Etsy from forums to teams, I've joined several teams. For a little extra fun, each Tuesday I'm going to feature a shop from one of those teams. This first entry is from Team Omaha, made up of (duh) Etsians who live in the Omaha, Nebraska area.

HandmadeBlayne carries a variety of items, including cards, tags and badges made of paper and fabric-covered pins, earrings and hair accessories. But my favorite part of the shop is the hand-carved rubber stamps. Unique and beautifully detailed, you'll want to check these out if you use stamping in your personal crafts.

The shop is eco-friendly. The following list is taken from the profile:

FEEL GREAT ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE PURCHASING!!!
✿All cards & envelopes made from 100% post consumer recycled paper!

✿Earrings & fabric badges made from upcycled vintage fabric/scraps of found fabric that make your item one of a kind!

✿No rubber goes to waste in the carving process! All snippets and scraps go towards making other stamps!

Clicking on any of the pictures below will take you to the description of the item in the shop.

My favorite stamp from HandmadeBlayne: 

And here's a second:

One for Easter (which is coming soon!)

There are also stamps of feathers, leaves, forest foxes, elephants, and a bevy of other designs. 

A few other items, picked especially for spring:

hair accessories

paper badges

button earrings

"sleepy bunny" tags

These are just some examples of the items you can find at HandmadeBlayne on Etsy.

Pre-Lent Special

Easter is late this year, with Ash Wednesday not coming until March 9. It's so late, in fact, that the rest of us get to celebrate with the Orthodox this year.

From now through March 2, I'm having a pre-Lent special in my Etsy shop, with 20% off all Lutheran prayer beads. Since one way to use them is specifically as a Lenten practice, it seemed like a good time to offer them at a discount.

Those who've been reading for awhile might remember that I made a bunch of these for a craft fair and didn't sell any (I have sold several through Etsy, though). I'm adding them gradually to my Etsy store, but still have a number that aren't listed yet. If anyone's looking for a certain color or style and you don't see it in my shop, let me know and I'll tell you what I have available.

Since even most Lutherans don't realize there's such a thing as Lutheran prayer beads, I'm offering a pamphlet to anyone, even if they don't buy a set of beads.  I just need a mailing address - send that to me through my Etsy shop, so you don't have your address sitting on the open internet.

You'll see one set of Lutheran prayer beads in my "Etsy-mini" on the right side of this page. Here are a couple more:

 

Well, my different kind of challenge went over like a lead balloon. Not a single taker. I'll still try to keep up with it myself, although there's not much incentive with no one else involved. For now, I'm concentrating on getting ready for taxes.