Featured Weekly Seller: Savor

Savor makes very unique soap that looks good enough to eat! Mint Chocolate?? Who can resist?

1. What is the name of your store and what do you sell?

I run Savor, a store featuring handcrafted soaps with a culinary twist.

2. How did you get into your craft?

I love to cook -- and growing up Italian, I was always around lovely, rich, tasty food. I took up soaping as a hobby, and I naturally incorporated my cooking knowledge into my soap making -- and Savor is the delicious result!

3. What is your latest project?

I am focusing on soaps with a lot of texture and character. I am looking at them as if they are meringues, or whipped topping. I want a sense of architecture and design to compliment the smell and color.

4. Where can we find your products?

My shop is located here: http://savor.etsy.com

Offensive Line's New Item!

One of our favorite stores, Offensive Line, available at http://www.cafepress.com/offensiveline just came out with a new item!
It comes in various colors and sizes, for male and female. Buy it now!

How to Make a Christmas Wreath

I recently made my first Christmas Wreath with my bf. It could've turned out better, but for our first time, it went pretty well.

Here's what you need:

1. 2 Wire Cloth Hangers
2. Thin Wire/Twistie Ties/Fishing Wire (Whatever is easier for you)
3. Plier/Scissors/Cutting tool
   
4. Collection of small fir branches with healthy leaves
5. Decorations of your choice
6. Red Bow

Here's what you do:

1. Take the cloth hangers and bend them into a circle shape, leaving the hook intact. The hook can be used for you to hook the wreath. Put both circle shaped hangers on top of one another. This will double the strength.
2. Start taking fir branches and piling them on the hangers, tying them to the hanger by using thin wire/twistie ties/fishing wire, etc. I find that it's easier to first secure the bigger branches on the hanger first, tying them with thin wire. Then start filling it out with the smaller branches, securing them by using twistie ties. Make sure the fir branches are all facing the same direction along the circle.
3. Keep filling out the wreath. Pick up the wreath once in a while to see which empty spots need filling
4. After you're done, you should have a full looking wreath. Now all you need to do is decorate it. Twistie tie the bow on, and any decoration you wish. Some suggestions are pine cones and berries.

That's pretty much it - quite easy to do! Here's the outcome of our wreath:

It would've look better if we place a shorter bow at the bottom of the wreath. Our mistake was we only used one cloth hanger instead of doubling it up. So the bottom was drooping downwards. To make the wreath look anything remotely like a circle, we tie the bottom to the top with fishing wire. And we put that long bow at the top to let it drape downwards, covering the wires.

Feel free to share pictures of your own handmade wreath! Post a comment here with a link to your wreath, or email us at daibebeads (at) gmail (dot) com.

Dealing with Ignorance

Hi everyone! Sorry we haven't been blogging of late. It's the holiday so as you can imagine, we've been very busy!

Now, I don't like to air out personal issues in our public blog. But this is an exception. The real reason why we haven't blog is because I recently received a racist hate message and have been dealing with that since - yes that's right, an ignorant filled message about how Asians should be killed and how we eat cats and how we need to get back on our raft and leave. But the way the message was written, it wasn't some random racist attacking me, it was someone I know (from the way they described how I look like, to how she talked about my two cats, etc).

Usually the best way to handle these people is do not give them the satisfaction. But I had an idea who it was so I replied and defended Asians and myself, trying to provoke this person and get more info out of her. And as expected, she started revealing more and more of her personality each time she replies. Little did she know, while she's busy replying, I tracked down her IP address and is able to trace to the region she was at. And as I suspected, it was my bf's ex (I didn't know anyone else who lives in that region, so it was obvious.)

I've always suspected that when my bf and I started dating, she probably thought she had a chance to go back to him. They were already broken up, my bf was ready to move on, but she was trying to find every excuse in the book to see him. It was getting tiring. But as soon as my bf and I established that we were a couple, she saw she had no chance and finally moved out of state to live with her family.

But then the real trouble starts. She's obsessed! She won't leave my bf alone. When she moved out of state, she "accidently" took my bf's tax forms and bank records with her....And then the unspeakable, she got into my bf's paypal and took $1,000 from him. To this date he has yet to get it back. So when I started getting these racist hate messages, I knew it had to be her. I'm a generally easy-going person, I didn't think I can cause such hatred in anyone... except for a jealous ex.

Whatever the motives were, pulling the race card is a new low.

I sincerely hope that she can somehow move on with her life.

Weekly Featured Seller: Erin Lillies

A word that comes to mine when seeing this week's featured seller's jewelry is elegance. Erin Lillies' craft is stylish and classy. Let's meet her:

1. What is the name of your store and what do you sell?
Erin Lilies - Handcrafted Artisan Designs. I sell primarily jewelry in my etsy store, but will soon be offering jewelry boxes and pens.

2. How did you get into your craft?
I began making my own jewelry a few years ago. It stems from my love of all things shiny. My husband would frequently lose track of me in a store as a result. So instead of searching through the pretty, shiny items, I decided to start making them.

3. What is your latest project?
My latest project (which I hope to list within the next couple of days) is a phoenix pendant. It's so cool and I can't wait to share with everyone.

4. Where can we find your products?
You can find me on etsy at http://erinlilies.etsy.com or my main site: http://www.erinlilies.com.