Thankful Thursday!

Hello everyone!

Today is Thursday, and once again I'm here to say thank you!

Today I'm thankful for two small things, but that have helped me feel much better!

For starters, this past Tuesday I finally decided to sign up for NetGalley, a website where "professional readers" as well as teachers, librarians, can get ARCs (Advanced Reader's Copy) of books. The idea for ARCs is that they are uncorrected proofs, released in small quantities, and some changes are sometimes made between them and the final books.

Well, right the next day, yesterday I was told one of my two first requests was approved, so now I have my very first ARC in my hands! (well, technically, my tablet & my phone). It's for Gold by Talia Vance, from the Bandia series. So super happy bookworm me - check!

And the second reason is that today at work, the son of one of my patients gave me this sweet little gift!

My own super cute EVA foam mini-me! Complete with curly hair! Ain't that just super sweet?

So once again, THANK YOU!!

Friday Feature: Camamiel!

Well, my blogging hasn't really gone back into full force, but at least, I'm trying to update weekly, and hopefully I'll eventually get back into my 3 posts a week routine!

Today, the first of my days off at work for the holidays, I wanted to make a special Friday Feature! 

I might have mentioned Deb from On Cupcake Moon before, and how we have become taste twins, and how thanks to our common taste for awesome handmade goodies and shops we have connected and became great friends, and I actually can't wait to meet her in person (hopefully next year, twin!).

So, this year I wanted to make her a special Xmas gift, since I know we both love unique things, and after seeing her buying one of Camamiel's Xmas Angels, I thought that a fantastic gift would be a Camamiel mini-Deb! 

 Deb and her Camamiel's mini-Deb!

And we did it! We based the doll on a cartoon of herself that Deb draw, with her kitty, and Ana Camamiel did an absolutely astounding job making sure the doll was a faithful reproduction even to the Rocky The Zombie tee she's wearing!


And Deb absolutely loved it!! So, yeah, further proof that buying handmade is absolutely the best way to go for gift giving!!

Wearing Handmade Wednesday: Julian Bean!!

Hello everyone! Not keeping my promise as well as I should, but I'm finally back with a blog entry!

For today's Wearing Handmade Wednesday one of my besties since college and fellow nurse, Pilu, and featuring one of my very favourite artisans & crafters, Erin from Julian Bean!

I fell in love with this set a while back, and since Pilu's favourite colours is black, and this black and white set was just perfect! And Pilu absolutely loved it!

Buying handmade is always a guarantee of an unique gift, and one that will be loved by the recipient, and also, quite a wonderful experience, buying from an independent artisan that puts loads of love into their work! 

Support handmade and independent artisan and crafters!

Friday Feature: Trencadis, amazing mosaic art from Spain!

Hello everyone! Friday is here and with it finally a new edition of Friday Feature!


And today it's a very special one, cause the focus of today's Friday Feature is Trencadis, the shop of  a super talended crafter from Alicante, Spain!


You can't image how proud I am to share this wonderful shop with you all! Finding it cause an absolute strike of luck in an already fairly lucky day! I had found an unique photo album to turn into my friend's Wedding Guest Book on the first shop I looked, and as I was printing photos for it I remembered my mum had asked for some photos to be printed of the Indian Wedding batch, so I got a brainwave for her belated b-day present! I printed two photos she had loved when seeing them all, and then went on an Etsy search for some cute handmade frames...


And low and behold I stumbled into these really really gorgeous mosaic frames that I just fell in love with, so I went to check how much the shipping would be, thinking they'd be from a shop from the US, as usual, and what was my surprise when I saw they were shipped from Spain! Even more thinking that they'd be here in time to give them to my mum the following Monday!


Angeles, the crafter/owner of Trencadis was super nice and was pleasantly surprised to get a fellow Spaniard as a customer! Unfortunately the handmade culture is really not big in Spain, so it's hard for crafters to find customers, and for handmade lovers like myself, it's hard to find shops that are into handmade and not Made In China!


I left on Friday for Valencia and the beach to have a weekend of stress, merriment and fun at my bff's wedding, and Angeles shipped my frames priority that very same day, so come Monday the postman delivered these two beauties, super well packed and protected! So much, that I had to spend a good pair of minutes trying to figure out the best way to unpack them!

I cut the photos further to make sure they fit nicely and re-wrapped them for my mum. I gave them to my mum that evening after work and she absolutely loved them! Both frames are amazing, and the tile work & combination of colours is brilliant! My mum loved them so much she's already looked for a place for them in her bureau for now, until she can decide where to put them to show them off better!

The orange & gold one is my mum's fave, but I'm not sure if that's the frame's merit only, or the fact that she loves that photo of me has something to do with it...

And I have to say, the navy and green frame is my fave of these two, and I can say is not just for the photo, I love how the combo of colours work for this frame!

I'm absolutely in love with this shop, and I'm thinking of getting some frames for myself too! But there are more than just frames there, you can also find some gorgeous candle holders, belt buckles and even vases!


I highly highly recommend this shop, and I'm doubly happy to do so, supporting not just handmade, but also a Spanish crafter, so my dears, do check Trencadis Etsy shop!

Wearing Handmade Wednesday: Radically Riley's Artisan Jewelry!

Once again, this Wearing Handmade Wednesday is a look back into the past! But looking back at old photos has made me realize, I've missed showing off some really nice stuff here!

Deeksha showing off her Radically Riley's jewelled wristwatch

I got this gorgeous wristwatch for Deeksha, Gaurav's sister a few years ago from Radically Riley's Artisan Jewelry on Etsy, and it was a hit! It's a gorgeous watch, and it looked amazing with her outfit for the Indian wedding we attended! ;)

Indy and her Fabulously Fierce Pets collar!

Wednesday was my day off this week, so I decided to get some social life, and meet my friend Pilu's new puppy, Indy!


We decided she'd pick me up at the train station and then we'd drive to their new house, spend some time playing around with Indy, and then we'd go to the Japanese restaurant for some sushi!


Since at some point we had planned to get Pilu a puppy ourselves (us as in the group from uni) but her brother and niece took the lead, so I thought it'd be a good idea to bring a lil present for the puppy! So, I got Indy a super cute set of collar & leash from Fabulously Fierce Pets!




Pilu loved it even more than Indy did, cause as soon as she saw it, she took Indy's old collar off, and put on the new one! It's purple & camo, and looks great with Indy's golden cinnamon coat!






Indy wasn't too much in the mood for getting some pics taken at first, she's a bit camera shy! But after we took her to play around in her favourite park next to their house, she decided to play model for the camera for a bit and she's a total cutie!!










After all that playing, Indy was tired and thirsty, so we went back home, gave her fresh water and let her take a nap, while we went to the Japanese restaurant.




We had a great lunch! Some miso soup, some really yummy sushi, and for dessert, green tea ice cream and green tea truffles! Both were delicious, and even if the truffles do look a bit like moss... damn they're a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!




After lunch, we went for some nice tea at home, and to play more with miss Indy! All in all, quite a great day!

Handmade with love by Lauren!

Hello there!


Thursday here, and I'm already back at work at the hospital, and so far things are not too bad, hopefully they'll stay like this through the next 4 days on a row that I'm working!


I've been meaning to write this blog entry all week, but I've been quite caught up reading M. Hercule Poirot's short stories, so today, I've decided that before going back to my book, I need to update the blog!


Today I'm not writing about some amazing piece that I've bought (Etsy or otherwise) but about an amazing handmade gift that my very good friend Lauren made for me!


Lauren is a very crafty lady that can sew, knit and crochet, and I'm pretty envious of her craftiness! She's also quite an artist, and made a wonderful pencil drawing of Gaurav & me together (we really can't wait till we have a place of our own to hang it, next to Sheika's super cute drawing of us too!). She's always working on some project or order, maybe a new skirt for herself, a new style of book cover for herself or friends...


Her latest project and gift for both Gaurav & me, were a pair of super nice CD cases! I completely forgot to take a shot of Gaurav's before I left India, but I had a lot of fun the other day taking shots of mine!




Not only is super well made, clearly with loads of love! But also, Lauren used an oriental fabric I've been in love with for ages!




I love the fact that she decided to use velcro for the closure, since it's easier to open and close that way and it doesn't look bulky at all from the outside.






Inside the CD cases there were also 2 CD's, one of them was The Corrs' latest compilation (yes, I'm a metalhead with a love for Hello Kitty AND The Corrs... I'm odd, I know!) and also David Garret's Virtuoso, with many well know songs (classics and modern ones) in instrumental versions with his violin as the main performer, amazing CD I've fallen in love with!




All in all, it's a wonderful, very thoughtful and made with love, gift, and I want to thank my dear Lauren for it! (And also try to convince her to start working on a line for a future Etsy shop!).