buy handmade!

We just found buyhandmade.org and are just tickled pink. We found ourselves nodding and smiling to each other and feeling completely understood. This, dear internet, is the reason we do what we do.

We posted their label on our sidebar, so you, too, can pledge to buy handmade. The pledge is to buy handmade gifts this holiday season and request others to do the same for you.

In a nutshell (from the website):

Buying Handmade makes for better gift-giving.
The giver of a handmade gift has avoided the parking lots and long lines of the big chain stores in favor of something more meaningful. If the giver has purchased the gift, s/he feels the satisfaction of supporting an artist or crafter directly. The recipient of the handmade gift receives something that is one-of-a-kind, and made with care and attention that can
be seen and touched. It is the result of skill and craftsmanship that is absent in the world of large-scale manufacturing.

Buying handmade is better for people.
The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. We are encouraged to be consumers, not producers, of our own culture. Our ties to the local and human sources of our goods have been lost. Buying handmade helps us reconnect.

We've picked out some delightful gifts this year, made by some really delightful people. Come see what we've found! Gift wrapping is always free (and people get all giddy when they see our gift boxes heading their way).