Etsy shop feature: Love at First Blush

All photos via Love at First Blush on Etsy

I was poking around on Etsy last Friday and fell hard for this feather jewelry from Toronto, Ontario-based designer Sabrina Chin of  Love at First Blush. Isn't it gorgeous? I particularly love the feather necklace in black and gold. I could see any one of these as the perfect piece for the holidays. (Did I just mention the holidays? Ahh!)

Find more gorgeous pieces from Love at First Blush here.

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The Lucy Top (by Shwin Designs)

I'm sure I wrote somewhere that I wanted to get sewing again and when I found this sweet top pattern from Shwin Designs I bought it right away. I was going to use it for the Tonic Living fabric contest but I realized I didn't have enough fabric so I put a hold on it until last week. I'm not really sure how or why I got started, but I soon found myself upstairs going through my fabric trying to decide what I could use. 

I have a tonne of denim so I chose some of that for one side of the top and some Joel Dewberry antler damask in Celadon I had for the other side.

I love how this turned out. I love the damask with the giant antlers and bits of read and the denim helps to ground it a bit if I want Mila to wear something toned-down*.

Some notes: Over all this pattern was super easy to follow but I didn't love the photos that came with it. I'm a super visual person and I found myself lost on the sleeves. In fact I totally messed them up and I had to hand-stitch the bottom of the arm holes to make it work. Oh well. I'll have to look at it again or contact the Shwins to see where I went wrong for the next one.

Also I was going to put buttons on the front like the pattern photo, but I really love how clean it looks without them so I'll be putting a little snap on the inside of each side.

*I laugh when I say "toned-down" in the same sentence as "Mila" because she's developing quite the active personality. There's a reason why I chose to photograph this on my bench instead of Mila modelling it. She rarely sits still and when I did try to put it on her she started flailing this way and that and started crying :).

Hope y'all have a great week!

out of line

I'm not sure about you, but the tragedy that took place in Bangladesh really had an effect on me. I can't get my head wrapped around the idea that people around the world are putting their lives at risk, and dying, just so that we can get a t-shirt for $10 from [insert cheap retailer name here]. I have definitely had my head in the sand.

The whole blogger "Target style" of dressing has started to irk me for some time. I can count how many times on one hand I've walked into Walmart. But no matter where I go to shop, Made in ChinaBangladeshIndiaPakestanCambodia has been on the tags of stuff I've been buying for years. If you're mainstream shopping, it's hard not to avoid it.

I made a vow that I would try (this is not going to be easy people) to put more of an effort into thinking about the clothes I wear and the things I buy. I was thinking that I would only buy things made in Canada, but that's not really realistic or likely even possible at this point. For example, my mom just bought a blender that was made in China - are there really alternatives for that kind of stuff? 

I've decided to start really slowly. I thought Etsy might be a good place to look for clothes and I've also done a tiny bit of research into Canadian retailers that make and sell yoga gear, for example, in Canada.

But I don't think I'll limit it to Canada if it's handmade however. There are individuals all over the world hand-making and selling some pretty cool stuff. Why not support them too?

Today I found a fun shop on Etsy called Out of Line based out of Seattle. I love these clothes. They are obviously more expensive than buying a Tee from Joe Fresh, but I think it's worth it. These clothes are made to order, so there's no mass production line and the styles are unique and fun.

Cute right?

I'm not sure how long this will last, but I feel like I need to at least try. If anything, I'll hopefully develop a good list of small retailers to refer to over time.

What do you think? Do you think I'm insane to even bother?

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ps- today is the last day to enter to win a sweet crochet animal! Don't miss out!