Easter Eggs..

Yes, it's early to be talking about Easter -- I should be focusing on Valentine's Day....but this is about items hand made, and it's late to be ordering up handmade stuff for Valentine's Day --  Easter this year will be April 24th -- 3 months away seems long but these custom Easter Eggs in a Shell take a long time to whip up, and I'm going to pull them off the market sometime in early April!


These darling little eggs are for sale at my new Esty store - Esty is where you can shop for handmade unique items, things that you won't find mass produced on the net or for sale anywhere and everywhere.

These are crocheted, Aminigumi style (my new favorite) - tightly crocheted, stuffed. Each little chick will look slightly different from his or her sibling; they come inside a shell with a little button (the button is very small - so these should NOT be given to children under 3 who might swallow them. I can custom make one for you without the button, just send a message to me when you are viewing them).

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66186918/lone-amigurumi-chick-hatching-out-of-egg

And last, but not least, because these are hand made, they are not cheap - but you know, I love coupons - so here is one you can use to get a 20% discount!  .. just enter this code when making your purchase:   FSEE411

IF when you click on the links, there are no chicks and eggs there, please send me a message!  It just means the ones that were last made have sold  and I need to restock - no problem!

A brand new year...

Oh yes, we got a new year here - and apologies for taking so long to reopen!   End of one year is time to take inventory and restock.

On the down side, there aren't any new designs to look at in the regular bookplate line.  The round bookplates always have some new designs going on, so that's the place to go for new stuff!

On the up side, inventory has been restocked, so many of the popular designs are back in!  And there is a new section, called "LIMITED EDITION" where you may find bookplates you've been looking for.  These are bookplates I can't reorder - and they are some of the most popular Antioch designs - Cat on Books, Man on Ladder....


you may be able to find them elsewhere on the internet, but for now, I'm offering up what I have.   You can order these in"onesies" only - and you get a discount, if you enter the coupon code revealed in that section (PULLLEASE don't use that code if you order other things!)

OHHH yes, and there are new coupon codes, too, if you haven't made an account. Have you made an account?  If you make an account, I go in and make you a regular customer, which will give you a 10% discount every time you log in .. plus, of course, it has all your shipping info in there, ready to go.  And once in awhile, there might be other benefits.

But if you didn't do that, you get to use, one time only, a 10% discount.  That's in an email you get after you place your order.  You can use that one time, no matter who you are.  And then after that, you should have a 10% regular customer discount!

Teachers, booksellers, educators, librarians can apply for wholesale discounts, too.  They only need to set up an account and then let me know so I can sign them up - it's not magic, but in this day and age, it's nice.

The other nice news is that our prices haven't gone up (except maybe shipping - we can't control that!).  If you place an order over 50.00, you still get free shipping.

 Hope that helps you out in this tough and way tooooo cold New Year!  Oh.  and if you read this far, you can use this one time, too... a coupon code for the faithful reader... good until February 18, 2011 .. just key in when you check out, BLOGGIE2011

Christmas deadlines

Ohhhh the time approaches!  I can still ship Christmas bookplates (regular ones) until December 12th, the date when the 15% off coupon (found elsewhere on this blog) runs out.(I extended the deadline from the 10th to the 12th, since I'm ahead of schedule, although orders have been flowing in thank you so much!!!).. the free shipping for orders over 50.00 apply, but they will be shipped Priority or First Class, depending on where you are.  No guarantee when they will arrive. If you want a rush order, you'll need to pay for the shipping.
My bookplates can be found here

For all the other goodies, time is really running out!  Today ONLY you can get 60% off round bookplates plus free shipping by going here   and using JINGLESALE42  as your coupon!!! 

Christmas is coming and the goose is gettin' ....

nervous, I think.. because our pocket books haven't gotten any fatter.   Still, there are plenty of things we can do.  True, not whipping out that credit card and heading to the big stores isn't going to help Big Business and the Economy.

But we can still have a nice holiday without spending money we don't have, or money we need for other things.


1)  Buy less new stuff, but shop locally (and among small businesses over chains).   When you shop locally, the taxes paid go into your local economy - and you are supporting small businesses around you.

Many places have a local shopping day after Thanksgiving - even if you think you can't do all your holiday shopping locally and want to take advantage of discounts and coupons the chain stores will be offering, set aside a day and a dollar amount or percent to commit to your local shops - and have fun shopping locally!

2) Shop early (it's not too late - start now!) and take advantage of coupons and discounts.  I have some in here.. you just need to do a tag search for coupons -- you can get 15% off on bookplates until Dec 10th with one!   

3) Something old, something new -- along with that low budget but nice new gift from a local merchant, how about a quality "used" item?

  Goodwill and other second hand stores make good places to shop.  Why not?  Make sure used puzzles have all the pieces, but Goodwill has things that aren't used, too.   Be a second hand store yourself - what do you have that you can re-gift?   I have a cam corder I never use and a second camera, too - both are going to be re-gifted to family members, along with new gifts.

4) Make what you can.  It is true, home made gifts are appreciated.  What?  You aren't a creative type?  Hey, there are all kinds of gifts you can make that require little creativity or even effort.  How about a framed photo of a picture you took?  An inexpensive mug with a dry cocoa mix for hot chocolate and a peppermint stick candy stirrer?  The library has lots of magazines with ideas - the internet is filled - do a search...

Here's a place to start...

http://www.craftbits.com/misc-crafts

Packaging isn't really boring...

When I started out, the bookplates came in a hard plastic wrap - it's how we at Antioch Publishing always packaged our bookplates.  Hard clear plastic that you could see through to examine the bookplates. It kept them from being damaged or getting dirty as they hung on displays in stores.

Of course, they weren't environmentally correct.  I'm surprised we weren't ahead of the crowd on eco-packaging given the founder, Ernest Morgan's, beliefs but he was long gone.  Not ..gone.. just retired.  In any case, last year I got rid of the plastic packaging and replaced it with  my own version.  Plain brown paper, twine, a label I designed on the back and a bookplate on the front.

So far no complaints and in fact some compliments from you all.  The downside is time as the bookplates are wrapped by hand, the old fashioned way.   Nope, I don't have the luxury of employing someone to package so these are done by hand with each order by yours truly.  I try to do it with patience and tenderness - but it does take a long time.

Hope you all like the look.    (and by the way, if you dig around in here, you'll find the 15% off coupon good til December 10th)....