One of the goals on my 101 goals in 1001 days list was to make at least 10 purchases from Etsy sellers or other independent artists, and I am checking it off my list!  Read on to see my purchases…

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1 & 2. A beautiful fox card from Cuore for my mother-in-law and a witty letterpress Mother’s Day card for my mom from afavorite… {and a few other cards here and there!}

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3.  An adorable hand stamped dog tag for Eddie from makeyourdogsmile (which I bought so early before his arrival that I unfortunately lost it and can’t find it … it was beautiful though!)

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4.  Some cute Wizard of Oz graphics from JW Illustrations to use for my mom’s surprise 50th birthday party

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5.  An awesome pug wood cutout puzzle from dog wood by Dave for my in-laws because they are getting a pug… (Can you tell who takes care of the card and gift giving in our house?)

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6. Some super geeky Nintendo soaps for my brother-in-law from Digital Soaps…

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7 & 8. Some awesome taxonomy posters from Pop Chart Lab {the Very Very Many Varieties of Beer for a friend and the Titanic Taxonomy of Wrestler Names for the mister}… You better believe I can get behind a wrestling poster if it looks as pretty as this!

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9. Some delicious {and gorgeous} macarons from SparklesMacaron as a Christmas gift for my family that lives out of state…

10. I bought custom curtain panels for my living room from Erin at PlushStudio.  I provided the curtain fabric and blackout lining to her, and she charged me for the labor.  Believe me when I say that her prices were so reasonable.  I was able to get professional curtains made to order, versus spending countless hours doing them myself and likely having them come out sub-par.  I’m so pleased with this purchase!  Post coming soon about the living room progress, but for now, enjoy this instagram shot…

And for bonus points, a few handmade items others bought for me after seeing them on my wishlists:

My mother-in-law bought these earrings from Shy Siren for me… I wore them for my wedding and still love to wear them whenever I can. Gorgeous!

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A chandelier scarf from PrettyRaccoon from my in-laws…

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And a set of leather cuff bracelets from HollyHawk, again from my in-laws…

I always like to support other artists and small business owners whenever possible.  Adding handmade goods to a Christmas or birthday wishlist is a great way of showing your support, because even if it’s not an item you’d splurge on for yourself, someone else just might want to gift it to you for a special occasion.