Heartful Handmade Blog

cool new fashion slide show at heartful village

These very unusual gorgeous hand earrings by Thomas Mann are just one example of the cool handmade products sliding through the new Heartful Village fashion slide show.  Handmade art clothes, accessories, and jewelry are added and updated all the time, and you can also choose to view just jewelry or just clothes.  So click on over and check out the new Heartful Village fashion slide show now.

week of hope and 40% off at heartful village store

If you can dream it you can do it.

September 1-7 is Week of Hope, a time to reach out to others with words of encouragement, support, and thanks.  The idea behind the week is to create a movement to pool and concentrate our positive energy towards the goal of raising our collective vibration. 

Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn't permanent. ~Jean Kerr

This is so my kind of thing, so I'm offering 40% off all cards at Heartful Village Store throughout the week.  Use promo code hope at checkout to get the savings.  (One order per customer, boxed gift sets excluded.)  And I've added six new card text options for the week's theme.  You'll find them at the end of each card's list of quotations. 

Hope can always cope. ~P.K. Thomajan

new intro page at heartful village

Heartful Village has been simplified and has a new intro page that better describes it's purpose.  I've posted it here for your convenience, but clicking on the links will take you to the site:

you are a one-of-a-kind original . . .

. . . and your world should reflect your uniqueness
Yeah, you're probably thinking that's easy for me to say.   Like you can just start designing and making everything yourself.  Besides, even if you're creative, it's hard to find the time.  And where do you start?  So you end up with a lot of mass-produced (produced for the masses) things that gazillions of other people have.  Ever show up somewhere and someone's wearing the same outfit you have on?  It even happens to famous people in expensive designer clothes.  Celebrity websites and magazines actually publish photos of those embarrassing high-fashion mix ups. 

bonbon oiseau

A link to the Bonbon Oiseau online shop has been added to Handmade Lookup.  These unique (usually made to order) necklaces, bracelets, rings, and hair adornment are a delight to the eyes.  Truly the work of an artist.  Click here to check it out. 

double duty: clean-up and decor

Today's reviews were all devoted to the home.  And now that we've thought about getting our space all organized and decorated, we can focus on taking a nice relaxing bath.  Epically Epic handmade soap will get us clean using pure 100% vegan oils and fragrances.  And it also looks good just laying around smelling nice.  In fact, I think the "delightfully stripey" Mrs. Zebra bars (Sandalwood, Virginian Cedar, and Lemongrass essential oils), will look especially good next to those cardboard animals. 

Click here for the Epically Epic Soap Lookup entry.

a tabletop to plan the revolution

Michael Arras has figured out how to make uniquely beautiful, well-crafted, and artistically distinctive furniture that he can offer at reasonable prices.  In his words, he strives "to find a balance between high-end studio-furniture and mass-produced works."  This is what the evolving handmade revolution is all about for me.  High-quality handmade products that are widely available and affordable.

Click here for the Michael Arras Lookup entry.

beautiful storable storage

Jenna Rose creates beautiful but highly functional storage containers using 100% cotton cloth.  I use baskets for a lot of my storage needs and can see where these have the added benefit of being easy to store when not in use.  And you can take them along on trips to keep track of your stuff in hotel rooms and friends' homes.  You'll also find pillows, purses, and belts in this lovely shop.

Click here to visit the Jenna Rose Lookup entry.

instant potted elegance

Papaver Vert makes elegantly simple cozies that let you instantly convert plants from the supermarket into classy looking decor.  They're made of heavy felt and come with a shallow plastic liner to keep things dry.  You'll also find trivets and coasters and trays and bowls and even cozies to convert water glasses into vases.  These seem like good travel items (create home wherever you are), and gift items for your out of town visits (add a local plant once you're there).

Click here to visit the Papaver Vert Lookup entry.

what handmade products mean to me

Come on over and join the discussion, "What handmade products mean to me" at the Heartful Village Facebook page. 

ready for prime-time

The new Heartful Village website is now up and running.  Its central feature is Handmade Lookup, a directory of handmade products and the people who make them.  Handmade Lookup makes it much easier for me to create and promote links to handmade products, and artisans can add links to their sites themselves.   

Each page on the new site displays a slideshow of Heartful Village greeting card images.  Clicking an image on most pages will take you to the profile page of the artist who created it.  The slideshows on artist profile pages show only that artist's images.  Clicking one of them takes you to that card's page in Heartful Village Store. 

The slideshows are a subtle (and we hope pleasant) form of advertising because sales of Heartful Village greeting cards subsidize the expense of maintaining the Heartful Village site and store.

Please check out the new site by clicking here.  And tell your friends too, ok?