Feature Friday: Another Day, Another Lotion

I was once again lured to another lotion based on the packaging. Stud Bud's cute red and green tins proclaim it's contents to be "a salve for hardworking hands." I'm not sure if using my hands to knit and sew qualifies them as "hardworking" but I reckoned it was worth a shot.
Stud Bud, from Bawdy Botanicals, is a thick balm that becomes soft and spreadable on contact with warm hands. Unfortunately, my hands are very cold much of the winter. (You know what they say though: cold hands, warm heart.) With a little rubbing and digging, even my cold mitts can get this stuff going.
I found the salve to be a little thick and greasy for everyday use. It took a while to rub in completely. However, in recent days, the backs of my hands have become painfully dry and sore. I keep jabbing them with needles and scissors as I furiously prepare for the No Coast Craft O Rama. Dry skin is easily broken and tough to heal. A little of the Stud Bud rubbed on the backs of my hands has eased the discomfort and made my skin more resilient. I'm keeping the tin in my purse to rub on the backs of my hands every now and again lest they become reptilian again in this cold, dry Minnesota November.

Friday Feature: The Search for Hand Lotion

With the dry days of winter upon us here in Minnesota, I set out on a quest to find a handmade hand lotion on etsy to soothe my chapped mitts. I ordered four different lotions and I've been putting them through their paces on both my hands and my husband's. I'll review these four over the next couple of weeks in an attempt to make up for my sadly inadequate Friday Features as of late.

First up is Least Likely 2 Breed's "Hand Job." Especially when ordering on-line, I'm all about the packaging and Least Likely 2 Breed has really cute packaging. The lotion arrived in a cute red box and accompanied by a charming freebie lip balm.

I like lotions that come in a tube -- it makes it easier to throw them into a purse or bag and carry it along. Unfortunately, I found Hand Job to be a little too greasy. My hands were shiny and slippery for a while afterward so that I wouldn't want to put it on right before I have to drive lest the steering wheel get too slippery or I leave a greasy coating that my husband might not appreciate.

When I left Hand Job unused to too long, it was difficult to squirt out the lotion - as if the tube had gotten gummed up. I had to use a skewer to poke a hole through and loosen up the contents.

The good news is that in spite of not finding the perfect hand lotion with Least Likely 2 Breed, the freebie tube of peppermint "better than average lip balm" was an unexpected hit. It goes on smooth, but feels light, has just the slightest hint of soothing peppermint, and gently moisturized my chapped lips.

While I didn't find my perfect hand lotion, the lip balm will keep me going back to the shop to try out other scents and flavors (of which there are many) and some of the cleverly named mother and child balms.

Feature Friday: Teaman

There are times when I'm something of a tea junkie. I can't help but try new teas and new companies and new shops. I think I envision myself steeping and sipping cups of teas while I sit at my desk writing. The reality is that this really only happens a few times a week and really only during the cold winter months and I often tire of one type of tea well before I finish the box. The result is that I have a cabinet full of teas.

I found the Teaman in the etsy forums one evening. He blends and packages his own tea and I was intrigued. I was particularly interested in a green tea and a chai. I like my chai spicy and potent with a little edge of sweetness and I like to drink it with loads of milk (or soy milk, actually). I hate to say it, but I rarely find chai on grocery shelves that I like more than what I get in local coffeeshops. (Or perhaps it's just because I like having someone else do all the work.) The Teaman said that his tea was exactly as I described.

I also wanted a green tea and told him that I like like green (or even white) teas that are floral and subtle. He recommended his apple/ cinnamon. He was very helpful. I ordered a container of both the chai and the cinnamon. The order arrived promptly a few days later. The box they arrived in was a bit mangled, but as much as I like really great, innovative, earth-friendly, creative packaging that sometimes comes from etsy sellers, unimpressive packaging is never a deal breaker. Besides, it came in these really great blue tins that I was already devising plans for reuse.

I was a little disappointed that there were no instructions for how to steep (what temperature? how long?) but I figured that some teas are kind of idiot proof -- just steep for a few minutes in hot water.

While the apple cinnamon tea was steeping it was fragrant without being overwhelming. There was a slight artificiality to the apple smell which I attributed to the "flavor crystals" (I'm not sure exactly what they are) that the Teaman puts in his teas. The cinnamon was even more subtle but comforting. The flavors themselves were also mild -- a barely-there hint of apple and its spicy companion.

I tried the chai steeped in water, steeped in warm soy milk, and steeped in water before adding soy milk. The scent of the chai was rich with pepper and cloves so that it reminded me a little bit of Christmas. I found the chai steeped in just water to be far too understated -- I like my chai with a lot of zing. When I steeped it in water and then added the milk, I ended up wishing that I had steeped it a little longer or else mushed up the bag a bit more to help it release all the flavors. Just steeping it in the warm soy milk gave the chai the body and substance that it needed. I would have preferred just a little more cardamom and ginger in the tea.
I'm not sure if I'll be ordering more tea, but I'm pretty confident that these two won't get pushed to the back of my tea cabinet, never to be steeped or served again. In the meantime, I'm thinking I should start mixing my own chai -- grinding the spices right in my own kitchen to get maximum flavor. But I'm something of a snob when it comes to these things...

Feature Friday: Wonder Thunder

My husband and I have gotten pretty good about bringing our own bags to the grocery store. The first thing I learned how to do when I started to learn how to sew was to make large tote bags. I sort of went on a bit of a rampage making them, so we have three large, sturdy totes made from upholstery fabric in patterns that do not offend my husband's masculinity too much.

So even though we were stemming the flow of large plastic bags coming into our home, we were building up quite a collection of plastic produce bags -- those thin, filmy numbers that aren't that useful (we don't have a dog).

I went on a mission to find some reusable produce bags. The Green Store here in Minneapolis was sold out of their bags, which was fortunate because one day when I was "pouncing" on etsy (pouncing is a feature that allows to see recently listed or sold items randomly), I came across some really cute pink produce bags from Wonder Thunder.


I ordered some -- and for $12 for a set of three in different sizes (sorry -- only two of my three were available for the photo shoot), I think they were a steal (handmade AND silkscreened with a cloud pattern AND machine washable).

They're not see-through, which means the cashier needs to peek into them when ringing you up (or else you need to do the whole PLU sticker thing), but they haven't been bothered by that. Some will ask what the tare is, which is great -- but at .75 oz for the big one, it's sort of negligible. My husband says he sometimes gets funny looks -- but I think that's because the pink offends some people's sense of masculinity.

Feature Friday: Letterary Press

A few weeks ago, I ordered this card from Letterary Press on etsy for a friend whose grandmother just passed. (She has a great sense of humor.)

The card is not only super cute and vintage-y, but it's also well-made. Letterary has other vintage designs and cards that feature quotes. A few more samples:

Feature Friday: Maybe You Should Die

WARNING: This post has some content that is probably not mom and mother-in-law appropriate. You have both been warned.

So every so often I stumble across something really cool on etsy that I end up buying. In the spirit of mutual promotion and appreciation and encouraging the spending of money and the stimulating of the economy, I'm going to periodically feature a handmade seller.

The first one is Maybe You Should Die. I actually came across their wares at the No Coast Craft Fair here in Minneapolis last year where I took this picture.

They have great cards...
but also great "mean bags" -- bean bags (or actually rice bags) with bitter, funny, mean sayings on them that you can chuck at your friends... or enemies.

Since they're based here in Minneapolis, I doubly had to order something from them. I took a phrase from Tobias in Arrested Development. You can check out the episode here.

It matches our dining room and living room (you can order it in a variety of colors). It's well-made, handy, smells like Jasmine rice, and is fun to throw at your husband when he's being a "douchechill." Check out Maybe You Should Die here.