Heavens to Etsy!

I realized after a friend posted an article about Etsy.com on her FB page just how many times I've turned to Etsy in my pursuit of living a more eco-conscious life.  Etsy is a community of hobbyists, artisans and crafts-persons who have come together to sell their items.  You can find everything from Accessories to Woodworking and anything in between.  Many vendors recycle and upcycle, and make the most creative things.  I first became aware of Etsy when my cousin Kari started selling her jewelry on her Etsy store  kari1121  Kari also sells at local craft shows, but since she can also  post a link from Etsy to her Facebook page, I was able to snap up a cute pair of peace sign earrings she had on her Etsy store before they were gone.  I've been  hooked on Etsy ever since. 

When I started looking for a green alternative to disposable panty liners I turned to Etsy again.  I was really thrilled with the sense of community I got from the experience. All the women I've dealt with have been completely committed to customer service and take a lot of extra time and energy wrapping their items in pretty papers and eco-friendly packaging and are almost all open to special requests for certain fabric types (hemp vs organic cotton) or fabric patterns.

My next foray into Etsy started with a desire to use less paper towels.  I'm not an extreme person by any stretch of the imagination.  I think that sometimes people can go to some extremes in their quests to be green, and forget that one of the 3- R's of living an earth-friendly life is REDUCE.  I know I will never eliminate paper towels from our house, but we certainly can reduce the number we use.  I found a great vendor on Etsy who sells Unpaper Towels and Towel Houses  They're about the size of paper towels and are beautifully finished.  The Towel House sits on the counter and takes up just as much room as a paper towel dispenser takes.  You stuff the towels into the house (no folding), and pull them out a slot on the bottom when you need one.  They've all washed up great. I just toss them in with the load of kitchen towels I'm already doing anyway.  Kai packaged them up in a nice brown kraft paper and tied them with a piece of twine, an included a personalized note as well.

Around the same time I stared eating clean, and cooking a lot more (in addition to baking all the breads we consume in our house) I realized that I was always tossing on an old t-shirt to cook in.  I felt really frumpy.  So I went looking for a cute apron and found them at another Etsy Store my cousin Kari recommended: Momomadeit  My aprons are SOOO cute and girly. They are called Flirty Retro style and have a Donna-Reed-with-a-modern-twist vibe to them.  The patterns are really pretty and the fit is great - but the best part is the absolutely flawless tailoring and finishing.   You can really tell that Joan cares about what she's making.  Again, they were packaged very beautifully.

While I'm baking in my apron, and wiping up messes with my unpaper towels, Jay gets the most use out of my next Etsy favorite: organic cotton crocheted dish cloths from NeedleCreations   They're soft, durable and very well made. 

My woven agave-fiber soap saver bag started to finally wear out a few weeks ago, so I went on Etsy to find a replacement.  I found it at Orangefuzz's Etsy store  There I found a hemp-fiber crocheted soap saver bag, along with a bar of handmade soap made with organic ingredients like basil, mint and lime.  I like knowing when the bag starts to fall apart I can put it in the compost bin.

I know I could probably make some of these things myself. (If I had ever been patient enough to really learn to crochet or sew like my mom tried a million times to get me to learn).   I just don't have the patience or spacial awareness for it.  (proven by every shirt I ever sewed with the sleeves upside down and the one sock and one mitten I made and never finished the partners to)  I know I could just go down the street to Target  or my local health food store and buy almost everything I've purchase on Etsy and say that I've spent my money 'locally.'   But by supporting Etsy, I'm also supporting a LOT of 'local' economies, a lot of moms or not-moms who have a passion, and a skill and a desire to produce goods that are worth more to me than what I could get made in China, Pakistan, El Salvador, etc...  I'm not saying that the people in those other countries don't also deserve to make a living, too.  But after watching The Story of Stuff I also realized what a huge price is paid by those workers who produce countless things that we just don't need.  I'm also reducing consumption overall, and choosing to work with people whose values I share and whose vision I respect.

So with that, I say, "Heavens to Etsy!"