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Share These Finds!
   
Today's Finder
 | | February 1, 2010
With Valentine's Day only two weeks away, I thought it would be fun to have a few Etsy lovebirds share their handmade love stories. I believe Cupid was aiming to create an artistic masterpiece when he hooked up the following lovely and talented couples.
| Adam & Quincy | | 
We met in art school through mutual friends but we became great friends in fiction writing class when we discovered that we shared an obsession for vintage records. Adam had written a story about a singing puppet named "Little Marcy." That weekend I traveled out of state and accidentally happened upon a Little Marcy record for $2.00, and, although I barely knew Adam, I gave him the album in class. He gave me a big bear hug and we’ve been inseparable ever since. We were married in Las Vegas by a singing Elvis in a bedazzled jumpsuit. The bride wore a fuchsia veil to match her fuchsia hair and the groom wore a 1970s turquoise ruffle shirt and smoking jacket. That was nine years ago. We now have a little girl named Violet who is the love of our lives. We like to buy each other gifts on Etsy: vintage figurines, custom monster sculptures and anything anthropomorphic.
| BigFoot PIN Set - Pink and Red  By PearsonMaron, $13. |
Stephen & Shauna | | 
It's true: We LOVE to make things for each other — we've been doing it ever since we met in art school. I remember the first time I made something for Stephen and secretly left it in his studio. Somehow he found out it was me and returned the gesture by placing a hand-carved, wooden heart on my doorstep. Twelve years later, we're still up to our same old tricks. Not long ago we started collaborating by making handmade valentines for our friends. Before we knew it we were Something's Hiding in Here and have been stocking our Etsy shop with gifts for other people since.
| faux bois log. white  By somethingshidinghere, $20. |
Rick & Heidi | | 
Rick paints the big strokes, Heidi focuses on detail: this complementary combination has worked well for us over the years, in crafting and life in general. Given that we are together almost 24/7, we are often amazed at how things remain fresh and new, likely due to our very different personalities. Our dreams and goals have always been nearly identical and this brings balance and stability to our lives and relationship. Living in a remote location is always conducive to a creative lifestyle. For an anniversary card, Heidi etched a love poem into a slice of fallen aspen wood and Rick returned from a walk with a breathtaking bouquet of wildflowers as a gift. These are our simple, spur-of-the-moment handmade expressions of love!
| Rustic Ring BOX... reclaimed wood  By ParadiseHillDesigns, $20. |
Sasha & Meagan | | 
We first met in 4th grade and attended both middle and high school together. We sat next to each other in our senior English class and only had maybe one conversation which went like this... Sasha: "How did you make that awesome book cover?" Meagan: "Phone book pages." Sasha: "I should have thought of that." Finally, fifteen years after we first met as kids, we found each other both living in Seattle and started getting together. We soon moved in together and started creating for Wonder Thunder. Sasha was a printmaking major in college, and Meagan studied Fibers. Wonder Thunder is a fancy blend of the two mediums!
| Reusable Vegetable Bags  By wonderthunder, $20. |
Ben & Natalie | | 
Natalie and Ben met and fell in love after Natalie's boat "The Beja Flor" capsized on a tiny island in the South Pacific where Ben was the only human inhabitant. He was living peacefully with the parrots and potbellied pigs for two years after a freak tsunami surfing incident. Natalie moved into Ben's tree house, which he had built into a giant monkey tree. Ben made Natalie a Mustache Key Hook one day because she kept losing her keys to the tree house, and she said "WOW! You should make these for the rest of the civilized world!" This is when Suddenly, It's Real! was born. Together they made a flying machine from banana leaves, coconut shells, sand dollars and parrot feathers and decided to return to the Midwest, their native land, where they are living happily ever after.
| Mustache Key Hook  By benfloeter, $30. |
Bridgette & Mike | | 
Mike and I met in Brooklyn, New York while we were attending art school at Pratt. Our proposal was not very crafty, but it was awesome! Mike proposed in front of a large fountain at Disney's Epcot Village. He kept looking for good places to pop the question, and as we walked around I could see he was distracted; I knew it was coming! It was sweet, romantic and perfect. We got married on Cape Cod in a huge tropical storm. Our tent almost flew away and both our families had to help! We made the tent poles look like palm trees, made gorgeous floral arrangements on the spot and quickly created a spontaneous (sheltered) ceremony location. We are very supportive of each other. (We're also especially good at kicking some zombie butt while playing Left 4 Dead together. Such a good release!)
| Choo Choo Choose You Print  By Earmark, $20. |
Chris & Mary | | 
One of the best things about working together is being able to do craft fairs in different cities. We live for a few days in another place, see old friends and step out of our daily routine. Last month, we had such a lovely time in San Francisco spending time together, walking around the city, that it almost felt like a vacation.
| Organic Partridge Tee- Pale Red  By maryink, $20. |
Brenda & Shawn | | 
We met online in 2007 and were married soon after. One of the first things we discovered was a shared love of art and crafting. Shawn had been working as a professional craftsman for a few years and Brenda was excited to encourage and support him in his endeavors. Mostly, we are supportive of one another's respective crafts. Brenda tries to make everything straightforward with our home and family so that Shawn can pursue his craft and keep the wheels of the business moving forward. Then, after hours, Shawn does everything he can to give Brenda time and opportunity to do her non-business crafting at night. The funniest thing is that we are each into completely different crafting media. Shawn will see great glass art and become really excited — Brenda doesn't get it, but appreciates that he does. In turn, Brenda really loves everything about paper; when Shawn sees her salivating over beautiful paper goods, he laughs, doesn't get it, but appreciates that she does.
| Recycled Soda Bottle Glasses  By YAVAglass, $35. |
Maggie & David | | 
I feel David and I are pretty lucky since we have always had mutual admiration for each other's creative side and have always been extremely supportive. We have similar tastes when it comes to gifts, so when so when we exchange presents we usually want to keep them for ourselves. David's favorite gift from me is a ring I made him early in our relationship, trying to show off my metalsmithing skills, which were horrible — I compensated with rivets and hammer textures! My favorite gifts from David are drawings he has given me. One Christmas he gave me a set of incredible Daniel Johnston illustrations. He's also given me a portrait of himself: it's priceless.
| Womens Shield Face  By loyaltyandblood, $28. |
Niki & Josh | |  <
Maxine, Dear was actually born out of a silly gift exchange that Josh and I started when I was in school in Ohio and he was in a band in LA. We would send each other packages with little gifts every month or so. One time I sent him a picture made out of an old reading textbook with several spaces for different pictures, along with a pack of pictures of me holding up different words. They could be arranged into different sentences, a sort of magnetic poetry thing. The next time I got a package from Josh it included a cute cuff made from the canvas that used to cover a hardcover book. From there we just kept creating things in that medium and feel in love with it. On a visit to Ohio we worked up some wallet and change purse samples together. When Josh got back to LA he took them to Fred Segal. They loved them and we had our first account. We got married a few years later, opened a boutique and have never stop creating together.
| Honey Bee book belt buckle  By MaxineDear, $32. |
Vincent & Jessie | | 
Vince and I met on an online dating site — and it was love at first email! A year and a half later we were standing in front of our dearest friends and family vowing our commitment 'til death do us part. (You know, the teary eyed part — and then the infamous "you may kiss the bride" part.) Just as our lips touched, the tornado sirens at the fire station across the street began their wailing; apparently they test them every first Saturday of the month at exactly 12 p.m. (Or, whenever two really awesome people perform their first kiss as a married couple?) Either way, it was pretty exceptional timing, and, as we like to tell people, bells still go off whenever we kiss. I guess we don't really tell people that, but if we were living in a cheesy (yet guiltily enjoyable) chick flick, we totally would.
| fancy chandelier in white  By uncommon, $42. |
Jacqui & Scott | | 
We met the summer of ’04 in a public speaking class in art school.
Jacqui: This sounds corny, but on the first day of class I remember Scott walking in and I really wanted him to sit by me; he didn’t, and instead sat on the opposite side. I later found out it was because he was shy and wanted to "get a better view."
Scott: I'd seen Jacqui around school before, so when I saw we had a class together I got really excited; however, I was pretty nervous. I would go to class right after getting off work at a screenprinting shop so I smelled badly of ink and chemicals. I'm pretty sure that's a turn-off.
Jacqui: One of our last speeches was a "how-to." Scott did his on bookbinding. I had wanted to learn bookbinding forever and just couldn’t pass up the chance to strike up a conversation with him after class.
Scott: I mustered up the courage the last week of class to talk with her. I told her about a zine I was about to print — pretty arty-dorky, but I think it won her over. From then on we have been pretty nuts for each other.
Jacqui:I pretty much fell in love the moment I saw him the first day, but after talking with him and seeing how creative he was and the kindness he shared with everyone, he won my heart and I could never imagine another day without him. He proposed to me this past April with a ring he carved out of wood. How could I say no! | No Other Place - poster  By slidesideways, $28. |
AdAm & Hiromi | | 
AdAm: We met in 2001, shortly after 9/11. Hiromi and some school friends were taking a tour of Boston. I was one of those cheesy tourist trap tour photographers. Fortunately, Hiromi and her friends were literally the only people taking a tour that day, so I had plenty of time for my sales pitch and to meet Hiromi. (Definitely on top of my game that day.) I sold a grossly overpriced glossy 8x10, 2 plastic fridge magnets and felt a spark with Hiromi. I got really lucky when it turned out that she went to school just down the street and we ate lunch at the same place. After many bowls of clam chowder we were in love.
Hiromi: AdAm has always been an artist, he draws all the time. I’m not really an artist in a drawing kind of way. I have ideas and a sense of style, so this is what has made our partnership work. When we first met he spent most of his free time painting colorful, crazy busy pictures of nothing. In Boston we were extremely BROKE. For dates we went bargain hunting for vegetables and fish, walking (sometimes with dogs), painting flower pots and furniture shopping on Thursday nights (trash day eve). We fell in love being crafty with our lives.
| hood Swamp Owl T  By Ahpeele, $28. | |
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