The Sunday Supplement - On Location with Our Next Tuesday Tinker -Beachcombers Cove

Many of our team members take their Etsy shop on the road to local Arts and Crafts shows.  Many times they report back to the team that they had a great show, sold a good number of items, and made some new friends.  Other times they brings reports of slow sales, sunburns, weird neighboring vendors and exhaustion.  With it's 50/50 chance of being great or really stinking, what keeps them going back for more?  For some it seeing customers eyes light up when they really like their work, having a face to face conversation with their buyer, and building relationships within their community.  For others it's a way to support a favorite cause, reach a greater audience of buyers than selling on Etsy might allow, make a larger chunk of change, and to just experience something new and different. Whatever the case may be, as a team, we all enjoy hearing about each others latest show excursions.

Beachcomberscove just completed a mini set up at the Treehouse Art Collective, in Galveston, Texas, where she is a member.

Should you not be able to get to a beach anything this summer, stop by BeachcombersCove's Etsy shop.  Her marine inspired jewelry and tropical art pieces will soon have you feeling like you are walking down the beach, collecting shells, hearing the breeze, and smelling the fresh salty air!

The Sunday Supplement - On Location with our next Tuesday Tinker

Most of the country, and particularly those of us on the East Coast, have been glued to the coverage of hurricane Irene.  We have several Etsy Freethinker Team members who live in her direct path.   I, altarspace, am one of those!  However, I live in Vermont, so it won't be as bad for me as for others.   The whole teams thoughts and prayers go out to MarthaHorman who is really really in the direct path of Irene and deciding to ride it out.  She has made good preparations and made sure she had all the beads she would need to weather the storm and complete the beading project she started.  In an effort to get the Sunday Supplement created and on the web before our power goes out, I figured I would share pictures of the preparations we have made for Irene.

Water storage!  We filled every container we had in the house.  Don't worry, this isn't all we have, there are 6 large jugs of water on the kitchen floor.  We are keeping these cold to help cool the frig when the electricity goes out.

Weather radio, lantern, flashlight.  We have candles too.

Our makeshift altar, where lot's of praying is being done to protect us, our house and those we love.

We know we will lose power so we plan to spending the day making art, playing cards, and praying that the river by our house doesn't flood over it's banks, the trees behind the house don't fall on us and that the road to civilization doesn't get washed away!   So while we are riding out Irene, you can visit my etsy shop for all your spiritual decoration needs.   Stay tuned for aftermath pictures!

The Sunday Supplement - On Location with our next Tuesday Tinker

As a larger part of the country is still baking in the summer heat, we all dream of the cooler weather, colorful leaves and pumpkins of October!   Our Etsy Freethinkers Team member AuntMartha, to fill our longing for fall, has shared some vacation photos she took while hiking in the Loire Valley of Central France several years ago.

The Loire River

 The house on a little creek running into the Loire where they stayed

A picturesque building near the trail.

Bluebeard's Castle - apparently the man who owned this in the 15th century went
through more children than the neighbors thought was acceptable.
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais

Should you be interested in other items with European flair, visit AuntMartha's Etsy Shop. She has a lovely assortment of antique plates, figurines, cups and other fine haberdashery.

Sunday Supplement - On Location with our Next Tuesday Tinker

Our Freethinker Etsy Team is made of of lots of wonderful people, all very different, with all kinds of different views, hobbies, senses of humors, and beliefs.   But the one thing we all love is a good poem or story from ManicManx.  The Freethinkers Team calls her MM, the world calls her Kristi Smart, we all call her funny!   This Sunday she has graced us with one of her poems about her beloved cat Henry:

I woke up this morning with a feeling of dread.
I found Henry’s rectum was glued to my head.

It wasn’t his usual choice of repose.
The artful arrangement, his torso, my nose.

I wont be surprised if I break out in a sty.
Due to new sleeping habits, his anus, my eye.

I hope he goes back to his chest, my ear.
My armpit is willing to snuggle his rear.

The first light of day is now up my cats butt.
In considering trading him in for a mutt.

I love little Henry with all of my heart.
I'm ever so grateful he cant pass a fart.

Kristi Smart

Henry, having a laugh.

We are also lucky enough to have Kristy write for our Recipe Corner, where she always has a wonderful spin on every yummy concoction.   Not only is she a gifted story teller, but a gifted seamstress as well.    To view her eclectic and beautiful hand made coats and vests, visit ManicManx's Etsy Shop. MM, when is your first book of poetry coming out?   Stay tuned.....

Sunday Supplement - On Location with Our Next Tuesday Tinker

Tofunutloaf, who lives in Urbana, Illinois, might be best known to us all for creating her super creative and potentially world dominating, cute poly clay robots, but Tofu beats the summer heat by making paper in her basement! 

Basement set-up, complete with new crappy blender!

"As you can see, we have kind of a functional basement. It has a low ceiling, is unheated, and floods easily, so we don't spend much time in it. It's the coolest part of the house in the summer, and making paper gives me an excuse to hang out down there, so I tend to restrict my paper making activities to heatwaves, says Tofu.

The heat hasn't been Tofu's only challenge this summer.  "My old crappy blender decided to stop working altogether, so I put it out on Facebook that I needed a new crappy blender for making paper. One of my friends had one, so I picked it up the next day and finished my paper batch. I now know the true value of FB: finding used crap in a hurry."

Old crappy blender - Tofu pushing the button to no avail!

Stop by Tofunutloaf's Etsy shop and stay tuned to see the results of all this summertime paper making.  In the meantime, you might find a new robot friend to spend the summer with!

Sunday Supplement - on Location with our next Tuesday Tinker

Though the official heat wave of several weeks ago has passed, some of us are still in the hot grip of the summer sun.  Freethinker team member, AltheaP, says that she can't really beat the heat, so she tries to deal with it all by keeping her sense of humor.  On a recent excursion around her hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, she came across a sign that made her laugh.  She thought she would share it will all of us.  Could there be a better reason to get our oil changed?

Need a summer hat to wear while getting that oil change?  Visit AltheaP's Etsy shop where you can also find hand painted and dyed totes to take to the beach or a lovely scarf to complete your summer evening outfit!

Sunday Supplement - On Location with the Next Tuesday Tinker

This week we asked Anne and Paul from CircleANaturals who live in Steven's Point, Wisconsin, how they beat the heat:

"My least expensive and low calorie way to deal with the heat and humidity of the summer months, is peppermint. We farm, so there's always chores to do whether it's 90 degrees or 10 below zero. I really enjoy the cooling tingle of our peppermint soap after doing chores, and I keep a atomizer with peppermint water in it, to mist myself with when I feel like I'm in the last stages of melting. It's also a natural bug repellent and masks the wonderful aroma of our all natural fertilizer producers (also known as cattle).  I also believe that if it's over 85 degrees, the calories in ice cream evaporate!

I am so blessed to be surrounded with so much peaceful beauty here on our farm. No neighbors or traffic. The first photo is of a truly beautiful sunset we had recently. It was actually raining and I drove the truck down to get clear of the tree line so I could take photos. Like an idiot, I stood in the beam of the headlights and got eaten alive. These will be on new original photo art cards coming out in our Etsy shop. Then we have ones of our new babies. I never get tired of following our chickens around. They have so much personality!"

If you would like to try out the refreshing peppermint soap after a hot day, visit Anne and Paul's CirleANaturals Etsy shop. 
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Sunday Supplement - On Location with the Next Tuesday Tinker

We thought it would be fun to create a themed Sunday Supplement for a change of pace.  Since most of the nation is suffering from heat wave after heat wave, we thought we would ask the question of our Etsy Freethinkers members:

How do you beat the heat?

MarthaHorman is a team member who lives in Valley Stream, New York.  While it's not as hot as Texas, it still gets way hot and humid.  Martha's way to beat the heat?  A biggo double dipped ice cream cone!  She said she doesn't do it often, but this being National Ice Cream day and month, we think she has every right.

We hope that you will try Martha's way of beating the heat and while your at it, check out her wonderful paintings, drawings, and photography at her Etsy shop, MarthaHorman.
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Sunday Supplement - On Location with Our Next Tuesday Tinker

Due to problems with the internet connection, there will be no Sunday Supplement this week. With a bit of luck, there will be a Tuesday Tinker.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

lacypants got into business by making panties for herself and friends.  She realized that other larger ladies might be interested and opened her Etsy shop. The rest, as they say, is history.

She is also a bird lady and is shown here with her little friend, Maxi, feeding him one of his favorite foods: Cream of Wheat.

Come to lacypants' shop and treat yourself.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

MarthaHorman works in oils, acrylics and pastels. She also sells her photographs. Although she lives on Long Island, she gets into Manhattan at least once a month. These are photos she took in 2005 when the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude had their installation of 7500 gates in Central Park.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

ArtistVanda lives in Placerville in the Sierra Nevada foothills. She writes, "Because weddings have been a big part of my life for the last 6 months I am including pictures from my own in August. 
Because my animals are so special to me, my dogs were included in the wedding, with their very own hand crafted weddings collars. Rose wears the collar wih roses and Taz wears his wild west sherrifs star badge collar.

The second picture is from the Hotel Leger, pronounced "Le-shey" in Mokelumne Hill, a semi ghost town, where the wedding was held. The hotel is notoriously haunted, and my husband, Dr. William R. Cameron and I first went there for a ghost hunt with Dave Mace, from Everyday Paranormal. This is me in my old west bridal attire, all hand crafted.

The last picture is of myself in the middle and wih my son, Benjamin Goodloe, who is in the Coast Guard to the left and his bride to be, Danielle Rogers, who also proudly serves in the Coast Guard, is to the right. They are getting married themselves this weekend and good ole Mom, is making the wedding cake. So far I have hand sculpted 24 beautiful, large red fondant roses. I am so proud of them both."

ArtistVanda sells commissioned portraits of people and pets in her shop. She also sells prints of some of her finished paintings. She works in oils, acrylics and pastels.
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SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

AltheaP has been a silk painter for over 20 years. She makes her items one at a time; each one is a unique work of art. Below are two photos of Lake Tahoe taken when she and her family vacationed there.

AltheaP sells hand painted and dyed silk Scarves, Shawls,  Purses and Wall Hangings. 

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

AuntMartha likes climbing lighthouses. "It's a grand view when you get to the top usually. I think the best thing I ever saw was a flock of Blue Jays going south. I was above them looking down on all those intense blue backs and wings. There must have been about 40 of them. It was in October at the Cape May light."

Buffalo, NY harbor light - Buffalo is AuntMartha's home town.

Fire Island light - the nearest lighthouse to where AuntMartha now lives.

The interior of Ponce de Leon light just south of Daytona Beach, Florida.

AuntMartha sells Vintage and Antiques on Etsy. 

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

BlytheHorman lives in Shoreline, Washington, close enough to Seattle so she can enjoy the amenities of a large city and far enough away that she's close to nature. This week end she's headed out for a whale watch with a friend of hers. She is a self-taught artist who has been drawing and painting animals since she was a little girl.

Work area.

The view from her balcony.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

TrueNatureYoga lives in the Boston, Mass. area. She recently graduated from a 200 hour yoga teacher training course and has been teaching yoga and making malas part time since February 2010. A mala is a string of beads used to help meditation. The first picture shows her work area where she creates her wonderful malas. The second photo was taken by her in Ipswich.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

spongetta  was that pesky child who could not (would not) follow directions. As an adult living by the rules, this is her creative outlet.  These photos show her studio, and the country around where she lives in central New York State. The one with the snow was taken this past winter. It is the road she lives on.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT

TexstyleTextures has been sewing for over 35 years. She learned from her Mother. She started making bags after Katrina hit because it kept her at home and didn't require gasoline. Bags are small, functional and offer almost instant gratification.; same reason she likes making pillows.  These are photos of her night blooming ceresus, a member of the cactus family. It was grown from a cutting of her Mother's plant and her Mother's came from her Grandmother's. (Oh yes and the dog is Gretchen).

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT

rarebeasts is located in Canberra, Australia. It was started in 2007 as a part time business selling musical gadgets that were played in their own bands. In 2009, rarebeasts became full time to put more energy into new designs and making popular items available for sale. rarebeasts shared some photos he took of local sunsets.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

storybeader likes to travel. Here are some pictures she took while she was visiting Ireland. They were both taken on Greater Blasket Island which is the westernmost island of Europe.