Birthday Shopping part one...

I have been Etsy shopping for my birthday and having sooo much fun doing it. Narrowing down my vast list of favourites and fancied items to a likely list took bloody ages though as there are just so many nice things to choose from!

I have stumbled across the annoying fact of lots of US-based Etsy sellers not shipping abroad though. It drives me a little crazy as an "international" buyer to see US-only shipping, especially as there are very few things that I am enough in love with to go out of my way to email a seller and ask if they could ship to me, please? I want to shake them all and tell them how many sales they could be losing out on! Ah well.

But what have I actually bought? My first bit of shopping was for awesome greetings cards... I always hope that my fave artists will start doing greetings cards or postcards cos I hardly ever buy art for my walls (even less frequently now it has to pass the boyfriend-approval test if it's to be hung anywhere other than the spare room, hehe). I do however believe that you can never have enough nice stationery, and I send an awful lot of letters and bits of crazy post to people. Also cards are a perfect "useful" purchase - and if something is "useful" it is practically a necessity in which case it is almost free, you see.

I still have my eye on some other cards (I intend to continue birthday shopping for weeks - my birthday is still over a week away and then there may even be some birthday money to spend...) but for now I have treated myself to this kickass stash from Askey and The Devil's Wallpaper

I was grinning like a big idiot when those arrived in the post! I am super-pleased with them, and keep getting them out of my stationery box to look at them.

I have been in love with Askey's shoes prints for months. The titles are just darling, too. This one is called "I like your shoes":
Her art is so deliciously crisp and modern whilst still being jam-packed with quirky character. All her prints have a really distinct feel to them, and yet they're so recognisable (to me, at least) as being her illustrations and no-one else's. Oh, and her sense of colour just slays me.

It's great having Askey's cards in a box with the ones from The Devil's Wallpaper (DW for short). It has made me start thinking about how cool it would be to do some kind of UK Etsy sellers collaborative project - maybe a box of Christmas cards with one from each artist? Everyone has such a distinctive style - so much mass-market stuff is so samey, especially when one sort of thing becomes trendy and the same stuff shows up again and again in all the various shops.

It's great seeing artists & crafters being able to make stuff that appeals to them, crazy oddments inspired by their obsessions and interests rather than being forced to tailor-make a neat commercial "range" of similar items. DW's shop is just perfect for this - so many different, awesome things! I really like DW's paintings, but I feel almost unhealthy levels of desire for her paper goods... I want to stroke them, they are just delicious and they are going to help me pretend to be very chic and sophisticated!Her descriptions make me smile every time, too. She is a very funny lady. I've just interviewed Askey for the UK Etsy Sellers blog and DW is the next-but-one interviewee and I can't wait to ask her some questions :)