Envy is not a virtue, but I cannot help being envious of the amazing talent and style of Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely. Her blog is loosely based around the process of decorating and improving her adorable 1920s Chicago home, but she also posts about projects related to her online store, Pink Loves Brown, and random inspirations from everyday life. In addition to the wonderful content, the site design is impeccable with the sweetest details – you’ll have fun exploring! (Nicole also has a web design company, <a href=http://www.smartandlovely.com/index.php”>Smart & Lovely</a> [Wolf film](http://www.turtlesurvival.org/?wolf) .) I promise, you will be in awe of her beautiful site and lovely style.

…I sound like I have been paid to write this post, but I haven’t! Making it Lovely has just been one of my favorite blogs since it was started and I wanted to share the loveliness! Have fun!

• My Own Private Idaho film

Jeepers Creepers divx

Angry Chicken is one of the most popular and well-known crafty blogs. It is written by Amy Karol in Portland, Oregon. Amy wrote the book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing , runs a mailorder craft activity club, and makes textile art. Angry Chicken is the place where she shows off her crafty creations and shares her personal musings. Amy is an amazing seamstress and she is always sharing her inspiring projects. In addition to Angry Chicken, she also hosts an apron blog called Tie One On. If you love to sew, both blogs are must reads!

Come join the best swap ever! If you like making matchboxes, and you are looking forward to the winter holiday season, the christmas (fun) time matchbox swap – ROUND 2 (hosted by me, racheljohnson ) is perfect for you! The swap is international and it is open for signup through November 30th. Each participant has just one partner to whom they send one decorated and filled matchbox. The theme, of course, is the holiday season, but any winter-type themes would also work. I like filling my boxes with stickers, ribbon, brads, buttons, beads, and other little embellishments. Anything goes. However, you must be open to receiving Christmas or winter holiday items in the mail if you join this swap.

Each participant must have above a 4.7 rating to join. New users are welcome, but I must ban anyone who looks fishy. (A filled out profile is always a plus.) It is a harsh world out there and I want to keep my Christmas fun time swappers safe!

This should be a really fun swap and I can’t wait to get started on my matchbox!

p.s. i angel my matchbox swaps!

Are you ready for another Swap-bot giveaway? This month I have a very cool tool to send to one lucky winner. It is a Xyron sticker maker! Specifically the Xyron 250 2.5” create-a-sticker™ . I use my Xyron to create stickers out of all sorts of things, like photos, ribbons, confetti, etc. You simply run any item through the Xyron and it makes the back sticky! Very cool. The Xyron I have for the giveaway comes filled with 20 feet of permanent adhesive. That will last a very long time, but you can purchase refills at most craft stores. (btw, the Xyron company is in no way sponsoring this giveaway, I just really like the product and wanted to give one away… of course, I wouldn’t turn down a sponsored giveaway if any company is interested. hint, hint.)

To enter the drawing for this giveaway simply comment on this blog post with your answer to the following question:

What is your favorite thing to swap and why?

Each person can only enter once. You must have a Swap-bot account in good standing (not suspended) with a valid mailing address to enter. You must include your Swap-bot username somewhere in your comment. You must comment before Friday, November 21st, to be entered in the drawing. The winner will be drawn out of a hat/bucket by a blindfolded Travis on Saturday, November 22nd. If you have trouble commenting on the blog, you can send me an email at rachel [at] swap-bot.com. Good luck!

Finally the presidential election is behind us! I am so burnt out on political stuff that all I want to share with you today are fun, artsy, crafty links. Enjoy!

• Let’s all take a moment to be nice to one another. Operation Nice has tons of ideas on how to work niceness into your life. We could all use a little bit more nice!
• Like winning free stuff? Visit Bloggy Giveaways to find out about all sorts of giveaways going on across the interwebs!
• Design For Mankind – a blog about fine art and design. Beautiful site with lovely photos, interviews, lists, and links. Also, publisher of Mankind magazine.
• Just found out about another handmade marketplace: Folksy. It is like etsy, but for the UK. Prices are in pounds.
• Yes, it is already time to start thinking about the holidays. Check out the purplepinkandorange Holiday Gift Guide for a little help and inspiration.
• Speaking of the holidays, artists and crafters must check out the Modish Holiday Marketing Tips. It is a great overview on how to improve your handmade business for the holiday shopping season.

Have a lovely weekend! xoxo

“poppytalk is a canadian design blog collecting inspiration and promoting emerging design talent.”

I found PoppyTalk about two years ago when I was researching indie crafters. It is an extremely high-quality, professional blog that features arts, crafts, and handmade beauty. The blog has evolved to cover higher-end fine art and craft with beautiful, inspirational images in every post. The best parts of PoppyTalk are the reoccurring topics and guides, like the Interviews, Handmade Guides, Free Downloads , and Canada City Guides. The site has an extensive link list of design and craft blogs, and you can sign up for a PoppyTalk newsletter. There is also a PoppyTalk Handmade Marketplace. It is a bit like etsy, except that the items have been curated by the PoppyTalk editors, so you never have to wade through mediocre products trying to find extraordinary handmade goods and design. There is so much great stuff in the Marketplace it is almost overwhelming! If you have ever thought about making a career out of your art or craft, PoppyTalk is a great place to go to get inspiration and info.

Postcrossing is a postal mail hobby website somewhat like Swap-bot. The tagline for the site is:

“send a postcard and receive one back from a random person somewhere in the world!”

Once you create an account on Postcrossing you are assigned a random person from around the world to whom you send a postcard. Once you have sent, you are entered in the system to receive a postcard from a totally different random person from anywhere in the world. The system is highly organized and structured with each postcard receiving an identification number and being registered by its recipient. Postcrossing members have sent and registered over 1.5 million postcards! Amazing! There are people from almost every country using Postcrossing and the site is available in variety of different languages. The Postcrossing website is clear, simple, and easy to navigate with nice features, like a real-time postcard update feed on the main page. There is also a blog and forum.

We definitely don’t want to lose any of our great Swap-bot postcard swappers to Postcrossing, but I don’t think it is possible to have too many fun options for receiving snail mail from around the world!

Swap-bot was written up on Hello Craft by writer, Kelly Rand. I like her marketing tip: “No matter the swap, include a business or show card in the package. If your swap item is of exceptional quality, you might create some buzz around your work.” Thanks, Hello Craft!!

This week’s featured swap is an annual independent swap that is being hosted on Swap-bot for the first time. Previously, the freshly{blended} and cake & pie Holiday Ornament Swap (now in its third year) has had hundreds of participants. This year they have made it a public swap on Swap-bot, so any Swap-bot members can participate. The swap is international and each participant will send handmade holiday ornaments to ten partners. Here are some of the directions from the swap’s description:

• Design a handmade ornament that you can create multiples of and make your ornaments.
• Package your ornaments well…especially if you create anything fragile.
• Send one of your ornaments to each person on the list of 8-10 other swap participants in your group by December 10th.
• Sit back, relax and wait as you receive 8-10 fabulous handcrafted ornaments in the mail!

This swap is a great way to meet lots of new Swap-bot members, as many of the participants already signed up are new to the site. Established Swap-bot members would be a great addition to the group to help show how our site works. Make sure to read the entire swap description before signing up. Have fun & happy swapping!

We have a winner! This morning I printed out all of the names from the comments that had been posted on the Winter Prize Giveaway (we had a total of 85 unique entrants). Then, Travis covered his eyes and drew a random paper slip out of our Halloween candy bucket. AND… the winner of the Making Memories prize pack is Onigiri885

! Congrats! This is her comment from the entry post:

Lela (onigiri885) on 25 Oct 2008 at 8:54 am:

I think it would be really cool if there was a ‘friend’ system, where you could add people as your friend and have easier ways of contacting them instead of just pm’s or profile messages. ^.^

I will be sending her an email confirming her win and then her package will be mailed next week. I hope she has fun with all those supplies! We are planning on creating a friends system in the near future (as well as a “block user” system), so it was a great suggestion, too. Actually, everyone had wonderful suggestions. Thank you all for your feedback! We hope to implement most of the ideas as quickly as possible. Although, knowing us it will probably take longer than we would like. Stay tuned for site improvements and many more giveaways on the blog! xoxo