Black Friday: Shop Local, Handmade, & Independent

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black friday, books, comic books, handmade, jewelry, shopping

It’s so easy to get caught up in the insanity of the Black Friday deals and discounts. Personally, I prefer not getting crushed by a throng of people hoping to pick up a big-screen TV. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to, instead, support handmade crafters on Etsy and independent shops in your neighborhood? Here are a few of my favorites!

I’ve bought two pieces from ISWAS+WILLBE and they were both more stunning in person than they were in the photos! This weekend (November 24-28), they’re offering 25% off your entire purchase with the coupon code “HOLIDAYROCK,” so go check out their shop! You may find a perfect, handmade, unique gift for someone else or even yourself.

Personally, I’m loving the One Fine Day Necklace, Various Points Earrings, and The Endor Necklace in Slate Grey.

McSweeney’s is one of my very favorite independent publishers. They publish and support so many creative, unique books, essays, and short films and it basically makes my heart happy. This year, they’re offering freebies with the purchase of one of their various subscriptions:

• The Believer subscription comes with a Believer Faces poster. Promo code = POSTER
• A Wholphin subscription comes with a Best of Wholphin DVD. Promo code = BEST
• A McSweeney’s Quarterly subscription comes with McSweeney’s Issue 16. Promo code = BACK16
• A Grantland subscription comes with a Furry Journal. Promo code = FUR
• A Lucky Peach subscription comes with The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming. Promo code = LATKE

Personally, I’d have to go with the classic McSweeney’s Quarterly (where they collect some of the best writing around) or Lucky Peach (their new foodie publication)!

That’s right: the guys over at my favorite comic shop are offering some awesome Black Friday deals as well (and they’re going all the way through Sunday)! You can see Mike break it down in video form…

Or just know that they’re offering $1 deals on a lot of great issues, 75% off a bunch of hardcovers, 50% off back issues, 50% off Sin City or The Walking Dead, and apparently Mike will be giving away free stuff as well. I will definitely be checking it out!

Obviously, these are just a few examples of some fantastic handmade, local, or independent shops. I absolutely urge you to find places that fit your interests or independent shops in your neighborhood. I promise you won’t be sorry!

Things I Heart: A Contest, A Magazine, & The Whole Love

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bloggers, DIY, literature, music, photography, Things I Heart

Time for another edition of Things I Heart! Let’s jump right in, shall we?

John Green’s “An Abundance of Covers” design contest. One trend I’ve been in love with recently is the extra care and attention great book cover design has been given. I read about this contest the other day and it made me wish I had the graphic design skills to come up with something myself! John Green, a fantastic young adult author, and Penguin Books are holding a contest for a reader/fan to design the cover for the next edition of An Abundance of Katherines. How great is that?

Nubby Twiglet’s collaboration with Rock n’ Roll Bride to create Rock n’ Roll Bride Magazine’s first issue! Reading through Nubby Twiglet’s blog is always something like typography porn, but looking through the layouts she did for Rock n’ Roll Bride’s first print magazine just goes above and beyond. It’s a beautiful collaboration between two bad-ass ladies making things happen for themselves and it doesn’t get much better than that.

Wilco‘s latest album, The Whole Love. Wilco has been one of my favorite bands for a few years now and their latest album certainly doesn’t disappoint! (For a better full review than I could hope to do, check out Dan Weiss of SF Weekly’s First Listen). I particularly wanted to highlight how fantastic the album art and packaging is for this album. I love when a band obviously takes care to make the whole package fantastic. There’s a full book with all the lyrics and even a sleeve for the CD, a la record sleeves. It makes me a little too happy.

Photo Jojo’s Digital Time-Lapse Camera: Seriously, how much fun would this be!? I can see myself having a blast making time-lapses of so many different things. I think it would be particularly awesome for road trips! Time-Lapse as you drive up the coast? Fantastic.

LINKS I HEART:

• “A Conversation with Woz” about Steve Jobs by Dan Lyons.
• “DIY Lace & Fabric Coasters” Super fun DIY tutorial by Susannah Bean!
• “Create Disneyland in Your Heart Every Day” by the ever-fantastic and inspirational Gala Darling.
• “Nubby & Gala – The Enchanted” Nubby Twiglet & Gala Darling have my favorite blogger friendship around and this photo shoot they did together is so magical. Sequins! Mickey Ears! Nature! Love it.

Have a beautiful weekend, m’loves.

Things I Heart: Packages in the Mail & Bargains

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bargains, books, Borders, instagram, jewelry, stickygram, Things I Heart

Here’s something fun! Every so often, I’ll be featuring some Things I Heart. Today those include packages in the mail and good bargains. Who doesn’t love those, right?

First up is a pretty fantastic necklace from Cupcakes & Mace. My lovely friend Melificent has been a fan of her jewelry for ages and I’ve kept an eye on the shop for quite some time. One night, I saw a necklace on there that I absolutely could not resist! It arrived on my door in the above little package (inside a mailer envelope, naturally)

Now technically their “Ag Super Nerdy Silver Mirror Necklace” is the chemical symbol for Silver. However, AG also happens to be my initials! Clearly, I could not pass that one up. The quality’s great too and she was one of the best-communicating Etsy sellers ever, so I’ll definitely be purchasing from her again.

The other fabulous thing I got in the mail was the first set of Stickygrams that I ordered! I’ve been kind of obsessed with the Instagram app for quite a while, so I was super excited when I found out that Stickygram prints the photos you’ve taken via Instagram on little magnets!

They arrive all in a sheet that you then separate into the little individual magnets! They’re a little smaller than I expected them to be, but I think that’s better for the fridge or wherever else you may be putting your Stickygrams anyway. I’m also happy with the print quality, their customer service was super helpful, and I definitely want to order some more!

An Instagram photo of my Stickygrams. How meta am I?

So this last bit is really kind of a love/hate item on the list. I absolutely love a good deal (who doesn’t, right?) but it makes me insanely sad that Borders is about to blink out of existence. The first time I went in after I found out they were going out of business, I was barely able to choose anything because I was on the brink of tears the entire time I spent in the store. Yes, really.

However, the second time I went I was able to handle it a bit better – maybe because the discounts were deeper! I found three books that I’ve had my eye on for quite a while and my total was lower than the original price of one of them, so I was pretty happy with my purchase. If you’re looking for some deals, I’d head to Borders before it’s too late.

That’s right: my savings were more than my total! Fantastic. I went home with: The 20th Anniversary Edition of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, Music Listography: Your Life in Playlists, and Mad Men: The Illustrated World by Dyna Moe (yes, I do appreciate the irony of using the Amazon links for these).

I’ve been meaning to read Outlander for ages and had coincidentally been looking at this edition online that very same day. It’s a beautiful edition and I picked it up for less than half price!

If I had to choose a favorite independent publisher, it would be Chronicle Books: hands down. They publish so many fantastic, quirky things and they’re so hard to resist. They’ve been making these Listography books for a while. I already have the original Listography as well as Love Listography and I’d been wanting this one for a while, so I was very excited to get it at a discount.

I can’t even remember how long I’ve wanted this Mad Men book! The illustrations and entire presentation are so spot-on and the overall aesthetic is just my taste. Plus it’s been so long since we’ve had new Mad Men that this is the perfect thing to hold me over! I also spotted Sterling’s Gold and was tempted to pick that up as well, but held off. I may make one more trip over there before the final closing and I’ll have to check if it’s still there.

So what things do you heart this week?