Loveliness to buy online!

Hello! It's Jo here again, with a few links to some online craft/shopping sites where you can buy beautiful, hand-made, unique gifts, or hard-to-find items for special occasions, perfect for that difficult-to-buy-for person, or that significant someone in your life :) You may be familiar with these already, but if you haven't visited for a while, go for a little surf around, as new things are being added all the time. First up on my list is Etsy, a relatively newly-developed site, set up specifically for people selling hand-made goods. It is perfect for people making small quantities who don't want the hassle of setting up a website themselves, but need an outlet for their wares. The number of people selling on Etsy is growing at a fast rate, and you are almost guaranteed to find something to your taste. Although the currency of dealing is US dollars, there is a useful tool, the Geolocator, which enables the buyer to find sellers close to where they're located, so postage needn't necesarily be an issue. There are sellers all over the world, not just in the US. A quick hop around the site easily unearths such lovelies as these: quirky Halloween fabric button fridge magnets; a gorgeous scratchy cat tote bag; a delicious hot pink sock monkey; and finally, these positively edible soapy lollipops! Next up, a look at eBay, and although everyone on the planet is no doubt familiar with eBay, I've found some beautiful things there, particularly for special birthdays and anniversaries. As a source of year-specific memorabilia, it's invaluable. From a crafty point of view, it's great for 'vintage' items, such as these buttons, wooden bingo pieces, Japanese craft book, and fabrics. Personally, I love searching for 60's and 70's coffee sets like this one, but lack of space dictates that I'm not allowed to buy any more!! Cafe Press is a site which allows people to add their own design slogans and pictures to any number of things - t-shirts, aprons, baseball caps, badges, amongst other things. Apart from coming up with the design, pretty much all of the work, in terms of the running of your 'shop', is done for you. Here, here and here are a few designs that caught my eye! And finally today, if you need any excuse to go and spend some of your hard-earned moolah, may I direct you to notonthehighstreet.com - again, as with Etsy, some beautiful hand-crafted items, a lot of them made by people in the UK. I am finding it hard to resist this, loving the look of these, and putting this on my Christmas list! If you know of other sites where we can buy beautiful hand-crafted items, please let us know about them - happy shopping!