Today on Etsy - January 23, 2013
Mother's Day Ideas . .by etsy
warm up with . . . .
Gloves and Mittens. Got cold fingers? Chilly weather turning your hands to chapped leather? Here are a few of beautiful examples to restore warmth with style to your hands and keep the moisture in your skin from drying out. Shown left is a pair of smokey grey cable knit mittens by FairMaidenDesign. I like the chunky-ness of these mitts; they look so warm and perfect for walking in the snow.
I also like these colorful options from Whitton's Mittens. (pink argyle shown right and blue flowers shown below) Made from recycled wool and cashmere sweaters and lined with felt, they are eco-friendly and very whimsical. The button detailing is a nice added touch as well.
If you are needing to keep your hands warm but still want the flexibility and dexterity of being able to use your fingers, then perhaps these fingerless gloves are what you need. I also find that fingerless gloves tend to be more charming and elegant . . . not to mention I adore big chunky rings and often a full glove does not accommodate for this.
Have a gander at these beautiful Victorian inspired lace-up gloves from Zen and Coffee Designs (shown right). The corset-like detailing on these gives the gloves a hint of sex appeal as well.
Not-so-secret-tip: Apply a bit of rich hand cream to your skin before putting your mittens or gloves on. The warmth from your skin inside the mittens will help the moisturizer work more quickly and help it last longer.
So regardless of whether you choose fun and whimsical full mittens or elegant fingerless gloves, these winter warmth accessories are sure to garner you compliments while keeping you toasty.
Stay warm out there!
sweater weather
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the fresh days of spring and the lazy warm air of summer. But there is something about September and the approach of cooler weather that I enjoy. For me there are essentially three things that sum up Autumn in Vancouver: walking through one of our city’s many parks and hearing the crunch of brightly painted leaves underneath, the harvesting and cooking of apples to make applesauce, and pulling the sweaters off the top shelf in my closet.
Oh, how comforting a favorite sweater can be. Admit it, we have all experienced the small pleasure of pulling on a cherished sweater, stretching the cuffs of the sleeves over our fingers, and raising them to the neck in a gesture of welcoming the warmth.
Putting on a sweater is also very economically-environmentally friendly. While growing up, if someone in our house complained of being cold, the rhetorical answer was always, “Then go put a sweater on!”, which was usually in my case followed by “ . . and some socks while you’re at it!”
I’m not one for knitting. Crochet I can handle; there is only one needle and it has a hook on one end. But two (or even sometimes four) needles are just too much for me to get a grasp on (yes, pun intended). So I appreciate the skill and effort it takes to make a hand knitted sweater.
Below are a few examples of some great hand knitted sweaters to give you warmth.
If you’re feeling chilly now and can’t wait for a custom ordered sweater, Victoria Secret offers (among other things) a wide selection to choose from. Shown left and right are two that I find rather, ah-hem . . . inviting.






