Gifts for the Dapper Dude

Don't think that a handmade craft show is just for the ladies. Guys, there will be some great finds for you at the Jingle Bash too! Pick them up yourself or drop a hint to your S.O.

A guy can never have too many t-shirts, especially when they are made by Dowdy Studio

 Help your guy keep his beard in check with a beard comb from Big T Woodworks. They can even be monogrammed with his initials.

Or, help him shed the beard with a handmade razor made from Australian Coolibah Burl wood, also by Big T Wodworks

Bring back the lost art of a close shave with this straight edge razor, complete with a "Man Card" strop, by Mini Fab. These can also be personalized!

Music lovers rejoice in this handmade portable iPhone acoustic speaker made by Kraken Acoustics

 Have a guy who likes to dress to impress? These cuff links by Tesoro Jewelry can be personalized to the longitude and latitude coordinates of any place (perhaps the place you met?). 

These great infinity leather bracelets by Mesa Blue are perfect for a guy who likes to keep his accessories understated but stylish.

These pewter wood grain cuff links by f. is for frank will add a little funk to any guys wardrobe.

 For the guy who likes to have a little edge, Dapper Guy Bow Ties has tons of cool fabrics and styles.

Not a bow tie kind of guy? Land of the Thread has lapel pins and pocket squares galore in bright fun colors and patterns.

Want more shopping inspiration? Check out our Pinterest Boards for lots of Jingle Bash Gift Guides! Don't forget, the Bash is 11/21 at South Side Event Center from 11-6pm!

Gifts for the Fabulously Fashionable - Etsy Dallas Jingle Bash 2015

The countdown to the Bash has begun and throughout the next two weeks I will be sharing some gift guides for y'all to get your shopping lists started.

First up, are gifts for the fabulously fashionable friend - You know who she is, always with a cool statement piece, looking all effortlessly put together. 

See the whole gift guide here with links to the shops so you can see all the great handmade items our Jingle Bash artists make! 

Etsy Dallas Jingle Bash!

Yep, it's time again for our favorite show, the Etsy Dallas Jingle Bash! Mark your calendars for Saturday November 21st from 11am-6pm.

This year there will be over 100 artists, mostly local and 100% handmade. The first 50 shoppers will score a coveted Bash Bag with all kinds of goodies from our vendors (last years was pretty awesome). There will also be bars on site so you can sip and shop, and a restaurant so you can fuel up for a second go 'round to make sure you didn't miss any must have gifts.

Super Easy Sugar Scrubs with Kitchen Ingredients

Before the holiday weekend I posted a special tutorial on how to make sugar scrubs from ingredients found in your kitchen and sent a special early edition of it to our Fund on Etsy campaign backers.

I'd now like to share it with the rest of the world! Follow this link to find the tutorials! I'd love to hear how your at home experiments work out!

Get Silky Smooth Legs for Summer!

Summa, summa, summatime! Well, summer may not have *officially* started, the 90 degree temps here in TX say otherwise and pool parties abound. It's really the only way we don't melt down here in the summer months.

That means it's time to start showin' off those summer legs! Want super soft and smooth legs? Follow the easy steps below!

• Shave your legs as usual.
• Massage in one of our Pig and Peacock Sugar Scrubs until the sugar is mostly gone. Be careful as the tub might get a little slippery!
• Using your razor, shave the sugar scrub off your legs.
• Rinse legs with water.
• Pat dry with towel.
• Ooh and ahh over how soft your skin feels.
• To lock in moisture, apply lotion to your legs after drying off. Consider layering one of our matching scents of lotion with the scrubs and smell heavenly all day!

Support our Fund on Etsy Project to Make DejaVino Candles a Reality!

For a long time now my sister and I have wanted to expand The Pig and the Peacock and add new products to our line. However, between our real jobs, keeping up with wholesale orders and organizing charity events with Etsy Dallas, it leaves us little time to make anything new.

We have been wanting to launch a new item to our shop called DejaVino Recycled Wine Bottle Candles. We make DejaVino candles by upcycling wine bottles. First we hand cut the wine bottles, then sand them down by hand too. We then etch quotes or images into the bottles using etching creme before hand-pouring them with 100% soy wax.

Prototypes of our DejaVino Recycled Wine Bottle Candles. Production candles will be sandblasted for a more impactful etch

We got the idea to make these candles by watching the bartenders at my boyfriends restaurant (Cafe Izmir) toss dozens of wine bottles in the trash every night. We just thought that there had to be something we could do to give those bottle new life, hence the name DejaVino. We have actually now provided Cafe Izmir with custom DejaVino candles with their logo etched on to them!

Currently what stands in our way of making this new line of candles is two things:

1. Scalability of soap making production.
• Our soaps are made in small batches which make it time consuming to produce large quantities to keep up with orders
2. Scalability of DejaVino production.
• As mentioned above every step of making DejaVino candles is done by hand. While they will still be 100% handmade, there is a big difference between hand sanding, and utilizing a belt sander. There is also a big difference in time and quality in using etching creme vs using a sandblaster.

How will this Fund on Etsy project help us?

1. Scalability of soap making production.
• We will be able to have custom soap molds made that are 100% larger than the current ones we have. Doubling our capacity will give us back valuable time to create new items like the DejaVino candles.
2. Scalability of DejaVino production.
• Since our arm feels like it is going to fall off after sanding 5 bottles, it is really important to get some tools. Roughly half of the funds raised will go towards a membership to Dallas Makerspace. There they have all the tools we need to streamline production of DejaVino candles, such as belt sanders and sandblasting cabinets.
• The sandblasting cabinet is key to our production as it creates a much sharper, cleaner, deeper etch in the bottles that can not be achieved with the etching creme. It is also a lot faster too, which means we can etch more on any given day.

We are really excited about this opportunity to grow and hope that you will help support us by backing this project! We are also so honored that Etsy has chosen us to be one of the shops to be part of their Fund on Etsy launch!

How can you back this project? It's easy. Follow this link to our DejaVino Recycled Wine Bottle Fund on Etsy page and choose your reward level! We have a large selection of rewards from $5-$500, with a lot of goodies at every level!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

While it is all good and well that we are finally getting boat loads of rain here in TX, we are becoming a little waterlogged.

Yeah, those trees back there...that is where the river is supposed to be...

This rain has also just been havoc on our soaps. Why? Because some of our soaps have a high glycerin content, and glycerin LOVES moisture. So much so that it will suck it right out of the air. This is actually a pretty awesome characteristic, because it will do that for your skin to, keeping it soft and moisturized. But what it does on the soap is form condensation on it.

A couple of Coal Soaps with condensation from the humidity

You can see in the picture above, that condensation from the humidity is making our Coal Soaps look a little more like diamonds! If only it were that easy to make diamonds! Once the humidity goes down the condensation will dry and the soap will look matte.

If you happen to have handmade soaps, and see this happening in you soap dish, fear not...your soap is just fine and the ingredients in it are just doing what they do best!.