I was thinking about Christmas today and how my shopping and gift-giving habits have changed in the past few years. I LOVE giving other people presents and I really enjoy finding special things that I know/hope they will like - the whole point of a present you might suppose - but it isn't is it? As evidenced by the ever-growing mound of 'stuff' in my house - some people buy because they feel they have too, some people buy big - because it looks generous and some people buy in great volume - because they just can't help themselves.
Anyway - back to how great MY gift giving skills are! There are two reasons that I'm a better gift - giver now. Firstly - I realised that my life could not take much more stuff and all available room must be reserved for important stuff that I may need in the future - like an ice cream maker - and on discovering that my friends also feel this way I felt that I had to stop buying them unwanted crap gifts. Secondly - I discovered Etsy - the worldwide online shop where makers of anything can sell it straight to you. It means I can send unique gifts to my friends and family all over the world from my bed and because you can search by country I can send them something from just down their road, saving me postage and the planet - whoop whoop. You also get to communicate with a real live person who has actually made the gift you are sending. I do realise that you could do most of this on Amazon - but to my knowledge (and I haven't checked) you can't buy beautiful letterpress calenders, gorgeous screen-printed tea towels, handmade baby clothes and original paintings there.
I also just discovered that Etsy have a series of films called Handmade Portraits - I wish that I lived near this shop - he looks like he would always have what you were looking for.
There's No Place Like Here: Liberty Tool from Etsy on Vimeo.