Heavens to Etsy!

Here, in the shameless brother-promotion department, is what I saw on Etsy a few days ago. They had a contest to produce 20 user-curated posters of the best things on Etsy. There were a thousand entries, of which sixty were chosen (they couldn't stop at 20!). Each has sixteen products, so that's a fair amount, but out of the these were, as they said in announcing the winners, the best of the best. For those playing at home, that's Hal's bowl on the right. And in a nice bit of symmetry, the silver bracelet with a hickory bark design is from Honeybee, who some people (including me) think is one of the most talented people on Etsy (I'm waiting for her to make these budding twig earrings again--I'm in a twig mood lately, speaking of handmade and vaguely wood-themed Etsy things).

And speaking of shameless relative promotion, let me do it up right: I woke up this morning to my cousin Kitty Cahalan's new blog, Dog Pancake, in which she explores motherhood and other strange territories. I have been following Kitty's photo journal of her two babies for the last few years, and have lived vicariously through her wry captions (having no kids of my own). Kitty is a walking quirkfest (not unlike our mothers, who were the original funny-smart quirkfest sisters, and who Kitty and I did and do adore).