4th Annual Artsy Girls Christmas Boutique

Please join me December 4th and 5th from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. at my home. Drop in any time to shop for charmingly displayed handmade and vintage goods from an ever-growing roster of artsy girls, {and this year: guys!} including:

Soldered charms, hand tied pearls and other jewelry by Debbi Greenlee
Beaded jewelry by Carli H
Various handmade goodies by Nancy J
Sculptural hair bows by Jill T
Refinished vintage furniture by Juls {Her Royal Highness}
Painted items by Nichole {The Painted Nursery}
Scarves, felt plushies and upcycled kids' clothes by Ellice D
Vintage inspired jewelry by Sandie D
Hair flowers and baby lovelies by April W {Maggie and Beatrice}
Vintage finds from Amy V {Beloved Bag Lady}
Gourmet fudge by Elizabeth G
Delicious cookies and confections by Tasha S and Laura F
Jewelry and handmade cards and stationery items from Tamberly H
Crocheted goodies by Renee G
Baby accessories by Melissa D {Prissy Lissy Designs}
Goat's milk soap by Shane and Catherine
Re-purposed vintage windows by Danielle B {A Vintage View}
Yoga mats and bags by Katelyn H {Yogadivas}
Felted animals, nativities and other baby goodies by Robin R
Handmade dolls and aprons (and matching aprons for the dolls!)
Original artwork from Aaron V
Folk/pop art and vintage treasures from yours truly {BettyHarry}

and more..... yes, its an incomplete list, even at this length!

Truly, this will be a chance to find the unique and unexpected for yourself and the folks on your Christmas list.

2225 Ryanlee Drive, Riverbank, CA 95367
209.480.9414
bizalith@aol.com
On Facebook: Elizabeth Greenlee Harrison

A Handmade Christmas

Thanks to my mom, my most prolific source of inspiration, and her insatiable taste for things unique and handmade, I've recently been introduced to the MULTITUDES of handmade/homemade "indie" goodies available for online shopping. Add to that my every autumn urge to paint, piece, sew and render things lovely and my sister-in-law's "never met a project I wouldn't tackle" approach to art and crafting and an idea begins to brew in my mind.

I'm talking about a handmade Christmas. I've had ideas of things to make for my loved ones filed away in the "some Christmas" category of my mind for years, and I think this just might be the year. I think it sounds a little ambitious, but I don't plan on doing it alone. There are suitable, one of a kind gifts for the men, women and children we love at Etsy, and better still there are craft sales and boutiques just about everywhere you turn in your own neighborhood this time of year -- including the one at my house. Last year was the first of what I hope will be an annual boutique I held with a few of my creative friends and family members where we sold jewelry, candles, art, ornaments, gifts, and decor stuff we each made in our own little kitchens and craft rooms. With a little Christmas music, some hot apple cider and my moms snickerdoodles, we sold a few things (some of us sold a LOT of things) and just generally had a really great time. This year friends and neighbors have started to ask us if we're doing it again, and when.... and you know you've got to give the people what they want.

I don't think this will be as easy as the typical year where 75% of my shopping is done at Target the rest at cute little shops and yes, even the mall, but I do think it'll be fun. Now, I don't imagine I'll be able to find homemade equivalents of the bike we intend to buy my son, and the sunglasses my husband visits weekly at No Fear, so I'm not going to be ultra strict about this, but I do plan on altering my mass-produced/thoughtfully rendered ratio.

So as I formulate my plan to make or buy handmade gifts for as many people on my ever-growing list as I can manage, I think I'll keep you updated on my sources. If I find something cool, I'll share it with you. If I make something cool, I'll post it (and I suppose if you see anything you like, you can buy it too, wink wink). And if you have any brilliant ideas or resources to help in my quest, comment or email me, and I'll share your ideas too.

On Signature Style and the Artful Outsider

In junior high, I had an entire wardrobe of castoff old men’s blazers and sports jackets. I had a couple that had been my moms in the sixties or seventies, but several came from the thrift store. They had to be tweed to make the cut, but I didn’t care how they fit. On the best days, I’d wear them with jeans or jean skirts (if the skirt was recycled from old jeans, so much the better) and either combat boots or Dr. Martens sandals. You know the ones, clunky, leather and extremely comfortable. Then there was the occasional tartan skirt with the giant safety pins, to be worn with the combat boots, obviously.

In high school, the look evolved into more hippy-prep than preppy-grunge. It was hemp necklaces (which I macraméd myself), crocheted vests, jeans and still the jeans skirts, Dad’s old sweaters (moth holes were a big plus) and floaty dresses when it was hot. The Dr. Marten’s sandals were still in rotation, as were the combat boots, but now there were Birkenstocks too.

Midway through high school, I changed schools. In the neighboring town the kids seemed to have more resources and maybe more exposure. It was definitely more diverse. Which is why I was surprised to find much more homogenized fashions. The groups were very well defined, yet the only ones who really dressed differently were the ones who sat out on the lawn and smoked and played their guitars and stashed their skateboards in the bushes next to the school so they wouldn’t be confiscated. I desperately wanted to belong with them. They had style. It was artful and outsider and unselfconscious, but I was pretty sure there was a secret handshake I didn’t know, so I didn’t try. Everyone else seemed to shop at the same place that I had not yet discovered. I tried to adapt but couldn’t, or perhaps wouldn’t. I never did nail the Abercrombie & Fitch look. In fact, I didn’t even try for long, but the damage it did to my style equilibrium took years to repair.

Now I’ve been out of school and away from the pressures of dressing to fit in for about a decade, and only in the last couple of years have I figured out what my personal fashion philosophy is.
I have a pretty recognizable look. It varies of course, depending on the occasion and the tides of fashion, but there is a common thread that has turned my taste into a signature style. I’ve finally discovered that I already knew what I liked. I know what looks good on me. I know what is comfortable (and what is too comfortable). I know, basically, what makes me feel like me, and not like I’m trying to zip up a Somebody Else Suit 2 sizes too small.

First and foremost is the Black Dress. It is my closest ally. I could -okay, I do- own an entire wardrobe of black dresses: linen for the summer, to be worn with sandals and minimal accessories; cotton and jersey for the cooler months, with leggings and assorted boots, maybe my leopard print cardigan or a gorgeous trench coat. But this is not an homage to the LBD (that’s a little black dress to fashion neophytes and men). Those are for evening. I wear them during the day all the time, which I’m sure would be enough to make a southern belle swoon, but this is California and convention has very little to do with fashion around here.

What I’m talking about is all of the components that add up to a style that’s uniquely mine. Its about the staples of my wardrobe… the pieces that transcend trend and season and ever-evolving fashion logic and lore. This is a tribute to the things that make me feel lovely, comfortable and confident; the outfits that shouldn’t work but do, because they’re all me: my trademark pieces, my signature look. Its what would happen if some Goths got a tan, the country club set was forced to shop at Target and all the world’s pin-up girls gained 30 pounds and found religion, and then they all got together to open a boutique especially for me.

In it you would find lots of black tops and bottoms in addition to the ubiquitous black dress. And a very few pairs of jeans that fit like they were made for me.

But my true love is accesories. My shelves are heavily laden with vintage red clutches, horn-rimmed glasses and giant tortoiseshell shades. There are the pearls. Strands and strands of pearls (real, fake, old or new) and for contrast there’s the chunky jewelry; my favorite pieces manage to marry black metal and chains with feminine ribbons and bows. There are peep-toe pumps and flats -I even had a tattoo on my foot placed specifically to compliment the low cut shapes or the quintessential pin-up girl shoe. And there are black boots in every shape style and height you can imagine. There are trenchcoats and knee-skimming sweaters and of course my trademark leopard print cardigan.

And while not everything I wear falls under these categories or descriptions, there is a sensibility and feeling that is evident in every piece of clothing that I mindfully purchase, and the end result is almost always a style that looks like me.

The beauty of having a signature style (besides making gift-buying easier on your friends and family) is that fashion “rules” get to take a backseat to my personal style. It doesn’t have to be trendy. You might like it, but you probably wouldn’t wear it. And that’s okay, because it’s my look and not yours. What I find now when I venture out into the microcosms that succeed high school and college is that I do belong with those kids with style because I have found my own version of the unselfconscious artful outsider. There never was a secret handshake. The only secret was being comfortable in my own skin. And four inch heels.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Consumerism

Its true. My relationship with consumer products is tenuous at best. The marketing forces that be simultaneously repulse and attract me, so I'm sorting through the rubble of our once productive relationship. (Productive primarily for the GNP) In the process, I felt the need to compile, just for you, a brief catalogue of products I love and pretty much hate. I'll open with LOVE because hating stuff is funnier, so I feel that I should close with that.




1. Method cleaning products. A little trendy, yes. But the packaging is attractive enough to leave it out on the counter, they smell fresh and not at all like cleaning products and they don't irritate my asthma in the least. It is definitely love.

2. Yoga balls, or whatever you'd like to call them. They cost about a third of what they did when they were gaining popularity a few years ago, so its not ridiculous to have one for the kiddo, who will love its relative hugeness, and one to actually work out with. Marketing dream come true that it is, its not hype, its an excellent fitness tool and it really is great to sit on while typing. I'm doing it right now. Okay, I'm not, but I should be.

3. ipods. What did we do before them?

4. The Samsung Instinct. Its a phone, and so much more. Its true, the sound is less than stellar, which is sorta lousy considering its primary purpose is to be a phone, and there's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to the right way to touch the screen without accidentally calling people or hanging up on them, but the browser really is fast, the qwerty keyboard is very convenient and one-touch access to movie schedules, followed immediately by reviews,etc., the voice navigation, the really decent camera, I could go on and on. I'm a fan. A big one.

5. The very cheap hardbound reprintings of classic novels. Sure, its a little like buying the store brand of milk, but who cares? A literary girl needs a library, but reading doesn't pay very well. Five bucks for Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre - that I can do. Bring on the Sunny Meadow Farm Literary Milk.

6. Gazillion Bubbles. Moms, you know what I'm talking about. I don't have to hyperventilate to blow, well, a gazillion bubbles for my guy. If there was such a thing as Toddler Xgames, Gazillion Bubble Chasing would be the marquis event.

7. Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in Blackest Black. And how.

8. Brilliant Brunette Hair Care by John Frieda. A long and sorta inflated name for a drug store shampoo? Indubitably. But oh so worth $4.50 each for the shampoo and conditioner, for the scent alone, not to mention the hair shininess and the brilliant brunettiness.

9. Tiffany's. For all my anti-materialist posturing, I'm still a girl. And I loved Breakfast at Tiffany's, so its a natural extension.

10. Grocery store sushi. Its like sushi for dummies. Its yummy, inexpensive and like most things I really like, convenient. And you don't have to feel like an idiot ordering stuff you don't really know how to order.










1. Words written across the heiny on sweatpants. Whether its PINK or JUICY or the always apropos LOOK AT MY BUTT - its terrible. Admittedly, that last one would require a vast expanse of real estate, but in my experience, that only makes it more likely.

2. Che Guevara t-shirts. Seriously, 18 year old white girl, do you know who he is? I have one word for you: Wikipedia.

3. Attitude t-shirts in general, but especially toddler and small children's sizes. There's a blog in the works for this one, possibly a joint effort with Leaky Jar, so I won't explain further.

4. Bratz Dolls. I already had a few issues with Barbie, but in my effort to not be a feminazi, I tempered that. So some genius developed a doll with lipliner and unfilled lips, glittered hotpants and midriff baring tube tops, faux-lucite platform stilettos and every ghetto scandalous accessory you can think of. The boy dolls wear eyeliner in a very not Good Charlotte way, and, again, midriff baring tops. Basically, they look like a cross between 90's club kids and millennial strippers. I could do a list of the top 100 things I hate about Bratz dolls, but I won't because it is most likely preaching to the choir.

5. Abercrombie & Fitch. Soft porn catalogues filled with 14 year old girls, a fragrance assault just walking past the store, the size "double zero", $100 dollar shredded jeans with double popped-collar pink polo shirts. 'Nuff said.

6. Pink Polo shirts, while I'm at it. I saw Taye Diggs in one on some show, and it looked good. So if you look like him, go for it, otherwise: to Marshalls, please.

7. Oprah's Book Club. Sorry, but I'm sure her majesty would approve of me being "true to myself." There are notable exceptions, certainly, but I probably won't ever read them if they have her sticker on them. On principle.

8. Baby clothes with NFL themes. I don't know why, they're just creepy to me.

9. Women's underwear that looks like men's briefs. Also creepy.

10. The Baby Phat Brand. Everything looks like Bratz doll clothing for grown ups. Only worse.

I could probably go on and on, but I won't promise a continuation. I do that from time to time, ignoring the possibility that anyone might actually read it and then anticipate a second installment, which I am rarely able to provide, because the Blog Muse is a fickle creature. Fickle, but not much of a stickler for grammar, so we forgive her flightiness. Have consumer bipolar disorder too? What do you love and hate? I think I have a roughly 2% comment rate on here and I want to know what the other 98% of you think. Or who you are. Or something.