Order Handmade Items Early For All Holidays

          Buying something from a handmade artisan isn't like going to the local big box store. At big box stores items are mass produced and you can take your purchase home right away. However with handmade you often have to wait for your order to be made, depending on what you are buying the wait time will vary. The quality and uniqueness of handmade direct from the artist makes going with them well worth the money and time.

          I want to give you all a little tip whether you order from me or some other handmade artisan -  place your gift orders early! You need to figure on how long the artist will need to make the order and then ship it. Talk to the person you are ordering from and let them know you are giving this as a gift and when you need to have your order. They will then be able to let you know how long it would take and the latest you can place your order for it to arrive on time. Christmas is usually the most busiest time for all made-by-hand artists, not only for them but also for the mail services. Handmade artists can only make a finite number of orders, which means if you don't place your order in time they may not be able to accommodate you until after the holiday.

Here is a list of gift giving times:

Anniversaries
Baptism
Bar/Bat Mitzvah
Birthdays
Bridal shower
Christmas
Easter
Father's/Mother's/Grandparent's Day
First Communion
Graduation
Hanukkah
Home-warming
New Baby
Valentine's day
Weddings (also wedding showers and engagement parties)


Do you know of any other times or holidays that people give or exchange gifts?

Very Important Notice About My Current Crate Tag Production

Please see update below in comment section.

         Who knew that this was going to be so hard to find!? Here let me explain what as been going on. For years I have been getting the clasps I use in my crate tags from a company on eBay. A few years back another company bought them out but thankfully they continued to sell the same clasps I need. Good thing to because I couldn't at the time find anything close to being comparable to it. Now flash forward to this June when my clasp supplies started running low. I got on to eBay looked up my supplier only to find that they didn't have anything in their eBay shop, not to worry I can email them which I did. Almost a week later still no reply, now to being worrying.

          I begin to Google their store name as I remember I had done that before and found their website from which I can email them. Easy-peasy I find the website and fill out the contact form, but once again almost a week goes by with no reply. Now I know there is something wrong, I had a bad feeling they may have went out of business. Now for the mad dash to find a suitable replacement.

          Years ago when I first searched for this type of clasp because of its size it was next to impossible to find unless I could afford to spend over $500. Today however when I did a search more options are now available. It is one thing to be able to judge the quality of an item you can hold in your hand then it is in an online shop. Some of the listings it was easy to tell that the quality wasn't there thanks to the photo, you could see pitting in the metal or problems with the consistency in the plating. After much sifting through Google I found a shop that had a similar clasp and their photo didn't show any obvious defects. Holding my breath I placed the order.

          My order arrived and with fingers crossed I opened the box. Heart sank and worry set in, these clasps weren't even passable with the exception of less then a fourth them them. I can see now that I am going to lose a lot of money buying clasps to see if they would be any good. The next company I ordered from their photo looked even better then the other shop I bought from so I felt these might have a better chance of being good. When the package finally arrived I opened it up and after examining them found that half the order the plating on the clasps were bubbled. I contacted the company and unlike the first one they are will to either send me a replacement for the defective ones or refund part of my money. We are still communicating so I'll have to see what the end result will be.

          By chance I happened upon a phone number for my supplier, so hoping against hope I called them yesterday. It did turn out that they are going out of business and are right in the middle of liquidating all their stock through their brick and mortar shop. They didn't think they had any more of that clasp, so I asked if they could be so kind as to tell me where they bought them from. The lady didn't have that information so suggested I call the following day and her son who would know would be in.

          As I had been typing this I called and found out what the son had to say. When they bought out the previous company they got all their stock which the clasps where part of, so they never had to order any. He went on to say that it doesn't look like the ones I need are in-stock only smaller sizes and the gold colored ones. They did give me a suggestion as to a company to contact for the clasps. I'm so crushed I thought for sure that I was finally going to hear who I can get the clasps from. Well I will have to follow up on that lead and on my own I did find another place to check out.

          In the meantime I do have a very limited supply of clasps to use for my crate tags. However, if I don't find a reliable supplier soon I may have to temporally stop production until I do. Thankfully this will not impact my breed ornaments, jewelry, or other items. Only my dog breed crate tag line will be affected.