Charlie's Dawg Stick

My english setter Charlie loves fetching sticks. After a suggestion from my daughter I made a customized stick for Charlie, complete with his name wood burned into the Red Maple Wood stick. My daughter has a business selling Dog supplies and agility training equipment. at www.dogbonedog.com so she's always giving me suggestions for making dog related items.

I decided to start making them for my Etsy shop and they have turned out to be extremely popular this Christmas season. They come in a hand sewn bag too (yes I made the bag too) complete with paw prints.

Featured Artist Creations

For October through Nobember I'll be featuring some fantastic items from Etsyians as well as non-Etsyians.

I was on Etsy yesterday looking for gift ideas for a friends newborn gift basket. Although my girlfriend is having a girl, I fell in love with the Owl Beanie Hat from a lovely Etsy seller -

www.etsy.com/shop/swankystitchs

This Owl Beanie is perfect for that sweet little boy. Crocheted in blue, green, black and gray the artisan has titled it "Bright Mr Hoot". Please check out her shop for even more chrocheted creations.

Autumn Leaf Tree Branch Buttons .... Some of my fall buttons are featured, Autumn Leaves made out of Black Cherry Wood then hand wood burned so they resemble leaves.


The weather is getting cool and along with coloder weather come an increase in requests for buttons. I have had a ton of requests for instructions on how to care for tree branch buttons:


If a button is sewed onto the garment or pillow, hand washing and drying is recommended in cold or lukewarm water, than lightly dry with a soft cloth. If the button has lost it's satiny shine there is a simple fix:

To restore the sheen to the wood button a light polish finish with melted wax on a soft cloth or even furniture polish will restore the button to it's former self.

With the new craziness of relevancy going around Etsy lately, I've been recommending MikesSEOShop on Etsy. http://etsy.com/shop/MikesSEOshop He has some great ideas for making your shop get on the front page. I met him in Chicago a while back and he specializes in marketing your Etsy as well as online business. He has some great tips and pointers to help your shop become more relevant.

Tree Branch Button Giveaway and Featured Artist

Visit me at http://etsy.com/shop/thehickorytree to order some of my earth friendly tree branch buttons, wood gift tags, wedding decor or earthy jewelry.

For the month of October/2011 I'll be having a fantastic button giveaway for a couple of lucky blog followers or those that heart my etsy button shop.

In addition I'll be featuring some fantastic Etsy Artists that specialize in Knitted, Crocheted as well Sewing and Fiber creations. Be sure and check them out and if you are interested in being featured please email me at www.thehickorytree@gmail.com. It should be a fun month.

Gardening and Tree Branch Buttons

Please check out some of my newest creations on http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheHickoryTree

Well it's June already and I'm just getting my garden in. I'm about 2 weeks behind schedule this year. Usually we have it in by Memorial Day but with all the rain we’ve had plus I was in Chicago last weekend for my daughter’s bridal shower I’m really behind. Thankfully my husband has been watering all the plants so they are still in great shape. We got the tiller going last night so if I can get it tilled before the rain comes tonight I’ll be good to go. I’m kind of excited about the new shop. It’s going to be more casual than my other shop, www.TheHickoryTree.etsy.com where I mainly sell tree branch buttons and gift tags. I came across these fantastic nuts call Tagua Nuts or vegetable ivory. They are harvested from the Tagua Palm tree and being used as a beautiful replacement for illegal ivory as well as providing a living for those living and working in the rain forest.

Heck if it can save an elephant's life and the rain forest with one little nut at a time, then that's tremendous. Below is a picture of some Tagua nuts that have been polished but with a little bit of the brown bark remaining.