Ornaments, ornaments, ornaments

This little cardinal and his brothers and sisters would like to remind you to buy handmade this christmas holiday. After a few weeks of wonderful times with many fabulous shop owners and artisans and a few weeks of ornaments, ornaments, ornaments, I am happily ensconced in my embroidered cocoon. A little tired, actually more than a little but it has been worth it tenfold.

I've seen such beautiful things in my travels. I'll begin with Valley Artisans Market, there you will see beautiful glasswork by my friend Cheryl who is a remarkable artisan in more ways than 1 . Beautiful pottery by Chung Ah along with the most remarkable, gourd doll houses, new roosters and mosaics from Rose And the incredible dolls made by the wonderful Julie complimented wonderfully by the beautiful paintings of Jean. And also for all of those with beautiful little children(or delightful grandchildren) there are beautiful wooden toys which are made so beautifully and wonderfully constructed. There are pens for men, earrings for the lady and beautiful baskets to bring them home and so much more. A trip to VAM is a must see for the most incredible gifts ever.

I also visited the delightful Kathy at the Katbird Shop, she is such a wonderful store owner to deal with and she has a lot of beautiful, cool things too. She has wonderful soaps to smell, beautiful bags(including quite a few of my own)to carry your belongings, beautiful glassware, a wonderful baby section and of course lots of ornaments. Perhaps if you are lucky you will get to meet mayoral candidate Roger the cat who spearheaded a wonderful campaign to make sure that every pet gets spayed and neutered.

If photography is your thing, there are wonderful places to find beautiful photography. Two of them are right here on my blog roll, there is the wonderful Judy Olson who constantly amazes me. Every time I see a photograph taken by Judy I wonder just how the heck she does it, she has such an eye and a unique way of making the ordinary, extraordinary. Her work is available in several different venues around the Capitol Region so look on her blog to find her work. Lynda Lehman is also a very talented photographer who happens to be on my blog roll, I'm not quite sure where she hails from but her photography of Long Island(I think) is breathtaking. And then there is Jim Miller at Desolation Road, he takes incredible photographs of nature. I have my ornaments at Desolation Road so give him a look if you are in the area of Altamont.

I also have an exciting new prospect for my ornaments and had a great lunch at the same time. Samantha's cafe in Glens Falls is a great little luncheon place and art gallery. Make sure you try the butternut squash and apple soup(to die for) and the bread pudding(I can't even describe it in words). I will be bringing my work to this wonderful venue shortly and unfortunately for my diet I will probably have to have the bread pudding when I'm there.

And finally don't forget the Albany Shaker Christmas Craft Show which inspired my blog post today. I volunteered there today and met many wonderful people and saw many beautiful things. A percentage of the sales helps to fund the museum. It is a wonderful place to find many handmade gifts and see a little history too. It's very close to the Albany Airport so please stop in and see how wonderfully talented those of us up here in Upstate NY are.

So now I have given you dozens of reasons to visit the galleries and shops up here in beautiful upstate NY. Hopefully where ever you live you can find beautiful handmade items made by hand in galleries, gift shops and craft fairs to fill up your christmas gift list. You will be helping to feed those starving artists, keeping your local businesses in business, and making someone ooh and aah over your gifts.

Thank you for reading my shameless plug and return soon so you can see more pictures of ornaments and bigger things too. Have a happy thanksgiving and a handmade black friday.