Item: Dandelion Tote
Seller: MarigoldandSage

This Etsy shop (called MarigoldandSage) has a wide variety of items listed – from baby shoes to wallets. I am most drawn to this seller’s great selection of bags.

My favorite is the everyday tote in dandelion and gray, which is selling for $35.00.  Check out some other favorites of mine from this shop:

- Jackie

Item: Waltham Butternut Squash Seeds
Seller: TheLittleRagamuffin

I’ve started to really enjoy cooking, but I’ve never been one to develop a great recipe.  More like a recipe thief, really.

However… the day has come that I think I have a recipe that I have tweaked enough to call my own! Here’s the skinny:

Butternut Squash Ravioli

Ingredients:

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter.  Add 6 tablespoons of shallots and saute for 2-3 minutes.  Add the 15 oz. can of canned butternut squash. Cook for 4-5 minutes.

Next, season the ravioli mixture with salt, pepper, and sage.  Then add your dairy – 3 tablespoons of Greek yogurt and 3 tablespoons of lowfat milk.  Cook for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in 6 tablespoons of cheese.  Let cool for awhile – you’re going to be handling the mixture for the ravioli making.  This batch usually makes about 6 servings for me, so I store what I’m not using in the fridge for when I’m ready to whip up a quick lunch.

Once the filling has cooled down, grab an egg roll wrapper.  Cut the wrapper in 1/2 and put a dollop of the filling in the upper half of the wrapper.  Put a small around of water around the edges, as this will seal the deal.  Fold the bottom 1/2 of your egg roll wrapper up and seal using a fork.

Psst… If you’re totally confused, here’s a pretty good visual I found on YouTube. They make triangles, I make squares.  

Next, coat your ravioli in flour (I use Arrowhead organic spelt). This makes it so they won’t stick together as easily in your boiling water.

Add the ravioli into a pot of boiling, salted water.  I don’t like to crowd them, so I usually only cook 4 at a time.  They cook quickly – they should be ready to fish out in about 3-5 minutes.

DONE!

Oh you fancy, huh? Here are some ideas to change the recipe:

- Add fresh sage vs. the spice rack variety.

- Whip out the pasta maker and use it to make authentic ravioli instead of the egg roll wrappers.

- Not worried about extra calories and fat? Use 6 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream vs. the Greek yogurt and lowfat milk mix. I only just stared using Greek yogurt thanks to a tip from a friend.

- Grab butternut squash from your produce section and bake it.  Then blend it with a touch of water to create your butternut squash puree for this recipe.  I used to do this but got lazy (and couldn’t taste a whole lot of difference using canned).

This recipe rocks! I have been eating variations non-stop for about 3 months now.  It’s sort of my favorite thing ever.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

- Jackie

Item: Love Umbrella Card
Seller: HelloHatty

I met Etsy seller Hatty via my Etsy Item of the Day shop submission page.  I adore her darling “I Love You” card, which is selling for $4.17 at her Etsy shop, which is called HelloHatty.

“I am a 24 year old illustrator wannabee. I love drawing!” Hatty told me in her shop submission. “I live near London in the UK and work in international trade. I studied languages at university and after graduating and finding my job in London I had to move back home as I couldn’t afford to live in the city. I have always loved doodling and one day decided to take a little sketchbook with me on the train whilst commuting to work. The rest is history as they say!”

“What started off as some doodling has now evolved into my very own little online greeting card shop. And whats more, people who aren’t my mum are actually buying my cards! I can’t believe it,” she said.

When she’s not working on items for her Etsy shop, Hatty keeps busy.

“I love to play the piano (as seen in my shop – all my cards are photographed on top of my piano!). Recently I have also been doing lots of making and drawing in preparation for my friend’s wedding as she wants a ‘handmade’ edge,” she told me. “The best part about this has been drawing on her wellies (all is explained in my blog!)”

Hatty says she likes to shop at an Etsy store called littleonealgernon.

“The zines are fantastic. Full of detail and lovely line drawings,” she tells me.

Hatty’s advice to fellow Etsy sellers is to be patient.  ”Patience is key. Do one little thing every day that will build on your shop’s reputation and image and keep increasing the traffic to your listings. Social media is an excellent way to do this,” she said.

I was happy to hear that Hatty had a great holiday season and is on to the next step in her shop.

“After the big success of my Christmas cards (completely sold out!) I am now scribbling away to finish lots of new designs. I have so many ideas and am eager to get going,” she said.

Be sure to follow Hatty on Twitter @HelloHatty!

- Jackie

Item: Acrylic Floral Landscape
Seller: EbiEmporium

Meet Etsy artist Julia Di Sano from the Etsy.com shop EbiEmporium. I met Julia via Twitter (you can follow her at @JuliaDiSano) and she also shared a bit about herself on my Etsy Item of the Day shop submission page!

“I was born and raised in Ontario, Canada and lived there with my family until about 2007, when I started moving around for university and travel abroad in Japan and Hong Kong,” she told me. “I suppose I’d always been a bit of a homebody until then, and enjoyed quiet time alone, even as a child. Haha Maybe I was a bit of a loner… But I liked it that way, and it allowed me to really develop the creative side of who I am.”

“I always turned to art to express myself,” she continued. “And I attended a specialty school of the arts in Ontario for high school for formal training, going through numerous auditions and creating a hefty portfolio of my work to be considered. That really forced me to take my work seriously, as something more than just self-expression and fun. I started to see it as a powerful mode of conversing with onlookers, and wanted to learn as much as I could about every kind of art.”

“I worked with many different techniques and materials at the school, including all sorts of paints, wire materials, ceramics, etc. For a while, watercolour paint was my passion, but I started to branch out again a few years later – and that’s when I fell for acrylic. And that’s been my passion ever since,” Julia said.

Julia has great advice to share with other Etsy sellers:

“I would suggest that you do your research before opening up your shop and posting items. I probably spent a good 2-3 months looking around and familiarizing myself with Etsy, to get a feel for what sellers where most successful and how they laid out their shops, how they photographed their items, etc,” she advises. “It also helps you get a feel for general pricing and popularity of what you might want to sell in your own shop.”

So what’s coming up next for EbiEmporium?

“I have so many ideas, and am still deciding which ones I truly want to bring to fruition and which ones I’ll leave in the back of my mind. For this coming month, I am really excited to announce that I will be starting to offer postcards and greeting cards with my original artwork prints on them!” Julia tells me. “It will help me target a new market, perhaps with an interest in art-buying, but not quite the budget to order an original piece. And, after that, we’ll have to wait and see, I suppose!”

Connect with Julia online!  Visit her Etsy shop by clicking her shop name (EbiEmporium) at the top of this feature.  You can also find her on Facebook.

- Jackie