Tag: Beads

Unique Holiday Gifts

Unique Gifts
With 21 days until Kwanzaa, 20 days until Christmas, 16 days until the Winter Solstice, 11 days until the beginning of Chanukah, and less than 30 days for whatever other December holiday that you celebrate, you may be trying to find the perfect gift before time runs out. In fact, you may already be tearing your hair out trying to figure out what to get your loved ones this year because you want to get something uniquely awesome, but you have no idea what that is. Fortunately, if you are looking for a unique gift idea, there are several events this weekend that are devoted to one-of-a-kind gifts that your family is sure to love (and if they don’t, they’ll learn to love them because some of these gifts are awfully hard to return.)

First, if you’re looking for a gift that would be considered part of the apparel, accessories, and/or food family (and don’t worry, the food isn’t actually part of the clothing until you wear it for the first time and spill it all over yourself at dinner), you should definitely check out Boston’s Downtown Holiday Market. The Downtown Holiday Market, which is located at 459 Washington Street in Boston, will feature a different set of local vendors each week from now until January 10, 2015. Some of the vendors that you can expect to see this week include Alex’s Ugly Sauce, Epoca Amber Jewelry, Golden Rule Honey, Karol Peralta Jewelry, Mao Sim Silk, and Recycled Glass Jewelry. For more information on the Downtown Holiday Market, which is open from 11:00 A.M. to 7:00 PM Monday through Saturday and 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Sunday, please visit the Downtown Boston website.

Secondly, if you’re looking for a hand-crafted gift or a gift that is truly one-of-a-kind, you may want to head over to the Hynes Convention Center this weekend. This is because the Hynes Convention Center is hosting the CraftBoston Holiday 2014 show, which will feature 175 artists and crafters that are planning to exhibit and/or sell their carefully crafted apparel, baskets, ceramics, furniture, glassware, jewelry, leather, metal art, wood crafts, and more. For more information on the event, including a complete program guide with all of the artists and crafters that will be exhibiting their work, please visit the Society of Arts and Crafts CraftBoston Holiday page.

Finally, if you’re looking for a truly unique gift that you can get without making the trek into Boston, you may want to check out the Lexington Arts and Crafts Holiday Marketplace. The Lexington Arts and Crafts Holiday Marketplace, which is located at 130 Waltham Street in Lexington, MA, is a large arts and crafts fair that runs from now until Christmas Eve (December 24, 2014.) This fair will feature dozens and dozens of artists and crafters who will be more than happy to sell you baskets, beads, cards, ceramics, decorations, jewelry, metal art, needle art, paintings, photographs and prints, and more. For more information on the Holiday Marketplace, which is open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday through Saturday and 12:00 to 6:00 PM on Sunday, please visit the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society website.

Photo credit: John Drake Flickr / Foter / CC BY-ND

Are You Ready for the Spring Yet?

Dancing With Fire

I don’t know about you, but I think we’ve had enough snow for one year. I mean 65 inches of snow should really be enough for just about anyone. Unfortunately, there’s a certain groundhog (who will remain nameless) that insists we are going to have another 6 weeks of winter, so what’s an exhausted snow shoveler to do? Well, there really are only two things you can do. You can try to get your mind off of the snow or you can move south. If the first choice sounds more practical, that’s probably because it is. As a result, you may want to know some of the things that you can do this weekend to get your mind off of the snow and to focus on the lovely season that makes all of the white stuff go away (eventually at least.)

First, if you’re looking for a way to get you mind off the snow or you’re looking for a safer way to satisfy your fascination with fire than taking a blowtorch to the ice in your driveway, you may want to check out Fire & Ice: A Winter Festival. This festival, which is sponsored by the Somerville Arts Council, is a celebration of all things hot and cold, and it’s a great way to celebrate the fact that it won’t be this cold forever. In fact, you, your friends, your family, and anyone else you feel like dragging along with you will have the opportunity to warm themselves up with a hot cup of coffee or freeze themselves to the bone with some ice cream while they watch fire spinners perform amazing feats and ice sculptures take shape right in front of their eyes. For more information on Fire & Ice: A Winter Festival, which is scheduled to take place in Union Square Plaza tomorrow from 3:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M., please visit the Somerville Arts Council website.

Secondly, if fire isn’t really your thing (“Fire bad!”) or the very mention of the word ice makes you cringe (“Ice worse!”), you may want to check out the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society’s Polymer and Beading Show entitled “Spring Starts Here!” This show, which begins tomorrow and runs every day from Tuesday through Sunday until the 16th, is a collection of artistic works that have a garden or spring-related theme. However, what really makes the show impressive is the fact that each of the works in the show are constructed completely out of polymer clay and/or beads, which means that each flower, wreath, and/or other spring-related piece of artwork took weeks, if not months, to complete. For more information on the Spring Starts Here Polymer and Beading Show, please visit the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society website.

Photo credit: *~Dawn~* / Foter / CC BY