July Meet the Maker Featuring Mitten Crafts by Sarah

Just like the name says, we are pleased to feature a Michigan native today on the blog - Sarah Bannerman from Mitten Crafts by Sarah. She actually grew up nearby in Auburn, Michigan. Her and hubby have also spent time living in North Carolina and Texas, but eventually made their way back to Michigan to be close to family. Initially Sarah’s crafty interests laid in the epoxy world. This is a craft that seems to be very popular and trendy right now, but Sarah explains, “I didn’t want to deal with the mess of epoxy.” Which is my concern exactly when it comes to this kind of crafting too. The results are beautiful, but it almost seems like you need a dedicated space to make your mess and it must be difficult or impossible to clean up if you get it somewhere you don’t want it!

She learned about the sublimation process and instead decided to take a shot at that. She gathered all her supplies and absorbed as much “how to” information as she could. After a month she made her first sublimated mug, and hasn’t looked back since, she was addicted! When deciding on a business name she wanted to include something related to Michigan, but found that many of the ideas she has were already taken. Eventually, she decided to keep it a little more generic so that if and when she decides to go down different crafting paths she can keep the name of her business the same - so smart!

Sarah has two small kiddos at home, so at this time making mugs and tumblers is a hobby, but she hopes to expand and take on more in the future if she can! There are many parts of the creative process that she enjoys from designing to seeing the final product. Sarah says that the tumblers have become a fan favorite because they fit perfectly in the cup holder of your car - an awesome selling point for sure! You can find Sarah’s items at our store or by visiting her Facebook page. She’ll also have some things out a Johnson’s Pumpkin Farm this fall, so definitely find a way to support her in one of these capacities if you need a new cute drinking vessel :)

June Meet the Maker Featuring Things Maria Makes

Grateful for this warmer weather and another opportunity to share about another talented maker that we work with here at Half Mile Handmade - Maria Lattanzio of Things Maria Makes based out of Ney Jersey! I could be wrong, but I think this is the first maker that we have featured on our blog from New Jersey :) She is a self taught graphic designer with a passion for straight up creating… anything and everything under the sun. She has a full-time job in brand marketing, but has had a “side hustle” going at all times since 2015.

Initially, she started the hustle making and offering digital downloads. A few years after she was invited to vend at her first in-person event and made some tangible items for the first time. She explains, “each new product I created took me out of my element, challenged me, and made me even more eager to try different things.” She’s truly done it all from fiber art, to candles, to stickers, to greeting cards, to soaps, and beyond. Since those days she has honed in on what her favorite things to create are, and she says she’s sticking to that! Maria has been through a few iterations of her business bus is now settled on Things Maria Makes stating that she “recently came to the conclusion that I'm not a brand - I am ME!”

She loves starting projects with no clear end product in mind. She just starts sketching and seeing how the drawing evolves and where it takes her. When she reaches the finish line, she’s often able to come up with a catchy phrase to pair with her drawing and then voilà a new card and/or sticker design is born! The first sticker she ever made is her best selling one, and you can purchase one for yourself here too!

Maria is currently creating part-time, as she says, “I have a 9 to 5 and then a 5 to 9 - I'm sure so many other creatives can relate as well.” When she isn’t hustling she loves doing anything outdoorsy, reading, watching movies, and trying new restaurants. You can shop some of her designs on our website, in store, or just check out her complete line of products by clicking the button below.

May Meet the Maker Featuring JJ Paperie Co.

Spring has sprung and we are excited to introduce you to our maker for May. Most of the products that we have from her have total spring vibes and a pastel color pallet. So without further ado, we are pleased to introduce Johana Gutiérrez-Griffiths of JJ Paperie Co, She is a surface designer and engraver based in Conneticut. She explains, “I grew up as a hobbyist that loved trying out new things.” She dabbled in a lot including sketching fashion ideas, creating collages, sewing ribbon belts, and even interior design (aka rearranging her room constantly).

After graduating college, she worked for a number of media companies in New York City and found herself longing for a creative outlet. When she got engaged, she dove deep into the world of calligraphy with the goal of creating her very own wedding suite! After immersing herself in this craft, she realized she could make a business out of it, and JJ Paperie Co. was born. The name of her business is a combination of her first and middle name. She specifically did not put ‘calligraphy’ in the name because she knew she would eventually evolve (so smart), but added ‘paperie’ because she felt she’d always stay in the paper realm in some way/shape/form.

There are a lot of parts about her small business that Johana loves including seeing her designs come to life, seeing her products in stores, and seeing her skills develop as time goes on. She shares one last piece of advice that I absolutely love, “I think if you want to pursue something new you should! It's also never TOO late to try something new - I'm definitely an example of a non-traditional creative who learned as I went with trial and error and that's OK. No one gets it right the first time. It's not easy but if it's something you really want, it's well worth trying at least.” JJ Paperie Co. is her full-time gig now, which she is very proud of and grateful for!

You can find JJ Paperie Co. products in our store, on our website, or by clicking the link below to visit her site directly.

April Meet the Maker Featuring Tangibles

We feel like April is definitely a good month to introduce you to the maker Tangibles and what they do because we can all use some affirmations about warmer days ahead! Let us explain further… this months featured maker is Diana Yates of Tangibles. She is based in Columbus, Ohio where she works in marketing for the YWCA. When she isn’t working on her small biz she loves singing, volunteering, being active and hanging out with her family. Now what the heck is Tangibles and what do they do?!

Diana explains, “during a dark time in my life, writing affirmations on post-it notes really helped me, and I know I’m not alone. So I got the idea to create a product that has that same effect for others.” Her goal with Tangibles is to help folks find hope in their moments of need through simple positive affirmations. She basically took the sticky notes she was writing herself, and transformed them into stickers that you can use for yourself or gift to a loved one. Tangibles officially became a business in August of 2018 when she produced her first set of five affirmations. She purchased the domain www.loveistangible.com two years prior to making her biz ‘official’ and picked the name Tangibles for her business because “tangibles defines what we do. We’re making simple words, affirming messages, self-love, actually feel tangible.”

Diana’s favorite part of the process is connecting with people and empowering organizations that appreciate and value the root concept of what she does. Meaningful conversations can lead to new sticker ideas and she has even had the opportunity to work with organizations to create on-brand affirmation products for them as well. The first set of five affirmations that we mentioned earlier continues to be one of her best selling products. If you visit her site below you can see that she now has magnets and actual sticky notes available for purchase as well. We have three different sticker sets in stock at the shop right now or you can shop all of the wonderful Tangibles designs by clicking the link below.

March Meet the Maker Featuring Kangaroo Soap

A super fresh and clean feature coming your way this month (…foreshadowing), haha. We are pleased to introduce Dawn McKenzie-Wyatt of Kangaroo soaps. Dawn says “I’m am Aussie living in Brighton, Michigan” and she had never seen snow before moving to the mitten - wild for us Michiganders to imagine! No complaints from her though, she says they love being in Michigan.

For as long as she can remember Dawn has had an appreciation for a good soap, and always had the desire to learn to make her own. So when she finally gave it a shot, she loved it and has been going hard in soap making ever since. She explains, “I really love how mixing oils and lye can make a solid soap.” As you could probably guess the name of her business pays homage to her home, Australia. It started as a joke between her and an American friend. The friend told her it needed an Australian name, so Dawn replied Kangaroo Soap, and her friend quickly responded with her tagline actually made by an Australian and all of it stuck!

Dawn’s favorite part of the process is mixing the soap batter and watching it turn from a liquid to solid. Right now, this is just a part-time endeavor, but she would love to go full-time with it eventually. Some customer favorite scents are mint, citrus, floral, and woody. She is able to make a variety of desirable scents within those general profiles. I actually have a bar of her Tea Tree in my shower right now, falling under that “minty” category. If you want to shop Kangaroo Soap in real life, you can always stop to visit the shop, or she has her upcoming in person events listed on her Facebook page. Additionally, she ships worldwide and you can shop online by clicking the link below.

February Meet the Maker Featuring Lettering Works

For some reason, the last part of January felt like it dragged on for me, anyone else?! Here we are though, we made it to February and you know here at Half Mile Handmade a new month means we get to tell you all about a new maker. For February, we are featuring the talented Chelsie Tamms from Lettering Works - a graphic designer out of Chicago, Illinois.

Chelsie shared that she had a spinal fusion surgery in the eighth grade which was a big push for focusing more on her art, as it was an activity that she was able to do post-op. At Bradley University she studied Spanish. graphic design, and marketing and started Lettering Works straight out of college, even winning a student entrepreneurship competition to help get that up and off the ground. After three years, she decided to relocate to Chicago to scale her business and have access to more opportunities.

She explains, “the Lettering Works name came from my desire to focus purely on lettering projects as well as educate customers and clients on how lettering ‘works’ in a variety of applications.” She officially went full-time with Lettering Works in 2016 and never looked back. Her favorite part of the creative process is bringing together a wide variety of ideas/sketches/elements that culminate into one amazing final design. “I always enjoy the process of adding colors to designs, which I save for the end. Bringing so many elements and concepts together doesn’t always make for a clearly linear process, which is why I find so much beauty in the end when it feels like the design clicks and I know it’s ready to share.”

Many of her most popular selling designs are Chicago-related, but she also has some custom designs at Field Museum, Chicago History Museum, and Wrigleyville Sports that folks love too - HOW COOL, that’s like celebrity status in the handmade world! Please please please show Chelsie some love and support by looking up Lettering Works on Facebook or Instagram or you can shop her designs by clicking the link below or stopping into the shop!

January Meet the Maker Featuring Craig Sterken Photography

Happy to be back from our blogging-break! Can you believe we haven’t done one of these since July of 2021?! We hope your 2022 is off to a wonderful start and we appreciate you taking a few minutes to stop here and read about our first featured maker of the new year - Craig Sterken of Craig Sterken Photography…any guesses where he came up with the name for his small business?! :) Craig has a ton of roots in lots of areas throughout Michigan. He spent his early days in the Grand Rapids area, raised his family in Essexville, and summer-vacations on the westside in Ludington and Sleeping Bear Dunes areas.

Spending time around Lake Michigan is what first got him interested in landscape photography. In 2008, he purchased a DSLR camera to capture scenes from the shoreline on film. He explains, “since then my focus has been to take photos that evoke my own feelings about our natural surroundings.” His first retail gig with his photography was at Maude’s Gallery (now Maude’s Garage) in Ludington. When his prints started selling, he felt encouraged to peruse photography even more, has continued to do it ever since. Craig’s wife Sandy has even started a creative side hustle out of all of this. Because she joins him on so many of his shoreline-trips, she has started collecting stones which she tumbles, polishes, and turns into jewelry!

Craig’s photos have been featured in magazines and Michigan tourism campaigns including the Pure Michigan one that we are sure you are all familiar with. He says that his favorite part of the process is being in the field. “When I’m actively engaged in the process, everything else falls away. I don’t think of anything except the moment. It’s amazing how lost we can get with nature and the sense of peace it brings. Every season has something special to lose yourself in. Michigan is definitely a playground for the senses.” Some customer favorite images are those from the Lake Superior Shoreline, The Tall Ships, and The Bay City Fireworks.

You can find many of Craig’s items in our store, a couple of them are on our site, or you can support him directly on his Etsy Shop or website. Go on, send a little memento from home to a friend that’s moved away or treat yourself to a little something, you deserve it!

July Meet the Maker Featuring Luna and Loki Design

Summer is in full swing here in our city by the Bay and this month we’re introducing you to a maker that can accessorize you for this season and beyond. This month we are featuring Renae Michalski the owner and maker at Luna and Loki Design based near South Bend Indiana. Her start in this crafty adventure was in 2017 when leather jewelry started gaining popularity. At the time, it was quite hard to find so she started making her own, and like with many of our featured makers, friends and family wanted some too! Soon enough she started e-commerce and expanded her offering into many different types of jewelry.

Her business is named after their two cats - Luna and Loki. Renae explains, “Luna is our fluffy white and black cat. She loves to lay by the fireplace and she won’t let you forget when it is dinner time. Loki is our petite black cat. She is an introvert that loves to hang out in her castle. She will visit me on the couch or in my office when the house is calm.” She has made it her mission to create feel good jewelry, and each item is made and sourced with intention. A portion of each sale is also donated to the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation who helps folks suffering with mental illness.

Renae works full time as a project manager for a healthcare company, and does Luna and Loki Design as her side hustle (that can become full-time during the busy season). Her most popular selling item are tear drop style earrings, which are available in many textures, colors, and sizes. Renae absolutely loves coming up with ideas and designs for new collections. When she’s not side-hustling or working at her day job she loves to bake, try new crafts, ride on horseback, and star gaze. She said mentioned in her message to me that she has visited both of Michigan’s International Dark Sky Parks (which as a native Michigander I didn’t even know existed)!

You can stay up to date with Renae’s upcoming in-person shows, by liking her Facebook page & checking the events tab. You can also stop in to our shop here in Bay City, or visit her website by clicking the link below.

June Meet the Maker Featuring Ellembee

Hello and happiest sunny times summer to all of you readers out there. We are back this month to tell you all about yet another talented maker that we are honored to work with. This month we are introducing Lisa Wiley from Ellembee based out of Wixom, Michigan. Lisa went to school for fashion design and was working in that industry when she was laid off unexpectedly. At that time, she moved back to Michigan from California to regroup and it was just about the time that Etsy was catching on. She knew a little bit about screen printing from a course in college, so she tried her hand at making some tshirts and by the end of her first 30 days selling on Etsy, she had sold 18 of her hand printed shirts. She started signing up for local craft shows, and things took off from there.

Ellembee is actually named after Lisa herself. She explains, “it's the initials of my maiden name! Lisa Marie Boesch - LMB - Ellembee, my mom came up with it!” For her first five years in business she worked out of her mom’s basement, but now 13 years in she has a team and a 2,000 square foot building that Ellembee operates out of. The direction of the business has changed a bit over the years. They no longer sell tshirts, but what she calls clever gifts. She adds, “it's been quite a ride, and getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to me!”

Her favorite part of the process is pulling and packing orders. She said she’s a list person so getting all of these things together and organized is very satisfying for her, plus she loves seeing all of the fun things customers order. The most popular clever gift that they sell are their tea towels. They make about 30 new designs for them every year, and it never seems to be enough. You can shop some of their tea towels and more by stopping in to the store here in Bay City, or by visiting her website below. Be sure to follow Ellembee on social media too to stay up to date about any shows they may have coming up!

May Meet the Maker Featuring Duende Collection

Hello, hello and a very happy May to all of you! It’s a new month, which means we get to tell you all about a new maker; and this month it’s Tiffany Sabo from Duende Collection out of Port Huron, Michigan. She has lived in Michigan all her life excluding a few years in Illinois and Indiana during college. Tiffany has always loved the arts, especially fashion and photography and even took some sewing and photography classes as early as high school years. Her higher education studies took her in a more scientific direction, but she’s always had a creative thing on the side in some capacity.

After having her first baby she was craving a creative outlet and dabbled in crochet for fun. Family and friends asked how they could purchase these handmade items and she quickly opened and Etsy shop to enable them to do so. Her business has went in many different directions over time, originally called Duende Decor, where she sold the crochet items, jewelry, and vintage items. Tiffany explains, “after the birth of my second baby, I looked for more opportunities to create and expand the items in my shop to include warm weather products.” She had a stretchy piece of fabric she had hoped to create a shirt with and instead played with the design and dimensions and made herself a headband, which has now become one of her best selling items. She said she’s even become known around town as ‘the headband lady.’

Duende Decor evolved into the Duende Collection brand that we know today, and if you visit her on Etsy you’ll find a whole slew of hair accessories and fun tshirts. The word duende (pronounced dwen·dei) means the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm. Tiffany says she can’t pick an absolute favorite part of the process, she loves creating everything from beginning to end. She does admit that she has quite the affinity for fabric though and loves all of the patterns, colors, and textures you can find. You can get your very own piece from Duende Collection at our shop or by visiting her site below!

April Meet the Maker Featuring Papillon Press

Happy April, friends! A new month is here and we are excited to introduce you to the duo that is Papillon Press. This small biz is operated by a father/daughter team - Vernon Wiering and Madeleine Wiering, and from different parts of the country no less (but we’ll get into that later). Vernon has been a book binder for over 20 years, and got interested in the art of printmaking when he and his wife moved to New Mexico to begin teaching jobs after college. Madeleine was born and they returned to Michigan. With the teaching prospects looking a bit bleak, Vernon decided to pursue bookbinding full time from their home basement.

As a child Madeleine spent a lot of time with dad in the studio collecting scraps and using them to make her own creations. As she got older was was able to help more, she started working side by side with her dad. She worked for him throughout high school learning the trade and says, “Vernon was a great boss; gracious yet particular.” They say that Vernon came up with the name Papillon simply by dreaming about the world, he already had it top of mind, and it just stuck as the company name as the business grew. They launched a website in January of 2019 and say that’s when Papillon was “born to the public.” The pair traveled to expos, began wholesaling, and setting up at craft shows.

Since then, a lot has changed in their lives and within the world. Madeleine was unable to work at her full-time job in the restaurant industry at the start of the pandemic last year, so she poured herself into the business re-doing the website and working on other admin tasks. Due to her taking on these types of tasks, Vernon was able to keep working on the creative spectrum and produced new ideas and designs. Madeline got engaged last summer and relocated to St. Louis, Missouri with her fiancé. Now Madeleine and Vernon do their parts to run the business from separate states. They still chat on the phone almost daily it sounds like in order to make sure all is running smoothly.

Both of them love the hands-on approach to printmaking and have always enjoyed researching the patterns and the history behind them. They say that their most popular item with customers are notebooks (which combine printmaking + binding), linens, and greeting cards. Check their events calendar to see where you might be able to find them popping up next, stop in to our shop, or click the link below to get your very own Papillon Press items!

March Meet the Maker Featuring Carved Coins

Hello and happy March! We are excited to introduce a maker unlike any that we have featured so far on the blog. Her name is Roxann Kesterson, but many people know her as The Coin Lady. Roxann is the owner of and maker at Carved Coins, where that’s quite literally what she does. We don’t mean to make it sound simple, as the process is tedious, and the final product is absolutely beautiful, but that’s truly the nature of her business and what she does - we can’t think of a better description than that! She claims that she never was and still isn’t an artistic person and can’t even draw so much as a stick person, but she has always loved different tools and working with them.

We’re just going to quote Roxann directly here since she explains so well. “The art of Coin Carving started during the Civil War where soldiers would gather coins from their travels and carve or etch into them at night. They were called “Love Tokens” and would often take months to create a single piece. I was inspired by the idea that in the midst of a war, soldiers would still find the time to make something for someone they love. So why can’t we find time now?” …and that’s exactly what she did, started making time to create! She started out carving coins for family and friends that were celebrating something, or were moving to a new state and never intended for her expression of love to become an actual business, but eight years later here she is, carving coins as her lively hood. She says the official job title is ‘numismatic artist.’

Roxann says her favorite part in the process is, “using the same tools and techniques that the soldiers used to first make this lost trench art during the Civil War and sharing its history with new customers.” Her best sellers are mainly Michigan themed carvings, but she absolutely loves any chance to make something custom and extra meaningful for someone. Last, she adds that carving coins is completely legal incase you were wondering!

You can visit The Coin Lady at these upcoming events (All Things Detroit 3/28, Grosse Pointe Art Fair 5/22-5/23, Art on the River 6/11-6/13, and Makers Mart 6/18-6/19), stop in and shop select designs in our store, or by clicking through to her website below!

February Meet the Maker Featuring Emily's Papercrafts

Happy February! We are pleased to introduce Emily Mallory from Emily’s Papercrafts as our featured maker this month. She was born in Oregon, grew up in Northern California, went to college in Iowa and has now settled in Seattle! Well traveled! Her family gifted her quilling and origami papers as a teen and she’s been working with paper in one capacity or another ever since. She continued practicing quilling and origami throughout college and explains that she loved, “raiding the local libraries for more ideas and techniques.”

After college and getting settled in Seattle, Emily officially started her handmade business. Initially, she named it Emily’s Sunshine Room, but found that customers often mistook it for some type of cleaning or childcare business, so she changed it to Emily’s Papercrafts to avoid that confusion all together. I think this might be the first name change we’ve had on the blog too!

She still uses quilling and origami in her business but has recently started adding watercolor to her work as a way to enhance the look. I’m going to straight up copy and paste the explanation of her process because she says it so beautifully - “I attempt to make my finished products realistic but slightly whimsical because there is little in art that is an exact duplication or replication. Once I have my inspiration, I paint a watercolor background to add depth and a backdrop for the quilling. Then I searches for the quilling paper colors that best match her mental picture of the finished product and begin working. Sometimes my inspiration leads to a more detailed watercolor background and others to more detailed and involved quilling foreground. Each piece of quilling paper is individually cut to varying lengths, rolled, glued, shaped and then glued to other shaped pieces of quilling paper. Finished products can have anywhere between 50 to over 1,000 individual pieces of paper used depending on the design.” Reading through this I can totally imagine these pieces quite literally coming to life!

Emily is a stay at home mom and home-school teacher when she isn’t making and running her small business. The amount of time she spends on her craft fluctuates from week-to-week depending on what’s going on in personal life and with the business itself. She shared that origami ornaments and crafting kits are her best sellers and has been kind enough to offer you all 15% off your purchase on her website this month using the code HALFMILE at checkout! You can also stop in and shop many of her products right here with us in Bay City!

January Meet the Maker Featuring Nuance

Happy New Year! We are so happy for a fresh start and to be able to start telling you about the wonderful makers that we work with in 2021. Chance would have it that this months maker might be able to help you with your resolution if you’re aiming to become more eco-friendly in your everyday life, so we are excited to introduce Eli Kim of Nuance Prints. She is a Michigan native, growing up and living in our great state her entire life other than a couple overseas internships. Eli received her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and recently graduated from Wayne State University with her Masters.

Eli started creating sustainable kitchen products for her own family because she was unable to find specific products that she wanted out in the world. She made Nuance ‘official’ in 2019, and her business has been growing ever since then. Her husband actually came up with the name Nuance. She explains, “there are three words that he says remind him of me: nuance, intention, and consideration. We chose nuance because of the nuance that there is in cooking, in crafting, and in life.”

Eli runs Nuance full-time and says that her favorite part of the process are the slower components of her craft. She said she finds a lot of joy in the actions that can not be rushed. The repetitious things also help her brain relax and think more creatively. We can see how good work can come from a state of mind like that for sure! Eli makes a number of amazing products, and we currently stock her beeswax wraps which she says are a fan favorite! She puts a lot of thought into the supplies and packaging she uses to make her final products as well. Getting much of it from local businesses that also practice sustainability.

When she isn’t working on all things Nuance she enjoys reading and cooking. She is in the process of getting online sales up and running, but for now you can stop in to get her beeswax wraps, or you may even be able to make arrangements with her via her Instagram account.

Half Mile Handmade 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

Since we opened, I have always dreamed of putting together a gift guide for the holidays and I could just never seem to find the time to sit down and do it. This year, I’m making it a point, and here I am 11 days before Christmas (better late than never) sipping on some coffee and writing this little blog post to share with all of you. As of this second we work with 372 different makers and it is my absolute pleasure getting to see and share the incredible items that each of them make. We are constantly complimented on how lovely our shop is, and I have to give props to our makers every time. They are truly what makes our shop lovely and possible and I am so grateful to work with each and every one of them.

I wish I could show you every single item we have in stock (for real), but I’d be here for a month typing, and you’d be here for another month reading so I’ve opted for some categories that I hope will help you out with your holiday shopping. Each grouping of items will run you $25 or less and all items are 100% handmade by someone! We’ve put some up for sale on our website, but USPS is running quite slow right now, so if you want to be sure you have it in time for Christmas, your best bet is to stop in. You can always email (hello@halfmilehandmade.com), call (989) 778-2228, or send us a message on social media to hold things or place an order! We are here to help you have a handmade holiday however we can. Now let’s get to these gifts!

ITEMS FOR BABY. Baby bodysuit $13, bar of baby powder scented soap $5, no-scratch mittens $5.
ITEMS FOR KIDS. Engraved Swell bottles $15, coloring & activity books $5-8, colorable postcard $1.50.

ITEMS FOR TEENS.
Headphone keychain pouch $10, phone grip $8, stegosaurus sticker $4, enamel pin $10, velvet scrunchies $4, GIRL PWR sticker $4, lip balm $4.

ITEMS FOR WINE LOVERS. Worth wining about t-shirt $15, dreaming of a wine Christmas card $4, wine magnet $3.
ITEMS FOR BEER LOVERS. Engraved bottle opener $9, soap made with beer $4, nice can magnet $4.

SELF CARE ITEMS. Sleep mask $12, soy candle $7, bath bomb $5.
KITCHEN ITEMS. Tea towels $8-$12, engraved handle wooden spoon $4, set of two un-sponges $12, recipe cards $1.50

HOMESICK FOR MICHIGAN ITEMS. Hand-stamped necklace $10, resin wood slice ornament $6.50, Great Lakes magnet $6, Michigan sticker $3.
HOMESICK FOR BAY CITY ITEMS. Bay City t-shirt $19, Bay City illustrated places card $4, Bay City sticker $3.

$20 ITEMS. Coffee mugs $10-$16, tissue box covers $18, engraved tumblers $20, jewelry $15-$22, handmade winterwear $10-$22.

$30 ITEMS. Michigan pillows $26-$30, mini Michigan metal and wood sign $30, wool mittens $30, matted photos (ready to frame) $22, macramé Apple Watch band $22.

I hope that you have found this guide useful and now have some ideas to go forth and shop for Christmas! Don’t forget we are now located at 910 Washington Avenue Bay City, MI 48708. Our new spot is bigger and brighter and we are very proud to show it off to you. We also have over 100 holiday cards in stock for you to choose from - send some happy mail! It has been one wild year, and from the bottom of my handmade loving heart I appreciate your continued support. We absolutely love being your handmade headquarters in Bay City, hope to see you soon! -Capri

October Meet the Maker Featuring Maiden Hands

This month we are introducing you to Karlee Miller from Maiden Hands. Karlee joined us at Half Mile Handmade way back when we did our thing at City Market, and we are very proud to be her first retail partner ever! She has lived in Michigan her entire life and excitedly exclaimed, “that makes me a true Michigander, right?!” We sure think so! She grew up in a tiny town called Hart, and now lives in Grand Haven.

Karlee had always been interested in learning to crochet because her mom and grandma always made the most beautiful afghans. While on maternity leave (with her now seven year old) her mom taught Karlee to crochet, and she’s been at it ever since. After about a year family and friends started asking her to make items and she eventually made it into an official business in 2014 when she started posting photos of her items online. Karlee explains, “a friend came up with the name Maiden Hands. If you haven’t caught on its “made in hands” (aka Michigan) with a womanly twist.”

Karlee works full-time as a graphic designer and when she isn’t at her day job or crocheting she loves spending time with her family. We currently only have her (very popular) cup cozies in stock, but some of her other well-loved-items include beanies, scrunchies, and wash cloths. You can stop in to the shop to shop or visit the link below!

September Meet the Maker Featuring Nina Belle Designs

Heyyy September! We are pleased to introduce you to Nina Urbonya the maker at Nina Belle Designs! She is a painter that makes bright and cheery designs and turns them into all sorts of super fun items for you to enjoy. Nina was born and raised in St. Lucia in the Caribbean but now lives in Detroit, Michigan with her husband and two children.

She loved painting and drawing as a child, but really only got seriously back into it after having her first baby. Nina would pick up her craft while the baby napped or went to bed for the night and found it very relaxing. Soon, friends and family started commissioning her to paint pieces for them and really encouraged her to make a business out of this hobby. Soon she was up an running with her shop on Etsy and has been creating and selling items there ever since. Nina is half French and half Japanese, the word belle means beautiful in French, so the name of her business translates to Beautiful Designs Created by Nina.

When she’s not painting, Nina loves going for walks and hanging out with other families. Her favorite part in the process is painting new designs, and she loves turning those designs into stickers for her customers. You can find her beautiful work in our shop or by clicking the link below to visit hr Etsy page.

August Meet the Maker Featuring Jodi Lynn Doodles

It’s August and we have a bright and fun Michigan maker to tell you about for our final full month of summer. Today we are thrilled to introduce Jodi Lynn Burton of Jodi Lynn Doodles. She is currently a resident of Oak Park, Michigan and is a Wayne State University graduate (give her a heart down at the bottom of this post if either of those places is meaningful to you)!

Things kicked off for Jodi Lynn when a friend suggested that she sell her wares at a local art fair. At the time she was working as a photographer and did some drawing in her spare time. The things she was drawing were portraits of scientists in shrinky dink format and made them into magnets. To her surprise, she sold out of stock at that very first show and never looked back. Since 2016 she has been employed full time as an illustrator! She has a passion for lifelong learning and is now able to help others’ with their quest to absorb as much knowledge as possible through her illustrations, making drawings for mathematics books and other educational materials for all ages.

If you follow her on social media, it’s easy to see that she is constantly creating new things, but when she isn’t she loves spending time in nature! She loves creating images that people will share and doing custom work as well. You can shop Jodi Lynn’s items by clicking the link below or stopping into our shop. We just received a shipment of new stickers, greeting cards, and our beloved Bay City prints at the shop, you don’t want to miss them!

July Meet the Maker Featuring Sweetlove Paperie

We are super grateful to be back from quarantine and able to tell you all about our wonderful makers again! As a refresher - we feature one maker from our shop each month. You’ll get to see their work on our social media accounts and “meet” them right here on our blog! We love sharing these more in-depth stories with you, and we hope you enjoy learning about the people behind the products available for sale at our shop. Keep reading to learn more about this months maker, Bethany Orlowski from Sweetlove Paperie/#CRASScards.

Bethany is from the southwest suburbs of Chicago and went to Saint Xavier University, earning a bachelors degree in graphic design. During her time in college she took a typography class and fell completely in love with fonts and the creativity that goes with along them. Today she has a full-time graphic design job, and also does wedding invite (and related items) design as well as her #CRASScards hand-lettered card line (which is what we at the shop are most familiar with)! In her words, “I guess you could say I eat, sleep, and breathe design. I'm so fortunate that I love my craft and can make a living doing graphic design.”

Her #CRASScards line has been a way for her to get her personality out regarding current events via hand-lettering and allows her to be creative in another way outside of a computer. Bethany explains, “on a few occasions, my mom used to always tell me things I'd say were so "crass" in reaction to a distant friend having a kid, or my sarcastic excitement reaction to things... and that's the essence #CRASScards.” Some of her fan favorites are the online dating themed cards, and we personally love some of the Christmas cards that she makes!

Her favorite part of the process is when a new phrase for a card comes to her out of the blue. When she’s not working her 9-5, designing wedding items or working on #CRASScards Bethany spends time with her family and fur baby, volunteering with PAWS, doing yoga, checking out new restaurants with her girlfriends (pre-COVID), and binging her favorite shows on Netflix or Hulu. Stop in to the shop and pick up on of her cards for yourself (or a friend) or shop online by clicking the link below!

April Meet the Maker Featuring Author Angela Berent

This month we are excited to introduce you to an author! Maybe not someone that you would typically think of as a maker, but writing is definitely a creative process just like anything we’d do with our hands. What’s even better is that her books have an interactive element to them, which allows the reader to participate and become a “maker” themselves along the way. So let’s meet author, Angela Berent! Born and raised in St. Charles, Michigan Angela attended Saginaw Valley State University and ended up with a business degree. Eventually she and her husband made their way out to Ventura, California (Craftcation anyone!?) where she went back to school to be a teacher and has been doing so ever since. She now lives and teaches in Chelsea, Michigan.

Throughout the school year Angela will outline her ideas for a book and then uses her summers off to really delve into her work. She even says that “outlining brings me the greatest joy of all the writing process. Gathering ideas and sorting them into a semblance of a plan is so rewarding.” This is the part where we typically ask our makers how they came up with the name for their business, but Angela’s situation is unique. In 2017 she wrote her first book, “List Your Life: A Modern-Day Memoir” and came up with the title by brainstorming with her cousins at a quiet cabin in the Upper Peninsula.

Writing and publishing books is a hobby for Angela and while she’s not busy teaching or writing she loves spending time with her husband and twin boys around Michigan and beyond. She says they are going to Alaska soon! Angela also has a second book out, “Trace Your Travels: An Adventure Journal.” You can learn more about the books and order yours by clicking the button below!