Handmade Items - Faith and Family Reviews

Tag Archive for Handmade Items

Product Review: Alabu Soap

Posted by Bobbie Gould on August 6, 2010
in Eco Friendly Products, Handmade Items, Personal Care Products

I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

The owners just wrote and told me that they have a coupon code for you all! Here it is!

It’s good for 15% off any order of $10 or more (can only be used once per customer) at www.alabu.com. The coupon code is below: COUPON-VGHOOD-15

I recently received some product from Alabu Natural Goat Milk Soap and liked it alot! The product that I received was:

Organic All Natural Shea Body Butter: This body butter was very nice to use as it helped take away some of my eczema on my arm. I really liked that it is all natural and comes in 2 kinds of ‘scents’ the product that type that I received is the Original with jojoba oil. The other scent is: Tea Tree. It is defiantly really nice for dry skin when you don’t have any hand-cream on hand or after a shower! It is priced at: $4.90 for Original but the Tea Tree is priced at $6.90. Very reasonable for all natural shea body butter.

Organic All Natural Lip Balm: The lip balm comes in 3 different flavors so to speak and I received mint. I liked the scent and “flavor” it helps chapped lips but, I didn’t find that it made any drastic changes for my lips. But I thought that it was a nice lip balm. The scents are: Mint, Tea Tree, Vanilla, and Natural. They are all priced at $3.50

Organic All Natural Neem Essential Oil Soap: Neem oil contributes conditioning properties and a wonderful lather to this soap, making it a good choice for dry and problem skin. The neem oil is not added for the great scent (it actually smells terrible, and they add lavender essential oil to help tone down the scent). It’s in the soap because it’s great for your skin. So I just wanted you to be informed: don’t judge it for it’s smell! I didn’t really smell anything that bad, it smelled like lavender to me. I found it a very nice soap and it made my skin VERY soft! It must be the goat soap that does that! It is priced at: $6.30.

Organic All Natural Baby Me Ultra-Moisturizing cleansing Bar:I really liked this soap and it is all the name says it is! 🙂 It too makes my skin feel soft and silky! It smells nice and I think it was my favorite of the two soap. Extra special handmade soap for anyone with extra sensitive skin. I found it lathered nicely and was a great bath bar! It made my hands very soft after working in the garden all day. It is reasonably priced at: $5.15

All in all I would highly recommend Alabu products. Here is a little bit about Alabu:

” A Brief History:

After making goat milk soap for a home-school chemistry project, we quickly realized how drying and harsh commercial soap was to our skin. We found that handmade natural soap (made with the “cold process” soap method) retains the naturally occurring glycerin that is very beneficial to your skin. Family and friends told us how our soap was a great skin care product, and how it did not leave their skin feeling dry and itchy like commercial soap did and helped with their eczema treatment. That is when Alabu Soap was born. Now we have retail and wholesale soap customers world wide.” (My note, the Alabu company was founded by a Christian Home-Schooling family.)

Happy Shopping!

~Miss RJ

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Product Review: Flower Bracelet From five ACCESSORIES

Posted by html404 on July 26, 2010
in Eco Friendly Products, Fashion, Giving Back/Charity, Handmade Items, Uncategorized

blueflowerbracelet

The Flower Bracelet $10

The Flower bracelet adds color and life to a neutral or dark outfit. Made of natural wood with handpainted blue and white flowers on each square block. On SALE from $15 to $10.

I liked that this bracelet was handmade and that the flowers where hand painted. I love flowers and this definitely attracted my eye. It has a nice loose fit, is very pretty and is one of my favorites out of five’s bracelets!

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Product Review: Pop Top Bracelets From five ACCESSORIES

Posted by html404 on July 2, 2010
in Eco Friendly Products, Fashion, Giving Back/Charity, Handmade Items

PurpleKidsPopTop
BlueWhitePopTop

Pop Top Bracelet $5.00

A bracelet made from can pop tops and ribbon. Perfect for the little princess. Handmade by the vendors of StreetWise. Each item comes with the picture and story of the individual who made it. One size fits all wrists. For custom colors and orders please inquire at info@fiveaccessories.com or call 312.504.3483.

This bracelet comes in a lot of different styles and colors (ribbon wise) and you can get custom orders done at the above info. I thought that this bracelet was appealing to the eye and was very fun and cute. Perfect for a child or even fun loving teenage girl! I don’t know if I really would wear this one alot but my children like it.

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Necklace and Earring Gift Set

Posted by html404 on May 20, 2010
in Handmade Items

The following product was received in exchange for writing a review. While it is a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

My daughter was actually sent this gift set from Cinderella’s Jewelry called, Pearls and Glitter in exchange for a review. Since I am the one with pierced ears, I thought I would also give Cinderlla’s Jewelry some exposure by writing a review. This set is very nice and priced just right; only $18.00. It would make a wonderfully affordable gift for daughter, mom or grandma. But it is a pierced earring and necklace set. This particular set is sold out but Cinderlla’s Jewelry has other styles available. Custom orders are also available upon request, so please contact the owner for details.

The earrings did not make my ears sore and are made with little posts. They are very comfortable to wear. The necklace looks elegant and wears well.

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Pearls and Glitter (I used most of her description with my opinion sprinkled in since she describes it to a “t”)

This elegant pendant is a splash of light purples/ pinks, light sprinkled glitter throughout, with is a cluster of diamond- like gems in the center as the “pollen”, strung on a 16 inch strand of natural fresh water pearls and a few silver rhinestone spacers.

The clasp is different from what we’ve seen before, but I find it much easier to clasp and unclasp than the usual clasps on necklaces. Each piece is well made.

Cinderella’s Jewelry – Fairy tale jewelry with a timeless touch – http://CinderellasJewelry.blogspot.com

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Flowered Hat from Mayu

Posted by html404 on February 5, 2010
in Eco Friendly Products, Fashion, Handmade Items

I did receive this product in exchange for work I did for someone.

I have loved the look of this flowered hat from Mayu ever since I saw it on their model. It is another handmade, hand-knit alpaca product. It comes in several colors: charcoal gray, chocolate brown, kelly green, red, eggplant purple and orange. I received a kelly green one. It is just as soft as the throw and just as beautiful in design. However, it was too small for my head! 🙁 I was very disappointed. For some reason, it doesn’t quite cover my ears. It fits my all my children pretty well, especially the ones with less hair. If you look at the model pictures on Mayu’s website, the one of her wearing the eggplant purple looks smaller than the photo of her in the cream colored one. It is supposed to be a one size fits all, but if you have a lot of hair or a big head (yikes!) then you may want to ask them to custom make your hat or just order one of their slouch hats. These hats and the slouch ones retail for $59.00. Again, they are hand-knit by Peruvian artisans in the Andes Mountains and the sale of these products goes towards helping support the women who make them. Please visit www.shopmayu.com for more information.

Here are a couple of photos:

Flowered Alpaca Hat

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Mayu Alpaca Throw

Posted by html404 on February 4, 2010
in Eco Friendly Products, Handmade Items

I received a few alpaca items in exchange for some work I did for someone. Pretty nice stuff! So the upcoming three posts will be about three hand-knit alpaca products that came from the online shop Mayu.

The first item is an alpaca throw. The photos on the website do not do it justice even though they are nice photos. I don’t think my photos do it justice either! Once I opened the box that the throw came in and touched it, I couldn’t believe how soft it felt! It is beautifully made and makes me wish I could knit with such expertise, seriously! My grandmother knitted and I regret not taking up the art of knitting when she was alive. I am between a beginner and intermediate, but this throw is definitely made with expert skills.

Mayu Alpaca Throw

I have a cream colored throw – they have it in chocolate brown, beige and charcoal, as well – and noticed that it is picking up dark colored lint from my “fuzzy” sheets, but that is the only negative thing I have to say about it, besides the fact that it only comes in a twin size! I’d love to have a queen size, but can only imagine what Mayu would have to charge for the finished product after all of their artisans’ hard work! As it is, this throw retails for $249.00.

Editor’s note: I found out from Mayu that they can make a queen size, so a custom order is available upon request.

Mayu Alpaca Throw

This alpaca throw is very warm. I have warmed up quickly after wrapping it around me or adding it over my comforter; it really takes the chill away. I honestly love it!

Alpaca is an eco friendly resource and all of Mayu’s products are considered eco friendly. All of their products are handmade by artisans living in the Andes mountains of Peru. The sale of each item goes to help support the women who made them. For more information about Mayu and this throw, please visit www.shopmayu.com

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Krochet Kids

Posted by html404 on January 20, 2010
in Giving Back/Charity, Handmade Items

I love the lost arts and I’d much rather pay a little bit more for something of quality than something that will wear out and we will have have to replace in a year. The thing is, it is getting harder and harder to find certain items that are high quality. I mentioned Krochet Kids in a post on our family blog. Since then I have purchased a couple of their hats for our family and can write a review of them.

I discovered that some of our older children had grown considerably in the past year, resulting in their outgrowing some of their winterwear. I was truly intrigued with Krochet Kids and their mission, so I took the step of faith and ordered two of them. It isn’t that I like paying $30 for a hat, but it’s the concept, the heart and the way a purchase like this gives back to someone in need. I mean true need because it supports the person who made the hat.

I have to say that I am quite impressed by the quality of the hats. Below you will find a couple of “models” wearing the two hats I bought, and yes, I realize that the one “Blondie” is wearing is too big for her, but doesn’t she look cute?

Krochet Kids1 Krochet Kids2

The other picture is one of our male “models” wearing a different style hat. The first one is called The Thomas. It is an acrylic/wool blend and is very thick and warm. These two hats come in a “one size fits most”. The unique thing is that each of the hats have a tag sewn inside with the name of the person who crocheted it. Margaret made the paprika colored 5207.5. Yes, The 5207.5 is the name of the hat. And the care of these hats involves hand washing, but seeing how they are very seasonal, we won’t be washing them very often.

Krochet Kids3

By the way, Krochet Kids made their goal of selling over 2000 hats for their December goal. You can read more about their achievement here. Or copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.krochetkids.org/home.php

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