annointment handcrafted soaps

At Anointment Natural Skincare, we’ve always felt that what goes on your body is as important as what goes in it. For that reason, there are a lot of things you WON’T find in our products. We make our soaps and body care products in small batches, by hand, the old fashioned way. This way, we can ensure product quality and attention to detail. 

Working with professionals in many disciplines, including naturopaths and aromatherapists, Anointment continues to develop products that set a very high standard for promoting your body’s natural ability to heal. We use only the purest ingredients in our products, with no synthetic fragrances, colours, petroleum products, preservatives, or artificial anything. We do not test on animals, and use certified organic ingredients wherever possible, choosing next unsprayed wildcrafted ingredients. This set of handcrafted soaps includes the scents shown, from Om Shanti (cinnamon and patchouli with coffee and cocoa) and Scrub (eucalyptus, lemongrass and lemon) to Smudge (sage, lavender, contains organic sage leaf) and Lemon Poppyseed (lemon, lemongrass, contains organic poppy seed).

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Set of twelve (12) handcrafted Anointment Natural Skincare soaps (origin: Nova Scotia, Canada)

Starting bid: $25.00

'country mile' fine art print by sarah-ji

I took this photo early one misty morning in Forks, WA on the Olympic peninsula just outside the Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic peninsula.

Although I've lived in the city all my life, I experience a deep joy and contentment when I find myself out in the middle of nowhere. When I look at this image, I remember the crisp air, the breakfast of blackberries picked from the bounty growing all over the property, the cows crossing the road in the distance past the mist, the deer drinking their fill of morning dew, and the cat walking along the road who had greeted me like a friend when I stepped out of our cabin.

~ Sarah-Ji

Sarah-Ji is a photographer and founding contributor to Shutter Sisters who uses her camera to document the story of her life and those around her. The images she captures reflect her unabashed nostalgia and hunger for narrative. When she's not looking through a viewfinder, Sarah loves making mix CDs and daydreaming about living on a farm with her friends.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Country Mile fine art print by Sarah-Ji : 12x18 professional print with protective lustre coating (origin: USA)

Starting bid: $30.00

'schwinn breeze' fine art print by sarah-ji

I have a weakness for all things vintage, and it's especially true when it comes to old Schwinn bicycles and the color blue. I ran into this gem outside my favorite coffeehouse a couple years ago, and I immediately fell in love with it. It's a totally beat-up clunker of a bike, but it is absolutely beautiful to me. I loved it so much that when I had the chance to buy my own Blue Schwinn Breeze this past summer, I didn't think twice about it. ~ Sarah-Ji

Sarah-Ji is a photographer and founding contributor to Shutter Sisters who uses her camera to document the story of her life and those around her. The images she captures reflect her unabashed nostalgia and hunger for narrative. When she's not looking through a viewfinder, Sarah loves making mix CDs and daydreaming about living on a farm with her friends.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Schwinn Breeze fine art print by Sarah-Ji : 11x14 professional print with protective lustre coating

Starting bid: $25.00

an open conversation: attend the 'mom 2.0 summit' 2010

The Mom 2.0 Summit is a place for marketers, mompreneurs and social media enthusiasts to get to know one another. A place to connect, converse, and build relationships. This year’s Summit discussions will focus on three smart paths you can take to even more enlightenment in social media, marketing, networks, and brand building...

Laura Mayes is one of the founders of Kirtsy ("a social media platform of pure goodness. A plaza for the peachy. A portal to the pretty. A place to find cool things. To read smart scoop. To connect with fab ideas, exceptional people, useful information, excellent products."). She spends her daylight hours working as a VP at an ad agency, where she writes for a variety of Fortune 500 companies and metaphoric rock stars. A lover of great finds, bargains, and design, she also writes for a variety of new-fangled blogs, review sites, and publications including The Queso and Cool Mom Picks.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

One (1) participant pass to the Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston, Texas February 18-20, 2010 (value: $450)

Starting bid: $300

'wicker park laundromat' fine art print by sarah-ji

One of my greatest joys in life is to wander around the streets of Chicago with my camera in hand, finger on the shutter. While I was strolling through the Wicker Park neighborhood, reminiscing about the days when I lived just a few blocks away, this view through the window of a laundromat caught my eye. It reminded me of the many hours I've spent in laundromats in my past life, listening to music, reading books, writing letters.  I've had a fondness for laundromats ever since, and this particular one with its teal machines really stood out for me. ~ Sarah-Ji

Sarah-Ji is a photographer and founding contributor to Shutter Sisters who uses her camera to document the story of her life and those around her. The images she captures reflect her unabashed nostalgia and hunger for narrative. When she's not looking through a viewfinder, Sarah loves making mix CDs and daydreaming about living on a farm with her friends.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Wicker park laundromat fine art print by Sarah-Ji : 8x12 professional print with protective lustre coating mounted on a single-weight matboard (origin: USA)

Starting bid: $20

safari set natural wood play blocks by little alouette

Little Alouette's Solid Hardwood Teethers are the highest quality teething toys on the market. Our toys are made of locally sourced hardwoods and, if not left unfinished, are finished only with certified organic flax seed oil. Each product is made by hand. Our workshop usually contains cups of tea, laughing children, and disco music, so each product is infused with love and bliss!

Safari set natural wood play and teething blocks includes Ellie the Elephant (4.5 x 2.5"); Harper the Hippo (5.5 x 2.5"); Carlos the Crocodile (1.25 x 7.25"); GiGi the giraffe (5.5 x 3.25"); and the safari tree (5 x 4"). Your purchase will arrive ready gift ready in a compostable bag tied up with string with a sweet Wood for Wee Ones wood care guide. The guide gives information about our sweet family business and locally sourced woods.

Over a decade ago, Joe and Amy of Doobleh-Vay met and fell madly in love at first site in a sleepy university town. He was a classically trained master carpenter and she a writer with a bit of wanderlust. They worked together creatively through the years on many projects involving woodworking as they restored and remodeled homes together. Joe taught his love about trees on their land in the country and how to use power tools and Amy read poems to him while they worked. They started a journey of following their bliss and eventually brought two wee ones into the world and began creating wooden toys for them. They decided to share these wee wooden toys with the world and Little Alouette was born over hot steaming mugs of cocoa in the winter of 2007. Follow them on twitter at @littlealouette.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Safari Set Natural Wood Play Block Set by Little Alouette (origin: USA)

Starting bid: $20.00

New listing: 'Vintage knits for modern babies' by Hadley Fierlinger and photographer Angela Lang

Vintage Knits for Modern Babies features 25 unique vintage knitting patterns modeled by adorable children. The patterns are for all skill levels and many colorful and artistic photos that are also functional in helping the knitter to know how the pattern should look. This book makes a perfect gift for a baby shower, for a crafty family member or friend, a birthday or Mother's Day gift.

Angela Lang is a portrait, wedding, and commercial photographer who captures emotion and definitive moments that tell a story. She holds a B.A. in Photojournalism and has worked as a professional photojournalist. Her work has appeared in various newspapers including The Associated Press, Here Comes the Guide, The Knot, and Pottery Barn Kids catalog. Vintage Knits for Modern Babies (Ten Speed Press/Random House), which she photographed, has been sold in bookstores nationally and internationally since October 2009. She writes of her photographic adventures at her blog, and about her work with Vintage Knits here.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Vintage Knits for Modern Babies by Hadley Fierlinger and photographed by Angela Lang (origin: California, USA)

Starting bid: $20.00

original drawing by Sydney Smith, illustrator of 'the dread crew: pirates of the backwoods'

The Orangutan

An orangutan rang my doorbell
So I asked him up to tea
The orangutan sat in my kitchen
Then the orangutan sang to me
I banged and twanged my banjo
The orangutan sang his song
We did the orangutan tango
And we diddle-danged all day long
If an orangutan rings your doorbell
Don't call the nearest zoo
Cause the orangutan's quite 
A swinger and
He'll sing
His song
For you.

~ from Canadian author Sheree Fitch's classic book of childrens' poetry Toes in My Nose, which inspired this tribute by Sydney Smith

"Sydney is magic. Just pure magic. He's just the right kind of dark and gloomy and dreamy and ethereal and fantastical all wrapped up in a single pen. His drawings are dreamscapes." ~ Kate Inglis, author, The Dread Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods

Sydney Smith is an artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was educated at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. His traditional drawing style has captured the attention of both the young and old and the admiration of other artists. Renowned for his narrative imagination, Smith is creating an impressive body of work that has been featured in print, fabric, large-scale installations, and animation.

Using traditional mediums such as Ink and watercolour, Smith sources older illustrators such as Arthur Rackham, Japanese Woodblock prints, Rennaisance paintings and etchings, comics, and fellow contemporary illustrators and image makers. Smith’s images evoke a sense of fantasy and the subconscious, often referencing his own dreams.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Original drawing by Sydney Smith. Dimensions approximately 11x12". (origin: Nova Scotia, Canada) 

Starting bid: $55.00

set of guided motherhood journals by tracey clark

Waiting for Baby offers guided prompts that allow expectant mothers to write about emotions and experiences during the journey of pregnancy. Includes pages for ultrasound images, photographs, cards or notes round out this complete companion for the mother-to-be.

Baby of Mine encourages new mothers to record all the precious moments of baby's development, and also to reflect on what these milestones stir within her. There's room to add pictures and other mementos to create a cherished keepsake of mother and child’s first year together.

Tracey Clark is a photographer, author and mom living, writing, shooting and dreaming in sunny Southern California. There’s nothing she enjoys more than inspiring and encouraging women to follow their creative bliss -- she’s the founder of Shutter Sisters where she shares her images and stories.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Author-signed set of Guided Motherhood Journals by Tracey Clark -- Waiting for Baby and Baby of Mine -- the perfect gift for any expectant mother. (origin: California, USA)

Starting bid: $30.00 for the set

the shutter sisters flash bulb necklace

Affectionately born out of collaboration between Shutter Sisters’ founder Tracey Clark and Jill Redman, founder of Blue Poppy Jewelry, the exclusive Shutter Sisters Flash Bulb necklace is a symbol of our creative sisterhood. The design was inspired by the flash of a vintage camera. A hint of bilberry botanical helped to bring the tiny bulb its color. Beyond that, the circular shape of the pendant, which hangs on a delicate 18 inch silver chain also honors the feminine and mindfully represents our infinite connection to one another.

Shutter Sisters is a collaborative photo blog and thriving community that welcomes and celebrates all women with a passion for photography.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Shutter Sisters Flash Bulb Necklace by Blue Poppy Jewelry (origin: California, USA)

Starting bid $40.00