This one’s for Seattle people…

This weekend, Dec. 5-6, is the Urban Craft Uprising winter show. Admission is free, and it’s at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. I’ve never been to one, but I’m intrigued:

Urban Craft Uprising was started in 2004 to showcase the work of independent crafters, artists and designers – to provide a unique, high quality, hand-crafted alternative to “big box” stores and mass produced goods.

At Urban Craft Uprising’s shows, fans can choose from a wide variety of hand-crafted goods including clothing of all types, jewelry, gifts, bags, wallets, buttons, accessories, aprons, children’s goods, toys, housewares, paper goods, candles, journals, art, food & much, much more. Each Urban Craft Uprising show is carefully curated and juried to ensure the best mix of crafts and arts along with originality and uniqueness.

It sounds like a good place to find some unique gifts. And it’s free to check out!

Here’s a pretty good list of deals and coupons to get you on your way.

This is so tempting, so very tempting…

From now until December 1, you buy a $5 subscription to Real Simple magazine from Amazon.com! It’s a great treat for yourself or as a gift. There are also a few other $5 deals, including Food & Wine, Cosmopolitan, and Southern Living.

But receiving is still pretty fun. Especially when it’s something you actually want.

Enter Apartment Therapy’s annual Holiday Giveaway. Each day you can enter to win 6 gifts from their family of blogs (Apartment Therapy, The Kitchn, ohdeedoh, unpluggd and re-nest), and there is some cool stuff. You can enter for as many as you like, and it shows you a preview of the upcoming giveaways to lust over.

This desk is pretty hot, right?

The giveaway runs through Dec. 18, and you’ll need to check the site once a day to enter. You’ll also have to create an account, but once you do, it makes entering the contests very easy.

Good luck!

If you’re also in that boat – whether it’s fathers, siblings, significant others, etc. – I have an idea! For this week only, you can buy a year subscription of ESPN magazine from Amazon.com for only $5!  Five dollars! That’s 96% off the cover price!

If your hard-to-buy-for dude (or lady! girls like sports too.) has any interest in sports, check out this deal! A few years ago, I got my dad a subscription to Sports Illustrated, and he really liked it.

Magazine subscriptions are a fun gift. It lasts all year, and it’s just exciting to get a shiny new magazine in the mail. Reading is FUNdamental!

Gaiam is offering 99-cent shipping if you use the code EMSH99 at checkout. It expires December 8.

Gaiam sells a variety of natural and organic-themed items, ranging from home stuff to exercise apparel to exercise equipment, especially yoga and pilates. They also have a very affordable Outlet Sale section.

(Thanks, Seattle Moms Deal Finder)

I love fred flare and their collection of cute yet mostly affordable things. This is a great time of year to check FF out, especially if you’re looking for an unusual secret santa or white elephant gift.

I have this shower curtain. It makes me happy.

Cute!

For your favorite "too cool for Christmas" friend?

(Thanks to Seattle Moms Deal Finder)

Etsy is where people who handmake things (jewelry, crafts, clothes, housewares, pretty much anything else you can think of) can create their own little store – all on one big ol’ website. When you purchase from Etsy stores, not only are you supporting individuals in their creative endeavors, you’re also not buying from sweatshops or paying retail mark-ups. And what I enjoy most of all: You get unique stuff.

I have this thing about purses – I really really don’t like it when I see other people with my same purse. When it comes to clothes, I’m not fond of seeing duplicate outfits, but it doesn’t bother me too much. But when it comes to bags that you carry every day - that are part of your every day look – I want it to be unique. I want people to notice it and ask where I got it. I like compliments!

That is why I try to only buy bags on Etsy. Today I’d like to highlight the bag I’ve been using pretty much every day for several months now. The seller is fromnancy, and this is the bag:

I wanted a bag with a long strap and a considerable amount of room, but I didn’t want a messenger bag. And this bag is perfect! There are no zippers or buttons or anything to mess with. The top of it just folds over, and there are 3 internal pockets – for my sunglasses, cell phone, and iPod. Check, check, and check.

And it was only $35. Yes, that might be more than you’d pay for a bag at Target, but I think it’s worth it to support Etsy sellers. And they tend to keep their shipping prices low, unlike a lot of sellers on Ebay and other websites.

Here’s another fun thing about Etsy. As a shopper, you can create a profile (which you have to do if you want to purchase anything), and you can browse shops and tag items as your Favorites. Then when Christmas or a birthday or some other gift-giving holiday rolls around, you can give people the link to your list of Etsy favorite things and pray they buy something off it.  Here’s mine (it’s short because I’ve been avoiding Etsy, thanks to my underemployment).