Are You a "Black Friday" Person?

I must confess.  I was never a "Black Friday" person. 

I never went out of my way to get the best bargain, or to attend sales.  As a matter of fact, I was the opposite of frugal...until I began to do my business full time.  That got my attention.

And even then, I still wouldn't go to the Black Friday sales because I hate crowds.  If ever I got my Christmas shopping done early a particular year, you can best believe it was because I thinking about avoiding those crowds.  I sure wasn't trying to end up in the middle of this:

 

 

Now that I am watching my finances a little more closely, I do try to catch the sales sometimes.  For instance, I buy my lingerie just after New Year's when my favorite store is doing the "Buy 2 Get 2 Free" thing.

 

But my best triumph is that I am even more expert at crowd avoiding.  I shop Handmade.

 

I LOVE Handmade pieces, more than I have the words to say.  It started over 20 years ago when I discovered street festivals.  I could get funky, afrocentric pieces that nobody else had at those fairs.  They, to me, wer the poor man's designers.

 

Now I only get the basics at regular retail stores.  Thanks to the internet, I no longer have to wait till warm weather to get the items I love.  I get many of my health and beauty products made from scratch by MyCoCreation's, not to mention these cocoa banana slivers she makes that are to die for.  I can shop for everything from headwraps to couture at JahfyaRoyalworks.  I can shop through Etsy (one of the world's biggest online handmade sites) to find artists I know in The Handmade Collective, or shop where I vend in Brooklyn every month with the artists of The Diaspora Art Mart. 

 

Who needs the noisy, overcrowded malls?

 

And of course, there is us, Ioni's Creations.

 

We are offering a coupon just for you for Black Friday.  Come to our Etsy Shop and choose something.  Upon checkout, type in: HANDMADE2013

The sale starts Thanksgiving Day (November 28)  and continues through Black Friday (November 29), Small Business Saturday (November 30, where we'll be vending at the Tribal Truths Fashion Show at Brooklyn's LIU campus), and ends on Cyber Monday (December 2).

We at The Handmade Collective usually designate that Sunday (December 1) as Handmade Sunday.

And don't forget to stop by our website to check us out and learn more about us!

 

Happy Shopping!

and thank you from Ioni's Creations!