Nidhi Chanani

Etsy is often like a thrift store -- it can require a lot of time and patience to pick through a lot of crap (or more importantly, overpriced crap) to find the really well-crafted gems. In order to take the guesswork out of your valiant attempts to support local artists, each week we provide you with a few awesome shops.

With Valentine's Day behind us, the air is not as heavily saturated with the stench of love, loneliness, and desperation, but that doesn't mean you can't still add a touch of romance to your life. This week's featured artists depict love with sweet elegance and sentiment, and may even leave you gazing wistfully and starry-eyed at the object (person, drink of choice, whatever) of your affection.

See Also: Previous Etsy Shops of the Week

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The One.

It is a concept as familiar as commercial jingles, as ubiquitous as the bright candy coloring of a rom-com, and as insufferable as a teenager shouting, "No one understands me." The One is the new shorthand for the idea of the soul mate, that perfect person who completes you.

It is unclear when The One became so common; it seems to have cropped up in the '90s, but "soul mate" is a least as old as Plato. According to his dialogue, The Symposium, humans originally had four arms, four legs, a single head made of two faces and both genitals. Just a little too powerful, these early human hermaphrodites pissed off the gods and as punishment, were split apart and doomed to die. Thankfully, Apollo took pity on these baleful souls and sewed up a new version of them with only one set of stuff and a belly button as a reminder of what was once whole. As a result, we are still, to this day, forever on the hunt for our other half.

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Godofredo Vasquez

By Katie Tandy

Sick of hearts, bears, chocolate, and "You better wear that necktie I bought you last Christmas for our two-paycheck-expensive French dinner tonight" Valentine's Day bullshit? Tell 'em to stuff it where the sun don't shine.

Forget Hallmark and candlelight, here are the top five testosterone-laden, certified Valentine's Man Dates that are sure to deliver a dose of dude-dom.

See Also: Five Great Ways to Celebrate Valentine's Day for Under $25
San Francisco's Top 10 Dates Under $20

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The day of (made-up Hallmark) love is upon us! If you and your honey want to celebrate without over-indulging in Valentine's extravagance, and if you lovely single folk are just looking for fun stuff to do that day, then fear not. We've come up with some awesome ways to spend the holiday that don't involve spending all of your hard-earned cash.

See Also: San Francisco's Top 10 Dates Under $20

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Oh good. Valentine's Day -- aka the worst holiday ever invented -- is upon us. This day sucks for everyone, across the board, regardless of age or marital status. The awkwardness around VD begins in childhood and, after that, graduates into misery, guilt, shame and undue pressure. Let's take a look at why Valentine's Day sucks across the age and relationship spectrum.


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Here's the thing about living in the city: You get what you pay for. Gorgeous views, international cuisine, indulgent liberalism, and adorable alleyways do not come cheap. Unfortunately for our wallets and genitals, dating tends to work the same way. Whether you're looking for love or simply trying to get your girlfriend out of her sweats, here are our recommendations for the best cheap dates in S.F. to seduce your luvah without breaking the bank (or coming off as a cheapskate).

See also:

San Francisco's Top 10 Places to Take or Act Like a Kid

47 Things We Learned in 2012 That We Really Need to Remember for 2013

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Dress as fancy as you want, and don't worry about upstaging anyone.

Formalwear is life's cruel joke. Men usually rent tuxedos rather than owning them, and it's almost always for weddings -- where the fellas are under someone else's aesthetic direction and end up looking like a member of a high-school choir circa 1983. Women, meanwhile, spend small fortunes on wedding dresses that transform them into the most stunning creatures on the planet, but they wear the garments only once, stashing them in the attic or eventually giving them to thrift stores.

Tonight is your chance to celebrate Valentine's Day like it was your own wedding -- whether you're married or not -- at the The Eternity Ball. You won't have to match a color scheme worthy of a Reno Wal-Mart, and you'll be helping the Greater Bay Area Make-a-Wish Foundation.

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Simon Sheppard hates love -- at least tonight.

​All you coupled people probably made Valentine's Day plans about three months ago. So have fun tonight with your romantic dinners, your soft music, and your gift exchanges, okay? Now. You single types. Maybe you've scheduled some little act of protest, like making yourself a nice dinner to celebrate your alone-hood, or wandering into your junky little neighborhood bar to get hammered with strangers. Instead, revel in your rebellion: Go hear a bunch of ribald and really funny writers and artists shoot VD through the head at My Sucky Valentine.

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SheriW / Flickr

You can do better!

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As Valentine's Day creeps nearer, do the heart-shaped candy boxes in the drugstore speak to you? Sure they do. They say things like "last minute" and "cheap bastard." How about the TV ads for high-end (and also heart-shaped) jewelry? Yep. They say "overdoing it" and "payment plan" (not to mention "gaudy"). And Etsy? You bet: "Heart drawn in red Sharpie on soda-can fragment." Go ahead, admit it. You want to do something for your sweetie, but something genuine, not contrived or thoughtless.

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