Okay so I'm still unsure of what direction I want my blog to go in. I was discussing my blog with Reggie from MyCraftCorner and she posed a very thought provoking question. What do I hope to accomplish with my blog? Basically, what is the point of it?

*Snort* What IS the point of it? What do I want it to do? What is it currently doing for me?

I guess I've been thinking a LOT about this lately because I finally watched Julie and Julia (although I have to watch it again, because I watched it with my mother-in-law and we ended up talking through most of it about Christmas plans!) But after watching it, I got kinda down. Julie's blog was followed, read, and loved. That's exactly what I want from my own.

I've always wanted to be a writer (I've always wanted to be a lot of things!) but in highschool, I was always told by my teachers I'd never go anywhere, because I write the way I talk. In my creative writing course, I'd get bad marks not because of spelling or grammar or subject, but because they personally didn't like my "style". So I pretty much gave up those dreams, and pursued other venues that I really deep down didn't want to do! (HA! Alliteration! I learned *something*!)


And then I see authors like Jen Lancaster (Who I have such an incredible girl crush on), love her books to pieces and low and behold! *GASP* what is this?! She writes the way she talks?! AND she's a successful author!? Makes me wanna go back to highschool and bitch slap a few people LOL. But then again, it was MY choice to listen to them. So if I'm gonna do some bitch slapping, it's gotta be to myself.

I never actually wanted to have a blog, as I've probably mentioned the only reason I started one in the first place was to keep my folks updated to the "goings on" whilst they lived overseas. (Of course I wouldn't mention when we wrecked something in their house... HA! I'm kidding Dad, really!) And I wasn't a regular writer. When I was younger (and by younger I mean in my 20's. *sigh*) writing was such a release for me, anytime that I was upset, I would write, and I'd instantly feel better. I wrote on Live Journal and Blather. And I won't be posting links to those, because it got *really* personal! lol. But I loved it. And I still love it. And this blog has gotten me back on track with wanting so desperately to write that book I always dreamed about. But who wants to read about my life?


I think I've had an interesting life. Not exciting by any means, but I've been through a lot of tough times, and have gotten through them. I'm still standing! But I'm still struggling, as with so many others out there. So really, what would make my story different from anyone else's?

But okay I've already gotten off topic! (Now there's a surprise! Pffft!) Back to ze blog!



1. Promoting my business
2. Helping others
3. Giving people a laugh

Am I accomplishing that? That's what I'm unsure of, and that's what I'm currently trying to figure out. How should I use it to promote, how am I helping others, and how do I make it enjoyable all at the same time?


You may notice my blog going all over the freakin' place in the next few weeks. Some aspects I've been doing have just not been working, and other aspects I haven't been working hard enough on! Maybe a new look will help to start things off.

So my lovelies, what do YOU hope to accomplish with your blog? And, are you doing it?

Have a great Wednesday! (I'm confident I have the right day this time!)

 ... that shouldn't be the question...

Good morning everyone! Okay, I'm already confused as to what day this is. I saw a blog post today that had "Wednesday" in the title, and I'm like "IT'S WEDNESDAY?!" If it is, I totally missed an entire day.

Another quick one (well, quick to my standards that is!)

Still working feverishly on quite a lot of projects I have on the go. But I wanted to touch on a subject. Okay it's a rant. And it's about the forums. Now, I haven't been participating much in the forums because of what happened a few times, and I never commented on this one. But I still wanted to put in my dirty 2 cents.

Yesterday someone started a thread that was basically saying that if you have spelling mistakes in your descriptions and announcement, they wouldn't buy from that seller.

First off, bad spelling doesn't necessarily mean bad product. You don't need to spell to draw, or cut things out or glue things together. If it's a mistake here and there, ya it annoys me that they didn't triple check it, but I'm not going to disregard a seller for poor grammar.

On the other hand, I'm a stickler for attention to detail. And if someone's not putting much thought into checking their errors, how much thought are they putting into their product to ensure quality?

It's a fine line my friends!

I did say in a previous post that if English isn't your first language, then you should have someone check over your announcements and descriptions. I'm only saying this because the English  language is backwards to all the other languages, and sometimes in translation, it just doesn't work. For a short little example, while English speaking peeps would say "The Red House", the Frenchies would say "La Maison Rouge". We're the backwards ones, not them. Because every language says it that way, and English is the only one that reverses it. Plus, we have words that are the same pronunciation and have one letter different, but have completely different meanings. We have silent letters, letters that are "hard" but then are "soft" if a different letter is placed beside it. G's become F's, C's become S's, I's have rules of where they should freakin' go (which, by the way, is a stupid rule because it's SO not true in every case!). So do I understand that there are a lot of grammatically incorrect descriptions out there? Of course! If English wasn't my first language, I woulda told it to screw off long ago!

BUT, it doesn't hurt asking a fellow seller/buyer to double check your shop for errors, correct? Or just a friend or fam, or anyone, just to make sure it all makes sense. Although things would be a bit easier if Etsy had a spell and grammar check like in Word! lol.

So my lovelies, what are your views on spelling and grammar? Would you disregard a seller for spelling? Is there a fine line for you?

Have an incredible Tuesday everyone! ... It is Tuesday, right??

Yes, people SHOULD really think before posting in the forums. Okay, so I've probably been guilty of it too - thinking that what I was writing couldn't be turned on me, but it's happened anyways. But there's no way in hell I'm STARTING a thread with something that obviously is going to get some retaliation.

I also can't believe people think they can back peddle after they've said what they've said. For example... Now, this thread is closed for good reason, but it makes for a really good read!

PETITION to remove highly offensive religious items - Christians please help!

Okay so I realize that there are a lot of Christians on Etsy. That's obvious. I myself am Catholic, but I have a sense of humour about Catholicism. Do some listings offend me? Well, no, they don't. Do they repulse me a little? Yup. Would I ever buy those items? Of course not. I find humour in every aspect of my life, religion included. This particular thread dealt with a tshirt (which has now been sold!) and y'know what, I can kinda see the witty humour in it, but at the same time it's a little far, even for my tastes. Do I make fun of my religion? Yes, definitely - for example, Do you hear what I hear? And by the way, I had a TON of card ideas for other Catholic Christmas songs, but never got a chance to finish the designing (But don't worry kids, next year I'm going to have SO many more choices!! Hee hee!)

I believe there are certain subjects that shouldn't really be made fun of (i.e. abortion, rape, etcetera, etcetera) but there are others who find the humour in it, so go ahead and list it. I have the choice of not buying it, right? Exactly.


Basically, the first post by this person, went like this:

While Christmas shopping yesterday, looking for gifts related to "Christ" I came across this disgusting, and offensive imagery on Etsy. It brought me to tears to think that such an item would be permitted to be sold here.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33711490 
I believe that no matter what religion you are, you should be entitled to browse Etsy without having to view such perverse and disgusting merchandise. This item is highly offensive to devout Christians. I don't believe any religion should have to tolerate such sacrilege. 
Please band together in the hope that Etsy can be a place of respect and tolerance for all religious beliefs, and put an end to such offensive items being advertised here.

Right. So, the first few posts were all "Oh my gosh, that is disgusting and should be taken down, I reported it!" but then the others started flocking, like myself. Posts like "well how about you just don't LOOK at it?!" and "God is bigger than a t-shirt!" One thing I agreed with, was yes, the first picture should have been replaced with a "Mature audiences only" because my main thing is, there could be kids looking on this site. I don't care about the Christians seeing it, they're adults are they not? They can choose not to look at it. But my issues were, kids could see it.  So yes, I agreed that the first picture be replaced. But do I agree with censorship? GOD NO!

If everyone was allowed to report everything that they deemed as "offensive", Etsy would be empty. Maybe I'm offended by Christian items. Should I flag all those?! Like I noted, there are certain books I'm not interested in reading because of the content, but do I burn it? No. I just don't read it. I have a choice. Just like everyone else. Just because you don't agree with someone's sense of humour, tastes, or moral values, doesn't mean you're right.

There were other comments like "I'm sick and tired of being seen as intolerant just because I'm Christian!" Well, where do you think that stereotype came from in the first place? Because of things like this! Because you can't handle anyone making fun of your religion, or saying bad things about your religion, so you sit up on your pedestal and call all your other Christian people to band together and fight! Most wars are caused by religion. There's a reason for that. The Church TEACHES you that they are the only religion. That your religion is the RIGHT religion, and anyone worshiping another God will pretty much burn in hell. No WONDER so many Christians/Catholics are intolerant. Intolerance is beaten into them since baptism.


The funniest part of this whole thread, is when the OP basically states that she didn't bring religion into this, that it's solely about how offensive it is. Seriously? Did you not notice the TITLE of the forum you decided to post? If that's not bringing religion into it, then you need to tie me down and spit on my face, because I'm obviously not getting it.

Then of course, people started bashing eachother. (Well I'm never clicking on your shop, because your avatar offends me! - WHAT?!) Typical religious argument if you ask me. I loved one persons post of "No one should take the Lord's name in vain!" Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize he was everyone's Lord. Whoops. Maybe I was a little harsh when I responded: He's not everyones Lord! Maybe my Lord is Ronald McDonald! And I'll get all up in your ass if you use his name in vain!



I don't understand people, really I don't. And no, I'm not trying to offend any of you church goers out there. I love you all. But I think what the world needs is a lot more tolerance. A lot more "Thinking outside of the box". And one heck of a lot more understanding. There wouldn't be half as many arguments if everyone just sat back, took a deep breath, and let it go. Yes, there are people out there who don't share your beliefs. There are people out there that don't share your moral values. But who are you to control what people believe? What makes you better than anyone else? No one religion is better than the other. All that matters is, we believe in something. We believe in something that makes us a better person. And if every single one of us were the exact same, the world would be a pretty boring place, would it not?

So stop judging others, and concern yourself with YOU. Who cares what everyone else is doing, or listing, or making. If they're blatantly breaking the precious "Etsy Rules", fine, tag it, whatever you want to do. But don't think that just because you don't agree, you have a RIGHT to get shops closed down.

Unbelievable! Ya, so I have this list on excel of "People who I'll never buy from".. Anyone else have one of those? A lot of names from that thread went on that list :) Anyone who I personally find intolerant, rude, judgmental, and blatant rule breaking - like spamming the forums. The people who run in to my freakin' thread with all "Oh I'm having a sale this is it and here are all my listings!" Gee thanks. Don't respond to anything I'm writing, just post your own sales. Aren't you lovely. Based on the words from onna my fave tv show characters, "NO KAT FOR YOU!" Ya that's right. Not gonna get my business honey.


It's also funny how people tend to forget that everything you write in the forums is on the internet. Hmm.. Really? Why in the world would things I write in the forums show up on the INTERNET!? Gee, I dunno, maybe because the forums are kinda ON the internet?? People freak out! All these posts of "What?! Potential buyers can see that I just wrote about my lewd sex life in Etc?!?!?!" Idiots!

Another thing that makes me laugh? All the "Oh pity me, I'm not getting any sales" threads. One person even wrote "Can someone promote for me because people aren't seeing my shop". Hmm, okay, let me take time away from my own shops and do all your work for you. People who think they're going to open a shop and sell out without doing any leg work? Really need a reality check. I get SO angry when I read posts of these sob stories that start with "I've been on etsy for 2 weeks and haven't even made a sale!" Excuse me? 2 WEEKS!? Did you think you were magical!? Your products would be viewed before everyone elses and they're so magnificent that you'd sell out in the first week?! C'MON!! You want some tips on what you need to do? (and YES I realize I'm not a big seller, shut up!)

1. Have more items in your shop then just 8.
2. Don't have a shop announcement like this "Thanks for loking you live my stuff i don't wear it brand knew I love things that are new buy my stuf beter theen other peepoles"
 (Please please please if you're not familiar with either a) the english language, or b) spelling, have someone check over your listings for you.)
3. Have some information filled out! If you don't say a damn thing about your shipping policies or return policies, I'm never going to click on the "add to cart"
4. Get some freakin' feedback! Yes, YOU HAVE TO BUY SOMETHING to get feedback. Buy a bunch of little things here and there, let people know you're trustworthy by having feedback. (speaking of which, off to purchase something using my second shop... do dee do dee dooo..)
5. The description of the item, should actually DESCRIBE the item. Have your basic boring old "size, colour, blah blah blah" then go into a fun and memorable description. But please God, it's *really* not cute when you write 4 paragraphs about how your cat accidentally got out while you were listing this item, and about how you tried to catch him for 20 minutes and then after your huge spiel about your freakin cat say "anyways, what I was saying was, this item.." That's not funny. That's a freakin' waste of my time! Not to mention annoying.
6. Don't have the first picture that is a) not even close to the item for sale, or b) a picture you ripped out from a magazine (and then in the listing say "I'll make this exactly!" sure you will. Denise's designer shirt she made for Theo will show up at your door)
7. Speaking of pictures, if you can see that it's blurry, so can we! Not expecting professional photography here, but I'd like to be able to make out what it is.
8. Do some flippin' research. Read through the do's and don'ts, attend a virtual lab, read the forums (and please God search a freakin' topic before you post it for the 287th time!) Check out sites that help you with things like tagging, and what's getting viewed the most, like Craftweasel, Craftcult, Craftopolis and Etsy Tag Fractal.
9. Join a team! Make friends! I finally got onto a team - EtsyBloggers! I was so excited. Teams are a great way to get feedback on your items and shop, moral support when you're feeling disheartened, and just there for you in general. If you're not on a team, then make friends! Find people who post in the forums often with advice and who have been doing this a lot longer than you. Most people on etsy love helping out others, and your fellow sellers are the best at giving advice. Especially when it's on a topic you can't post in the forums i.e. specific transactions.
10. Don't get so concerned about what OTHERS are doing or selling. I fell into this trap when I first opened my shop (before I listed). I wanted to see what kinds of things sold on Etsy, so I was having a look around. I couldn't believe all the things that were selling! Really, photoshopping a picture to give you "Bella" twilight eyes?! Putting a sticker on a magnet? And people were buying this? But then my hubby reminded me of something. Was I mad because they're selling crap, or was I mad because they were SELLING? Concentrate on your product, and congratulate those that are selling theirs. Don't compare your shop or items with others, because you'll drive yourself crazy.
11. Promotion is the key. Don't sit on your ass and whine when you haven't done a damn thing to get your name out there. Again, you're not magical! Join up with some of these sites!
Blogger
Facebook
Twitter
My Craft Corner
CraftJuice
Find it Handmade
Craftgawker
Byhand.me
Yaami
Craftstylish
Vote Hand made

Search for all sites that allows you to enter your etsy site, and list away! Most are very easy to use, and have gotten lots of views! (oh look, I rhyme!) For a downlow on which sites I've used and liked, check out this Blog Post. But really, I'm no expert (so yes, you don't have to point out that I've only had 8 sales, thank you very much!) But atleast I'm doing all of these things. And it's starting to work! The person I run to for any advice is JewelryByTara, and thanks to her, a lot of my problems have been rectified, and I've learned so much about promoting. She just recently posted a blog about her Etsy Guide to selling, and you ALL need to check it out.

Oh, and one more thing. Stop blaming Etsy for you not being an instant success, for you not getting views, or for you no longer getting lots of sales. You are fully responsible for how well or poorly your shop does. So stop bitching already and do something about it :) And don't forget, advertising locally helps your business too y'know! Just remember, it could take a year or more for your shop and product to get out there. While I would love to be one of those people whose products took off, I'm not planning on it. What I am planning for, is next year. Everything I'm doing right now, is researching and learning what works for me, and what doesn't.
And yes, we ALL get down every now and again (I just finally got outta onna those weeks), but the best thing to do, is take a break! Get yourself away from your crafts and the computer for a day or two if you can. Then when you've calmed down a bit, look at your shop and your crafts and re-evaluate everything. What's working, what's not, what haven't you tried? It'll do a world of wonder.

Alright, that's enough from me today. I have so much to do it's not even funny. Have a great Cyber Monday all you Etsy Peeps!

Okay so, apparently I can't get my point across well enough.

I was blasted in the forums recently by 2 people I don't care to name, because they took what I said all wrong. They judged me on my intentions, when all I wanted to say was "It would be nice, it's what I'd do, but that's me. And it's not necessary!" But then again, this is why I hate having heated discussions in places like forums, because sometimes what you write can be taken completely the wrong way. Hopefully it doesn't happen again with this blog!

I'm really hating the forums right now lol. And I really need to stay away from them.  I just want to rant, and to clarify for all my lovelies that I've featured so far. Maybe I wasn't clear enough in the forums, and don't in any way want to offend any of you that I've featured thus far. I was really tired last night when I wrote, so perhaps I just worded it wrong?? Maybe I said something I wasn't meaning to say?? So if any of you caught the forum, I really hope you weren't offended, because that wasn't my intention. And in my somewhat defense, if it did come off the wrong way, I've been *extremely* disheartened lately! Stupid little things are feeling like big things, I had a few REALLY rough days emotionally (and to think my emotional roller coaster was caused by taking my dog to see Santa!) and have wanted to just go out and get a real job so I can stop worrying about bills, how I'm going to afford Christmas presents, and just give up all together. Close up both shops, put all my crafts away, and continue living life being unhappy working for other people. So that's the way I've been feeling this past week especially. So if I did offend anyone, I didn't mean it, I promise, and I apologize profusely! I've been extremely down in the dumps. :) But, none of that is an excuse. I take full responsibility for anyone who was offended, and will deeply apologize.

So, why do I feature? Well, I started featuring because I was curious.

What makes you all tick? What inspires you? What crafts have you learned and loved, and what are your goals? Personally, I find a lot of inspiration in all of you. When I see the drive you have to do what you do, how much you've accomplished, how far you've come, it gives me hope, it gives me drive, it gives me confidence. Basically, I love to find out the person behind the craft. So I started with a feature, and loved it. Yes, it takes me a long time to do lol. Usually about 2 hours or so, sometimes longer depending on how many interruptions I have. I take tons of pics, often of my favourite things, from your etsy shops, and link them all to their listings, and now I've started making banners for each individual feature with a pic of your product with your shop names. I link all the promotional venues, I fan and follow each one you send, and I have a great time doing it.

Doing a feature really makes me look through your shops with a fine toothed comb, seeing things I may have missed otherwise. Doing a feature gives me insight on how much work you put into your craft, makes me appreciate what you do even more. I've even learned from all of you, met a lot of you through these features, became friends with some of you, and even opened my eyes to new possibilities.

Yes, my only stipulation is that you need to be a follower of my blog. And why is that? Because then I have a set number of people to choose from, can keep track of who I've chosen, and well, I think that's a pretty fair trade, no?

Is it great when a person I feature let's everyone know and helps direct traffic to my blog? Of course it is! Is it necessary? No, it's not. If what I wanted out of featuring all of you was more blog followers, first of all, I'd only ever feature people that have 200+ blog followers, been on etsy for a long time with hundreds of sales and I'd say "Now in order to feature you, I'm going to need you to promote it on twitter, facebook and write your own blog with a link back to mine!" Do I do that? Nope.

Yes, featuring people opens up the possibilities of getting more blog followers. Their followers could possibly become your followers. But what's the point of blog followers when they don't ever bother reading your blog? Okay, okay, okay, so I've promoted my blog in hopes of getting more followers, which could lead to readers, which in turn could bring me potential sales. So sue me. Isn't that what we all do?

What I had said in the forums, was it's sometimes disheartening when the person you've featured doesn't even acknowledge it. Yes, you've all thanked me when you've sent the questions back. A few of you even tweeted or blogged or facebooked that you've been featured by me. I thought that was great! The features are there to promote you, to show your work, not promote me, or show my work. So you telling people that I featured you, is first and foremost good for you. Yes, it could lead to followers of my blog,  which isn't a horrible thing! But my features are all about you.

I guess what I was trying to say was, it sometimes seems like it's not appreciated. Like some of you seem so excited to be featured, but once it's done, you don't respond. You don't make comments on your own feature, or you don't respond on facebook or twitter when I've told you your feature is done. I'm not in any way expecting anyone to throw a freakin' party here. But when I say "Hey! Your feature is ready! Check it out here and let me know what you think!" and get NO response to that what so ever? It hurts! I'll admit it! LOL. Most of you have done the "Thanks so much it looks great!" on twitter or facebook or via a comment on the blog. That's really all I want. Some sense that you've actually seen the feature, and appreciate that I've just spent hours on something just for you.

I don't expect anyone to promote their own feature, that's my job. I tweet it, facebook it, and whenever there's a "Show me what you blogged today!" post in the forums, I put it in. If someone out there that I've asked to feature *really* isn't all that excited about being featured? I won't be offended! lol. Just say, "No thanks! Your blog doesn't get much traffic anyways, so don't waste your time!" That statement would be true, really lol. Yes, I currently have over 100 followers, but how many of them read it? 2 comments on a blog post, and I'm dancing a jig! Cause then I know at least 2 people read it! I love comments and feedback! Good AND bad! So in doing a feature, I certainly in no way guarantee a gigantic response! But I love doing them.

What I said in the forums made someone comment that I have a skewed sense of promotion, and basically called my features "Spam". I was accused of only doing features for my own self promotion, and I was accused of being pissed at whoever I featured because they didn't scream it out to the world that I featured them. These two fellow etsians made me feel like complete shit, and okay, maybe it was deserved. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it at all. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut, because I knew full well that the real reason behind me feeling bad about not much response, is because of how I feel about my piss poor sales. And even though I littered my post with "I'm not mad at ANY of my features" and "it just would be nice! It makes me feel appreciated for the work I've just done" and "It's not necessary whatsoever! If it was, I would put that as a stipulation of doing a feature on them!" wasn't clear enough.

So features, I am sorry. If you're pissed at me, fine, I deserve it. If you find me as horrible of a person like these 2 people did, go ahead and un-follow my blog, I completely understand. I fucked up. I should have left it alone, and not felt sorry for myself, and shouldn't have mentioned that I sometimes feel unappreciated. What I'm feeling is no one else's problems but my own.

I will continue doing features, and I hope to God that none of my features from this day on think they need to promote me or my blog. You want to thank me after the feature is done, perfect! That's all I really want. Do I expect you to promote it, no, of course not. I never have, and I never will.

Alright, let the hate mail ensue :)

Good morning everyone!

Well, as per usual I took the weekend off from blogging. Getting ready for Christmas and all (since we're in the poor house I'm making as many gifts as I can) and since it's my first time making a few of these items, I've had to start over on a couple hehe. But that's why I love crochet! Easy to take apart, and since it doesn't take me that long to crochet, it's not so upsetting when I do have to take it apart.


I'd love to post pics of what I'm doing, but alas, then people will see what they're getting for Christmas! I will post them right after Christmas though, very exciting! One thing is giving me problems though. Has anyone ever used the invisible thread??? I thought it would be a good idea, but it's SO hard to work with! (Not on sewing machine... I really need to get supplies so I can sew soon, I have all these ideas for things to make, but alas, no fabric, no needles, no thread.. oy!)

In an update about the magazine article, it's been submitted and the magazine is at the printers! I should have a copy soon and I'm very excited about it. It's a new Canadian magazine for young girls, and they needed a crafting section. And it's actually called "Kat's Craft Corner"!! I'll post pics as soon as it's out. Again, very exciting!!

In other news, took Kermit to see Santa yesterday HA! Oh ya, hilarious. I'll post his Christmas pic one day, although he's going on our Christmas cards, and again, don't want to spoil the surprise yet :)


At the end of last week I was feverishly making cards to list, and I successfully did so. (Finally!!). I have one set up there that is completely customizable. It's the set of 7 - one of each of my cards. Now I realize that not everyone wants to send out a "Merry Kiss My Ass" or a "Let it Blow", so obviously you can choose whichever images you want. Plus, you can choose the main colours of the background paper (to be all green, all red, or a mix of a few colours, what have you) Since Christmas paper is currently in short supply, I can't guarentee that I can use the *exact* same paper for every card, but I can atleast do the same main colour. (But if you get your orders in quick, I can do it!) You also have a choice of white or ivory cardstock. If you want to *really* customize, I can do the red or green cardstock in a large size card, but that will be a little extra. As for quantity - you're not set at 7 :) You can do any quantity and I'll do a custom listing for you. The more you buy, the less you pay per card. Plus, in some of the card listings, I've done a stamp on the inside of the card saying "Merry Christmas". This can be added to your cards if you like as well (for a very small fee.)


And as a friendly reminder, if you previously entered my card giveaway, and didn't win (or if you did win and wanted more - don't want to exclude you MiMi's Babies!!) you get 10% off of your card order. AND if you're a facebook fan, you automatically get 10% off anything from either of my shops. SO... If you're a facebook fan, AND didn't win my giveaway, you get 20% off your card order!! How great is that?!

Man, I should just be waking up right now lol. Hubby hadda work at 4am today, so it was outta bed before 3am. Good times kids, good times. Although I'm surprisingly awake right now.


My question is... I've gotten a couple of orders for my cards back in October and beginning of November. But now that it's getting closer to December, should I put a date on the announcement when cards should be ordered by? I want my customers to be able to have time to mail them out, but with shipping being kinda slow into the states, I'm worried that people won't order them in time. So, do I put a date of when they should be ordered by? I don't want to "Guarentee" anything - shipping's not reliable enough for that and I don't want to get burned. But I don't want to automatically raise the price of shipping to cover express post, because that's really expensive! Should I just leave that up to the customer, and let them figure it out? lol. As a seller of Christmas cards, or even a buyer of Christmas cards, what would you suggest??? I don't want to sound "pushy" in my announcement, but then again, I don't wanna get bad feedback from those non-understanding buyers who think it's up to ME to get them their cards in time, y'know??

Okay, off I go. Gonna see if anyone answered me yet in the forums *snort*. Ya right!

Have a great day everyone!

So I finally found some time to check out the EtsyBloggers site and read through the requirements for being part of this amazing team! This morning I wrote a little "Introduction" for myself on the Newbie thread, then I was off to find out what it meant by "Blog Carnival"! Every Month, you're required to submit to the "Roll Call", and provide the links for your blog posts for "Blog Carnival" and "Blog Feature". The "Blog Feature" was pretty straight forward, as you write a feature on the chosen EtsyBlogger team member. But my, was I confused as to what a "Blog Carnival" was!

Twice a month, a member of the EtsyBloggers team hosts a "Blog Carnival", where they post 2 questions, and you're required to blog about one of those questions. You're able to participate twice a month, but only once a month is mandatory. Once you've written the blog post on the topic of your choice, you submit it to the "Blog Carnival", and you'll find a list on the hosts blog with everyone's posts who participated! And it's a good thing I decided to read up on this today as opposed to the end of the week as I had originally planned, because the last day for submission for the Blog Carnival is on the 20th! hehe.

So now I have an excuse to Blog more often.. Not that I don't want to on a regular basis, but I either can't think of anything worthwhile to say (but who knows, maybe what I already blog about isn't worthwhile to any of my readers!) or I get too busy to write it if I'm planning on having a really involved post. (For example, my how-to's which I have yet to do a real one!) You'll soon start to see more posts regarding the EtsyBloggers, so I hope no one minds :)
 In other news, I got stuck in my coat this morning.


I do have a question though for any fellow blogspotters out there. I recently made the switch to the new 'edit program' which, I have to say, LOVE, especially where links and pictures are concerned. Instead of downloading a few pictures at a time and having them all show up in the blog at once, it downloads them all in a separate pop up box, and you can add them one at a time to where ever you want them to be right off the bat. Then you just click on the picture link again, and it brings up the box again for you to choose which one's next. So much better! And where links are concerned, you click on a word or pic or whatever you're linking, a box pops up and you type in or copy in the link, and it lets you check it right there to make sure it works! Wonderful wonderful!! Because before when I was doing features on followers, it would take me sooo long to first off, put in all the pics (especially if I accidentally deleted one and had to download it all over again), but then I had to publish the post, and click on all the pics and links to make sure they were linking! Since I do these features at like, 5am, I'm sometimes not "all there" and link the wrong thing, or miss an important part like oh.. the 'http://' that's kind of important. But now, I know it all works before its published!!

Problem is... where the crap is my spell check!??! I don't normally have *too* many mistakes, but DAMN, sometimes I do. But there's no spell check.Why is there no spell check?! Am I missing something? Am I stupid? OR am I so amazingly smart I no longer need it? Well, truth be told, the latter is obviously not the answer. So now, every time I write a post, I need to copy and paste it into a word document to check the spelling. One thing that I cannot stand in blogs is spelling mistakes lol. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. Well, with the exceptions of words I make up that is.. onna, coulda, hafta, hobitty bop bop bop, eceteraaaa eceteraaa. Yes. I type like I speak. (So it's a good thing I no longer have that speech impediment, because then you'd be reading things like "oh this new edit pwogwam? I just WOOVE it!")

Last night I finished all the cards for my giveaway which ended on the 15th, and won by MiMi'sBabies! So I'll be shipping those out today, plus putting the lawn care bill in the mail that we just got because it ended up at the house down the street again - okay, so, if you were the replacement mailperson for the regular guy on this route, and there's one house that you've never had to walk up to and give mail to for an entire week, wouldn't you stop to think that maybe, just maybe you should double check that they actually do have mail, but you've been putting it in the wrong mailbox because you've failed to notice the difference between "5383" and "5483"???? Poor 70 year old man hasta walk down the street to deliver all our mail for crying out loud. And it's happened more than once in the past 2 months! Try 7 times! Including an express post package! Seriously!!!!

Okay I should stop now. But my main goal for that last paragraph was to state that once I finished all the cards for MiMi'sBabies, I made a whole crap load more which I'll be photographing and listing today! Yeah me!

Have a great day everyone! Off to copy and paste into word yet again. Oh, and if by chance you do the same thing, try not to put in all the pics and link everything BEFORE you copy it into word, or else your computer might fa-REAK-out like mine does and freeze for 20 minutes. Oh, and if this does happen, just press ESC. It's nice that I finally figured that out after accidentally doing it 13 times, and having my computer freeze for 20 mins 13 times. ESC is your friend. ALT CTRL DEL is an even better friend.

Signing off for now! (but you know I'll be back to rant some more.. I'm probably going to peek into the forums later today. Why I torture myself I don't know...)

I am so excited, I'm finally on a team! I've been looking for some teams to sign up with, since I've heard only good things about them. I really didn't know exactly what a "team" did, but I thought, what the hey! I'll give it a try. Well, about ooooh, 5 months ago? I wrote to a few teams asking for info, and how to sign up. Never heard a response. So I was sad. Fellow etsians informed me that sometimes teams are run by only one person, and that person gets busy and it takes a long time for them to respond. Also I've been told that not all teams are accepting new members. Well then! So I forgot about the whole "team" idea, and moved on.

Then one day, I saw in a thread on the forums that someone was talking about the Etsy Bloggers team, and I thought, ooooooo I'd love to be on that team!! Well, I applied, and I was approved!! I'm still trying to figure out all the ins and outs and what's required of me, but I'll do all that this week, and of course I'll BLOG about it! My first order of business is a feature on a fellow Etsy Blogger.. so I'll be doing that later on today!!

Yeah me!



Anyhoo, in other news... FaerieMoonCreations is having a November Chill Giveaway!! Head on over to her blog FaerieMoonCreations.blogspot.com to find out all the contest details! I met Theresa from Faerie Moon on my favourite ever in the world promotional website My Craft Corner. Like I've said, this site has a great and friendly community, and Theresa was one of the first fellow artisans that I met there. (You'll actually be reading all about her this coming Friday, as she's going to be my feature!!)

In even more news, I finished another card last night! Finally! Yeesh. Most of my cards are just of the main people, no backgrounds and such (with some exceptions) *but* this one required full detail and full colour. Oy. And plus I was working on Christmas presents (which I can't talk about because certain people like my Mom read my blog, so she'll find out and the surprise would be ruined I say!)



Due to technical difficulties last night (firstly my puppy barked so loud and out of the blue that I almost ruined the entire card as I was finishing up the inking, so mad! Secondly, my computer Fa-Reaked-Out and I had to restart the whole dang thing, then my printing program kept cutting off 1/3 of the drawing, so I had to resize it until the computer agreed with the size, and then my printer ran out of coloured ink halfway through the printing.) I wasn't able to actually make the cards last night. So instead, I'll just post the final pic, which is to be printed once I get new ink (There goes another $40 dollars I don't have! HA!)


Okay, more other news... This just down right pissed me off. So last night, there was a thread about business cards, and whether people put them in with their packages when they ship them to the customers. And also asking the question whether the people that receive these business cards actually kept them. So the general consensus was that most people will put atleast one in the package, and there were some buyers responding saying they love getting business cards, or they don't find it necessary. Well, I decided to throw in my 2 cents and said something along the lines of "I always put a business card in with the package. I make my own cards and they're slightly larger than the standard size, so I always use them to write a little note and a huge thank you on the back" So then what does someone write? (and I won't divulge names. And I'll also say at this time, that I have nothing against this person, the comment just *really* pissed me off LOL) She writes "I like getting business cards, nice ones, with texture and thick paper, they tend to stay with me longer. The home made ones... mmm bye bye!!!" Ya.. I responded to that one.



Normally I stay out of the forums and don't respond to anyone outright putting down what I say, or making off handed remarks, because this is supposed to be a business forum for business people, and everything that you write can be seen by *everyone*, even potential customers. So I normally just let it go.

The reason I got so mad at the comment? She has no clue WHY I make my own business cards. She doesn't know my current situation. She doesn't know how much money I have. She knows absolutely nothing about me. I can't afford to buy business cards. But does that mean I have to be put down for it? Isn't handmade better than none? (Funnily enough, we're talking about a site that sells *handmade*, yet handmade business cards are seen as garbage. Hmm.)

Okay yes, I could get the "free" ones from Zippy Print, but waiting 23 days for them to process my cards, and then spending 26$ on the shipping when they're located down the street? That's not very free to me. Plus I've had too many bad experiences with Zippy print, and vowed to never go back there!



Yes, I could probably find some sort of money lying around in the couch cushions to go to a print shop and get really cheap ones that I can't design for $25, but personally, I think that's even worse then making my own. And ya, I suppose I can skip on buying food for a week to run out and get those fancy textured embossed magical eye catching absolutely most amazing business cards EVER, but I'm moving in a year. I know I'm moving in a year. So why am I spending money on all these business cards to hand them out like crazy when I'm going to have to change the phone number? And yes, I don't *have* to put a phone number on it, but I'd prefer it, because I'm also trying to sell locally.

So okay, that chick really peeved me. But I've vented!! So I'm done now! Off to get on with my day. Way too many things to do lol.

Hope everyone else is having a fantastic day!! You'll hear from me again soon, because I hafta do my Etsy Blogger Feature! Again, Yeah me!