Etsy Day

I don't visit the Etsy forums much anymore for a host of reasons I won't go into right now, but I do occasionally pop by. Recently I caught wind of "Etsy Day" a community inspired guerrilla style advertising event. A date was chosen, April 24th and people were asked to get the word out about Etsy in the real world. I dismissed it because quite frankly, I spend very little time out in the real world right now. Sad? Maybe, but it makes any of my efforts quite useless I'm afraid. Everyone I know already knows about Etsy through my three year long association with them.

What I decided I could do this morning was recall my Etsy story, though I imagine that if you're ready my blog you already know Etsy well enough too. It all started over three years ago...

I was always a crafty lass, knitting, crochet, art, whatever. When the store I worked at for 8 years closed it's doors and I was 7 months pregnant, I became the proud owner of lots of spare time. I used that time to, well watch a lot of television and learned a new craft, tatting. When my baby was born, I put down the tatting and didn't pick it up again for nearly two years. When I did turned out to be very fortuitous timing as I was just about to discover Etsy. On a G4 program called Attack of the Show, they showcased the Alchemy function of Etsy and I decided that it would be a good way to earn a little extra money, since I had chosen not to find a new job.

So I made of bunch of bracelets and bookmarks and I knitted up some teddy bears and I started listing. The very first day, I made a sale and I was forever hooked. It took me another month to discover the forums and over the course of the last three years I have learned more about the Internet than I had in the previous decade. I was forced to learn how to do so many things to maintain and support my new "hobby". I followed Etsians to many different sites and it was trough this experience that I began to blog in the first place.

It hasn't always been a walk in the park. I've seen Etsy through many changes and struggles. I've seen horrible forum behaviour as well as amazing acts of community. Do I think Etsy is perfect? No, but I've never had a need to complain. They provide me exactly what I need to build upon. The rest has always been up to me. So if by chance you've not shopped at Etsy, or you have a secret talent you should be selling, stop by, it might change your life a bit too.