Somebody Has A Case Of The Mondays

Yep, it's gonna be one of those days. The day hasn't even begun, but I have little hope that it will turn out better that it started. The day started with my official monthly household job, bill paying. In the age of Internet bill paying, this is a task easily completed although I downplay that fact it ensure that I am properly appreciated for the task. This morning however, it was a painful reminder of how lax we've been with spending lately. I've been a champ at not buying new supplies or extraneous etsy shopping, but every time we see a new widget for the kids we buy it without a second thought.

We went to see Wall-E this weekend, wonderful film, then we proceeded to buy all the merchandise we could find. You could bury the children in the amount of toys they now own, seriously it's like the big baby in Spirited Away. I know we spend too much and yet I we continue to do it. We try to save money on ridiculous stuff like not buying bottled water or sodas, but we don't seem to have a problem with spending an insane amount on toys. Oh well, I got the morning bills reality check and hopefully we'll stay on track now.

On an etsy note, I reached one of my three goals over the weekend. I have now exceeded 1500 hearts. I have just two more sales until I reach 300 and four more feedback need to be left before I reach 400. These are just mind boggling numbers to me, it seems like just yesterday I was excited about 100 hearts and 10 sales. I was also flabergasted at the number of treasuries my pieces appeared in over the weekend. I was in a total of 6 of them and 5 were in the main treasury. I'm still in four this morning, of course that does not undo my Monday blah, but it helps a little. It seems I might be getting a little more notice lately. Here's hoping that all these trends continue!

Happy Birthday Ubence!

I did it for the kids, so I guess I should do it for my husband. After all it was his overwhelming desire to never hear the phrase, "Today on etsy..." ever again that inspired me to go ahead and start this little blog. Of course it hasn't worked out exactly as envisioned, I'm still online far more than he would like and I still feel the need to share the many dramas I encounter with him. I don't think I could go back now though, I've got far too much to say even if there are only a couple of people reading it.

Just a couple of pieces of news I'd like to share. I'm only a few sales away from 300, a few hearts away from 1500 and a few feedbacks away from 400, so woo-hoo. I'll be sure to throw a little virtual party when I reach these goals. I've gotten 17 participants in the Tatting Challenge and a few entries have already been posted, you can check them out in the flickr group and on etsy. It's not too late to join in as I still have a few medallions waiting patiently to be used. So now, I shall spend the day with the family and make every effort to stay off the computer. We shall go see Wall-E and enjoy his birthday.

Nice People Exsist

I'm feeling a little remorseful for yesterdays post. I don't take any of it back mind you, but I think I failed to point out the good points of online social networks. While I stand by my assertion that there are too many of them and that they are generally wastes of your time, they work well for some people and more importantly, you can meet good people and form valuable friendships. I've been lucky that in my short time of internet socialization I have been the recipient of some wonderful surprises and acts of kindness from relative strangers and I'd lke to recount a few of those stories for you.

I've never been what you would call popular, familiar maybe, but never popular, so when I announced my birthday and recent pregnancy in the forums almost two years ago, I was surprised by the outpouring of well wishes from etsians. One gesture was particularly amazing. Luca of lollibomb asked if it would be okay with me if she could send me a gift. She sent me a jar of her wonderful body frosting and made my day and of course earned a lifelong customer.

Later that year ficklefaerie organized the first Etsy Baby Showers. It was an amazing display of goodwill organized entirely in the forums where sellers were randomly hooked up with expectant mothers and sent them a shower gift. I recieved five gifts from people all over the country that I've never met and since this was my second baby they were the only gifts I received. I can't possibly forget the kindness of all the people who participate in these event.

I've also met several other artisans through the forums and other sites that I eventually collaborated with to create amazing pieces that I never would have even thought of. I'm not going to list them, because I'm afraid I'll miss some and feel guilty again. These collaborations have proved invaluable to my personal artistic growth and I would have never done them had I not socialized at least a little.

Most recently, and the inspiration for this piece, is a gift I just received from Zygote of FetishGhost and RedGateCeramics. Along with another new friend Sarah from Industrialfairytale he conspired to send me a surprise present of one of his amazing ceramic cups. I did nothing to deserve this lovely gift and yet here it is. So as much as I dislike networking for the sole purpose of self promotion, I am so glad to have met these wonderful people and I would not trade these experiences for anything. I hope that karma rewards these kind acts and people with much joy.

I'm Just Not That Social

I've been online for a long time, not as long as some, but still a long time. I remember when AOL was the place to be, I ventured into my first chat room. It didn't take me long to realize that this world was not for me. The chaos of dozens of people trying to talk over each other just made my head hurt. So I used the Internet for other things, knowledge and entertainment and I was happy.

Cut to more than a decade later and I run across Etsy and soon after the forums. I liked the structure and more importantly I had something fundamental in common with the users. I was quickly addicted to this newly discovered social club. Then it started, the many suggestions for networking and advertising. I started with a MySpace page and it was fun for a while, then there was Indiepublic, then Street Team forums, Flickr and the sites just kept coming. In the last week alone I've received half a dozen invitations to join various social networking sites.

Enough already! If I wanted to be this social I would actually leave my house. What's worse is most of these sites are set up just for you to pimp your wares and that gets old real fast. I mean, would you go out to dinner and then visit every table in the restaurant doing product demonstrations and handing out business cards? If you said yes to that question, I think you may have a problem. I know that exposure is the key to getting your name well known and that's the basis for most advertising, but this is getting seriously ridiculous.

I'm very picky about who I hang out with and who I call friends in real life, so why wouldn't I carry that over into the online world. Why should I join dozens of sites and spend my precious time talking to random people just to make a sale when I could spend that time with, Oh, I don't know...my kids. I've found some wonderful people on etsy and in a few other choice places and I think that I would actually spend time with them if they lived near me and I've learned things from people I never would have met otherwise. All social networking isn't a bad thing, but I think we are encouraging each other to do far too much of it for all the wrong reasons.

I think that I have reached my limit for online socializing for now. Maybe in the future I'll find a group or two that fulfill a special need or niche, but until then I'm done. So, if you wouldn't mind, no more "you should join us here" or "this is a great place to...", I'm just not that social.

Huzzah

Yeah, that's right, I said huzzah. It's over now, let's move on. You might have noticed that there is a new link at the top of the 'Where I'm featured now' list. I was fortunate to do an interview for a lovely fellow who writes a Steam Punk blog. He's a wonderful writer and the the pieces are a great mix of topics. Okay that's the end of the plug. The reason I mention this is, he asked about my Lady Loves Absinthe necklace. It's the one I created for the Spring Beading Challenge. Unlike most of my pieces, it was anything but simple. It's over the top and extremely dramatic. I assumed it would sit in my store forever as an art piece that everyone likes to look at, but would never even imagine wearing it. I think you probably know where I'm going with this, but just in case, you haven't already figured it out, I sold it!

While I'm extraordinarily happy about the sale, it's a bittersweet moment. Each time I sell a one of a kind piece, it's kind of like saying goodbye to a child. Okay, that's a bad metaphor, but you get what I'm saying. A lot of my pieces can be recreated with little effort and I have no problem sending them on their way, but there will never be another Lady Loves Absinthe. I don't think I could make this piece again, even if I tried. The sale has also given me a kick in the butt to create another 'art' piece. I've gotten used to having at least one around, so I'll be mulling over ideas for the next few days. Please feel free to share any ideas you have as I create best when challenged outside my comfort zone.