Life on Mars - Supporting my Friends

Life as usual is crazy here. Luna is growing. She's a wee kid now (well actually she's a giant baby). Poppy is fighting with her kids school, because like us, her kids are not "normal". Who'd have thought. They're also giving her a hard time about Dink's absence because of his eye injury. 

Nearly a month after the injury they ask for a medical excuse, now that he's not seeing the Dr. They could have asked the first day. His teacher yelled at him for not getting his mountains of homework finished when he was out. Uh, he couldn't see for the first week. They didn't give him the time he should be allowed to complete it. And they act like Poppy is lying about is injury. Like we want him home for 3 weeks straight. lol! Maybe they thought we beat him. 

The young man next door, who was in a coma a week ago came home and is just the same as he was before. Amazing. My son is getting tests at Mayo Clinic today and tomorrow and they will decide soon, I hope, how they will treat him. Our Cat's eye virus spread to the other eye and another cat. I'm spending my days medicating cats. And they hate me. Life is good. 

I've also wrapped up my Four Months Blog I have one more post. But because my intention was to share what I did to increase business, and I didn't complete all my goals. I will post once a week until my goals are finished. So I'm not quite done yet.

Here is the supporting friends bit. Even though I am no longer selling on Etsy, I have a lot of friends who do. For the past few years, I've disliked the direction that Etsy was headed. They are getting more corporate (greed) minded and thinking less about the little guy. The little indie shop, that makes a small mistake is just shut down without a second thought. The big shops that violate rules are promoted to featured sellers. Read this  Little Bird Told Me blog post for more on that. 

There is a protest going on over at http://www.protesty.com against resellers. After I posted my blog I reread their site and I realized that it kind of excludes vintage sellers, who have every right to sell on Etsy. As a matter of fact, supply sellers do too, as long as they mark their supplies as such. But I would encourage the  entire community to support each other. I would encourage every single one of you who have ever voiced a complaint about the things that Etsy pulls on their community. Put your money where your mouth is and put your shop on vacation May 10th. Even if you don't sign up for the protest.

Bizz Buzz - A Little Bird Told Me

I've been hearing a lot about how unhappy Etsy sellers are about resellers on their site. I think that it's bad enough that Etsy promotes shops that blatantly break rules like this recent Star Wars Pez Dispenser find in Etsy Dudes (check the "vintage" dates).  It's bad enough that Etsy is kicking off honest hardworking crafters and leaving on resellers, but to add insult to injury, they've been promoting a lot of the resellers, like their featured seller EcologicaMalibu You can read more about who this seller really is in The Etsy Featured Reseller: Ecologica Malibu at Regretsy

I've been reading a lot of posts and blogs about this and it seems that everyone is upset, because they think the resellers are misrepresenting what they are selling as "handmade". After working with and in Chinese, Mexican and Filipino factories for several year, I can guarantee that most of the merchandise is hand made, not machine made. Humans are far cheaper to use than machines in those countries. So are you buying handmade? Even the   reclaimed wood furniture is, I'm sure, made by hand.

I think the point is that Etsy should be a place for self representing artists who also make their own craft of their own design. There are too many blatant abuses of this term to post here. And honestly, Etsy should be ashamed of promoting and featuring resellers, when there are so many wonderfully talented artists who have never been promoted.

So here is what a little twitter bird told me. I heard that there will be a silent protest against Etsy on May 10th. If you would like to learn more and join in on the silence, check out http://www.protesty.com and join the protest. I'm all about the protesting and radical behavior and stuff like that. But I bet you know that about me. I'd be doing this too if I hadn't already been quietly removed from Etsy late one Friday night (you know what I'm talking about).

Shops I Like - Polarity - HautTotes - JulianBean

This week the shops I like are all about inspiration and how it creates your craft. Three very different mediums, three very different lives, three very wonderful artists, and three great women and mothers.

The first shop is polarity.etsy.com. You will find the coolest lockets, rings, magnets and bracelets at Cat's shop. The images are magnetic, so you can have several looks and one great price. There are a few things I love about Cat and her product. First, she repurposes materials (auto parts), and she showcases amazing artists. The artwork is wonderful and features every genre and style you can imagine. See for yourself.

The next shop is hauttotes.etsy.com. Melissa is another seller who features great artwork on her purses and bags. I love the rich and often dark themes of her original fabrics. Her bags are incredibly well made too, and for the quality and uniqueness, the price is amazing. The bags are great, but the selection of artwork is even more wonderful. I love every artist Melissa chose to work with. Take your time browsing.

Finally there's julianbean.etsy.com. Erin is just the cleverest with a crochet hook. She makes Hats and accessories that are just adorable. Every time I look at her shop, she has something new. I absolutely adore her owl hats, and the other animals, monkeys, lions, giraffe, kitty, monkey, bees and bears are too fantastic. I think she must have been inspired by the zoo. The great thing is that she can make those awesome hats from tiny newborn size to adult.  I really love her slouch hats too, great big buttons on the side and great colors too. Please Stop by JulianBean to see what Erin has for you.

I couldn't give a better recommendation to these shops or the lovely sellers. Such unique and well crafted product. Fun, wonderful, and you will definitely have a treasure that's as unique as you are.

Poppy's Soap Box - LilyBugBabyThings Review

Last Tuesday was package day and in rummaging through the packages I received Inside of one marked SunflowerRadiantLove was a package from LilyBugBabyThings (they live in the same town so if you order together you can save on shipping too, I will review their packages later) Today I'll review the little crib Shoes I bought from an auction I was involved in.

First looks-these are totally adorable I mean how can you not love little baby shoesies that are handmade!

Construction- These are very high quality! Nicely made with serged seams on the inside and little encased elastic at the ankle. There are no uncomfortable edges to irritate little feet.

Wearability- I have to tell you, Luna has about 20 pairs of shoes and a 50 socks, most of which she has tossed of one of and lost at one point. These were easy to get on her fat little feet and lasted a day long journey through the mall and Thrift store shopping!

Value- For $12 I would have to say these are an incredible price for these little shoes that actually stay put!

http://www.facebook.com/LilyBugBabyThings
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94102699/skull-crib-shoes-booties-slipper-size
http://www.facebook.com/sunflowerradiantlove


Some of the images are fuzzy, because Luna was so delighted with the booties, she couldn't sit still.

Poppy's shop is poppyswickedgarden.artfire.com. She sells wonderful clothing, costumes and accessories. Poppy loves to shop, so she will be doing reviews of product regularly here on Wednesdays. If you would like to have Poppy review something of yours, please contact her through her shop.