Dear Etsy

Okay so, this is how it's gonna be.

You're gonna demand all my time, and money I don't have before you'll make me famous, oh and richer than I could have thought possible.  Great.  I'm not liking you right now.  Have I mentioned I sleep a lot?  However am I supposed to create these scads of fun, interesting, creative designs for you if I sleep all the time!


Not to mention, where Dear Etsy, shall I come up with the money to get started hmmm?  Haven't you ever heard of starting small and building?  Guess I can't really blame you since you're just there and you too are at the mercy of much more devoted and financially secure crafters than I.

I will tell you though that I will not give up.  I have friends you know?  Blogging friends.  They're awesome.  Not that I expect them to buy all my stuff mind you, but they know people, and networking is a wonderful thing.  So I'll show them my stuffies, and maybe if I get lucky they'll love them and want them, and then I can buy more stuffies to make more stuffies and one day dear Etsy.....you'll be seeing me.  We'll have a great and wonderful relationship and I'll promise to love you forever.

We'll have lots of fun together and we'll spend hours and hours building our relationship so just you wait.  The time is coming!

But now, I'm going to go talk to my friends.  You know, the wonderful ones?  I'm going to show them this little owl organizer, he's sooo adorable.  Felted for soft fluffy wonderfulness and hand stitched to make him look even cuter!  He's sitting on a really neat little organizer so my friends will be able to actually USE him instead of having him sitting around just looking cute.  Even though he does that well too!  Soon he's going to have friends too.  I loved making him so much I'm going to make ornaments, and plushies, and maybe even a little coin purse just like him!  He'll only be $12 too which is a fabulous deal for a handcrafted planner!  I bet you're jealous aren't you!


Then I'll show them the winter floral arrangement I made.  I bet you'd like it.  It's in a small clear glass vase with sprigs of holly and evergreen, berries and pinecones and a few little deep red poinsettias thrown into the mix.  It's not too big so it'll sit almost anywhere, and give a wintery happy feel to foyers or dining room tables, or even in the bed or bath.  The colors are beautiful and the shimmery red and gold bow makes it festive enough for the holidays, but transitional enough to see you through until winter's end.

I had a lot of fun making it, but then I love doing floral arrangements.  I've got them all over my house and it makes up for the fact that I can't keep a plant living to save my life.  With florals I can still have the warm feeling without being sad when even my cactus gives up and falls over to the side of it's little gravel vase deader than four in the morning.

My favorite part though is the lighted branches.  It looks really beautiful without even being lighted, but when you flick on the little battery box in the back of the arrangment, the sprigs come to life and it's so cheery and happy it would make even YOU smile!

You can't really see them well in the photograph, but it's awesome when you see it in person.  I set it on my coffee table while we watched a movie and it was the perfect little accent to make a nice warm cozy environment.  I'd pack it up nice and neat to send it to whoever might want it for oh about $40 plus shipping, and I bet they'd love it!  My daughter even told me not to let you see it because she wanted it, but she's got enough stuff in her room already!

So you see Etsy?  I'll keep trying to woo you, but until then, I'll just keep plugging along and one of these days you'll be seeing my name, and my stuffies.  I've got so many ideas and you're going to love them!  The felt was so much fun to work with, and I'm going to dig out my box 'o craft stuff, so I'll be making things left and right when I'm awake and when I get enough, then we'll dance!

Until then, I'll tell my friends if they are interested in either of these things to leave me a comment here or email me at djpr[at]comcast[dot] net to work out the specifics.  Have a great day Etsy and I'll be seeing you soon!

Love always,
A Financially Challenged Crafter

NOTE:  The owl planner is almost finished, I only need to secure it and do the finishing stitched.  Price is $12 plus shipping.  I'm also going to be doing ornaments and plushies so let me know if there is anything you can't live without!

The floral arrangement is completed and I'm asking $40 plus shipping for it.  It measures approximately 19 inches top to bottom and 15 in diameter.  Batteries are included for the lighted swigs, it takes three AA.

If you know anyone who might be interested in either of these, please send them in my direction and I promise I won't keep begging everyone to buy stuff!

Etsy? Love it? Hate it? Advice?

So through all my lovely friends here in the blogosphere I've discovered Etsy.

I know I know, I'm so out of it, but I swear, I'd never heard of it until recently.

Going through the site, I got that creative tickle that starts somewhere inside your cranium and then proceeds to engulf your entire body.  I used to be really good at making stuff.  When I first started taking Ritalin and Adderall, I was up for a week straight making things.  I love crafting, but I really don't go out much so networking has been out of the question until now.

I tried an eBay store once up a time, a very long time ago, but I just tired of the whole thing since there is SO much there I found things becoming devalued just because there were a million other people selling the same things.  People didn't look for quality or originality it seemed as much as the lowest bid.

But now....Etsy looks cool to me.  I love the guidelines for what can be offered and it seems very user friendly.

Skipping the usual humor for a moment, I'll give you a brief overview of things going on with me right now.

I poke fun at being a narcoleptic, but it's frustrating.  Maddening most times.  I actually envy people who can't sleep.  I sleep anywhere from 14 to 18 hours every day, so it's almost impossible to keep up with the usual things most people do every day.  After being laid off four years ago and being owed almost seventeen thousand dollars in back pay that I'll never get (yes, I've tried.  Everything) we've struggled financially.  We've gone into foreclosure three times and have thus far  managed to keep our house at the cost of my husbands retirement plan.

I won't bore you with the specifics, but at this point every extra dollar helps.

Along comes Etsy.  I registered last night, but I didn't complete it cuz of the $1.01 cent transaction.  Until hubby gets paid tomorrow, there was the very real possibility that the buck and a cent would overdraft our account.  What I really wanna know is have any of you started a shop or have a favorite shop you frequent?  Do you love it?  Do you think it's worth having a go at?  Oh and what kind of things are you looking for when you go?

I've pulled out the infamous "box o' craft stuff" and I'm ready to give it a try, but wanted to know what YOU think before I jump in feet first.