Don't call other sellers names on the forums,ok? Now that hell month is over, I'm looking forward to a lot of new designs and a lot more advertising. But no google base until I feel better

A pet peeve: I hate it when folks act like it takes so much more time to express a complaint than to whine that people are complaining. I think a problem is that positivity can become toxic and more negative than negativity. If I say "Man, the jewelry category on etsy is really crowded! They should put in an advanced search instead of gift guides!", that is going to cause a whole lot less bad feeling, even though it was technically a complaint than saying "I bet the reason you think the jewelry category is crowded is because you're a miserable person deep down. Why don't you leave if you're so unhappy? Why do you have so much free time to worry about that?" despite this somehow being 'positive'.

I guess the problem is that positivity is very fragile, compared to being realistic, because it does not have a firm foundation, so anytime anyone makes any mention of a negative, that bubble is burst. You can't sustain it, and you have to lash out as an attempt to keep that unsustainable world view. When you lash out, bad feelings occur. So that creates more negativity than being negative.

cranberry ambrosia in light

cranberry ambrosia in light
Originally uploaded by cassowaryjewelry

an example of the pictures I took today. I guess indiepublic and we love etsy will be getting picture updates soon. I just need to distribute the new items among my sites. This one is already on lov.li

Oddly enough, the light of the setting sun makes for fairly OK pictures. I'll show you guys soon.

Wow, that was fast! My indie crafters page is up.

holiday earrings
Originally uploaded by cassowaryjewelry

I finally updated my website It takes me a long time to resize my images, upload them and then write in the descriptions

Today it rained. I rephoto'd some items but then I realized that the new items I made yesterday- I forgot to take pictures of them. Also, when I make a bracelet, it's always really short.

Personally, I feel more encouraged by kind words than tough love. All of us know that we haven't put our etsy items in google base, that we have piles of unused supplies, and that we haven't uploaded our pictures onto talentdatabase as often as we need to. But do we all know about the happiness that our crafts bring to so many? Even if I can't buy from you, I love the energy of crafters. People seem to think there is too much kindness in the world. But that's not true. Kindness is not some dragon's hoard to be massed up in a cave where no one can see it. Kindness is what everyone deserves. It's like religious things. No one deserves mercy or grace, but it is given freely to all. Having a generous spirit is good for all.

Stella notes that insinuating that other people's shops are inferior is not respectful on this page.

Today, I went out in the cold to take pictures, without gloves. It was forty degrees, and while I was snapping, it started raining. It's hard to get the right white balance under these conditions.

My philosophy about crafting is as follows. Not many people are making more than a thousand dollars a year in this world, as compared to the many people under that mark. I make double that working ten hours a week. So the idea that when we create a venue for crafting, everything should be as unfair as possible makes me laugh. What do you get when you've 'tough loved' the love out of people's crafting? What do you win when you make people feel awful about themselves, and turned off of crafting all together? I wish there was a separate place for the 'elites' to fight out their cage match for craft supremacy, and the rest of us can enjoy ourselves. Really, I want to have fun.

Read my awesome how to on how to promote in the etsy forums.

This sort of thing is why I am going to shop all online. I'm not waking up at 4 am in the morning unless people are going to give me money. As for spending it, it spends just as good online and it comes to your door.

*is in tootsiegrace's gift guide*

I've decided to be more open in my business blog. Being a one person business, it's hard not to reveal who you really are. Even if it does sometimes mean saying that I don't like posting on 1000 selling communities, or that I don't want to put up ten classified ads, or that it took me an hour to make a simple email for my mailing list. I have decided to do this because I don't want to be the sort of fake corporate business person that I don't like. I'll also tag my posts

A big problem that is making everyone divided over the gift guides is the sense that if you didn't get in, you're just not a good seller. The admins are working hard, but they are undercut by their cheerleaders. If you want to seem fair, it's hard to do that when folks are telling people that they didn't get in because their photos weren't good, that they are whiners,etc. But it's hard for the admin, because they can't just tell those people to shut up, and be respectful of everyone's hard work. It causes people to be more bitter if they are assumed to not be working hard or to be malcontents rather than saying that the admin worked hard, but there were too many people who are good at things to put everyone in. When you say, you're just jealous, it's not helping at all.

Not to mention, the assumption that no one who isn't a top seller/in the guide/perfectly happy all the time promotes or does anything with their business drives me nuts. I'm not sure why you would assume that without at least asking, because there are a lot of invisible promotions that people do. I put my cards out at the library, post on craigslist, put my stuff on stylehive and the etsy mini blog. There's not a big banner in my store saying that I do this, but I do. If you're not on my myspace friend's list, or my mailing list, yea, you're not going to see my promotions, but that doesn't mean they don't exist

I've been escaping from school work into doing business things, but I'm so behind on schoolwork. I haven't been able to make any progress for two days.

I can't seem to make any masculine items at all. Whenever I make something, it's uber uber girly. I'd like to branch out, but it's hard when your favorite stone is rose quartz.

Now that exam time is nigh, I've become obsessed with gluing things to other things. I started with earrings, and I'll progress to rings soon. There's just something so simple and pure about stud earrings or a ring with a nice flashy vintage twang to it. When winter break comes, I'll go back to larger scale jewelry. I have several half done projects ready to be done just when I get ready

It's nice to see etisians coming together to promote each other.

and they work fast too.

Ok, etsy, I'll pay! I'll pay!

I'm loving abreathoffrenchair's soap petals~

This year's gift guide is out! I had to delay it for one day because I made a pair of earrings that I needed to photograph.

Missing the Mark-

I missed the group fire mountain order, I just found out today. Time to look for greener supply pastures. I think I'll try out some gold filled items in time for the holiday. I upgraded to sterling silver at least six months ago, and it has been working well, but gold filled is much pricier..

I'm on parade on indieparade. I need to get my gift guide together soon..

Apparently flying backhoes have it out for etsy?

On etsy, homepage showcases will be $15. A bit much for me... $7 was already high for me. [$50 etsy bill]