It's nearly Christmas!

Hahaha. Yes, I've totally skipped Halloween- one of the best holidays ever! People in other countries, American Halloween is an all out extravagantsa involving costumes for adults, kids, and sometimes small animals! Kids eat so much candy they get sick! Pumpkins decorate the area for weeks on end![No, we don't know why the pumpkins. Someone blamed it on the Irish. And uh..turnips]. Women wear revealing 'costumes'. Men dress in drag! Much alcohol is drunk and costume contests blanket the land. HALLOWEEN FREAKING ROCKS!

But oh yea...I was going to talk about working on your brand steadily throughout the year, building your inventory and product line, and then getting a big climax at Christmas and the post Christmas season, instead of just hoping Christmas will shore up your failing business, but I haven't been doing much this year.

I was almost going to close down, but then I realized that I needed to sell things to buy more beads to make things and then I would be in the same 'I have too much jewelry' place where I started.

Oh flickr!

The tag person in your photo thing doesn't seem to fit. It seems to me that flickr is full of photographers, faux photographers, crafters and faux photojournalists. Tag the peron looks like the sort of thing you'd have on a site whose picture capability is more focused towards- 'so here's me at a party.' "here's me and the SO at the beach Hey honey!' 'here's my baby' sort of thing. It just doesn't seem to go.

I'm glad my thoughts don't control the universe

I forget the origin of this quote- 'my thoughts do not control the universe'. But I am glad that it is true that my thoughts do not control the universe.  I'm a small petty person who could not create even a Wii. Sometimes my thoughts get distorted like everyone's do. If my thoughts created the universe, there would be no hope for that. No evidence beyond my mind to marshall to explain how things will be alright. And it seems like a small blasphemy to say something as large and magnicent as the universe bends to the whims of mere humans. Most humans have difficulty truly picturing a trillion items, but the universe has trillions of stars. The operations of a single cell of our bodies is amazing beyond most people's imagining. So, let's not just focus on me, me, me- making the universe and any possible divine mysteries inside them turn on materialistic desires, but let's drive to find out how amazing everything is now.

A First for Cassowary Jewelry

I was on the front page of etsy! And I got a blog feature! 
Folks say the front page is no big deal, but I got 3 orders in my main shop today. This in a shop that used to average four sales a month.

Hipsters Rejoice!

Polaroids are coming back into production! In other news, I'm planning a bead buy, so you may see more new designs soon.

Spike Wants a Comic Funded

Spike, creator of Templar Arizona, which is its own micro business, wants to collaborate on a book on how to live poor and well.

I learn we're all doomed.

I'm 25 with a masters, but do I have a job? No. At least other people are having a terrible time too. But the upside is maybe we'll commit to a less materialistic more lo fi lifestyle. I went shopping with my mother today, and she wanted me to trade way up on cell phones, clothing, etc, and I tried to keep the expense down, although I did not succeed. Maybe we'll innovate in other ways- maybe not in ways that will give a lot of money, but give a lot of great things to everyone.

Powerful Words on Positive Thinking

Revealed! If I said that my jewelry business would lead to riches, I'd be in denial, but if I thought that beads are awesome, I'd be being realistic.

Only folks with enough money and time can start random businesses online. I had the time, energy and money, so I could risk it doing my best, and giving it my all. But it's important to understand that others aren't so blessed, and it's wrong to judge others by my own abilities.

Oh, and that corporate part is important. If we're supposed to always smile, we can't be 'negative' and question why we're paying more and getting less. We also lose responsibility and connection to each other. People long to connect to others, but it's so difficult to do so.

I learn why I'll never be on the front page

I tried to make my pictures etsy appropriate, but instead they end up pretty bland. I'm getting my hand back in, though.

Snark Blog Cat Fight

Craftostrophe vs Regretsy! Who will win?!

Design Reworks

A reworked design.

Weekend deals are sucking sellers dry. BTW: you will probably get recycled packaging. You know why? Metals and gemstones and plastic are bad enough for the environment. No need to waste good paper on top of it. I try to reuse things for jewelry as well- 'junk' jewelry, older designs that I want to rework. Waste not, want not.

Reading this article, I thought of what a doctor once said 'people don't clean their neti pots enough'. So clean them after use to avoid grossing me out,ok?

BTW: no swine flu parties. That's a dumb idea.

I don't get many sales from artfire because I don't put as much effort as I should into it.

I don't like how this guy randomly makes a connection between women's unhappiness and social networking. I think women are unhappy because of the work disparity- a woman's role is considered to be doing work- being pretty, doing childcare, etc. A man's role is considered to have fun-watch some football, play video games, do a few tasks around the house.

I think women use social networking to connect to others in their lifestages- look at the dresses of brides, show others pictures of children, and talk about the crafts and hobbies they do in between the double and triple shifts they are doing. We also give each other much support.

The tales of myspace's demise are greatly exaggerated, due to race and class bias. Younger members tend to use myspace, which is important for us who want to capture the youth market. What does this mean for you? I don't know, but probably I should send out a myspace bulletin or two, and change my profile. I have about ten times more myspace friends than I do facebook fans, while I'm thinking about it. Then again, I have nearly 500 contacts on flickr, which is often not profiled as social networking, but it can be. I have no data on flickr, but I would assume a great amount of the people there are artists and photographers.

Ah, snuggie testing. On a similar topic, be careful with soaplane's soap. It was nice at the beginning, but since I didn't store it in a draining soap dish, it got sort of goopy at the end. The green tea scent was quite masculine, so I enjoyed that part.

Daisycakes' soap is still hard probably because cold process holds up better. I smell a bit like tea, but also a nice masculine scent. Not too fruity, not too girly.