There's a stay of enforcement for the CPSIA.

A senator from South Carolina wants to make changes to the law.



I'm also in a treasury.

Etsy gives an official overview of the recently listed items thing.

Lollishops fees.

I'm rushing around, advertising the last day of the buy 2, get 1 free sale in my shop. I have something new that I'm working on, and will reveal when it is done.

T Shirt Hell closes with a flounce.

Etsy makes stupidfree.

There's still some snow. I made some pendants yesterday, and can't take pictures of them, because wtf snow. I'll finally be getting my FMG order, so I'll probably be crafting quite a lot.

Another way to get more for your money in your crafting business is to find materials in creative ways. Jewelers can cut up old necklaces and earrings for supplies, fabric artists can find new life in old clothes, and there's inspiration everywhere you look!

Use freecycle or etsyrecycle to find things that people don't use or want for free. Once I got a giant box of ribbon from etsy recycle for just the cost of shipping!

People talk about whether they are closing shop because of CPSIA. I am staying open, as my jewelry is for adults who really enjoy jewelry...

Etsy's time machine 2 glitches are explained away. *sigh*

Artfire drama ensues. I drink tea to ward off the cold.

The Lollishops forums close.

I need to do a combination of cleaning and crafting today.

Got my heart to heart list going:

Heart to Heart Theme by cassowaryjewelry

I'm in the middle of reading two threads on lollishops.

Lollishops 1

Lollishops meltdown post.

I'm pretty tired and out of sorts today.

ETA: odd twitter there.

LOL, now people's husbands are imaginary.

Soapdeli's imaginary husband posts.

Artfire drama continues. I like to use a lot of different sites. *plans to make more jewelry soon*

Another way to trim your business is by selling off excess supplies. Old beads, fabric, and more can bring in some extra cash for your business. Many of us crafters have tons of items for projects that never came to fruition. You thought you'd take up knitting, but after your pair of socks ended up being more like a ball of knots, your nice yarn is laying in a box somewhere, those beads that looked really nice in the shop don't fit into your designs and so they lay there. Get out there and take some photos.

Also, by destashing you can get a smaller unit price. If you buy some items in bulk, you get a lower price per item, but what are you going to do with all of them? Destash.

I tried to take some photos today, but not a good picture day. I dropped this particular ring in a bin of ashes.

Artfire is a hot topic over on etsy. I've been out of the forums lately, and it's hard for me to get back into the swing of things.

However, even someone like me can notice that artfire debate is one of the five threads you'll find on etsy. Some love it, some hate it, some say meh..


I leave you with this amusing business story- business owner tackles thief.

Times are hard. You don't want to close down your shop, but you need tips to batten down the hatches. One of my tips is to use up your stash. Many of us crafters have tons of beads, fabric, glues, and more that we haven't used. Before buying more, let's be creative with what we have.

Oh, and because of the batch loading, your items might not get their 15 seconds of fame on the etsy front page.

Also, people are reminded that twitter is not in fact email.

On this historic day, it snowed. My crazy dad is grilling in the snow, this is how historic and amazing this day has been.

Hey, there's an artfire item of the hour group. I need to refresh my artfire shop. I made two rings today, but they need to set.

Revolvingdork, formerly of etsy, gets his laptop etched in a super mario map style.

It's MLK Day! Let's focus on peace, freedom and justice!

Oh yeah, and I found this post on MLK's words informative.

Today was finally a good day for a photo shoot! I took a good 35 photos. I also listed some new supplies. I'll probably spend the rest of the day listing.

Why blog or twitter? When you twitter, you can be found in various twitter specific search engines, such as cheap tweet. When you blog, you can be found in blog specific search engines, such as blog catalog.

This means you can be seen in more than one spot. Very few of us can succeed merely by relisting all the time on etsy. Every time I relist, that's 20 cents for 15 seconds on the first page[well..if I end up on the first page, which is awfully optimistic]. But I'm still getting hits from websites I posted things on a year ago. So work that happened in the past can build up into the future.

Another thread you'll find on etsy is the "I don't have time to blog" thread. This always confuses me. It takes me less than fifteen minutes to compose a post here, if that. Or I don't have time to twitter. I'm thinking dude, it takes one minute to type out 140 characters. If you don't want to be on the internet, just say so. Don't say you don't have time.

Etsy has a CPSIA forum? Woah. Temporary or permanent? I don't know. My goal is to increase my traffic to hundred views a day for all sites. It'll be a long road...

I'm busy being amused at the idea of email bankruptcy. In my dreams, between the nightmares[I had one really freaky one in which I saw a newspaper story about dead children in Gaza and was really disturbed], I think I am thinking of jewelry ideas. Or at least in that space where I'm dozing[where I spend most of my conscious hours...]

They've started an unofficial gift guide site now.

I guess I should get to crafting despite my lack of inspiration.

The mystery of why purple monkey dishwasher is in your keywords for etsy in google analytics.

Wow, I'm impressed by people taking their beadwork to the next level.

Via The Lone Beader. I'm going on a journey to improve my art! Hahaha, maybe not.

There are rumors on the internet that Rob Kalin of etsy fame owns Parachute HiFi- a stereo shop.

Dippylulu, who I love and all, is mad because folks are copying her. Note: aren't those based on a WW2 poster? I wonder if the original artist is alive...

We're all worried and stuff, but remember, don't annoy people on blogs about CPSIA.

Is feedback abuse allowed on etsy?

In other news, I have tons of items to post.

OMG, STATS. *wets self*

This livejournal news post will be epic.

Also, my website is back up. Expect big updates.

Etsy Labs closing as a community space.

There apparently will be exemptions in CPSIA for natural products

Sellers of vintage toys also exempt.

Hey, amazon sends a letter about CPSIA to folks, which I didn't get. Hey, I sold a textbook there!

Double artfire drama? Two sites to have drama on.

Man, I have to do some listing on ebay and in my supply shop.

Livejournal releases a press release about its 'restructuring' And I realize that I don't understand press releases for microbusinesses. People say press releases for publicity sometimes, but nothing I do is newsworthy.

Some press release titles:

"Crafter improves website"

"Crafter makes yet more earrings"

"Crafter recycles old buttons, saves the environment singlehandedly. Then kills the environment with driving to the post office"

Some people are freaking out about rumors that livejournal will lay off 20 of 28 employees. LJ has fewer employees than etsy, which is weird because livejournal is *huge*.

The economy is affecting everything from online journals to car companies.

Funny font kerfuffle.

I was looking for fonts as I am upgrading my project wonderful ads. A lot of photo editing to be done today.

Etsy says it's launching the new search this week.

The Red Panda shows you how to make chainmaille.

I'm late to the party[this whatever is from March] but I like the commentary on the idea that 1000 true fans is all one needs. Many of us get a lot of bread and butter from our repeat customers, but we need to first get those fans, and to get those fans, we need to have many more than a thousand people, say, give us $10. Sounds like hard work! *has to sell physical items to keep them from cluttering up my space too much*