I'm a winner !!

No seriously, I was one of the winners in Etsy's Holiday Free Shipping drawing.  I was totally shocked by the email stating I had won, mainly because I only set up "free shipping" for orders over a set $amount and had very few orders qualify for free shipping. 😏  

In spite of the limit and the few qualifying orders some how I won. 😲  That's the astonished face 😲 as I never "win" anything. ~LOL~

I did not win the $25,000 top prize but I am not complaining about the $250 I did win, that will supply advertising budget for the next year. 😊

Etsy 2018 Year in Review . . .

Ok so Etsy did a "year in review" thing for my shop. 😊 It's a bit like the Facebook "your year on facebook" memories thing. Etsy's version is not a video though it's a really long scrolling page with some cute graphics and shop statistics and other stuff. 

These are just a few screen shots of my "year in review" there was a lot of other stuff in there like total $$$ sales, some info on other things my buyers searched for and bought, general shopping trends, info and articles on new shop tools, SEO, links to see the TV commercials, etc.

Thanks Etsy

Happy Holidays . . .

Wow, holy cow hard to believe it's been a month since I posted on this blog. 😮  I have been a bit busy though, as the shopping season kicked in around Thanksgiving and just slowed down for me on Tuesday.  😏  This is the best, busiest holiday season I've had yet on Etsy.  

I had multiple custom orders and even though a couple of the initial contacts did not go all the way through and complete an order I have had enough sales to feel really good about it.  My husband actually got to hear multiple cha-chings the other day and congratulated and complimented me on the success. 😇  

In the 3+ years I've been working on this, and trust me it has not been easy, there have been many months with no sales at all.  I have worked and worked on completing my shop, improving my listings, re-doing photos, brainstorming tags, re-writing titles and descriptions.  It has been never-ending work on my part, I work on my shop every day in one way or another.  I write this now because I just saw a post in the forums by a person who opened a shop and got pissed off because it was not instantly indexed and complaining did not result in instant action so they quit in 5 days. 😕😞  Seriously, 5 flipping days and they quit, I waited 5 fracking months for my first sale, I don't know if my shop was indexed the first week or not because I didn't know anything about the site or their search indexing. ~LOL~   

Online sales is not easy and there is no such thing as instant, indexing is not instant, payment processing is not instant, delivery is not instant.  I don't know what's wrong with people these days that they think it's ok to act so entitled, spoiled, bratty, it's ridiculous to expect such things and even worse for grown ass adults to have public tantrums and throw their toys when they don't get the instant gratification they seem to expect.  It's like buyers complaining, writing negative reviews, and threatening to open cases because their order was not delivered the day after they placed the order. 😡  

Some days I am just floored by the unrealistic expectations and over-entitlement that seems to run rampant in the forums, but most days I just thank God that my buyers have all been decent people who have not treated me that way.  😇  Heaven's blessings to all this holiday season.

HappyMerryChristmaHanuKwanzakah

Anyone want to open a new Etsy shop?

Etsy does have a referral program, so if someone you know already has a shop they could give you a link like this one https://etsy.me/2KltzJ0 

And if you use a link like that to sign up and open a new shop you get to start with 40 free listings. 😇  Not a bad way to start a shop really as most don't start with that many listings so it could cover the initial round of listing and even a round of renewals and since listings are good for 4 months that a nice long free test period. 😉

Of course, then one learns how hard it is to get really good photographs, and SEO and all the other complicated things. 

Etsy forums. . .

I really do find it astonishing reading the forums just how many sellers have no clue about anything. 

Seriously, there are so many posts by people who don't understand the fees, people who can't do math, people who have never bothered to read the Seller Handbook, the House Rules, the Terms of Service, etc.  

Some days I read these things and wonder how these people manage to turn on a computer, let alone get online and login. 

Pinterest and Etsy . . .

I don't normally try to write tutorial style advice stuff but in this case I'll give it a go.  😉

Last year there were a lot of complaints about etsy-pins not linking directly back to the listings in the pin but instead linking to an almost "market" page with competing listings at the top of the page.

Many sellers were really upset at the notion of competitors listings showing above the item that had been pinned, there was some advice from an admin to edit the links after pinning but that's extra work/steps and a bit of a pain in the you know what.  😒  

I'm not sure why but very few of my pins ever had that problem, I did double check and edit a few but then I just changed how I pinned and started only using the official "Social Media" tool under the marketing tab. 😌

My Pinterest is officially a "business" account so maybe that is part of it, not sure.  Recently, Pinterest has changed many things and now allows you to "Claim" things other than a stand alone website. I had previously tried to " Claim your website " but was never able to because that function was made for stand alone .coms and there was no way to add the code to the header or whatever for an etsy shop.  

However, now Pinterest allows you to "claim other accounts" including Etsy shops, instagrams, and youtubes.  Since "claiming" my etsy shop my pins from etsy (social media tool) look different and include my shop info, listing description, price, proper link, etc.  Perhaps those still having link issues have not claimed their shops, or are not sharing from the social media tool or do not have "business" accounts on Pinterest.  Honestly, I'm not sure which thing makes the difference and makes mine always work right while other's still have problems.  😉

A little disappointed Etsy

Well I figured the "Super Seller" trophies were just a test but I am sad to not see mine today, not sure if I'm not seeing it because I've been dropped from the test group or if the test itself is over. 😑  I do hope they decide to make it a real thing and it will come back.

I am also pretty disappointed that I still do Not have the new
"simplified" finance yet.  The announcement said it was going to roll out to every one by the end of October but welcome to November and I still don't have it. I did see it for about 2 hours one day last week but it came and went away again, not really understanding that. 😕

Shiny Trophy. . .

I'm not sure if it's just a test or if it's permanent but Etsy has gifted me with a shiny "Super Seller" trophy.  😇

I'm so proud, I hope it sticks around, but just in case I took pictures.

I have checked and it's just a test so I'm glad I got a screen shot of it. 

New billing system . . .

My shop does not have it yet.  I am curious how it displays and works as I am reading a LOT of unhappy, complainy, whiney forum posts. 😏  However, the complaints are pretty much standard, etsy never gave an exact date of implementation to every single individual shop, although with over a million shops that would have been incredibly hard, time consuming, and stupidly wasteful, and probably pointless with spam filters and email notifications that no one ever bothers read anyway.  

All the OMG where's my money!?  Which I find particularly funny when it's coming from people posting admissions of how they just paid last month's bill 15 days late, on a notice of shut down for being behind.  Actually, I could be wrong but I have sensed a pattern in the complainers that they are the always pay late crowd, the statement "I always pay my bill between the 3rd-5th or before the 15th" is all a big fat whatever because bills are due on the 1st, period.  

I don't understand why so many sellers think it's ok to pay their bill late. I really don't understand why all those perpetually late people can't grasp that this change is their own fault for always paying late.

I think part of the reason that my shop has not been "rolled in" yet is because I have always had auto-billing set up and never ever paid late, except the 1 time my debit card expiration date changed and the payment failed, which I immediately (next day) fixed.

Time to re-work the re-work again. . .

I know online retail is in a constant state of flux but ~good grief~ and yes that's my Charlie Brown impression. 😖

The saga of the "Holiday guide" that just won't go away continues and as it updates and highlights new things I find myself more annoyed all the time.  😒  

I had read one of the early articles and it was all about improving search placement and changes to SEO and it was confusing and a bit dense. I tried to read it but my brain just wouldn't process it. Then I saw a thread in the forums about EtsyRank sudden changes to listing grades and decided to check it out.  I've had and used EtsyRank nearly the whole 3 years I've had my shop and it's been an ok service (I only use the free version) I have worked quite a bit on getting A grades on my listings. I knew Etsy was talking about changing search a lot implementing new AI and photo recognition softwares, updating categories, etc,.  What I didn't fully understand was the impact that would have.  

Imagine my surprise when I logged into "etsyrank" to find a new erank logo and announcement that they have changed their entire grading system to be based on etsy's latest guidelines. 😮  Ok, so maybe that's not a bad thing, they have basically codified the annoying article into a usable system that would tell me what etsy meant with all that marketing speak and talking in circles.  I thought "wow thanks erank", but then I clicked to see my listing grades and found that many, like more than half of my listings that previously had been A grades were suddenly NOT.  😩

Previously of my 180-ish listings the overwhelming majority of them were A's there were maybe a dozen B's and 3 C's. I lived with the 3 C's because they were gift wrap and camp ash vials and they are really not meant to be found on their own anyway. I gave up on the B's mainly because I had reworked and reworded them repeatedly and they just seemed stuck. ~shrug~  This week I found tons of B's a truckload of C's and then a bunch of D's and a handful of E's.  😲  Since when does the system include E's ?!?! omg

I have spent the week trying to "improve" things and I have made some progress, I have managed to convert the C's and D's to at least B's but the E's are still E's those used to be C's but oh well.  I have about 40 B's but I'm not sure I can get all of them back the A's, it will take a lot of work including a round of new additional photos which I find highly annoying because it was in the "holiday guide" tips list and I was going to ignore it because rounds of photos are time consuming, digging out the pieces, setting and staging the shoot, lighting, shooting, editing, uploading. ~sigh~  

Really Etsy?!?!?

Etsy has done a lot of annoying and questionable things over the years but this year's "Holiday Guide" on the seller dashboard is like. . .wow.  😖  It's huge, it's lame, it's pretty much repeat info that is mostly common sense and there was no way to get rid of it for over a week.  The forums exploded and then the admins moved the "bugs" thread over to discussions refusing to do anything about it, basically insisting that it's permanent nature was intentional.  😕  

It has "updated" from it's initial bullet points to include a notice to add your shipping carriers to your shipping profiles. Just more busy work as I already had in my store policies that nearly everything ships Priority USPS but I have started working through editing each listing anyway. I'm just using it as a chance to double check other things. 

This morning has a new update with 2 new nags to "add up to 10 photos" it says this is a 15 minute task.  Seriously, I'm just floored at the notion that anyone with more than 3 brain cells can even think that adding more photos is a 15 minute task. I mean setting up a photo shoot takes longer than that, shooting additional photos for my 175+ listings would take hours, not to mention the editing and uploading.  So I have no idea who came up with this 15 minute BS. The secondary nag is for clear return policies which it says is a 5 minute task, that I can believe, editing/updating policies is a quick hit thing but I have my own written and rather detailed policies already.  But at least it now has a minimize button, if you can't remove it at least now it shrinks instead of blocking the WHOLE dashboard.  😒  So I guess they did hear all the complaints they just didn't really listen. 

still moving. . .

Ok so we are out of the old place and on the road visiting family.  We have a new place picked out and are just waiting on application approval and a move in date hopefully before the end of the month. 😇

I am proud of myself for keeping it together "on the road" I have had orders and managed to ship them on time I only had to move 1 ship date and that was more because of the Labor Day holiday than being on the road. 😏

Things change. . .

I have been working on some changes in the shop, nothing new there, updating listings and shifting keywords is a constant.  😄  

I considered discontinuing the "gift wrapping" option because we are moving soon and I thought it would be easier to take less stuff and not worry about it, but the amount of listings I would need to edit to remove the sample photos and description link, text, instructions, 😱  changing the shop settings, and deleting a few old updates about it would be easy but all that editing.  ~sigh~  So I think the gift wrap will stay available, I managed to get most all the supplies packed down to one small box.  

Sad fact of life upheavals getting in the way is I have not made much lately.  😢😡  I have been sorting, packing, and organizing for the move and only crafting a little here and there as relaxation trying to stay sane.  I had to pack my easel and all my painting stuff already and I really miss painting.  😭  

My shop will remain open and shipping throughout the moving process but boy oh boy I cannot wait to be all settled somewhere new and have all my stuff set up again so I can get back to playing in my paints and making things.

Making things makes me happy, moving not so much. 😏

Etsy is not Amazon. . .

I have given up on the Etsy forums, they just make me want to scream most of the time anyway.  You can't fix stupid.  😖

When I see posts by shoppers complaining they haven't gotten their order yet and all the sellers answers are just telling them to call their credit card and do a charge-back, I want to slap people.  

Seriously, I would not advise buyers to just go around randomly filing charge-backs, mainly because it's incredibly bad business and should be a LAST resort not the go to thing.  😒  Charge-backs are bad for merchants/sellers on any platform, they come with penalties and if you have too many you can loose your merchant standing, have your ability to process payments taken away, in the case of etsy shops that means having your shop closed.   

Personally, I would always ask for more information, as a statement "I haven't got my order" does not tell one anything about the situation, for instance when was the order placed?  what was the processing time on the item? is it being custom made? is it being shipped internationally?  That's not just being nosy, to me that is being responsible and getting all the facts before you go spewing out bad advice.  😐  

I know many buyers are trained in the "amazon mindset" where everything is mass produced, stocked in a warehouse, and delivered the next day.  😣  However, when ordering from Etsy shops where things are handcrafted, personalized, or custom ordered the concept of next day delivery is laughably ridiculous.  Complaining about waiting on your order even though the item's "processing time" was listed and your email receipt has an estimated ship date two weeks away is dumb, just wait the two weeks you agreed to when you made the purchase.  If you don't want to wait for it to be made perhaps you should not have ordered it, but trying to cancel may or may not work if you ordered a custom made item and the shop owner has already started making it they may not accept cancellations.  Seriously, why should the crafter be out time, supplies, and money because you didn't bother to read the freakin' details before you click buy?  If the shop does personalized stuff they can easily get behind in their processing.

My shop has a lot of "ready made" "in stock" items that do ship the next but most of the chainmaille has a 1-2 day processing time listed in case a buyer asks for a length adjustment. Custom orders for me usually take days of back and forth communication just to get the specs and details set, then I have to actually make the thing, then USPS takes days to deliver the thing.  

Etsy Plus . . .

I have been impatiently waiting for the new "Etsy Plus" subscription to be available in my shop and it popped up today. 👀 

I had already decided last week I was going to try it when it finally became available to me.  It's only $10 a month right now and it comes with $8 of listing and PL credits so really it's only $2 why not give it a go? 😉 

I don't care what anyone says I like the slide show, carousel, scrolling banners.  I like my banners, I make (what I think) are cool collages that show off the variety of my products nicely.  😊   

Previously there was a size choice but it was limited to small or large pick 1 but now there are multiple options including a "carousel" option which allows for up to 4 banner sized images that scroll on their own while also having side arrows and center buttons/dots so that shoppers can scroll through them instead of just waiting for the slide show to move on it's own.  There is also an option to link the banner to a listing or shop section, so I have linked each banner to a different item shown on the collage. 😇  ~sweet~ 

I also knew I wanted the new "featured listings" layout option with 5 instead of 4.  They tested it not long ago and I did really love how it looked and I was disappointed when it went away so fast.  I actually filled out the testing feedback form and a survey praising the option and basically begging to get it back.  Honestly, this I think is worth the $2 a month to try out because the 5th listing feature that makes one of them extra large does awesome things for my art, in my opinion.  This has more options like setting sections instead of individual listings, rearranging at will, marking as many featured as you want so that if something sells there is another listing to fill the spot automatically and you don't loose your layout. 💖  Check out the new look !!

There are other things available too, discounts on packaging, and printed promo materials, discounted domains, I'm not really interested in any of those.  However, the new "restock request" option for "When an item sells out, shoppers can sign up to be automatically alerted when it’s back in stock." Now that could be handy, I have turned it on for some listings and in the listing manager view there is a notation for the # of restock requests on each listing.  So I'm guessing if a shopper clicks on the thing to sign up for an alert when the item is restocked I will also get a notice of the request to restock the item.  This in addition to the request custom order option gives buyers more opportunity to get what they really want and since I really want happy buyers this works for me. 😍  

I am going to trial it through the end of the year when the price goes up in 2019 I'll have months of data to decide if it's worth the price increase, in the meantime I'd love some feedback on what you think of the new banners and feature layout. 👍👎

July, what's new?

Well it's a new month, etsy is raising fees and I'm still re-making things.  😇  I've got the rainbow re-makes finished and now I need to do the Hogwarts Crest trees.  I have a few ideas for some new chainmaille stuff, I don't want to give too much away but maybe a new pattern, more earrings, a whole line of hat/lapel pins.  😉  

No promises on the release or schedule of any new stuff as "Life" has a way of regularly derailing my plans, so I think it's better to keep it loose.  😄  

what a mess. . .

I set up and sold some stuff at a recent outdoor event and now I have the fun-funs of reconciling inventory and making a list of things to re-make. 

I got my square reader through my etsy for the discount equipment and promises of fee refunds, which I gotta say is working out mostly.  I got my readers before the event, yes that's plural I got a package with a little mag-stripe reader and the bigger way cool chip, dip, wave version that works off blue-tooth. I used the little mag-stripe reader, it took some adjusting to trying to keep the cards perfectly square while swiping, but it worked. The monies were deposited quickly and in full as in I got all the $$$ the fees show on my square dashboard but were not taken out of my deposits. ~woo-hoo~  

Now for the things I didn't understand or realize about this use. First, I never did "sync" my etsy listings because there were things I was selling that were never listed on etsy. Also I had read about some issues others were having syncing their listings. So I was actually a bit surprised to discover that every square payment I processed counted as a "sale" in my etsy shop display info even though they were simply entered as "custom amounts" and not tied to an actual listing or item. 😕  Also etsy charged me .20 cents for each payment as they were for items not listed, I knew this was coming from what I had read and it's not a big deal or a large amount. 

I am now wondering about syncing my listings and if I should but, honestly, I don't sell "in person" very often so I'm debating on if it's worth it. I didn't do it before because I had read other's complaining that photos didn't show up which would be super problematic for me trying to tell which tree is which without photos. I also saw some complaining that the square set up did not prevent "over-selling" that it would allow you to sell things but not always correct the inventory or show things as "sold-out" big problem for me with one of a kind things when I sell it it's gone. 

So I have some more reading and double checking before I decide what to do about it all.  In the meantime I have a tangle of leather jewelry chokers and bracelets that need to be untangled and checked against the list so I can zero out the right things in the listings.

EU privacy, disclaimers, etc.,

This blog is public I write stuff I publish and ignore. I do not ask for or collect any information identifying or otherwise on anyone who visits or reads this blog or comments on it although no one ever has commented on it.  ~LOL~

"Blogger" the google owned platform/template provider may use tracking cookies and have knowledge of location or browsers used to view this but I do not collect/catalog/store or use any data at all.

I ramble and write, I bitch and I brag, I post and go on with my life.

So there you have it, I do not have any of your info nor do I want any of your info.  😇  

I do not sell to EU countries and never have and likely never will. 

Work, work, work. . .

I'm working on multiple things at once these days. 😄  I've got a painting drying on the easel and a nearly completed tree on the desk, although I spent several hours yesterday working on the fancy new banners.  😇  This blog along with the etsy shop and facebook page all got a face lift, sadly the facebook doesn't fit quite right but I spend hours try different layouts, different photos, made almost a dozen then had to re-size and re-size.  Handcrafts is much more my thing than photography or computer graphics. ~LOL~

Yeah as you can see I got a bit lost and distracted trying different things, there are so many options for layouts, wording, fonts, font color, photos. 😵  Just a dizzying array of choices, I think I did ok, I managed to make a few of them that I think look pretty good. 😊

Mental...

As in I think I'm going mental. ~LOL~

Just a little bit though, it is finally decent weather here and I am enjoying some sunshine, I even got out my bow and got in some archery practice. 😃  I have sold a second painting which is awesome.  I have painted and listed more art.  I have managed to get over 180 listings even though I've sold some stuff.  😇  

I feel like I've been making progress with the shop but I super disappointed in etsy itself and their decision to remove the "sell in person" feature of the app.  😨  They have partnered with Square and we have no option, if you want in person sales to auto-adjust shop inventory and be reflected as sales in your shop you have to sign up with square and sync your stuff. 😟 However, I don't know square, I don't have a square account, I don't really want another third party provider in my business transactions, and I have been reading a lot in the forums of others having issues with things not syncing properly, inventory management issues like square allows you to over-sell as in sell more than you have. 😲  And just yesterday day I saw a thread where the seller was talking about in person sales posting to her shop overnight that were not done by her. ~yikes~ 

So I'm really not sure about the whole square thing but I've been looking at my banks for alternatives and while PNC and 5/3 have merchant services options they are also through other third party providers and I've never even heard of "Clover" at least I had heard of square. 😐  I am not sure what I'm going to do and I actually have my 1 in person market event of the year in less than a month. 

The Mother's Day Sale is almost over there's only 7 days left.  I am working on new wire trees because I've been distracted with painting so much lately and the trees have been selling so I'm running low.😃  I have discovered I enjoy painting ocean waves. 

Mother's day sale. . .

I can't believe April is almost over already. 😮

I am glad it's finally spring like outside. 😎

Mother's day is right around the corner. 😇

There's a sale in my Etsy shop. 😉

15% off orders over $15

Plus Free Shipping over $60

Happy Shopping!!

what's up with THAT ??!??!

Ok so life's weirdness is getting to me in many ways.  I should start with I sprained my finger last week and it's still swollen and sore and slowing me down in the getting things done.  😢  It's mid April and they are talking "winter weather advisory" and blizzards, seriously WTF!?!?  Pinterest has changed format stuff, I looked at mine this morning and was like Whoa!?!  My Etsy shop stats have totally tanked this week, many many hours of absolute flat-line. 😕

I'll start with the thing that's actually making me smile, Pinterest, I went to check mine this morning and they have this cool new thing they are doing in the "header" space with my pinned photos.  I really like it, I think it looks cool as hell. 😊 Check it out !! 

This continuing winter weather is so not helpful. 😒  It's not just that I am sick of it, I actually need some good sunshiny days to get photos.  ~sigh~  I have new art I want to list but I can't until I can get decent photos.  I have enough trouble getting good photos without the grey rainy day background. 😖

Now for the most annoying thing and sadly no it's not the pain in my finger. 😡  This morning I decided to do something that is/has been recommended to/by other sellers, which is to just search your tags and see where you place and if you aren't placing well look at the listings that are and see what they are doing better/different than you.  So I tried it and of course I am nowhere but I did see several other shops I know and I clicked on a few of their listings from the front page to compare keywords. I did not click on PL ads I clicked on naturally placed listings from the front page and what I found was shocking to me and the exact opposite of what has always been recommended.  Even etsy's own articles on SEO and esty search placement say to use the whole title, use all 13 tag slots, make your title and tags match for max relevency, etc. Well instead I found front page items with only a handful of tags and short ass 4-5 word titles. 😕  I am super confused now, WTF?!?!   These are not new shops getting the new boost in spite of bad SEO, some of these are long standing successful shops, 1 of which I know used to have longer titles and use all their tags. 😩  So I guess I need to try another round of editing and see if this less SEO stuff works. 

OMG!?!?! I did it. . .

OMG!?  I agonized for weeks about whether or not to list my paintings for sale in my Etsy shop.  I mean I had a raging mental debate, I talked to my Momma, my husband, and my best friend about my fear of failure and rejection, the whole is it even good enough to sell, what if nobody ever buys them.  Do they look amateurish?  How do you price "Art"?  You know the whole world of insecurities that lives inside my head. 😑  

Well I did it I Jumped off that cliff last month.  I started with the spacescapes and battled my poor photography skills.  😕 After posting the first handful I asked in the forums for advice on listings art, I meant what to include in descriptions and keywords but all I got was pages full of you need better photos. 😡  That was sad and frustrating and in the end it just annoyed me into saying "screw it" I'm gonna do it my way anyway. 😜  

Yesterday I was vindicated!!  

I have sold my first painting!! 😮😁😇

I am shocked, surprised, humbled, blown away, thrilled beyond belief, over the moon happy.  I have sold many things I've made over the years, many things but I have never felt quite this proud.  It's really hard to explain but somehow selling that painting feels more personal than any of the wire art or jewelry or anything else.  

So I guess it's official. . . I am an artist. 😉

Trying something different. . .

I like trying new and different things some times, I mean I took up painting just for the fun of it. LOL  😃  I've been thinking about a few ideas for a while now, just crazy-ish things I wanted to try. 

I have a couple of "damaged" canvases, one was damaged in the package and one the cat knocked off the shelf and put a hole in. 😏 I didn't really want to just throw them away so I started thinking of ways to repair the tear/damage, obviously canvas is cloth so sewing. 😊  Hey I can sew, I can cross-stitch, I can embroider.  The more I thought about it the better the idea sounded (in my head) I contemplated what to do and how to best go about it for weeks. 

I decided on a flower meadow, so I started with a base layer of paint for the blue sky and green grass. I had to be careful not to make the tear in the corner worse and you can see the "dent" where it is when it was a plain canvas. I layered the painting, letting the first layer dry a bit before adding the next.

It's a bit hard to see in the photos but I'm actually super proud of the texture of my tree trunk.  Also nearly impossible to capture (at least with my lack of photography skills) there is sparkly glitter in those clouds. 😉

The leafing went fairly well, although the tree came out better than the bush, the bush kind of looks like a blob at this point. 😖

I used the flower to cover the tear and the attaching of the flower to stitch the hole up. 😁 It totally worked the tear is repaired and with the puffiness of the flowers you can't even see the dip/dent. I thought the flowers were a bit over-sized at first, but let's face it scale is not my forte`.  LOL  

I used some "holly" berries from some leftovers of Christmas wreath decorations and made it an "apple" tree. 😇  I think it's awesome it adds great texture and color. The rest of this is me mentally debating how much is enough and how much is too much.

I had to do something about that bush and the ribbon embroidery of leaves really seemed to do the trick, definition and texture at the same time and with 2 colors of leaves I think it really helped.  I also did a second vine of flowers along the hilltop to try to define the hills some so it didn't look so flat. 

My husband convinced me that the tree needed some leaves too. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm done with it or not, the tree may get some more fluffing, I'm also considering more flowers or maybe so "rain".  Not sure but it was late last night when I took the final photo so the lighting is bad, but you get the idea. 😛

Photography, the bane of my Etsy existence. . .

The title is a joke, sort of  😏  although not really.  I have always liked the idea of photography and I've taken a lot of photos in my lifetime.  However, I've never been that good at photography, in spite of having taken a class in high school and continuing to take photos for a bloody lifetime, I still stink at it.  😩

Many years ago before digital, I used to use a real camera which was all kinds of adjustable and real film which back in the high school days I developed myself.  I understand the basics of camera settings but I was never a pro and now with digital cameras and auto-adjust everything the damn camera never adjusts the way I want.  😕  Reading the manual and trying to dig into the settings and adjust the way I want is proving to be a pain in the A$$ and not that effective.

I have been battling my lousy photography skills for many years now.  My old business had different products and they were not as hard to photograph as the chainmaille or heavens help me art.  The jewelry has always been tricky, tiny details, every thing is shiny and reflective by nature.  My solution has been to just take tons of photos with variance in lighting and settings and then pick the ones that turn out best, it's time consuming to shoot 30-50 photos to get a handful to use in a listings. 

But I do get lucky and manage to get a few really good ones every now and then.  I generally don't do a lot of adjusting or editing of the photos I use except cropping, straightening, maybe a little light adjusting but I really do try to not "over-edit" my photos.  I want the colors to be accurate, I want the items to match the photos, I don't mind the items looking better than the photos.  Honestly, I'm a crafter, an artisan not a photographer, this is a difficult admission to put out into the world but there it is.  

One cannot be all things.  I have many talents and skills but sadly photography is not among them.  😢  I fear this will always be detrimental to my business, so much of online sales is the visual and I just can't seem to get that part.  I am not giving up just accepting I am at a disadvantage.  I will continue to try my best to get decent images of all the things I create but I fear I will never be up to par. 

Slow . . .sad and low

I have no idea what the ____ is up with Etsy the last few days. 😖 

I have read about google changes, and etsy search changes, how google was downing etsy with the latest algorithm but I didn't really understand it. I had noticed a slight dip in traffic but at that point I still had traffic at least. 😐 

Now I have not had a single view from "external search" ie google in a flipping week, literally my stats for the last 7 days show a 0. 😒  I have no idea how to counter this, my overall traffic is down 65% from last year in spite of my having a record high number of listings and a wide variety. 

Hell I started listing original paintings and added a whole new category and set of keywords which should have increased traffic not killed it.  😟  

I should be happy my social media traffic has increased but it seems to be the only traffic I have at the moment, exchanging a dozen google shopping views for a handful of facebook views does not seem like a good exchange to me.  😢

Well thanks anyway. . .

Ok, since the whole selling "art" is new to me I decided to ask for a bit of help with my new listings.  

Now I was actually hoping some artist-y types would comment on the content of the descriptions, the keywords that work, just make sure I'm not leaving out any obvious or important details that people may want. 

I specifically asked "Help, advice, critique if you must but please be nice" now in my head this was a sing-song-y rhyme-y bit of a joke, but it lead to the first comment being a bit snarky. 😒   So I clarified "I simply meant advise on the actual listings, info, format, pricing not "hey that's amateurish and no one will pay for it" type stuff." 

Although, I find it a bit ridiculous that I had to clarify this because people use the forums all the time asking for help, and critiques and I have seen many of these people give others really good suggestions, so imagine my disappointment when it didn't work that way with my post.

Now I am aware my photos are not the greatest, I generally speaking suck at photography, but I thought I had gotten some decent photos the other day the colors were accurate, they looked good to me.  

So I was a bit sad when nearly every comment was about how bad my photos suck. 😩😖  Annoyingly the majority of the advice to use better lighting, get some white boards, etc., etc., Well I have news for you those very photos they were all putting down were in fact shot in EXACTLY the manner they were suggesting. 😕                                  

Literally, giant white board on the bench top, giant tri-folding stand up, whole bank of lights, including the fancy professional lights that came with the light box the husband got me, in front a window. Exactly what they were all trying to suggest, as if I'm a total moron and had not done all the obvious standard stuff. 😏

One person suggested a helpful keyword I had not thought of which was great. 👍  A bunch of people are trying to suggest "Staged" photos of it on a wall over a sofa or with a nice table with a vase of flowers, or those awful digital backdrops.  Now I'm all for photos of it hanging on a wall if only I had a decent wall in this house, my living room is 3 walls of windows and a built-in bookcase, my sofa is floating in the middle of the room, my fireplace has incredibly ugly brick wall and it's in a room with zero windows so worst lighting ever, the master bedroom has fugly foil infused busy ass wallpaper.  😡  I really want to take some of these suggestions but they just aren't really an option for me, this a rental house so I don't want to put more holes in the walls, there are only so many rooms and most of them have crap lighting and I can't move my whole bank of lights. ~sigh~  I did some test shots in the guest room but then they complained it was too much space and it made the artwork look small. ~eye roll~  It is small it's only an 8" inch by 10" inch canvas. 

I hate the very idea of digital backdrops they make it too easy confuse and mislead people, it screws up the scale when a small 10"x10" picture looks like it's "sofa" sized, and those fake frames don't get me started, I don't want anyone ever thinking that the painting is already framed.  I've seen so many people in the forums all confused or angry, sellers complaining that buyers don't read descriptions, buyers complaining the photos showed one thing but they got another. Yes they make nice professional looking photos, but here's the thing I'm not a "photographer"and never claimed to be.  😇

One asshat just couldn't resist "I take it you love your cat - but at a glance the image in your avatar is just a black blob."  Because why stick to the topic or be helpful when you can be a dick to a stranger on the internet?  😑  

One guy actually right clicked and stole one of my listing photos, "improved" it in whatever software he uses and convo'd it back to me like he was doing me a favor showing me how "good" they could be if I edited them properly. 😬  Unfortunately, it looked like sh*t, he just jaked up the contrast and over exposed it and made the colors completely wrong. 😐  You know the very reason I do not do such over editing because it changes the colors and makes things look wrong, which leads to unhappy buyers when they open the box and it's a different color than the photo they ordered from, also known as the thing they all bitch about that has NEVER happened to me because I don't fudge my photos, they are what they are.  😎

I may not be setting sales records but I have never once had someone complain that the item they received didn't look like they thought it would, most of the time the response is "the photos don't do it justice" "it's even more gorgeous in person". It's the under-promise/over-deliver concept, that makes for happy people when they open my packages. There is a reason my other business never had a single return in 8 years, and this one has nothing but 5 star reviews.  

So I think I'm just going to keep on doing things my own way.  I will try to get better photos.  I will try to get a few of them hanging somewhere with some stuff for scale and perspective but, I will not use digital backdrops or frames, I will not over edit them to look better than they are.  I'm not photo-shop'ing photos of my paintings to look better than the paintings, there are no super crisp details it is swirly watercolors for f*ck's sake. 😛

Jumping off a cliff. . .

Ok, so it just sort of feels like jumping off a cliff to me.  😯

I decided to go ahead and start listing some of my paintings in the Etsy shop.  I have given it quite a bit of thought and have changed my mind about a hundred times mostly out of fear, fear that no one will like them or buy them, fear that the photos aren't good enough, fear that someone will buy one and then not like it when they get it.  You know random fear and insecurity.  😓

When I post them on instagram they get likes and sometimes even comments. I mailed one to a friend and she loves it, but we all know friends and family are totally bias. 😄

I have started with 4 of the spacescape that I think are the best and I plan to start adding the abstract rainbows next week.  Now I just hope this isn't a total waste of time.  😇

Learning to paint. . .

I have always been a hands-on learner. 😄  So when I decided I wanted to learn to paint I did not do a bunch of research or watch a bunch of instructional videos. I mean I watched Bob Ross as kid but who didn't?  😉  I always liked the idea of "happy little trees". 

But me being oh so Me just had to do things my own way.  I saw a clearance going out of business sale sign on an art store last year and I decided I wanted to check it out. I had driven by the store pretty regular it's in a plaza with other shops I use often, I had previously thought "hey I should check that out someday".  So the day I saw the closing sign I was a bit sad but thought "hey last chance".  I went in and wandered around a bit, having no idea what I was really looking at or looking for just wandering wide eyed admiring all the things I didn't have a clue how to use.  😊  

I spotted this really cool portable easel case thing and it was soooo discounted that not buying seemed like a waste.  So I bought it, then realized I had no idea how to even unfold it let alone use it, and that I didn't have any supplies or even a clue about painting.  I spent weeks staring at the box wondering if I was completely crazy, if I really wanted to start down this road. In the same weeks I also went shopping with 55% off coupons at A.C.Moore and JoAnns and picked up some watercolor paints, a pack of assorted shaped/sized brushes, some canvases, you know the things I thought one would use in painting. 

After I compiled the assorted supplies I then went back to the mental debate of what was I thinking, I'm no "artist".  I decided I'd just try and see how it turned out, I have no training or technique or general clue even really but I decided I was just going to have fun.  

 So I set up the easel, loaded it with my supplies, opened the paints and went to town in my living room.  No fancy studio, no fancy lights (at the time) just playing with my paints while watching TV.

But honestly I love the way it turned out.  I am not an artist I still do not claim to be an artist but I have now made some real art, even if it was purely by accident.  😛  Oh and it was purely by accident, in school I was never good with portrait stuff, faces and features I just sucked.  However, in my randomly swirling paint to make space-scapes I somehow ended up with this awesome pair of lips whisper from the depths of this black-hole.  I fell in love with the completed piece and it's mine, it's hanging in my upstairs hallway.

I let that fester, I went back to jewelry and wire trees and living my life, but every night on the way to bed I walk past this painting and it makes me think and it makes me smile and it makes me want to paint more.  

And I have been off and on, in between other things.  I sent one to a good friend because she was very complimentary on my facebook pics and really seemed to like them. 😇  She took a photo of it hanging on her wall and shared it on facebook, said she loved it. 

I have since done some research because I was considering selling them, so I wanted to get a price range and see how the artist-y types write the descriptions and stuff.  What I learned is the price range I had in mind is really low compared to most others.  Also reading their descriptions about priming and treating canvases and such made me realize I don't do any of that, I have no idea what they are even talking about. "Holy crap I'm doing it all wrong"  😞😟😕

So I did some more research and reading and then investigated my supplies.  Whew I'm ok, somehow I lucked into pre-primed, pre-treated, pre-stretched, kiln dried canvases.  So all those confuse-y step they were talking about I don't have to do it's all done for me.  Thank heavens, I felt like a total choad for a while there.  Now I've determined I'm just going to keep doing me my way right or wrong, for better or for worse.  😉

Happy February. . .

Happy February to all, Valentine's day is almost here.  

I've made some new trees, I've made some new earrings, I just keep adding things.  I have finally broken the 150 listing mark, now let's just hope it triggers some sales.  ~LOL~  

I've been enjoying playing with my paints on the side.  I really like the space-scapes there's no way to go wrong as long as it looks cool in the end, it's not like painting portraits or trees or "real" things.  I'm also thinking of doing some just totally random abstract art. 

I am actually reconsidering whether or not I should try to sell them.  I mean they are hard to photograph, but art is so subjective.  But as long as I stick to the 8x10 or 11x14 sizes shipping shouldn't be too high.  

Pre-Valentine's Day Sale

Valentine's Day will be here before you know it, so leave time for shipping and order early.  

I made pretty "flyer" style picture announcements for the social media pages like Facebook, instagram, and Pinterest.  

I think I may try to make a couple more, not sure which listing photo to use and I'll need to come up with another tag line too.