Late Summer Update

I know that nobody is reading this (I only get a rare comment on anything I write here), but I thought I'd post an update to my last post.

Serendipity brought me to a cute apartment across town. My concern about trying to find an apartment while being "semi-retired" was quickly resolved when the manager said all I needed to do was show that I had the same amount of money as an employed person would be required to have (3x the rent), though she asked for proof of that for each month of the 6-month lease! She accepted my IRA statement as proof and assured me that she wasn't putting a lien on my money, but I'd have to show proof of income (or savings) each time I renewed the lease. I was thrilled when she told me that I scored 9.5/10.0 on the survey they use to determine whether to rent to someone ... she said most of her tenants don't come close to that! 

I like it here except for the traffic noise which I am subjected to for about 21 hours a day; it's especially bad when the windows are open! When the apartment is closed up, it's more quiet, but I like letting the fresh air in (such as it is in a big city!) when the weather permits it! It's fairly quiet between about 1am and 4am! One of the most pleasant surprises is that there are FAR fewer sirens in this area than at my last apartment!

This apartment is maybe 600 square feet, compared to 850 square feet at the previous place I called home. There is some storage space here, which is much appreciated! 

I don't think I'll ever understand how apartment complexes can get away with not showing an actual apartment to prospective tenants. The manager of this complex showed me 4 or 5 photos on her computer and handed me a floor plan. I had to put a "holding deposit" on the apartment based on that limited information. However, since I knew I could no longer afford to live where I had been, not to mention that complex had gone to hell in the 5 years I lived there, I felt I had to go for it. 

The neighborhood seems safer, unless one is a pedestrian. Sidewalks are apparently not mandatory and it seems to be the property owner's choice whether they want to build their own sidewalk. This means pedestrians often have to walk in bike lanes, even on very busy streets! I am still trying to find places to walk. I've ventured off in several directions thus far; I miss being able to walk amongst million-dollar homes, as I did prior to my move. LOL!

My sewing room is in the "dining room." I need to find a loveseat or small sofa to replace the queen-size futon which takes up tooooo much of the living room. I've had to

get back to my sewing ... for Etsy, fairs, and wholesale orders, so haven't done much decorating yet. I sold my big antique work table (a farmhouse-size dining table) to a friend for about what I paid for it 8 years ago. I am considering selling this cupboard, though I'd need to find something to keep my new fabric in. I'd like a blind-door cupboard or, better yet, an antique dry sink; definitely something with old paint!

Well, I need to get going for now. Doctor's appointment then more sewing ... and hopefully I'll get a few more things listed in my Etsy shop before the day is over!

SEO & Etsy

It seems like whenever I'm in the Etsy forums, I'm always trying to explain to sellers how to optimize their SEO (i.e., Search Engine Optimization). Here's a quick review I just did this morning. I chose one item at random from Alyssa's shop, AlyssaScarfer:

These are the tags she was using:

• Accessories
• Scarf
• Knit
• scarf
• scarves
• infinity scarf
• infinity scarves
• arm knit scarf
• arm knitting
• knit
• tan infinity scarf
• tan scarf
• chunky knit scarf
• chunky knit infinity
• chunky knit scarves
• soft scarf

My initial response to Alyssa was that she is wasting several tag slots. Etsy provides up to 3 categories and sub-categories for each item; these are the three capitalized words at the top of the list which serve double-duty as tags, so there's no need to waste a tag slot by repeating these words on their own! 2 tag slots saved!

Next, I explained how, when a seller is using a multiple word phrase, they don't need to repeat any of those words (in the same order) as separate tags. Since this seller has "tan infinity scarf," she didn't also need "infinity scarf" as a separate tag. 1 tag slot saved!

"Scarf" and "Scarves" show the exact same number of search results on Etsy; this means it's likely that shoppers are seeing the exact same items, so that's another tag slot which could be put to better use. I told Alyssa that I would use "scarf" since she's selling a single scarf, but it would seem not to matter. The same is true for "infinity scarf" and "infinity scarves" and, although this search result was actually off by ONE, it's still likely showing the same exact items (except for one!) since the number of search results is nearly identical. 2 tag slots saved!

Now, of course, comes the challenge of trying to think of five new tags to replace the ones which were just deleted. I have enough of a challenge trying to think of tags for my own items, so I ended my tag review at this point. :-)

This ALWAYS Freaks Me Out!

This is the second or third time I've seen one of my creations in an Etsy ad on Facebook. Pretty cool, eh?

And here's where you can adopt this charming pumpkin fellow!

Did Your Microsoft Office Starter Stop Working Too?

About two weeks ago, the Microsoft Office Starter software on my Dell laptop stopped working after one of those weekly Windows updates. Suddenly I had weird ORANGE icons on my desktop and also in the file list when I went looking for the actual files in the folders. Although I have an extended warranty from Dell (thank goodness!), I have been absolutely dreading calling to ask them to help with this problem. If you've ever dealt with Dell tech support, you know what I'm talking about ... 

In a last ditch effort to resolve this problem myself (before giving in and calling Dell tech support), I decided to try to "repair" Office Starter. It said I would lose any UNsaved work, but of course I was freaking out that SAVED work might be lost as well. But I had to try it ... and less than 2 minutes later, I'm once again able to get into my Excel spreadsheets that I use for my business!

Just one small problem, which was super-easy to fix. After the repair, the shortcut on my desktop asked me to put media in the F: drive. I work off of a flash drive and it's the E: drive. So I deleted the old shortcut and made a new one, which references the E. drive and it works just fine. 

BIG WHEW!!!

Oh, just in case (like me) you've never tried to repair a program, here's how you do it!

1. Click on the Windows (Start) button.
2. Click on Control Panel.
3. Click on Programs.
4. Click on Programs and Features.
5. Find your program (Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - English).
6. Click on Change (at the top of the list).
7. Click the Yes button (I left the box unchecked).
8. There will be a pop-up showing the progress of the repair. Literally, it took maybe 2 minutes and the regular icons were back on my desktop!

Fall Shows & Current Work

This past week I applied to the "Holiday Art & Craft Festival" sponsored by the Crocker Art Museum. I'm every bit as nervous about this show as I was about the Art Fiesta in June; I won't know for sure whether I've been accepted for this show until the notification date in mid-August, so your finger-crossing is most welcome!

These shows are among what I consider the top three Sacramento-area juried art fairs. The third show is the "Sacramento Art Festival" which is held at the Convention Center downtown in early November; this is a very expensive show to do ($560 for a small booth in 2013), so it's not likely that you'll ever see me at this show. But maybe after I see how much commission I have to pay at the Crocker show (they request 15% commission in addition to the booth fee), it's possible I could change my mind. LOL!

I still have quite a bit of Americana in my Etsy shop. As a special treat for my blog readers, you can use Americana10 to get 10% off anything in my shop through July 13, 2013. It's all included, not just Americana, however you do need to spend at least $25 to activate the discount.

I've begun working on Autumn items and will continue with that through July and possibly into August before starting work on Winter and Christmas things. I will probably start listing my Autumn items around mid-July.

Good morning! I wanted to share some photos of my booth from the "Art Fiesta" art fair which I did on June 1st and 2nd. Some of these items are still available in my Etsy shop. Enjoy!

ACCEPTED!!!

I'm delighted to announce that I've been accepted to show my primitive folk art at the 55th annual Art Fiesta, so please mark June 1st & 2nd on your calendar! The Art Fiesta is the longest-running juried art fair in the Sacramento area.

This year, the Art Fiesta will be held at The Pavilions, an upscale shopping center, located on Fair Oaks Blvd. (x-street Howe Avenue) and next door to the Borders book store that closed awhile back. Shoppers will probably be able to park at Border's -- there are always some cars parked there anyway. This show has been held at the Town & Country shopping center in the past (Fulton @ Marconi), however they're doing a lot of construction over there this year, in preparation for several new anchor stores.

These are my "Berry Dolls" (still need to make their berries!). They will be available for adoption at the Art Fiesta. I will have several other styles of dolls as well, and a variety of pillows and other "smalls" for you to choose from.

My booth is #325 (click the link for a map of the art fair booths) which is between Julius, where you can shop from such clothing lines as Armani and Stella McCartney, and Pavilion Shoes, an equally high-end shoe "salon."

I've got a LOT of work to do between now and then ... but I look forward to seeing you in June!

Sewing Lessons in Sacramento

I've been thinking about offering beginning to intermediate sewing lessons here in Sacramento, California. 

I've been sewing since before I entered high school, so that's more than 40 years. I have made clothing as well as craft and home decor items. I can teach you how to use sewing patterns and explain the terminology. What is a selvedge? What is the grain of the fabric and why is it important? What is a seam allowance? And more!

Unfortunately, I don't have enough room in my small apartment for students to come sew, but if you'd like to learn how to sew, let me know and maybe we can come up with a solution! 

Can You Help the Four-Leggers?

Y'all know I don't blog unless I'm really inspired to, and this photo from Facebook has inspired me!

One of my Facebook friends is Bernie Berlin. I first heard Bernie's name after taking a collage class. Bernie is an quite an accomplished artist! Then I started seeing Bernie's pics of puppy dogs on Facebook, and learned that another of Bernie's passions is rescuing the four-leggers from shelters where their days are numbered.

Bernie lives in Tennessee and rescues animals, primarily from the Sumner County, Tennessee shelter, where their days are numbered. Bernie's organization, "A Place to Bark, Inc."  provides food, shelter, and veterinary care for these animals until they can be adopted. Needless to say, all of this requires quite a bit of money! If you have the ability to donate a few dollars to help Bernie out, it would be so very kind! 

I took the plunge!

I've been hemming and hawing about Etsy's "new" (not so new anymore, I guess) feature called "Direct Checkout." This feature is still an option for Etsy sellers, although many expect it to be required at some time in the future.

My main concern about Direct Checkout is that Etsy expects requires me to ship items paid for via Direct Checkout BEFORE I have access to the funds/payment for the item. With PayPal, which I've used for 12+ years, the payment is available to me immediately (literally!); I have the PayPal debit card and I can use it to shop locally or online immediately after receiving payment for an item. Etsy, however, is holding seller's funds/payment for THREE DAYS, and after that it will likely take another day or two (at least!) for the funds to appear in my bank account and be available for me to spend.

Many sellers feel that Etsy is profiting from the "float" (interest) on the money. With tens of thousands of sellers on the Etsy web site, many of whom are using Direct Checkout, there is probably quite a sizeable amount of money being floated at any given time -- likely thousands of dollars, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars! After all, Etsy sellers sell MILLIONS of dollars worth of goods each and every month! Here's the link to the latest (July 2012 Weather Report), which is Etsy's monthly public reporting of many numbers associated with the site. In July 2012, for example, $69.5 million dollars of goods were sold on the Etsy site (this number takes into account refunds and cancelled sales). Now, of course, not all 69 million dollars of goods were paid for with Direct Checkout, and I haven't yet seen where (or if) Etsy is releasing any numbers regarding the amount of sales paid for via Direct Checkout, OR how many Etsy sellers are using Direct Checkout.

If you are using Direct Checkout, I'd love if you'd leave a comment here! Let me know how you like it, if it has generated increased sales for you, or if you've had any problems with it. Thanks!

Ingenuity!

Got an idea this morning that involved using paint in a container I couldn't get open. I have never liked the large "jar" type paint containers -- talkin' house paint here, folks, not craft paint. These containers are too large to grasp easily and, if the lid has gotten stuck on by dried paint, opening them is a real challenge!

First, I tried the usual trick of banging the edge of the lid with a knife handle (ok, so I used a screwdriver this time ... same thing!), but the lid still wouldn't budge. You may have done this with ketchup bottles or jars of pasta sauce -- and if you haven't, DO give it a try, as it has always worked for me! Anyway, since this was latex (water-based) paint, I thought maybe a little warm water would help.

I set a timer for two minutes so I didn't forget about it ... it happens, ya know?! And just about two minutes later, voila! 

Now to get back to my project ... 

What is the most ingenious thing you've done lately?

A Primitive Shop in ... JAPAN!

 

Today I received this picture from one of my wholesale customers in Japan. She ordered these hearts recently and yesterday she took this pic and posted it on her store's blog and her store's web site ... she says the hearts almost sold out right away!

The store is Nantucket Country and has been buying from me since about 1998. Masami found one of my early attempts at a web site shortly after she opened her store and bought things from me for a few years. My style then became "too primitive" (grungy & stained) for her customers, but earlier this year she found my Etsy shop and saw that I was still making things and has placed two orders in the last few months!

If you're in or near Kobe, or have the opportunity to visit in the future, I hope you will stop in at Nantucket Country and say hi for me!

And if you're a store owner who is interested in buying wholesale, please contact me for wholesale prices! Besides the hearts, I make grungy & grubby "extreme" primitive dolls (i.e., the grungier the better for me!), stockings for Christmas and other seasons, pillows, and a variety of things (mostly sewn or fabric). I love to work with antique quilts and other vintage textiles. Today I'm starting to work on Fall and Halloween dolls for a few customers and have already shipped some Santas to other wholesale customers!

Tana

A Sad Day on Etsy

Etsy has a "Featured Seller" section on their front page. Usually this space is filled by a seller who makes things in their own studio with their own two hands. But they blew it this time. BIG TIME. They're currently featuring an Etsy seller who sells furniture and accessories which appear to be imported from Indonesia. I apologize for not providing any links but I don't want to provide anything which could be helpful to this Featured Seller.

For those of you who feel I may be a little harsh here, Etsy has a list of "Do's and Don'ts" which they usually take very seriously (sometimes a bit TOO seriously). If you click on the Do's and Don'ts link, you'll see a list of rules regarding who can help an Etsy seller produce their work. These include:

• An assistant, under the direct supervision of the seller, may: assist with a portion of the creation process, list items in a shop, ship items, communicate with buyers, accounting or other record keeping.
• A third-party vendor may be used for intermediary tasks in some crafts. Acceptable examples include, but are not limited to: printing the seller's original artwork, metal casting from the seller's original mold, or kiln firing the seller's handcrafted ceramic work.
• A third-party vendor may not fulfill your orders to your Etsy customers on your behalf (no drop-shipping).
• An assistant or third-party vendor's involvement may not comprise a majority share of a handmade item's creation.

And then there's the current Featured Seller. Research indicates that she may be the owner of a gallery in Malibu, California which imports the items being offered in her Etsy shop. She willingly provides the information that she has four carpenters helping her, and I'm willing to bet that their "assistance" comprises a majority share of the creation of these items! (See the fourth bullet point above.)

Resellers on Etsy are nothing new. Hundreds of Etsy sellers have their items flagged for review every day because someone believes the item(s) are not handmade or at least not handmade primarily by the seller. Unfortunately, Etsy rarely (if ever) takes action to shut these shops down. And now they've gone and featured one of these shops as a Featured Seller?!

Etsy, you owe us, the REAL artisans on your site, a huge apology.

If you would like to support a true American artist (and one residing in California!), please visit my Etsy shop: Prairie Primitives. Thank you!

FOLKStore is Open!

By now, you've probably heard of FOLK Magazine. It's a new kid on the magazine block and just published it's first issue earlier this year.

The editor is a "youngster" from the Midwest. I'm old enough now that I feel ok calling anyone less than half my age a youngster. :-) But Ben, the editor, seems to be onto something because the magazine has been a HUGE hit!


Ben has been busy! In early November, Ben debuted FOLKlabel: Private Selection at the Simple Goods primitive fair in Ohio.

 

I'm honored that Ben chose to include my handstamped flag pillows as part of this new collection!

In fact, he bought all of these pillows that I had left!

And, as if that wasn't enough, now he's gone and opened FOLKstore in Beaver Dam, Kentucky (population: 3,033!). And looky! There's those pillows again ... right in the front window of the new store!

I'm still smilin' and I'm busy making more stuff with the hope that Ben will keep buying from me!

Black Friday Comes Earlier Every Year!

Used to be the stores opened at 6am on Black Friday. Then it was 5am. Then 4am. Then Midnight. And this year, I think I heard that Walmart is opening at 10pm tonight (in less than 15 minutes), except the electronics won't go on sale till midnight (?).


Michael's opened at 4pm today with 30% off everything, including sale-priced items. I had only a few things on my shopping list but couldn't find any of them.

Rosehips or some sort of red berry

 A tag punch (size and shape negotiable)

Parchment paper to print on

One strike, two strike, three strikes, you're out!


But since I was there, and since I did have a coupon for 30% off everything, I took a look around the store ...

A pad of Tim Holtz Kraft paper was the first thing to jump into my shopping basket!

This is called "Kraft Resist" ... but who can resist kraft paper

(especially when it's printed with Tim Holtz designs!)???

This was quickly followed by ...

A booklet of "Salvage Stickers" ("Crowded Attic" collection) ...

Reinforcers ...

A sunflower stamp (Inkadinkadoo) ...

and just for fun ... 

A package of red & white polkadot cupcake liners!

Total damage was $26 after the 30% discount, and that's about what the kraft paper pad and the stamp would have cost at regular price!

Then I came home and was going through some mail and found a Joann's flyer for their Black Friday sale. Oh my ... I know where I'll be in less than 9 hours! :-)

Let's see, a few boxes of poly stuffing (on sale at 40% off and with a 25% coupon on top of that, I'll get as many boxes as I can get into my truck!). Their Fiskars punches are 60% off (unheard of -- and the 25% off coupon is good for that too!); sure hope they have a tag punch (or two). And I'll probably have to take a peek at the fabric while I'm there, though it will have to be something I really "need" to stand in line very long.

And after that, I may just drive to Modesto to see what Jamison's looks like on opening day!

Harvest Festival - Sacramento

I have a feeling y'all are probably anxious to see what I bought with my Harvest Bucks ... right? I walked the whole show, making mental notes as I went about booths I wanted to go back to. I ended up buying from two almost local artists, one lady is from Modesto and the other is from Red Bluff.

The crow pottery was made by Charlotte Certain whose business name is "Crooked Finger Pottery." I couldn't find her on Facebook, Etsy, or Google! She lives in Red Bluff, if you're trying to track her down. I love the crows! The berry bowl (there's a separate saucer underneath it) is for a friend's birthday/holiday gift, so if you're reading this, Jennifer, you'll get it in a couple of weeks! :-)


The "California" bracelet is from Grouse And Badger; they do have a shop on Etsy, but readily admitted they don't list everything they make there. The bracelet is made from a vintage California license plate!


And I still have $15 in Harvest Bucks left, so I'll be going back to the Harvest Festival on Sunday!

Etsy Treasury - Happy Homespun Holidays

I just put together an Etsy Treasury for the holidays. Hope you'll take a moment and give it some love. Log in to your Etsy account and click on some (or all) of the 16 items and leave a comment. The link is below the image of the Treasury. Thanks, and Happy Homespun Holidays!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NzI0NzZ8MTA2OTMzMDA1Mw/happy-homespun-holidays

Blogger Finally Got It (mostly) Right!!!

I don't know when Blogger made this change, but I've just discovered the ability to port all of my blogs to a new email address! In the past, it only seemed like I was able to port a few abilities, i.e. writing new posts but not changing the template, for example, but now I've got ALL of my blogs associated with the email account I use on a daily basis. So now I won't have to log out of that Gmail account, log in to another Gmail account to work on the blogs, log out of that Gmail account, and log back into my regular day-to-day Gmail account. YIPPEE!!!

Maybe this will even tempt me to post more often! :-)

Now ... if they'd put space back between paragraphs, make sure the easy edit option (the pencil icon) is available when it's supposed to be (it seems to only show in Firefox at the moment), and fix the image adder thingy so images get inserted where they're supposed to go, rather than at the top of the post, where I then have to drag them to where I want them. Oh, and make their site work better with IE. I go back and forth between IE and Firefox, and lately it's been IE, but publishing posts has been next to impossible in IE, as well as saving in draft format.

So Blogger got something right, but it looks like other things may have gotten broke in the process. Sigh.

I Love My Customers but I Hate Dimensional Weight Shipping!

I need to whine and vent just a bit about the post office and their "dimensional weight shipping." In case you're not familiar with this term, this is how they calculate postage when a package is larger than 1 cubic foot (i.e., 12x12x12 or any measurements which make the total cubic inches greater than 1728 when you multiply the length times the width times the height.

This morning I received a wholesale order from a new customer. Ben likes my hand stamped flag pillows, but needs them in Ohio no later than this coming Friday, so he can take them to the Simple Goods show on Saturday where he will debut the new FOLKlabel: Private Selection! He requested all of the large pillows I have on hand and a few small ones, but the only box I have that this many pillows would fit in is huge; there was a little room left in the box, but not very much.


The box weighs just 8 pounds. I checked shipping via all of the major carriers. Priority Mail is $57.67; Express Mail is $51.28; it would get there the same day either way, except Express Mail is guaranteed to arrive by 3pm, that's the only difference ... and it's cheaper! FedEx Ground is $45.75 and is guaranteed to arrive by the end of the 4th business day (i.e., Friday, Nov. 4th if I ship on Oct. 31st). UPS wants $43.26 for their "3 day Select" service, and says it will arrive by the end of the day on Thursday, Nov. 3rd if I ship tomorrow. All of these rates are simply OUTRAGEOUS and they're so high because of the Dimensional Weight calculations! Back in the good ol' days, that is before 2007, Priority Mail didn't cost much more than Parcel Post, and FedEx Ground and UPS home delivery were both very competitive, especially for larger and/or heavier packages. But since then, it's been VERY expensive to ship any packages larger than 1 cubic foot, especially if they're traveling any distance, as is the case with these pillows. Oh, and in case you're wondering, Parcel Post would be just $14.15, but the package likely wouldn't arrive until Monday, Nov. 7th, which is three days too late!

Anyway, Ben and I shot some emails back and forth, trying to decide what to do. In the end, he decided to have me put as many pillows in the huge box as it would hold, so he's got all 21 flag pillows that I have left!

If you go to the Simple Goods show, please stop by Ben's booth and say hi and pick up one of my flag pillows!

Prairie Primitives Mercantile Lives Again!

The Merc has been neglected for much too long because I couldn't quite decide what I wanted to do with it. For the time being, anyway, I've redesigned it and set up tabs which link to the corresponding sections in my Etsy shop and to my yard sale page on Facebook.

I'm giving serious thought to reopening my Picturetrail site soon too! Stay tuned!