Sheepshape

Meet my new Etsy Shop Buddy, Sheepshape!

Elizabeth, a fiber artist from London, has a wonderful shop filled with hand-dyed roving and handspun yarn, along with the most adorable, huggable knitted animal friends.

We both recently took the Stone Soup Challenge, decided that our shops compliment each other well, and declared ourselves Shop Buddies. What a great way to extend the Stone Soup idea even further.... to promote each other's shops!

Take a look at Elizabeth's shop. Luscious colors, gorgeous textures... traditional crafts with innovative techniques.

Everything in the shop is lovely (and highly covet-able) but the items that stand out from other Etsy sellers are her glow-in-the-dark fibers. Do you know a child who would love to see his or her blankie or stuffed animal in the dark? What an amazing idea! You can purchase handspun yarn made with glow-in-the-dark fibers to knit or crochet a very special blanket for a very special child. Or lovely huggable animals knitted with glow-in-the-dark yarn.

EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival: The 3rd Month

Here's the current topic for EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival:
Month 3 - We are already on March!! What have you accomplished this year in real life or on Etsy?? Have you followed your New Year's resolutions? What are your plans for the rest of 2009?

I've been thinking about this topic and planned to blog about it on my own. Even better that it's a Blog Carnival topic.

Ok. Let's go back and look at what I promised two months ago (how soon I forget!):

*Make more stuff.
I've been doing pretty well with this. Keep on going.

*Expand the line of items I make for knitters.
Good so far. I created a line of knitting-related rubber stamps. Still need to do more. What's on the drawing board? Covered tape measures, circular needle holders, more stitch markers, a few more rubber stamps.

*Once I have the knitting items added to the shop, maybe do a little advertising on Ravelry?
Not yet for Ravelry. However I did a different kind of advertising to knitters. I contributed to the PhatFibers boxes for February and will send in my March & April contributions on Monday. So I guess I've done this... or a variation of this.

*Oh, and start donating $1 from each set of stitch markers that I sell to Susan G. Komen For the Cure.
Done. Haven't sent out my first donation but I'm planning to do it at the end of each quarter.

*Keep expanding the line of hand-carved rubber stamps.
I have made more in addition to the knitting stamps. And I need to keep on going. They're very popular and fun to make!

*Now that Etsy has finally connected up with Google Analytics, I need to take advantage of that information.
I've been checking it regularly.

*Try to add more items made with upcycled materials.
I've made a few. I want to make more.

*I'm making a limited-edition 'zine for a swap and will have some for sale in the shop.
This is almost done. I expect to list it sometime next week or maybe the week after.
*Redo my "Categories."
I added a "Goods for Knitters" category but decided not to mix it up more than that. I took an informal survey and discovered that folks like straight-forward categories and are irked by squishy ones. So no squishy categories for me!

*Change up my banner and avatar regularly.
I've been doing this.
*Keep up with LinkReferral.
I've not been doing this on a regular basis. Bad Etsian.

*I'm thinking of trying 1000Markets, ArtFire, and FunkyFinds.
I haven't gotten very far except to buy a shop on ArtFire. Perhaps my biggest failing on the resolution list.

*My art/craft room desperately needs cleaning and reorganization.
Also not done. But needed. Sometime soon, I promise.

EtsyBlogger of the Month: Design by Nora

It's a Family Affair.

Nora's shop features not only her cute little polymer clay earrings but also a big selection of handbags designed by her Uncle Naz. It's a fun combination of goodies from an obviously creative family.

According to Nora's profile, she recently graduated with a B.A. in Art/Graphic Design. She says, "Besides my love for graphic design, I love making cards, jewelry, playing around with polymer clay, reading and geeking around on the computer."

It's been fun to poke around her shop to learn more about her. Check out her shop! Don't you need a little pair of flower earrings for spring?

Ruby Does It Again!

Miz Ruby Colorway (the nom de swap of my secret pal) has done it again! Last month she sent me the most amazing package... and this month's package was just as terrific. She obviously has been stalking me quite thoroughly, for everything is absolutely perfect.

Gorgeous yarns -- soft merinos in luscious colors, 4 skeins of Noro for felting, books & a magazine (I accidentally left two out of the photo), beautiful handmade goodies from Etsy shops (a lovely felted bag, entrelac scarf, collaged notecard), the cutest wine-cat poster, light-up needles... and on and on. Oh, and a sweet little felted bowl (did you make it?).

Thank you so much, Ruby. You're the best!

You may have already won....

I got notice yesterday from the Singer Sewing Machine Company that my bulletin board won their "Sewing With Nature" contest.

I made the bulletin board earlier this month so it was fun to have almost immediate gratification. The "Sewing With Nature" contest, run jointly by Singer and CRAFT Magazine, asked for a single submission per person through their Flickr group. The rules were easy but written loosely for individual interpretation. The project needed to include machine sewing and "integrate organic elements."

I'd been wanting to make some bulletin boards for a long time. They're a great way to use beautiful little bits of fabric. This particular bulletin board (my first), entitled "Promise of Spring," was made with a patchwork of linen and some cotton fabrics stretched over a magnetized corkboard. I sewed several dried salal leaves on as decoration. And then made two magnets by sewing more leaves between layers of Tyvek and then gluing to a magnet.

I love the combination of fabrics. Several were from SpicedCoffee for a recent swap. They give a sense of winter with a hint of spring to come. And, of course, I'm always a fan of natural linen paired with other beautiful fabrics.

What do I get for winning, you ask? A Singer Confidence 7467 sewing machine and a set of Singer sewing books. Quite fun, eh?

Handmade Help: 2009 Victoria Bushfire Relief

I am donating 50% of all sales from my Etsy shop from now through the end of February to 2009 Victoria Bushfire relief.

For more information on other "handmade help" or what you can do to help out, visit their website.

Warm Ewe Up: Blog Question #4

What am I doing for Valentine's Day?

Working of course!

We always hold an Open House on the Saturday before Valentine's Day, and this year the holiday falls directly on the Saturday.

We'll have some wine-friendly Valentine treats to try, live jazz guitar, and a great party atmosphere.

If you're in southern Michigan this weekend, stop on by!

The Stone Soup Challenge: February

My pledge to The Stone Soup Challenge is easy to fulfill. One of the main reasons for setting up my Etsy shop was to make spending money to purchase goodies from other online vendors.

I pledged more than the recommended amount because I knew I was already spending more and wanted to push myself a little. My pledge was to spend at least 50% of the profits from my Etsy shop with independent online vendors, including the of purchase one item per month from another shop participating in The Stone Soup Challenge.

The earrings pictured above are my first purchase from a SSC participant, christinececelia. I love images of bees, so these sweet little earrings were a natural choice.

This month I've also sold an item to another SSC participant, my8kidsmom. She ordered a custom stamp with her shop name. What a fun purchase! And The Stone Soup Challenge is working already.

EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival: My Etsy Shop

For the February 27 EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival (yes, I know I'm early), the topic is:

What made you open a shop on Etsy? What do you like about being a seller on Etsy? What don't you like?

For many years (before Tommy was born and when he was little) I had a booth in the Ann Arbor Art Fair. One of the largest art fairs in the country, the A2 fair sees over a half-million visitors in four days in July. I enjoyed being a part of the crazy art fair scene, but it started taking over my summers, and I eventually dropped my booth.

I never really missed the fair, but I did miss making things to sell.

For the past few years I've been swapping through Swap-Bot and Flickr (and more recently, Ravelry). And I made lots and lots of items to include in these swaps. Several of the items -- especially the Harry Potter charm bracelets -- had lots of requests (through Flickr primarily) from folks who were interested in buying them.

I had been an Etsy buyer for a while and decided to give it a try as a seller as well. That was a little over a year and 217 sold items ago.

What do I like about it? Lots of things:
* The ease and low cost of running the shop and adding new items
* The sense of community
* The warmth of the other members
* The great things Etsy sellers and buyers do for each other
* [Generally] The look of the site
* The wide variety of gorgeous and wonderful items for sale

What don't I like?
* The way I feel like a needle in a very, very large haystack. It's very difficult to get noticed
* The exclusive attitude of the Etsy admin. There are many, many instances where I feel excluded rather than included
* The emphasis on opening new shops and relisting items, rather than helping us make sales
* Communication - it's often non-existent or mishandled
* The lack of flexibility in setting up (both organizationally and graphically) my shop

EtsyBlogger of the Month: donnapool

One of the original members of EtsyBloggers, donnapool has a fun, eclectic shop filled with buttons, photography, and toys.

Her buttons made with vintage images are some of my favorites. I'm such a fan of old advertising graphics and they make very fun buttons!

According to her Etsy profile, donnapool is a stay-at-home mom who used to work as a photographer. In addition to EtsyBloggers, she's also a member of three other Etsy street teams: EtsyMoms, EtsyCREST, CafeMom Etsy Moms.

To learn more about her, visit her blog, "Donna Says..."

February Thaw

The icicles are melting.

For the first time in probably 6 weeks or so, the temperatures are above 32 F. The sun is out, the temperature is about 37 F, and it feels positively balmy.

Let's hope it doesn't melt too much. I'd much rather have uber-cold and beautiful than somewhat-cold and grey and slushy.

Happy February!

Warm Ewe Up: Blog Question #3

Time for the new "Warm Ewe Up" swap question:
What is your favorite way to keep warm when it’s snowing outside? (And if you live in a warm weather climate, what would you do to stay warm and cozy while it’s snowing?)

This winter has been has been the coldest and snowiest that I can remember for a very long time. Southern Michigan usually has grey winters -- lots of snow-less days or partially melted slush. But we've probably had a full month of below freezing weather. So every time we get snow, it stays on the ground. At this point, it's up to your knees. And, as much as it's a really cold winter, I've been enjoying the beauty of it. It's like living in a Christmas card.

I love to be inside when it's snowing like mad outside. On those days where they're predicting 6-10 inches (or more) and it just snows and snows for hours.

What do I like to do on those days? Well, I'm such a lover of creature comforts, everything has to do with that. Knitting. A pot of hot tea (or a mug of cocoa). Movies. Wearing my wooly slippers with soft, warm sweatpants and several layers of sweaters. Warming up by the woodstove when I get chilled. Making soup. Kitties on my lap.

There's something so seductively comforting about being warm and snug indoors when it's snowing outside.