Check My Other Blog

For fantastic deals on handmade bath salts, facial scrubbies, and sugar scrubs, please check out my other blog - Candlelight Boutique! The coupon codes & the appropriate percentages off are listed for this weekend's sales - please note that each coupon is good for 24 hours only!

There are three different codes - one for Friday, one for Saturday, and one for Monday! Happy Shopping! :)

What Does Handmade Mean to You?

This is a question that is asked by Etsy to anyone who is lucky enough to be one of Etsy's featured sellers. None of my three shops have been lucky enough to become one of the featured sellers, so Etsy themselves have never asked me what handmade means to me. So, in the interest of curiosity, I decided to answer the question here on my blog - just so people might get a better sense of what handmade means to me.

To me, handmade means that someone has taken something and made something else out of it. Whether it is taking a plain t-shirt and turning it into a work of art by embellishing it with appliques, ribbons, buttons, and bows or taking a ball of yarn and using it to knit or crochet a scarf, sweater, or blanket that is handmade to me. Sure the original materials a person used might have been mass-produced on a machine, but the final product was put together by a person who had a vision for those materials and made that vision come true.

Handmade means that the items will not be perfect. No, perfection is not a part of handmade items in my eyes. The eye loops on my head pins are not perfectly round or perfectly formed when I make my jewelry. This shows that I made those earrings by hand - no machine assembled the pair of earrings I designed. When I knit one stitch may come up larger than the rest in the row. Again - an imperfection, but proof that I knitted that scarf by hand, not using a knitting machine or in a factory that produces knitted scarves at a rate much faster than any human could knit.

Imperfections give a human factor to the items being made. They show that the items were made by a human being with that human's own two hands. I don't care if I designed it but my best friend is the one who actually made the item - as long as she used her own two hands, it was handmade.

What does handmade mean to you?

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Plans

I know many of the shops on Etsy are planning to have Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. I am actually not doing so on Eternal Stardust Jewelry or Eternal Stardust Baby, but we will be doing one on Candlelight Boutique.

The reason I am not doing any sales for Black Friday/Cyber Monday on the ESD shops is because I simply don't have the stock to handle it. Well, I do have a *lot* of jewelry, but at this point, I don't want to raise my Etsy bill too high and not be able to pay it. Besides, I would need to photograph a lot of the jewelry to ensure that the photos were good enough to make people want to buy the items, and right now my classes are a bit more intense with things due on odd days of the week. This makes it a bit more difficult to handle my shops.

By the way, the Christmas Light Earrings are back in the shop! :) The winner of the pair of earrings from my Facebook giveaway never contacted me with her shipping information and never responded to any of my attempts to contact her via Facebook or e-mail. I have decided that I probably won't use that giveaway application on Facebook anymore - it seems most people only liked the page to enter the contest. I don't want to deal with that anymore. 

I did re-list a few of my clearance items just to see if maybe during the holiday season they might actually sell at their discounted prices - they are still marked as being clearance. :) 

If you have a shop, are you doing anything for Black Friday/Cyber Monday??

EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival for 11/14/11 - 11/27/11

BunnyKissd of FaerieGardenFancies asks us these two questions this Blog Carnival:

1. November is National Novel Writing Month. As a blogger, have you ever though of crossing over and writing a book? Have you ever tried NaNoWriMo? Win or lose, tell us about your experience!

2. November is also National Diabetes Month. Do you have diabetes or has your life ever been touched by it? Please share any stories you have...

Well, actually, I *have* tried NaNoWriMo, twice now. The first time I failed miserably after only two or three days. I just didn't like the book I was working on and so I just gave up for that year. I tried again the year after that, with a different novel. That time I got about 30,000 words into the novel before losing interest in it. Every so often I go back and look at the novel again and write a few more sentences. I figure at this point I'll finish it in the year 3,011. LOL

As for diabetes, while I am not diabetic, my birth mother, grandparents on my birth mother's side, and several family members on my birth mother's side are/were diabetic. One of my best friends is also diabetic. I have seen firsthand the havoc this disease can wreak on a person's body -  my birth mother had almost every known complication from blindness to kidney failure. Diabetes is a horrible disease and I give whenever I can to help find better treatments for it!

EtsyBloggers Featured Blogger of the Month

I know, I know, long time no post, especially for anything to do with EtsyBloggers! I've been a *horrible* member of the team, I know this, but lately I've just been running in circles trying to keep up with myself! :P

But this post is *not* about me. This post is about Pamela from MagdaleneJewels!!! Pamela has two blogs which can be found here and here, as well as two Etsy shops - MagdaleneJewels and MagdaleneKnits. A woman after my own heart, as I, too, love to both knit/crochet & make jewelry! :)

She has been a big help to the EtsyBloggers team and has been with us for a while now, although I must admit, I don't really know her. However, I don't need to know her personally to know I love, love, love her shops!

Here is a screen shot of the "featured items" she shows on MagdaleneJewels:

My favorite items in her shop are actually on that screen shot - the Christmas Victorian Earrings and the Christmas Necklace, Ruby Topaz. 

Here is a screen shot of the "featured items" she shows on MagdaleneKnits:

LOVE that Christmas scarf she crocheted and those adorable pairs of booties! :) 

So there we have our featured EtsyBlogger! :) Congratulations Pamela! :)

Long Time No See

I know, I haven't been posting much lately, but I've been busy with the new business as well as starting my sophomore year in college. :) I sold 2 necklace/earring sets - both the same incredibly cool lady - and she featured one of them on her blog - check it out!

Two Items Sold, One Almost Sold

So I managed to sell off both of my illusion necklace sets. The gal who purchased them said she fell in love with them while visiting my shop. :) I sent them off to her today, so she should have them in the next 3-4 business days. :)

I also have a request for one of the illusion sets in a bigger size and with sterling components. :) I'm going to be working on that pretty soon here - I'm just waiting for Artbeads.com to ship out the sterling components I purchased to use for the set. :)

So I finally sold some items. Hopefully this will be just the beginning! :)

Clarity Counts

I will say this - when looking into new forms of advertising your shop, always make sure you understand how it works before you agree to it.

I had contacted a website once asking about getting in on their advertising gig, but realized that I couldn't afford to do it as they asked you to pay them (fair enough). This had included a shop credit that you contacted the owner of the site you were advertising on to get paid for your items. I couldn't afford to do it, so I declined. A couple of weeks later, the game had changed. You didn't have to pay anymore, you just provided a store credit. What hadn't been made clear was that you would not be reimbursed for your items. That's right - you provided a store credit and if the person who won the credit spent more than the credit was worth - you PayPal invoiced them for the balance. Otherwise you just send out your items - with no actual payment for them at all!

Now had this advertising method generated any actual sales - I wouldn't have had a problem with it, because I'd have had the money to do what I needed to do. But it didn't. I did not get a single sale from this except for the sales from the credit.

Now the gal who runs the site I was advertising on offered to pay me the money for the store credit I'd provided because it wasn't made totally clear that there was no more reimbursement. And that's cool. Now I know and I'll be prepared next time I decide to advertise there. 

But lesson learned - always make sure you know what is going on - especially if the format has changed since you last looked into it!

GIVEAWAY TIME

Interested in a little giveaway? Want to win a pair of super cute Christmas Light Earrings? Well, you can if you enter my giveaway through my Facebook page! You are not required to "like" my page, but if you do, you'll get updates on what is going on with Eternal Stardust Jewelry, as well as the option for special coupons that are Facebook fans only!

When you go to my page, just click on the giveaway link on the left hand side, click the Enter Giveaway button, and you're done!

You get your choice of one (1) of the following pairs of earrings:

1. Blue Christmas Lights w/ Aquamarine crystals
2. Green Christmas Lights w/ Emerald crystals (only 1 pair available)
3. Green Christmas Lights w/ Opan crystals
4. Purple Christmas Lights w/ purple confetti bead
5. Red Christmas Lights w/ Garnet crystals
6. Yellow Christmas Lights w/ Crystal crystals (only 1 pair available)
7. Yellow Christmas Lights w/ Fire Opal crystals (only 1 pair available)

The Christmas lights are plastic charms. Earrings are on nickel-based fish hook ear wires. If you enter the contest and share it with someone who enters through the link you shared (use the share links provided on the giveaway page), both you and your friend win a pair of the earrings! Please note that some pairs only have 1 available, so they are first-come-first-serve!

Good luck!! :)

Just A Bit of Fun

I thought I'd check out Stylish Home and have a bit of fun with their idea files. I liked the look of a particular room, then I found a color scheme I preferred, and then I picked a few products I liked as well. If you want you can look at it below:


Removed due to it breaking my blog layout, sorry!

Custom Order for a Friend

A friend of mine asked me to make a necklace, bracelet, and earring set for her a few months ago. I didn't start it until the other day because I wanted to make sure she knew what type of necklace and bracelet she was going to be getting. When I showed her the set that I was going to use as the "pattern" for the set, she liked it a lot, with the exception of asking that the necklace be made longer, which I obliged her with.

She also requested that I shorten a bracelet that she liked & switch the  matching earrings from pierced to clip-on as she doesn't have pierced ears. I used an old pair of really neat clip-on earrings that had a little hold at the bottoms to make the earrings for that bracelet and they turned out really cool - and one of a kind. :)

These are the earrings that I made to match the bracelet. I think they came out really well.

This is the bracelet that I shortened for my friend. I just took two of the turquoise/quartz blend beads off and two of the obsidian beads off.

This is the bookmark that my friend requested. She wanted the December birthstone crystals with a butterfly on the end.

These are the earrings to the set I made for her. Tiger Eye on the bottom, Turquoise dyed Jasper in the middle, and Lt. Colorado Brilliance crystals on clip-on earrings.

Same beads as above, only for the bracelet.

The necklace - same beads as the bracelet and earrings. I had to loop the necklace around the stand twice because it was too long otherwise! :)

So that is my custom order that I will be delivering to my friend tomorrow at lunch.
Any custom orders come your way recently?

Autumn & Winter Wear

So Autumn is here and Winter approaches. Time to start thinking of cool items for keeping warm. When I think of cool items to keep warm I think of cool scarves & awesome looking hats. Any hat that is stylish and can keep your head warm at the same time is a great idea in my book.

For instance this newsboy cap I made:

This cap can keep your head warm while allowing you to stay stylish at the same time. I think it's a really cute hat anyways. :)

Scarves can be cool as well. You can have pockets on them to allow you to warm your hands or stash stuff if you want, or they can be plain. You can have them in stripes or solids. I love a good scarf in Winter. I don't have any pictures of cool scarves right now, but I plan to make some soon! :)

The above pictured cap comes in 3 sizes - 22" head circumference, 24" head circumference, or 26" head circumference. If you happen to be larger than that, I can make it bigger as well. You can have your choice of colors too - the hat is only $15.00 - it is not currently available in any of my shops, but you can convo me to order one if you like! :) Just let me know your head size & what color you want! :)

Just Give Up Already

This is what my brain has been telling me for the last three or four days. Ever since I posted the clearance section of my jewelry shop, hoping that what is there would finally sell. It hasn't, and even though I just created the section on the 20th or 21st of September, my mind is telling me that no one wants this jewelry, it is junk, and just get rid of the shop and be done with it.

Unfortunately, since this particular nagging does not want to leave, I am wondering if it isn't time to just pack it in and forget trying to have my own business. I know, I know, I shouldn't give up or quit. But...it's been almost 3 years. It will be 3 years in December that I've been trying to make a go of this.

Of course, I get the same advice from everyone I ask about it on Etsy - keep digging, work on my photos, advertise more. Buy more slots in showcases, buy the new search ads, buy Google AdWords ads, become an advertiser on Facebook. Use Project Wonderful. Buy ad space on BlogAds. Try purchasing ad space on other blogs. Been there, done that, no sales. I'm tired of getting the same old advice that does *not* work. I'm tired of being told my pictures aren't good enough when I see shops with *worse* pictures that are selling items like mad. I'm tired of spending money I *do not* have to advertise my shop.

I'm just...tired. The entire time I was in Colorado at the beginning of the year my shops were on vacation mode.   The sad thing? I didn't think about them once until I got home. I didn't care that I didn't have sales, I didn't care that no one could see or buy my products, I just didn't care. Now that I'm home? I worry constantly - am I going to get a sale today? Am I going to have to relist items that I can't afford to relist? Am I going to have to spend more money on advertisement that gets me absolutely nothing?

So now I am wondering - should I give in to my mind and just give up already? Or should I keep plugging away at it, go through the Etsy Holiday Boot Camp and see if sales increase? If they don't increase should I pack it in then? Or should I keep going even beyond the holiday rush and see what happens?

I have no idea what I want to do - but I do know this - my best friend, who owns Baby Bratz Designs, seems to have a better grip on this business thing than I do - and she's not willing to give up yet. Maybe I shouldn't be either.

Owning A Business Isn't All Roses

I've had more than one person tell me they wish they could own their own business. Well, I have to say this - no they don't. Believe me, they don't. Not unless they know that the business they are opening is going to be a surefire hit with consumers, they don't.

Why do I say this? Well, for starters, my business has been open for almost three years. Yes, you read that correctly, almost three years. In that three years I have sold: 3 baby blankets ($80 total), 6 bracelets ($97 total), 6 pair of earrings ($6 total), 2 bookmarks ($13 total), 3 hats ($20 total), and 2 washcloths ($10 total). So in three years I have made exactly $226. I have paid out far more than that for materials, listing fees (eBay and Etsy), and monthly subscription fees (ArtFire).

I have purchased items for display purposes for craft shows. I have spent more money than I've made. In fact, I pay taxes for being "self-employed" even when I don't make enough to be taxed for regular income taxes. In short, I pay more than I bring in.

Owning your own business isn't all roses. If you don't have the time or the money to put into it, you might as well forget it. I learned the hard way - you can't just open a shop on Etsy, ArtFire, eCrater, or whoever, and expect it to just sell without having to work at it. You have to promote your shop(s). You have to get your name out there and make sure people see you and know you are there.

You  have to network. Twitter, Facebook, even MySpace. Possibly LinkedIn as well. Blogs and websites are good as well. Email and instant messengers if you can manage them as well are good.

Lately I've been trying to promote my Etsy shop as much as I can for as little money as I can. Why? Because I don't have a day job to back me up. I do freelance writing, which garners me some money to use to pay Etsy fees and the like, but I don't have much.

Am I trying to scare people away from opening their own shops? Not at all. I'm just hoping they'll read this and be prepared for some tough times ahead.

Finding Craft Shows

While I admit that Art in the Park has been more or less of a bust the past couple of years, I have been wanting to try other craft shows. To be honest, Art in the Park's very name brings to mind paintings and sculptures that are being displayed in the park, not a craft show, which is what, for the most part, Art in the Park really is. This year we had several jewelry artists, several pottery artists, quilters, crocheters, and there were even some painters and sculptors there as well.

But I would like to be able to get into the bigger craft show scene. My problem is, when I use Google to search for shows, I find that all of the websites giving out information on craft shows in my area are either outdated - some haven't updated the pages since 2006 - or require me to pay them to give me the information on who to contact to reserve a space.

Now perhaps I'm just being cheap, but to me, if I have to pay upwards of $100 just to enter one of these craft shows, I shouldn't have to pay some random website a fee to tell me who to contact to obtain my spot. So of course, I turned to the lovely people in my Etsy teams that I am a part of. Of course, I just posted the discussion threads so I haven't heard back from anyone, but I am confident that someone will be able to tell me how to go about finding the appropriate information.

I don't plan to do any shows until at least next year, so I have time to have enough merchandise, but I do wish to do some shows next year besides Art in the Park. Now - to find those shows and get the information I need to get signed up!

Just Claiming My Blog

Follow my blog with Bloglovin - I'm just claiming my blog on Bloglovin, but you can follow me there if you like. :)

Pricing Amazement

One of the things I have never been good at is pricing my items. However, I noticed something this past weekend during Art in the Park. People will pay what I think is an outrageous price for one titem, but won't pay what I think is a reasonable price for another item.

I'll give you an example. I had several crocheted cotton washcloths for sale. I priced them at $5 each. That is, $5 for one washcloth. I sold two of them. Now mind you, I can make 2 2/3 of these washcloths from a single ball of cotton yarn that cost me about $1.89 after tax. That's a pretty hefty profit for 2 washcloths if you ask me. I'm just saying. :P But yet people didn't even flinch at seeing that the washcloths were $5 each.

Now we have one of my favorite bracelets that I've made. (Go on, click it, you know you want to. I'll wait.) Now that bracelet right there is $20. The materials alone make up half of the price of that bracelet. Yet when people asked me how much that bracelet was, they were shocked to hear that I wanted $20 for it. They would quickly put it down and leave our booth. Yet when I talked to another jewelry artist who was selling at the next booth over from ours, she said that she had bracelets she'd made with beads she bought for $3 at Walmart, that she had maybe $5 worth of materials total in these bracelets, that she had priced at $35 or more, and the same people who refused to buy my $20 bracelet were more than willing to go to her booth and pay what she asked for a bracelet that she said herself, was worth less than the one I had made. She was in shock as well.

Now I will say that maybe, just maybe, $10 for my time to make that bracelet isn't quite fair. After all, I don't think the bracelet took me more than 10 minutes to string together. But when I attempted to price it less than $20, I was told that I wasn't charging nearly enough. And another bracelet that I had made (this one which I sold to a friend of mine) had beads from the same company, same store, but were $2 less in price, and my friend refused to pay less than $20 for that bracelet. I know, because I tried to knock it down to $15 since she is my friend, and she refused.

But yet people weren't willing to pay $20 for the playing cards bracelet. How can it be that people will pay $5 for a single crocheted washcloth with less than $2 worth of yarn in it, but won't play $20 for a bracelet with $10 worth of beads in it? I just don't get it.

Art in the Park 2011

So today was Art in the Park at Latham Park in Sioux City, IA. For those not in the know, Latham Park is a privately owned park in Sioux City, IA. The Latham family home sits on the park grounds, and when the last of the Lathams passed away, the land was mandated by the person's will to become a park. Now last year it was rainy and cold all day long. This year it was misty and cold all day long. The funny thing is, the last two years have been the only years the park has had this problem - and the last two years are the years I have been attending! Maybe it's me? LOL There were quite a few window shoppers, but not many buyers. What did I sell? A bookmark and 2 round washcloths. Yes, I said a bookmark and 2 round washcloths. That was it. My best friend's mother sold one of her baby blankets and my best friend sold nothing. :( We attribute it to the dreary day as it was very cold and most people were in a hurry to get back home and out of the cold. I did manage to see some cousins of mine at the park although it was brief. :) I also saw other people I know including some people I went to school with, one of whom I am working on a couple of custom orders for. And now, for those who would like pictures, you may view them below.

Want to see the rest? Click here!

I Am Not A Photographer

On three all of my Etsy listings for Eternal Stardust Jewelry, I had have some pretty poor quality photos. I took some photos yesterday and I changed them out on three listings to try and make the listings look better. If you look at the Etsy Mini in my sidebar to your right, you'll see the first three listings have the new photos.

Now when I asked people on Etsy, they said that the new photos were an improvement, but that they still needed work. That they needed to be made lighter during the editing process. To me they are more than light enough, but maybe it is just my monitor on my laptop is brighter than theirs so to me the images look lighter.

The problem here is this: I am not a photographer. I never have been. I never will be. I do not particularly *like* to take pictures. I would seriously rather just crochet and bead and let someone else do the photography if I could afford it. But I can't. I *have* to take these pictures myself. 

Now I don't do so badly *taking* the pictures, it is the *editing* that I just do not do well. All the tutorials on the planet will not help me learn to edit my photos better. Why? Because I have partial colorblindness issues. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I do not see colors precisely the same way the rest of you do. In fact, when it comes to blues and greens, I am often heard asking my friends if what I am looking at is blue or green, because I sometimes can not tell the difference. It is perfectly obvious to my friends what color the object is, but I often see something blue as green and vice versa. 

So why don't I see if someone else will edit my photos for me? Well, for one, I'm impatient. I would seriously rather do it myself and have it done ASAP than have to wait for a friend to do it for me. I probably could see if LaShawn (my best friend and owner of Baby Bratz Designs) would edit my photos for me, but honestly, I don't think she even edits her *own* photos. I don't know of anyone else who edits photos and is *good* at it that would be willing to edit the pictures for me. 

So, if anyone here has any suggestions regarding photo editing for a broke college student who just wants to make her shop better so it might start being at least semi-successful, please let me know. :) Thanks!

Featured Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Cotton Blend

A couple of years ago I had taken the city bus to our local Hobby Lobby in search of some findings for jewelry making. Not finding what I was looking for, I decided to hit the yarn aisle. That is where I found Red Heart Eco-Cotton Blend yarn. 

For those who have never heard of this particular offering from Red Heart, Eco-Cotton Blend takes the remnants left over from the manufacture of T-shirts and recycles them, combining them with acrylic to provide extra softness and loftiness, then spins the mixture into yarn. 

This yarn is quite soft and works up well. It is thinner than most cotton-based yarns tend to be, and it does have that annoying "split" factor - crocheters and knitters probably know what I am talking about - when you try to work with the yarn it splits into strands - but other than that, it is a nice yarn to work with. I made two round washcloths with one ball of this yarn.

The color selection is very limited - there are only 12 available colorways with three of them being "marl" or multicolored yarns. However, the colors are nice and would make some very nice items.

My only real issue is the price - $3.69 per ball. I would have to order from Red Heart's website or Herrschners, who carries it for $3.49 per ball. This makes it a bit out of my league at this point, unless I wanted to charge $10 for two washcloths, which I don't. :) 

But for anyone who is interested in reading more about Eco-Cotton Blend from Red Heart, you can do so here.

EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival - Fall Fun

Rose from randomcreative is our host for this week's EtsyBloggers Carnival.
She has two questions in mind, both pertaining to fall:
1) Do you have a favorite fall recipe? Share it here.
2) Have you been working on any new fall designs? Post some pictures and talk about these new designs and/or post a tutorial.

I have to say I do not have any favorite fall recipes to be honest. I do not start my baking until after Thanksgiving, so I don't deal with much "fall" cooking. Although a lady at my church makes some really decadent pumpkin bars, both with and without raisin. YUM! :)

I have not been working on new fall designs this year. I did last year, and somehow I lost the bracelet I made here in the house. I had thought I would get the materials again - I have photos - and make the bracelet again, but then decided against it. I've been too busy lately working on my items for the Art in the Park show next Saturday to even think about new designs!

The Search For An Online Marketplace

There are several online marketplaces out there these days, and it seems like all of them have good and bad features to them. Between my best friend and myself, we have been bumbling around trying to find the best fit for both her and myself.

You see, while I have some income through my freelance writing, my best friend has no income at all right now. She literally has no way to pay for ArtFire, Etsy, or any of the other shops that require payment. So we've been playing with a few things to see what would work for her.

So far, the online marketplace that works best for her is eCrater. eCrater is a totally free online e-commerce website. You can create a small e-commerce site in just a few minutes, if you happen to have a few minutes to spare. :P It took me a good 15-20 minutes just to get LaShawn's site set up, and just to add one product. However, things are looking good and once I get her in there to put down more customizations for the about page and the like, she should be good to go. :)

We tried Made It Myself, as I told her I'd just use my debit card to pay the final sale value fees there, but they require a retail value as if you were going to purchase the item in a store. Crocheted baby blankets are not sold in stores, so how on earth would we know what the retail value of the item would be? So we decided not to even finish setting up her items there, because we didn't have a retail value for them and we didn't want to make one up.

I checked out Big Cartel but since she could only have five items for free, I decided not to bother with that site. She has more than five items to sell. So that was a bust. She wasn't fond of the Addoway format, and she didn't like the Copious format either, so we ruled those out as well. She just didn't like that you had to log in with Facebook or Twitter and use your real name instead of your business name, and I can understand that.

So for now at least, the great marketplace search is finished. Now to update her business cards for her. :P

No More ArtFire Shop

I am not particularly fond of the fact that ArtFire decided to do away with their free seller accounts. Yes, I realize that they are a business and that it is their prerogative to do away with the free seller accounts, but I think it was poor judgement on their part.

Allow me to explain myself on this bit of thinking. You see, some shops used the free version because they could not afford to put a lot of money into their shop. The $9.95 price for the pro version of ArtFire if you signed up before 8/16/11 or the $11.95 price for the pro version of ArtFire if you signed up after 8/16/11 may not seem like much, considering the pro version used to be $15.95, but when you are struggling to make ends meet, you might not have that much money. Especially if you are not making sales to help recoup that expense.

I learned that I have to limit myself on how much I post on Etsy because I can easily get myself to a point where I can't afford to pay my Etsy fees for the month. So you can imagine that I would not want an ArtFire account with a monthly fee! I did have a sale there on ArtFire, but I just can't see one sale being enough to make me want to go pro and stay pro when I have other things that $12 a month could be paying for.

Several of the shops I used to visit sadly had to close down their businesses because they didn't have any other resources - and ArtFire even took away access to our listed items so we could get our descriptions and the like from them so we could list them somewhere else! They want us to pay just to get our descriptions and the like back. :( My best friend is searching for a good alternative to ArtFire right now and has yet to find one.

So now I have no ArtFire shop. I am trying Addoway to see how that goes, but I may have to open a second Etsy shop for the baby stuff. I'll just have to see.

Back to Blogger

I think for the time being, I will do my "blogging" here on Blogger and leave just product updates and the like for the WordPress installation at the main Eternal Stardust Website. That seems to work out better for me, as I can keep the blog separate from the business operations. I will link to the blog from the website, but I think I'll keep the blog over here and the site over there. :)

I should be back with a new post in a few hours - right now, I'm just too sleepy to think! :)