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! :)

New Home

Our blog had a brand new home!!!! :D Please hop over to:
http://blog.eternalstardust.net and don't forget to follow us there!!! :)

EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival: Halloween Things

This week our blog carnival from EtsyBloggers is hosted by Mystic Wynd. She wants to know the following:

1. Halloween is just around the corner. What is the best Halloween costume you've ever worn or designed for someone else to wear? What made it so special?
2. Tell us about your top 3 favorite horror movies. What is it about them that scares you?

 

Costume wise I think the best costume I’ve ever worn would probably be the year I was a witch when I worked for Convergys in Texas. I had on a black dress, black nylons, black heels, painted my face green, and had the witch hat on. I also had a stuffed black cat that I carried along with a broom. We had a “Witch Alley” that year and all of us that dressed up as witches sat there. It was pretty cool, especially when the boss shot us weird looks every time he walked by! :D

My top 3 favorite horror movies in no particular order would be: SAW series, Halloween (Rob Zombie versions), and Friday the 13th series (originals). To be perfectly honest, none of them actually scare me. I rarely even jump when watching a horror movie, which drives most people I watch them with up the wall! SAW is kind of gross though, so sometimes I’ll look away because I’m squeamish, not because I’m scared.

What’s With All The Purple?

Recently I had an e-mail in which the sender asked me why I have so much purple. My site at Webs.com is based around a light shade of purple. This blog has a dark shade of purple as it’s “far back” background. I have used purple rimmed graphics both here and at my Etsy shop, and my Artfire shop (which I need to set my color scheme again now that I am a Pro member again) is done in purples.
The answer is simply that purple is my favorite color. However, that is not to say that I see too many purple beads that I am particularly fond of. I tend more towards turquoise, amethyst (yes, I know, that IS purple LOL), carnelian (gorgeous for autumn items), and the seemingly un-ending rainbow of colors that Crystallized Swarovski Elements beads are available in.
But I do use a lot of purple in my crochet items. Right now I’m doing the Bernat Mystery Crochet-Along and using a dark purple instead of the lavender. I’m making another afghan that I’m doing in purples, blues, and greens, and let me tell you, it’s shaping up to be a gorgeous blanket. I can’t wait for it to be finished! But that one isn’t for sale – that one is mine! :D
I do want to show you my latest bracelet though – it’s perfect for autumn!

Please excuse the obvious mess around it – this isn’t intended to be a “sales” photo for Etsy – I just wanted to be able to show the bracelet off! :D
And with that, I am off to settle down for bed – 7:30 comes quickly and I have church in the morning! :)