I wrote the following press release for one of my Etsy copywriting clients. Please notify me in a comment if reposting or quoting. The link to my client's shop is at the bottom of the short release, after the jump. -Chelsea
Jewelry Still Best Gift, Say Designers
21 June 2011 – The classics still work best when you want to please and flatter. For women and girls of any age, the traditional gift of jewelry is still a top choice for special occasions.
Mother’s Day, graduations, children’s birthdays – all of these are occasions when something that sparkles or shines is usually welcome, according to designer and online shopkeeper Linda Ann Stewart.
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Treasury Wednesday: Sugar and spice? Also, my "rules" for making these
When I make a treasury, I select items with this sort of "decision tree." This isn't anything I've codified, mind you, these are just the priorities that have evolved naturally as I became dedicated to the idea of letting these be my community presence.
First of all, I won't feature anything that I strongly suspect to be a reseller item. I'm certain that some slip through my grasp, but I'm pretty careful. Also, blatantly incorrect tagging and glaring spelling errors drop things very low down the list of things I want to feature.
After those basics, my first priority is photo quality. I try to emphasize both good photography and well-made items -- decoupaged clothespins go in way after hand-drawn sketches. Good crisp lighting, however, trumps it; if the clothespins were photographed well and the sketch poorly, in they go and out goes the sketch.
I select to match both a color family and a theme, but color comes first.
If I have the option of a well-known, oft-featured shop and a newer one, all other factors being equal, I go with the newer one. I try to overemphasize shops with fewer than 100 instances of feedback.
Last and least important is avoiding competing with myself or M. I won't feature fairy doors or plush squid, and I do attempt to limit jewelry, though mostly that's because I try to have a wide range of item types.
This treasury is a great example because I managed to get a good number of newer shops, to emphasize some really excellent photography, and to make every single item fit a theme/story. It's a little naughty, which I always expect people to remark on more than they do -- you'll notice some bondage-themed items, never mind the corsetry -- but has an appealingly innocent look covering the wickedness, with a light blue and dark blood red combination that's unconventional enough to intrigue but could easily be a standard slightly-vintage Fourth of July scheme.
Light blue and bright red in a variety of beautiful vintage-inspired designs. And once you see the story, just a bit scandalous.
First of all, I won't feature anything that I strongly suspect to be a reseller item. I'm certain that some slip through my grasp, but I'm pretty careful. Also, blatantly incorrect tagging and glaring spelling errors drop things very low down the list of things I want to feature.
After those basics, my first priority is photo quality. I try to emphasize both good photography and well-made items -- decoupaged clothespins go in way after hand-drawn sketches. Good crisp lighting, however, trumps it; if the clothespins were photographed well and the sketch poorly, in they go and out goes the sketch.
I select to match both a color family and a theme, but color comes first.
If I have the option of a well-known, oft-featured shop and a newer one, all other factors being equal, I go with the newer one. I try to overemphasize shops with fewer than 100 instances of feedback.
Last and least important is avoiding competing with myself or M. I won't feature fairy doors or plush squid, and I do attempt to limit jewelry, though mostly that's because I try to have a wide range of item types.
This treasury is a great example because I managed to get a good number of newer shops, to emphasize some really excellent photography, and to make every single item fit a theme/story. It's a little naughty, which I always expect people to remark on more than they do -- you'll notice some bondage-themed items, never mind the corsetry -- but has an appealingly innocent look covering the wickedness, with a light blue and dark blood red combination that's unconventional enough to intrigue but could easily be a standard slightly-vintage Fourth of July scheme.
'One Way or the Other' by balletllama
Light blue and bright red in a variety of beautiful vintage-inspired designs. And once you see the story, just a bit scandalous.
 Giclee illustration... $15.00 |  SALE SALE 1970s lig... $20.00 |  Royal Blood - Chain... $70.00 |  pretty blue ribbon ... $299.00 |
 SALE. Group of thre... $54.00 |  dog waltz - fine ar... $30.00 |  Personalized Pet Bo... $26.00 |  Red Leather Rose Fl... $199.00 |
 Hilarious, Mean Any... $3.50 |  Caught in a Net of... $33.00 |  Red satin cupped lo... $995.00 |  Classic Cameo Heart... $8.00 |
 Untitled 12x8 Fine ... $35.00 |  Burlesque Gloves wi... $25.00 |  Baby blue linen cus... $30.00 |  Hand painted Doggie... $399.00 |
Friday, April 29, 2011
Jewelry Sets and Busy-ness
I've become a lot bolder about listing coordinating items separately of late. My bridal jewelry all links to the rest of the collection in the listing, since those are intended to be sort of infinitely mix-and-match. Lately, I also listed this set:
Available here and here. Sold!
That ... is a weird piece. I have to say it. It's really odd. Even more disparate materials than I usually combine, which, with me, is saying something. It would be awesome to layer with a longer piece, though, a pendant on a very long cord maybe? I haven't done a lot of A.) chokers or B.) multistrand before, though I've done a good few of the latter lately.
And I'm fond of the earring photo; I think I managed the depth of field and dimensionality, what with turning the pot that the earrings hang in toward the light and away from the camera, which makes them a little more interesting. Not sure it's visible at the teaser size, though. Hmm.
Also, since I originally wrote this post, the set has sold. Obviously I'm not the only one who likes it!
I always consider jewelry sets to be an excellent gift -- coordinating necklace-earrings, bracelet-pendant, pendant-earrings-bracelet or what-have-you vastly increases the perceived value. However, I'm getting more confident about breaking up jewelry sets listing-wise because I often sell them that way in person, with someone wanting just the necklace but not having pierced ears, preferring studs, or not caring for the pendant but liking the color combination and so purchasing the matching bracelet alone. Things like that. It's only twenty cents more for me, and it takes my customers to the Priority-shipping upgrade faster, so I think this is actually better. Thoughts from the reader pool?
On another note, we've just finished out the semester at the tech college, and in the sudden glut of free time and M-is-home time I've had a couple of stupidly productive days. We're still decorating the house, the garden flourishes, and I made hamburgers with homegrown spinach on them last night. The Japanese maple looks like the Japanese maple. The English primrose and daisies are not terribly happy, which is not unexpected, but my Oscar milkweed, liatris, and (shockingly) trout lilies are all remarkably happy. The Jack-in-the-pulpit died but it's been the only thing to croak out of season so far. More topically, I've made approximately a thousand charm bracelets, two with bits of miniature tea set and three with buttons, including my weird but somehow trademark combination of plastic buttons with pearls. We're discussing having all our work friends over for traditional British tea and jewelry-showing sometime next month.
For those interested, I'm selling off much of my collection of vintage hematite in the Ballet Llama storefront. There are also some nice hard-to-find charms there. Get 'em while the getting's good!
It's hot, but life is nice right now.
That ... is a weird piece. I have to say it. It's really odd. Even more disparate materials than I usually combine, which, with me, is saying something. It would be awesome to layer with a longer piece, though, a pendant on a very long cord maybe? I haven't done a lot of A.) chokers or B.) multistrand before, though I've done a good few of the latter lately.
And I'm fond of the earring photo; I think I managed the depth of field and dimensionality, what with turning the pot that the earrings hang in toward the light and away from the camera, which makes them a little more interesting. Not sure it's visible at the teaser size, though. Hmm.
Also, since I originally wrote this post, the set has sold. Obviously I'm not the only one who likes it!
I always consider jewelry sets to be an excellent gift -- coordinating necklace-earrings, bracelet-pendant, pendant-earrings-bracelet or what-have-you vastly increases the perceived value. However, I'm getting more confident about breaking up jewelry sets listing-wise because I often sell them that way in person, with someone wanting just the necklace but not having pierced ears, preferring studs, or not caring for the pendant but liking the color combination and so purchasing the matching bracelet alone. Things like that. It's only twenty cents more for me, and it takes my customers to the Priority-shipping upgrade faster, so I think this is actually better. Thoughts from the reader pool?
On another note, we've just finished out the semester at the tech college, and in the sudden glut of free time and M-is-home time I've had a couple of stupidly productive days. We're still decorating the house, the garden flourishes, and I made hamburgers with homegrown spinach on them last night. The Japanese maple looks like the Japanese maple. The English primrose and daisies are not terribly happy, which is not unexpected, but my Oscar milkweed, liatris, and (shockingly) trout lilies are all remarkably happy. The Jack-in-the-pulpit died but it's been the only thing to croak out of season so far. More topically, I've made approximately a thousand charm bracelets, two with bits of miniature tea set and three with buttons, including my weird but somehow trademark combination of plastic buttons with pearls. We're discussing having all our work friends over for traditional British tea and jewelry-showing sometime next month.
For those interested, I'm selling off much of my collection of vintage hematite in the Ballet Llama storefront. There are also some nice hard-to-find charms there. Get 'em while the getting's good!
It's hot, but life is nice right now.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
I was convinced everyone in this thing would hate it ...
This was the first treasury that sent me searching in earnest for a tool I could use to show them off, and also how I found it -- the maker of the first item posted the treasury on her blog with this same tool.
Relics. Traces. Markers of ancient thoughts. An odd self-possession. A moment of solemnity.
The whole treasury was inspired by this photo of the first item, which was cropped a little differently at the time and was the top photo:
Photo copyright Bonjour Poupette.
The description of the treasury is what came to mind when I looked at the photo. Originally, the solemn little antelope person was a little more off-center, stately and coolly lonesome in the sea of white. Very eye-catching. Queer, in the old sense, makes me wish the word "rum" still meant what it used to. Almost sinister.
It's really a lesson, isn't it, that just where the item is placed in the photo can have such a striking emotional effect.
The treasury got a lot of attention, I think largely because it was right before Christmas so it was totally different from anything else that was then being done. I'm kind of tempted to credit how near it fell to the solstice. The longest night. Old things passing away. Note to self: Do weird, pagan little things during cheery times of year. Everyone wants to read a really macabre blog post in the season of warmth and goodwill! Right?
'Idols and Oddities' by tangopig
Relics. Traces. Markers of ancient thoughts. An odd self-possession. A moment of solemnity.
 Spiral Horn Antelop... $24.00 |  Cruciform Idol from... $50.00 |  Howard - Tiny ceram... $20.00 |  Spiral Nest - Paper... $200.00 |
 Copper scorpion ta... $110.00 |  The Dovid- Brazilia... $16.00 |  Ghost Spirals Skull $ |  Dark red stoneware ... $35.00 |
 Handmade Porcelain ... $6.00 |  Lady Ash the Bird L... $65.00 |  Twisty Relic Bracel... $30.00 |  solemn space $26.00 |
 modern relic $65.00 |  Sycamore Amputee $37.00 |  Wise Man Sill Sitte... $65.00 |  MEZCALA Fetishes $12.00 |
Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com.
The whole treasury was inspired by this photo of the first item, which was cropped a little differently at the time and was the top photo:
Photo copyright Bonjour Poupette.
The description of the treasury is what came to mind when I looked at the photo. Originally, the solemn little antelope person was a little more off-center, stately and coolly lonesome in the sea of white. Very eye-catching. Queer, in the old sense, makes me wish the word "rum" still meant what it used to. Almost sinister.
It's really a lesson, isn't it, that just where the item is placed in the photo can have such a striking emotional effect.
The treasury got a lot of attention, I think largely because it was right before Christmas so it was totally different from anything else that was then being done. I'm kind of tempted to credit how near it fell to the solstice. The longest night. Old things passing away. Note to self: Do weird, pagan little things during cheery times of year. Everyone wants to read a really macabre blog post in the season of warmth and goodwill! Right?
Monday, February 14, 2011
I feel vaguely obligated to do a Valentine's day post ...
... but I remember being single and how much Valentine's Day always depressed me, since I inevitably broke up with my boyfriends before it and I was never a particularly sociable teenager, preferring the company of adults and butterflying from one social group to another, which was lonely but relatively drama-free.
Yet Valentine's Day is a big jewelry occasion. So it relates.
Kind of.
Let me see if I have a single picture of jewelry with a heart on it to post ...
Nope! I had something at Christmas, but it's very Christmassy. Well, who cares.
See? That button at the very back is heart-shaped. No, I promise.
I wonder what went so wrong in taking this photo ... I might have tried to take it indoors. That's never good.
Last Valentine's day, Megan and I went to the Living Desert zoo so I could do fieldwork for one of my anthropology papers, "Conservation and the Narrative of Stewardship." Afterward, we lugged our sunburnt selves around Palm Desert for an hour trying to find a place with room not at the bar since I was not yet of drinking age, and not with $30 entrees and mandatory valet parking, and we wound up in a Coco's with all the other gay couples who live in the Palm Springs area, and we ordered a fruit-and-cheese appetizer platter but it was the first day it had been available so they didn't know how to cook it and it took three tries to get the Brie baked properly, so we were in the restaurant for well over two hours grazing on improperly cooked cheeses and talking about the White Man's Burden savior narrative and the conflation of the animal body with the exoticized body.
This is one of my best and most treasured "couple memories," and it involves no chocolates, no jewelry, no expensive tickets, no dressing up nicely, no Valentiney things at all.
Conclusion: I'm obviously really bad at this, and I'm okay with that.
Yet Valentine's Day is a big jewelry occasion. So it relates.
Kind of.
Let me see if I have a single picture of jewelry with a heart on it to post ...
Nope! I had something at Christmas, but it's very Christmassy. Well, who cares.
See? That button at the very back is heart-shaped. No, I promise.
I wonder what went so wrong in taking this photo ... I might have tried to take it indoors. That's never good.
Last Valentine's day, Megan and I went to the Living Desert zoo so I could do fieldwork for one of my anthropology papers, "Conservation and the Narrative of Stewardship." Afterward, we lugged our sunburnt selves around Palm Desert for an hour trying to find a place with room not at the bar since I was not yet of drinking age, and not with $30 entrees and mandatory valet parking, and we wound up in a Coco's with all the other gay couples who live in the Palm Springs area, and we ordered a fruit-and-cheese appetizer platter but it was the first day it had been available so they didn't know how to cook it and it took three tries to get the Brie baked properly, so we were in the restaurant for well over two hours grazing on improperly cooked cheeses and talking about the White Man's Burden savior narrative and the conflation of the animal body with the exoticized body.
This is one of my best and most treasured "couple memories," and it involves no chocolates, no jewelry, no expensive tickets, no dressing up nicely, no Valentiney things at all.
Conclusion: I'm obviously really bad at this, and I'm okay with that.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Style forecast brought to you by excitement-induced insomnia
Every so often, I try to do myself a little style forecast based solely on Pantone colors, ModCloth, and wedding dresses chosen by my customers.
My conclusion for the night: There's this interesting little thing going on in the fashion world where there's two personas, if you will. Vintage-inspired seems to be the thing, which means florals, highly visible jewelry, and a lot of interesting different flare silhouettes -- but there's a faintly goth, faintly femme-fatale thing which is operating alongside this sweet, upbeat, innocent ingenue thing. How many times, in one sentence, can Chelsea use the word thing? Patterns are preferred either representative or monochrome (i.e., colorful when it's flowers or feathers, subtle and muted when it's more abstract). Lots of flared skirts and defined waistlines, elegant detailing that's overstated but not over-the-top, and the 70s are starting to edge back into visibility, but mostly in the sweet prairie-girl ingenue looks.
This seems to me to be part of the reason gold is finally coming back so strong. It works for both personae.
Ideally, you're supposed to think six months ahead of the now for design and two months ahead for marketing; being me, I generally make fall stuff in the fall, snap it and store it for a year -- my computer is set (by means of ReminderFox) to remind me two months before the autumn equinox, two months before Valentine's, two months before Christmas, et cetera so I don't forget to start listing things on Etsy. However, I'm making a conscious effort to pull in the Pantone colors in a timely fashion -- spring and summer for this year are supposed to be a lot of primaries and fruit shades, lightening up and shading toward desert dusties next fall. So this is me making a mental note to include shades like "Taxi Cab," "Macaw" and "Satsuma" in my next few pieces (full list here).
I've done a bunch of polymer clay pieces lately, partly because I really haven't touched the beads, apart from my custom order (ooh, I need to post the final version ...) since M left ... and partly because the polymer clay mushroom charms I've made lately don't fit well in my bead boxes for packing but fit just fine in my jewelry stash trays once made into earrings!
We did Christmas with M's parents today, and ate prime rib with wasabi and banoffee pie; I got 62 vintage buttons in shades of black and brown from M's mum which I am currently sorting. I need to do a couple of new-materials photo posts over the next few days (iiif I can find my camera); apart from the buttons, I've gotten some great deals on Moroccan imports lately and a big bag of old women's wristwatches to dismantle. This may be delayed. We've been so busy trying to pack the last twelve years of my life into a PT Cruiser that I've completely burned through my post buffer.
So anyway. Merry Christmas, Internets, and a happy Yule, and may the longest night have left you with a bright morning.
My conclusion for the night: There's this interesting little thing going on in the fashion world where there's two personas, if you will. Vintage-inspired seems to be the thing, which means florals, highly visible jewelry, and a lot of interesting different flare silhouettes -- but there's a faintly goth, faintly femme-fatale thing which is operating alongside this sweet, upbeat, innocent ingenue thing. How many times, in one sentence, can Chelsea use the word thing? Patterns are preferred either representative or monochrome (i.e., colorful when it's flowers or feathers, subtle and muted when it's more abstract). Lots of flared skirts and defined waistlines, elegant detailing that's overstated but not over-the-top, and the 70s are starting to edge back into visibility, but mostly in the sweet prairie-girl ingenue looks.
This seems to me to be part of the reason gold is finally coming back so strong. It works for both personae.
Ideally, you're supposed to think six months ahead of the now for design and two months ahead for marketing; being me, I generally make fall stuff in the fall, snap it and store it for a year -- my computer is set (by means of ReminderFox) to remind me two months before the autumn equinox, two months before Valentine's, two months before Christmas, et cetera so I don't forget to start listing things on Etsy. However, I'm making a conscious effort to pull in the Pantone colors in a timely fashion -- spring and summer for this year are supposed to be a lot of primaries and fruit shades, lightening up and shading toward desert dusties next fall. So this is me making a mental note to include shades like "Taxi Cab," "Macaw" and "Satsuma" in my next few pieces (full list here).
I've done a bunch of polymer clay pieces lately, partly because I really haven't touched the beads, apart from my custom order (ooh, I need to post the final version ...) since M left ... and partly because the polymer clay mushroom charms I've made lately don't fit well in my bead boxes for packing but fit just fine in my jewelry stash trays once made into earrings!
We did Christmas with M's parents today, and ate prime rib with wasabi and banoffee pie; I got 62 vintage buttons in shades of black and brown from M's mum which I am currently sorting. I need to do a couple of new-materials photo posts over the next few days (iiif I can find my camera); apart from the buttons, I've gotten some great deals on Moroccan imports lately and a big bag of old women's wristwatches to dismantle. This may be delayed. We've been so busy trying to pack the last twelve years of my life into a PT Cruiser that I've completely burned through my post buffer.
So anyway. Merry Christmas, Internets, and a happy Yule, and may the longest night have left you with a bright morning.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Gift-guide Treasury Roundup
Stocking Stuffer Gift Guide: Assortments of things under $50. In my family, you need like sixteen of anything to be used to stuff stockings.
The "I Barely Know You" Gift Guide: Unisex neutrals! I read an Etsy Storque article a while ago that bothered me because someone on staff was complaining about being unable to find plain white men's pajamas. If you're looking for something that anonymous, why would you search an individual's Etsy shop for it? So, simple neutral stuff that doesn't presuppose much about the recipient but is still unique and interesting enough to be expected of a handcraftsman.
Oh my god oh my god Megan will be back on Monday. Posting may be a little slow while we catch up.
Oh, and I'm five whole minutes from going to take the final that will conclude my undergraduate work. Fingers crossed for an A in this class, if I get A's this quarter it'll pull my overall GPA to a solid 3.7 -- which would make me alarmingly proud.
The "I Barely Know You" Gift Guide: Unisex neutrals! I read an Etsy Storque article a while ago that bothered me because someone on staff was complaining about being unable to find plain white men's pajamas. If you're looking for something that anonymous, why would you search an individual's Etsy shop for it? So, simple neutral stuff that doesn't presuppose much about the recipient but is still unique and interesting enough to be expected of a handcraftsman.
Oh my god oh my god Megan will be back on Monday. Posting may be a little slow while we catch up.
Oh, and I'm five whole minutes from going to take the final that will conclude my undergraduate work. Fingers crossed for an A in this class, if I get A's this quarter it'll pull my overall GPA to a solid 3.7 -- which would make me alarmingly proud.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thanksgiving Sale!
Just a reminder that the After-Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Internet Monday weekend sale is in full swing! Drop by for special deals and to see my pretty sale banner I made with beads and torn paper and a camera.
I've also decided to give a little extra something-something to blog readers, so if you leave the phrase "almost there" in the Notes to Seller section when you buy, there will be a free gifty coming your way.
A few of the things that you could buy! and have shipped to you! for free! provided you live in the U.S.! and for cheap! if you live almost anywhere else!:
Available here, there, hither, thither, and yon.
Happy Christmas shopping!
I've also decided to give a little extra something-something to blog readers, so if you leave the phrase "almost there" in the Notes to Seller section when you buy, there will be a free gifty coming your way.
A few of the things that you could buy! and have shipped to you! for free! provided you live in the U.S.! and for cheap! if you live almost anywhere else!:
Available here, there, hither, thither, and yon.
Happy Christmas shopping!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Gifty Thoughts
It's really weird to me that there are so many bath-stuff gift sets.
The reason is, they're both highly personal and bizarrely impersonal. They say, "Here; I've given you something that I expect you will rub all over your body while naked." They also say, "Here; I couldn't think of anything unique but this bag of stuff from Ross was in a color you like. You like that color, right?"
It's not that I mind them -- I got this mandarin orange set from one of the adults who attended my high school graduation party which I loved -- it's just that I feel skeevy if I give them to other people.
Reflecting upon this topic, I have created a treasury: The "I Barely Know You" Gift Guide. It was fun.
This would be the point where, if I was good at marketing, I remarked upon the appropriateness of jewelry gifts -- but frankly my stuff is a lot better for those whose interests and favorite colors you're clear on. It's just often rather specific in audience and rarely simple. This may not be a good thing in this case.
Semi-relatedly, I'm now experimentally offering a Stocking Stuffer Pack of like five to eight bracelets in different colors. Will this be semi-useful to people? They're all nice glass, individually hand-beaded, adjustable and all, and mostly hypoallergenic, so they seem kinda perfect for it ...
Completely unrelatedly, my right index finger hurts. It's bruised. For the first few hours I just couldn't feel it. Monday night, I spent three wearing but incredibly satisfying hours hacking day-old French bread into half-inch cubes for stuffing/dressing in the basement of Riverside's First Congregational Church. I have decided that the most charitable thing a private individual can do to help feed the homeless, bar actually putting in some time and labor, is to gift their nearest church kitchen with a.) an industrial-grade food processor or b.) a set of actually sharp knives. Alternately, send a donation to Project Food.
But it was good. I was joining K, the lecturer I tutor for. I'd forgotten, since I gave up on church as a concept, how enjoyable church-basement work is. They are very fine people, and I got barely a raised eyebrow when I mentioned Megan, which disposes me well toward them. They have a big lovely basement kitchen with stainless steel and butcher block and wrought-iron barred windows up at street level. And I had sweet sticky coffee and a roast beef sandwich and we got a lot done.
Anyhow. By virtue of date alone, this is also the place to remind people that I do an annual Black Friday/Thanksgiving Weekend sale. This year I'm offering free shipping in the U.S.! Convo for discounts if ordering from another country.
The reason is, they're both highly personal and bizarrely impersonal. They say, "Here; I've given you something that I expect you will rub all over your body while naked." They also say, "Here; I couldn't think of anything unique but this bag of stuff from Ross was in a color you like. You like that color, right?"
It's not that I mind them -- I got this mandarin orange set from one of the adults who attended my high school graduation party which I loved -- it's just that I feel skeevy if I give them to other people.
Reflecting upon this topic, I have created a treasury: The "I Barely Know You" Gift Guide. It was fun.
This would be the point where, if I was good at marketing, I remarked upon the appropriateness of jewelry gifts -- but frankly my stuff is a lot better for those whose interests and favorite colors you're clear on. It's just often rather specific in audience and rarely simple. This may not be a good thing in this case.
Semi-relatedly, I'm now experimentally offering a Stocking Stuffer Pack of like five to eight bracelets in different colors. Will this be semi-useful to people? They're all nice glass, individually hand-beaded, adjustable and all, and mostly hypoallergenic, so they seem kinda perfect for it ...
Completely unrelatedly, my right index finger hurts. It's bruised. For the first few hours I just couldn't feel it. Monday night, I spent three wearing but incredibly satisfying hours hacking day-old French bread into half-inch cubes for stuffing/dressing in the basement of Riverside's First Congregational Church. I have decided that the most charitable thing a private individual can do to help feed the homeless, bar actually putting in some time and labor, is to gift their nearest church kitchen with a.) an industrial-grade food processor or b.) a set of actually sharp knives. Alternately, send a donation to Project Food.
But it was good. I was joining K, the lecturer I tutor for. I'd forgotten, since I gave up on church as a concept, how enjoyable church-basement work is. They are very fine people, and I got barely a raised eyebrow when I mentioned Megan, which disposes me well toward them. They have a big lovely basement kitchen with stainless steel and butcher block and wrought-iron barred windows up at street level. And I had sweet sticky coffee and a roast beef sandwich and we got a lot done.
Anyhow. By virtue of date alone, this is also the place to remind people that I do an annual Black Friday/Thanksgiving Weekend sale. This year I'm offering free shipping in the U.S.! Convo for discounts if ordering from another country.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Treasury Roundup
These all sort of run to a theme and tell a story so I thought I'd post a list of them. I've been treasurying my little heart out. It's immense fun and it gives me a sense of that Etsy community that people talk about but which I didn't seem to find until I started playing with Treasury. I mean, it's cool that Etsy works as this loose network of individuals, and I love that. But this is the only ... organized? ... thing I've found that gives me that warm fuzzy feeling.
So here's the ones that are sort of a steampunk/Victorian thing. I expect they're rather Christmassy considering they run to dark red and green. Also, I want to see how much work it is to create a post of these with images. I can't figure out how to make them line up nicely ...
Hope Chest
The Life She Imagined
The Courtship
More Precious Still
First Impressions
Miranda's Dressing Room
Hissing Steam
Item's from Miranda's Desktop
Trousseau and Boudoir
Things Hoped For, Things Planned
Respectably Ruined
Twice Round the World Without Looking Back
Hope and Heart's Blood
So here's the ones that are sort of a steampunk/Victorian thing. I expect they're rather Christmassy considering they run to dark red and green. Also, I want to see how much work it is to create a post of these with images. I can't figure out how to make them line up nicely ...
Hope Chest
The Life She Imagined
The Courtship
More Precious Still
First Impressions
Miranda's Dressing Room
Hissing Steam
Item's from Miranda's Desktop
Trousseau and Boudoir
Things Hoped For, Things Planned
Respectably Ruined
Twice Round the World Without Looking Back
Hope and Heart's Blood
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