BEFORE (Etsy shop relauch)

This weekend marked my one year anniversary of selling on Etsy.   And I’ve sold, yeah, five things.  And while I’m very grateful for those five sales, most of which were to benefit APL animals in urgent need, I would like to have a few more!   I am supposed to be supporting our bunny sanctuary with my shop!   So, today begins the complete relaunch.   I have some exciting new products I am working on.  I have some fun promotional ideas.   I’ll be doing a complete makeover with all new pics.   And I’ll be keeping things up to date.   I’m very excited!    I will be blogging at least once a day during the whole process, so stay tuned and you might even learn some stuff!  :)

100% of the purchase price of this item will be donated to Pumpkin

From my Etsy shop.   Collaged book cover pendant.   $12

sewn collage = fun

Okay, I’m just a little too obsessed with this collage I just made.   I’m stuck on the idea of words as stitches and I just want to sew with words…create with words in other ways besides writing.   I’ve been experimenting with sewn collage techniques, and I’m really happy with what I’ve come up with.  Looks like I’m going to be sewing a lot of paper!

I finally listed a new item!

Finally listed something new in my Etsy shop.  This pendant is a favorite of mine b/c it reads “I was the first one” but right above the text is the ghost of a previous poem.   Ah, deception.  Ah, irony.   Made from the cover of a Harlequin romance novel.   I really have fun making these and need to make more!

Interview on Vegan Etsy blog

There is an interview with me on the Vegan Etsy Street Team blog.   Check it out  :)

Etsy Street Teams

I’ve joined a couple Etsy Street Teams to help promote my shops, and Etsy as a whole. One of the things I love about the place is the social consciousness. Many people use their shops to raise money for charities, including other charities. I’ve also found Etsy to be a vegan-friendly environment. And the committment of many shops to recycling, upcycling, and using eco-friendly materials is really inspirational.

I was already a member of Etsy for Animals (EFA) with my AnimalProtectvLeague shop, but I’ve added my fashionsplatter shop as well & made that my “official” member shop, so that I can take part in challenges with items that would represent that shop. EFA is a group of Etsians who use their skills to support animal causes, and I’m proud to be a part of that movement.

I’ve also joined Vegan Etsy, a group for Etsians who are vegan and maintain vegan shops. This seems like a very positive group, interested in spreading, not preaching, the positive message of veganism. The groups founder has featured my shop on her blog :)

the little poems on my pendants

In the midst of all the bunny poop and making stuff, I also write poetry. But lately it’s been more a matter of “extracting” poetry than writing it. I can’t look at words anymore without seeing little poems. They’re everywhere I look, books, signs, cereal boxes, and they just jump out at me off the page. With all the words already written, it almost seems wasteful or frivolous to write more, and this has kept me in a sort of block for a while now. But I’m obsessed with finding the poems in existing texts. Sometimes it’s a seemingly random block of text which evokes strong images not present in the actual words. In this way they remind me of language poems. Sometimes it’s a single line which captures a thought I’ve had that I never would have framed in exactly those words, often brilliant in their cropped and unconventional wording. My “a quarter in little leeway not late, but” pendant is an example of this type of found poem (that one pretty well describes how I do most things. Except when I’m actually late :)). And sometimes it’s just a word or a snippet of a word, unspectacular in itself, but which compliments exactly the feeling I was trying to evoke in a particular pendant. As the tag line in an old abandoned blog of mine read, “Every word is a poem. Speak carefully.”

Back again :)

Well, I’ve really allowed this blog to go dormant (like my bank account, but at least the blog didn’t charge me $5 for the trouble!) Now that I have my fashionsplatter Etsy store open I suppose I’ll resurrect it.

I’ve also started a new group to help special needs animals at the Ashtabula County APL here in NE Ohio…the ACAPL Rescue Team. 20% of the proceeds from my fashionsplatter shop go to this cause, as well as 100% of proceeds from my AnimalProtectvLeague shop. I’ll also soon be opening my fashionsplatterVintage shop, which will also donate 20% of proceeds to the ACAPL Rescue Team. (BTW, the profits from both fashionsplatter shops will go to my animal rescue, SeNoRa.)

The current dog I’m looking to raise funds for is Fiona:

She needs x-rays to find out what’s wrong with her hips, and if she can be treated. You can find out more about Fiona at the APL blog.