Tula

She is still a baby, that eats like no tomorrow. She is very keen on making up new tricks to impress you into handing over more treats. She has perfected the Tula twirl, she does this little twirly thing after going potty and sometimes while she is still going potty... while it does make cool designs in the snow you really need to keep your feet out of her way. She loves to snuggle in really tightly with her snout right behind your ear, wrapped up in a blanket and squeezed really hard for about an hour a day....

Here is Tula, six months old and of course a pig.

Hi Carol,

Carol wanted the story behind Tula.

So I answered an ad in the paper about a pot belly pig, drove out to a home with Kamp Khaos on the mail box :) four kids from 3 to 8 years old, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 6 chickens and a four month old female pot belly pig. Mom knew that she couldn't give the time and attention to a baby pig and needed to adopt her out. I walked in, said I'll taker her and came home with a new pig. Mom just wanted to know that I wasn't going to eat her!

Tula lives in my walk out basement like my previous pigs. She will probably be about 150 pounds when full grown and will dig up my yard come spring time!

Hearts for Haiti

Just a quick update on the Hearts for Haiti shop, over $28,000 has been raised so far for Doctors Without Borders. And, the shop has been nominated for the 2010 Handmade Olympics you can check it out on their blog, http://etsyforhaiti.blogspot.com/ and vote for the shop with the vote for me button!

Hearts for Haiti

The Etsy shop, Hearts for Haiti is up and running! There is the shop address, http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeartsforHaiti. Please consider making a purchase to such a worthy cause that Doctors Without Borders provides. Thanks!

As of today, Hearts for Haiti has raise $4000. A big thanks to all the peeps who donated and to those who have purchased!

Etsy for Haiti

In light of the tragedy in Haiti there will be an Etsy shop set up and accepting item donations to sell and then donate the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders.

Here is the Etsy shop address, http://www.etsy.com/shop/heartsforhaiti

Here is the blog address, http://www.etsyforhaiti.blogspot.com/

And here is the email address to contact those accepting donations, etsyforhaiti@gmail.com

All of the sites are brand new and just starting, here is the Etsy thread with the information, http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6404152&page=57

Please donate what you can, thank you, Susan

the new year, an old tradition

it does hold promise doesn't it? a new year, a new way, a new... i laugh, i know myself way too well to change that much! alrighty then! let's get on with it!

in many ways i do love tradition. when i found this wonderful artist and her work on etsy i knew i wanted some of her work because it invoked tradition, some of the traditional fiber artwork that i first discovered when i was 8 or 9 years old and became enthralled with fiber, embroidery, embellishment, crochet and knitting.

Nothingbutstring uses the traditional form of crochet but with a new modern twist. her 'autumn sprigs and flowers' speaks traditional art form crochet in a modern bracelet. her 'autumn leaves bracelet' combines handmade Irish crochet and Victorian beaded style, in this gorgeous piece. but it's her baskets that become an incredible piece of artwork! please check out her shop, there are few more treasures to be found. it's always refreshing to find original work in a traditional form, lovely work by this artist, thank you Emily!

citrinus

a new piece that came out stunningly.

el dia de los muertos

Years ago when my life was less complicated I did a lot traveling throughout the US. One city that became a favorite of mine is San Antonio TX. My husband and I found a wonderful shop down by the river walk that specialized in folk art from Mexico. That folk art shop was my introduction to El Dia De Los Muertos or Day of the Dead also known as All Saints Day, a holiday that is celebrated in Mexico on November 1st and 2nd. I am also a hoarder of Anne Choi beads, she has a couple beads and charms with sugar skulls on them that I just had to have, but of course I had to buy a few to subsidized my obsession. One thing about Anne and her work, if you don't purchase the beads when she has them on her site many times she moves onto other designs and the bead you had your eye on is no longer made... above is one of Anne's charms.

the time

The 26th of July was the last time I posted... where does time go? It's so elusive and slippery and you can never get it back... maybe I took the summer off and didn't know it.

lapidary

When I discovered Gary Wilson's work a few years ago I was in love. I immediately began to hoard his work and only recently begun in earnest to incorporate it into my jewelry pieces. His work is very sensuous, tactile and just outrageously gorgeous to look at. The man is a genius. If you find yourself mysteriously in front of his booth at a gem show with your mouth agape with a little bit of drool, you know you have arrived.

I have never found any other lapidary's work that compares to his, I love his rocks.

inertia

It's been awhile since the last post. Inertia struck, it's the only way I can describe it. Inert. Promise that this entire post won't be depressing ;) but I do believe that mental illness still carries a stigma and that many times is the unseen disability, or ability when you can turn it around. Since childhood, throughout of my life, I have dealt with my recurrent major depression. Art has played a big part in my life and made a big impact on my recovery.

This time is different, my 'inertness' has a great deal to do with the loss of my pet pig, Henry. I so believe in the power of animals and what they give to their human family. It's been six months since we had to have him euthanized, I still think of him every day. He was the biggest pain in the ass, he was the sweetest boy, he could be incredibly crabby, he gave really good kisses and you watch him think. I could complain to Henry about my husband and it later came out that my husband also complained to Henry about me! Henry was discrete and kept his secrets, he was a sweetie. We both miss him and laugh and tell stories of all of his quirky antics!

We miss the pig.

dodad earrings

I am becoming a little obsessed with making these earrings and really need to stop it...

handmadefeed.com

Tim Adam has a new site linking all of your handmade shops, blogs and social networking sites in one place, handmadefeed.com check it out and link away! comes with a descriptive button too.

seo and etsy

if you are seller on etsy this issue of etsy changing meta tags in your shop may have affected your exposure on google search and impacted your sales and you may have been completely unaware of it.

this is a posting from sara hicks on etsy, SEO Announcement - 6/18/09 it's of great interest to all sellers on etsy and i urge you to read it.

off to find another seed bead artists ;)

boreal

just a few photos from a hike i took this afternoon.

changes

i have sold my jewelry on etsy for two and a half years and have done well. i love the site and i want to continue selling there. but in the end it all comes down to business is business. since the infusion of 27 million dollars from investors and the change in business leadership etsy has shown that etsy will do what is best for etsy and i can respect that. i do what is best for my business too.

since the new search change and now with etsy adding meta tags to our shop title, many seller's sales have dropped dramatically and no longer show up in google search. a couple of sellers noticed that change in April of this year and have spent considerable amount of time and great determination to figure out why such a change in the views of items, google alerts and outside sales that originated from google search had dropped so dramatically.

well, what was discovered was that since April of this year etsy had inserted additional meta tags into our shops. the insertion of "handmade" was placed before every item description or name we had listed in our shop. we protested, many of us were very upset to learn that there was a "handmade" tag inserted in front of everything! finally etsy saw the error of their ways and removed the handmade meta tag on June 11th after the uproar in the forums. but what remains is the meta tags that etsy inserted in our shop titles.

the "archaicdesign on Etsy" was inserted into my shop title without my knowledge or consent. it takes up considerable real estate meta tag space. nor, did etsy ever inform any of it's sellers that this was done back in April of this year.

i think i can speak for many sellers that are protesting this change because we really want etsy to succeed, when etsy sellers succeed etsy in turn will succeed. the etsy admin have not said one word in regards to our forum threads, they only seem to want to close them. here are a few threads and a petition that is happening now on etsy. i can't guarantee that these threads will be open if you chose to read them but i will try to post relevant threads in case these are closed too.

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6186413

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6189887