I heart Etsy!

A little over three years ago, I joined the Etsy community.  I only joined because one of my Flickr friends was selling a canvas and I wanted to buy it for my sister.  In order to buy or sell on Etsy, you have to create an account.

Not only did I create an account, Etsy created a monster!!  I can't tell you how many countless hours I spent looking at the dizzying array of items available for sale there.  And when I realized that you could purchase vintage items and supplies, I was HOOKED.

Many, many of the supplies that I use for my ATCs come from Etsy.  If you see any old tickets, invoices, metal thingies or bubblegum machine toys in my work, I got them on Etsy.  The selection is so incredible that I can type in "vintage grocery store" and lo and behold, I can actually find old grocery store items or miniatures.  It's like having your own special concierge picking out your favorite things (I know that Ebay has been doing it for longer, but there's just something different about Etsy).

Nearly everything that I bought my sister for Christmas this year, I found on Etsy.  I found a wonderful little vase, some letterpress notecards, and a vintage mint-in-box dollhouse settee, much like one that she has in her own home.  Before Etsy, there is NO WAY I would've found all of these awesome things, and certainly not in the same weekend!

About a year and a half after finding Etsy, I started making some items and selling them there.  It was so thrilling to put up a canvas for sale and have it sell in the first week!  I did more canvases for Etsy but then I was asked to sell them at a gallery in Manchester, England so I took them down, and didn't do much selling after that, until....

Until about three weeks ago, when I suddenly had far more time to make stuff!  If you've been reading this blog then you know that I quit my job at our local newspaper to forge ahead in the arts field, with a little help from some friends.  So on top of that work, it is now possible for me to focus on other aspects of my artwork, and that certainly includes my Etsy shop, Snizzers & Gwoo!  I've already sold 3 pendants and I couldn't be more excited.  And Etsy really wants you to succeed!  They have a lot of tutorials and hints to make your shop as prosperous as you want it to be.  It's a win-win for everyone!  :D

On the (hilarious) flip side, there is a website dedicated to some of the, shall we say, more "interesting" items for sale on Etsy.  Maybe you've heard of it?  It's cleverly called Regretsy, and once you're on that site expect to spend a good hour there.  I actually laughed out loud a couple of times because not only are you seeing the weirdest stuff, their snarky comments make the site perfection.  I especially love the section called "Spelling Errors".  It's hysterical.

If you haven't found your way to Etsy (or Regretsy!) yet, I highly suggest checking it out (or setting aside an afternoon!).  You will be astounded at what you'll find.

Feelin' Lazy....

Today I did nothing.

Okay, that's only partially true.  I did do all of the week's laundry, wrapped all of the presents and made coffee this morning.  But other than that, not a heck of a lot.  Oh, I did do one other thing - I actually stared into space.

Yes, I found myself, in between wrapping presents, staring into the great wide open.  I can't tell you how long this mind trip lasted, but it's been a while since I've allowed myself such a luxury.

Why is that, exactly?  I felt SO lazy today, and I chastised myself for it.  I usually feel guilty when I "waste my day".  Isn't that sort of ridiculous?  It's my day off today - nearly everything is done for Christmas, and I don't have any "work" work to do.  I mentioned that I did the laundry and wrapped the presents, and yet I still feel like a bump on a log.

Maybe I feel guilty because when I think about how much work had to be done to run a household even just 50 years ago, my chores look awfully weak.  Oh, I did laundry?  Well, la-di-da!  It must've been so HARD to take those unwrinkled, warm, dry clothes out of the dryer and fold or hang them in ample drawers and closets!  Oh, I made coffee, did I?  Yes, it was sheer torture to use my Krups coffeemaker (free with Gevalia membership!) and wait the excrutiatingly endless eight minutes for freshly ground beans to become a delicious beverage!  Oh, and wrapping those presents - however did I survive using beautiful commercially printed wrapping paper in myriad colors with matching bows!  What an agonizing, long and sufferable life I lead!

Now, let's compare that to how my Grammie did things:

Laundry?  How about taking your washed clothes (she did have a washing machine) and running them through a wringer to remove the excess water, hanging them to dry, and then ironing (what's that?) every shirt, dress, pair of pants and undershirt in the house.  YIKES.

Coffee?  Egads.  She probably used a percolator, and it was probably a stove-top model in her early married life.  Percolating is much easier than simply boiling the coffee, but it didn't taste as good as our coffee and no one had an electric grinder.

Gift-wrapping - well, that's pretty much the same, but nowadays you have specific tape for wrapping presents, and it won't turn yellow as it ages.  There are also so many more scissors choices - I'm sure in my Grammie's day she probably used sewing shears!  I don't think those cheap bows existed, either and if they did, chances are they didn't have the adhesive on the back.

Even this blog would've been a huge chore back then - I would've had to write it all out in longhand or type it on a typewriter!  And who would I have sent it to?  That would've been expensive and time-consuming, sending it out to 10 or 20 people every week (even with carbons, I would've only been able to do 3 or fewer copies at a time)!

Now do you see why I feel so lazy?  I guess that's why Sundays were invented.  :)

Have a WONDERFUL holiday week, everyone!  I wish peace and good will to each and every one of you and yours.
Cheers,
Mel

It's the Best Cartoons Ever, Charlie Brown!

My wonderful husby e-mailed me at work today to let me know that "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" will be airing tomorrow night, and would I like to watch it with him?

This was a very sweet gesture, but also one he knew he didn't have to make.  You see, every year I make it a point to watch "The Triumvirate" - the aforementioned "Great Pumpkin"; "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and of course the mother of them all, "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

As a kid, I LOVED these specials!  The first and foremost reason is definitely the music.  Even as a kid, I could appreciate the fantastic jazz by Vince Guaraldi and Ray Charles on vocals (especially "Little Birdie", from the Thanksgiving special).  Back then, of course, you couldn't download any song you wanted so you would have to wait ALL YEAR to hear that one song.  It was something I actually looked forward to all year long.  I also loved (and still do) the quiet philosophy and melancholy that the shows exude.  I recall wondering why, even though I loved the shows, I always felt a little 'far away' after they were done.  I never felt that way about Rudolph or Frosty - nostalgic, yes, but not melancholy.

The first thing I do every Christmas season is spark up the holiday section on the ol' iPod (it doesn't have the same ring as "haul out my Christmas albums, does it?).  I love all types of holiday music but my favorite disc BY FAR is the soundtrack to "Christmas..."  From the first piano notes of "O Tannenbaum", I get a little farklempt (yes, I'm speaking Yiddish while referring to Christmas music.  What can I say - I'm multi-cultural).

For many years the Charlie Brown Christmas special wasn't aired in the Green Bay market because the downtown Appleton holiday parade pre-empted it. So in '88 my dad videotaped it for me while I was in college (they were already living in Madison). I still have it, 21 years later, old ads and all. I don't have a way to play it anymore but I'll keep it until the tape is brittle. And yes, I know I can get it on DVD (probably even Blu-Ray) but there's nothing quite like the 'event' of watching old holiday specials live.

I could go on and on about how much better these specials are than, say "The Transformers Save Christmas".  And I'd be right.  I feel bad for these upcoming generations and what they'll feel nostalgic for because in my opinion, nothing will compare to these 30-minute masterpieces.  If it's been awhile since you've seen them, I highly suggest giving them another try.  I can all but guarantee that you'll love them.  We can all relate to the messages and I can think of no better way to ring in the holiday season.  You may even feel farklempt yourself.

Thank you Charles Schulz & Bill Melendez, wherever you are.  And thank you, ABC, for continuing to run these wonderful shows (it's not quite the same as when CBS aired them and you got to hear the "Special Presentation" music and Dolly Madison commercials, but it's great nonetheless!).