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cindylouwho-2 · 2 months

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RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), LATE JULY 2024

Things have been hectic so this is a long one update - all the Etsy and other ecommerce news from the past month, broken down for your convenience!

Next week could be a big Etsy news week, with the 2nd quarter report being released, and the mature items ban kicking in. I'm also working on analysis of the new Creativity Standards, but we may not have more substantial information on those until Etsy makes another move. Right now the categories are a mess, but that could change.

A reminder that you can receive more timely updates plus exclusive content - including live chats with me on select topics such as Etsy's new Creativity Standards - by supporting my Patreon: patreon.com/CindyLouWho2

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

The European Union is considering making packages valued under 150 euros subject to customs duties when entering the EU. This is widely seen as a way to reduce Shein and Temu orders.

The Etsy Creativity Standards announced on July 9th have a lot going on; here is my short summary so far. [post by me on Patreon] While I would not worry too much about this just yet, I expect them to be more important in the near future. Etsy adding "Made by", "Handpicked by" to every listing is currently full of errors, but more disturbingly, even when a seller points out these errors with arguments from the written policy, Etsy Support is sometimes insisting that the designations are correct. For example, original paintings are lumped in with AI designs and digital downloads. [Post by me on LinkedIn]

Amazon is imposing new rules regarding on-time delivery rates (OTDR); sellers that do not meet the standard of 90% on time delivery will not be able to continue selling. Businesses are exempted if they use the following tools: Shipping Settings Automation, Automated handling time, and Amazon Buy Shipping. Amazon is allowing only 5 days after shipment for products to arrive within the US. You can read the announcement and vigorous forum discussion here, and EcommerceBytes did a summary of the changes and some complaints.

ETSY NEWS

As Etsy's widespread ban on many adult-themed products is about to take effect on Monday, I considered why Etsy felt the need to take far more drastic steps than Amazon & eBay has in the same markets. [post by me on Tumblr] The upcoming ban started by getting media attention from Mashable, and quickly escalated to the New York Times [not a gift link; soft paywall]. Etsy is still not commenting on why they are doing this. From the NYT article: "Even before the ban, it was getting harder to run his business, Mr. Goldstein said. So, he thought, “Why don’t we just make our own marketplace?” This year, he started the website Spicerack as an independent alternative to Etsy. The online boutique already has about 75 sellers, which are vetted to make sure they’re not “dropshippers” or simultaneously listing products on e-commerce behemoths like AliExpress or Amazon. Mr. Goldstein said that Spicerack is in the process of adding about 100 more sellers, half of whom signed up when the Etsy ban was announced." From the BBC: “In many countries there is pressure on platforms, sometimes backed by new legislation, to do more to prevent under-18s from encountering explicit content, and to remove illegal or "harmful" content from their platforms. Payment processors are also increasingly wary of working with platforms that enable sex based commerce....those concerns could be addressed by more clearly labelling and separating adult product listings..." The Guardian interviewed a few sellers who are affected.

While Etsy previously stated that the new shop set-up fee would be $15 USD, they quietly changed that, to whatever they feel like charging. [post by me on Patreon]

In case you missed it, the new listing form seems to be triggering Etsy Ads campaigns to start without the seller’s knowledge. [post by me on LinkedIn] Since my post, there are still more reports of this happening, and even more.

I regret to inform you that Etsy’s Search Analytics are going to disappear after August 14 [post by me on LinkedIn], per a banner on the page.

Canadian sellers will have to pay a 1.15% “Regulatory Operating Fee” on all of their sales income (including shipping and gift wrap) starting August 15. This is likely due to a new law taxing large ecommerce platforms 3% of their Canadian income, which came into effect June 28. The tax applies retroactively back to the beginning of 2022, so Etsy is likely overcharging us to cover those earlier amounts.

Sellers having difficulties with the domestic pricing tool not working correctly may want to try these tips from an Etsy forum thread: Set the domestic price to the global price amount, save, and then go back in and change the domestic price to your preferred amount, then save again. This apparently works for both new and existing listings, but there are 3 drawbacks: 1) it is time-consuming, 2) it needs to be done any time a listing is changed/edited (including renewals), and 3) it doesn’t seem to work for France. (I don’t ship to France so I cannot test the last point.) Remember, if you have a sale go through for the wrong price, contact Etsy and demand to be compensated the difference.

Still don’t believe that Etsy is serious about shipping on time? See this Reddit thread by a seller who ignored a 30-day warning, so all of their items were removed from search. From this screenshot, it appears their average order value was fairly high, but that doesn’t mean Etsy will tolerate late shipping from shops with cheaper items, so beware.

Etsy is testing filtering out digital items from search results unless the terms match a digital item search. See Etsy forum threads here and also here.

A new academic study calls out Etsy and other online marketplaces for allowing illegally-killed bats to be sold on their sites. “We refute any assertion that the online bat trade is ethical. Again, statements that bats were captive-bred are absurd—bat farms are nonexistent—and it would be impossible for suppliers to find bats that have died naturally in the kind of condition and numbers needed to supply an ornamental trade. These bats were hunted.” The New York Times has also now covered this story [soft paywall].

The virtual seller education event Etsy Up is scheduled for September 10. You can register here, but there is no program yet. Usually this event has almost nothing worthwhile for experienced shops, and Etsy generally uses it to push their paid services and integrations along with basic info.

Etsy is looking for sellers to join their Advocacy program and “share your story”. Beware that sometimes Etsy’s “advocacy” is as much for Etsy as for its sellers, so they are looking for stories that fit Etsy’s own goals.

The Etsy Design Awards have opened; the final date for submissions is August 8.

Etsy’s second quarter results for 2024 will be released July 31.

ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)

General

Shein and Temu are facing investigations under the EU’s Digital Services Act. “In a press release, the EU said it’s asking Shein and Temu for more information about measures they’ve taken to meet DSA obligations related to what’s known as “Notice and Action” mechanisms, which should allow users to notify the marketplaces of illegal products.It has also requested info related to the design of their online interfaces, which the pan-EU law mandates must not deceive or manipulate users, such as via so-called “dark patterns”.” Temu is also being sued by Arkansas for having an invasive app that is accused of harvesting data without user permissions. “According to the complaint, Temu is allegedly obscuring its unauthorized access to data through misleading terms of use and privacy policies that do not alert users to the full scope of data that the app can potentially collect. That includes not telling users about tracking granular locations for no defined purpose and collecting "even biometric information such as users’ fingerprints."

Amazon

Amazon now has an AI shopping “assistant” on its US app, called Rufus. “Customers can ask questions about products, comparisons and buying considerations. The AI can provide suggestions for specific tasks or projects.” As per usual with AI, “tests show Rufus doesn’t always provide accurate information.” A review from Marketplace Pulse notes that “Amazon’s AI assistant fails to help shoppers find the best product among the millions in the catalog. It transforms broad questions like “What are the best cycling gloves for winter?” into a few links to product searches — the same searches a shopper could have typed themselves. It refuses to make product recommendations, show specific products, or suggest from the thousands of options. It can’t directly answer the question, “What are the cheapest batteries for my TV remote?”

Any sellers who had items removed for being plants or seeds when they actually aren’t should follow the instructions linked to here to get the situation resolved. An Amazon employee warned sellers: “Please do not acknowledge the violations as these will result in the deactivation of your listings.” Affected businesses should instead appeal the flags.

Amazon is planning a discount drop shipping from China section, widely seen to be competition to Temu and Shein. However, “[i]t is not clear if these shipments will be made using a U.S. trade provision that exempts individual packages worth less than $800 from U.S. customs duties.”

The European Commission has asked Amazon for more information on “recommender systems, ads transparency provisions and risk assessment measures.”

Only 1% of US Amazon sellers also offer their items outside of North America. “Due to its proximity to the U.S., Canada has more successful sellers from the U.S. than Canada.” If you have a unique product, this could be an opportunity. Amazon returns are creating huge workloads for UPS stores and other retailers that accept them. “Amazon “makes up about one-tenth of our profits, but it takes up about 90 percent of the working day,” said Jeremy Walker, a store associate who worked at a UPS Store near Dallas that received between 300 and 600 returns per day.”

Depop

After trying it out in the UK, Depop is removing selling fees for the United States, starting July 15. Payment processing fees still apply. “[B]buyers will now be charged a "marketplace fee" of up to 5% plus a fixed amount up to $1.”

An interview with Depop CEO Kruti Patel Goyal reveals they plan “to bring Depop to a bigger and broader audience over time.”

eBay

eBay is slowly rolling out changes to the Active Listings page.

eBay sellers can now get cash advance loans through Liberis, the balance of which gets paid as a percentage of the seller's sales.

New sellers in the UK might see “automated feedback” on some of their orders, to "help [users] buy and sell with confidence". It will say "This seller successfully completed an order", and is removed once the actual buyer leaves feedback.

Michaels MakerPlace

Abby Glassenberg reviews Michaels’ MakerPlace popups inside their retail stores. Results seem mixed.

Shopify

A few hundred thousand Shopify users may have had their names, addresses and other data put up for sale on July 3 after a breach. Shopify denies it had any security issues and claims the data came from a third-party app. There was a known data breach at Evolve Bank and Trust in June; that institution is a supporting partner for Shopify Balance. It does appear that Shopify is notifying the affected individuals.

Walmart Walmart is adding pre-owned collectibles to its marketplace. “Eligible categories include Toys (Figures, Dolls, Trains, Plushies, Games, LEGO, Funko, Diecast Cars & Hot Wheels); Media & Music (Movies, Vinyl, Music, SteelBooks, Musical Instruments & Entertainment Replicas); Trading Cards; Comic Books & Books; Sports Memorabilia; and Coins.”

All Other Marketplaces

Indiegogo is opening an ecommerce website for items created through crowdfunding campaigns on the platform, called IndieShop.

Etsy-owned Reverb now has an “outlet” page, where businesses can sell off their overstock, seconds and out-of-date models for 20% off and free shipping. Most products sold through the main portion of Reverb are used, not new, so this competes with regular sellers.

Not sure if selling on Faire is right for your business? Here’s a handmade-focussed review of the wholesale site.

Payment Processing

Klarna is now available through Adobe Commerce (previously Magento).

Shipping

USPS rates for labels on most platforms went up July 1, ahead of the previously-announced July 14th increases. Ina Steiner re-posted the numbers from eBay and Pirate Ship.

USPS released the addresses and other data of logged-in Informed Delivery users to Meta, LinkedIn and Snap. The company claims it didn’t know the data transfer was happening.

The free USPS Priority medium shipping tubes are no longer being made, but you can still order existing stock.

Royal Mail’s Tracked 28 & 48 are now available at post offices.

UPS’s holiday surcharge rates for the US have been released; the lower surcharges start September 29th.

Shippo has new Canada Post rates from now until January, and the Tracked Packet rates to everywhere but the United States are cheaper than Etsy’s (which are based on Level 4 of Solutions for Small Business). Remember that Shippo makes you pay for a higher tier of service if you use over 30 labels per month.

#ecommerce #EtsySellerNews #etsy #microbusiness #cindylouwho2

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nattikay · 3 months

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fursuit making update: both ears are now complete and attached to the head! I've decided I'm not going to post any more WIP pics because at this point she's close enough to done for it to feel like "spoilers" for the finished thing lol

I leave for AWU just one week from today and have made a list of all the tasks I need to get done to finish the suit. There are 14 tasks in total (sounds like a lot but most of them are relatively small/quick things). Eight of them are absolutely mandatory to have a finished wearable costume, the rest are things would be ideal to have but aren't strictly necessary/it won't be the end of the world if I don't have time to get to them (mostly small internal things that no one will actually see when I'm wearing it, like bias tape on the edges of the handpaws or around the neck hole, inside lining for the back of the head (right now only the front is lined), stuff like that).

Of the 14 total, I've deemed seven of them to be minor/simple enough that I could theoretically do them in the hotel the night before the con if I need to. Obviously trying to do all seven of them there would probably be a little much, but if I reach the day I have to leave and there's still one or two, maybe three of them that I didn't get to at home, it should be fine.

So yeah, I think I'm pretty confident now that I can finish this thing in time to wear her at the con! Yay!

Right now the only thing I'm a little unsure about is the eyes—not about whether or not I can do them, but about which material I'll be able to use.

See (no pun intended lol), I was originally planning to use the same method I'd used for 2.5's eyes, namely making a digital iris design and printing it out on cotton buckram (with just my regular home printer). I thought I had some buckram left over from the last time I made fursuit heads, but even after digging through all my craft supplies I couldn't find it, so I had to order some more. Unfortunately the place I usually order from was out of stock, so I had to find some elsewhere.

While looking for somewhere else to get the buckram (this was two weeks ago now), I saw an Etsy listing that said they could print custom fursuit eyes on a plastic mesh with the fancy dye sublimation printing, which caught my attention because hey, that could be even better; I'd still get to use the iris art I made but on the fancy vibrant waterproof mesh. So I decided to give it a shot...the problem is I don't know if they'll arrive before I have to leave 😅

I found and ordered some regular buckram too, as a backup, but I'm really hoping the fancy dye sublimation irises get here in time. The seller said they'd print and ship them on Saturday (last Saturday, not this coming Saturday) but I haven't gotten any kind of shipping confirmation so I don't know if they actually did or not.

Luckily installing the eyes doesn't take very long, so I'm gonna give the fancy irises until Wednesday to show up. If they're not here by then, I'm just gonna have to cut my losses and go back to the regular printer on cotton buckram like I was originally planning. Which, hey, not the end of the world, that method worked perfectly fine for 2.5...just a mild letdown after getting excited about the fancy option 😅

#sorry y'all i'm just full of rambles today i guess 😅

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ixiblitz · 7 months

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I guess it’s a good time to post this after I found out about my car 💀… but I’m doing custom keychain commissions! It’s $50 USD and I’ll take payment via PayPal or Venmo. I originally only planned on having 10 slots but honestly I need as much money as I can get to fix my car and save for top surgery so genuinely if you’re interested I’ll reel you in. If you’re interested or have any questions let ps DM me or comment here so I can DM you! I’ll ship worldwide as long as you pay shipping as well, I’ll just make a custom listing on Etsy for you so you can pay the VAT and what not.

These I guess are considered emergency commissions, I need to pay $2,574 to fix my car so yeah…. Please share as much as possible it would mean the world to me ❤️ regular commissions are also still open and I’ll also be making the vocaloid keychains as well so those will be available for purchase soon too.

Thank yooouuuuuuu ❤️

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frogsky · 5 months

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i feel like this would be a long shot 😅 but i have a small crocheting business🎉!! and my shop on etsy has 2 listings (just to start). only shipping throughout the US *cause worldwide be expensive*

if anyone is interested in buying, i'd be so happy and grateful, or if you share the word around, hell even just looking at my shop would be nice (along with my insta, yk, getting to know me and all :))

i try my best at posting, but editing kicks my ass everytime ngl, but i don't give up, just take breaks cause fook the algorithm 😭 we're humans, not machines

any questions, comments, or concerns would be in my Etsy bio i believe (products are made to order too)

here's the link, if you wanna follow/support

https://froggymadeee.etsy.com

#small artist #crochet #me #small business #crocheters of tumblr #crochetersofinstagram

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20dollarlolita · 2 years

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Why I don't sell handmade stuff: a guide to calculating how much money you're not making on your etsy store.

Fun me fact, for like half of 2013 I supported myself entirely through my etsy store. I do know HOW to have a profitable handmade store. But here's why I don't do it anymore:

Let's take a journey into a land of hypothetical sales. I don't like math, so everything is going to be multiples of 10.

Let's say that I'm selling a pair of gloves for $100. I made these gloves, and I'm selling them for $100. How much money am I making on these gloves?

Well, I'm not making $100 on them. That should be pretty obvious. Unless I have a magic "press a button and now there's a pair of gloves!!" box, it's going to cost me something to make the gloves.

Let's say that the yarn that I made the gloves out of cost $10. The materials cost me $10, and I'm selling them for $100. Did I make $90 on this pair of gloves? Maybe! That might be cool. Making $90 on a pair of gloves sounds like making a lot of profit.

But it's not, actually. Because you're not factoring in a lot of things, but notably, labor. How long does it take you to make a pair of gloves?

Well, let's say it's 10 hours. Back before I knitted so hard that I destroyed my hand and can never knit again, I could do a pair of gloves in 10 hours if I really hustled.

So now we have a more full picture: We have gloves for $100. Materials is $10, labor is $9 an hour for 10 hours, for a total of $90 of labor. Now, $9 an hour is just over half of minimum wage where I am, but it's more than Federal Minimum, so we'll call that an okay number. We've calculated that $100 for a pair of gloves made from $10 of yarn can pay a speedy knitter a semi-reasonable wage.

But the thing that you need to remember is that every other transaction fee also comes out of that $90. Etsy takes like 15% of every sale (we'll round to 10 due to I don't like math reasons). The yarn is going to cost $10 no matter what. It cost you money to get the yarn from wherever it is to your house. It costs you gas to get to the post office to send the thing off. All of those things add up. So now, you pay $10 for the yarn, $10 for website listing, $5 for assorted shipping and gas. So you're making $7.50 an hour, Federal Minimum Wage.

If you want to do some math here, you're making $7.50 an hour. Your web host is taking $10. This means that your store host is making more for hosting the listing than you make in an hour of working.

Oh, but speaking of working. Updating and maintaining a web store takes time. Maybe not a lot. Maybe one hour for every project (total of photographing, writing listings, answering customer questions, packaging, standing in line at the post office, etc). So now your job takes you 11 hours and you're making $6.82 an hour. It's officially less than minimum wage.

None of this is calculating in durable consumables. What if a needle breaks? What if your car gets a flat and needs a new tire? What if you need to see a doctor about your hand from doing it too much? Your pricing of $100 for a pair of gloves, $6.82 an hour wage, NONE of that covers things that might go wrong but that would be 100% the fault of your knitting business. My copay for my doctor is like $35, so that is over five hours of work just to see a doctor to ask why my hand doesn't feel right, not counting anything that might be prescribed by that doctor.

But okay, whatever, you're okay with your $6.82 an hour and you don't need to worry about bad things that happen because you're the luckiest person ever. What if I told you that, being okay with $6.82 an hour, selling a pair of gloves for $100, you are making

no profit

at all.

Yes, you're getting paid (at least a little). But you're not making any profit. You're making a wage. If you had to pay someone else to do your work, and you paid them $6.82 an hour and sold the gloves they made for $100, you would not be making any money at all. Your small business is not making any money. You as a laborer are getting paid less than minimum wage to do skilled labor. Your business is making zero profit at all.

So then you do all of this, become okay with getting less than minimum wage, be okay with a business that is technically speaking making zero dollars, you get all that done, spend the hour listing your gloves, and the first message from a potential customer you get?

"Lol, I like this, but what the fuck is up with that price? $100, really????? I can get gloves for $9 on Wish!"

So that's why I don't sell handmade stuff anymore.

#if you agree feel free to share this with clients and customers who ask you to lower your prices #small business #handmade

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meyhew · 1 year

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hi seed!! a (long) while ago you were talking about annotating books, do you use a pencil or pen or marker? do you add sticky notes and labels? do you highlight? sorry for the questions, i know i can do whatever i want but i was wondering what you do too. anyway hope you have a good day, sending you love 🥰❤️

omg hiii what i do really depends on the book and the mood im in, so i don't have like a set "method." if it's a serious book i'm reading for the first time i usually just underline and/or highlight things with quick little reactions here and there, and deeper connections happen on a second or third read (if ever). i'm biggg fan of slapping stickers in my books. so so so many stickers and doodles. i lend my books to friends often as well and they're allowed to write whatever they want so that also happens.

as far as writing utensils go, i gravitate towards pens that have a really fine print so my favs are: pilot hi-tec-c 0.25mm & 0.4mm, and sarasa gel retractable 0.5mm. the pilot ones do not bleed through At All and i love that. the sarasa doesn't necessarily bleeds but it's more visible on the other side of the page than the pilot. really all depends on how much pressure you write with; me personally i don't like to put a lot of pressure so my go to is definitely the pilot. i have both in tons of colors so i just pick one that goes with the cover or the vibe etc. the highlighters i normally use are from daiso and i can't find a link to them anywhere now but i would also recommend these ones.

example pages under the cut <3

SPOILERS for ninth house, hell bent, the atlas paradox, a place for us, the raven king

the black in the first photo is pilot hi-tec-c 0.25mm. idk what the red is in the second photo that was lys' work but the pink highlighter i Think was from the pack i linked above. the brown pen is a random one i bought in new york it glides really nicely but i dont typically use it for books bc it bleeds

the black in the next one is also pilot 0.2mm and the green is pilot 0.4mm so u can see the difference. (the blue is again lys idk what she used. i'm guessing it is also smth similar to the pilot 0.4mm). the red is either pilot 0.4mm or the sarasa 0.5mm the orange

sarasa gel 0.5mm in orange and of course stickers. the meme ones i get custom made from @maltruenorth bc she's my bestie but she also has an etsy shop and takes custom orders. i love these stickers they add so much personality to every single book

these are the highlighters i normally use now. they're from daiso and idk why i can't find them on their website BUT buying online is heinous bc shipping for my location is like... $20 and im NOT paying that lmao so i would suggest finding an alternative somewhere like the ones i've linked above. i've used those and loved them.

and tabs! i prefer translucent ones. again, i get mine from daiso but something like this would work as well. i like to be able to see through the tab instead of taking them off to read what's underneath but transparent ones arent fun bc i like color <3 and in case it wasnt obvious i underline with a ruler. i didn't always but it's a habit i picked up from lys and now i cannot stop doing it. makes everything look sooo much cleaner and satisfies an itch in my brain

#this got so unreasonably long but i love love love annotating books it's so fun #anonymous #answered

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doctorguilty · 2 years

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personal

I was on the phone with my grandpa yesterday making sure my boxes of stuff arrived safely, he asked how my etsy business I was going and I said pretty good etc, then he was like, listen I know you like to do your animal bones and stuff, so when it gets warm out again I can go ahead and clear out some space in the shed for you. that way you can keep all your [taxidermy stuff] in there and not have to worry about moving it or cleaning up or anything

and I've just been thinking a lot about that.......... when I left home ~4 years ago it was because the attitude about me being around was more negative.. family treated me like I was in the way, taking up too much space, I couldn't make myself small enough where it would be enough to stop being allegedly in everyone's way. So left, desperate for anywhere I could go where I would be allowed to exist without shrinking, but everywhere I went, I still can't be small enough. My therapist has told me it's all bullshit and no matter where I am I'm allowed to take up space and exist but.. sometimes it is really a luxury getting to have that at all, sometimes even being able to advocate for myself and win without a battle.

Now things are different back home, the adults act different, and every time I visited, nobody acted like I was a burden.. it was so different... so when my grandpa mentioned clearing out the shed for me to give me a space....... I didn't even ask for that space. I didn't hint or mention or anything. He just thought about that all on his own, my hobbies and such, and came to his own conclusion that would be nice for me and is just going to willingly give me space. I'm still kind of baffled..

It makes me feel like pursuing my taxidermy hobby was not a waste of time here, even if it went so badly because of my beetles abruptly almost all dying among other issues outside my control... there's unfortunately not all that much clean I can ship back, but I will ship what I can and find homes for the frozen stuff.. and I just thought, really, I wouldn't have the opportunity to build my craft up again until I moved out with my partner finally but.. it sounds like that will be different too..

my own space.. in a shed....... to keep all my tools .. to keep whatever I want, not just stuff everything I own in a bedroom to stay out of everyone's way .. I considered donating the taxidermy tools and power tools I bought here, but i opted to pack them because I was just.. proud of myself for learning to use them...

I guess I'll really be coming back to a better life than I left.. everyone grew, I guess. mentally and emotionally and so on, and they make me feel valued. I guess sometimes it just takes a lot of space and a lot of time and other life lessons that come with various life changing events..

I can't remember the last time I ever went in that shed. it's been there for a long time, with a bunch of yard tools and whatnot, but I reckon it really isn't used all that much I can't take up a bunch of it. I'm looking forward to it.. I could have even more than I can have at my apartment here, like maceration buckets and everything..

and I'm just. Allowed. to take up space. I've never had a life where I didn't have to be so so so small. I'm glad everything changed for the better. maybe things just had to get below rock bottom for me before they went back up

#seth speaks

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nancypullen · 2 years

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What’s Up, Buttercup?

Everyone still recovering from the holidays or is that just me? I’m really enjoying these quiet days of January. My goal for this month is to organize. I mean really organize. I want my pantry to be HGTV worthy (we all know that won’t happen) with perfectly aligned and labeled containers. Honestly I’ll be happy if each shelf just has a purpose. We’ve been shoving stuff in there so haphazardly that you might grab confectioner’s sugar or Play-Doh. I’ve got a bunch of the grandgirl’s art supplies and games on a bottom shelf, but they wander. I need to tackle the master closet as well. It got a little out of hand over the holidays, and by holidays I mean Halloween through Christmas. It needs some straightening. It’s such a great space - there’s no excuse for letting it get messy. I’m also organizing the card catalog storage in my craft room. That’s just fun. It didn’t take long to fill the top two drawers with blocks of clay. It’s like spotting a rainbow every time I open them. I’m filling the rest with ribbons and washi tape that I use for making cards. Polka dots and gingham in every color!

I’m loading more ribbon and some washi tape in the bottom two drawers.

Is that a cabinet full of fun or what? It’s calling to me every day, asking me to come play. I mean, this needs to be an Easter card, right?

I like this gal too. I think she’s saying something like, “I haven’t lost all my marbles, but there’s definitely a hole in the bag.”

The sooner I get everything organized and ship shape, the sooner I can play. I’ve got so many ideas for clay and for cards banging around in my head, I need to get them out! I have another problem though. My kids are so generous, and treated me like a queen on Christmas. I received everything from fresh canvases to paint on to a cordless glue gun (!!!). Isn’t the cord always too short? Anyway, I was thrilled with everything, but they also gifted me with Etsy, Sephora, and Amazon gift cards. The Sephora card was spent Christmas night, I’ve always got a basket ready to go. I usually have a shopping list on Amazon as well. No problem. BUT, I love so many things on Etsy and I have so much to spend that I can’t decide on anything! The pressure is too much! It’s killing me. I feel like I have to be really responsible with their hard-earned money, not a penny should be wasted. I study things and decide if I can make it myself for less, or if I really even need it. I can almost always talk myself out of it. So far I have purchased some new clay cutters, a batch of jewelry findings - earrings posts, jump rings, that sort of thing. Those are all things I needed. Then I bought a cute bird house. I’m thinking ahead to spring and it’s going to find a home in the Crape Myrtle tree beside the porch. Yes, I’m still working hard at luring all manner of furred and feathered friends to our yard. It’s working too. I’m hearing more and more bird song. That’s good for my soul, so that was a mental health purchase. But I’m still swimming in Etsy money and I can’t decide if I should opt for home decor, jewelry. art, garden stuff, or what. I’m stressing out! I don’t deserve more than a $25 gift card because I’ll give myself an ulcer trying to make the right choice. I will not waste one cent of my boys’ money and the burden is too much! Next year I’m asking for socks. I know, it’s a great problem to have. I also know that I’m the only one worried about it. My kids would scoff and say, “Enjoy! Spend it!” I don’t know if it’s the Scots or the German in me that balks. That brings me to another I-don’t-want-to-spend-it quandry. When we moved here we knew we’d purchase new living and dining room furniture. We found sofas right away, but I didn’t see a dining set that I liked (translation: a price I liked). The whole fam damily was coming to visit shortly after we arrived and I needed a place for us to eat. I poked around on Facebook Marketplace and found a cheap table with six chairs that the sellers were willing to deliver. Score! It would serve as a placeholder, we’d all fit, and I figured when we found our new set we could pass it on. Eight months later we’re still using that ugly table. Mickey loves the chairs, I don’t. Here’s a snap from the day after Christmas. I was setting the table (not finished) for a brunch. I can’t remember why I took this pic, but having it on my phone saved me from walking in now to take a photo. I’m lazy.

See what I mean? The table is really ugly - very shiny fake finish on top, but there’s room for all of us. The menfolk all say they love the chairs. I’m not a fan. The color looks awful with our floors, but a rug underneath might help. Probably not. It’s also kind of squatty in the space. On the other hand - it’s solid, has apparently lasted decades, it’s in excellent shape, and I feel like I ought to find a way to like it. Can I chalk paint the top and then sand and stain those chairs? What could I do to Nancify it? This is what I’ve been looking at.

I just can’t bring myself to spend on it. Also, as much as I love those sets, I’m not 100% sure they’d look right in our space. I’d be more sure if they were cheaper.

If I said that we needed a new set Mickey would be in the car and ready to go test chairs. I’m the one dragging my feet. It just feels wasteful. There’s a big gap between wants and needs. I want a pretty set, but I don’t need one. The only thing I need is peace and bird song, and I’m working on that. I think I’d rather have a fence in front of the tree line and a porch swing. Oh geez, it’s my Etsy gift card all over again. I’m going to go take a bubble bath and read a book. I don’t want to think about money or stuff. Why can’t everything just be five dollars? This gives me heartburn. Sending out lots of love (it’s FREE!) tonight. I hope that your year is off to a fine start and that your heart is full of hope for 2023. I’m daring to think that it will be good to us. I tend to start every year sure that it will be the best year ever, but the last couple have been determined to prove me wrong. That’s why I’m setting my sights a bit lower, hoping that if we’re good to each other and focus on what matters - kindness, growth, love, peace - things just might turn out okay. Don’t forget to be kind to yourself. Make sure that voice in your head is a friend. And that’s a wrap. The bath is calling and I must go. Stay safe, stay well.

Nancy

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hibiscus02 · 1 year

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My (as of now) brief story on getting a long furby

I'll preface this by saying I'm not in the fandom nor am I a collector. I really wanted a Furby when I was a kid, was obsessed with the thing, but my parents never got me one for reasons I can't remember rn (either too expensive or too weird)

Fast forward to present day, I was scrolling through YouTube and started to watch a furby makeover at random, because I enjoy arts and crafts. And I suddenly become charmed and mesmerized by the Furby's beautiful physique as I felt their cursed eyes stare at me through the screen.

Now, the way my ADHD brain works is that sometimes it will quickly but strongly become transfixed by a specific object (as opposed to just hyperfixating on a tv show or book like usual), and it overrides every other function in my brain with MUST HAVE IT. And that's exactly what happened in this instance.

So I immediately start to search for ways to acquire my own little guy, which took me to a deepdive on Etsy, eBay and Shopee for price comparing. In this journey I learned about the many different types of Furbys (Furbies?) and, although I would've loved to get my hands on one of the older ones (the face just looks cooler to me idk) I quickly realized that even the cheapest ones would be too expensive for me because of the shipping cost (I live in Brazil). In fact, the younger models were also too expensive, because dollars are just that inflated here, so after a couple of hours...after my entire morning was spent scrolling through listings I had the idea to get one of the tiny keychain-like Furbys (like the ones shown below) since they were cheaper so I could customize them and put it on my car;

Even though I'd originally wanted a long Furby I was fine with this alternative since I like tiny things, and I would be easier to modify.

However. It would seem that the Furby gods did not agree with my assessment.

A few hours before I resigned myself to the keychain idea, I had remembered a cousin of mine who got a Furby when we were children (a memory which came to me easily since I felt extreme jealousy). Even though he's not a kid anymore, I messaged his mom on Instagram in hopes that she was a hoarder much like my own mother, and perhaps would still have her children's old toys somewhere.

And after I had given up on my searching, she responded very positively to my weird question, said she remembered what I was talking about, and that she was pretty sure she still had one around the house. She promptly offered to look for it on that same day, and I thanked her endlessly.

Well, I said to myself, that'll probably take a while and obviously she's not gonna drop whatever she's doing to look for it now, so I'll find a way to keep myself busy and keep my brain happy until I get any news.

EXCEPT, and I shit you not, LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES LATER, she sends me this picture followed by the caption "Look who I found 🖤"

At my many exclamations of confusion, she explained that she kept all of the kid's toys in the same chest, and when she opened it her youngest daughter spotted the Furby at once. I offered to go pick it up and this woman, angel that she is, told me not to worry because she would be having lunch close to my neighborhood tomorrow and could bring it here instead.

So, this is all I have for now. I'll be watching videos on how to handle the 2012-ish Furby and gathering some materials in the meantime. Any tips or guides are appreciated. Wish me luck!

#furby #furby community #furblr #furby 2012 #shitpost #memes #stories #bis's furby journey #mine

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sheliesshattered · 2 years

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I’m getting so close to done on the mock-up for Rhaenyra’s red dress, and I am so excited!

A few days ago I decided to try taking the mock-up in a little along each of the 10 seams, starting at the underbust and waist and high hip, and then easing out into just a slightly narrower skirt. Even just pinning it in made the whole thing look much better, so I decided it was worth it to re-sew the seams and see if I want to make the changes to the paper pattern.

I only took about 2mm in at the waist on each side of each panel, but multiplied by 20 (10 panels, 2mm each side) it’s actually a reduction of 4cm over all, which I was worried would be a bit too much but turned out to be pretty perfect. The high hip came in about 5mm at the seam line, and from there I just drew a straight line from the new waist measurement to the new high hip measurement and continued that line straight down to the floor.

At the hem it works out to a reduction of about 62cm total -- spread evenly across all 10 panels of course -- which should leave me with a hem circumference of 245cm (~2.67 yards). It looks a lot more similar to the width of the skirt in the show-worn dress than it did before, and bringing in the torso helped the overall look quite a bit, too.

Once those adjustments were done, I was able to focus on just the few little places that still need a bit of tweaking. The lower curve of the back armscye needs to extend out a bit further than it currently does, and I want to pinch out just a liiiittle bit in the overbust area where the center front meets the side front. I think the center front shoulders are also sitting just a bit wider than I’d like them to, so I’m going to redraft that bit to be closer to vertical than it is now.

While I was doing all that pinning and marking, I got to the question of the neckline, which I had raised slightly when I redrafted the center front panel during all the bust adjustments a week or so ago. I just kind of eyeballed it based on the width of the trim and how low I thought the necklace would sit on me, but now--

Last month when I decided I was definitely for sure doing this cosplay, I went ahead and ordered the screen accurate necklace from the maker on Etsy, knowing that it was shipping from Italy and would take weeks to get here. I was kind of half-thinking of it as a birthday present to myself (along with the rest of the cosplay I guess, heh) and had resolved to not even open the package until my birthday. But it arrived yesterday! And so while doing adjustments today, I realized that I could try on the actual necklace and figure out if I need to make any changes to the neckline in this last round of edits before I move on to the silk fabric.

So even though there’s still about two weeks until my birthday, I went ahead and opened the cute little wrapping the necklace arrived in. The necklace itself is lovely, looks absolutely perfect in terms of screen-accurateness, and the chain is super long but I knew it would be, I’ll trim off the excess at some later point. I put it on and adjusted the chain length so it was sitting right below my collarbone. Then I pinned down the 1cm seam allowance at the front neckline (the final version will be getting an interfacing of silk organza cut on-grain to help support the weight of the trim+beading) and tried the dress on aaaand... It’s perfect. No edits necessary, lol. I could have waited another two weeks to try the necklace on, but I’m glad to know that the neckline doesn’t need to be higher or lower or anything. :D

So next up, I’m going to make those few small adjustments to the paper pattern -- bringing in the upper few inches of the center front so it’s more vertical and less off-the-shoulder; extending the back armscye by just a tiny bit; truing up the upper portion of the side front and side back where they meet the center front/back, so the shoulder seams lie the way I want them too; transferring all the taking in at the waist and skirt to the paper pattern; and then re-truing the skirt panels to make sure they’re all the same width again (I’ve come so far from trying to just draft them all at a 7° angle, lol).

And once all that is done, the paper pattern will be finished! Since these last changes are so minor relatively, I’m not going to re-cut any of the mock-up. The next step will be starting in on the underdress by tracing the pattern onto the black silk organza. If there are any last little changes I want to make based on how the underdress fits, I’ll have the chance to do it before starting on the outer layer.

I don’t have tracking info for the red silk fabric, but I expect it’ll arrive some time in the next week or so. My silk pins arrived today, the cotton thread in both red and black a couple of days ago, and the narrow trim that goes over the seams arrived on Monday. The only other thing I’m really still waiting to arrive is the 65/8 microtex machine needles I ordered, but I do have some 70/10 microtex that I used to sew a narrow zigzag on the cut edges of the organza before I washed it. The fabric still had holes in it after I took out those zigzag threads, but it didn’t snag or anything, so if I get antsy waiting for the 65/8s to arrive, I can try using the 70/10s.

But I still have several steps to go before I’m ready to even do the stay-stitching on the black organza under layer, much less actually sew the seams. And this last week at work was weirdly slow, so I was able to squeeze in a little sewing/drafting/fitting here and there -- but I expect the next two weeks will be a lot busier. In all likelihood both the needles and the red fabric will arrive before I’ve got all the pattern pieces traced onto the black fabric.

Even just at the mock-up stage, it’s starting to look so much like Rhaenyra’s dress, and I am so excited, all I want to do is work on it and get it looking more and more like the real thing and uuuugghhhh. I’m well on track for getting it done in time for Dragon Con without any rushing, but knowing that I may not have much time to work on it for the next two weeks is definitely a sadness.

#cosplay plans #my cosplay #my sewing #Dragon Con 2023 #RRD cosplay

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jamieroxxartist · 7 months

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A funny story from the other day. So me and my wife Dani were in her car the other day and heading over to the Reptile store to get Ursula her weekly Rat (dinner.) We of course waited too long and were in the 5 o'clock rush hour traffic. Lots of stops and starts just hopping along.

So next to us I see this older guy in a pretty fancy newer yellow Corvette with his wife (I'm assuming, she looked a similar age to him) and she's bored and looking out her side passenger window in the other direction.

So we creep past the closed Post Office and there is this young woman with her SUV parked out front And she trying to fill up all these shipping boxes she has all lined up. She's wearing black yoga pants and a lot of bending over is happening. I noticed her because I see the guy in the car checking her out.

Anyhow this guy has this lecherous look on his face, like a preditor at some African Serengeti watering hole. And this woman is just trying to get her etsy orders out (or whatever) and the old guy's wife is right there in the car (but she's looking away) with him and I just chuckle at this creepy old guy in his $80K car, thinking his dirty thoughts, the gal (and his wife) having no clue as to any this (which is probably a good thing) and here is this little play all happening right in front of me, etc.

And whatever. I mean the guy did lay out a ton of money for his yellow Corvette and most likely in some thought that this is why and that those thoughts could turn into reality. I mean after all his Corvette is yellow.

And who am I after all? Just some biologist hiding off and away behind a tree watching all this play out here at the watering hole (everyone has their bored stuck in-traffic flights of fantasy I guess, including me.)

So I chuckle to myself at all of this and my wife Dani notices that. And she knows me. "What? What is happening?" I tell her. And she scans it all quickly herself now and immediately pulls her car up blocking the guy's view. He pulls up to regain the view, she pulls up crowding the car in front of us a little to maintain the view blockage.

He curses, bringing the attention of his wife around, I can read her lips asking, "What?" And I see him reply, I don't know what he said, probably some bitching about the traffic is all.

And my chuckle turns into laughter at it all. "Dani, that old dude, paid 80 grand for that car and probably desperately needs to believe that gal would talk to him. But yeah I get it.", I say.

She tells me, "I have been that woman many times." ... with a directness and self-confidence that simply tells me:

At the watering hole, the Lioness absolutely will not suffer the foolishness of some jackass hyena.

And me, I just laugh behind my tree in my khakis taking notes trying to get my name into the National Geographic. ;)

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dzpenumbra · 1 year

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5/9/23

Another slow day, but not a bad one. Good sleep again, and I'm noticing a dramatic difference in my general mood because of it. I ordered more plants this morning instead of going on social media. I think it was a much better decision.

I was originally going to place an Instacart order from Lowe's so I could get a planter to try doing that mini indoor zen garden idea with the water pump and everything... but... I like to batch order things, especially when I'm paying delivery fees, and they didn't have a few things I was looking for. Specifically a clothes iron to finish the paint on my hoodie, and specific plants. So I decided to just order plants off Etsy. It's pretty crazy that that's a thing. I can order cuttings or bulbs or seeds from people on the other side of the continent and within a week it's in my package room. Pretty easy to take shit like that for granted.

I had the idea... since I'm up all night anyway... I wanted actual fragrant flowers. I've never had those in my own house before. Natural aromas. I mean, it feels like a "duh" moment for me. I always use incense and it's great, but why the fuck would I not just get a living air freshener that only needs water and sunlight. So... I remembered that there are some plants that have flowers that only bloom at night. And I looked some up, and I ordered cuttings of night-blooming jasmine. I'm pretty excited for that. So daytime can be scented of incense, and nighttime can be scented of jasmine flowers. We'll see how long it takes for them to get here, the Pothos cuttings shipped today.

Late last night and early this morning, my back was acting up. Sore, tight, painful. My quads were too. I used the foam roller on my quads and it helped a lot, but my lower back needed some extra work this morning. Just getting started with yoga was difficult because of how sore it was. It felt super familiar, that location, that muscle. And I remembered when I was really young... like... probably 13? I was at a gaming store in town, like a tabletop hobby store. I really enjoyed going there, despite the owner kinda... coercing me into getting games I didn't necessarily want to get? Might as well just give context on that. My friends were into Warhammer 40K, and I wanted to get into it too. I was really into Starcraft and Star Trek and Star Wars and all that, big sci-fi nerd. And I came to the store specifically to get set up with a starter kit for 40K. I didn't even know what race I wanted to play, I just really wanted to get into it so I could play with my friends, they had a decent-sized scene there already, probably... 6-10 people? And the owner... he coerced me into getting a starter army for Warhammer Fantasy. And he 100% knew what he was doing. And he did it to try to get me to start up the Fantasy scene, so the local kids would play both... and buy both of the kits... which were... not fucking cheap. And little impressionable trauma kid Me just kinda awkwardly and bashfully was like... "okay"... And got the whole big Empire and Orcs starter kit for Warhammer Fantasy. And nothing for 40K. And I put it together myself, my whole Orc army. And I gave the Empire to my little brother, and put some pieces together for him. He's 6 years younger than me, so he was super young, way too young for a game that complex. So, the Empire... I guarantee there's pieces around that still haven't been put together and that was almost 25 years ago. I never got to play with my friends. They never got Fantasy armies, I didn't get a 40K army until they were all out of the scene, and when I did, it wasn't big enough to play with them. So... yeah, that was kinda shitty of that guy. I have no idea why my mom thought so highly of that dude, that's a really shitty thing to do to a 13 year old.

Anyway, the muscle pain reminded me of when I was that age and they were doing a LARPing thing there in the little grassy lawn outside. People all made weapons from PVC pipe and foam and duct tape and battled each other, it was really fun. But I was retreating backwards at one point and fell and my legs went back over my head and I... at age 13... threw my back out. And the pain was in the same muscles. I remembered all those memories that vividly simply because of a sore muscle group. Pretty crazy how the brain works.

I had two goals to day. 1). Ink drawing, 2). Instagram post. And I accomplished both. The ink drawing is not done, but I sank a good 5-6 hours into it tonight. The Instagram posts? For my necklaces. The one with the quartz centerpiece that I made last Fall, and the one with the bloodstone that I wear now. I wrote big descriptions for them too. I posted them 6 hours ago, and they have 2 likes and 1 like respectively. Yes, I used hashtags. This is what happens when you don't actively use apps. The algorithms fuck you. Deliberately. They favor users who are active, who interact with other users. If you just get on every 2 months and post and then hop off? You're the bottom of the barrel. It makes me wonder... what's the point? Why bother? It gets to a point where it does more damage to my self-esteem, will and perseverance than it actually benefits me. Like... so far... I have reached 2 people who used to be friends of mine, who clearly have never had intentions of directly supporting my career. I'm actually a bit surprised I'm even getting a click of a mouse or a tap of a phone screen from them, but I would be absolutely godsmacked to ever see $5 a month on Patreon from them, let alone an actual commission that actually makes a difference with my rent and groceries. But hey, what says "I love your restaurant, personal friend of mine that I support" like coming by and snagging up free samples every couple days and leaving a blank 5-star review. (I'm a little bitter.) I guess beggars can't be choosers.

Despite all the frustrations and memories that come with these interactions... I'm glad I posted. I'm glad I put myself out there. It didn't take much and I didn't feel a drop of adrenaline in my system. I just had to plan a specific time to do it - after my shower, when I usually put my necklace on. Then, I just took that momentum, with the necklace in hand, set up a display and lighting, did a mini photoshoot, then posted. Done and done.

It's better to put my work out there and get no response... than to not put it out there at all. Right? It's better to play a concert to 2 people than to just skip the fucking gig. Right? I've struggled with that for a long time. Especially with streaming.

There's a phenomenon that happens with people, and technology and social media have severely amplified it. Herd mentality. Where... say you see something listed on Etsy, for example. It has 20 reviews, 15 5-star, 3 4-star, a 2-star and a 1-star. And next to it is a nearly identical item, it has 2500 reviews that are nearly unanimously 5-star, it has a "Bestseller" tag on it and it's listed higher in the rankings than the 20 review one. Which one are you really going to buy? Right? Pretty much a no-brainer for most people. Now apply that same numbers-game mentality to Twitch. How many people are going around seeking out streams that have 3 viewers? How many people are going around seeking out YouTube videos that have less than 100 views? Those are typically, for most people, an indication of the content's quality. Until very recently, both platforms didn't even have search features built into their sites that allowed for searching by lowest-to-highest. That's how rare it is. That's how little people actually seek them out. So, in those cases... with that phenomenon... it can actually be worse advertising for you to stream with 3 viewers than to not stream at all.

I tried to explain this phenomena to my friends and family when I got back into art/streaming full-time after my breakup. They just... couldn't fucking process it. It was like I was speaking Japanese. Or maybe they just... didn't want to? I think they just really wanted to believe that being polite and saying "you're very talented" and "I think you could be successful someday" and "wow, that piece is real neat" are... "support". That simply putting in those minimum possible effort gestures is equivalent to being a supportive person. And I will tell you this straight up, 100% - doing that is a substitute for supporting people. It is done so that you are not expected to be supportive in other ways, because you've "already been supportive". And it can doom creatives. I speak from experience. It fucks up your... expectations of what support actually is, your gauge and definition of what support you can expect from others. So... say you're like me and you rolled nat 1's on the Friends and Family checks in the D&D game of Life. If that's all you've ever known, you look at the road ahead of you... all the things you need to do... all the things that are impossible for you to do yourself... like review your shit, or recommend it to others, or buy your products, or commission literally anything, or hang out and watch your TV show. And you know you can't do them yourself. And you know, from what you were taught, that people in supporting roles in your life should not be expected to do these things. It turns your entire career... your future... your passion, your vision, your labor, your efforts... into a spin of a roulette wheel. You're relying entirely on the kindness of complete strangers. Who, historically, are the least likely to help.

I've probably said all this a thousand times over the past almost full year I've been doing this journal, it's because it's probably the most important message I have to send to others from what I've been through in my life. Fucking support your friends. In a practical way. Watch their YouTube videos, buy their paintings, go to their concerts, listen to their music (I mean like... put on headphones and really listen to it). Be a meaningful staple in their life, as much as you can afford, as much as is genuine. Be a fan. Don't just sit there and wait for someone else to do it. Demonstrate for others that this person's talent is worth supporting. Put your money where your mouth is.

I guess that brought up some old shit. Similar to the other night, the whole... tugging at the stitches thing. Time doesn't always heal all wounds... sometimes that broken bone heals wrong, or it leaves really sensitive scar tissue. And that's a big one for me. And it's really hard... 4 years later... to see the same people who fucked me over, screamed at me, told me I was unreasonable with my expectations and ghosted me for years at a time... still doing the same minimum effort shit. The optimist in me says "welp, it's better than nothing". And I don't really feel like giving a microphone to those other more bitter and hurt parts of me anymore tonight, so I'm just gonna say... I hope those two former friends can really take some time and work on themselves. There's good in them. There's potential in them, both of them, that has been blocked by... getting themselves very deep into responsibilities they were not prepared for. I have a long history with both of them, that goes back over a decade. I do wish them well. It just kinda sucks to be reminded of why those friendships ended, and see that they are literally the only ones who give a fuck about these pieces.

I don't know. I clearly have conflicted feelings on this.

On a lighter note, the ink piece is coming along nicely. It's taking longer than expected, but it's coming together, it will definitely be finished tomorrow.

I planned to get started with the skull today, but again I put it off. I have been putting it off because... I've been waiting for this researcher I heard on a podcast to be done writing her book. I have no idea when she's going to be done though... The book is a comprehensive historical study of magical symbols in ancient Egypt and Greece (I think), going back millennia. She is basically the world's expert in the actual archaeological research on this topic. And she's putting together a series of books that are supposed to come out this year. So... I kinda wanted that for reference. Just to have source material for this type of ritualistic practice that dates back that far.

I have been very fascinated by ritual practices lately, mostly the hybridization of different diverse spiritual practices, beliefs and narratives. How you would get spells or incantations that had like... Jesus and Horus together in them. And apparently it was really common, that the spells or rituals were catered to the specific individual's beliefs, to the point where... in spell books and manuals... there are actual placeholder letters in spots where the person who's getting the ritual done for them's name goes, and also placeholder letters for relevant deities. I'm sure you can imagine why centralized religions might... have a little bit of a problem with this melding... and find it heretical... and even lead to... some more... unseemly methods of putting a stop to it. Magic practices still have a stigma to this day because of it, super fucking ironic that the one thing that hyper-orthodox religious people and flat-out atheists can agree on is the intense multi-millennia-old disgust and ridicule of interfaith magical practices. Yay...

So... I looked up the book again today, and... still no luck. I'm tempted to donate on Patreon to get early access, but... she wants you to be a 2-month donor at something like $17/month to get early access. And... I mean, for what amounts to basically an academic textbook? That's actually a really good deal. So... maybe I should just pull the trigger on that tomorrow. Because the skull is... pretty much lined up to be my next piece. Then I can at least get the ball rolling on that step. In the meantime, I can clean it up and start some basic sketches on it.

I've been all over the place with this piece mentally because... I only get one shot at it. I have one skull. And it's the skull of a formerly living being. And there's a lot of pressure there. And this piece is... 100% improvised. For me, it's how sacred this practice is that really gets in my head. That's where the symbol research comes in. I keep getting this urge, this feeling "I want to get it right." "I get one shot, I want to get it right." And I felt the same way about the horoscope chart on my hoodie, and that was in permanent paint, BUT... this piece? This is literally carved into a deceased goat's skull. They're both permanent, but this... this feels much bigger. And... I think rightfully so. I just want to be respectful, you know?

But it puts a lot of pressure on my improvisational design work. But here's the contrasting thought that I keep trying to introduce. I have been doing improvised abstract design pieces in my new notebook for like... a week and a half now? 2 weeks? Something like that? I haven't fucked up a single one and they all look great. Because... here's the secret, please don't tell anyone... there IS NO fucking up. You CAN'T fuck up. Because it's abstract. Like... the only way you can fuck up abstract improvised art is by... planning it, and forcing it into something it doesn't want to be. Like... the only way you can really fuck up freestyle rapping... besides just being "rusty" or "inexperienced"... is by spitting written shit.

So... I've been caught in that back and forth for a bit now. The "I want to do this right", but "this is an improvised, channeled piece" paradox. And my compromise has been to... essentially... continuing with the freestyle rap analogy... learn more vocabulary. Take a little time before the design phase and learn more shapes, more rhythms, more symbols and signs and sigils. Add more proverbial paints to my palette, more crayons to my box. Then, I can fuse my abstract improvisation with intentional symbolism that dates back to the time of the pharaohs. And that fusion and aesthetic is very appealing to me right now. So... that's the plan for now. Even if it means I just leave a big blank space on the forehead for some form of sigil or glyph to be added later.

Aaaand that's all I've got for now. Not a bad note to end on.

#diary #journal #online journal #stream of thoughts #stream of consciousness

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shinahbee · 2 years

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2022 end of the year favorites!

Jan 2/2023

Hello,

The last time I updated was in October…lol. Well sorry for the long awaited end of the year favorites.

First and foremost happy holidays! I hope everyone had a good Christmas celebration and new years’ I have been eating a ton and getting fat and obviously not happy about it.

I also was working on a shop update so I was technically working on Christmas day and the rest of the week till New Year. The only thing eventful was going to see the nutcracker ballet on Christmas Eve, which was not really great when you are in a room full of coughing children and adults. Hopefully I didn’t catch anything.

Okay so if you have not seen my post about my Etsy store, I opened one! On December 6th I made a post about it. If you have not visited my store and is interested I’ll link that below!

http://shinahartshop.etsy.com

Like I said I will have an update soon so please check that out when it is up.

In the mean time you are here to read some juicy review posts right? Good cause this time I have finished a couple worth talking about so I’ll present them to you below.

Okay then …

Happy reading!

Sheena

I’m thinking of watching the live action for unintentional love story

But other than that I’ve watch some crappy drama TV …love is blind…omg it was something.

I specifically watched season 3 because I watched another youtuber review it and thought it was funny.lol.

Recap:

I’m just going to put up the ongoing list only. I also eliminated some titles because they are now completed or I dropped them for now

Ongoing

Liveta (hiatus)

Pearl boy

The third ending

One night mate (hiatus)

Night fragments (hiatus)

The pizza delivery man and the gold palace (hiatus)

The foul (hiatus)

Killer crush

Updates on ongoing titles:

How is it that everything is on hiatus LMAO….

Guess I won’t be updating anything for a while

Dangerous convenient store:

Ended already with little drama and a resolved conflict between euijoon and ahjushi, I’m glad they didn’t drag on the misunderstanding for too long because I’ve read so many that just will not stop and then it gets boring. So I really like it when the author knows when to end the story, it makes it seem like they care about their characters and decided to give them an end goal to work towards.

Euijoon and ahjushi had a lot of problems to work out and even with their misunderstandings resolved it didn’t make their communication more efficient, they still had to work out their differences after a year of being together, but what was important is that they were committed to each other and make things work out, and having that as an ending is already good enough for me.

Secret relationship: ending spoilers

Also has ended? Well it’s more like on hiatus because there is still side stories in the making but due to the authors health they are putting that on hold. I don’t really think it’s just the author’s health it’s also the crazy fans that had been stirring up trouble. There was some drama involving how the authors signed the published books of the secret relationship manga and they were both covers featuring Sunghyeon and Daon…lol. I knew this had to be a shipping fan war issue it always is…but anyways the Soohyun / Jaemin fans were really sour about how the ending and how their ship sunk and decided to harass the staff members of the café event to take down their display or something..it was ridiculous.

Imagine being a worker harassed/threatened by some random person, just because they didn’t like how their character wasn’t the endgame. I can literally count the times that my ship has sunk in many webtoons, manga, anime…you name it…but it does not give you a right to threaten staff members that have nothing to do with all of this and have to deal with all this horse play…it’s disrespectful and embarrassing.

When someone I followed posted that on twitter it really made me angry, it just reminds me of those sasang k-pop fans that harass those artists, they literally evolved into that. I would have left that all in just to spite them cause doing as they say will only instigate the idea that they had the right to say those things and the staff will listen.

Anyways, that was the only thing I wanted to point out other than the actual main story is now finished and sunghyeon and doan are now together as a couple.

So my ship sailed in the end but even if it didn’t I would not go and do the things these “fans” are doing…omg grow up

In last chapter a lot of fans are saying how Daon didn’t look like he was happy cause he looked really stressed and anxious, well of course he would be since he left a relationship that was like a safety net for more than 10 years and got nothing out of it but anxiety and fear, he would still feel like that even with a person he loves. Trauma does not disappear overnight and it will take years of therapy to even get a little better, nothing will ever be the same but it can get better with the right support system, I’m glad he chose to be with sunghyeon because like I said in the previous update, soohyun and jaemin didn’t care about daon’s physical and mental wellbeing and nothing is going to change if he continues to be with either of them.

Sunghyeon’s positivity towards dealing with conflict will be a good asset to counteract the negative thoughts that daon sees within himself and hopefully give him strength to see that he has good traits and deserves to love and be loved in return.

Sunghyeon and jaemin were the only two that had a connection to daon and his relationship with his family, jaemin convinced him that he no longer needs them and sunghyeon hopes to repair the bond between daon and his family members. I mean the choice is obvious when money is no longer an issue but rather daon’s guilt of being negligent to his family’s issues is the main thing that had been bothering him for years.

During the last moments of the chapter daon had a bad dream and was woken up feeling anxious and shakened up, in response to that sunghyeon held him and told him it was alright, Daon had some thoughts about whether or not he’d be okay if sunghyeon was not by his side one day, which is a normal thing to think about especially at this time in his life but it only made him more stress and anxious and so he instead of telling sunghyeon how he felt he just brushed it off as him being a nuisance and that they should forget about it since it wasn’t important.

Sunghyeon of course can read the room and knew that it wasn’t just nothing, he decided to propose the idea to daon of living together and getting a bigger space with a studio so that daon can work on his writing….and doan started crying…it was because he was happy, sunghyeon knew that daon always felt lonely his entire life and the fact that what he wants the most is emotional stability and having a partner that will stay beside him. Daon then has a monologue of how if it wasn’t for sunghyeon the night would be long with continual nightmares and that he gave him the strength to be brave and that he was grateful to be with him.

They didn’t say anything cheesy like “I love you so much”…and all that crap that I’ve heard a million times but instead showed that they were grateful to have each other at that moment and that alone has a greater impact than those three words alone.

So that’s all for now until the side stories which will most likely focus on tying up loose ends with jaemin and doan’s family and hopefully we get to see more intimate moments between sungda, cause I’ve been deprived this entire series….since most of this story is flash backs alone…omg.

Welcome to some spicy reads (21+)

Okay I’ll do my best to remember as much as I can about these stories, I have read them a while back so I don’t remember much.

The insatiable man:

“After food critic Jiho’s first meeting with novelist Inwoo ends in disappointment, he vows never to work with him. That is until Inwoo offers to buy him dinner. It’s then that he learns that Inwoo is unable to experience one of life’s basic joys – taste – and needs someone to describe flavors to him for his next novel. The more they meet, the more Jiho finds himself being drawn to Inwoo... but why? Is it because he too harbors a secret of his own?”

Jiho met inwoo in order to work with him since he was a famous novelist that jiho really liked, so he thought it would be a dream job for him. He really was engrossed in this novel that he knew the piece of literature inside and out, so when he finally was able to meet the author of his dreams he was really ecstatic. Jiho was a journalist for a column from a famous magazine company so inwoo’s manager was really excited to have them collaborate, but as soon as they meet, jiho’s impression of inwoo was less than stellar, he deliberately chose a café with really delectable sweets too impress his favorite writer but inwoo said that it didn’t matter because they all probably tastes the same, which made jiho angry that he didn’t eat anything, so it felt like he didn’t want to waste time with him.

Jiho isn’t the type of character to take people’s sh*t so he basically said what was on his mind and gave him a lecture on etiquette. It turned out how jiho got the job was because his work director and it turns out the director was inwoo’s ex-wife.

Inwoo then contacted jiho again later and apologized, he really wanted him to work together to figure out how to write food in a more delectable way. There was a reason for that and inwoos ability to taste food had become bland, the way he describes food is like a plethora of plastic objects and rubber so he doesn’t know what the actual food tastes like. Apparently his wife could not life with that any longer since she began to dislike food and was not able to share that joy with her partner, in the end they decided to split.

He called it “taste blindness” and it inheritly affected his relationship with people around him and made it harder for other people to enjoy eating with him. Jiho out of understanding and after reading the manuscript he had and how inwoo said he needed him, decided to help him with his problem.

Now this is a side thing but jiho also had a sex friend that pops in now and then…omg there’s always one of these right? I’m like here we go again. He wasn’t that bad actually he was the kind of person that knew what he wanted. Although he had feelings for jiho he didn’t like the fact that he was treated as if him being gay was a liability and that he can never been seen in public doing normal couple things. I actually applaud that he stood up for himself because you need to put yourself first and know that your wellbeing is priority.

Besides inwoo’s manager and him met a couple times and I’m positive they could be the second couple and they are so cute…lol.

Anyways, jiho and inwoo met a couple times and jiho made it quite apparent that he may be interested in him romantically but in a discreet way, until his sister…omg she’s a little bit dumb and barged in on their meeting, hair done, sexy dress and makeup in order to attract inwoo I guess…I didn’t know what she was doing. But jiho yelled at her for intruding later and got mad at her, since jiho’s family didn’t know that he was gay, the sister didn’t understand why he was angry with her and so they fought.

Later he met up with inwoo at his apartment because he wasn’t feeling well, and there was some sexual tension between them when inwoo came out in just a robe and jiho didn’t know what to do with himself. It turned out that he had been drinking and was honestly depressed about his situation so when jiho said that he wanted to take care of him he didn’t understand why he was here and what made him care that much. They got into an argument and inwoo said that he was invited to his ex-wife’s wedding and he felt uncomfortable and this made jiho think that he may still have feelings for her, so he didn’t know what to say.

When he said he wanted to stop writing because writing stories of someone like him just to understand her was pointless now, obviously since she has moved on with another person. Jiho was pushed out of the apartment. The next day was the wedding and the bride (ex-wife) told jiho how she wanted to tell inwoo the reasons why she left and that there were all these things left unsaid that she wanted to convey to him, but seeing as he has not appeared yet could mean he’s not going to show up at all.

In the end inwoo decided to show up last minute when the reception was over and a bunch of class mates were talking smack about him. Jiho understood his situation more than anyone and defend him, which gave inwoo the courage to go up to his ex-wife and congratulate her, putting an end to his lingering attachment.

After wards jiho and inwoo were alone in the hall and inwoo wanted to apologize and take back all the things that he had said because they were meaningless. Jiho had been hurt by the many words family and friends have said because they don’t know and sometimes it’s hard to just ignore them, cause words do hurt, this part kind of made me tear a little because it’s true, no matter how many times you tell yourself that you are okay…it will weigh on you when you are not. Jiho decided to become inwoo’s taste and emotions and feel for him until he is able to covey them on his own one day.

They embraced each other and accepted the “love” they wanted to pursue. You just get to see them take it slow for a bit, but inwoo did have feelings for jiho. He stopped by his ex-wife’s place to get some stuff from her and they talked for a while about jiho and inwoo started to realize that he thought of him as attractively cute. Jiho…was seeing the sex friend even though he’s dating inwoo…which is a no-no, I don’t remember if they did anything or not but I was kind of mad at him for it.lol.

You then get to see inwoo’s story…the tragic backstory as to how he was like before the got the blindness disease and how his mother made a cake for him and he remembered the taste of it being sweet and sour at the same time. He told jiho that his mother when she was alive used to bake him a cake every time he got an award, he didn’t know what it was called but he just described it. Jiho decided that he wanted to try making it for him and it turned out pretty well until that sister again thought he made it for them…smh I want to kill her.lol. and so he only got to save a couple of slices for inwoo, he may have not been able to taste it properly but he knows the effort jiho went through to make this for him made him happy.

Then there was this stupid drama with the sex friend and jiho wanted to stay over at sex friends place because his father gave him some bullshit about a marriage partner if he didn’t bring his “girlfriend” over, and this made jiho upset and he just wanted to talk to someone, but his sex friend was about to get it on with another dude and jiho was sad that he had no one to talked to. The sex friend ended up bailing out on the one night stand because he liked jiho and thought he misunderstood. He met up with jiho the next day and it turns out jiho was with inwoo all night and the sex friend thought they had sex and called him out for two timing basically. Even though it really isn’t cause they are together and you are not in that equation..lol. it just made me laugh cause it is jiho’s fault for still seeing the sex friend and think that they can just be buddies…I’m like uh no, you had sex together and he has feelings for you, there’s no way. Anyways, this gave them the opportunity to end things and the sex friend confronted the fact that he’s still hiding the fact that he’s gay from his family and it would make things difficult for the other person. Jiho made the attempt to tell his family that night but got scared and ended up thinking that breaking up with inwoo was the right call. He then met up with him want wanted to end things, but instead ending up telling him how he really feels and how if he came out it would mean losing his family and he’d be alone. Inwoo said that he’d love him to the point where he won’t feel lonely and they made up…jiho then got the courage to finally tell his family, so let’s see how that goes.

I’ll end here because it’s one chapter away from season1 ending. I don’t know how I really feel about this story, I liked it but there are some parts of it which is weird and unnecessary, but that goes without saying for a lot of these stories so…whatever.lol. I am curious about the manager and sex friend …his name is chungi by the way.lol. I really like how they met and I’m curious is to how they will they get together in the end. You can read this on the Tapas app if you are interested.

I became the lousy side top:

“Seo Jaewoo wakes up to find himself in the world of a BL novel. But he isn’t just any random person. He’s actually the lousy side top character who’s meant to torment the main bottom, Yoo Hyeonjin. What’s worse is that by the novel’s conclusion, all of Jaewoo’s despicable actions catch up to him, and he is killed by the story’s crazy main top and Hyeonjin’s love interest, Choi Mujin. In order to avoid his death, Jaewoo decides to change his original role and get on Hyeonjin’s good side. His method: lure him in with food, of course! While his tactic proves effective and he slowly befriends Hyeonjin, that doesn’t become the only major change to the plot. After an unexpected encounter with Mujin, Jaewoo’s position as the “lousy side top” gets completely flipped upside down…”

Ya’ll aren’t ready for this…lol. May I introduce to you the first BL isekai written…it’s about time. Every one of those shojou webtoons is always “I’ve reincarnated into a villainess of another world” It’s that but BL so it caught my attention right away.

So it’s starts off with the reincarnated “jaewoo” realizing that he had died and was now in another body and not just any body but the body of the other side character of the novel that he was reading. I feel like all isekai starts off this way but I’ll let it slide lol.

Jaewoo obviously didn’t like that he was a “villain” and wished he would have been the actual main lead’s partner instead because his life was better.lol. But he had to make do with it and live this person’s life. Since jaewoo knew where the story was going he knew the characters within this novel’s universe and knew that “jaewoo” had done despicable things to the main lead hyeonjin and later gets killed by the main “top” character mujin who becomes hyeonjin’s love interest in the end. In order to do that, he’s going to need to reform “jaewoo” and change his attitude towards the other characters.

Of course this wouldn’t be easy considering he was basically in the middle of the novel and things were already underway between the characters. First he tried to win over the main character's only family members that were boarding with hyeonjin, which were his little brothers woohee and hyeonwoo, he started off by making them breakfast which of course the starving kids were tempted by since they have not had a decent meal in who knows how long. Hyeonjin told his brothers not to respond to that man since he was an asshole so they were reluctant to except anything from jaewoo. Hyeonjin was on his way back to the house and saw jaewoo, this was the perfect chance for jaewoo to make a better impression but hyeonjin immediately was on edge.

But jaewoo kept offering food to hyeonjin’s brothers and uses the excuse is that he made too much of it and it will be wasteful if they don’t eat. So the kids began to eat everyday with jaewoo, hyeonjin worked night and day so he had not noticed anything, until the next day when hyeonjin had some time off in the morning and noticed that his brothers be looking a little plump.lol.

Jaewoo called out to the brothers to come eat and hyeonjin thought the voice sounded familiar and found out the jaewoo had been in contact with his brothers, he then put his foot down and told jaewoo that they didn’t need his help and offered money to pay for all his brothers meals, jaewoo was offended that he thought all of this was because of money and told hyeonjin to eat with them since he already paid for his meal anyways.

The brothers also convinced hyeonjin to sit down with them and eat. While hyeonjin ate jaewoo’s food he was reminded of the time when his family was all together and his grandmother used to cook similar dishes for them. He began to feel nostalgic and loosen his guard around jaewoo after then. Jaewoo would always chase hyeonjin with food and it began to work when hyeonjin had found that jaewoo seemed different than before and became curious about how that happened, but he knew that kindness wasn’t forever and that he should stop accepting jaewoo’s help.

But because Jaewoo is understanding he wanted to help hyeonjin as much as possible, feeding him properly, making him lunch for work, preparing his meals so he's not have to worry about food. He knew hyeonjin's situation well and all the pain he suffered and will continue to do so in this universe. So jaewoo did all that he could to help hyeonjin out and that included even attempting to cover his night shift at the bar, when hyeonjin was tired and worn out. This made them get a little closer together and they began to see each other as friends. Hyeonjin started to catch feelings for jaewoo at some point but it wasn’t anything serious as of yet, he just enjoyed being around him. You know what they say, " to win a man's heart is through his stomach..."

Then one day when jaewoo went grocery shopping he came across an alley way where there lies the main characters love interest …injured and needed treatment, apparently this was the point in the novel where hyeonjin had picked him up from the streets and brought him back to his room for treatment, so jaewoo just left him there…LMAO…he’s like not my problem…

He was actually anticipating hyeonjin to bring him back home that day and found it puzzling when hyeonjin came back empty handed. He was like “didn’t you pick up anything on the way home?” so apparently mujin was still in the alleyway bleeding to death for three days.lol. Until jaewoo decided to just do it cause he can’t have the main lead die somewhere when he was supposed to be the endgame. Lol.

When mujin woke up and saw jaewoo tried to approach him he basically threaten him to keep quiet about the situation and broke his phone so he can’t contact the police. Jaewoo carried the injured man with a box cart all the way back to his house. He tried to treat mujin, but he was unconscious and would not take any medication, he tried to fight back by choking jaewoo.

Jaewoo was reminded of the final moments when he had died and it was frightening for him which really lead back to the question, how did he die? He remembered being dead and he still had his previous life’s memories along with him, but it seemed like he only remembered some things through the flashbacks that we got glimpses of. So that was interesting.

Hyeonjin came back just in time to see jaewoo being choked out and punched mujin. Lol. I’ll leave it here so that you can read the rest, but so far pretty interesting, we all know and understand jaewoo wanting to be better to the protagonist because in a way they are special to us as readers and jaewoo pointed out that he didn’t understand why all main protagonists have to go through all this shit in the first place. I understood that completely, there are some manhwa that should have been tagged torture porn because of how much the character had to go through, I can think of one that will be in the trash segment below. Anyways you can read this on the tappytoon app, I highly recommend this cause I’ve never read a BL isekai before and it was good so far.

Trash segment (21+)

a.k.a the part of the series where I shit on your favorite manhwa/manga/webtoon etc. Joking but not really, you have been warned.

This is the new section where you’re going to find titles that I dropped and the reasons why I discontinued the series all together, fair warning if you triggered by people criticizing your favorite series then you may want to skip this section all together. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and not every series that is “popular” or well liked by others will be like by all...therefore if there is content that makes a person uncomfortable enough to stop the series, that is on them and please don’t judge them for their morals.

So to recap, the series that I mentioned dropping so far are

Love or Hate

Yours to claim

Wistful summer

Anti-p.t.

The sound of fire

Kiss damnation

Cherry blossoms after the winter

Chasing Mr. CEO

Who’s a sweet cheater?

Another sequence

Love is a fantasy

Missing love/ married man:

Should have just been renamed torture porn the novel…

I’m not going to even find the summary for it, if you like reading about how old congress men rape this one dude in many ways and sells him off to other a*sholes to be sexually tortured then this maybe for you…smh

you know when something is too much and you just cant feel the realism in it anymore...this would be that. I get that protagonists go through a lot to make the story move forward but this is next level dehumanization...

It’s just fiction, I get it but at least have a bit of realism within it, this is too much that can happen to one person and although these situations can happen to people in general, I doubt that all of this can happen all at once to one person, this author is taking “can this day get any worse?” to a whole new level. At first when I read some chapters I thought it was like a revenge series and I thought at some point although these terrible things are happening to him, these men will be punished, but so far nothing…it’s just him being used as a sex object for ugly ass old men and this one asshole who can literally be the pilwon of this series…I’m so disgusted by him that I can’t even read anymore, so I decided to just drop it, this series isn’t for me unless you like depression. I’ve read plenty of depressing things but I’m already depressed in real life so I don’t need to read about it.

Anyways, that’s all for this segment if you read it and finished this when it ends let me know if it was worth it lol. I highly doubt it will be though.

I’m going to be honest I stopped watching anime for a while, nothing seems to be grabbing my attention the way it used to. I might watch spy family the second season when I get the chance but I guess that’s all I have planned.

Still lacking in the music department so let me know some of your favorite songs to listen to.

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Ending note:

Hey! You made it to the end!

It was long wasn’t it, good thing you got through it all, not very special to end the year off but I thought I would share some manhwa that I have been reading recently and hopefully not drop any of it.

My shop will be updated soon, so if you have not check pout my shop please do so and if you support me by making a purchase I will be eternally grateful. I know Etsy isn’t the best place to sell things, the fees are ridiculous and there have been bad issues concerning the service, I don’t also like the fact that there are no notifications to let me know when to pay off my statements so I’ll have to check myself every time. Once I get a good following I’ll open my own website so more things can be available then.

Okay that’s it for now, I have been working on all sorts of things like clay pins and possible dry shaker charms for later updates, I’ll see how that goes, but right now it’s just stickers, prints, bookmarks, cards that you can purchase.

Follow me on my social media for future shop updates and more art.

Sheena

#monthly favorites #manga review #shounenai #yaoi manga #anime and manga #bl mahwa #boys love #bl manga

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