#I don’t plan on selling these through Etsy so I’ll most likely take payments through cash app | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bea-trician · 4 months

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Regarding a lot of upsetting things I’ve been hearing about Etsy;

To begin, I can’t ignore the reports I’ve been hearing about the company’s stance in support for is//rael and their practice of taking down listings that show support for Palestine or donate proceeds towards them. It stands in direct opposition of my personal political beliefs, which I have tried to make as clear as possible through the information and posts that I have boosted and shared on ALL my social media, not just here. What’s going on in Gaza is an open and deliberate campaign of genocide, and it’s sickening how long it’s been allowed to go on without any interference from the rest of the world. I want to do all I can to support the people of Palestine and keep calling for a permanent ceasefire.

I’ll admit, I didn’t really want to make my merch store on Etsy in the first place. I did so at the request of someone I know IRL who has been coaching me as I try to revive my art career. I’d been avoiding it due to details I’d heard through the Artist Grapevine about how unfair their policies are to the creators who try to make a living using their platform, and have now experienced firsthand the ridiculous premiums they charge for every single service they provide. The only reason my mentor advised me to set up a shop there was for networking purposes, and to make my items as easy to find as possible. At the time of making this post, my store hasn’t even been open for a month, but it’s taken up a huge portion of my daily life just to set it up and monitor it, and it has already been linked to all of my social media accounts. Now that I’ve sunk all this time into it, it seems like a depressing waste of time and energy to close the shop and have to start from the ground up on another platform. That, and I know for a fact that my mentor is keeping an eye on my progress and will expect me to keep it open, and I’m not sure how to explain my reasons to her if she sees me backing out.

Being on Etsy was far from my first choice for setting up an online merch shop. In the immediate future, I’ll be looking at other options. Most people I know use BigCartel, which I’ve heard good things about, and I do plan on creating more digital items to upload to my Gumroad store. As far as I know, neither of them have made any moves in support of is//rael, so if anyone is aware of related news that I haven’t heard about yet, feel free to let me know.

So far, I haven’t made many sales on etsy, and hopefully traffic will remain on the low side so it won’t be too big a transition to move my shop somewhere else. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I’ve definitely donated more to help Palestine than I’ve made off my etsy store since it opened back in January. Rest assured that I want to leave the platform as soon as I possibly can. In the meantime, however much money I make on my Etsy store, I will be matching or exceeding the amount in donations to pro-Palestine organizations.

I strongly discourage anyone from shopping on etsy, and if you do have interest in any of my merch items, I’m completely willing to sell them to you directly through DMs with payments over Venmo. I’m still making art, and I want to share it with you, without perpetrators of ethnic cleansing benefiting from it.

If you have no money but you DO have a minute, go to Arab.org and participate in the daily click. I’ve been returning to it every day, and the button can be clicked multiple times if you open it in different browsers or on different devices.

https://www.pcrf.net/

I’m going to do all I can to stand by my beliefs and correct this oversight.

Don’t look away. Share and amplify their voices. Call for peace and justice. Don’t stop talking about Palestine.

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unironicduncanstan · 3 years

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Randi’s Kustom Kandi! (Comes with free stickers!)

🌈💖 Hello, I’m a queer autistic low-income artist selling completely customized Kandi bracelets for $1 a piece ! 💖🌈

😘 Details and how to start your order below 😘

💲 COST: Pony bead bracelets, with colors, b&w words, or plain star beads, are $1 each, no taxes, just $1.00 flat. The use of colored letters and iridescent stars are $1.25. As of right now to keep stock up, bracelets consisting of Only star beads aren’t available to order. Charm options are not yet available, but will eventually be added, and prices may range. This is all just based on how much it costs to buy the beads to make these bracelets! 💲

📦 SHIPPING: Each order will end up with a different estimate for shipping costs, based on where you live, and how many bracelets you order. I ship through USPS and I should be able to ship almost anywhere, but the further away you are, the higher shipping will be. I’m shipping out of Kansas. Domestic shipping will probably start at around $3 - $8, international shipping will just have to depend. If you want an estimate before starting an order, just give me your address and an idea of how many bracelets you might want, and I’ll get back to you asap. 📦

🤷‍♀️ AVAILABILITY: I have a full rainbow array of pony beads including b&w, some neons and pastels too, I have a nice color range of star beads including b&w and transparent, and some iridescent star beads as well, and then for letters I have black on white, white on black, color on black and color on white. A lot of these can be seen in the example image above! 🤷‍♀️

IMPORTANT TO NOTE;;; My pony beads are all around 6x4mm, and the letter beads are 6x6mm. This is considered somewhat Small for kandi bracelets. This isn’t a choice I made to skimp out, this size is actually more expensive and harder to find than the usual 6x9mm, I just very much prefer this size to work with and wear. It’s only a tad bit more subtle, but it fits most people a lot better and I would Definitely recommend it for people with smaller wrists or who are just starting out with Kandi.

🤔 HOW TO ORDER: So basically, how you choose to tell me the pattern you want is up to you, you can draw it out if you want or just try to explain it with words, or whatever else works. Once you explain what you want, I’ll show you what beads I have that match your request, and you can decide what you want out of those options.

An example could be; “I would like a bracelet with a repeating pattern of red and blue pony beads, with the word PLUR in black on white letters, and two pink stars on each side, just like this!”

To which I might say; “Ok, here I have 2 shades of red and 4 shades of blue, and I have plain pink stars or iridescent pink, which ones would you like me to use?” and then I’d show you a picture of all of these colors for you to decide! Once we have all your bracelets planned out, I’ll ask for a few more details to give you your total price. Then once the payment goes through, I’ll start working! Whenever your bracelets are all complete, I’ll send you pictures of the finished products to make sure you like them (if not I’ll redo at no extra charge). After you give the OK, I’ll ship them out! (You can also ask for some ‘random/surprise me’ bracelets if you aren’t sure of any patterns, of course.)

What I have in stock might vary, I will try to update this post as that goes, so please make sure to visit this posts SOURCE instead of a reblog before you start an order to check for availability. Please send your order requests to THIS blog, through PM if you can. If you want an alternate way of communication, contact me however you can and we’ll go from there. I have discord, facebook messenger, email, etc. 🤔

🤷🏻 WHAT ELSE I NEED: When confirming your order, I’ll need your shipping address. I’ll then be able to calculate shipping cost and give you a full price. (Again, zero hard feelings if you can’t afford the price I give, like, bad vibes in the NEGATIVES, been there done that, and I’ll be available if you ever do have the funds, but please understand I can’t change shipping costs, I really would make it free if I could.) After that I’ll ask for your paypal and send a payment request, once that payment goes through is when I start your order! I’ll have to ask a few more questions, like your wrist measurements (or an estimate, since the bracelet is made of elastic it’ll have a decent amount of stretch, but this may warp how spaced your beads are if it’s too inaccurate.), and i’ll need your first and last name (it doesnt have to be a legal name, just something to put on your package). 🤷🏻

📫 SHIPPING TIME: Once again, this will depend on how far you are, and because of c0v1d it may be more delayed than expected. I’ll try to send you a tracking number as soon as your item ships. 📫

📿 CHARMS: If you’d like more options, the best solution I’ve been able to think of for now is that if you’d like, you could surf Ebay, Etsy, Etc. till you find some charms you’d want me to use, and then if you’re okay with covering the cost to get them (typically $5 to $15 for a decent lot) and then waiting a bit extra for me to receive them, I would have no problem using those for you! :) Someday I’d really like to stock up on popular charms to have more choices available, but I don’t quite have the funds quite yet. Thank you for your understanding. 📿

😷 ALLERGY/SENSITIVE SKIN NOTICE: I seal small parts of my bracelets to reduce the chance of breakage. I use a very tiny drop of Loctite Super Glue Gel on the knot. This glue does not keep the beads from moving freely or lock them into place, it’s used sparingly as a sealant. If you ever receive a bracelet that is locked or sticky, I would fully refund you and offer to send another. You can also absolutely opt out of this, Just add “No glue” somewhere to your order. Just be warned that your bracelet will be less protected from breakage. 😷

❗ DISCLAIMER: Either way, I cannot take responsibility for a bracelet eventually breaking down. Kandi and elastic bracelets in general are a bit prone to snapping, but mostly over time and especially if used in rave settings. I use high quality jewelry elastic from amazon, very high rated and recommended by other Kandi makers, and I knot them 3 times, so mine should last as long as they possibly can. Please make sure your wrist measurements are as accurate as they can be, and please be gentle when taking them on or off, just being careful will help prolong it’s usage by a lot. Now if a bracelet arrives broken, I will of course replace it, no extra charge. ❗

🦄 STICKERS: Order 5 bracelets and get one free sticker! Order 10 and get two, so on and so forth in a pattern of 5. The stickers are hand cut by me from large books and sheets, so the edges might look odd but the sticker itself should be unharmed. These are completely random, and based loosely around a scenecore aesthetic. Most are pretty ‘medium’ sized, but they do range quite a bit. 🦄

✍ CONTENT: Kandi, scene and rave culture, is in a general sense, a very upbeat and supportive based environment. I do not want to make bracelets with negative messages on them. I will obviously NEVER make any with hate speech or rude remarks, but beyond that, please keep your phrases positive. If you want something thats meant to fight hate, like “kill all n*zis” or something, I'm not opposed to that as it’s for justice, it’s just that most Kandi is focused on ‘happy party vibe’ messages. As far as media or interests, like if you want a bracelet that says “Gir” or “100 gecs”, or uses ship names, etc. I will not deny you any interest you choose. BUT, I am personally uncomfortable with d.dl/g and won’t make bracelets based on that, nor will I ever make bracelets supporting ped0ph1lic or 1ncestu0us content, including if they’re based on medias or fictional ships. As far as pride bracelets, I would LOVE to make those for you, and I will Never deny working with your identity, pronouns, etc. once again, unless it’s a p/ed0 flag or something. I will never deny working with any mental or physical disability/illness or other kind of divergency pride. Race and/or religion pride is also great except for “White pr1de” because of the violent connotations behind that concept. NSFW Kandi is fine, cussing is fine, I hope this goes without saying but please only ask for Kandi with a slur on it if you can reclaim that slur, and overall, just be mindful with what you ask for if you plan to wear it in public settings like raves. If you have any controversial ideas you felt this didn’t cover, please feel free to ask, I will not get angry at you for your request, even if I have to deny it. ✍

Thank you for reading! I look forward to doing business with you 😊

#jewelry #custom kandi #custom jewelry #scenecore #scene #scene aesthetic #scene kid #kandi #kandi bracelet #independantbusiness #independantartist #bracelets #selling #commission #open commissions #tw flashing lights/ /#also if ur wondering why this is being posted on a total drama island fanblog its simple. it has more followers than my main OTL

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thelightofthingshopedfor · 4 years

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just once, just fucking once I would like to have a reasonably productive long weekend instead of spending most of it too stuck in decision paralysis to actually do much of anything until I reach a point where I feel like I could very well break down crying because I’m too overwhelmed with everything I need to do but I still don’t actually do most of it because the decision paralysis is a huge part of what makes me so fucking overwhelmed in the first place

like. right now probably the most urgent thing is a semi-complicated Etsy commission that the buyer would ideally receive by Dec. 10, which probably means sending it Dec. 7 at the absolute latest. so I should be working on that, right? but it’s going to take a while so it’s a time commitment, especially because it seems kind of pointless to get out a lot of messy supplies to only work on it for a few minutes. and I need to order parts for a different order--well, at least that’s quick. I also really need to reapply thermal paste to my CPU as soon as I can because I think the fan’s getting louder and that can’t be good for anything in there, and theoretically it won’t be that hard, but realistically I’m sure it’s going to take a while and I have to look up a little info on how to do it, first--and it involves my PC being out of commission while I’m working on it, so that’s not something I can do halfway. and while my PC’s open I really need to replace my dead hard drive, which wouldn’t be that hard except I want to install the new one alongside the old one so I can try to clone the dead one onto the new one, which will definitely take time on both the hardware and software sides of things, but it needs to happen sooner rather than later because, again, there’s a lot of stuff I can’t do until I get that done. and I need to send the recent invoices for Hazy’s dental appointment to pet insurance to see if they’ll pay anything, and that should be quick, but nothing ever stays simple. and, shit, I should really do some actual work this weekend because I didn’t get enough done before...and I still need to decide what to do about the vision therapy thing now that it’s clear the best they can do for me is a payment plan for like 36 expensive appointments, ugh. and ah shit I signed up for Yuletide and I’ve done almost nothing, and that’s due...Dec. 17? fuck, that reminds me, I gotta go get a new notebook from my room because I just finished this one, I mean that’s quick and easy but it also means I now have two notebooks that mostly aren’t typed up, which is bad because I can’t do anything with the contents until they’re typed up and of course they’re not backed up (unless I put them in my fireproof safe, and then I’d never get them typed), and typing those is going to take forever, and yeah I’ve been meaning to make it easier on myself by just doing like 15 minutes a day but I haven’t done that at all and they really need to get typed--and, well, I could just do a 15-minute stint, sure, but that seems silly when there’s so much that needs to be done--and, ugh, I’ve sorta been ignoring my email for the last three days and I need to go through that because otherwise I’m guaranteed to miss something I won’t want to miss, but that takes time and it’s going to mean opening up more tabs when there are already too many tabs open (there are always too many tabs open) and I need to deal with those too, and a good share of the emails are probably about Black Friday sales that I’ll probably want to do but that means more tabs and more decisions and shit there’s all that stuff in my Etsy cart that I should really buy sooner rather than later because sometimes Etsy stuff disappears or sells out and then I’ll be sad and frustrated with myself and also some of the things I want to buy are for gifts, which reminds me that I have almost no Christmas gifts yet for anybody, and my birthday is soon so I should probably make some kind of list myself but actually why am I focusing on that at all when the Georgia runoff elections that determine Senate control are in barely more than a month and I need to be writing letters/postcards to voters since I don’t want to phonebank and time zones actually make it really impractical anyway? I was going to do that in a reasonable way this time too, just a few letters a day like I meant to before, use up a lot of these stamps and stuff I still have--and ah fuck it’s been a while since I’ve called my own legislators about anything, I need to do that, that’s theoretically quick because voicemails cut me off at two minutes, although to be able to do that I also have to do at least a little research so I know what’s the most important thing to call about and what to say so that’s more tabs and more time, and I still haven’t fucking reposted the tiny little Endgame fix-it fic I wrote at the end of August, let alone finished anything since then

and I would, on some level, like to work on one of the many, many writing projects that is theoretically close to being done, or one of the recent ones I started because I foolishly and incorrectly thought it was something I could bang out quickly

and on some level I would also like to work on more stuff for Etsy that could be pre-made so it’s not another stress point when I get orders, especially because several things are holiday-specific and some wouldn’t even take that long, but I’d still be choosing to do those instead of more urgent things

and none of that even begins to touch other stuff, like my room that continues to be a disaster and I need to sort through my shit so I know whether I can relist my most popular Etsy item (if I even want to, which I don’t right now because stress), not to mention all the stuff I need to clear out by listing on eBay, and I could do at least one part of that (flatten the boxes I’ve saved for shipping) without committing to a week-long project but even that part would take a solid chunk of time that I should be spending on something more urgent

and we can’t even put up the fucking tree until I move some of my shit away from the spot where the tree goes, which is tough because a lot of it is from work or otherwise theoretically temporary stuff that doesn’t have an actual home, so that’s going to take a while, and then putting up the tree is also going to take a while, and my room is already a disaster so I’d need to clean in there to make room, which would take forever, and for that matter my areas of the living room are generally a disaster too, as always

and while I’m thinking about stuff I brought from work, let’s go back to how I need to do some work stuff because I’m lucky enough to have a decent job with good insurance that can be done from home and I’m still just like...kiiiiiiinda endangering that by not being a functional adult in general? which is at least partly because my brain is a dumpster fire that doesn’t seem to be improving (which is something else to worry about) but regardless of the cause I still have to do something about it? oh yes and speaking of the good insurance I’m kinda endangering by being a fuckup, haha sure hope this knot under my jaw doesn’t turn out to be...you know, the type of bad thing that a knot under the jaw could turn out to be! which is another very good reason I need to stop being a fuckup so I’m not maybe endangering the job that would pay for that, along with all my other medical issues! and also the entirety of our rent because my mom’s really high-risk and the only available jobs she’s qualified for aren’t safe for her to do!

and my knee hurts! and my elbow hurts! and my neck fucking hurts, my head and neck always hurt and I think I’ve been sleeping even worse than usual lately, partly because neck pain and partly just my body fucking hates me, it’s always a problem and I don’t know what to do about it anymore

and now it’s after 8:30 pm and obviously I’ve done none of this, and I’m still tired, and my head and neck still hurt, and there are still so many things I need to do but I can’t choose because the time-consuming things are the urgent ones but I don’t have the time or energy for them and choosing a specific thing (an urgent time-consuming thing, or a less urgent but much quicker thing) means actively choosing not to do one of the other things, and it’s all important, and I can’t fucking choose, and I’m pretty much at a point where I can continue running ever more painful and crazy-making circles in my brain trying to make myself decide something or I can say “fuck it” and do something that would be fun but not urgent or important at all, which I shouldn’t do, so for fuck’s sake I should just pick even one productive thing to do and then maybe let myself do something fun and then get to bed at a good time for fucking once but I still can’t fucking choose and I want to either cry, scream, or possibly hurt myself, and none of this is healthy or productive

and I think possibly my therapist is getting impatient with me for not making much progress and not really having specific goals for our sessions aside from “I hate that my brain is Like This and I want it to not be Like This and no I haven’t done most of the things you’ve suggested and no I don’t have a good reason why, I just want the meds to work so everything won’t be so fucking hard and yes I know that wouldn’t be something you could control even if it was in your wheelhouse, which it isn’t, but I get overwhelmed so fast and I know I need to do better and be better but I don’t know how”

and I wrote this instead of actually doing anything, apparently, because there was at least some chance that dumping it all out would make me feel better or help me see more clearly what I actually need to do, but I think I actually made myself feel worse by articulating just how overwhelmed I am, mostly by things that objectively aren’t actually that difficult or important.

and I still can’t fucking choose.

#brains behaving badly #adhd #I am just...so fucking sick of my brain being...this

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purplesurveys · 3 years

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1157

survey by hxcsingingsk8r

Phone Scavenger Hunt

First off, what phone do you have? I have an iPhone 8.

And what provider do you use? It’s a local one you wouldn’t know about, called Globe.

How long have you had your current phone? I can’t remember if it would be 3 or 4 years this 2021. Either way, it’s definitely been a while and I’ve been itching to upgrade. It’s too early to make such a big purchase, though.

Do you have any cases for it? Describe them. I have a clear case that I bought last year. Before that, I had a pink Otterbox case that I managed to destroy even though Otterbox is normally known for its durability. I just have a very unique ability to wreck everything I’ve ever owned lol.

How old were you when you got your first cellphone? I was technically 6, but it was meant to be a present for my 7th birthday. We threw a birthday party a month in advance because my dad had to fly back abroad for work before my actual birthday, but we wanted him to be present at the celebration so we decided throwing a party early was the best route.

What about your first smartphone? [If the answer is different] It was an iPhone 5S.

How old are you now? Dunno what this has to do with the theme of the survey but I am now 22.

Okay, move onto the scavenger hunt part

What is your lock screen picture of? It’s of Kim Seon Ho at a restaurant, lmao.

Home screen? It’s one of the shots from a recent promotional photoshoot Hayley did for Good Dye Young.

How many pictures are thre currently on your phone? This question just made me so anxious hahaha. I have way too many photos; and upon checking, it turns out I currently have 6,266. My god do I need to clean up my camera roll this weekend.

How many videos? I have 227. I have no idea it’s gotten to be this many; I barely use my phone to take videos. I’ll go ahead and delete some of them right now, just to give my phone (and its storage) space to breathe.

What is your most recent picture of? It’s a work thing...I guess I’ll explain it so it can make more sense. So one of our clients has got this Lent campaign going on, and to spread word about it we’ve tapped a handful of food bloggers to try out the offers themselves and post about their experience on social media. Now that we’re in the middle of Holy Week they’ve gone ahead and uploaded their own posts, and I’m in charge of taking screenshots so I can show to the client that the execution had been successful.

And the most recent video? It’s a private vlog. Every Sunday, or at least every other Sunday I take a few minutes to sit down and do a weekly video thing where I talk about my ~mental~ and ~emotional~ status, and it’s basically a way to be in touch with myself and keep track of my progress. Who knows, maybe I’ll actually get to uploading them one day.

Do you have any albums? If so, of what? Yeah. I have one for Cooper, one for Kimi, and a bunch of tiny albums I’ve made where I compiled 4–5 photos of friends to post on their birthdays.

What pictures have you favorited? I have a lot of favorited photos. There’s no required category for me to label them as such.

Do you have any shared albums with friends or family or work? No. I’m not sure if I can do that, or how to do it if it is allowed.

Do you have any alarms set? For what time and for what occasions? I have a bunch of alarms but only because they’re archived into the Clock app and I just haven’t gotten around to deleting them. When I was still new at my work, I used to have alarms set for certain work tasks I have to take note of every week – but now that I’ve gotten into the groove of things, I don’t need the alarms to be reminded about them anymore.

Check your weather app, what is the weather and temperature where you live? It says ‘Mostly Clear’ and shows a temperature of 26ºC.

Do you have the YouTube app? Do you have your own channel? I do have the app and my own account, but I never use it to post videos. It’s nice to have my own channel so that my homepage can be tailored to my interests.

Do you have an email app? Which one do you use? I just have the default Email app that comes with iOS, but I never use it because it’s so wonky. It doesn’t refresh new emails and it takes forever when it does, and it doesn’t always show the full thread of email conversations. If I absolutely need to check my email for something I usually have to pull out my laptop.

Does it say that there is an update available on your phone or any apps? Yes, it reminds me everyday hahaha. I don’t update unless Apple has been planning a big revamp with new features, though; and if the updates are just to address bugs, I disregard the reminders.

Go into your contacts, how many contacts do you have total? It says I have 178.

Name all of your contacts under the letter M: Feels a tad bit invasive, so I’ll just name five people I have under M: Lui, Kim, Patrice, Danika, and Andi.

Name all of your contacts under the letter U: I don’t have anyone under U.

Do you have any contacts that are businesses rather than people? Which ones? No, I don’t really use text to contact businesses. If I wanted to inquire or order from one, I usually head to their social media page.

Go into your notes, how many notes do you have saved? This is another one I have a hoarding problem with lol. My phone says I currently have 561 notes, though I’m fairly certain the biggest chunk of it comes from minutes I’ve taken down from work meetings. It was a whole lot less when I was still in school.

What kinds of things do you save in your notes? Like I said, I use Notes for taking down minutes from meetings. There are also a few surveys on there, from times I didn’t have internet and couldn’t post them on here.

Do you have any voice memos saved? What of? Yep. Some of them were recordings I had to do for journalism classes I was assigned to do voiceovers; some are interviews, also from my journ class; and the rest are of me rambling.

Do you ever use the calculator app? Pretty frequently for work.

Do you ever use the Maps app? Not really. If I needed directions, I would check out Waze for that.

Do you have any health/fitness apps? Which ones? I still have the Nike Training app from the very brief time I wanted to start working out earlier this year.

Do you have the Instacart app? The what now? I’ve never even heard of that.

What about a delivery service like Postmates, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Doordash? I have the McDelivery app for McDonald’s, but I also have other general delivery apps like Grab, Lalamove, and Transportify.

Do you have something like Venmo, Cashapp, or Paypal? I have the Paypal app but I never use it. I also have a couple of e-wallet apps just in case I’d have to use them as a payment method, since some businesses I purchase from prefer certain ones. Ultimately, though, I use Grab’s mobile wallet the most often.

Do you use Bitmoji? I think I did before? I never used it all that regularly though. Didn’t see the point.

What other keyboards do you use besides English? Any? Filipino, Korean, and Emoji.

Which social media network apps do you have? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, TikTok, and Snapchat. So I guess I have all the main ones?

If you have Instagram, what is your handle and how many followers? I have a very private one I only use for work. I didn’t want it to have any followers but at present there’s Angela (because she asked to follow it this week) and Bea (idk why).

What do you typically post on the various social media platforms? The only ones I regularly post on are Twitter and Facebook, and on either I share life updates (if there are any) and memes; though on Facebook I have to watch out what kind of memes I share and make sure they aren’t too offensive because I’m friends with relatives, workmates, and media on there lmao. But on Twitter, I basically have no filter.

Do you make TikTok videos? I don’t make any myself, but I do enjoy going through the app.

Do you only add people you know on Facebook? Yes, for the most part. I’ve taken to adding people as long as they’re from UP or my high school even though I’ve never met them as well, but if I sense that they only added me to try and sell me insurance OR try to get me into MLM, then it’s an instant unfriend for me.

Do you have an app that tracks Instagram followers? No, because I don’t need to track my Instagram followers. I’m off the radar as off the radar gets.

Do you have a Snapchat? Yeah, it’s still on my phone just because but I literally never touch it anymore.

Do you ever take selfies with filters? What app's filters do you use? Eh, just before. I don’t really take selfies anymore, period.

Do you use any apps like Depop or Poshmark or Etsy? No. Out of these three I’ve only ever heard of Etsy, too.

What messengers do you use to talk to people? Any besides just texting? I have Messenger to stay in touch with family and friends; Whatsapp and Viber for work; and Telegram just in case my friends want to play games.

Do you have any photo editing apps? Which ones? I have this app called Foodie that has some pretty filters. Otherwise, since I’m not on Instagram anyway I’m never on the lookout for photo editing apps; no one ever filters their photos on Facebook and Twitter lol.

Do you have any games? Which ones? I do have a ton of games on my phone. I never play any of them, but I keep them just in case I get bored enough to start revisiting them. I have word games, drinking games, games similar to Heads Up! where one person will have to guess the word on the screen while the phone is on their forehead, and gimmicky games like 1010! and Candy Crush haha.

Do you have any rideshare apps like Lyft or Uber? I have Grab, which is a rideshare, parcel delivery, food delivery, and online grocery app all in one.

Now go to the actual phone app, whose phone numbers are saved as favorites? I don’t tag any of my contacts as favorites.

Who was your most recent outgoing call to? I can’t recognize the number, so it was probably a Transportify driver that I called to give him directions to my house.

Who was your most recent incoming call from? I also can’t recognize the number, but this time he was most likely a Grab driver.

Who was your most recent missed call from? Again, can’t recognize the number HAHAA

Why did you miss that call? On purpose? Were you sleeping? Busy? My phone is on silent 24/7, so I must have missed it while I was working.

Who is your most recent voicemail from and what's it regarding? We don’t have voicemail in the Philippines.

What was the last thing you Googled or searched on your phone? Candle tunneling and how to fix it.

What music app do you use? Apple Music? Spotify? Something else? I use Spotify, but I also availed of a 3-month trial on Apple Music earlier this year just because. I think it’s supposed to end soon but I have no plans to shift.

What playlists have you made on there? I have playlists called, “robyn discovers kpop,” “winding down,” “angst,” “not my loss,” and my personal favorite, “paramore but fuck you.”

Lastly, what is the most recent song/album you've added to your collection? What Type of X - Jessi.

#survey #surveys

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resinatingbeauty · 4 years

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News & New Stuff October 8th 2020 Update

SALE on Mercari and in the Etsy shop - Spend $30 in the shop for 40% off your order! Free shipping available for US customers and guaranteed free international shipping everywhere else when spending $35 + USD !

Introducing affordable hand crafted & charged 'Crystal Essentials' jewelry sets featuring iconic therapeutic natural crystals crafted into a beautiful beaded bracelet, necklace, and earring set with raw Selenite crystal to charge! Includes detailed information about the featured crystal / gemstone and Selenite / charging. Each set may be Personslized further by choosing your beading color scheme and comes with keepsake box and bags! These sets are priced just at $20-$35.00 (depending on stone) USD to make them affordable for everyone getting into crystal therapy, reiki, or those who just enjoy the natural beauty and colorations of these crystals!

THANK YOU to all my Mercari buyers for helping me reach 100 5 Star reviews this month! There are some special deals for Mercari users on my page that aren't listed anywhere else to celebrate, including 5 piece Crystal Beauty Bundle Boxes which feature natural crystals I have hand picked just for you, at least one of my own color changing / thermogenic creations, Selenite, Black Cleansing Salt, and a stretchy crystal stack Bracelet!

Updated the Etsy shop with new organization, some new listings and featured items including the aforementioned Crystal Essential sets of Malachite and Obsidian. Removed older listings that are still on Mercari for a discounted price.

I am ALWAYS accepting custom orders- the 'place custom order' button should now appear on my Etsy shop in the upper right hand corner of shop home. This was always meant to be, but most of my editing is done on the mobile app which is inconsistent with the website. Sorry for that!

I plan on collaborating with funky amazing artist Meg and doing a swap in the near future. Keep an eye out for photos - I can't wait to see what she designs for me!

It has been a hell of a month, let me tell you (not that anyone reads this, which makes it a great place to vent). Finances have been tight- sales have just BARELY covered my expenses (Etsy shop still in the hole by a literal dollar). Fortunately, I have been able to keep my day job during this pandemic as an essential worker, but I lost my side hustle and hours were cut there so even that hasn't been any help.

I started Resinating Beauty / Blursed Baubles by Samantha in Pursuit of a dream. I pursued that dream at a bad time.

Thankfully, I didn't take out any small business loans or borrow money to manifest my dream. Everything came out of pocket from money I had saved and the small inheritance my grandmother left me when I was 14, or what was left of it after I moved out of my parent's home and purchased a new car, which I am glad I'm not stuck with my dying 20 year old Cavalier and don't have to currently worry about a car payment or this car deciding it has had enough of me.

That money is gone now, and as I continue down this path, I may have gone full force when I should have held back and waited to see what the ultimate impact would be of this global phenomenon would be- between the pandemic and other events that appear to be harbingers of the apocalypse.

Every bit I make goes right back into maintaining my presence and keeping up with my creations when they aren't paying overdue bills, overdraft fees, and the rent.

What does this depressing rant mean for, if you so happen to have taken the time to read this? For one, thanks for that. At least keeping up with social media has somewhat paid off, though the ads brought likes, they never brought much revenue. That's what will ultimately kill this dream of mine, or at least bring everything to a full stop until I can afford to restock and promote. This means a few possibilities in the next few months:

Mercari only sales. Though Mercari has also become more of a pain in the ass and lackluster in the last few months, adding their payment processing fee in addition to their 10% listing fee and raising the cost of their prepaid labels.

I had expected the cost of labels to go up just to match the increase in postage cost, but the payment processing fee snuck right in there amidst everything. It has become very hard as a seller to make ANYTHING from a sale and price your items in a way that people will even stop and look at your listing because you're going to lose at least $5 off the top, more if you don't use your own label service and, God forbid, take your packages to a pack n ship store.

Higher Pricing Than Usual and No More Gratuitous Free Shipping

In exchange, I have had to list items at much higher prices than I would expect anyone to pay just to list them and promote them down to the price I expect, only to sell them at cost if not lower. I'm lucky to make a profit off any of my listings, but I do recognize that the majority of my sales come from Mercari. I've had the Etsy shop for almost as long and have only made a grand total of 5 (or so) sales, only two of which were international, which is really the entire point of running the Etsy shop. If this trend continues, I'll be forced to cut my losses and turn down international sales for the foreseeable future.

Free shipping will continue for now as I have been able to use a commercial shipping label service that provides discounted shipping labels, but if listing price dips below the 10-15% profit margin I need to continue, I will withdraw the offer of free shipping.

Advertising is word of mouth only- if you love it, like it! Share it! Buy it!

If you have purchased any of my handmade items or have seen them advertised when I could afford to do so and thought they were amazing, please help! The casualties of this pandemic are not just human- millions of small businesses, start ups, and solo ventures like myself are struggling just as much as you are (if not more) to keep a roof over their heads, to pay their bills, and to continue providing quality products and services from the USA, from my hands to yours. Corporations from China and other international conglomerates have infiltrated sites like Etsy and Mercari, selling their products as if they were handmade, unique, and just as special as someone who actually sat down and took the time to craft it over days and weeks- pouring their heart and souls into it like I know I do and God knows they mass produce these items, using these platform as just another way to promote their products. There is literally nothing we can do to stop it other than refuse to purchase from them and to invest our money in true homegrown small businesses.

As prices get higher here in the US, I can't blame people for immediately gravitating toward the lowest priced seller that is selling a copy cat item of another at half the cost, or one similar to it, but, damn, does it feel like a knife in the back to every entrepreneur or small business owner watching our dreams crumble at the feet of Chinese mega corps and pandemic/election propaganda.

Custom order cessation on all platforms. If I no longer have the extra materials, I cannot make custom orders. You may find custom or made to order listings have a much more abbreviated menu of options and variations due to cost and those who place custom orders and fail to follow up. Please only make custom order requests when you are ready to purchase them and allow me adequate time to create your item(s), finalize, and ship them to you.

With all that being said, I don't expect any of this to happen until next year. I continue to pull through, I'm still crafting and designing, making social media advertisements whenever I can, and going to sleep at night just praying with hope in my heart that one day it has got to get better. We have nowhere to go now but up. I truly make myself believe this and stay positive with my thoughts.

Some changes have taken effect already on Mercari and Etsy as you have seen my pricing rise and the free shipping go away and I'm truly sorry for that. I'm sorry I have to decline your offer as well if I just can't rationalize it in my head. I can promise you, however, that you will continue to receive quality, handmade, one of a kind creations with extra love and care with customer service to match. I appreciate everyone who has made a purchase as you have supported this dream of mine and those repeat customers who have become more than just buyers to me, you are truly amazing. Thank you again for getting me to 100 5 Star reviews on Mercari!

-Xo Samantha

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thewordonmainstreet · 4 years

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Nothing Carries Over From Year To Year But Uncertainty

2019 was another terrible year and my head is swimming with so many thoughts and fears, I can hardly write this. Nevertheless, she persevered. There’s just so much happening right now that I’m completely gutted. I’m about to lose another job or so I feel. There’s some bullying and I told a few people about my health struggles and that seemed to go viral judging from how I went from well-liked girl in the office to almost stranger danger level. And so it begins, how will this job end? I’m dying to keep this job as it’s tethering me to normalcy and keeping money coming in but all the thoughts of what could happen and how things could play out don’t stop running through my head. I already feel the betrayal and pain of another job gone bad. I already feel the sorrow and immediate financial loss that will take me from eating pretty well to staring at a fridge as empty as my soul. 2019 will be the last year that I try to work at a normal job. I simply can’t do it anymore. I never fit in, I’m too nice, too poor, too this or whatever it is. After having numerous jobs fall apart through the years, I’ll have to find a way to earn extra money, not work and that scares the shit out of me. Because nearly everyone is trying to earn extra money in a gig type way and there aren’t a whole lot of ways to do so. I’m up against a hell of a lot of people who themselves can’t get ahead against a cost of living that keeps rising upward. I can’t do Uber or Skip The Dishes because my 13 year old car is on its’ last legs. Online surveys or translations are what’s most recommended but most people say they never earn much money from them so that’s just great. I can’t pay to start a business and most businesses involve some kind of investment which I don’t have. And risk, a whole lot of risk. I don’t have anything I can sell on Etsy and my writing will never earn me money, everyone whose anyone has a blog and seems to write well. I’m completely at a loss as to what to do. I’ve tried everything to find and keep work and there aren’t many resources in the city that help with job searches and job retention. Managers would rather rid a problem employee than help them to improve. I don’t want to keep going through jobs. It’s tearing me apart plus my resumé is met with constant suspicion from hiring managers because there are too many jobs of too little duration. All because of people that destroyed me or an illness that took me down mid-job. I get tired of trying hard only to be ended by those around me. Why does this follow me everywhere? People don’t work as a team anymore, they work against each other. Millenials too make up a large percentage of the service industry workforce and they can’t stand anyone over 40 and that’s me. I even get cold, indifferent services from them as a frequent fast food flyer. Time and again, it’s been them that age bracket that has been a bully to me. “Can’t get along” and “too easily offended” is what describes them. It’s just so tough to manage in a world where everyone has a different opinion and won’t be moved and doesn’t want to play nice with others. All I want is an honest day’s work and to have better food in my fridge, my goals are that down to earth. And my parents and I had a falling out. I fear this may be the end of them helping me as I know it and they’ll rush to write me out of their wills. I’m so afraid to lose my condo. I would have nowhere else to go but living with a roommate and that may just last for two weeks if that. People who aren’t in a relationship can’t live together. No one gets along anymore, they aren’t built for relationships. Everything is falling apart. I told my Mom that I was fed up with her harassing me by e-mail which she’s done since I was in my early 20’s and things just tanked from there. I didn’t even have Christmas dinner as a result of the drama. I have no idea what they’re planning to do to me. My brother is being distant as he normally is and not giving me answers. He was dragged into it and I can tell isn’t happy about it.

I just don’t know what to do. All I can do is sit in here and wonder what I’ll do if they plan to destroy me. I did nothing wrong and I wonder if this time they’ll even apologize to me. I wonder if this falling out will even change a single thing between us. Likely not, things have always been highly dysfunctional. We’ve never gotten along yet I’ve been such a good daughter and try so hard. It’s so sad that relationships have to be so hard. Life is hard enough already. And they’ve never been proud of me either. I work my tail off to survive and it’s met with ongoing disappointment. Why is it so hard for anyone to get along anymore? There’s a deep pain inside my soul of never really being a part of the family or loved by my parents. It’s “here’s some money, now get out of here”. I’ll never be enough and that hurts like hell. I worry a lot about losing my home due to our frayed relationship. I love my home and everything in it even though it’s been a hard 12 years living here. I think about everything I own and how significant all my junk really is. I have an uncanny ability to remember which thrift store every decoration or candle was bought. To anyone else it’s junk, but to me it’s something tangible in a life where I don’t have much to hold. I have no support in my life but the crisis line and even they get tired of hearing what I have to say as they limit their call length and every time I call I have to rehash my story. I’m so painfully alone and lonely. I’m dying for community and belonging but everything costs money to join or do. I guess the only place I have to go is to the streets to beg for money and belonging. It’s like I’m being drawn there by an invisible force that’s saying “these are your people” and “you don’t belong anywhere else but you belong here”. I’ve always been sort of close to the streets all my life because if I don’t get my social assistance payment, that’s where I’d end up real fast. I’ve never fit in in the suburbs, I’m an outcast that’s mocked wherever I go because I don’t dress like the others or drive a late model car. Poverty isn’t socially acceptable and I see it in their stares. I hope that 2020 will be better to me than life is for most years. Every year is a struggle and I start with nothing and end with nothing. I have to start fresh every year. People say “start fresh” as it starting over is something positive. It’s not. I wish that something would just stick and I would have routine and predictability in life. Nothing carries over from year to year but uncertainty. I want to finally rest instead of constantly working to barely get by and having nothing to show for it after all my food is eaten.

I say I feel I have to stop working but I desperately want to keep trying and just not throw in the towel and give up. There’s something deep inside of me that refuses to lay down and die. I have no other way to connect with society other than the Internet and to me that’s not good enough; I want to be a part of things and find my place in this world. There really isn’t anything different about my search for ways to earn money as I’ve been looking for ways to make money for as long as I can remember so this is no end, it’s just another year of doing the same thing as last year and the years previous. I was answering ads. for gigs such as holding signs for store closures and dressing up as a mascot as recent as even last year. Even ads. like those are few and far between and I’ve placed an ad. begging for a job or a task for extra money and that was met with no response. I may have to take it to the streets with a sign asking for work like I threatened to in blogs before. It never ends; I guess it knows I’m stubborn. 2019, damn you. You started bad and are ending bad but 2020 scares me even more. WTF did I ever do is all I can ask? Where is all this unending bad karma coming from? I’ve been good all of my life and stayed on the straight and narrow so I really don’t get it. I’ve been a good daughter but they misunderstand me, I’ve been an upstanding, contributing member of society yet they don’t want me. I hope that my problems will be so last year and not cross over to the New Year. I can only hope, that’s one thing that I always have had in strong measure and what keeps me holding on against all odds. From one year to the next, the only constant is hardship.

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johnmuffus · 4 years

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eCommerce Bootcamp Review

eCommerce Bootcamp Review (Justin Cener Course)

eCommerce Bootcamp aims to be a holistic approach to online business, with classes and tutorials on different topics, and entire “bootcamps” or mini courses on more complicated subjects.

It’s priced at $997, which is pretty standard (albeit on the higher side) for eCommerce courses today. However, it’s still quite expensive, so it’s normal for you to worry about making a good choice and not just throwing away your money.

So, is it really worth what it says? Let’s find out.

Who’s the author?

Justin Cener was Alex Becker’s companion for Wolf Mug ads campaign that fell upon YouTube years ago. They spent over $1 million on it, so chances are you either saw their advertisement or didn’t use YouTube at all during that time.

Now, if I recall correctly, the campaign was so huge, that it birthed the “If you give me 60 seconds” intro that other YouTubers adopted into their own videos. If you remember that, then you’ve been reached by these two guys.

So, the guy definitely knows how to go viral and reach millions. However, does that knowledge translate into a good course for you? Well, let’s go through its contents and find out for ourselves.

Reviewing No Bullshit Road to Remote Work

The course breaks into different modules, and they can be quite confusing for some people. All the content comes in videos, so reading-haters will be blessed. However, things can get somewhat “strange”.

There’s a video explaining PoD (print on demand) on Shopify that feels like a visual remake of something from Tai Lopez. There’s also a video of Justin teaching you with a whiteboard behind him, standing outside, wearing a tank top.

It’s a bit all over the place.

Finally, some topics are treated differently than others. You have both topics and bootcamps. Topics tend to be simple modules explaining a single concept like choosing a niche or building your store. On the other hand, bootcamps are more like mini-courses on more complex subjects like dropshipping or marketing on different platforms.

There are 4 simple topics in total and the rest is bootcamps. To keep things simple, I’ll just sum up the first 3 topics since they’re fairly straightforward.

First, you have a module about choosing a niche. Justin teaches how to find and select the best niche for you, why that’s important, and what you want from your niche. He also talks about why it’s advantageous to feel invested and passionate about your niche.

Next, there’s a video about setting up your Shopify, and he uses it to explain why Shopify is better than other platforms. Due to its popularity, you probably already know why.

He goes into your standard Shopify setup tutorial, with a few affiliate links from him thrown in, nothing really special. It’s your typical setup guide, and it’s nothing you can’t find on a cheaper course like eCom Elites or from Shopify’s own customer support.

The last topic we’ll summarize is the one about print on demand. It tells you to sign up for the GearLaunch app. While it’s a pretty good app, I’d recommend you sign up to PillowProfits, but there are many others. Don’t follow anyone’s advice in particular and just experiment until you find the one that works for you.

Email marketing

This is a bit more complex, so I’ll dedicate a header here before explaining the rest.

Justin recommends you use MailChimp, and it’s a good enough platform for eCommerce. However, DO NOT use it to promote any affiliate links. They ban users who send affiliate promotions, and an acquaintance of mine had to discover it the hard way.

If that worries you, let me recommend you another standard like GetResponse.

MailChimp is free for your first 2,000 emails. After that, you have to pay if you want it to be worth your time. Look up other platforms and their plans since paying for an autoresponder is inevitable if you want your business to succeed.

Don’t sweat it too much, though. The emails should cover for these costs if you do things right.

Regarding the content itself, it’s just a basic tutorial about how to setup and use MailChimp. It really isn’t something you can’t just find for free on YouTube.

Bootcamp: Dropshipping

Now we get to the first bootcamp: dropshipping with Facebook Ads and Shopify. The topics are your standard dropshipping content: finding a niche, why Shopify is good, sourcing your offers, fulfilling orders, marketing, and scaling.

The product research section is quite good. It teaches you the factors you want to consider when looking through the niches: scalability, perceived value, demand, possible margins, marketing difficulty, etc.

There’s also a section discussing arbitrage VS dropshipping. Basically, arbitrage is where you get your profits from pricing difference between an item’s cost and sale price. He discusses wholesalers as the sources: eBay, AliExpress, Etsy, Amazon, and Walmart.

There are also some comments on the pros and cons of using free + shipping as well as the retail models. It closes with brief Oberlo training that also relates closely to AliExpress.

Bootcamp: Print on demand

In case you don’t know, PoD means selling things like shirts, mugs, pillows, hoodies, and anything you can use to print artwork and sell it. You can create your designs, or you can outsource that task to a freelancer.

It’s really efficient in that you can use the same design on many products, and you can save quite a bit of money by finding artists that work for little money. As a nice touch, Justin recommends some designers in this section for people interested in PoD.

I’d recommend you take a look at what sells and get an artist to design something similar. You might spend a few dollars, but people have made thousands out of dozens with this business model.

While the market can be fairly saturated, you just need to find designs people are prone to buying, replicate them, and then market them to the right target audience. I’ve seen people sell artwork I thought was hideous for hundreds of dollars in profits in a really short time, just by knowing what sells and marketing it correctly.

Just keep in mind that PoD can be a great business, but finding the right artwork can be a bit hard. Also, trends go by fairly quickly, so make sure to take note of things like shared artwork and how long certain trends have been running.

For inspiration, Justin recommends Pinterest, Wanelo, Teespring, and of course Reddit and Google.

Regarding the content itself, this is a solid PoD class, and you can leave feeling like you have a fundamental grasp on things that you can expand upon.

Bootcamp: Facebook Ads

This is by far the largest section in the entire course. It has over 40 different videos, and they cover things like how you can target people by using interest groups. He also teaches you how to identify and build different interest groups, testing them, and how to classify them for efficient campaings.

He also explains PPE ads (page post engagement), when it’s OK to use them, and when you should go for another approach.

You also have some advanced tips about copywriting like how to exploit scarcity and the different types of ad copy. There’s also your usual content like retargeting, how to setup your pixel, and scaling using techniques like lookalike audiences.

It’s another useful bootcamp that’s well explained for beginners.

Bootcamp: ClickFunnels

Justin tells us that ClickFunnels is the new way people are doing online business these days. That’s nothing we don’t know already, but it can be a costly platform for people on a budget.

He also offers you access to his own funnel, which seems to have generated him 6 figures in earnings. However, keep in mind that you need to create a ClickFunnels account to use it. It’s $99 each month, but at least there’s a free trial before that.

Bootcamp: Instagram

This bootcamp also goes by the name of Influencer Marketing, and Justin uses it to explain how to find success with Instagram.

Most videos explain the theory behind exploiting the platform, but he also provides strategies that he later puts to the test and into perspective via real-life examples; for this, he uses case studies.

He also teaches you the core concepts for growing your business on Instagram: both with organic and paid traffic, the latter being the simplest and most automatic method. The platform is the same as Facebook’s, in case you didn’t know.

He also explains how influencers can promote your products and brand. It works as a one-payment post, and it lets you scale it if it works. Also regarding influencers, you have some templates for contacting them.

Extra modules

The first bonus is very entertaining collection of different reviews from webinars where he looks at the stores of his students and provides his opinion; these range from t-shirts all the way to CBD products.

It’s definitely a nice addition to see his thought on some sample stores, and it helps you see some things you might be doing wrong.

There’s also a calculator to determine the price of your products, which is a neat help for managing your business. It’s more useful when you actually start getting sales. Don’t be fooled, though; it’s merely an Excel sheet you could program yourself in minutes with a tutorial.

There’s also a bonus approach to PoD via wall art or canvases in case you don’t want to go for the standard t-shirts.

Finally, there’s a library with 600 designs for you to use if you decide to go for PoD. However, remember all students have access to them, so you might want to look for your own anyways or edit them. You could outsource it, but I’d recommend you learn how to use Photoshop yourself.

Remember the Wolf Mug campaign I mentioned? Well, the case study for that is also provided as a bonus in this course. Sure, it’s been years since that, but it’s still a really interesting bonus, and I definitely enjoyed it.

Finally, you have some Facebook Ads and email templates, but again, use them as a guide. They’re probably being used by most people taking this course, but they’re good for inspiration.

Final Verdict

Is It Worth It? Final Verdict

Now, let me get things straight: I really liked this course, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Let me elaborate.

The content is great. Like always, there’s some stuff you can find for free on YouTube, but overall, it’s a very good course. You can definitely start your business and run it after taking it.

However, I can’t recommend it when it’s nearly $1,000. eCom Elites is my favorite course, and it’s just $197 ($297 for the premium plan). It skips some content here, but it more than makes up with its gigantic marketing sections.

You can learn more and save $700-800 that you can invest in a great marketing campaign.

I hope you found this review useful and if you have any questions, please comment down below. I’ll be more than happy to assist you.

Once again, thanks for reading my eCommerce Bootcamp Review and I wish you the best of luck.

The post eCommerce Bootcamp Review appeared first on Only Genuine Reviews.

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dcnativegal · 7 years

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Maybe I am an artist

Zora Neale Hurston once said, “I love myself when I am laughing, and again when I’m looking mean and impressive.” I could safely say, “I love myself when I am playing with yarn, and again when I’ve finished a project and taken a picture of it to post on Facebook.”

Moving to the Oregon Outback, and Valerie’s adorable loft house, has loosed whatever constraints I’d had in DC on yarn binging. Or am I stocking up for my new career as a fiber artist? Perhaps my yarn buying behavior is yet another one of my compulsions. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines compulsion as a very strong feeling of wanting to do something repeatedly that is difficult to control. So why control it? I see an ad for yarn, I get an email from Webs.com, I get a notification that someone has posted “a yarn for sale” picture in Yarn Hoarders Anonymous on Facebook. If its bulky yarn, or very reasonably priced… I’ve hit up paypal before I know it. Or I do know it and I do it anyway.

But is it a bad thing? Why must I pathologize my yarn buying? I love my yarn. It gives me great joy to order it, anticipate it coming, then open the package (that Paisley’s patient and kind postmistress has hauled to her counter). I deeply enjoy planning what I’ll make with it. Occasionally I’ll open it and go, bleh, not what I had hoped for, but that stuff will find a place and a purpose, too. Yarnbombing with many strands of yarn at once will reduce my supply…

I dream of projects. When I want to stop obsessing about a client, or about my most recent blood sugar, or whatever really stupid thing I said that day (Open mouth, Insert foot), then I plan a project as I drift off to sleep. Something in purple, the color I have the most of. What kind of baby blanket will I make for the Holy Brother’s daughter’s love child? What kind of stitch will best cover the irrigation half wheel that Valerie salvaged? I plan to make a half sun full of oranges, yellows, and white, with a little purple and green thrown in. It will be 3 feet in diameter, and hung from the fence. It will be my second outdoor decoration, after the July 4th crocheted flag I tacked to a folding rectangular trellis and hung on the side of the house.

Why should we all use our creative power? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money. Brenda Ueland

Perhaps I am subconsciously planning for my next career, although I learning and growing in my current one. This ‘behavioral therapist’ business is hard work. Lake County is the redheaded stepchild of Klamath County, which is supposed to share resources with its sister county to the east. It’s also the mostly ignored second cousin of Deschutes County which is just to the north and full of resources, people, stores… it’s where most north Lake County residents go for banking, pharmacy and grocery shopping. Anyway, the impoverishment of Lake County is only one of the reasons this old social worker finds the work challenging. I think most therapists struggle with at least some cases. The multiple early traumas that my clients had to cope with, on top of the challenges of modern life and the dearth of jobs and housing, combine to lay waste the most resilient psyche. Not to mention the recidivism of “substance use disorder”, the newest official term for what was once called addiction. I do get a surge of joy when one of the clients graduates from their 12 weeks of sobriety and I can report to the probation officer that they are CLEAN. They were clean before I knew them, however; I take no credit.

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

Goethe

I have no business plan for my next career as a fiber artist. I had an Etsy store once, and spent a lot of money on photography equipment (a huge white sheet and nice lights with umbrellas attached) to take pictures of my accomplishments. Didn’t really work. Maybe I didn’t promote it? I thought my prices were reasonable. I sold more by just mentioning something on facebook than I ever did on Etsy.

I don’t really care, although I suppose I should, whether I make money from my creations. It would be nice to recoup some of the expense of the yarn, which is really pricey, even when I buy from other yarn hoarders. (Maybe I should have sheep in the side yard, sheer them, prepare their wool, spin it, dye it… yeah? No.) I enjoy seeing my work wrapped around a friend’s shoulders in winter. I missed seeing the smile of delight when Valerie’s niece opened up the box and saw two, washable, gorgeous if I do say so myself, baby blankets at her twin baby debut. That delight is my payment. I did get a nice thank you note.

What I really love is making the stuff. I love selecting the yarns, picking the hook or needle size, and going at it. I don’t follow patterns, although I do learn stitches from youtube. I make shit up. I know how to fit a hat, and even fit a sweater, without a pattern, although mostly I make scarves and afghans. People don’t wear nice handmade sweaters anymore. They are too hot indoors, and too much of a pain to take on and off. Hats and scarves make more sense, and in winter, a beautiful lap blanket totally helps when the fire is beginning to go out. I think so anyway. My family members, and Valerie’s, get knit stuff for Christmas and so far, no one has taken me aside and said, Jane, “We have enough hats to last the rest of our lives… maybe a gift card??” I think they are too polite to tell me; I just hope they’ve passed the hat along to another cold noggin.

When I ask myself, what do I have to do each day? One answer is I must crochet or knit. My hands itch to be making something, to follow a rhythm with a piece of wood and soft fur of sheep, rabbit, llama. Or the product of silk worm and bamboo. I’ve discovered to my delight a substance called Upscale Acrylic. I sit having a conversation with anyone, and if I am not also crocheting, a part of my brain is aching. I have two projects I’m knitting[jl1] at work which I labor to finish during staff meetings, which are an odd affair, taking place over a large screen where most of the staff is sitting around a table 2 hours’ drive away and three of us in Christmas Valley are straining to hear. It is an exercise in frustration, but perhaps it is practice for when I’m hard of hearing and I miss most of the content and a whole lot of nonverbal verbal cues. I’ll be knitting then, too.

I have projects that are perfect for church, or for a movie, since I can knit in the round without looking. I get a lot done, especially during the sermon, or the previews, when I’m just not really engaged. If you are preaching, just know that you knocked it out of the park if I stopped knitting.

In a college seminar, we sat in a circle and talked and listened. I knit and talked and listened. One day, everyone turned to me and I asked why everyone was looking at me? One of the students said, because you put your knitting down. I always put it down when I had something to say. Ah.

My biggest projects are in the house, in large piles or baskets or boxes, and they require a lot of lap, and a cooperative cat. I’m working on a rug that will be something like 6 by 4 feet. I also have a number of lap blankets that are in process. I have two small purses half finished: purses the size of smart phones sold really well at the Paisley Bazaar last November. Sometimes I stare at my yarn and I get a flash of inspiration and I just up and start something entirely new. So what if I have 12 projects in various stages of completion. I finish my projects. Then I put them in a plastic trunk for gift/bazaar/me for later. And keep going. Yarn is joy.

It is also taking over the guest bedroom and the living room. You can’t see the surface of my desk for the piles of yarn. It’s rather like kudzu in the Southern states, hanging over everything and creeping around. Rather like a fungus. Rather like the clutter in a teenage boy’s room, there is a debris tide. I neaten and organize, and more yarn comes into the mix.

I think this is where the compulsion comes in. I do not need more yarn. I have a ‘stash beyond life expectancy.’ But new yarn, new colors and textures, they call to me.

Like wine calls to the alcoholic. Like meth calls to the meth user. Like chocolate calls to me. Like Blue Bunny chocolate covered ice cream bars call to me all the way from the Summer Lake gas station store. The one that says ‘Ice! You need Ice!’ on its big sign. The owner is the cranky pumper of gas who hales me when he sees me: So! What treason have you committed lately, you pinko? (Pinkos of the world, unite.)

I can’t afford the yarn, any more yarn ever, until I am out of debt. I asked Valerie if she minded the slow creep of yarn, and she said she will mind it come winter when she’s living in the house most of the time. With her peripatetic work schedule, she gets to stay a bunch of different places, none of which are as cluttered as our Paisley home. Cluttered with yarn.

Okay so I should stop buying yarn.

I was always a spendthrift, but my then-husband’s monthly explosion in response to the credit card bill was a bit of a deterrent. When we divorced, I blew through some serious money that came out of my retirement, and oh, I bought a house. Which I then had to sell toot suite when I took a severance package to get out of a very well paying but crazy-making workplace. (In 4 years, I lived through 3 bosses and 3 reorganizations. By the buyout, I was working so far away from my skill set that I would sit in my office and cry.)

Living in small spaces or other people’s spaces after the divorce kept a slight lid on my yarn obsession. And now in the lovely loft house, when I’ve down sized my furniture to the amount I could move cross country, I have lots of room. Oops. Yarn explosion. The generous tax refund this spring did not help.

What’s this about being an artist? Delusions of grandeur, probably.

Once upon a time, I took an environmental sculpture class at Oberlin. By my junior year, as a religion major and women’s studies minor I was writing a bazillion papers every semester. I wished to escape another paper and branched out to take folk dancing, print making and drawing, and even horseback riding, which, for this city kid, was really fun. A friend of mine, Monica, talked me into this class on Environmental Sculpture.

Our assignment was to plan a sculpture, and take care of all of the steps necessary to get permission to make it and install it. Finally, you build it. I wandered around the Oberlin neighborhood we lived in and found several shells of houses that had burned down. One shell had all four corners intact, and everything else was a stinky mass of melted plastic and trash. I had my site. I don’t recall getting permission from anyone to build a sculpture there. So it was a squatter site. I do remember finding an old wooden fireplace mantel, a bunch of wooden chair legs, some pallets. Pretty soon, I had the outline of a little hut. About 8 feet by 8 feet. I looked up Shinto Shrines, and back then there was no google. A shrine could be a home to a spirit who lived in that place. A living thing was needed, and a philodendron did the job. My classmates helped me raise the roof, which was a wooden shed structure just perfect for the top. I had my sculpture and I loved it very much. I still have the photos taken by another Obie, Bernice. Looking at them, I recall what a magical process this was.

To this day, I collect found objects and plan to make more sculptures. I might just be able to do that in Paisley. I have the space, and live in a town with a complete lack of judgment for saving odd things that look like junk. (Have you seen our side yard???) (Have you seen our neighbor to the immediate south???)

Why can’t I be an artist?

Why can’t art flow out of me and be manifested in some form, and then be shown to the public?

What is art? I have a broad definition. Anything made from my hands that is not food, is art. It does not have to be a job, but instead, a way of being in the world. A way of seeing something that does not exist yet and bringing it into this reality, rather like the sculptor who sees a large block of stone and envisions a human figure hidden inside. Chip away the stone and the human emerges. I see a physical space, or a blank fence wall, and I envision something there. Mobiles made of found objects, including cow bones, are taking up residence in my imagination. The afore-mentioned setting sun, made of half of an irrigation wheel and a whole lot of yarn. There are a lot of weathered pieces of wood, including twisting branches, that I’d love to build into something…

Creativity is seeing something that doesn’t exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with God. Michele Shea

As I settle into life in Lake County, I anticipated I’d have more free time to do things like volunteer, and make art. I’m beginning to make some art, as my fourth of July American flag takes its place on the side of the house. It has many other colors besides red white and blue, which I’d hoped would make a point about multi-cultural diversity, but they are too subtle. You have to go right up to the thing to see the greens, golds and purples. That’s okay. It was a first effort. It is a reassuringly familiar American Flag for the conservative county I live in. It was Valerie’s idea. She said, you know what the cowboys would love? A crocheted American flag. And so it is.

The sun will be multi-colored.

The outside of the house will begin to look like the inside: colorful and full of art.

I am an artist.

I recently stayed in a house that had a small wooden sign in it that said: I can be anything, but I can’t do everything.

I will be an artist. And a therapist. I will be a volunteer in small ways, like when I go to Lakeview or Bend, I can tell my neighbors that I’m there, so I can pick up a prescription or a rotisserie chicken, or hair dye. I will try to treat my pancreas better, and maybe ride my tricycle around town.

I will try to buy less yarn. Hmf. I call bullshit. Yoda said, there is no try, there is only do. So, I guess that means, I will stop buying yarn. Until… the kudzu has been trimmed and the native plants can breathe. Um, or maybe until we can walk through the living room without tripping over a bag or basket of yarn. That’s a fair goal. The more specific the goal, the easier to reach, right?

All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life. M.C.Richards

[jl1]

#knitting crochet art artist

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