"Once" the Irish Movie You Have to See!

I put this movie in our netflix bin for some unknown to me now reason. Let me just say that this movie is awesome. I think when your 8 year old son, your husband, and you can all sit and enjoy the movie and *everyone* wants the soundtrack afterward, the movie is just something special.

The music behind the movie is just fantastic and the movie itself was pretty easy to watch. I loved this little Irish musical and its Oscar winning soundtrack. If you haven’t seen it yet, the geek family highly recommends it!

Wiki about Once – you can read more about it here. It’s amazing to me that it was shot for $160,000.  The “If you want me” song is probably my favorite. I love Markéta Irglová‘s voice. Reading about how this film was made and the stories surrounding that is just very. That’s it. It’s just very. There are so many words that come after very that I can’t even type them all. Definately one of the better movies we’ve picked up from netflix and I’m so glad I watched it

Edited: January 31st, 2009

CPSIA education

I’ve been reading up on the CPSIA on various sites I go to and I was angry. While *I* don’t sell items that are hurt by the CPSIA, I have children and this will hinder my ability to buy cool stuff for them. I made protest buttons (and wear them and tell other people about the CPSIA when they ask) and I wrote angry letters. I do NOT want the CPSIA in its current form.

Save small business from the CPSIA. I looked at my google analitics for my etsy store and found that I was on a blog covering the CPSIA. I thought it was neat and I wanted to share. They could have taken my button and just used the image and instead they have it linked to my store. They also have some really good info about the CPSIA and what it can/will mean for small business owners/handmade/consumers. Check it out if you don’t know what the CPSIA is yet. Protect our kids: ban the CPSIA.

If you do know and you haven’t written your reps to tell them to knock this shit off, I urge you to do so lest we be stuck with cheap plastic made in china shit or drastically higher priced handmade stuff. If it’s going to cost makers of handmade goods tons of money for testing, they’ll have to increases their prices which means you either won’t be able to afford it, or they won’t be able to sell it period. We can’t let this happen.

Please feel free to use the above images on your own blogs (especially if you want to link them to my store ). I want to get the word out on the CPSIA and the effects it will have on not just sellers, but buyers as well.

Edited: January 31st, 2009

You Fill My Hearts Dishes

The first of many sets of dishes is finally listed. You Fill My Hearts is a set of four plates hand painted by *me* and based off of the “you fill my hearts” prints already in my etsy store. I  LOVED making these dishes. I love the way they turned out and I love that they’re totally geeky. I think I want to do some glasses to go with them. Perhaps a heart life line going around the dome for a cake stand?

They’re geeky, but I love them. Next up? I’m working on some zombie/vampire dishes.

Edited: January 30th, 2009

Popping Up on the Interwebs

I always love seeing my items pop up somewhere else on the internet. The Etsy Twitter Team has a gift guide up right now and my item got to be the first one on the list. YAY!

There are some really neat items in it too. I particularly liked Alexis Art & Design’s print that is avaiable in her etsy shop. She has several prints that I plan on purchasing once we move (less than 10 months baby, maybe even closer to 6).

Isn’t it just beautiful? I love her style!

Edited: January 29th, 2009

Can you hear the death knolls?

Wondertime and Domino are both no longer going to put out a magazine. I just got my first issue of wondertime the other day and Domino is a magazine I’ve subscribed to for awhile now. It’s depressing and it makes me wonder how they tell subscribers? I mean, I read it on other blogs, but do the magazines send you a subscription refund? Are you SOL on your money? Do you get a different subscription to another magazine? Do they contact you at all to let you know are you left wondering WTF happened to your stuff?

Edited: January 29th, 2009

Contest still open

The contest on Love Etsy Feedback is still open.  Enter on this post to win a choice of 3 przies! There will be 3 winners. 1 winner will get a $15 gift certificate to use in GeekDetails. The other 2 winners will get a 3 piece set of their choice of buttons, magnets or both (each choice of button and magnet in GeekDetails can be up to a $3 value per choice). Contest ends at Midnight PST February 1st, 2009.

So there ya have it If you’d like some free geeky stuff, go to the Love Etsy Feedback site for your chance to win.

Good Luck!

Edited: January 28th, 2009

Covered in Crafts

I’m not sure if you’ve seen this blog or not, but Covered in Crafts is an awesome read! She’s got some great ideas on how to make stuff and some great giveaways as well.
This month’s giveaway is:

1 Coupon Organizer kit for you to make your own!

Go check her out! You won’t be disappointed

Edited: January 28th, 2009

Artfire Review

Okay, so I sell on etsy. For the most part, I like it there. There are several things I don’t like and I’ve been looking at other venues to try out in addition to my etsy stores. One that came up over and over is artfire.com so I went and checked it out.

First off, it’s only $7 a month for the first 5000 stores. That rocks. It’s FREE FOR LIFE if you get 10 people to join. That rocks even harder. Compared to the $60 in fees I just spent for this month on Etsy… That’s $53 more in my pocket or $53 I could have charged less for my products. And no, I wasn’t renewing my products to keep them on the front page. That $60 is from listing new products and the cut etsy takes when things sell.

Second. It has STATS! I can see the latest 50 links leading to my store. I can see on each individual item how many views and what urls are leading people to that specific item. I can see the hubs people are using to find me (twitter, wordpress etc). This has been really eye opening for me and it’s something etsy doesn’t even come close to offering. Yes etsy has the whole google analytics thing, but that is really unreliable and isn’t telling me exactly how people find, what they’re clicking on etc. There are issues with GA.

If I sell a product and want to relist it, it’s very easy to do too. I go to the sold section, find the product, and click the relist button. No fixing what section it is in etc. It does it instantly for me

For someone that is anal retentively organized, Art Fire helps there too. I can have as many sections in my shop as I want. Think about that for a second. Want to have your pinback buttons broken up by theme? You can do it! Want to have a Zombie section, Vampire Section, Vintage Section? You can do that too!

The only downside right now? It’s not as big name as Etsy is, but ArtFire is advertising, the admin is keeping the sellers informed. Hell, I even twittered something to ArtFireJohn (the president and founder of ArtFire) and … wait for… he TWITTERED BACK! /GASP people that respond to you? Who’d have thought that could happen.

I also really really like that ArtFireJohn told me that Artfire doesn’t care if I list my etsy stores in my artfire stuff EVEN IF both stores carry the same products.

I like Etsy, I really do. I’ve met some wonderful sellers on it, but there are several nagging things that keep bugging me. Will I close my etsy store? Not right now no, but I am looking at other options and so far ArtFire is a viable one.
Edit: I thought of something else today that I really like. I LOVE being able to see how much I’ve made this month.  There’s a little thing on one of the seller pages that tells you how much you’ve earned so far this month and I think that’s so neat. No need to download files to find out.

I also thought of something I don’t like. I don’t like that when someone pays me, I have to manually check off that they’ve paid me even though they do it via paypal. I like on Etsy that the site automatically checks off when someone pays if they pay via paypal

Edited: January 28th, 2009

Soap Nuts

I read about soap nuts on a green living blog. It sounded interesting, I’m close to needing to buy more laundry detergent, so I looked them up online. I found Maggie’s Soap Nuts on Amazon of all places and read the reviews. People seem to be over the moon about this product and I figured that it couldn’t hurt me to try them.

I tend to not be able to use most detergents because they make my skin break out or make me itch or sneeze. I also can’t use most commercial cleaners (409, windex, etc) because they make me unable to breath properly. No really, my Susan cleaned her kitchen with 409 when I was over there once and I couldn’t catch my breath. It was a little scary (and embarrassing) and it made me realize how little I use “normal” cleaning products. My detergent is from Arm and Hammer and pretty smell neutral. My “cleaners” are vinegar, soap, baking soda, essential oils. I use Method dish soap for the dishes and a Haan Steam Mop for the floors. I spend very little money to keep my house clean.

So the Soap Nuts are more expensive then my Arm and Hammer detergent ($9 for a box that does 145 loads), but I think they’ll be worth it in the end. /cross fingers.

Edited: January 27th, 2009

Etsy Store Update

I was sick all this past weekend (when am I not sick lately) so rather then finish rearranging the house, I made buttons and naturally I started listing them on etsy. I was in a bit of a mood this weekend and so they’re a little more biting than normal. On to the buttons:

Will trade Chocolates for Sex. Crude? Yes, but after discussing Valentine’s Day with some guy friends, this button makes me laugh. Valentine’s  day, the day a guy give you chocolate/flowers/jewelry and you give him lots of sex…

Then we move on to “Sorry doesn’t fix the puppy’s broken legs.” So what’s up with this button? The button listing explains it a bit, but it’s become a hit at my husband’s office and I thought I’d list one on etsy for fun. We didn’t think anyone would enjoy it if they didn’t get the joke, but apparently they do. One of my husband’s bosses has this as a magnet in his office now. He told me the other day he called someone in to give them hell for not doing what they were supposed to do. They kept saying “sorry” over and over and he snapped and said “Yeah well sorry doesn’t fix the puppy’s broken legs. Get your act together and get this shit done.” It made me laugh. I’m twisted like that

The Cake is a Lie. What more needs to be said?

Then there’s I totally love you even though you’re not a vampire.

More crude Valentine’s Day buttons:

That’s all I have listed so far, but I made quite a few. Almost done with the new plate sets to list too and I have a new wreath (blue, black, and text) to list later

If you loved the Nightmare Before Christmas Wreath, good news! It’s been listed in the store. I’ve really enjoyed making wreaths lately so I’ll be listing more of them. I like the process of creating, I just can’t keep all I create in my own house ya know?

Edited: January 27th, 2009