Give it away, give it away, give it away now

I'm sure there's some more elegant way to cross-post between blogs, but I've written a new post in my 1000 Markets blog about my crafty charity project this weekend.

In other news, my fabulous husband cleaned out our hot tub this weekend so I could soak in it. It's got a temperature control so we've got it set low, because among the other 87,000 things you're not supposed to do when pregnant, sitting in a 101+ degree hot tub is another. They should issue some sort of handbook with a positive pregnancy test - "The HUGE List of Things You Can No Longer Do". Of course, maybe that's a consequence of having kids, too. Sigh.

I'm getting rounder and huger by the minute, but am looking forward to wearing my shiny new maternity clothes.

Must go pack up a couple more Anandi's Laboratory orders. One from Amazon.com (finally, yay!), one from 1000Markets, and one from Etsy. Yippee.

All you need is love, love, love

OK, this is a totally cheater blog post, but since my 1000 Markets blog doesn't have an RSS feed yet, I'm posting here to let you know I have a new post there.

I've been trying to keep my posts there somewhat relevant to my craftiness; otherwise, what would be the point of blogging here and there? So "lookit what I made" posts will mostly be over there now. "Here's some cute stuff my dog/husband/favorite band did" will remain here.

I made a new charm bracelet for a college classmate's mother, and also a cheery pair of earrings for my shop today. And with that, I am actually all caught up on my Etsy/1000Markets/miscellaneous orders!

Go read about it.

Till I'm satisfied

Yes, I know. I've been ignoring this blog mercilessly, for its shiny new counterpart over at 1000 Markets. I'm featured on their Community page so I feel like I should make the most of it, and write new blog postings frequently so people don't have to stare at the same old posts all the time.

I have a bit of a new project. I just got the Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh cookbook and I am *so* excited about it. I think it might be exactly what I need to get me out of my food rut, and actually make yummy food at home. I look forward to fewer nights eating cereal for dinner because nothing sounded good. It has snooty food recipes with minimal ingredients which works perfectly with my crazy schedule.

So after planning what I was going to make, I ordered groceries from Amazon Fresh. I had to supplement it with a trip to Trader Joe's because the meat-buying experience at Amazon Fresh is not so good - the product descriptions are somewhat lacking, *and* meat seems to be nearly twice the price per pound there.

So this morning, I woke up and made the recipe on p.510:

Smoked salmon and leek scramble with Meyer lemon creme fraiche


Yes, I know that sounds totally random, but I chose it because I had leeks in the fridge from a recipe I didn't make last week, and my parents brought me back smoked salmon from their trip to Alaska this summer. Also, any scrambled egg recipe that uses whipping cream in place of milk is A-OK in my book.

And seriously, I've never had such lovely, fluffy scrambled eggs. Next time I'm switching to half and half, though - I don't think I can indulge like that very often.

They came out great. I used Tillamook light sour cream instead of creme fraiche because it was less expensive *and* better for me. That's the best light sour cream I've ever had. I also halved the recipe because Lord knows TJ isn't going to eat scrambled eggs with leeks and smoked salmon and I don't cook that fancy for the puppies.

So now I have leftovers for the week ahead, or maybe just lunch today. But so far I'm very impressed with this cookbook. It has a great index by ingredient and the recipes are all pretty simple. I wouldn't say they can be done in 30 minutes or less, but they definitely don't require a lot of crazy, hard to find ingredients or techniques that involve steps that need to be done days in advance.

(Subtle product placement here. But no, they're not paying me to fake-review their book.)



Oh, and yesterday we tried the Amazon Fresh "attended" delivery, which is the one where you need to be home. That worked really well - they don't leave the big plastic totes so we're not tripping over them in our entryway now. I still like the convenience of the doorstep delivery, esp when I need something before I wake up the next day, but if I know I'm going to be home, I'll do it the other way.

And in exciting crafty news, I have reached 200 sales online, between Etsy and 1000Markets! I'm very surprised, and also very busy. So life is good :)

I also got my first sale on Dawanda, which is a European handmade site (a girl's gotta expand her audience, right?). That was a bit surprising because I had listed a few items there months ago but hadn't seen much action there.

In the New Year, I'll probably list a few more of my "made to order" items to keep up a presence there. And if I'm feeling really brave, I may try my hand at listing in French or German, if I can remember anything I learned. That's apparently how to get more people viewing my products since it's a German site.

Later today, I'll be making "Indian" curried shrimp from the Bon Appetit cookbook. YUM. I'll report back on how it goes.

I got the goldmine

So you know when you're in a relationship with someone and it's all new and shiny and you get kind of obsessed and forget about all the other stuff you're supposed to be doing?

That's kind of how it is with me and 1000Markets. I'm featured on the Community page there, so I've been blogging there, nearly daily. You can catch up on the last five or six blog posts here.

I also set up a Market there for Seattle artisans, called 'Handcrafted in Seattle'. Check it out. I think over time, it'll grow, which will be neat. It's got a bunch of my EtsyRAIN buddies in it already, which is cool.

So that, and getting ready for the REI Holiday Bazaar on Tuesday is what's been keeping me busy. I still have about 5 pairs of earrings and a few bracelets I need to make - yikes!

But I wanted to post here to assure you all that I haven't forgotten about you. I'm just infatuated with my new love :)

Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

OK, I'll admit it. I'm a cheater. Etsy has been good to me for about a year now, and actually pretty awesome for the past couple of months in terms of traffic and my sales, but I have strayed. I saw a mention of a new handcrafted market site called 1000Markets, so I went to check it out earlier this month.

OMG, it is a *gorgeous* site. And I am a sucker for great web design. It also has a more "grownup" vibe than Etsy. Based on the items Etsy chooses for the front page and articles, I think Etsy's target market (or maybe the folks who run the site) is the 20something hipster crowd. And there's nothing wrong with that.

But when I saw 1000Markets, I fell in love. It's just so *pretty*. It reminds me of going to Pike Place Market on a Saturday and seeing the different arts, crafts and food vendors. Browsing around the site, it just felt right to me.

So I applied for a shop there. Yes, you read that correctly. They have to *approve* your request to open shop, and everything must be handcrafted. I got approved in about a day, and that same day was featured on their Community page as having a cool shop. Yippee! That was a nice surprise. I even sold a pet tag to a fellow merchant on the site.



It's a startup, in what they're calling "Sneak Preview" mode. But it's open for business. One of the best parts about it, besides the stunning design, is that the staff is very hands on and willing to answer questions. They're very encouraging to the new merchants, and I feel like our suggestions are welcomed.

They have a philosophy, which one of the founders outlines on his blog. It's really well written and inspires a great deal of confidence.

One of the neat things about it is that the payment system is through Amazon. Tons of people have an Amazon account, so that makes it easier, and I have knowledge about Amazon and third party merchants from my previous job, so that's kind of neat too. Plus you all know how I love Amazon Fresh.

The other thing I like is the community/social networking aspect. There's a blog built into the site, each shop has a "Wall" to leave comments like on Facebook or MySpace, and the whole concept is about smaller Markets within the site, where likeminded merchants get together to sell their gorgeous handmade work. It just gets me all warm and fuzzy inside.

OK, I could go on and on about the things I like, but one of the things that's truly amazing (ok, two), are that the site doesn't charge any listing fees, only a fee when an item is sold. And as one of the staff put it, that makes their goals align with ours, and they are motivated to help find ways to help their merchants make sales. What a novel concept!!

And the other freakin' awesome thing is that on the home pages, and Market pages, the listings and shops displayed are randomized, so everytime you go there, you see something different. And you and I could both navigate to the site and see completely different items. So I've been surprised and startled to navigate to the site and see my face on the front page as a 'Featured Shop'. Crazy, but awesome.

So I'm giving it a try. I'm not abandoning my Etsy shop, just branching out. It's wise to have eggs in many baskets, right?

So if you get a chance, and want to find some unique gifts for the holidays, check it out - the picture above links to my shop, and you can browse the site from there as well. Enjoy, and do tell me what you think of it!