Unofficial Etsy Forums

Great News! A fellow Petsjubilee Team member is the administrator of a new forum site, the Unofficial Etsy Forums.

Keith of Butterfly Bay Design is the administrator of this new site, which came about due to Etsy forum changes and the huge out cry against them.

The new owners of Etsy have rocked the world of their members, especially their forum users, by essentially doing away with nearly all Etsy forums. Rumors have it that what will be left will be a team only forum that resembles the Flickr groups. This will result in a place for team "pack" members to interact with themselves, but interacting between teams and individuals will be gone. I see this change as a way of getting members to reach outside of Etsy to promote their individual and team shops, therefore promoting the Etsy website.

These forum changes make me curious as to what other services Etsy will provide in leiu of the shutdown. When the brick and mortar shop continues to take a greater and greater percentage of your profit, you either pull your stuff from their shop or you ask what they are doing to help promote and encourage sales that are worth the changes. I believe one should pressure them to be creative and relentless in helping to sell your product.

I hope after the initial shock of these changes is past us, the Etsy community will question administrators as to what they are doing to promote our shops. I hope the future brings more advertising in print, radio, and television from Etsy.

Tuesday's Ta-Da

How fun to find Miss Pea staring out at me when I reviewed my Esty activity feed this morning. She models a snood pattern from Angela of aandboriginals. Okay, this is definitely not a huge Ta-Da moment. She takes every chance she can for more attention, so the dogs and I put our hands and paws together to offer her a round of applause. While, she may not look very happy wearing it, she really does enjoy a snood in the freezing weather. Her scornful look is due to the fact she was not happy to pose for the camera. Scroll down to she the pretty treasury from dragonhouseofyuen.

'LOVE my Way' by dragonhouseofyuen

valentines day? uh huh ... he loves you .... uh huh .... then show me the RING !! .... No pinky stuff here - this is the real deal!

317 SLEEPY - PHOTOGRAPH... edart $15.00	Lana, the picaboo rabbi... ohriginals $26.00	Raw Diamond Sterling Si... betsybensen $225.00
Sun Pendant - Corn yell... aforfebre $25.00	A Rabbit for Easter tomaramaitra4 $55.00	Coffee And... Greeting ... NatalieWargin $3.50
PDF Crochet Pattern for... aandboriginals... $2.00	Small Bowl with Mishima... aspeerstudio $24.00	Semicircle Hoops Meetalls $39.00
SALE GIFT SET - 3 X Pu... matouenpeluche $25.00	The Floating World, an ... LaTouchables $146.00	Bird Watching Fine Art ... blindwolfspiri... $6.00
Diamond Notebook ohmyclumsyhear... $5.00	Candy Dish or Knitting ... BradSearsWoodt... $70.00	Upcycled fabric, Heart ... MollysFollies $9.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com.

Ermine the Mother Hare

Today I ran out to mail a package and stop at our local independent grocery store. I was lucky enough to find some super fresh kale. When I arrived home, I found our post office lady delivering a package, just as our grey sky opened up, letting snow flakes fall.

Ermine had arrived!

I had been waiting anxiously for her to make it here, all the way from Edinburgh, Scotland. I was one of the lucky winner's in the 2010 Winter Raffle to benefit RNGP in Rugby, England (Rabbit & Guinea Pig Rescue). You can learn more about Ermine and the raffle by visiting this page of the House Dragon of Yuen's blog. I could spend hours at this blog, losing myself in the stories and charming creations of Annette and other talented artists she features. Follow the link to Annette's shop and discover her hares, bunnies, and squirrels.

I thought it was timely that a brief snow squall happened as she was arriving as Ermine was named after the winter coat of a stoat.

Copied from Wikipedia:
The stoat or ermine, Mustela erminea, is a small predatory mammal of the family Mustelidae. It is also known as a Shorttail (or Short-tailed) Weasel and less frequently as the ermelin. Sometimes "ermine" refers to the animal only when it has white fur in the winter, and in this case "stoat" only refers to it when it has brown fur.

I had never heard of a stoat. It is also timely, in that, my last blog post talks about weasels and badgers.

The snow quickly stopped, and blue sunny skies are with us now. Ermine has settled in. She tasted her favorite food, fresh kale. She had her photo taken with Miss Sweet Pea. She is looking forward to meeting Gemmie (both have the biggest dark brown eyes). She'll be spending much of her time sitting in the writing arm windsor chair my father made me, watching the wild birds and squirrels through the window. At least until spring arrives, then she may become one of the only bunnies welcome in my garden.

Weasels and Badgers

Yesterday my Ferret Pink Paw Print Necklace was included in a cool Etsy treasury. I'm always honored to have my stuff selected for a treasury, since there are some many talented artists and lovely items to choose from. Thanks Bohemia Skye!

Any mention of a weasel, reminds me of the Fisher I saw a couple years ago. I was up extra early that morning, and have no one else to witness or enjoy the sighting of this creature. Some think I was dreaming. LOL It was running with it's strange gait along our stone wall. I had never seen one before and had no idea what it was. My first thought, since we have streams and small ponds all around us, was that I was looking at a river otter. It was so much bigger than the mink like animals (probably American martens) I saw growing up on my family's property. After researching, I learned it was a large fisher, which have begun to make a comeback into our southern part of New England.
Click on this link to read about them: Linky

'Weasels and Badgers' by BohemiaSkye

Treasures for weasel and badger lovers.

JaniceCordeiro $39.00	thelittlefox $12.00	Inloveagain $15.00
FrumsGlassMena... $15.00	jimbobart $37.50	Jellybum $3.50
makeit $45.00	mpatrizio $25.00	blackoutwell $3.50
SavageArtworks $15.00	Nightowlhandma... $11.00	thisisit $10.00
feltedwildlife $59.00	jaffajam $15.00	ravensdreaming $90.00

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Patterened Floor Tiles and My Kitchen Backsplash

On this first Sighthound Sunday of 2011, I'm sharing a few greyhound tiles.

First of all a photo of greyhound tiles from the floor of Sainte Chapelle in Paris, France.

This IG tile by Sondra Alexander is one of my personal favorites. Click here to see her shop.

I have searched the internet over and over for tiles these past few months. This summer, my husband and I decided to do some long overdue repairs to our home. Adding a gutter, replacing the back door and a couple of windows - mostly work we did own our own. Replacing the crumbling particle board kitchen cabinets was the major part of our home improvements.

Choosing a tile for the backsplash was a long (very long) search. I really wanted some tiles from Sarah Regan Snavely and matching field tile. I imagined a parade of winged animals, her horse, greyhound, cat, and maybe a cow, under my kitchen window sink. Lots of movement in the design and lots of stars.

Ultimately, I decided the early american kitchen I have dreamed of, was not exactly in keeping with our home's contempory style. The plain, simple, off white, and much cheaper tile we ordered, will arrive in another week or two. Yeah! All decorating decisions are finished and we will begin installing the last home repair for a long while. Oops. I forgot. I still need to decide on a grout color.

Welcome New Year 2011

It is hard to believe that it was 11 years ago today, we were breathing a sigh of relief over the fact that the world did not come to an end at midnight, New Year's Eve 1999. The software put in place worked and computers continued to keep the world running as we knew it. How much the world has changed since midnight December 31st, 1999!

I spent today the same way I did January 1st 2000. Enjoying a lazy weekend day with my husband and pets, simmering food on the stove, while watching movies. The best way to spend the first day of the new year.

Pepie spent some time sleeping with his Y2K bug.