Trading on Etsy: Part Two

While preparing to move this past summer, I was as busy decorating as I was packing. Long before we found our new apartment and moved in, I had the furniture and color scheme of the living room all picked out. Being unemployed made it difficult to make my vision a reality (and it's still very much a work in progress, which is why you won't be seeing any of these lovely items in their actual habitat quite yet).

I had some fairly new throw pillows that didn't match my imagined decor, so I set about browsing Etsy for covers. That's how I found Nuka. Her blue bird cover was the exact color I wanted my walls, and I the linen doily cover (below) seemed destined for an armchair.

I wrote the seller a note asking if she might be open to trade, even though she's way far away in Finland. You can imagine how happy I was when she agreed. It turned out that she, too, is a vegan, and has the usual trouble finding nice animal-free accessories. She happened to like two scarves that had been sitting in my store for forever, and so we made the trade via Etsy, which enabled us each to leave feedback for the other.

Besides the obvious benefit of receiving the items I coveted, my first trade was great in that it connected me to a person I would not have otherwise met or gotten to talk to. I do hope she'll take my suggestion and join the EtsyVeg team one of these days!

Trading on Etsy: Part One

I have become a terrible excuse for a blogger, and I apologize to the two or three people who may occasionally check this page (hi Mom!). For the past several months, I've had computer problems of the sort that tempt me to just chuck the damn thing off my 5th floor terrace. Unfortunately, renter's insurance doesn't cover acts of rage, so I've restrained myself. After $140 and several trips back and forth to the repair shop around the corner (Me: "It crashed again." Them: "But we fixed it!") I find myself learning to live with the frustration.

And so I am back, and saving each sentence as I go.

I've decided that I've now made enough purchases of my own on Etsy to justify a series highlighting my favorites. One of the dangers of being an Etsy seller is that the money you make goes straight into a PayPal account. If you don't transfer it out quickly enough, it has a tendency to go right back into Etsy.

Another option is trading. If you like someone's work, there's no harm in dropping them a complimentary note suggesting that you'd be open to trade for something in your store if they were ever interested. I've been turned down, and I've turned others down, but it's always been a positive interaction that leaves the seller feeling a little better for having been propositioned.

When you do find someone open to a trade, you must agree on whether it will be on "off-Etsy" trade, or a "sale." I have done each, and there are benefits and drawbacks to both.

If you and the other party agree to trade without Etsy's involvement, that means you are trusting each other to do as promised. In other words, there is no recourse if you do not receive an item, or if it is not what you expected. When I've traded this way, it was with people I already knew or had grown to know and trust through the conversations preceding the trade. The benefit to doing an off-Etsy trade is that neither of you has to pay a fee for what you've "sold."

Your other option is to each "purchase" the item, pay the fee for the sale, and simply skip the part where you actually pay for the item itself. The benefit here is that there is a record of the transaction and you are able to leave feedback for one another. I've enjoyed trading this way, as well, since I always love getting positive feedback.

In the coming days (depending on my computer's health--it has crashed twice since I started writing this), I'll show you what I've traded for on Etsy. (So those of you who only read blogs for the pretty pictures will have to wait.)

New tags and other excitement

I decided that continuing to order mini cards was too expensive a way to make hang tags, so I ordered a custom stamp from Asspocket Productions on Etsy (I'll admit that I was drawn in by the irreverence of the shop name. Sometimes I feel like Etsy is becoming a little more wholesome than I'd like).

I love my new stamp and have been stamping colored index cards all morning to make my new tags.


In other news, my friend Mandy Welch-Moise, owner of Vfish, a line of super-cute women's clothing, now has a selection of my baby hats and headbands for sale in her Chicago boutique. So if you find yourself near 2937 N Clark St. anytime soon, be sure to stop by and check it out!

And now for something completely different

You might be surprised to see pictures of an actual grown-up on my blog. I do occasionally make something other than baby bonnets, but taking pictures of myself wearing my wares is much too tricky (and ego-deflating), so I enlisted the help of a friend. Randy generously came over on a recent Saturday morning to model my non-infant creations.

Randy actually appeared in a magazine ad for Gerber when she was herself a wee infant, so I like to think that I'm reviving her modeling career.

She would look precious in a bonnet, no?

More cuteness!

I have to be honest: sometimes I'm tired of making bonnets. I'm glad I can crochet and watch TV at the same time, or I'd go crazy.

I do not, however, ever get tired of seeing pictures of babies in my bonnets.

This one comes at you all the way from England, courtesy of Sue Niggemann of http://bluebird-photography.co.uk/


This next sweet squishy-face baby is from Jessica Hamilin at http://www.jessicahamlinphotography.com/, in Seattle.

As long as I keep getting beautiful pictures like these, I can keep crocheting, despite the possible onset of carpal tunnel syndrome . . .

Easiest Blog Post Ever

I'm just going to give you a link. Be prepared to squeal.

http://dorianeve.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/greensboro-newborn-photographer-2/

Baby Bonnet Bonanza

I'm so happy when the photographers who buy my bonnets are generous enough to share their work. Below are some recent pictures taken by my talented customers, all of the same style and color bonnet!

This one is courtesy of Amber Scruggs of Little Moon Photography in Northern Virginia.


Vickie Kennington of Dorian Eve Photography in North Carolina took both of these lovely shots.



Joyce Schmalz of Saskatchewan (Canada!) took this amazing picture. I love how the baby is holding onto the bonnet ties!

This sleepyhead was photographed by Sandy Wagerman of Lucky Ladybug Photography in Pennsylvania.

Thank you all, and keep the pictures coming!

NYCrochet overdue update

We finally found a new apartment and are busy packing now, so I'm still too preoccupied to keep up with all I should. I do have a few exciting bits of news, though.

First, I did my first craft fair last weekend with my pal Milly of cutiepie company. We didn't do much business, but our display was super-cute and the weather was nice. Two of my three sales went to Lisa of Panda With Cookie, who stopped by to lend some EtsyVeg support. This is why I love that team!

Here are some pictures of our table:


In addition to my crocheted stuff and Milly's paper goods, we rep'ed a bit for her boyfriend James, of Corporan Glass.

In other news, I reached sale number 100 last night! Cue the balloons and confetti! Sale number 101 came this morning. Making 100 sales in just over six months is a pretty big accomplishment, and I owe a big debt of gratitude to the photographers who keep coming back for my bonnets. The first one I made sat in my store for months before Jillian Kirby of Lucy Lime Studios asked if I could make her four in custom colors. Once she shared her gorgeous shots with me, the bonnets started flying off the virtual shelves.

The popularity of this particular portrait led me to create a special listing for twin sets:

Many thanks to Jillian and all the other photographers who keep me crocheting!

My bonnet gets its 15 minutes of fame!

Yes, I have not posted in a long, long time. I've been apartment hunting, and that task alone has eaten my life. But when I saw this today, I couldn't delay any longer.



I don't get CNN (or any cable channels), so I'm afraid I don't know who Brooke Anderson is. I do know, however, that she has an adorable baby who looks great in the pink bonnet I made for photographer Joy Harmon of Wildflower Photos.

Joy's photographs are stunning, and have convinced me to start pestering all the photographers who've purchased from me to share their photos.

One of them also ended up on People magazine's Celebrity Baby Blog (did you know there was such a thing?)

Here are some of the photos Joy way kind enough to send me. I love seeing itty bitty babies in my bonnets!


Now how can I get a bonnet on Oprah?

Never Buy Hallmark Again!

Okay, I don't really have anything against Hallmark, I just generally hate shopping for greeting cards. Trying to find just the right one to say what you want among the hundreds around it, ending up accidentally giving the same one as the year before. Bleh. I only started liking card-buying again when I found Greenwich Letterpress, in the West Village. Lucky for those of you so unfortunate as to not live in this fine city, they now have an Etsy store here, where you can find great cards like this one:

*sigh* Can't wait for Mad Men to come back . . .

Another favorite shop for handmade cards is cutiepiecompany, where you can find lots of pretty paper goods, including these personalized birthday cards:

For my sister's recent wedding, I mixed it up a bit and gave her this sweet card from papermichelle for the shower:

And this not-as-sweet one (from goatcards) for the wedding itself:

For Valentine's Day, I gave my boyfriend the card below, from time2cre8:

It still makes me laugh, and I know he'll always keep it, which is perhaps the best thing about handmade greeting cards.

Veggie Pride Parade NYC

Today was the second annual Veggie Pride Parade. I did not attend last year's parade, and I'm generally pretty quiet about my veganism. Part of this is that I'm kind of shy, and part is that I want people to realize that being veg*an does not mean you're entire life revolves around it. Instead, it can mean cupcakes as fluffy and delicious as any you've ever known.

That said, I thought I'd check out the parade this year, so my fellow EtsyVeg members chipped in to pay for lots of team stickers for me to pass out. Passing out stickers in a crowd of strangers is not new to me. Agreeing to do just that is how I earned myself a free ride to the inauguration on a bus provided by Meetup.com. In that instance, however, I was with a group of other people doing the same. This time it felt a little awkward, especially since anyone I might have asked to accompany me was conveniently out of town for the weekend.

Alone I went to the parade route, stopping off first at S'nice to add some team postcards to the literature on the counter. I was all about EtsyVeg today. Then I joined the group marching from the West Village to Union Square. It wasn't a huge crowd (the annual AIDS walk was happening uptown at the same time, and sky looked like it was waiting to rain), but it was loud and it was friendly.

When we got to the end, there were tents and table set up with literature and free samples of vegan goodies. I quickly rushed over to the vegan pizza table and scarfed some down, then grabbed a couple of coconut waters and two kinds of veggie jerky. I saw a few people with what looked like vegan carrot cake, but the source must have dried up before I was able to find it.

The crowd grew larger and I succeeded in giving out every EtsyVeg sticker I'd brought with me.


Thanks to all the EtsyVeggies who chipped in for stickers. Here's hoping more New Yorkers find your wonderful wares because of it!

My mini cards

Branding and packaging are popular subjects among Etsy folk. I'm always trying to find new ways to improve the look of my store and the way I package my sales. I know I've spent a lot of time on this subject already, but I wanted to take a quick moment to tout the virtues of mini cards as tags. Mini cards are exactly what they sound like: miniature business cards, about half the width of a normal card, and a little shorter. Used as business cards, they're unique and memorable. Used as tags, they're an easy way to brand your creations.

I ordered mine from myminicards.com, where you can use a section of an image one one side of the card, and your store name and information on the other. If you have a logo, that can be your image, but I just used pictures of my merchandise. On the other side, I added an Etsy logo and my store name, URL, and team affiliations. By punching a hole in each one, I'm able to make easy, attractive tags to add to my items before mailing. I like that this gives a more professional look to my wares, but I also like that it lets someone who may be receiving an item as a gift know exactly where it came from.

If you're doing craft shows, these could be especially useful, as you can easily write a price on each tag. The fact that they're attractive and have your store information on them means a customer might be less inclined to throw them away when they get home.


They also make a nice prop for Señor Raton.