Etsy Future

So, yes, obviously I have an etsy store; if you know me you know this and you can see the link to it on the right side of this page. I used to run a slightly different one with a friend and we were getting a good number of sales and online attention but (partially due to my cross-country move) that wasn't working out so I started my own at the end of last year. I'd done a lot of thinking about how I wanted everything to look and function, the type of updates I wanted to do and the sort of price point I wanted to maintain. The problem is that I became so anal-retentive about having it just so that while getting it set up, I've found myself to be dragging my feet. My current job-less-ness has led to a lot of time spent online and a lot more looking at other etsy shops (not just vintage) and connecting more to that sort of network and wanting to develop a good, reliable business.

Every source I read says that online networking is the best and easiest way to generate online sales and if you (dear reader) ever clicked on any of the lovely blogs under the etsy seller link, it's apparent that blogging is especially great for that. I just felt resistant to connecting something which began in its original incarnation as a personal update- and fashion- and lifestyle - and hilarious youtube clips-oriented blog with something I was doing to make money. So, I started a different blog which was meant exclusively for etsy updates. The problem is, there isn't much point in having a blog comprised of pictures of what's on your etsy if that's all there is. Also, in terms of networking, I can see through my analytics program that most of the traffic I get from my profile comes to this blog and not the other one.

So, after some thought, I'm folding that one into this one. I feel silly that I didn't do this from the start, but that's where it's at now. The only thing that will change is that there will be more photos of clothes and more links to etsy and I hope my friends in real life (oh, IRL) will tolerate this and not think poorly of me (and also will update their blogs much, much more often because as I said, I spend a lot of time online and it's depressing when I only get updates on your exciting lives once in a blue moon.)

Last but not least, here are the dresses coming to the shop this week.

Rings

Traipsing about last weekend, Dave and I went to a few antique stores in the SE / central E side of the city. At one of them (who's name and location I've already forgotten) I found this perfect antique sapphire ring with gold filigree that was only a little over $100, which right now isn't something my unemployed self could afford. But it was perrrfect. Trying to talk myself out of putting it on layaway as-soon-as-I-get-a-job, I went online to look at similar items, hoping they'd be cheaper and I'd be wasting my money if I bought that one, yadda-yadda.

Anyways, I always fail at google searches so I figured I'd see what vintage jewelry there is on etsy and there's a ton! Including these three rings that I think are just lovely.

1. Vintage emerald and diamond stacking ring from Balmoral Jewelry


2. Vintage sterling and sapphire flower ring from tangeryne.


3. Vintage gold and ruby flower ring from 23 Tulips.

I just realized that they're all floral motifs... strange. Maybe I'm just very ready for spring.

Domestics

I've been here about a month and I guess I've had as much getting settled time as could be asked for so without further ado, here's a glance at where I'm living.

It's the former parlor of a Victorian house in the NE. Victorian houses are rotten about having closet space, and my room has none because it wasn't originally purposed for sleeping in. The landlord has strange ideas about some things, including decoration; my room is entirely red (minus the hardwood floors but including the ceiling) with shiny gold paint around the window frames and a big ol' chinoiserie curtain which I think looks like a bed comforter. When my roommates were shown the house, they said that the landlord walked them into this room saying,

"AND THIS IS THE RED ROOM!"

Fortunately, my roommates are cool enough that they don't also do this. That said, it has a big bay window, high ceilings, wood floors and is attached to a nice old house with nice young people. Much better than an apartment.

Picture wall and a corner of my doorframe. The lamp sits on an old record stand that's a mess right now, so you don't get to see it. You can see the window in the mirror and the lamp from across the room.

Jewelry stand from my mom with some of my favorite earrings and a few necklaces I like a lot, too.

Records and art. The middle flower photo is by my dad and I think it looks a little like a fried egg. The top is a grave rubbing done by my friend Baxter.

My window fits two chairs, a sidetable and a basket full of handbags that I don't have a more logical home for. The typewriter was my grandfathers.

One's view when one sits in the green chair.

Dave bought me this plant at the nursery down the street so that my room wouldn't be all red. I named him Monty because I always name all my plants always. The embroidery hoop / doily apparati hold my earrings (I haven't found a place to hang necklaces, so I'm not wearing many lately.)

The limited space conundrum called for creative stacking.

Yes, I raided my dollhouse for things to fill my letterpress drawer. Don't judge.

Beddie bed bed. You think it maybe looks like a couch? That's because it's from IKEA, Sweden's gift to the world, a place where everything is low priced and multipurpose. This bed-couch folds and unfolds depending upon my whim and also faces the window and the two other chairs. Behind it are three rolling racks set against the wall where my clothes hang.

Here are two photos of the living room and dining room.

This is the living room, adjacent to my room. My roommate Jackie is a very talented pianist who only plays when she thinks no one's home. Fortunately, I'm very quiet and get to hear her fairly often.

This is the dining room, or was the dining room until Halloween, a holiday from which the house never truly recovered. There are still plastic spiders, pixie sticks and crepe paper up all over the house, but it was the dining room which suffered hardest.

This is the empty room. One of my roommates moved out last week. I keep playing out fantasies where one of my Boulder or Denver friends from back home drops out of school, quits their job and races out here to live the life with me. Of course that's highly unlikely but a girl can dream!

Whoever rides in your sidecar...

Dave and I were walking down Alberta the other night and saw a little Vespa scooter with a sidecar parked in front of a bar. I didn't take a photo because it was nighttime and I was afraid the owner would see me scoping their sweet ride, but then we went home and looked them up and found a ton! Why aren't there more of these driving around, I wonder.

The one we spotted looked just like this! I'd never seen a scooter with a sidecar before and now (though I realize it's a tad irrational) I WANT one! Too bad they cost more than I could afford to spend on a car. Although they're so cool that Dave rescinded his universal judgment of scooters as being totally stupid. He even said he'd ride in my sidecar.

(Photos are links.)

BlumeBloom

I just found this sweet little shop on etsy - called BlumeBloom and run by a lady named Emily Wooton. Many of her designs are meant to be bridal but I think they could be sweet for any event. I love her delicate feather and flower arrangements which are so simple but look just lovely on the model in her beautiful red hair. I wish I had some summer garden gala around the corner to wear one of these pretty creations to! Maybe my birthday in April.

They make me feel excited for spring and the possibility of real flowers growing all around...

...although here in Portland there's already a bushy / tree / shrub outside Dave's window that's already covered in pink flowers.

Bici

My wonderful sweet boyfriend, Dave, fixed up one of his bikes for me to ride around on! Maybe indefinitely, or maybe until I find one for myself. Either way, this one gets the job done right now. It's a gray Centurion (which is so irrelevant but I don't have a lot of other things to say about bikes) with, um, fenders for the rain, and gear shifters on the frame rather than the handles like old school Italian racing bikes. The reason they had them so close in is to prevent competitors from slamming the gears as they rode by and slowing down the riders. Thanks for that info, Dave!

Next step was getting a helmet. Everyone in Portland has the same kind of bike helmet as me but I still think it's pretty cool. Imma sticker it up and then it'll be perfect. As Matt Hogan says, "Some people think wearing a helmet is dorky, but I say brain injuries are dorky." Thanks, Matt! And thanks to my mom for the cost of the helmet!

Tough.

My knee is on FAIL mode right now from getting hurt during the move so I can't really ride (or walk) but I see the doctor on Monday. Fingers crossed. I'm going to the same sports-injury-treatment center that the Blazers go to with their basketball injuries, so I figure they've seen it all.

Joanna

It was just written about earlier on Ramona West but I had to say something about it also because I loved seeing this so, so much. Joanna Newsom. Street style photog. Didn't know who she was and got schooled by the interenet. Maybe I read too many celebrity gossip blogs (gotta kill time while refreshing the "jobs" menu on craigslist) but I think it does say something when someone who's making enough from commercial profits on an artistic product to afford a Commes de Garcon trench doesn't freak out when a stranger doesn't know who they are. I really like imagining her giving him her name like she was any other person, not some preternaturally talented savant who happens to exist on a worldly plain and own amazing clothes.

And here's the link to the original site.

AND, here she is wearing something else that's beautiful (although I suspect it might look like a bad Betsey Johnson on a normal person.)

photo = link.