Is it me or is Etsy less attractive these days?

For the past few days I have been wondering if it's me who have lost the passion for the Etsy community tools, or are they simply less attractive.

Once upon a time, I used to roam the forums, read the Storque (which is now boringly titled "Blog"), hunt for treasuries featuring me and my friends, look for cool new findings using Pounce and curate as many treasuries I could get my hands on.

These days I can hardly find any interesting topics on the Blog, since most of it discusses local affairs directed to Europeans or US citizens. The forums seem empty and tired, and the treasuries, with the new mechanism, lost all interest to me. I almost never click anything, despite the fact I used to click all items on a list before. I feel the community either moved on to Facebook, or maybe the interface changes celebrating Etsy's 5th anniversary overdid it. Or maybe it is my general lack of handmade passion these days reflecting on a poor defenseless Etsy?

On top of that, my sales are low, as they usually are in the month of June. But I do admit I have not been actively promoting lately. Just don't have the energy for it. In fact, I am contemplating putting the shops on vacation till my family affairs are less energy consuming. Not sure what to do about that..

I would be interested in hearing what you, my Etsian readers, think.

Oh almighty Etsy Sales Fairy 

spread your sales dust on me

Beautiful Blogger Award

Today I was pleasantly surprised to find Lisa from Visual Journey Photography honored me with the Beautiful Blogger Award, yay!

To keep with the award tradition, here are 7 interesting things about myself:

1. I am actually a certified puppeteer and puppetry instructor.
2. I started studying communications and cinema in the Tel-Aviv university, but left before completing my degree.
3. I served as a computer operator in the Israeli Air Force.
4. I also write a plus size fashion blog in Hebrew
5. I have a habit of changing my hairstyle and color whenever a major event happens in my life.
6. I am dying for a tattoo and already know what I want it to be, but haven't yet found the courage to do it because I don't really trust anyone else's painting skills.
7. I am probably the only person in the world (certainly in my family and circle of friends) who loves yellow cakes with margarine cream (similar to buttercream, made of margarine and sugar and tons of food coloring). I get or make one for my birthday every year. The more embellished, the better.

 And now, I will pass the award on to a few of my favorite blogs. I would love to pass them on to Hebrew blogs, but I think it will break the chain, so I will concentrate on English ones. Here we go!

1. Junie's blog - Because she is one of my best and dearest friends in the whole wide world, and because she makes the sweetest most funniest cards.
2. Joojoo's blog - The most inspiring, delicate, beautiful art blog around.
3. Yael's literary blog - She writes beautifully and I also love her photographs.
4. Candleguy's Place - Because not only is Donald a real live American war hero, he is also an inspiring storyteller with a a heart as wide as the ocean.
5. Aya's art adventures - Aya is in love with humanity, both its dark and beautiful sides. She is also a great artist whose writing will tear your heart out at times.
   
   And finally, two bloggers who hardly need an introduction (or my award)
   
   
6. Saks in the city - Sakina is my plus size fashion guru. She is beautifully curvy and has the most stylish taste. She introduced me the wondrous world of Asos (God help my credit debt).
7. Le blog de big beauty - Stephanie is my second greatest plus size fashion guru. She inspires me to try more classic looks, as well as gives me the courage to show myself to the world as I truly am.

That is it. I hope you will enjoy these blogs, and thank you again Lisa for brightening up my (oh so very icky) mood!

Shop update - Sex and the City

Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha are now 

waiting for you at my shop. Get ready to be carried away!

Sex and the City

These past few weeks have been so energy consuming, that I have not made anything but earrings for a very long time. In fact, I did not make any puppets since February, I believe. That's how it works for me, I fear. When worries come through the door, my creativity goes out the window.

But this week, I finally managed to sit myself down and bring to life a project I first thought of two months ago. It's almost too late, as the hype is already gone I fear, but still it's better late than never. So please welcome the wonderful, sexy, fun loving, devoted and oh so trendy Sex and the City girls!

This is my original draft

And here is the gang, which will be available in the shop

tomorrow (Saturday the 19th of June)

Carrie Flutterbutt is wearing her signature tutu outfit

with Louboutin cowgirl boots

Miranda is wearing a printed strapless day dress with a

trendy oversized straw bag and huge earrings

Charlotte is wearing a strapless coral velvet dress'

with black lace and satin roses. She also has a 

sequined evening handbag and is wearing her 

matching pink diamond ring and earrings.

And finally, Samantha is wearing a super reveling yellow

micro mini sequin dress with her signature statement jewlery

which include a purple crystal bracelet, huge gold earrings 

and, of course, the flower ring she got from Smith.

I hope you like them, and remember to check back for the 

shop update tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Mamisha!

Today is Mamisha's birthday! For those of you who don't know, Mamisha is my brother's and mine nickname for our well beloved mom. I hope she will have a wonderful day, full of love and joy and that she will enjoy the little party planned for the weekend.

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Mamisha

Happy Birthday to you !!!

An old photo of Mamisha and Nick

On top of this, I finally managed to complete my first puppetry project in about 3 months. I won't tell you what it is yet, but I can tell you that 4 amazingly cute Flutterbutts will be added to the shop very soon . So expect a shop update on Friday!

Life update

I wanted to thank all of you for the comfort and support you sent me after my previous life update.

The good news we received this Monday is that the appeal my mom's oncologist filed was accepted and Mamisha will be getting Tarceva for two more months, and then they will take another PET/CT and decide what's next. In the meanwhile she is not feeling very well and is weak, but the news cheered her up and soon it will be her birthday (next week actually) so we are hoping for a few quiet days. Or as quiet as they can be.

As for me, I have been practicing Tonglen or compassion awakening meditation for the past couple of weeks. I read about it in Sogyal Rinpoche's Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (an absolute must read for every person in face of their own or a beloved's death) and although I doubt I am practicing it correctly or that it actually helps anyone other than myself, I find it comforting and relaxing and I even started finding the strength in myself to include other people in it, other than Mamisha and myself. I found it so hard, throughout my life, to embody compassion towards myself and others, and still am, but strangely I am able to take on my mother's suffering onto myself without fear, using it as an instrument to (in the words of Wiki) reduce my selfish attachment.

Please keep Mamisha and our family in your prayers. We have tough times ahead of us, but for now, we feel relieved.

A fly withouht ears cannot fly

Nor can it enjoy the new handmade earrings I listed on SharonArt this week. I mean, if the fly has a steady income it can buy the earrings, but they probably be bigger than it, I mean.. Well you know what I mean.

These new earrings cost between 18$ and 24$ plus shipping. I hope you like them as much as I do.

 Large netted teardrop earrings in matte gold

Red Babushka earrings

 Sweet rose earrings

 Onyx drop earrings

Ruby red drop earrings

And while on the topic of flies, here is a funny one, from the wonderfully brilliant Aardman animation. Enjoy!

Etsy Sales Fairies

This week I worked on a custom order of several dozens of my Etsy Sales Fairy design gift tags. You would not believe how long it takes to punch them, make holes in them and insert string into each. But once they were finished, I was very pleased with how cute and cheerful they look.

They have 4 different color twins in different length, so they can be used for both small and larger packages.

If you want to add some sales fairy dust on your packing, you can buy these beaded Etsy Sales Fairy tags on my shop. Or spread the charm wherever you go, with these cute little Etsy Sales Fairy key-chains.

Happy sales everybody, and have a great weekend!