About June, July, And Some Etsy Stuff

olive eyed bun

Hey all.  The weather has been downright acceptable lately since we made it out of triple digits.  Low 90s F is our June through September norm but with overcast skies and daily rain we've spent the past week in the 80s.....truly unheard of this time of year here.  I've been able to work in the studio with just my doors open and the fan going.  I appreciate  adore my air conditioner - it does wonders for productivity in the heat of it - but it's a constant battle keeping pots damp enough to work on when it's running.  The spray bottle and plastic are my best best friends.



So enough about the weather.  After stepping away from the studio for most of June, I'm back at it.

kitty is unimpressed with your progress

The plan to reorganize and declutter home, office, and studio (and life?) met with mixed results.  We'll just say HGTV won't be knocking excitedly at my door any time soon to document my success.  I did, however make the studio more functional and managed to find space for my shipping supplies so I can have them handy and out of our living room.

The white bad dog is laughing out loud because this is the state
of the studio even AFTER clean up.
...And yes...my studio is really THAT green.

Honestly, I think I'm better off decrappifying and reorganizing at a slow but consistent one drawer at a time rather than trying to do the big overhaul which often leaves me wandering from room to room in an overwhelmed daze.  Give me a year or two or five....I'll get there.

The LSU School Of Art Glassell Gallery opened its summer invitational show in mid June.  This year's theme and title is Dreamcatching.  I gave them my interpretation in the now come to be expected set of 4 cups format...

(first side)

Sasquatch dreams of.....

Fox pirate dreams of.....

Olive eyed bun dreams of....

Zombie cat dreams of....

(other side)

....lovely lady squatch.

....yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

....martinis, shaken not...well you know.

....what else.  Rat brains.



In a perfect world I'd have taken pictures at the opening of all the art and mingling people you don't even know and then posted them here, but I'm a little shy-ish in crowds and just the socializing part takes all my concentration so I didn't bring my camera.  But you know what helps that?  Friends from out of town completely entertained by the whole thing because they don't normally attend these things....Well that and maybe a couple Guinness at the dive bar around the corner beforehand.  Ok, I admit, it was fun and those art photos might still happen.  I'd like to get back and actually SEE the show.  Openings aren't really for viewing the art.

On to Etsy....  Etsy has been pretty slow.  Views are down and sales are down.  I lurked about in the dark dank Etsy forums to see what was up.  Of course there was great whining and gnashing of teeth as these slow periods always produce and while there is a lot of speculation that Etsy has done something or another, I kind of think much of it is just summer seasonal slow down.  They have made some changes to "search" which could have something to do with it all, but my sales are usually down in summer soooo......oh well.  It does, however, look like they're planning a big change in the categories with a new a la Pinterest look.  Wanna see?  look HERE.**  The slightly larger pictures are kind of nice, but it seems to load more slowly.  I don't love that, but I'm confident they'll work it out before launching site wide.  *SNICKER*  sorry.  I meant to say that with a straight face.

Finally on Etsy, I set up my new "about" page which you can see HERE.  I think this may eventually replace the "profile" at least for sellers since they've already removed the profile link on shop home pages.  (You can still get to profiles by clicking on the seller name or avatar).  Helpful hint to you sellers out there....setting up the "about" page is easy but a little quirky.  Once you add yourself as shop owner - SAVE first and continue.  I filled out everything and uploaded photos and THEN saved, and it all disappeared.

me after all my "about" page
stuff disappeared

Poof.  Gone. No where to be found.   Went back and added myself as shop owner again, then SAVED right away, and all my previously added stuff and photos magically reappeared.  TA DA!!

me when all my "about"
page stuff reappeared and
I didn't have to do it all again

Alrighty then.  I'm done.  Time for the tiresome pet picture

Bad dogs crash after their hot walk

See y'all next time.

**Update:  The new catagory style shown in the link reverted back to current style.  Oh well.  We'll just have to wait and see what happens :)