Saturday, February 28, 2009

My newest Treasury

This is my newest Treasury at Etsy.com, titled "What goes Around, comes Around" featuring some of the curators that featured me in their past treasuries. It's a Karma type treasury, and I enjoyed the heck of it putting it together.

International visitors at Etsy.com

I went to the web traffic site Alexa.comto check on Etsy.com and found the statistics for the percentage of international visitors that visit the site. It was very interesting.

Of course, as expected, the majority of the traffic, a whopping 69.6%, come from the United States. Another 9.4% comprise of unnamed countries. Here is the list and percentages supplied by Alexa.com:


United States 69.6%
United Kingdom 4.3%
Canada 4.3%
Germany 3.5%
Australia 2.6%
India 2.5%
China 1.4%
Turkey 0.9%
Italy 0.8%
South Africa 0.6%
Indonesia 0.6%
Russia 0.6%
France 0.5%
Other countries 9.4%

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I made it to the front page at Etsy.com


Early this morning, while I slept, a treasury by Cyd at "BotanicalBird"> hit the front page at Etsy.com. It featured my Yellow and Smoky Gray earring. Being featured on the front page is a rare occurrence for most of us. I missed my chance to see it in real time, but the earrings sold to a new buyer who bought it for her friend. I hope next time I'll be able to catch it and enjoy my half hour of fame. My other shop, ArizonaSkies, made it to the front page on February 1st. I sold that item right away. Here's hoping for more, I can still wish, right?

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Be careful what you wish for

I have always wanted a brand new house with a big back yard. When I was in the market for a new house about three years ago, most of the subdivision track houses had very small yards. Then I found this house with lot dimensions of 73X103. The backyard is approx 50X73 feet. I was overjoyed and planned the back yard for months while the house was being built.

The plans included a "Japanese Garden" on the east side with a path and dry creek bed and even a wooden bridge. I planned on graph paper and slowly started planting the plants. Then I found out that the small bridge would cost more than $500. Later on I realized the work involved in watering all those plants in dry Arizona. I water them with buckets since I don't trust drip irrigation, having lost many plants to the system in the front yard. Now I have a total of 120 plants in the backyard alone, not including the Oasis, a planted strip on the north side of the house that gets shade year round and where shade loving delicate plants thrive. My backyard is a veritable botanical garden now with lots of species. I suppose I could kill most of them and reduce my watering chores, but that would be like murder. Sigh!

So, now I dream of having a small house with a tiny backyard with only the plants I truly love from the above experience. One of them would certainly be the Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina Domestica) which is always green, gets reddish leaves, and twice or so a year puts out beautiful red berries. Another favorite would be the yellow flowered Feathery Cassia (Senna Artemisiodes) which is a trooper and takes abuse from the Arizona heat. There's lots of other plants I love, but those two would get honorary spots in even the smallest yard.

Here are photos taken of the bare back yard and two years ago after the planters were built and before the big time planting began. I need to get an updated photo.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Project Wonderful ads

Since last year, my first year in online selling, I did little to no advertising, I figured this year I would try harder to promote my shop Earthly Creations.

I tried their campaigns and didn't like the choices or results, so now have chosen three websites to carry my ad for one week and then see the results. One of the websites is for fashion and it's called Broke and Beautiful. I figured a fashion website would be a good match for my jewelry shop. Let's see how it does.

http://brokeandbeautiful.com/

Friday, February 20, 2009

Homage to the Dead

In Tucson, Arizona people of Mexican descent pay respect and tribute to their dead. It is the belief that the location where a person dies is where his soul departed this earth. Some build little shrines along the road where their loved one died in an accident or other ways. The city tried to have them removed, but the outcry stopped it in its track. Since a big percentage of Tucson residents are Hispanics, I guess the city figured why rock the boat. Somebody once remarked that just seeing these shrines along the road must remind people of the consequences of speeding or driving while drunk. Amen!

Here are photos I took of those shrines.


Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Pack rat and hoarder?

I'm not sure that I fit the definition of pack rat or hoarder. I don't have shelves upon shelves of things I never use but can't throw away. The innards of my closets are neat and orderly and I'm able to open their doors without fear of an avalanche. And there are no paths in my rooms chiseled among cardboard boxes and unnamed other items. My rooms are clean and well designed and even sparse by some opinions.

BUT, BUT, BUT! I keep papers. I hoard papers. I have boxes and boxes of printed pages of posts I have written in forums. Boxes of printed emails from penpals and other acquantances. Boxes of newspaper articles I've cut out and saved in case I needed to look at again, but never to look for them in years and even decades. I even have invoices and receipts going back decades. I have a footlocker full of diaries and mementos from the age of 14 to age 24 and even beyond. On the rare occasions when I read a couple of pages of those diaries I seem to think of the writer as another person that I slowly and reluctantly recognize. Was that really me saying and feeling and doing those things I even forgot about?

I envy people who throw letters and other things away with abandon, with nary a wisp of nostalgia for shreds of their past. I wish I could be so emotionally free as they. And I feel sorry for my adult daughter when I die and she has to wade through those mountains of paperwork. But, her job of destroying those papers will be easier than it would be for me, since like those those other people that I envy, she will have no emotional attachment to those papers about a life history in the making. Even if I never read them or even remember what is in those boxes, I know it's a textual recording of bits of my life.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Philosophical Meandearings

Today I sold a sterling silver necklace with a clover pendant. I went to check the profile of the buyer that bought it, out of curiosity. I found a beautifully written and eloquent short profile. One of the things she said struck me deep and lingered in my mind.

She said, "Enthralled by Mother Earth, trying to embrace Father Time".

Exactly my thoughts, but I was never able to say it so beautifully. Yes, I hate growing old. I wish I could stop, or even just pause, the hands of time. It sometimes saddens me that I have a limited time on this Earth and once that time comes all my thoughts and experiences and wisdom will come to a screeching end. And, because I'm not famous, few will know about me.

And, I think of the earth as Mother Earth, for without her shelter and resources I would never even exist. And what a beautiful little planet it is, I doubt there are any as splendid in the solar system as she. And I will never know for sure.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Pen Pals Online

Several years back I was on an online pen pal acquisition frenzy. I loved the idea of having pen pals all over the world and they would tell me about their country and it's customs and culture. But, I had a hard time finding those loquacious types, most just wanted to write a couple of paragraphs and be done with it, or worse, send jokes and forwards. At one time I corresponded with a total of 13 penpals and it started to become a chore not only writing to, but also remembering who told me what.

Eventually I stopped staying in touch and now only have a total of TWO, and that suits me fine. One woman and one man, one in England and one in Alabama. They were two of the very first and we still write to each other and hopefully will until one of us croaks into eternity.

Maybe someday I might try again finding a wordy penpal in a remote exotic place, but for now I am happy with my loyal two.