Things I do in my dreams

There are places I go in my dreams. My dreamscape is my alternate reality in which I dance, travel, wear nothing but a huge ruffle, fly, get weighed (yes, and it was a good dream - my weight said "worthy") sail, dance, grow things in my hair, and talk to centaurs. Sometimes I run and run in my bare feet and just enjoy the scenery and covering ground. Sometimes I run in a panic as I did in the dream where I found Caleb hiding inside a tree (I peeled the bark with my bare hands to find him inside.)I am not sure if the centaurs are people or animals, but they protect us from the wild animals all around our woodland home. Some of my houses have secrets and they make me think of the people who lived there before (like my mother-in-law.) I prefer my outdoor adventures, swimming, flying, running, floating. The cars have a nasty habit of going furiously fast. The bridges can be perilously high. I stay in a lot of hotels. I speak at conferences to which I was not invited. I join sororities.
The treasury is my entry for this weeks challenge. If you are new to Etsy, I recommend the non-team challenges as a great place to make some friends without the commitments you have on other treasury teams. Check them out on their blog.

Team Love on Etsys Home Page

My team treasury made the Front Page this morning. So happy for all of these great sellers. Six of them from the Eastern Washington team and two from the Crafting in Color team. Great work, everyone!

Poster Sketch

I love to play with postersketch. Since I've been too busy to catch a treasury, I thought I would share the contents of my postersketch with you. Thinking about a St. Patrick's Day parade. We are usually there, freezing our buns off. The early Spring this year has me hopeful though.

Helping the undiscovered

The treasury I made yesterday morning was on Etsy's landing page this afternoon. I am excited about that for a few reasons. Half of the shops represented in it are either undiscovered or underdiscovered, having zero or very few Etsy sales. I am happy to give those talented artisans a little boost. Secondly, it tells me, yes, Etsy does look at my treasuries and consider them for the front page. Thirdly, it gives me hope that what goes around with come around too. Did I say that right? Six of the sellers featured are very active treasury curators as well. (Four from the treasury team.) When one of us helps another get FP exposure, we usually try to return the favor.

So all of this sort of adds up to a formula for creating successful treasuries:
1)Find some popular curators by going to the craftcult vault and taking note of FP list curators. Include a few of those people in your treasury.
2) Try to find some new shops to include as well by checking out Etsy's pounce feature, or just searching for items you are looking for and clicking on outstanding photos with sellers you have never heard of.
3) Use Etsy's merchandising guide to help you with the theme. This treasury was named September Honeymoon. Use a theme and name that might catch Admin's attention by going with their trends.

Do click on the treasury and through to the items to find out which shops are new. You may be surprised.

Customer Service with a Smile

Does this guy make you smile back? He makes me smile, every morning. My 10 year old is the star of my current treasury on Etsy. (That link will only be good for a couple of days from the date of this post.) Here is the customer service story. I was shopping for some face paint to help out with the school carnival. I bought this mineral powder from PinkQuartzMinerals. Thanks to our dyslexic mailman, my neighbor received the package and promptly forgot about it. After canvassing the neighborhood while the airhead neighbor was not at home, I contacted Doree at PinkQuartz who sent me a replacement which coincidentally arrived on the same day as the neighbor cleaned off her kitchen counter. Now I had 2 cool sets of mineral makeup. I gave one to my friend who happened to be in the living room with me chatting up a storm at the very moment of this harmonic convergence of minerals, neighbors and postal incompetence. When I offered to pay for the extra, Doree refused, so I sent her some photos of my sons in their pirate faces to use in her shop. (My older son is now too cool for all of this - but his photos are amazing!) The carnival just happened the other night and I have been so consumed with work that I never did volunteer to paint faces. As it happens, one of my son's classmates has a dental hygienist mom who also happens to be the reincarnation of Matisse. I stood in awe as she turned a first grade boy into a webkinz dog, and thought how silly of me to ever think kids would line up for me to paint them. There was a line up around the building waiting for her facial masterpieces. I probably would have been roaming the place in pirate garb, accosting everyone with the offer of an extra eye or two. Aarg! Doesn't anybody want an eye?!!

Some of My Talented Customers

I got a treasury yesterday in which I featured teamates. (Take a look before it expires on Saturday - beautiful stuff.) Today I got one ready to feature my customers. I don't know whether I'll be able to post it on Etsy though, so I am posting it here. Thank you to all who appear here, you are wonderful customers. I only regret I don't have room for all of them. Enjoy!

Never Say Never

I knew it would tempt someone beyond their ability to resist. It was not bait. It was an honest evaluation. Still some people just can't help themselves. It is so fun to prove someone wrong.

When I said my cute bag would never make it to the front page, I meant it. Now it's in this treasury with so many really pretty things. I am afraid it almost ruins it. Will someone please buy it before it gets to the front page, so the worthy alternate with a prettier picture (I'm sure) can take its place? It really is a wonderful, cute bag. I just had a hard time photographing it.

Do you catch yourself when you are tempted to say it? Or do you fly in the face of fickle fate, and cry "never! never! never!"