I know this isn’t really about crafting or working on the Internet but hey, it’s my blog so get over it. Yes, indeed, I am feeling a bit grouchy today. If you’ll indulge me, I’ll share the reason for my un-merry mood.

We went last minute Christmas shopping between the 20th and 23rd. Most of the stores already had everything related to Christmas at 50% off and we found some small odds and ends to give each other. We laughed about even looking at Christmas decorations when we already have so many but there’s always something prettier, cuter or newer to find.

But, being the thrift store fanatics that we are, we thought we would wait until after Christmas. Surely if it’s at 50% off before Christmas it will be 60 or 75% after Christmas. We always dig through the stragglers and even broken bits after the holidays looking for crafting materials or pieces to adorn existing decorations.

We set off in search of something we just couldn’t live without at what we expected to be fire sale prices. We planned to shop ‘till we dropped. Well, that was the plan anyway.


Continue reading "After Christmas Sales - Bah Humbug!"

OK, so maybe this isn’t truly life-changing news for anyone other than me but this has been a great week for the sites in my little crafting world.

Blog About Crafts News

I received an email the other day from a subscriber of this blog. It was so nice to hear from her. It was such a happy surprise to realize that there is actually someone out there reading to my posts on a regular basis. If there are more of you out there, I would love to hear from you as well.

The Crafty Tipster News

Along with my blog, I have a website called The Crafty Tipster where I have a few original crochet patterns, some vintage crochet patterns and a handful of other free crafting projects. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

Today brought an unexpected email from a wonderful crafter and I truly thank Laura for taking the time to send it…

Reason #umpteen gazillion why I love crafters…Laura was trying to make my Crochet Santa Pattern and she realized that I had made a small typo that created a big mess of Santa’s hat. A dozen rows of double crochet is a whole lot bigger than a dozen rows of single crochet. Oops. She could have simply pulled out the rows and made her Santa correctly. But, no, she took the time to drop me a note that I had a problem with my pattern. She didn’t rant and rave, just kindly asked if it was a typo. I love kind and helpful folks like her.

Reason #umpteen gazillion plus one why people in general drive me crazy…That pattern was posted last Christmas and has been linked to by numerous other crafting websites and no one, up to now, took the time to let me know of my mistake. Bah humbug to all those folks who didn’t ask if I had made a mistake; I just hope there aren’t too many Santas with gigantic hats out there.

Crafty Tips News

Crafty Tips is my site where crafters can share their websites and crafting tips with each other. It is something of a labor of love with the goal of helping some of my fellow crafters advertise and promote their websites and online businesses. Participation is free; the more the merrier.

This is always a busy season for Crafty Tips but this year has been the year of new, exciting categories along with the increased visitors and submissions that Christmas always brings.

Not too long ago, I added a new Crafting Software category. Today it was Craft Vacations. A French company that provides jewelry making supplies and their own finished items also offers several great beading and jewelry making vacations each year. The workshops all looked so tempting (what craft lover wouldn’t love go on a vacation where they get to make things too?) that I thought that the visitors of Crafty Tips might find such a category useful. For now, the category only has the listing for the great workshops from France but hopefully more crafting vacations and tours providers will add their websites in time.

Reusable Art News

Christmas time has also brought an increase of traffic and interest in Reusable Art. Word is really starting to spread about the great copyright free vintage drawings and illustrations that I am sharing. After noticing a nice-sized spike in traffic, I discovered that Yahoo! has my site listed #1 out of 180,000,000 (yes that’s 180 million!!!) for free Christmas images. Google unfortunately doesn’t rank it as well but I have seen over 1,000 visitors from Yahoo! so far this month from that listing. #1 of 180 million sites? wooo-hoooo!

It’s always exciting for me when I create a new category on Crafty Tips. It usually means that a new type of craft will be included on my craft directory. But, in this case it is a category that is often overlooked by other crafting directories - sadly, mine was missing it as well.

The new category that I’m blabbering about is Craft Software. For now, it has only one site listed but I hope that will not be the case for long as the page gets spidered and indexed by Google and the other search engines.

From time to time, I add great crafting websites that I find without waiting for the site owner to submit it on their own. However, it has always been my personal belief that commercial sites should have to find me on their own - seems unfair to do otherwise. Since most people who make Craft Software sell their programs, it has been a hole in the directory.

I am excited to showcase Rexan’s Craft Organizer Software as the first software company to be represented in this category. Rexan appears to have created what amounts to an ERP (enterprise resource planning) product where crafters can track their expenses, inventory and sales all from one piece of software. I haven’t seen it in action but it looks quite cool with plenty of room for pictures of both raw materials and finished goods.

Hopefully in the not-too-distant future, the category will begin seeing more great software programs for crafters including the variety of picture to pattern programs for cross stitchers, needlepointers and others.

If you sell a Craft Software program, please consider adding your site - the only cost is the time it takes you to write a description of your product and provide a crafting tip; in other words, it’s absolutely free!

Yesterday, I played hookey. And of course I got an inquiry letter for a writing job and probably lost the opportunity due to being out of the office and not replying until so late in the day. Really hate when that happens…Anyway, among other things, we went to a craft co-op store about 90 minutes away from our home. We had been to this store before, knew the layout of the place and separated in hopes of finding Christmas gifts for each other.

Amongst the many lovely and clever things were a few real stinkers. C’mon, nobody likes to talk about it; but really, just admit it, some of the stuff people are making is really junky or just plain stupid-looking. If it looks like something a 5 year old high on sugar made, it’s probably not going to be something you should try to sell. Unless, perhaps you are actually selling that item to other half-crazed, bouncing off the walls children who could appreciate that special piece of handcrafted nothingness.

Anyway, amongst some really beautiful things were these clever little turkeys. They were cute little turkeys to put on the Thanksgiving dinner table. They were made with fabric leaves, walnuts and acorns. They were quite original and charming; until you picked them up.

I came to them first and picked one up to see how much they cost. When I realized the base remained on the table because the hot glue had failed, I gasped and quickly tried to re-balance the body of the bird on the glue gob. I kept waiting for someone to creep up behind me and sneer - you break it you bought it.

Oddly enough, my Mom picked up the same turkey, or perhaps another one that was also suffering from hot glue failure. We agreed that the little birds were quite cute and truly clever. But, does cute really matter when they are falling apart?


Continue reading "Hot Glue Failures and Other Turkeys"

Ever had a bad experience with a company? I know I have. And I wanted to tell the whole world just how bad my experience was. In the past, I would tell my friends and family about the company and suggest they find another company to deal with. When I had my last apartment I had a list in my address book of companies that had cheated friends and co-workers and a list of companies that came highly recommended by those same friends and co-workers.

With blogs, anyone can instantly tell hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of strangers about their unhappy experience. That single blog entry has the potential to lead to lost revenue for the company being discussed and hurt that company where it matters most. If you think about it, isn’t that really the intent of telling others that a company should be avoided?

A clever marketing or business owner might find that blog entry, work with the blogger to resolve the issues and turn an unhappy customer into one of their happiest. That blog entry suddenly becomes a real-life example of how well the company deals with problems and how they fix them.

Or, the company being discussed could simply hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit looking for reimbursement for lost revenues and even ask for punitive damages. The blogger might feel they are simply relating a factual accounting of their experience and stating an opinion. Free speech and all that. Right? Maybe not.


Continue reading "The Twenty Million Dollar Blog Entry"