I Builted a Website on the Internets

This is it. I did it. This website finally launched. It's been about a year since I started -- but it's done. It's done. It's finally done. What's EtsyRAIN? It's the street team for everyone who lives in Seattle and the surrounding areas and sells their handmade goods on Etsy. We've got over 700 members that now get to play with my creation. The site is built in Drupal (swoon) which is an open source, database driven, content management system. What's that mean? Basically that we can enter content in one place -- let's say an event -- and have it show up on a calendar, as a featured event on the front page and also in a sidebar block of upcoming events. And we only have to enter the content once. If you've ever updated a straight HTML site -- you know why this is awesome. Basically, if something changes, we only need to change it in one place -- not on every single $&*#&$#ing page. The site has a crafty calendar that we're adding all kinds of crafty related events to. It will soon be THE place to go to see what's happenin' crafy wise in this great city. Also, our Premium Members (they pay $20/year to get special discounts on shows and other benfits) get to create their own profiles on the site to highlight their work. It's cool. For reals. I heart Drupal.

EtsyRAIN Donation to The Sampler

The Sampler is "a super fun marketing & promotional tool for indie businesses. Each month, independent crafters, artists, shops, zines and record labels who run web-based businesses send samples and promotional materials to a contribution pool. All the samples are photographed, posted to the site and then are portioned out, put in little packages and sent off to Sampler Subscribers, other Sampler Contributors and members of the Media all over the world!"

EtsyRAIN, the NW Etsy Street Team just made a donation of over 200 pieces for the June edition of The Sampler. Check out the shops below who made it all possible:

i make cute stuff Scary White Girl Designs Ugly Baby Shower Art

Entangles

Junk into Funk-Tion DaisieMai Creations

Sweetpea Cards & Gifts

LASdesigns.etsy.com

Woven Chains

Sima Bella Designs

My Favorite Hilarious Thing of the Week

My new favorite hilarious thing of the week: An I Stomach LA tote bag.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to buy it for my friend Meghan who moved to LA pretty recently and probably likes it. But I hate it. It took away my Meghan. Bad LA, bad!

I found the bag on Etsy at a shop called Twee Things. And they also happen to be very nice if you accidently give them the wrong address twice. Shhhhhhhhhhh...not that I would know from experience, but I BET, HYPOTHETICALLY, IF you happened to give them the wrong address twice, they would be very nice.

Snort. Okay, I did it. I gave them the wrong address twice. Sigh.

New Shower Arts and I Heart Rummage Is BACK

Good news my little potatoes! I Heart Rummage is BACK! As you may already know, especially if you live in the Seattle area and don't live under a rock, I Heart Rummage is an Indie Craft Event that used to happen the first Sunday of every month at the Crocodile. Well, it's been on break since the Croc went out of business. Sad. Sad. Sadder! But this coming Sunday, that's right....THIS COMING SUNDAY, March 2, 2008 I Heart Rummage is back! The new location is Chop Suey (1325 E. Madison) on Capitol Hill. AND THEY HAVE BREAKFAST NOW! Come eat eggs and get drunk in the afternoon while you buy stuff that people made with their BARE HANDS (okay, some might wear gloves). It's from noon to four. I'll be there with Doug and Shower Art and my new line of tater tot themed greeting cards. You should stop by. Because even if you don't like Shower Art or tater tot themed greeting cards, there will be tons of other vendors who probably DO make something you like. Plus. You can get drunk. And eat eggs. It's gonna be fun. Here's some new Shower Arts you'll see at I Heart Rummage if you come by THIS SUNDAY!

Farting Tater Tots - My New Line of Greeting Cards

Against my better judgement, I have decided to toss my hat into the greeting card ring. Here is my first attempt. Tater Toot. A farting tater tot. I can tell I'm going to go far with this. Snort. I have three tot cards in mind. The second one will have a picture of a happy tot on the front and say, "When I think about love it makes me smile." And the inside will have a picture of a sad tot and say, "No wait. I meant lonely." And the third design has some tots on the front who just won the Olympics (no reason, really) and it says on the front, "Do you ever wonder..." and on the inside it says, "if tater tots are made out of the lips and anuses of potatoes?" So there's the tot cards. I'm also designing a series of different robot themed cards where the robots take on different personality traits or situations -- some of my favorites: cursed to wander the earth in search of his shadow robot and scared of something over there robot. We'll see what happens. If you wanted to buy a bunch of them just to make me feel like I'm not wasting my time...you can do it here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9315421 Well, okay, you can only buy one, but that would be nice of you too. Here's some more pictures:

I replicated the image at 50% size on the back of the card and the envelope.

I like potatoes.

Rosalie

Donating to The Sampler

Ahhhhhh...there's nothing like the feeling of accomplishment that comes with finishing something. For me at least. I love crossing things off my list. Today, that was mailing off the Etsy Rain submission to The Sampler. We ended up submitting about 300 items, 60 of which will be submitted to magazines and design blogs. Thankfully, I got some much needed/wanted help from fellow Etsy Rainers and friend. You know who you are. And thank you. Thanks so much. What I learned: The post office has flat rate boxes. Anything you put in them is $8 something dollars. Way better than the $70 I ended up paying for our four boxes. Argh. Doug spent many an hour making up packaging labels for Shower Art - waterproof art you can hang in your shower with a suction cup. They turned out wonderfully. I spent many hours gocco-ing them and then making them into stickers to put on the boxes. Lots of work, but I think they look fantastic. Here's some of the items we submitted: And here's the little guys in their Sampler packaging:

No Dairy - Yeah Right

So, yeah, I did not do so well this week. It all started when I did another I Heart Rummage show (their Christmas one called I Heart Indie Crafts -- if you missed it, you are SORRY).  Anywho, again with the free doughnuts.  I caved.  I ate a doughnut.  I'm not sure if they have dairy or not, but I'm relatively certain that since they taste so good, they do....they do have dairy.  I have to get away from these free doughnuts!

Then, at lunch (same day) I went to the Seattle Center House and it was filled with people and screaming children so I thought...Okay, I'll just go to Starbucks.  Fine.  Normally I never give them any of my money, but given the circumstances and the fact that they were right in front of me.  I caved.  I bought some pesto pasta salad that I really did think had no dairy in it.  I really, really did.  Then ate it while I waited in line for my Americano.  And waited.  And waited.  For some reason the barista is making every drink wrong so she has to make each one at least two or three times.  It takes at least 20 minutes.  Or at least enough time for me to finish my pasta salad.  Then it takes some more time because I have nothing to do but really familiarize myself with the label....which lists the ingredients....which includes dairy.  Damn.

THEN - (same day) later we go out for Thai food with my studio partner, Kimberly.  We order Crab Delight.  I should have made this week, I'm giving up all dairy unless it's in a crab delight because there was no way I wasn't eating those.  No way.  It's just not possible by any stretch of the imagination. 

So there's my foibles for the week.  I think this is the worst job I've done so far.

The current week: No eating after 7pm.  It worked for me yesterday. I'll keep you posted.

What the hell is that?

Yeah, that's the most oft asked question when we go to craft shows with Shower Art. Then they lift it up, sniff it, and then say, "Oh, soap." Which is weird. Because it smells nothing like soap. And it feels like rubber. So, solution. I made a shower curtain with "Shower Art: Waterproof Art you can hang in your shower -- or anywhere else, we're no dictators" to hang behind our table. At I Heart Rummage last Sunday we tried it out for the first time. One guy bought two of them and then said, "Yeah, I think I'll hang these up in the bathroom. Do you guys get that alot? People saying they'll hang them in the bathroom?" Um. Sigh. Sniff. Weeps uncontrollably.

The Studio Window!

Kimberly from Stir has been kind enough to let me share her studio/retail space. I made an Ugly Baby window display last Friday for all the people who come to pay for parking to look at. I don't know why I'm nice to them, they just come in to ask me whether they need to pay the city meter to park in the lot. Answer: Yes, just like the big sign tells you. And here's my new favorite Shower Art. Scary!

The Cutest Thing I've Ever Made

Okay, I've made some cute things in my time...but this one....this is THE one.

I call her CupieHead.

You can call her that too.

The glue that I used to attach the beads to her hair had some kind of chemical reaction with the rubber and now each little bead is surrounded by an air bubble.

I think it's a great unexpected effect.

Huzzah!

I Made Some Stuff

Ahhhhhh.... I made some stuff today. My new invention: Anarchy Envelopes - envelopes made from old magazine pages and then stamped on the front with an anarchy symbol with my Gocoo. I think I'm in love.

Seattle Etsy Sellers Unite!

I've joined a group of Etsy sellers in Seattle (in Etsy lingo: Street Team) to collaborate, create and (hopefully someday) drink some wine. Recently we bought two booths at the Fremont Sunday Market and made a day of it relaxing in the (VERY) hot sun. Here's me with my (oh so necessary) coffee.

My husband Doug and I make Shower Art, waterproof art you can hang in your shower with a suction cup. Here's one I sold at the market:

Someone must really like eggs. That makes sense though....eggs are good. Shoot, now I want eggs. Focus. Good. Scary White Girl (or as we call her "Dawn") has created this Cthulu bottle cozy that makes me laugh out loud. I love his little curly face. Plus, I guess it's also the idea that Cthulu has been relegated to keeping my drink cold that makes me giggle.

I put Dawn's Cthulu bottle cozy in my Treasury of the Weirdest things I could find on Etsy. And not to brag or anything (yes, I'm totally bragging) but it IS the #1 Treasury on Etsy right now. How's that for WEIRD!?

I'll keep you all posted on the Etsy Rain (oh yeah, that's the name of our group - I guess it would help to mention that) happenings and goings on.

Much Love to You All,

Rosalie

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