Monday, December 29, 2008

Our Dogs!

This post is completely devoid of any business lol! Dedicated to my three favorite canines, Black Jack (he's not really black by the way, and has beautiful pale blue eyes.), Liberty (also known as Libby, and Moo Cow) and Ella( who also has those baby blue eyes), the baby of the bunch. Black Jack and Libby are Ella's parents. All of Libby's first litter of pups died except for Ella. I nursed this puppy like it was my own child. Up every 4 hours so Libby could nurse her, I took her to work with me and bottle fed her in between, heck I took her to Walmart in a box lol! She slept at the top of my husbands pillow for a long time. Anyway by the time she was 10 weeks old we were so attached that we couldn't give her up. Crazy to have three Australian Shepherds in a house in the city but hey who wants normal anyway! So Black Jack is almost 11, Liberty will be 5 and Ella will be 4. And I am happy to say that her other two litters survived and thrived and have gone on to good homes. The whole point of this long drawn out post is to just say how much these dogs mean to us. Such good and faithful companions, such personality and love lol! So much mud in the house, stolen food off the counters, loud barking in the middle of the night. I wouldn't miss a single muddy paw print, these dogs have brightened and lightened our life simply by being themselves.

<--(Black Jack wishing hard for a piece of steak)




(Libby and Ella having a piece of steak)->



<--(Ella's favorite TV watching spot, just ignore the feet lol) The utter exhaustian of opening presents! --->









<---the sleep of the righteous dog lol!

Thank you Black Jack, Libby and Ella for keeping us sane, for loving us no matter how bad a mood we are in, for making us laugh at the most unexpected times, for gaurding our house (and sidewalk and block against the many squirrels and cats and birds that go by our front window lol), for making us excersize no matter how badly we don't want to go to the park and walk, for the complete and utter joy you bring to our lives on a daily basis. We love you!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

1000Markets

So I have been away from my blog for awhile. It has been super busy at my house between my day job and the new venues that I am currently exploring. It takes a long time to list all of my items in new venues (over 230 plus new stuff that I am trying to list at the same time). Not to mention that I need time to actually make the new stuff lol, since that is the fun part. So I have mentioned before that I am pairing down on my venues and will be letting some of them die a natural death when my items there expire. One of the venues I will be keeping is 1000Markets. This venue is extremely classy and elegant looking. The concept is different from many of the other online market places. (the main concept, that of selling your items is obviously the same lol).

There are no listing fees, they only take their cut at the end. I like this part since it means that I am not out any cash unless something sells. This also is a great motivation for the owners of the site to make sure that the site is the best that it can be for its sellers.

It is a juried site, if you photos or your items are really bad, you will have to work to improve them in order to be accepted. This is great for everyone accepted on this site since there are NO resellers, no shoddy workmanship and you can see clearly what an item is in every picture. The fact that the pictures need to maintain a certain standard gives the whole site a very professional look and feel. This can only be good for business lol!

They also have markets and arcades. Specific markets for specific items. For instance, the Wear It Out market has a variety of items, a shopper could easily put together a complete outfit from clothing to jewelry to hair and outerwear. There is a market just for metal craft, a market for kids, several markets based on location, a market devoted to food, I could go on but there is something for everyone. It's kind of like walking into a virtual market place, kind of like the mall only better and bigger. The possiblities are endless. This will be one of the venues that will get a lareger portion of my time and advertising budget in the new year.

Anyway, sellers you should check it out, I think that this is one of the new venues that will succeed in the next couple of years. Buyers, you should check it out just because the site is so beautiful lol! No really, there are a huge group of extremely talented people on this site.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Wow I can't believe it!

Not too long ago I mentioned that I was going to be broadening my horizons and listing items on a several new venues. I specifically did a post on Shop Handmade, and how it was eco friendly and helping the rainforest.

Well I just got an email from them that said they were going to feature one of my items in an ad spot in the January edition of Beads Unique magazine! How exciting is that! Truly I am doing the happy dance lol! Needless to say I will continue to list my products on this site and come the New Year, when I need to make decisions on which venues to cull, Shop Handmade will be a keeper. And to confirm what I said in my previous post, this listing is free (can't beat that) you can choose to donate to the save the rainforest or not and it does not get billed til you sell that item. I choose to donate but that's just me. Please take a closer look at this website and if you are looking to help the environment this is the place to shop.