Why Artfire kind of puts me off.

Ok, so first of all, this is not a bash on anyone who uses Artfire.  I tinkered around on it and liked it for the most part.  This is just my personal thoughts and feelings on why I couldn’t get into it.

So I got an email from Artfire today that just kind of put me off.  If you have a basic account I’m sure you got “the email” too.  It’s topic was along the lines of “Hey, wanna know why you as a basic member are not making any sales?  Click to find out.”  So I clicked.  And basically it read along the lines of “Yeah, we cater everything to Pro accounts so basically if you really want to start your business you need to just get a Pro account otherwise we aren’t going to help you any and your store will not succeed because we hide you away like the unwanted stepchild.  So upgrade today!  "  Umm, ok, so you are basically emailing me to tell me that there is really no  point in using your service unless I upgrade because you have basically washed your hands of me.  So umm…yeah, about that.  No thanks then.

I mean don’t get me wrong, Artfire is interesting and it’s building, but I don’t like how exclusive it is.  You are cut off from mostly everything unless you buy a membership.  This is the reason I like Etsy more because while some things are exclusive for active shop owners, for the most part if you have an account you can partake in the fun there.  They don’t make you feel second rate because maybe you don’t have he money to fund a shop right now but you still want to stay up on what’s going on and take part in things there.  Now there are some things Artfire has for their shops that I would really like on Etsy, but Etsy seems to be slowly getting those things so that’s a positive thing.  Both sites have pros and cons, which I feel is more personal opinion than anything, but as I’ve told other people before in my mind Artfire is like Myspace and Etsy is like Facebook.  You do the math on that one.  I’ll still keep my shop at Artfire and maybe I will try opening a shop with a Pro account one day if it takes off more, but for now I think I will focus on an Etsy shop and see how that goes.

One thing I hope Etsy never gets though is music in the shops.  Artfire allows that and I hate it.  I think some of the features on Artfire allow for to much tack in the shops, but once again, personal opinion.  Slideshows are another pet peeve of mine.  I like shops to be organized and uniformed.  You don’t find that at Artfire like you do Etsy.  But I think I am done for now and will get off my soapbox.  I guess I just really didn’t like the email and tone it carried with it.  Like I said, it’s not a bad site, but it’s seriously exclusive.  And like I said Etsy has some exclusive stuff too, and I am find with being exclusive, but Artfire takes it to the bullying extent almost.  If they don’t like basic accounts then get ride of them and free that site up for their members then to add more features or something.  I’m sure they will like that and then they can stop making basic members feel like they don’t matter.  Either way you have to put hard work into promoting your shop to be seen, I’m not going to put all that work in to bring traffic to a site that thinks I’m second rate.  No thanks.  Yeah, I’m bitter.    But that’s all I wanted to talk about right now. I’m am off to work on a new blog design.  I want to come up with a theme and logo now that I finally decided what direction I am going in.  I hope to get the new layout and logo up soon.  Until then bye for now. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

Hi!

I've been so busy I haven't even come to check on my blog and it's comments for a while.  I want to say hi to all of you who have found there way to my blog through OWOH!  Thank you so much for stopping by and saying hi.  I had so much fun meeting you all through OWOH and have bookmarked so many blogs I don't know how I will organize all the links.  LOL!  But I'm so glad I got to meet you all through you blog and I'm so sad the event ends tomorrow and I can't continue to meet more people.  But I guess this gives me the chance to get to know all of you better.  :-)  Well I just wanted to hope on and give a big wave to you all.  I will be back to updating my blog soon with things I have been up to and learning.  So stay tuned for that.  Also I changed my comments so that I can respond directly to people's comments.  I'll see how that does for a while.  If I get to many spammies then I will go back to Blogger's comment system.  So feel free to try it out.  :-D  Ok, talk to you all later.  Bye for now.

Edit: Just wanted to edit to say that since I put in the new comments widget it won't show any of my old comments.  I'm sorry about  that.  They are still there and I can still read them, but they don't show on my blog for some reason.  I'm trying to find out if I can make them show, but so far nothing.  New comments do show however, so feel free to comment away.  I like the new format of the comments so I want to stick with it for a while so I hope no one is offended their comment isn't showing up.  I still treasure it greatly.  :-)  Thanks again for them.  Bye for now.  :-)

Loves ya,
Mouse

Just testing something.

Hey all, ignore this post.  I'm just testing something out. :-)

Loves ya,
Mouse

Happy Valentine’s Day.

For what it’s worth, hope you all had a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Our World Our Art. Talk about freaking excited!!!

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Ok, so as some of you know, I am riding the magic carpet during the One World One Heart blogging event.  It’s still going on, by the way, and it ends on the 17th.  So feel free to still jump on!

But I was sad to learn that this year would be the last year for the event. I’ve wanted to do the event for years and just haven’t felt well enough to make something then blog continuously to entertain my new guests and show them what I’m all about.  But then I read a post today that got me all freaking excited!!!

The lovely lady behind One World One Heart is going to run a new event next year called Our World Our Art!  Eeeeee, can you handle it?!?  So basically this is going to be an all art blog event.  No commercial peeps allowed.  Everything handmade.  Couldn’t you just die?  Ok, while OWOH is mostly handmade there are some peeps that do not do handmade and I just didn’t connect with their blog.  So I like it going to all handmade.  Also there will be an additional rule that you have to tell about your artistic skill and show displays of it and a new addition next year is you will be able to add a link to your shop if you sell you items.  So cool!  So I’m looking forward to this event and I have a year to prepare.

Speaking of preparing, this event is still in the works and there is a newsletter you can sign up to, which yes I already have. It’s located on the right sidebar and you just fill in your email address and blog url.  Yes you still have to be a blogger for this event.

So yeah, just wanted to give you the 411.  The noticed was just given today and so I’m doing my part to spread it.  So spread it far and wide people and  be sure to sign up for the newsletter. 

Ok, I’m off to jump back on my magic carpet.  I am halfway through my trip and only have a couple of days left to finish meeting everyone.  So talk to you guys once I’m done with my journey.  Bye for now. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

Follow along guys and dolls. :-)

Follow my blog with bloglovin

Loves ya,
Mouse

Hey all! Look at my motifs!!!

Hey guys, so it's been a while since I've blogged. I've been around, just haven't had much to talk about. I have been working hard on learning how to crochet and so far so good! I'm so excited that I can actually take some yarn and a hook and making a stitch or a patch of fabric out of it. My favorite stitch so far is the the double crochet. I don't know if its because I've been doing it so much or what, but there is just something about making the stitch that is so relaxing. I've tried others and they are nice too, just the double seems to go faster for me and I can just make them for hours on end...in fact I did! Take a looksie!





So I took a pause to snap a picture of what I was working on. A ton of double crochet stitches on top of one another. Awesome, right? :-D




A girl likes to watch some "bizarre" stuff while she's crocheting.




And the final outcome was a hat! I gave the hat to my sister and begged her to model it for me. She didn't want to be in the pictures but agreed to it after I said I'd take her face out...of the pictures guys not literally! So she agreed and I did as I promised, face gone. But you can still get the idea of the hat.




Close-up of the hat so you can see the yarn and stitches better. Awesome, right? :-D




And one from the side. I am so proud of my work and for it being a first it didn't come out to bad. :-D

But then I wanted to try something else. Something that would make me feel like I was "really" crocheting. So I went looking around the Crochet Spot and found the blog entries on motifs. I had to try them.




These are the three, more like 2 as one is just a repeat, I managed to work out. I'd worked on a fourth one but that one was a bit confusing and decided to call it a day on that one and try it again. Now for close-ups!










I noticed she has a few extra on the site since I worked on the last ones so I am going to attempt those this weekend and report back to you on how it went. If you are looking to start crocheting or looking for some nice patterns you should check out the Crochet Spot. Sign up for the newsletter and get a free robot amigurumi pattern. Must find mine again to attempt trying it. :-)

So yeah, that's what I've been up to. Just really working hard on the crochet thing. I want to open my shop my the first day of spring and time is quickly running out for me to get it all ready to go. So I need to hurry because I have got some plans and ideas people! I'm really excited about this year. I've got some hard things I need to go through this year but once I get through them I will be full steam ahead! So stay tuned and stick around, the best is yet to come. :-D Talk to you all soon. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse