#and it reminded me of this one time on etsy when i saw someone selling fake nails with van gogh's sunflowers on them

[engagedtobefree]

Someone needs to take me to an art museum before I lose my shit

[sardonyxie]

Hockey Pucks and Cricuts

Veterans!ModernAU - Levi Squad Edition

These are simply the result of my imagination during a zoom class (Preschool intervention if I remember correctly) and of some ideas thrown in by my best friend/roommate. Some facts were thought of from canon perspective, but most of them are just our five idiots in our everyday world. Enjoy!

Warning: Rivetra content and some swearing! If it’s not your thing and you want to hate, scroll down and move on. 

English isn’t my first language. If some sentences sound weird or wrong, let me know so I can correct them!

Word count: 1 173

Miche squad is up!

Levi 

(Inspired by this)

- He’s from Canada and speaks French. Nobody (except Mikasa) understands him when he’s cursing the others, but they are still scared shitless. When a stranger is being stupid, he makes sarcastic comments in their face by talking about it in French to Mikasa.

- He’s Mikasa’s cousin, but they might as well consider themselves siblings since they spend a lot of time at each other’s house. Both Kuchel and her younger brother, Mikasa’s father, moved for a better life…

- Introduced Eld to hockey and plays with him. Oruo tagged along one day and also got into it.

- Only lets Gunther sit at the front when he’s driving them all since Petra has horrible music taste, Eld can’t follow directions and Oruo bites is tongue to every bump on the road.

- I consider him as street smart. In this case, he learns languages effortlessly and quickly and knows how to get out of a situation by using that skill (and his fists). Never got below an A for those classes in highschool.

- Even if he doesn’t show it very well, he cares a lot about the others and actually offers the most thoughtful presents out of everyone in the squad. He’s a good listener.

Eld

- Is actually from Australia. He moved in the neighborhood when he was five but still has an accent when he speaks. He is Oruo’s next door neighbor and often goes to his house when he wants a tasty snack.

- Plays hockey and actually prefers winter over summer. He’s always down for hockey nights with the other four when the national league is broadcasting its yearly competition. He’s a very dedicated fan of Trost’s Titans.

- Was the type to put everything from his lunchbox in his sandwich. Apple sauce with a ham and mustard sandwich anyone? He still makes strange food mixes nowadays.

- He’s a great photographer and takes pictures for Petra’s shop. However, he can’t pose and often looks silly in pictures.

- Gunther’s best friend. They are THE unbeatable duo at guessing songs. They know pretty much everything from old music to K-pop.

- Plans every vacation trip even if they go oversea. Something always come up in the schedule, but those moments are the highlight of the trip. Petra and he create a travel book for each expedition, and they document it with pictures and anecdotes.

Petra

-  She’s Carla’s first child from her previous marriage. Her dad was in the army and died on duty when she was little. Zeke is a few months older, and they didn’t like each other at first. Now she tolerates him, but they have very opposite point of views in life which sparks some quarrels during diners.

- Half-German from Carla’s side and she speaks the language too.

- Her best girl friend is Nifa.

- She’s all about stationary stuff! She has a super chic bedroom with a beautifully decorated study area. She owns a Cricut machine and makes custom stuff for her friends. She gets inspiration from the people around her and their interests to create cute collections to sell on her Etsy shop.

- Played volleyball along with Hanji, Nifa, Nanaba, and Lynne, and she still coaches her high school team. (Because she mostly has support/team kills in canon, I think she was the setter and glued the team with her sportsmanship and teamwork.)

- Levi and she were the firsts of their entire group of friends to get together. However, they kept it to each other and their immediate family. The others found out when Eren asked Levi if the Ackermans were still coming over for dinner during lunch one day (dang it Eren!).

Gunther

- Fully German, but he was born in Trost and doesn’t speak the language at all.

- The only one not really into sports, but is still active enough to keep a good shape. He was a baryton saxophone player for the jazz band. That being said, he’s still able to follow hockey nights because he plays NHL on his PlayStation and follows the news.

- Levi excluded, Gunther and Petra are the last two brain cells of the group. They almost always chose each other when they did projects or small work. Out of spite, they once decided to do a team of 4 project with Moblit and Nifa instead of Eld and Oruo and to prove they carry the squad.

- Super popular on social media for some reason?

- Dad of the group since day one. He looks scary sometimes, but he’s just a big softie.

- King of the aux cord. I would trust him with my life.

Oruo

- Scottish Oruo anyone? Somehow has a German accent and tries to pick up ladies by speaking very broken Spanish? Calls himself Mr. Worldwide (will make more sense at the end of the list).

- Is favorite cookie? Oreo. “The company should feel blessed about having a cookie with a name like mine” “Oruo they were made before your parents even thought about conceiving you”.

- Because he’s a competitive little shit, he was also part of the swimming team.

- You know when a potato chip brand does a mystery flavour? He always tries to guess it with Moblit and will spend a ton of money to get the cash prize.

   > The thing is: he hates chips. “Those are an abomination why would you eat those when you have popcorn. As much as I LOVE to clean, they are messy, and the stains are hard to remove from the sofa.”

   > Moblit guesses the mystery flavor right all the time, thus making him the winner of all bets and leaving Oruo a little poorer each time.  

- He cares a lot about his friends, even if it doesn’t show because he insults everyone. HOWEVER! If anyone else tries to insult them, he’s going to throw fists and will make people cry with his insults.

- Tried to get into Harvard just to flex.

   > Newsflash: he didn’t.

- Gelgar and he are the party masters. They know how to throw a mean fiesta, and it’s almost always a huge success.

Rivetra bits

- I feel like their relationship just… happened? They were friends one day and next thing you know they were dating.

- Double dates with Mikenana or Mobuhan.

- Mikasa loves Petra and always reminds Levi to marry her one day. On the other hand, Eren was scared of Levi at first and didn’t understand what his half-sister saw in him, but he changed his mind over time. He can’t see anyone else with his big sister now.

   > On that note, Zeke can’t get over the fact that she chose to date is so called “enemy”.

- They don’t like the attention which is why they haven’t said anything for a very long time.

   > However, the other three had a little idea of what was going on, but they are best friend material and kept the info to themselves.

-  Winter. Wedding. Petra with a long sleeve dress and Levi being handsome as always.

___________________

Do we like it? Do we hate it? What happened to the Ackermans in Canada? The Jäger household dynamic would be nuts!

Please let me know your thoughts! Should I do more of these in this AU?

If you have any other verse idea and would like someone to write it up let me know! 

[plush-anon]

You worked at joanns? 😍 dream job

In all fairness, a large part (and I do mean a LARGE part) of why I enjoyed working at Joanns were the managers.

The store manager was a guy named Richard, one of maybe two or three men who worked there total, and this man was practically a saint as far as retail goes.

This was a man who would, with no hesitation, get on the floor to help customers, or hop on the registers to check customers' purchases out, or pop on to the cutting counter to cut fabric. He remembered the names of regulars, would chat and smile while getting shit done, and was the type of guy to speak slowly and softly when we had shitstains explode at us measly peons for not giving them the full cost of an item back in a return (ex $200) when they used a coupon to purchase an item to begin with and only paid a portion of the cost (ex. $150). No joke, this actually happened to me on Black Friday with a man who stood at about 6 foot with a crewcut and a snarl (the military Karen, if you would)

Richard, of course, stood at about 6 foot 5 inches, and reminded me of a ginger grizzly bear in some ways. Very few customers continued to be assholes when they asked to speak to the manager and Richard came over, smiling wide. He encouraged us to chat with the customers while we worked the cutting counter - it was a good way to learn about what they were making, encouraged general conversation and lent itself to a better environment for everyone, worker and customer alike, so we weren't just awkwardly standing in silence the whole time.

The assistant store manager (aka his second in command - we had two other assistant managers, but she wielded more power than both of them) was Farrah, and she was basically Cool Wine Aunt, but with weed. She was open about smoking it (but not in a pressure-the-underlings kind of way, but more of a 'yeah, it calms me down' kind of way) but never on the clock, and was just really chill in general. She was also a 'jump on the registers' type of manager, and on occasion would take the closing staff out to get a drink from the texmex place next to us in the shopping center, and cover one for each of us - particularly during the Holiday Clusterfuck of October, November, and December (their Frozen Kahlua Mudlslide was my alcoholic drink of choice - they also had these spicy chicken strips that were amazing with it, but I digress).

Both of them were amazing people who would support and back us up without hesitation (if they weren't dealing with corporate or stock trucks coming in), and both routinely worked 15 to 20 hours UNPAID overtime during the Holiday Clusterfuck so that we the underlings could get more hours without Corporate jumping up our ass about going over budget.

They were also refreshingly upfront in our monthly meetings about profits and meeting them, as well as why company policy was the way it was, and how to work within the boundaries so we got more hours. One of my favorite moments was when they said the fabric sales essentially covered their own cost (production and delivery); the rest of the cheap crap in the store was what covered our paycheck and electricity, so hawk it as much as you can if you want extra in the bank (paraphrasing here, but that's not that far off what they actually said tbh).

With some Karen-y exceptions, the customers were honestly pretty chill. There were two women from a nearby church who bought well over 200 yards of cut fleece to make no-sew fleece blankets for children and the poor in December (it took forever to do, but they were so cheerful about it and told some funny anecdotes in between, kept the counter clear as soon as they were cut, etc. Took them three carts to haul everything to the register XD).

There was the slew of quilters making everything from baby blankets to anniversary gifts to quilts for their grandkids attending the local university that they could wear to football games in the colder weather, while still showing team pride. They always bought quarters and eighths and the end of the bolt for half price, digging thru our remnants bin for something they might have missed they could get for half price. They always talked about what they were working on, and spoke in great detail on their kids or cousins or niblings or grandkids. I saw so many pictures on phones, in wallets, and they loved them to absolute pieces.

There were cosplayers making their first costume to comicon, halloween goers trying their hand at making their own outfits, and a few furries making custom suits for order or just updating their own personal outfit. There were the usual school and church Christmas plays that needed costumes, and folks making custom table runners and place settings for family holiday meals.

One notable young man bought out 30+ yards of our 65" inch wide bolt felt for JEWELRY projects he was making as a part of his business and as a part of his art program (you can major in art with a concentration in jewelry making, and he was using it for that). He didn't leave a card, but the pictures he showed us were STUNNING.

We had a few elderly mothers come in with their daughters, to pick out fabrics so they could make their own wedding dresses, or quinceanera outfits, or veils; they showed us the patterns they had, or the pictures they were basing the designs off of, and all of them were STUNNING. (One came back in with the finished dress in the bag, this intricately beaded poofy dress that had to have taken days, hot pink and shiny).

We had local restaurant owners pop in for re-upholstery projects and curtains and vinyl; same with teachers and deck dads and furniture restoration workers that would gush about the design, what they had planned. Some would bicker with their spouses on the pattern, but it felt good-natured on the whole.

We had some elderly men come in to peer over our sewing machines - "How much it run for? My wife's birthday is coming up and her old machine's about done, and I want to surprise her. She had a Singer, but she hates the electronic screens on some of these newer ones, they hurt her eyes." - and moms coming in to sew some custom bed sheets for their kids - "My son really likes the new My Little Pony show, but he's a little shy about it. Do you think the blue's okay? Only he like yellow more, but they don't have any back there and he doesn't MIND blue really but - Actually scratch that, how wide is the fabric? My pattern says it needs to be at LEAST 22 inches wide, does it say on the box?" - and people coming up with some WILD craft ideas that were always a delight to hear them gush about - "So this MAY seem crazy, but I can turn these plastic pumpkin trick-or-treat pails into SNOWMEN heads with felt like this. We fill them with treats for the kids since we don't have a fireplace and they like it fine, but someone said I should sell these on Etsy and people really like them! But I've run out of pumpkins, and you have NO idea how happy I am that you guys still have some left."

The group we had to work with was also pretty crafty; a few were chronic call-outs, some a bit lazy, some perpetually done-with-this-nonsense, but we were mostly on the same page on shift, and all of us were crafty as heck. The employee discount was a blessing AND a curse, lemme tell you.

Stock was the best part, for me. Hours before the store opened at 9 AM, we would rip open the boxes and stuff everything onto the shelves, organizing anything the closing shift missed the night before along the way, updating new stickers or shuffling pegs over for new product arrangement, etc. We could listen to music or podcasts as we worked, and I ended up impressing some of them bc of how fast I tore through everything some mornings (the music definitely helped out there).

I was actually about to be promoted to assistant manager after 6 months, but then I got my job with the university, and they had federal health benefits AND dental, so... yeah, no contest there. Richard actually laughed when I told him I'd been hired at the university and was giving my two week notice, since it meant he didn't have to do the slew of paperwork that accompanied new assistant manager hires. He congratulated me on the job, especially the health benefits - he said that was a perk worth leaving any job here for. I nearly cried with relief that he wasn't mad.

He and Farrah chipped in and got me a small music box that plays Man of La Mancha's Dream the Impossible Dream on my last day. It still sits on my desk at work.

It was honestly my favorite retail job out of the bunch I've suffered through. Surprising at first, since I initially received a rejection email bare HOURS after my interview with Farrah, but about a month later (as I trawled endlessly through interview after interview, desperate for anything those first few months ), I got a call back from them asking if I was still interested (which I was, bc hey a job!). They remembered me specifically bc I had missed my bus to the interview, called ahead to let them know I would be late, then walked the whole way there in the rain to get there. (It was only about a mile and a half away, so not a terrible journey, but flooding is an issue in our flat-ass city; I looked like a drenched afghan hound holding a useless umbrella, so enjoy that imagery).

They were particularly impressed by the calling-ahead part.

Unfortunately, both of them ended up moving on to different paths over the year after I left - apparently they had been friends with benefits (? I say hesitantly, since I ran into one of my coworkers at an art show later on and she spilled the beans there - she was a bit flighty in nature though, and got caught up in gossip a LOT, so who knows. Lovely brocade custom projects though), and his ex girlfriend had called corporate on them and got both fired.

I think Farrah came back some time later, but the damage was done after that - the new manager came in and operated SOLELY to corporate policy. A LOT went to pieces in terms of store cleanliness, order, and general camaraderie after that - the new fabric counter folks look and sound dead inside, and barely interact with customers (not even a 'whatcha making' in passing, which is kind of sad - the stories I got helped to pass the time, and kept me from using up all of my Set Conversation Phrases for customers that actually WOULD leave us standing in silence). Corporate also stopped some of the smaller store policies that made our job easier and gave the customers a little something extra (the 'end-of-the-bolt' discount - if, after the customer orders say, 2 yards of fabric on the bolt, and there's say, a half yard "remnant" left on the bolt, we can sell them the remnant for half-price. A LOT of quilters LOVED this, and we did too, since it saved us from filling out the remnant tag and printing a sticker later on).

Just goes to show how important good management is in a business; especially when it can kick a store previously part of the top 50 stores in the NATION (while being a medium store at that - smaller place, NOT Hobby Lobby size like the Large stores) to something much less pleasant. I could be rose-goggling the situation thought - retail is still retail, no matter how nice some aspects are - but it still sticks with me as to how good he experience was even taking into account that it WAS minimum wage retail.

Food for thought, lads, food for thought.

[kerikaaria]

Borahae Slimes Haul #4!

Oh hey look at me doing this within a more timely fashion than the others haha. I ordered every slime from this restock, so get ready for a really long one!

LOOK AT ALL THAT STUFF! All seven slimes: What’s Your Dream, The Most Beautiful Moment In Life, Lost in a Maze, U Wrong Me Right Ddaeng, Shine Dream Smile, Beautiful Prison, and Not Seven With You. Plus EXTRA candies and goodies because Dean went all out for the anniversary, the photocards and stickers, a thank you card and even a recommended playlist of a bunch of BTS’ most-loved songs over the years! To say I was excited to dig in is an understatement! I was in the middle of getting ready to move (in less than a week at the time I got the package) but I couldn’t help but get into these gorgeous slimes immediately!

As always, you can check out the Instagram (BorahaeSlimes) or blog (@borahaeslimes) for updates! Items are on sale on the Etsy shop by the same name whenever a new restock is up. Dean has been selling out INSTANTLY so be ready to buy at launch to make sure you don’t miss out on the slimes you want! And of course, if you are 18 or older, Dean writes some really awesome mxm fics over at @eternalseokjin​! Alright, time to get into the slimes!

Also, I’M SORRY I can’t make the pictures side by side.... I tried editing on mobile to do that but tumblr is dumb and keeps giving me an error and not making the changes v.v

What’s Your Dream

What’s Your Dream is based off of BTS’ debut song, No More Dream. It smells very much of a teenage boy who loves his cologne a little too much (kudos to Dean for making it a smell I can enjoy even though I usually hate cologne smells XD). The bingsu and little crystals give it a lovely texture. Even if I don’t have too much to say about some of the slimes, they’re all really great! 

The Most Beautiful Moment In Life

The Most Beautiful Moment In Life is of course inspired by the albums of the same name, and the storyline they started. I had to ask Dean how what I was supposed to do with a “jelly float” slime because I was confused lol. It was kinda cool to see the gray slime just float inside of the clear red before mixing it :) When mixed, it’s still very much a red color, just a little deeper and less clear. The smell is kind of confusing to explain. Dean describes it as “the grey city streets and the sweetness of dying youth.” It does have a bit of an underlying sweetness to the smell, and I think the other part is reminding me of an incense? Overall a very unique and pleasing smell! (Also the charms were perfect and I love the lollipops!)

Lost in a Maze

Lost in a Maze is based off of Young Forever and is a basic slime with a mini fence and some feathers for accessories. I didn’t dare let those feathers anywhere near the slime (lol), but the items certainly match the song! The smell is very soft and refreshing, so it’s a great slime for someone who wants something simple!

U Wrong, Me Right, Ddaeng

This slime was one of the ones I enjoyed the most! U Wrong, Me Right, Ddaeng is based on Ddaeng and is one of his more intricate slimes. The overall texture is so nice and the little pops of color still show through the black really easily even after being fully mixed. The smell is kind of musky. Definitely similar to an incense but personally it reminds me of some of my family’s birthday and holiday parties growing up. I had some relatives who smoked a lot and kept their house completely closed off so those smells would kinda just stick around... That sounds really gross but I promise this scent is a much cleaner smell! The slight muskiness to it just reminds me of that. :)

Shine, Dream, Smile

Shine, Dream, Smile is GORGEOUS. LOOK AT HER. SO BEAUTIFUL. So much glitter and sequins and just uuuggghhhh I love it! Definitely very fitting for a slime based on Mikrokosmos! The purple is so pretty while staying very clear, and it has a very clean, light smell that just puts a smile on my face.

Beautiful Prison

Next up is Beautiful Prison, inspired by ON. When I tell you I had a mini freak out when I saw the state that my slime came in.... It was by no fault of Dean’s! But the clay topper settled a tiny bit into the slime and there was a thin layer of slime covering it. I was so worried! But then I started to very lightly scratch at it and I luckily was able to uncover the topper good enough to get some good pics! When I say that cracking the clay topper is satisfying, I mean it. I’m not a fan of ASMR (it gives me the wrong kind of shivers, more like the kind you get from nails scratching a chalkboard lol), but those little cracking sounds were so satisfying to hear even as I felt bad for destroying that beautiful piece of art. It’s hard to describe the scent, but it is a soft, kind of nature-like smell and I really like it!

Not Seven With You

The SHOWSTOPPER of the release! Not Seven With You is of course, based on We Are Bulletproof: The Eternal and it is AMAZING! So much detail and thought went into this beauty! I was SO upset when the slime was too sticky (because it was HOT that week) when I took it out to put the clay checkboard in the bottom because that meant I’d have to let it sit overnight for the bubbles to come out. But I patiently waited until it was clear enough to get a decent picture. Not perfect, but that’s because I was just too excited to finish playing with it the next morning!

The cloud slimes that come with it provide the lilac and lily scents, and it smells so soft and beautiful! I took my time to play around with it before fully mixing. It’s just so pretty!

When I finally took all the slime out and began to mix, I felt bad for ruining that clay (once again lol) and would have missed the cloud slime texture if I didn’t get some more cloud slime as the free extra! It looked really cool and marbled as I mixed it, so of course I took another picture of that. The ending color is a purple-tinted grey because the black from the checkerboard is just too overpowering. But you’re left with a TON of slime and it’s such an AWESOME texture! I seriously adore it! It’s soft and smooth from the clay, and also airy from the cloud slimes. Kind of like a butter slime, but lighter and softer! This slime was SO AMAZING! My only regret is that I can’t undo the mixing to play with all the individual parts again lol.

Extra Slime

For the extra slime, Dean gave me a white little cloud slime that smells sweet, kind of like bubblegum! I love playing with it because I adore the soft, fluffy texture of cloud slime now that I’ve had a taste of it!

So that’s it! Another AMAZING release from the one and only Dean! Check out the shop on Instagram or here on tumblr for updates when new releases will be coming so you can be sure to get some of his amazing slimes next time! 

Also, here’s a bonus. As I mentioned at the beginning, I recently moved. And I got some shelves set up to proudly display all the slimes I’ve gotten from Dean. Here’s a picture of that!

[stronghours]

CUSTOMER SERVICE

E T S Y

Darling Fallon    Sep 3, 2013

Sensational (sin-sational!). i write on behalf of myself (S) and my lover (m). we have been ripped off by bulk-produced molded hoods before and i can only say HAND CUT LATEX ONLY never look back!! worth the money and will eventually pay for itself. neck fit like loving glove and adds dynamic intensifier to breathplay. Lovely proprietor replied prompt when “m” had questions re: breathability (she added extra breathing hole at no extra cost). class acts all around (and not just in our dungeon!) will return for more but “m” needs a break first if u get the drift lol1!! thanks to lady j!

Purchased item: DeMarco FetishWear – Latex Chrysalis Hood (translucent…

3 Helpful

  myMister   Aug 24, 2013

this one writes on behalf and with permission of MISTER. this one quaked with bliss when package arrived. truly awful to behold in the wise hands of MISTER. this one’s neck is small and delicate For His Pleasure and all item adjustments were made to order and did not affect shipping time. if this one could be so efficient For His Pleasure this one would be in heaven on earth. instead, this one is less than a hole. item truly enhanced <O sensation. without a doubt will be used over and over in this household for due punishments of this very worthless one. discrete pgk’ing. thanks to designer J for deepening this one’s service to MISTER.

(NOTE FROM MISTER – WILL PROPRIETER PLEASE PRIVATELY EMAIL TO DISCLOSE IF YOU ARE MALE/FEMALE/OTHER SO “myMister” (this one) WILL BE ABLE TO PROPERLY ADDRESS YOU IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS FORMAL ROLE)

Purchased item: DeMarco FetishWear – Throttle Collar w/ attached Gas…

1 Helpful

  JulieJuice   August 3, 2013

LOL rip-off!!! cant believe all u ppl sucking this guys dick. says everywhere in product descript. (and you guys reviews!!) that custom sizing is no additl. cost but mine cost more!! only small alteration to titty holes cause of my cleave situation. bullshit. not buying from him again.

Response from J

Hi again Julie. If you check our many enlightening inbox conversations from 7/5-7/16 you will be reminded the additional cost was due to your request of more ring hinge insertions as the standard amount in pattern block “was not bling enough”. Cleavage was irrelevant. Sizing related alterations are always no added cost. Custom alterations requiring additional materials/effort and adjusted pricing will always be discussed and approved on client end before any exchange of payment.

Purchased item: DeMarco FetishWear – Hexagon Restrictor Harness…

HELPFUL?

  HannahCakes!    Jun 1, 2013

Hey Whats Up I’m Caleb (obviously don’t have an etsy) and using my lady’s account. She got the catsuit for my birthday and she looked so sexy like J-Lo or someone. Didn’t want her doin the latex stuff because I thought shed have to shave off all her pubes and personally i like that kind of thing a lot but no harm done. Anyway she was super sexy and the suit thing looked good and stayed together even when we started rockin. To other full bush guys out there if youre girl wants to wear the latex stuff SHE CAN KEEP HER BUSH she just has to use lube to oil up the bush that she has.

Purchased item: DeMarco FetishWear – Domina Catsuit w/ Pussycat Zipper (red…

7 Helpful

  HannahCakes!   3 months ago   Friend   Ignore

Caleb Review

Hi J,

Saw my boyfriend’s 6/1 review and I was like uh ohhh. I asked him to leave one because he went gaga over the catsuit, but I wasn’t expecting all the bush stuff. If you don’t want to be associated with that and want to delete, that’s ok on my end. A little embarrassing! – Hannah!

Reply from DeMarco FetishWear    3 months ago    Friend    Ignore

Hi Hannah. Please don’t worry about it, any positive review is welcome. His feedback has apparently hit a chord with some specific hesitations and concerns buyers have been experiencing but not confiding with me, so I plan on keeping it up for the time being. Enjoy your garment.

  JoeyoftheHerd    3 months ago   Friend   Ignore

Moo-cow snout muzzle thing – (idea i had)

Hi. Is this idea good

Reply from DeMarco FetishWear    3 months ago    Friend   Ignore

Hi Joey. Are you interested in a custom cow muzzle/mask, like the pup play masks on my page or are you just brainstorming for personal reasons?

Reply from JoeyoftheHerd    3 months ago    Friend    Ignore

idk it’s just an idea i had

Reply from DeMarco FetishWear    3 months ago    Friend    Ignore

It’s a cool idea

Reply from JoeyoftheHerd    3 months ago    Friend    Ignore

Thanks man i thought so 2

1234Brett10093456    3 months ago   Friend   Ignore

I REMEMBER YOU FROM RAWHIDE

JULES yes I know who you are and I know your name are you scared yet?? I remember when you used to hang with Roscoe out at Rawhide because Roscoe pretended to hire you because he secretly wanted to fuck and suck you till you cried and I saw all that. I have brown flippy hair, blue eyes and am tall/cut versatile but lean TOP. I know you faked being gay. You heard of bi-now-gay-later but have you heard of gay-then-straight-betrayer (you)? That is fucked up that you still sell stuff but pretend to be a gay guy because that makes your stuff sell better because the gay guys want to fuck you. I know you are faking because my muscle bud Tomas (latino) saw you making out with a ginger chick at the wet bar in Entrance last week. He said it was probably a joke but I know it wasn’t because he said he saw tongue. I wont let you be a breeder without a fight. I am willing to tell EVERYBODY YOURE SECRET. But I wont if you prove to me YOU CAN STILL BE GAY. Im attaching a pic of my cock so you know im not lying and can follow through. I will only believe YOU ARE GAY if we can see each other face/face (i can host only on fri- I have two roommates) and our cocks have to touch and you have to stay hard for at least five minutes while I suck and jack your cock and tongue your balls (shave or dont i will leave that up to you). condoms ok but if you want to be a breeder so bad maybe I will just breed your ass but if youre actually a gay guy you’ll like it and cum thick ropes as I fuck your dirty little slut hole and youll tell me youre a hole while I fuck it with the shiny precum head of my cut fucking cock (7inches erect). you will smell my hole and BECOME GAY again IT WILL HAPPEN  - Brett Costino

  TheSteelyDanMan   2 months ago   Friend   Ignore

Latex & Breastfeeding Concerns

Good morning, J I hope you are well. Returning customer, here. My kajira/wife and I are splinter Gor lifestylers (NOT KAOTIANS) [link] but are currently isolated due to our deviation from standard kajira beautification ideals and the arrival of our first child (girl - Gemma) two months ago. My wife’s submission has usually been expressed fashion-wise in various strict latex outfits, a few of which you have kindly provided us over the past couple of years. Naturally, the arrival of a mini-me results in some changes! My wife, insecure after birth, wants to return to strict full-coverage latex, but this desire is at odds with her physical situation of actively nursing Gemma and we both have worries. Does the constriction of latex effect or otherwise harm milk production, or could secondhand latex exposure harm our baby? I imagine you have catered to many lifestyle situations where this might be relevant so I thought I would ask. Thanks very much. LEO

Reply from DeMarco FetishWear    2 months ago    Friend    Ignore

Hi Leo. While I have catered to many lifestyles, I’m afraid I must exercise discretion in this situation, as it would be on par with giving medical advice. I will say any allergy is a possibility and one should exercise undue care with a very young infant, not just in matters of latex. I highly encourage you and your wife to discuss this with her doctor as frankly as possible. In the long run it might be worth reevaluating aspects of your wife’s submission and temporarily making do with latex pieces that do not restrict the breasts, while nursing is a part of her daily reality (I’m sure I don’t have to tell you examples are available on my page). Best of luck and congratulations on the new addition to your family.

  NoraBarnacle    2 months ago   Friend   Ignore

A sincere offer…

Several months ago, I bought a pair of latex gauntlet gloves from your shop. Since then, astonishing changes have come over me. I used to be high-powered, highly controlled, a formidable woman (natural ash blond, green eyes, 45”-40”-44”) I was determined to keep these feelings to myself, but I can no longer resist, as I wholeheartedly believe your Dominating spirit, imbued in the gauntlets, is leading me forcefully but masterfully into your care. If it pleases you, know I have not touched my aching slit for one month total as I am uncertain whether you desire me to feel pleasure that is not approved by you. There are no images of you on your site, but I have drawn an accurate picture of you in my mind and I know you are the Man that I never knew I was waiting for, the Man who will lead me, the Man who will hold my neck and strike my forehead to his knee in his insistence that I allow myself to be led. When I wear the gauntlets, they are your own gallant hands restricting my weak bones. I can no longer resist. I can no longer resist. I can no longer resist. I can no longer resist. I can no longer resist. I can no longer resist. I can no longer resist. I can no longer resist. I do not desire to resist. Please message back so I can properly present my acquiescence, body and soul, unto you. I squat disgracefully on my plump thighs, full of whorish tremor that makes me unworthy, but still I desire. I will service your home with my ardent hands and service your thick and striving cock with my wet tongue. Respond to this small soul. I submit to your gallant wisdom – A Secret Admirer

  RicoMetals   1 month ago   Friend   Ignore

Redhead Modle in Pic for Serve Her Serrated Corselette

Hey man-to-man who is she. I love redheads. Does she modle for other people/would she modle for my pieces? there’s no head in the pick – what’s her nose situation? we could all do collab and I think it would be hot. Let me kno - RICO

Reply from DeMarco FetishWear    1 month ago    Friend    Ignore

Hi Rico. I have not blocked you (yet) because said model wanted me to reply to you first and inform you, she’s already an established performer in her own right and does not want to model for a guy who “thinks I need some sissy seamstress to pimp me out to shitty welders online”. As I only have basic welding experience, I can offer no further comment or defense on your behalf.

  DerryBerry454   1 month ago   Friend   Ignore

Inquiry re: standard leather sleep-sack dimensions

Hello Miss J, quick question:

I will buy this item no hesitation no delay if you tell me right now about your vagina. Questions I prioritize:

1.     Color labia (outer)

2.     Color labia (inner – aroused)

3.     Clit length in centimeters or whatever measurement is most flattering to you

4.     Range of clit engorgement

5.     Depth of vaginal canal (I will allow ballpark figure as I know not everyone has graded speculums lying around)

6.     Percentage of clit orgasms v. vaginal orgasms – bonus points if you describe uterine orgasm, if that is your experience (no pressure to answer last part, as I understand it is not necessarily vagina-adjacent)

7.     Are you hairy? What color?

8.     When you wash your vagina do you douche or do you use fingers to rub through labia folds and that is it?

9.     Color of menstrual blood

10.  If you wear panties, do you find the crotch of your panties degrades due to PH of your vaginal discharge? (give me the qualities and I will calculate this for you)

While a picture of your vagina is welcome (and will only be for my private use) I really do like gathering these stats (I’m kind of a nerd) and would appreciate as much openness on your behalf as possible and you will benefit too because I’ll give you money for your lovely product. Talk to you soon! 😊

  B O A R D

[RUBBERVALLEY FIENDS THREAD 3/3 2006-PRESENT] TOPICS: 850 POSTS: 10,356

DungeonMaster (MOD 2): Hey people, we’ve reached the end of the summer and you know what that means – Ivan himself of the halls of Rubber Valley presents inaugural post of their annual sweeps week filming extravaganza – first photoset already up and we’ve got the goddamn brilliant LYDIA SUCKS sons! The greatest bitch on the face of the planet almost psyched us out but she’s here she’s low and she’s ready to blow. Vid upload will probably take till tomorrow to render but we’ve got some great pic galleries already. Ivan really spoiling us pigs lmfao. Seeing lots of setup and dress-up and behind scenes stuff for yall candid pervs. We’ve got full body latex and face coverage hoods and I see a breathing tube and the barn inversion setup. Possible inverted ceiling fuck? The boys can dream. Links to download pics results in PERMABAN – only official links to Rubber Valley site allowed, don’t know how often I have to say it. You want to pass ripped screenshots you do that through email *casts pearls before swine*

GOBgobGOB: no pic of lyds upside down yet ☹

LordJim: Not interested until I see Ivan haul out the FuckRacers from two years ago – wonder why he doesn’t bring those around more often? Great view stats on current vids and who doesn’t like a fat ass getting auto-fucked while she steers the go-cart supine?

SUCKPUNTER: lmfao all views are you bro

GOBgobGOB: D I R E C T H I T

SUCKPUNTER: hey lordjim where’d you learn the word supine

LordJim: Yeah “laugh out loud” very funny guys.

SUCKPUNTER: did you learn it at college

DungeonMaster (MOD 2): Lydia looks gr8 folks. Queen pristine and ready to cream. SUCKPUNTER – chill out because I’ve got my eye on you. Don’t take the bait Jim. You’re like thirty.

SUCKPUNTER: at least I don’t get off on bitches doing the pinewood derby

LockSTOCK2FUCKINGBARRELS: LYDIA!

GOBgobGOB: LYDIA!!!

McLovin: LYDIA LYDIA LYDIA

TheWorldofMartinAmis: Goddess. Wish she’d get her boobs done though.

LockSTOCK2FUCKINGBARRELS: same! I’ve been waiting for years for her to get into xtreme body mod. Right up her alley. If she’s at EXXXOTICA EXPO next year I’m going to try to get her meet and greet and ask. I know tattoo guys who’d pay HER to give her first tat.

McLovin: Lydia wouldn’t go. She’s like indie transgressive.

DungeonMaster (MOD 2): nice to see you again lockSTOCK. I see your POV but Lydia has several interviews where she says most of her viewers see her bod as a clean palate in the art of pain – as in, wounds have to go away in order for us to appreciate a fresh ruining ; ) tats and huge implants are a little tougher to work around. Anyway in my mind you can fix bad tits but you can’t fix bad attitude

ThatOneFootGuy: id suck her feet

McLovin: woah fuck 4th latex pic in dressing series with her mouth open and her eyes shut – who the lube guy with his arm right down her front?

SUCKPUNTER: lol hand clear to her pussy and hes not even hard faggot

McLovin: scope the ginger amazon in the background with camera – new girl? Don’t recognize. Didn’t know Ivan was bringing new people around this year’s sweeps.

LordJim: I wondered too when I saw. I’m sure DungeonMaster mod understands if I copy/paste following from Ivan (no pics, text w/actress info):

Newcomers are always welcome in RUBBER VALLEY (especially if they’re lovely, and especially if they’re ladies!) and this old goat is pleased to welcome DOMME LUX, our friendly neighbor down south in that little town called Chicago. Mysterious as she is alluring, you’ll see her shining light sampling tidbits of delight off our Valley Girls throughout the uploads this month (or even taking a crack at a couple!) We’re just getting to know her, but I have a feeling she’s a generous gal at heart as she kindly offered us the services of her Personal Valet, Jules DeMarco, who himself spoiled us all year with devious latex devices for our steadfast daring dollies after the unfortunate 2012 passing of our beloved torture designer Merrick Marvel (memoriam post 03/04/2012). Check out Jules’s Half-Bag Breast Mummifier in scheduled post 7/22 (Heather Bunny in the inverted Wench Wrench) the diabolical Arachnae-Hood (Lacey Jane, spinning in our trusty Landscape(her) Rolling Pin 7/16) and the Double-Fuck Full Body Boa Binder with eerie inflatable bubble hood (Lydia Sucks, finale post 7/31, don’t miss it, SUBSCRIBE). I must confess, we took advantage - the poor fella ran himself ragged helping us with film prep all week. So as an apology we let him get up close and personal with Rubber Valley’s reigning heroine LYDIA SUCKS fitting her in a custom four-limb black latex catsuit with half-face hood, made especially for her brave beautiful bod. He takes a good long time greasing her up before Ivan and Barry get her hoisted and joisted and in her best bitch-bat position among the rafters of the exalted Rubber Valley barn, where we leave her to squirm in terror! (but let’s get real – what scares Lydia? We’re wracking our brains!) Uh-oh, is Domme Lux looking jealous in the background? Is she plotting a little comeuppance for our Lovely Lady Lydia? Only one way to find out – SUBSCRIBE!

DungeonMaster (MOD 2): Np lordjim, if you hadn’t posted I was going to. Looks like we’ve got fresh meat in the valley.

TheWorldofMartinAmis: very pretty girl, but always bummed when a new one turns out to be top. Call me old fashioned, I come to the Valley for slaves.

SUCKPUNTER: firecrotch

GOBgobGOB: brb too busy crankin it. milky gingerbread titties come to daddy

McLovin: @TheWorldofMartinAmis, Ivan always has at least one femdom around. Room for everybody in the valley

LockSTOCK2FUCKINGBARRELS: holy shit I know that guy.

SUCKPUNTER: lmfao faggots know faggots

LockSTOCK2FUCKINGBARRELS: no for real. His real name is Jules Marinelli. I worked with him one summer lifeguarding beaches for the park’s district. Our boss found his website where he sells his sex stuff, and it was this whole big thing. Found the kink club Entrance through that (check it out if you’re in my hood ever – huge, clean, not too much gay shit, great ladies of all stripes hanging around, but limits on drinking if you’re trying to access certain levels). He’s bi. He’s either secretly Domme Lux’s slave or Domme Lux is his slave and it’s mega on the DL because it’d hurt her career if it got out she could ‘verse. There’s all this gossip.

SUCKPUNTER: bi guys r fags

DungeonMaster (MOD 2): SUCKPUNTER – that’s strike one. lockstock – not deleting your post because from what I can see JDM doesn’t/isn’t acting in explicit scenes, but let’s cool it with doxxing info. Looks like he’s had an experience with that before, and as a small business owner myself, I know how it can suck. We aren’t gossiping high school girls. Settle back and enjoy what Ivan gives us.

GOBgobGOB: *sees dudes in the chat and stops jacking off*

LockSTOCK2FUCKINGBARRELS: NP mod, feel free to delete it later before it causes problems.

TheWorldofMartinAmis: going back to previous discussion – don’t think a breast job automatically constitutes body modification

DungeonMaster (MOD 2): think about it martinamis, it’s a slippery slope – you want to see some swollen battered fish get destroyed, or a fresh natural girl get destroyed?

SUCKPUNTER: i am not a faggot and a whore’s a whore and im here to see whores fucking destroyed

GOBgobGOB: *tony soprano voice* she was a HOOOOER

SUCKPUNTER: fag or cunt all whores get fucked

LordJim: Mod, step up. This isn’t going to get better. With all due respect

SUCKPUNTER: fag or cunt ALL WHORES GET FUCKED

DungeonMaster (MOD 2): yeah, already done. That should be the last of him. Don’t know why I expected that situation to turn out differently.

  FROM: lydias-verified@terrorproductions.com

TO: JulesDM86@gmail.com

Subject: Debrief – valley week

Jules,

As discussed, attached is current info for my old webmaster service from when I had to run my own fansite. Decent price and decent vendor system. Can only be an improvement on what you have now. That is not an insult, but I know it sounds like one. Stay with me.

[link] [link] [link]

And above, the top three most trafficked boards I’ve found following my own career and the rubber valley gang. We’ve caused quite a stir already and its only July 15th. I wouldn’t count on this causing an uptick in your business, but I think you know that. The standard gentleman at home spending twenty bucks a month for guaranteed links to a woman being fucked inside out while wearing a sensory deprivation hood simply doesn’t translate him to spending 100-200 dollars, contacting a seller, taking measurements, and going through the effort to order he and his special girly the hood itself. But I know you believe you’ve chosen your life the same way I believe I’ve chosen my life and won’t whine. I will say, if your ego is bruised, that your clothes are wonderful. They feel maybe half like death. I’ll wear them again and again.

On a funnier note: I have accounts myself on all the above message boards and post semi-regularly. It might amuse you to do the same thing, but you need to be careful regarding your identity. Feedback from viewers is never relevant, but it needs to be pure (don’t ask me why – my brains are fucked out). I won’t tell you who I am, and you won’t tell me who you are. Maybe we’ll find each other.

I wouldn’t tell your Cathy, since some sensitive (if inaccurate) information is flying around. Your instinct towards privacy, while cute and old fashioned, is an apt instinct. Looks like the good people of Chicago can’t keep their fucking mouths shut. Will you be able to find a straight job if your work now goes up like a dead dog’s gut? Don’t despair. Your nice long cock dropped so well down my throat while your Cathy beat my clit with the edge of your belt (nice touch – whose idea was that?) so while you might not get another chance to perch in a lifeguard’s throne, you might very well have a future in film. You’re vigorous, discrete, disciplined, clean, and a cutie-pie. Have your Cathy make some films of you alone or you two together. It’ll excite her, so you have no choice but to be excited yourself. You’re excited reading this. You believe you chose this.

Anyway – Cathy! Don’t be insulted on her behalf. I loved playing with you both. She’s kind and a lot of fun, which are virtues I still let myself appreciate in others. Let her know I appreciate how she let me use you. She’s a good girl and has a good future in store, especially with her personal valet running her life. Pick her outfits, pick her makeup, pick her clients, pick her laundry soap – is it already like that? I want to be buried alive, but you want to be buried in chores. Please dream big, Jules.

Rubber valley is where I have the most fun out of all the shoots I have in a year, but I really was lucky that you two showed up. Poor old Merrick Marvel (not even that old – colon cancer). But out with him and in with you. I enjoyed our river talk and I felt very safe in the car with you at the wheel, though I know I tormented you a little (but I’m pretty sure Cathy helped you out later with that – will you write back to me what she did to you, and if she let you come?) At one point you were with Ivan in the garage, and I tried to have a little talk with her about oblivion, but she either understood my point and got scared, or simply didn’t understand. It’s unfortunate, kind of soul-sucking, how our dominant “loved ones” transform into necessary evils. Adjust the tube. Grasp the handle. Move the thigh. Use the vocal cord to form the order. But what do they know? I never knew how to explain.

I’ve attached some personal pictures of me. I like knowing that you have them. I won’t contact you again except under strict business purposes, so let me sum up. Serve Cathy well. Don’t let her get bullied. Flourish creatively. Keep that belt. Fuck as often as your body commands you to fuck (if I suspect that sometimes your body is Cathy’s body by proxy, then this number will double, perhaps triple, but the choice is out of your hands because she owns your cock). You have a lot of growing up to do. Don’t despair. More to come.

We won’t see each other soon, but we’ll see each other again. Ciao! 

I expect improvements.

XOXOXOXOXOXOX

Lydia S

[tots-n-chocs]

@dugle wrote such a good prompt for a great Symbrock fic :

I like the idea of Venom getting bored at night while Eddie sleeps so he picks up quiet hobbies like knitting or drawing. He ends up getting surprisingly good at them and they end up having a bunch of random craft projects Venom’s made. Eddie makes Venom an Etsy page.

and I literally couldn’t help myself. (Hope I did the prompt justice, sorry it’s not longer, I’ve got a heck of a lot of other fics on the go right now aaa a a)

-------

It was surprising how boring five hours could be. 

Contrary to Eddie’s belief, it wasn’t like Venom could sit and watch his dreams like a television show. There wouldn’t be a problem if he could. Eddie had even suggested watching television while he was sleeping, since their attachment to each other would allow him to be in the living room while he slept in the bedroom, but it was a decision he’d quickly changed after it started keeping him up at night. Eddie said it was like he was still watching the television, but it was like doing it through a tunnel filled with fog. (Venom couldn’t believe Eddie told him that he was the one with the weird use of English when he would come out with stuff like that from time to time.)

So watching television was out. 

The laptop was fun for a while - Wikipedia made him glad that the human race hadn’t been wiped out. But stuff that didn’t really apply to Eddie or have anything to do with him quickly lost its charm. He began to notice that his nights spent reading articles on Wikipedia were providing Eddie’s brain with enough stimulus that he wasn’t getting proper deep sleep and decent rest, and that concerned him enough to drop it. Eddie was always worried about him being bored and lonely at night, so he told him he was fine, but Venom lived in his body - he could see beyond the lies into the truth of the deepening bags under his eyes. 

(He still wasn’t sure what made a lie ‘white’ - if it was untrue, it was a lie, even if it was for a ‘good’ reason. Good and bad were still concepts he was learning about too. Wikipedia couldn’t tell him the differences between good and bad that would allow him to judge whether a person was edible or not. He wondered where Eddie had got his scale on good/bad vs edibility from.) (Eddie still maintained that it was a feeling he would understand one day. Unless he saw someone committing a crime. But even then there were scales of badness for crimes too.)

Earth was a difficult place.

Venom was glad every single day that he had Eddie to live on it with.

After the laptop was no longer an option he spent many nights in silence, either sitting inside Eddie’s body, quietly monitoring everything about his host from the inside, or draped over him like a blanket, cording through his fingers softly or travelling along his skin and waiting for him to wake up. It was a lonely, boring five hours. (Wikipedia had told him that humans were supposed to sleep for eight to function at their best, but Eddie only ever slept for five or six at most. Venom lectured him about his unhealthy sleep schedule most nights.)

It was actually Eddie who first suggested the knitting. 

They were in a classier part of the city, trying to find a present for Anne’s birthday, when they walked past a quaint little shop full of wool in the window. Something made them pause and gave Eddie a thought. They entered the shop with a little chime of a bell above the door, and the small old lady behind the counter smiled pleasantly. He returned it a little awkwardly. His nose wrinkled as he went further into the store.

You do not like the smell of this place. Venom rumbled into his mind.

“Reminds me of the cardigans my grandmother used to knit me when I was a kid,” Eddie replied quietly with a shudder, making sure he was facing away from the old lady.

Venom was treated to flashes of memory; a little kid with messy brown hair and a graze on his cheek scratching incessantly at an itchy black woolen cardigan, other kids yelling names at him, and the determination to keep wearing the itchy horrible piece of clothing so he didn’t offend his grandmother. 

Something warm bloomed in Venom at the memories of his perfect Eddie, and he used a thin tendril to subtly stroke his cheek before he hid away under his skin again. Eddie scoffed, suddenly embarrassed.

He’d ended up asking the old lady what the best wool for a beginner would be, much to Venom’s confusion - he wanted to knit the clothing he hated from his memory? And came away from the store with a bundle of wool, two long thin pieces of plastic and a book on knitting.

(They got Anne a little ceramic cat that Eddie said looked like the cat he wasn’t allowed to eat whenever they went to visit.)

Venom spent the first few nights reading the book Eddie had bought him, cover to cover, before he even attempted to use the knitting needles. It seemed easy enough in theory. Then he began to knit. It ended up being the perfect occupation for him while Eddie slept - since it was repetitive but interesting, and it was perfectly quiet aside from the clicking of the needles, which was apparently a soothing sound? 

But Eddie woke up for the first week of him starting covered in tangled wool, the knitting needles embedded in the wall where Venom had thrown them in frustration. 

He encouraged Venom to stick with it, sure that his dexterity would increase every time he tried, and concerned about the increasing number of holes in his bedroom wall. In the end the idea of finally finding something to occupy the five hours he spent alone was enough to keep him returning to the difficult activity every night. 

Then he started to get it.

Venom’s knitting got better and better. He would smugly present a tiny hat to Eddie in the morning, modelling it on his head and making Eddie try it on too. (It never fit him but he always said it looked great.) The first project that kept him occupied for over a month’s worth of five hours a night was a full-sized scarf in black wool, that he handed over to Eddie with so much pride it leaked over and they both beamed at the slightly misshapen accessory. Eddie wore it every single day until Venom got jealous and hid it, demanding to be his scarf again.

After a while Eddie had an entire drawer full of hats and scarves and the old lady at the wool store knew him by name. When he ran out of wool one night he woke Eddie up so that they could go there and get more, though Eddie just turned over and moaned that it was too early and something about how he’d made a monster. 

Eddie, he said with excitement as they approached it the next morning, Eddie there’s a sale on. We can afford more than usual. Put more in the basket. All of those. And this one. And these.

“Oh God.”

Eventually they ran out of space in the hat and scarf drawer. Eddie suggested he should start making them for homeless people. It wasn’t quite as motivating as knitting for Eddie himself, but he was so proud and happy when he got to hand over bags of knitted accessories for the less fortunate, that Venom found it was enough. It was worth it for that glow of pride. All for him.

It was when he started being able to make more than one item a night that Eddie decided they could keep making them for free for the homeless, but they could start to sell some of them too. Apparently there was a place on the internet they could put his creations and people would want to buy them? Eddie would package them up and send them away, and that meant they could keep affording the materials to make even more. He started diversifying into sweaters and cardigans (much to Eddie’s disgust) and they had enough orders to buy better quality wool. There were always boxes to post, and people sent them pictures of themselves in the things he made.

Eddie laughed one day as they were packaging up a large order and when Venom asked what was funny he said that these customers had no idea that they were buying something knitted by a huge predatory alien with teeth as big as his hand that lived inside him. He didn’t see what was amusing about that.

It was surprising how productive five hours could be.

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, early October 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across in the first part of October, although some may be older than that.

[I am out of town for nearly a week in late October, so don’t expect another update until the end of the month at the earliest.]

Just a reminder - you don’t need to read everything here! I try to organize the material by topic and provide a brief summary so that you can easily skip things you don’t need to read. 

I’ve tried to improve the layout for better readability, by bolding key words in each paragraph - do you find that helpful, or too hard on the eyes?  Leave a comment below, email me through my website, or send me a message on Twitter.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

14 elements that will help your product pages get sales. Trust badges & reviews can really make a difference. Also, here’s a really simple explanation of how your descriptions should try to sell the product: “Bridge the gap between features and benefits: A feature is essentially a fact about your product or offer. The benefit mainly answers how a feature is useful for your customer. Tell them exactly “how” a particular feature is useful for them, and “why” they should make this purchase. Product descriptions that bridge the gap between features and benefits can lessen buyer’s guilt and ease the buying decision.” 

It’s time for holiday season forecasts! Halloween spending is expected to be steady. While some are predicting up to a 4-5% increase in US November-December retail spending this year, others are worried about consumer debt. There is still “a stubborn wealth gap in the United States that appears to be once again worsening and in fact is "the biggest it’s ever been." The Gini index, a standard economic measure of income inequality, for the U.S. in 2018 was "significantly higher" than 2017, after widening steadily for the last 50 years, according to a Sept. 26 report from the U.S. Census Bureau.” Note that online retailers are finding that the holiday season is less crucial than it used to be, since people shop online all year now. “...the holiday season accounted for almost 24% of all retailers’ sales in the late 1990s, but is closer to 21% today.” Finally, “A late Thanksgiving this year, falling on Nov. 28, means there are six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than in 2018. In fact, 2019 is the shortest possible holiday calendar scenario”.[emphasis added by me]

Kansas state tax collection on online sales is in question after the lack of a minimum on revenue or orders is criticized. The dictate kicked in October 1st, requiring any business selling anything in the state to register, which didn’t exempt small businesses as other states have done. This is important - if they manage to apply this tax to even the smallest businesses, and win any court challenges, other states are likely to follow suit. 

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy released a new stats page last week, which like most things they do these days, isn’t finished yet. You can read the announcement here, and a more detailed explanation here, including a discussion of the conversion rate numbers now provided. [I don’t find those very useful on Etsy, as I find I get a lot of visits that are not from buyers, such as people checking out my SEO.] Also note that there will be a Q & A thread this week in the forum, starting October 14th at 10 am EDT. 

When a listing is clicked from any search, there is now a link at the top saying “Back to search results” which only goes to page one of the search on Etsy, not the page you were on. It even does this when someone clicks on your item from a search of your shop. 

They made some recent improvements to the buyer app, including integrating shop names into the regular search. No need to tag with your exact shop name! (Mobile & desktop search also work the same way; the app was the last hold out.)

More holiday marketing tips continue to roll out, including this one on merchandising. It includes a list of holidays at the end (although Canadian Thanksgiving was just 5 days away on the date of publication, so that seems to have been a waste of space). Potentially more useful to some of us is the transcript of the podcast on shopper behaviour during the holidays. [includes links to the podcast if you would rather listen] “9% of our buyers do the bulk of their shopping in late December right before the holidays” and “On Etsy specifically, searches around the holidays spike for gifts in conjunction with a descriptor of the recipient. We see searches like “gifts for grandma,” “gifts for boyfriend,” and “unique gift for a friend” spike.” Finally, “In terms of uniqueness, 90% of Etsy buyers would rather give a unique or one-of-a-kind gift.” They also cover some specific research on holiday shopping patterns in the UK & Germany, compared to the US. 

There is a new help file on search called Beginner’s Guide to Etsy Search, and while it is up to date, I am not sure why it is needed, when they already have a page (they even link to it) called “How Etsy Search Works”, which isn’t as up to date. If they are planning on releasing new instructions, as they told me months ago, they are going about it really, really slowly. 

Etsy Ireland lost money last year, apparently due to the DaWanda deal. “Etsy, whose mission is to “keep commerce human”, faced a wave of criticism from users after designating its business in Ireland as an unlimited liability company in 2015 so that it didn’t have to publicly disclose financial information about the unit. The company has, however, published annual accounts for the subsidiary for both 2017 and last year.”

Meanwhile, free shipping & Etsy Ads have produced quite a stock boost for the main company. “KeyBanc’s comments were echoed by Canaccord Genuity, which earlier this week wrote that the company’s initiatives were driving “robust growth and improving profitability.” Analyst Maria Ripps called free shipping “an important step in bringing Etsy’s platform closer to par” with other e-commerce leaders like Amazon.com Not only will free shipping improve “consumer perception around the platform,” but she estimated that it could add upside of 3%-5% upside to 2020 estimates for both revenue and adjusted Ebitda. The company’s Etsy Ads initiative, she added, “should ultimately attract high affinity customers with strong repeat purchase behavior.”  Also, they noted that no major analysts no recommend selling the stock - most say “buy”, with a few saying “hold”. 

Etsy partnered with Blackrock Emergency Savings Initiative to help US sellers deal with the financial pressures of self-employment. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Google’s advice on how to get your category pages to rank well is worth reading: among other things, you shouldn’t keyword stuff. 

If you want your content to get the featured “0” position at the top of Google search, you should check out this article on featured snippets, or this Whiteboard Friday from Moz. [video & transcript]

More analysis of Google’s September core update shows that it may not have been as dramatic as the June update, but “your money, your life” (YMYL) sites still seem the most affected. SEMRush said the biggest winners were “DailyMail, eBackPage.com, lasd.org and marionschool.net. The biggest losers were TheFourMusic.com, Monks.org, BraidingClub.com, PascoLibraries.org and RoyalCaribbean.com.au.” Other case studies saw a lot of change in health and medical sites. 

Another study states that websites still get most of their traffic from organic search. 

If your own website isn’t ranking on Google, there are numerous fixable reasons, although some are more difficult than others. 

Google says that HTML sitemaps aren’t necessary to good SEO. 

If you are getting less organic traffic to your Patreon page recently, that could be because their SEO team accidentally de-indexed the entire site. It’s been fixed, but it could affect some pages for the next few weeks, if Google doesn’t recrawl you right away. 

YouTube is the 4th most visited website, so improving your YouTube SEO can provide a huge boost in traffic. 

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails) 

Facebook’s experiment on hiding like counts has rolled out in Australia. (Articles looks at the sociological studies behind this)

Instagram launched an account posting tips for “creators”, which the author notes does not focus on making money off of that content. 

They have also expanded their Shopping part of the app, however, which is about making money. 

And IG has released a Snapchat challenger called Threads, a standalone app run by Facebook. Techcrunch did a more detailed review & analysis. Right now, it doesn’t have any ads & they say they have no plans to add them. 

Hubspot uses their own Snapchat account experience as a case study in how to make Snap work for business. (includes video & step-by-step instructions, if you are new to Snapchat.)

Twitter and Tweetdeck had a bad outage for several hours October 1-2, and it still isn't clear what happened. 

If you use Twitter for your business, you should also be using Twitter lists. (I use Tweetdeck to organize mine.)

Now that it is working again, here are the best-performing hashtags on Twitter over the past few years. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS) 

Hubspot’s comprehensive guide to Google Ads is completely up to date for all new developments, and covers search ads as well as ads across Google’s network. [video and text]

They also put out a Facebook ad checklist, with video, text & screenshots. 

And they also did a guide to YouTube advertising. [video and text]

Research and ad placement are key to getting better conversion from Facebook ads. 

Gen Z (younger than millennials) don’t yet have full purchase strength as a cohort, but they influence buying in their households after seeing ads on Snapchat. Since Gen Z shows the least brand loyalty of any generation, it's necessary to reach them in new ways.

Shopify now has an integration with Microsoft Ads, which include all Verizon properties (Yahoo, AOL). More than 116 million Americans use Bing searches each month in some way. 

LinkedIn has improved its ad tools, including audience forecasting. 

Quora has improved ad targeting; they say they have over 300 million monthly users. 

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING 

Advanced tips for site search in Google Analytics can get more out of the data than you thought was there.  

Facebook will likely be paying out $40 million to settle a lawsuit for grossly overreporting video watching stats, including video ads. 

Google Search Console is now reporting a lot fewer links for websites than in the past; it’s not clear if this is a bug or not. 

The Console is now reporting on your videos.

Everything you need to know about Pinterest Analytics. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS 

If you use abandoned cart emails on your website, make sure they are optimized for conversions. 

Ecommerce fraud rates are definitely increasing. “... digital goods have seen such an increase in fraud because they often have a streamlined purchase process that requires less information than other items.”

Google launched its new Shopping pages, which is not the same as Google Shopping but is connected to it, and allows buyers to check out on Google rather than retailer websites. 

Amazon apparently surveyed Handmade sellers recently asking how they felt about Amazon Handmade.

Will Amazon face consequences in the US for its competitive activities? It’s looking more likely now. “Bloomberg reported in August that Amazon was dropping sellers' products in searches on its site if they priced a product cheaper on rival sites, behavior the news service noted could draw antitrust scrutiny.”

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

We all have difficult customers occasionally - here are 9 tips on how to deal with them. 

While most web browsing happens on mobile, desktop users are still way more likely to buy. They also spend more than mobile buyers. 

Gen Z members plan on doing most of their holiday shopping in physical shops this year (just like baby boomers), but many will do research online first. Also, “Forty-two percent of shoppers said that low prices are the top motivator for making purchases and 31% said free shipping was also a shopping incentive.”

Offering fewer options can lead to more sales. (The article has great suggestions on different ways to use this info.)

MISCELLANEOUS 

Vimeo app Magisto is facing a class-action lawsuit over holding biometric data without the owners’ permission.

Haven’t heard much about the EU privacy law lately? It turns out that businesses that are GDPR-compliant are more successful than those that are not. The shocker is that only 28% of the companies surveyed were actually completely compliant, so this may be correlation and not causation. Also, the results were self-reported, so maybe not that accurate. 

Here’s a decent list of free website builders, but I strongly suggest doing your own research on any that sound good, as the writeup isn’t very detailed. (The Etsy forum is a very good place for some of this research, as you can ask very specific questions of people who probably have similar needs to yours.)

Chrome is going to block embedded content that isn’t from an https site, beginning in December. [if your website isn’t yet https, get on that right away - it is going to become more & more crucial for being seen.]

[coppolafrancis]

Beware the Evil Eye. Or Buy One, Just for Kicks

“From the disease of conceit/Give ya delusions of grandeur/And a evil eye...”

— Bob Dylan, “Disease of Conceit”(1989)

Search the phrase “evil eye jewelry” on Etsy, the e-commerce website for handmade and vintage items, and more than 71,000 items appear. It’s a staggering result, but not so surprising when you consider how many people, well, acknowledge the evil eye.

Throughout history, across cultures and religions around the world, people have feared the malevolent gaze of someone who envies another’s good fortune and wishes him harm.

Their defense? Charms like the evil-eye amulet, a bead or disc with a rendering of an eye — sometimes with a bright blue iris, sometimes with a black iris surrounded by circles of white and deep blue or aqua. Any visitor to the bazaars of Greece and Turkey or the shuks (covered markets) in Israel will be familiar with the myriad ways that those blue, white and black glass beads can be incorporated into necklaces, bracelets and other adornments.

So the allure goes way beyond high school backpack charms or something for Coachella.

In fact, when Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was seen wearing an Alemdara evil-eye necklace and then a bracelet during her trip to Africa this fall — the latter (was it deliberate?) on the day when the public learned she had filed suit against a British newspaper for publishing a private letter — it became clear that the style had entered the fashion mainstream.

A Bit of History

The desire for protection against the evil eye is nothing new.

Amulets in the shape of idols with incised eyes made by the Mesopotamians were discovered during excavations in Syria and date to 3300 B.C. In “The Evil Eye: The Origins and Practices of Superstitions,” written in 1895, Frederick Elworthy said, “It is firmly believed by all ancients that some malignant influence darted from the eyes of envious or angry persons, and so infected the air as to penetrate and corrupt the bodies of both living creatures and inanimate objects.” (He also wrote of the ancient Egyptians and their use of the Eye of Osiris, one of their gods, in amulets to protect them against evil magic, both during life and in the afterlife.)

Belief in the evil eye is said to be strengthened among followers of Islam by verses 51 and 52 of the Al-Qalam Surah in the Quran: “And indeed, those who disbelieve would almost make you slip with their eyes when they hear the message, and they say: Indeed, he is mad. But it is not except a reminder to the worlds.”

And the Old Testament of the Bible refers to the evil eye in Proverbs 23:6, cautioning, “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats.”

Glass beads appeared in the Mediterranean in about 1500 B.C., as glass production became more sophisticated, and evil-eye beads became popular among the Phoenicians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans and Ottomans. Many historians have theorized that, as dark-eyed people were the norm in the region, those with blue eyes were considered most skilled at using the evil eye, likely leading to the prominent use of blue in protective amulets.

But the evil eye also appeared in both Celtic and Polish folklores. “There is nothing more dreaded by the people, nor considered more deadly in its effects, than the Evil Eye,” Lady Jane Francesca Wilde (the playwright’s mother) wrote in her 1887 book, “Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland.”

And Today

There is no way to quantify how many evil-eye amulets there are in world, but it is hard to dispute their popularity.

During Mariella Tandy’s first pregnancy, her Turkish mother-in-law gave her what she described as a “beautiful, historic” evil-eye bracelet. It became the inspiration for Alemdara, her fine jewelry e-commerce business, and its Didem bracelet, (275 pounds, or $355) is a reproduction.

“My girlfriends all loved her bracelet and asked me to please get them one,” Ms. Tandy said. “I couldn’t find anything but very cheaply made items, but my friends were still interested, so I thought I’d create bracelets for them and the business grew from there.”

Her customers range from age 2 to 94. They include 20-somethings who buy the jewelry, made by skilled Turkish artisans, as bridesmaids gifts and older women who choose them for pregnant friends.

“They’re often given during a happy time in life for best wishes and good luck,” said Ms. Tandy, adding that once the duchess wore her jewelry, sales grew 25 times compared with the same period last year. “A lot is made of the negative aspect, but in my experience, it has always been a happiness thing and an insurance policy, just in case.”

In Africa, the duchess’s choices were a turquoise version of the Didem bracelet and the Altan necklace (£450), which has both a small diamond pavé Hand of Hamsa and an evil-eye charm on an 18-karat gold chain.

In Toronto, Jessica Handelman, owner of the online fine jewelry site Jessica Jewellery, echoed the idea that evil-eye jewelry purchases from her line are increasingly fashion statements rather than responses to superstition. “Even a few years ago, the evil eye was more of a religious symbol that people wore for protection,” Ms. Handelman said. But “in the last two or three years, it has become more of a trend and a fashion statement than a meaningful symbol for a lot of my clientele.”

“I think it appeals to people because it’s unique and a pop of color,” she said. “The designs these days vary a lot and there are so many different ways to present an evil eye: an eye, a circle, and with or without lashes.”

Most of the women who buy her evil-eye pieces are 20 to 35, said Ms. Handelman, who, in a nod to Jewish tradition, has pinned a blue bead to her infant daughter’s stroller for protection.

Even the Aga Khan Museum gift shop in Toronto sells both evil-eye jewelry and evil-eye objects for the home. Shoheb Gwaduri, the shop’s senior retail operations manager and product development specialist, said Western customers “want the typical evil eye that doesn’t cost much to put on their luggage or wear as a fun thing. People from the Eastern world want something more elaborate or intellectual that they can discreetly bring into their home.”

For instance, the shop carries limited edition jewelry by Nadia Dajani, who is of Palestinian descent, and her pieces always contain one turquoise bead symbolizing the evil eye. “People often ask if it’s a mistake,” Mr. Gwaduri said.

Tradition

Sabine Main, 46, a daughter of Lebanese emigrants to Canada, was given her first piece of evil-eye jewelry at her baptism. “It was a tradition in my family that when a child was baptized, she was given a gold necklace with charms and one was the evil eye,” she said. “They’re keepsakes and I’ll pass it along to my niece one day.”

She views them as symbols of religious belief and considers herself too pragmatic to wear an evil eye. But Ms. Main bought her sister what she described as a “super-trendy necklace with an evil eye” as a Christmas present recently because, she said, her sister is much more attached to tradition.

“I don’t truly believe an evil eye is going to protect me,” Ms Main said, “but when I see one, it definitely tugs on my heartstrings because it’s part of the culture.”

Helen Lasthiotakis, 57, is the daughter of Greek immigrants. Although she always knocks on wood when she praises someone, she said she had never worn an evil-eye ornament until last summer when her daughter, a graduate student, gave her a bracelet: “My daughter and I were each going through a rough patch, and she saw the bracelets on sale at the airport in Greece, so she got a couple and said we should each wear one.”

Ms. Lasthiotakis said she put the glass bead bracelet on her wrist and has not removed it.

“It’s not as if I’m an avid believer,” she said, displaying the bracelet. “It’s not something I would have bought for myself, but it’s protection channeled through my daughter’s love.”

It is not only women of a certain age who have evil-eye jewelry in their collections. Rachel Frydman, 29, received an evil-eye bracelet as a gift from a friend. The Toronto social worker, a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, said she is not superstitious about the piece, “but it is a very casual, noncommittal way to connect to Judaism and Jewish tradition.”

“I know that evil-eye jewelry is trendy and fashionable,” she said, “so I’m not surprised to hear that the Duchess of Sussex wears it.”

The 14 k white gold necklaces will make any outfit pop while reminding you to stay positive.

[comfsy]

The Legal Nomads 2019 Gift Guide: Art and Jewelry

I did my first ever holiday gift guide for travelers a few years ago, which was fun to compile. Readers seemed to enjoy the various items, and I was happy to share some of the products that accompanied me on the road. This year, I wanted to do something a little different. For starters, my life is a little different – something all of you already know. As a result, my own gifts to family and friends aren’t souvenirs from far-away places, but fun things I’ve discovered online. I wanted to share some of them here, especially as many are small businesses like myself.

I completed the resulting creative gift guide later than expected, because I could only type in 20 minute increments. I hope you enjoy this gift guide, one that focuses specifically on art and jewelry. There are so many shops with interesting work out there, and sometimes it’s hard to narrow it down.

The items below are from artists that I have supported, some of whom I’ve actually met, and they are all products I stand behind.

Unique Art and Jewelry Gifts for 2019

BECCA JANE DESIGNS

When searching for a gift for my mum’s birthday this year, I thought I would do something a little different. I looked for an artist who could illustrate our family with a beautiful border and then send her a printed copy for her birthday.

I’ve never commissioned this kind of gift before, and Rebecca – the artist I chose – was patient and kind, and we went back and forth a few times until I was satisfied. She even agreed to make my brother as depicted, wearing his favourite martini t-shirt.

I was waiting on this gift guide until my mum received her gift, and she loved it!

Rebecca’s full shop here, and note that she will do other kinds of designs as well, like Save the Dates for weddings, holiday cards, personalized baby blankets, and more.

LEXIGRAPHIQUE

I’ve followed Michael Buchino’s whimsical word work for some time on Instagram, as it combines two of my favourite things: learning, and art. His Insta feed, Lexigraphique, is one of those accounts that I send to multiple friends many times a week.

Before this guide went up, I wrote him to ask if he had any holiday items I could include, and lucky for all of us he was just about to launch the hygge cards below.

(c) Michael Buchino 2019

You can buy his prints and these cute holiday cards in his Buchino shop, here.

PICTRIXDESIGN

Anne Connell’s shop is a wonder to behold, chock full of paper goods designed — as she notes on Instagram and on her website — with an “absurd attention to detail” She lists herself as a precisionist, and it’s easy to see why. Her artwork is meticulous, delicately crafted, and very unique.

I found her botanical card series first, and clapped my hands with glee. As someone trying to get out in nature during brief spurts of respite from bedrest, they were a breath of fresh air. Her constellation cards, featuring each of the zodiac signs, are a clear crowd-pleaser. I’ve put those two types of cards below but honestly it’s worth heading to see her full shop.

I realize these are listed as cards, but I think they are frame-worthy all by themselves.

(c) Anne Connell 2019

(c) Anne Connell 2019

Botanical cards here.

Constellation cards here. 

And the full shop here.

NICALLENART

Nicola is a long-time Legal Nomads reader, and a fellow lawyer and traveler. She has generously shared bird illustrations and other fun to keep me cheered up when I’ve been down. She’s also a very talented artist, and her cards and other items are rich in puns and joyful artistry. 

Nicola’s work reminds me of the children’s’ books I loved most, with creative characters, maps, and whimsical animals. A talented hand-brush lettering artist, she also includes a lot of drawn typography in her work.

From a grumpy owl to a festive sheep, you’ll be sure to find holiday cards to your tastes. And one of my absolute faves is her wedding card below, “Of all the fish in the sea” — delightful.

(c) Nicola Allen 2019

(c) Nicola Allen 2019

(c) Nicola Allen 2019

Nicola’s full shop is here, with specifics from the above illustrations as follows:

Grumpy Owl here

Festive sheep here.

Of all the fish in the sea here.

BIRDSTRIPS

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Jess, the genius behind Birdstrips, in person twice. She’s currently in Montreal, and a friend introduced us just before I re-leaked last summer. Her illustrations have grown a huge following on Instagram due to its relatable messaging, and her captions that accompany the drawings are raw and vulnerable. Together, it’s powerful work that makes almost everyone feel heard.

In Jess’ words, the shop comprises “the existential distress of the flightless through the eyes of the flighted.”

(c) Birdstrips 2019

You can check out her images and pick up mugs, shirts, prints and more, here.

ABSTRACT AERIAL ART

JP and Mike Andrews, two brothers from the UK are an Instagram favourite of mine. I often share their images with my community because their eye is unique, and their pictures compelling. Like me, they absolutely love to travel. Unlike me, they specialize in photographing bizarre, aerial images our planet using drone photography.

Their goal: to share perspectives of the world otherwise unseen, captured from a vantage point most of us miss. A great gift option for those who love to roam.

Here’s one I love from them: Skyline, a drone photograph of a freighter that looks like a cityscape.

(c) Abstract Aerial Art 2019

(c) Abstract Aerial Art 2019

And this aerial view of a beach made me smile:

Their full gallery shop here.

TEKSTARTIST

Jason Markow, aka TEKSTartist is an artist I found a few years ago, and was hooked immediately. His work combines both traditional and digital media, a fusion of techniques that result in elegant yet crisp products. Given that my own products are typographic representations of food, I love that his art includes quotes he’s enjoyed over the years, visually represented in unique ways.

One of my favourites: this flower, “Your Garden, Forever” available here, created by warping and twisting the words from Tennyson’s famous quote – “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever.”― Alfred Tennyson

(c)TEKSTartist 2019

And the item below, The Giving Tree, was created by warping/twisting the words from the entire set of text from Shel Silverstein’s iconic book “The Giving Tree”. Buy a copy of the artwork here.

(c)TEKSTartist 2019

Full shop here.

EFFIN BIRDS

These illustrations of birds with curse words sayings are all the rage on Instagram and Twitter, for good reason: they’re hilarious. Crafted by Aaron Reynolds, they do seem to offend some, but as the name suggests exactly what they are it’s hard for anyone to be upset. Don’t like them? Close the tab. Personally, I find them exactly what I need, each and every day. Clothing, mugs, pins, and more at the link, including a new Effin’ Birds book.

Buy here.

TOTE BAGS: TYPOGRAPHIC MAPS OF FOOD

I’m excited to share the new tote bags in the Legal Nomads shop. Previously, I offered a canvas, bull-woven tote of the maps, with the map printed on once side. These new tote bags are black and white – and if people like, I can also swap out the handles to make them red or mustard! – and the design is printed on both sides.*

*If you’d like to swap out the tote bag for a different handle (example here), just send an email to jodi-at-legalnomads.com after you order, and I’ll make sure it happens.

The new tote has sturdy handles and holds up to 44lbs, perfect for errands and/or carrying a laptop without a laptop bag. Food maps of Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Portugal, Italy, and Mexico available.

(c) Jodi Ettenberg 2019

Shop the new totes here. The full shop is here.

VANRILEY

These beautiful macrame earrings are courtesy of the Van Riley shop, run by a fellow leaker. I wanted to share her work as I know how it is to worry about making ends meet with a CSF leak. If someone in your life loves macrame, please consider supporting her shop!

Macrame earrings and other items, on the VanRiley shop here.

MICAPEET JEWLERY

Given my love of nature, it’s no surprise that I also love jewelry that depicts it in design. I saw these gold leaf earrings recently and ordered a pair as my holiday gift to myself. They’re lightweight — great for anyone with headaches — and they are delicate and just so pretty. I like the contrast of the gold with the emerald green stud in the ear.

  If leaf earrings aren’t your thing, Mica also has necklaces, rings, and other earrings in a variety of shapes and sizes. They’re lightweight and beautiful, and oh so creative. Her jewelry is hypoallergenic and nickel-free.

Buy the same gold leaf earrings that I love here, with Mica’s full shop here.

GLDNxLAYEREDANDLONG

Several readers nominated this Etsy shop, and it’s the only one on this list that I haven’t also purchased myself. But when my readers are happy, I’m happy, and I wanted to share what brought them such joy in gift giving.

Chrissy’s shop features personalized, delicate jewelry for those who want to memorialize their care with initials or names. The image below is for the necklace that several readers bought, but her shop is full of other options, including rings, earrings, and pendants.

Personalized initial necklace here. Full shop here.

BEBANGLES

I’ve saved one of the best for last.

My friend Chantelle started Be., a company that sells bangles – but also much more than simply bangles. Chantelle is one of the most open-hearted, vivacious people I’ve ever met, and thankfully I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her in person years ago. Her company’s bangles work well in conjunction with the lightness and curse words of Effin Birds, two small business enterprises that use curse words to make a valid point. In Chantelle’s case, Be. takes a stand against societal norms. Her work aims to support women and girls in a society that often expects airbrushed perfection.

I received a few Be. bangles as a wonderful 40th birthday gift from Chantelle, and my two faves – that came with me to Florida are:

“I’m mostly peace, love, light, and a little go fuck yourself” – product here, and

“I stopped waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel, and lit that bitch up myself” – product here.

I am someone who uses curse words as a form of punctuation, so those two bracelets are perfect. For those with less swear-y tendencies, lots of beautiful options like:

“Be you. The world will adjust.” (here), and

“Speak. Even if your voice shakes.” (here.)

All of Be.’s products here.

That’s it for 2019!  A big thanks to my friend Reine who helped pull many of the images and upload them for me, so that I could do this guide more easily. It would have been a 2020 gift guide without her. Hopefully there’s something fun in here for someone in your family.

Happy holidays, and thank you as always for all the incredible support.

-Jodi

The post The Legal Nomads 2019 Gift Guide:<br /> Art and Jewelry appeared first on Legal Nomads.

The Legal Nomads 2019 Gift Guide: Art and Jewelry published first on https://takebreaktravel.tumblr.com/

[rainhearts-hatchery]

Let’s talk Buying and Selling

((This is one of those posts that has come about because of Flight Rising, but I’m going to be sharing it on my other blog as well.)) Anytime, you agree to exchange currency for a product or service, you are buying. Anytime you agree to give an item to someone for currency, you are selling. I don’t care if the currency is dollars, pounds, bottle caps, shiny rocks, or in-game, on-site pixel money that has no real world value, because it cannot be converted to RL cash. It is buying and selling. It is a business transaction. Communication is expected of both buyer and seller. I’m going to get on both buyer and seller tails here.

If you are pushing a “Purchase” button, you are communicating your intent to buy an item. Equally, if you list an item for sale, you are communicating that you want to exchange something for what you consider a fair amount of currency. If this is all the communication you can handle, self checkouts exist. Good luck with fast food (at least until the robots take the jobs). Flight Rising has an Auction House, where you just have to push a button, and have the currency on your account if buying, and your transaction is done. You never have to directly interact with another user for as long as you use the site.

BUYERS

Once you remove the third party of the Auction House, and directly interact with other users, you need to remember you are not interacting with a machine, but you are interacting with another human. If you are buying art, or a custom item off Etsy, you are interacting with another human. You have a responsibility here. Your responsibilities are: a) Be polite. b) Be honest. c) Be respectful. Be Polite I mean, actually polite. Please and thank you go a long way. Your parents weren’t lying. Rarely will someone anywhere in life ask for OviPets levels of “politeness”, with thank yous after automated transactions or they block you, but when you are working with a person? A “May I please buy/have a spot for” to open your request and a “thank you” at the end of a transaction goes a long way. Especially if your transaction has had a bump or hiccup in the middle. Along with this, don’t demean other buyers in the thread. If they can afford something you can’t, keep your mouth shut. If you can’t afford something, your “I would if I could!” comment isn’t wanted, unless you’re following up with “but let me link my friend/group/etc” Be Honest If you change your mind on a purchase, PM the seller. “Hey, can I cancel my order?” Not, “Can I have a few more days to pay?” when you’re not sure if you want to buy it. Not waiting until the last day, after you’ve promised to pay by then, then trying to resell the item in front of the seller. Be Respectful There is an amount of respect that you should give everyone. At the very least, you treat them like fellow humans. “Respect is earned, not given,” meaning you only respect someone after they’ve proven themselves to you is a load of horse crap and is a saying that needs to die. This goes along with the above: Be Honest. If a seller asks you for payment, do not attempt to guilt them. For any reason. Sellers do not care that you’ve been in a coma for 2 weeks because you saw a bag of kittens dropped off a bridge and you jumped in to save them. We just want to know: are you paying or not. You do not have to explain why you haven’t been able to pay them. If you aren’t buying, they need to know so they can move to a new buyer. It’s okay to ask to be moved to a ping list or a wait list. If a seller needs 5 of 10 pre-orders paid to run an accent, and you’re the 5th, you are the hold up. It’s rude and disrespectful. It’s rude and disrespectful to not respond to someone. If someone says “Hey, I need payment/info,” and you reply with anything that amounts to “k, brb” and never get back to them, don’t be surprised when they say they’re reselling your spot. If you need a refund, or to decline a spot, talk to the seller. If you’re buying art, and it has mostly been finished, don’t be surprised if you don’t get a refund. If the art is done and delivered? Do not ask for a refund. If you’ve paid via PayPal, don’t charge back unless the artist hasn’t replied to you, AT ALL (give people at least 24 hours to reply). That just makes you scum. In the end: The customer is not always right. Do not abuse people, anywhere, who are selling to you. I don’t care if they work in fast food, retail, a movie theater, or are selling online.

SELLERS

I’m not letting you off either. You have responsibilities too. Some of these, you’ll wish were in place before you started selling directly to people. Your responsibilities are: a) Be polite. b) Be honest. c) Be respectful. Oh, they’re the same. Be Polite Do not demean buyers. Do not insult them. Remain calm with them. If you need to rant, come here to Tumblr, go to DreamWidth or LiveJournal (if you want to risk the Russians), or Facebook. Remember, you can get banned on most pet and art sites for publicly calling out a user, even if they have screwed you over. Be Honest If you have an issue that will prevent you from fulfilling an order, tell your customer. Do not lie and say “Oh, it’s on the way!” when it’s not. If you will not be able to deliver it at all, and they have paid, refund them. If it will be a delayed delivery, offer the option of a refund, or at least keep them informed. I know that on Flight Rising, the exact date an accent or skin comes back can vary. The site says 5-7 days. Sometimes, you’ll have accents/skins rejected, so you have to edit them and send them back in. I know that sometimes RL can get in the way of doing art. Regardless of what it is, it is YOUR responsibility, if there is a hiccup, to inform your buyers. Those are your customers. Be Respectful Again, this goes along with the above. Be respectful to your buyers. Don’t suddenly spring rules on them. Before you begin selling, do yourself and them a favor and have a Terms of Service. You see this on Flight Rising a lot as someones “Rules.” Just call it what it is: Terms of Service. They are the terms of which you and your buyers agree to do business under, under which you agree to provide a service. Thus: Terms of Service. They need to be clear and concise. Keep it short, people, as a whole, don’t want to read. There should be no ambiguity. If you are doing accent pre-orders, someone’s payment is considered “due” from the point that they place the pre-order. But put a hard deadline on when they have to pay. For example, mine is now the day the accent is returned + 72 hours from the time I post the reminder/notification ping is the last of the payment period. Save yourself the trouble of someone trying to extend this. If you’re do art commissions, say you will only discuss details via PM. Say you will promise updates on art at this list of stages or at this set of times, which ever happens first. You might be thinking, how is this respectful? Because it sets up a means through which you and the buyer communicate. It’s a set of expectations for both parties. A known is better than an unknown. I made the mistake of not having a ToS when I started accent sales, because I was not expecting the response I got. Someone took advantage of this. It won’t happen again. All that said: don’t spring a new ToS on customers in the middle of a transaction. If you update or add a ToS, it should apply only to new customers, not your current ones. Also: Do not press someone for details if they need to back down from something. They are not required to tell you their life story.

So what does all this boil down to?

Don’t be rude to each other. Have some respect. Remember that you are dealing with another human. Rules are not all bad. Don’t complain about prices. Be friendly, even if you’re not friends. (Artists are not doing art to be your friend. Don’t befriend artists to get art. That’s rude.)

[haikyuu-imagines-and-others]

Since it's almost the holidays could I request a scenario where Kenma tries to order the gift he remembered his girlfriend wanted online but everywhere he looks is sold out so now he has no choice but to find the strength to find it in a crowded mall full of holiday shoppers, crazy children, those people who try to harass you into buying what they're selling, and pretty much everything a boy like him doesn't want to be around?

Same Kenma SAME! I feel this request in my SOUL tbh. BUT Gift Cards arethe way to go, Kenma. You should know this by now~! Thanks for requesting!-Admin Satori

Kozume Kenma:

Amazon: Sold Out

Wish.com: Sold Out

Etsy: Sold Out

Cute.com: Sold Out

Sold Out. Sold Out. Sold Out.

Everywhere he looked online werebig red tags reading those God awful words. Kenma groaned to himself andcovered his face with both hands as he curled forward on his bed. How could hehave been so dumb? Christmas season was always so busy. Of course the thing you’dwanted was sold out online. Those were always the first to go. The smart peoplealways got those months before the Christmas season, so why hadn’t he? Thereason was really too simple….

He forgot.

He thought about you every day,every moment he continued to exist you were on his mind. But your wants?Sometimes you’d point something out to him while on a date, and he’d take noteof it on his phone… But he took note of EVERYTHING on his phone. He had grocerylists on his phone that he’d completed months ago. Your Christmas list was lostamongst the reminders to get milk and eggs.

Moving quicker than he shouldhave, and shaking off the accompanying dizziness, he rushed out of his house,practically hissing at the sun beating down on him as he opened his front door.It was Saturday, the day before Christmas. Your family had made plans, and you’dbeen dragged away to attend them, but you’d promised Kenma you’d see himChristmas Day to give him his present.

Kenma didn’t have a lot of timeleft. It was already 6pm, everyone and their grandmothers were out doing theirlast minute Christmas shopping. The trains were packed and cramped and he felthis skin crawl whenever he felt someone exhale near him. He’d forgotten tobring his face mask to keep moderately safe from everyone’s holiday germs. Histhroat was already starting to feel itchy from being surrounded by all thesesick people, and he knew he’d catch a cold or the flu or the black plague if hedidn’t get off of the train as soon as possible.

Thankfully, the mall was the nextstop, so as soon as the door were open, he was out on the platform, walkingquickly and fluidly through the crowd to get to any semi spacious space betweenthe groups of families and friends. He kept his head down as he walked, not knowingif maybe you were in the crowd with your own family. What if you saw him? Whatif you teased him for being so forgetful? What if you felt hurt that he’d forgottenabout what you wanted?

He wouldn’t be able to live itdown. The thought of seeing your furrowed eyebrows when he came to you emptyhanded made his pace quicken, his fingers biting into his palm to keep his mindon that thought rather than all the people around him. The doors opened to themall in front of him, more people rushing out only to be replaced by the numberof people pushing in. Kenma’s huddled form among them. His breath was short,his forehead slightly damp with both the quick paced walk and his anxietyeating at him.

The store he was looking for wasfilled to the brim with women and their daughters. But the thing you wanted wasin there. Something so small and cute that he was sure it was sold out there,too. But he chanced it anyway. He needed to make sure this trip wasn’t a wasteof time and hope. He wanted to get you the thing you wanted. He wanted to seeyou smile widely and wanted to receive one of your kisses. He wanted to earn it.

The moment he walked into thestore, though, he wished he’d never remembered about the thing you wanted. Hewas honestly waiting for the earth to open up and swallow him whole. But itnever happened. Instead, his entire being was swallowed up by the females withinthe store. All eyes on him. Just like he never wanted. He kept his eyes down ashe walked quickly to the back of the store, his hand only reaching out when hewas barely a foot away from the table your longed for item was at.

It was like the heavens opened upand shone upon your item. Like finding the health box glowing behind someterrible obstacle. He smiled to himself, quickly grabbing the thing you wantedand holding it tightly in his hands just as a young woman made her way over tolook at the very same thing. He gave her a brief glance, but looked awayquickly when he felt the skin around his eyes pull a bit too much; Hiscomposure was starting to slip. He needed to get back to the calm of his homeas soon as he possibly could.

Maybe he should have brought Kuroowith him.

The very thought was immediatelytaken back. That would have been a terrible idea. Kuroo would have teased himnonstop. Kenma counted in his head, staring down at the thing you wanted in hishands, until he was called up to the counter. 12988. Almost 13000. He paid forthe item, not caring if the price was a bit higher than when you’d originallyseen it a couple months ago, and quickly left the store.

Kenma would have to remind himselfto stop being so forgetful.

This didn’t really have EVERYTHING the request was asking for…. But…. Imean…. Can you image how a mall IN TOKYO the day before CHRISTMAS is???? It’sgoing to packed as hell! And the Trains??? Holy hell! I remember them beingbarely big enough for me to breathe in >-

[douchebagbrainwaves]

BUT ONLY GRADUATION RATES, THEN YOU'LL STAY AHEAD

What Business Can Learn from Open Source August 2005 This essay is derived from a keynote talk at the fall 2002 meeting of NEPLS. In every presidential election since TV became widespread, they'd become auto-unsubscribing filters. In fact, here there was a bimodal economy consisting, in Galbraith's words, of the forces underlying open source and blogging is that ideas can bubble up from the bottom as they get used to it and take it away from the most committed investors and work your way out of the initial sales of the Apple I, he felt obliged to give his then-employer, HP.1 Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Dan Giffin, Sarah Harlin, Jessica Livingston, Greg Mcadoo, our contact at Sequoia, was one of the principles they teach you is to align the car not by lining up the hood with the stripes painted on the side of safety: when someone offers you money, take it. The venture capital business is pretty incestuous, and there was my program, written in C, they would have spent riding it down. I was leaving I offered it to him, he omits any comments except the note-to-peer dating site? If I order something from an online store builder, with about 14,000 users is ipso facto worth exploring. Why spend twenty years climbing the corporate ladder was one of the most memorable paintings, especially when you're young and smart, you don't really understand them.

I met them today They have an interesting business I'm just not sure how much credit to give him. Someone who doesn't know the kind of problem. But otherwise they felt they had enough to work that way. It's a little misleading to talk of versions when describing a gradual process, but that's only the immediate cause. If so, could they actually get things done. In particular, don't be deterred from applying to Y Combinator. Delivered on that promise. Actually it's structural. It was always understood that they enjoyed what they did. They'll lie to you on this one. In fact the large staffs of successful startups have, by building something you yourself need, the first three were our biggest expenses.

That was what we call the classics.2 It seemed curious that the same task could be painful to one person. For example, they like largely for the feeling of virtue in liking them. So far I've been able to achieve filtering rates that approach CRM114's. But that's another issue.3 Founders arriving at Y Combinator said that early on it had been a one-character name. Growth When we launched Viaweb, it seemed as if we were visited by beings from another solar system.4 Thanks to Trevor Blackwell and Jessica Livingston for reading drafts of this. In math it means that a shorter proof tends to be related, in that government office was a recognized route to wealth.5 When you see these ideas laid out like that, remember: ideas like that?

Often your information will be wrong: I tried living in Florence when I was a kid playing basketball? Sometimes they even agree with one another to invest in successive rounds, it often feels like they're trying to force them to be cold and calculating, or at least to yourself, I don't think it has much to offer good programmers, one of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the. If someone pays $20,000 for 10% of a company like Yahoo or Intel or Cisco, he'd think communism had won. At YC we're excited when we figured out what seemed to be from the UK. Japanese are only about 2%. Now anything that became fashionable during the Bubble killed themselves by deciding to build server-based software wins, it will at least be a powerful force. Bill Yerazunis, Dan Giffin, and Lisa Randall for reading drafts of this, and Marc Andreessen, Joe Gebbia date: Fri, Jan 23,2009 at 11:09 AM subject: Re: airbnb They did but I am not sure I buy that ABNB reminds me of Etsy in that it makes me really want to.

And now that I've realized what's going on. Step 3: Series A Round Armed with their now somewhat fleshed-out business plan and trying to decide whether to change some part of it doesn't have to advertise. The history of the 20th century executive salaries were low partly because companies then were more dependent on banks, who would have disagreed with that, so we tightened up our filter to decrease the standard deviation of design outcomes because they want to invest the next time they need funding.6 For example, I doubt it will change anyway. On the average trip I bring four books and only read one of them. Sometimes angels' deal terms are standard doesn't mean they're favorable to you, especially if they're young and ambitious, they want to market themselves to the investors who are seriously interested in you, they will not always say what they really care about is the lack of responsibilities. And so it is unfair when someone works hard and doesn't get paid much. As organizations get smaller, you have to step back one step further along it. Meanwhile the iPhone is selling better than ever. Choosing a marginal project is the startup itself, they might have. I'm convinced the facetime model is not just that it will be to your advantage: you can go too far in any law, and this gives you an excuse for failure. I think the place to focus is the margin of failure, you succeed—and that's too big, they become overwhelmed.7

And what makes them work is not us but their competitors. The best we could do to get started that he was harming his future—that he was writing differentiation programs even in the mating dance with investors; the distinction between the spikes and the average writer of detective novels.8 2 to 3 times as many people alive in the US were designed by architects who expected to live in the suburbs. That was her actual word.9 Thanks to Sam Altman, Jessica Livingston, Jackie McDonough, Robert Morris, and my father for reading drafts of this. The New Funding Landscape October 2010 After barely changing at all for decades, the startup agrees to turn away other VCs for some set amount of time knows not to default to skepticism, no matter how much. The reason, again, language designers are somewhat out of touch with the world. Com. Eventually, they get their investment back before the common stock holders that is, in any social hierarchy, people unsure of their own, you can find someone to handle the paperwork for them. How important is it?10

Notes

I'm not claiming founders sit down and calculate the expected after-tax return from a few stellar exceptions the textbooks are similarly misleading. For more on not screwing up than any other company has to be hard on the entire period since the mid twentieth century, Europeans looked back on industrialization at the moment it's created indeed, is caring what random people thought of them.

Realizing that much to say because most of the most promising opportunities, it could change what it means they still control the company will be, yet.

The French Laundry in Napa Valley. Samuel Johnson said no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for that reason. Any expected value calculation for potential founders, and especially for opinions not expressed in it.

According to a clueless audience like that, founders will seem as if a company. That can be huge. Nat. But it was so violent that she decided never again.

In one way in which I warn about later: beware of getting rich, purely mercenary founders will seem more powerful, because the danger of chasing large investments is not even allowed to discriminate on the y, you'd see a clear upward trend. No one in an industrialized country encounters the idea. Earlier versions used a technicality to get something for which you are listing in order to win. The founders want the first couple times I saw that I hadn't had much success in doing something different if it were.

Of course, that they aren't. So if they don't yet have a three letter word.

Even now it's hard to say that a their applicants come from going to get a patent troll, either as truth or heresy. As Paul Buchheit adds: I remember about the same thing, because they are building, they could bring no assets with them. The late 1960s were famous for social upheaval.

It's not the sense of the biggest discoveries in any field. She ventured a toe in that water a while we have.

It's suspiciously neat. World War II to the founders want the valuation of your identity. No, we used to retrieve orders, view statistics, and don't want to turn down some good ideas buried in Bubble thinking. And while this sort of wealth—wealth that, in writing, and both times I bailed because I can't refer a startup.

I talk about real income statistics calculated in the mid twentieth century. When I catch egregiously linkjacked posts I replace the url with that additional constraint, you don't get any money till all the more accurate predictor of success for a small company that could evolve into a de facto chosen by human editors. It's probably inevitable that philosophy will suffer by comparison, because people would do it for you.

[possuminwonderland]

First Anniversary : A Year in Review

It’s crazy to look back and think that one year ago, I left my corporate job with Etsy to be self employed.  It’s certainly been a whirlwind of a year - I’ve learned a ton that I didn’t know before, and I’ve had a few moments where I needed to reminded myself of lessons that I’ve shared dozens of times.  

When you’re working for yourself, it’s easy to forget that there’s natural ebbs and flows of business; that not all of your clients will be dream clients; that sometimes, it just really sucks to have to build your own systems, website, and branding.  And man, can it be time consuming!

I’ll be honest - I’ve had moments where I wished for the stability of the paycheck and the corporate life again.  And the snacks - oh my gosh, the snacks at Etsy were on point.

But for all the low points, I can’t help but look back and be incredibly proud of all that I’ve built.  In the last year, I’ve had the privilege to work with some incredible (and inspiring!) people and businesses.  I launched my first eCourse, have written six eBooks, developed 2 planners, hosted workshops and yoga classes beyond count, and crafted a maternity leave in a new business, plus launched a new creative enterprise with my husband.

And with all the ups and downs, I’m still all about that entrepreneur life.  If you’re getting started on launching a new business this year, here are some of the harder lessons I’ve learned, and what my recommendations would be for you going in:

Trust Your Gut

When I first launched, I thought I had signed my dream client.  They were practically matching my Etsy salary, it was work I loved, and people I trusted.

Within about two weeks though, I noticed a few things that should have been red flags - the client was cagey about follow-up, non-committal about contracts, and I was waking up panicked about what needed to get accomplished while they were hesitate to even review the basics.

You’re probably thinking what I would immediately tell any client - girl, get out of there!!  

But instead, I attributed my feelings to stress from leaving a great job, traveling the less-walked path, imposter syndrome —  basically, I told my gut instinct that was screaming “BAD CALL” to shove it and did the work anyway.

It didn’t end well, as you likely guessed.  I’ll spare you the details, but the lesson from this one is simple, friends - trust your gut.  If you’re waking up panicked because you’re concerned the client relationship isn’t what it should be, there’s probably a reason.  If your client isn’t willing to sign a contract, do NOTHING for them, even if they’re a friend you trust.  And last but not least, learn to recognize that even if someone wants and needs your services, it doesn’t mean that they’re ready to work with you.

Evaluate Your Priorities

One of the first mistakes I made was in setting prices that were based on an hourly, contract rate as a consultant in businesses.  As such, I gave clients the option to pay me a certain amount of money for consultation an hour.

Just typing that up now makes me feel silly - because I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that people would expect full time work from me at those rates.  And yes, they absolutely did.  

It didn’t matter what my working hours were set for, or the limits I tried to impose - clients felt that because they paid me per hour, they were my first and only priority.

Now - I wasn’t setting a valid expectation for my clients.  They thought they had unlimited access to me, and enforcing boundaries in that condition was challenging because I wanted to deliver top-performance results to each client.  After all, I was just get started and word of mouth marketing is a REAL THING.

I ended up burnt out, exhausted, and answering work emails on vacation within hours of finding out I was pregnant at one of my best friends weddings.

And friends?  That was totally my fault.  By setting an impossibly high standard for myself, I de-prioritized the most important thing in my business - myself.  Sure, it’s important to me that I scale my business, grow, deliver top-notch service — but my absolute top priority is to walk my talk.

I can’t be a holistic health and business coach who doesn’t enforce their own boundaries.  I can’t tell people to turn their phones off at night and connect with family if I’m not doing the same thing.  I can’t preach setting business hours if I’m debating calling my mother to tell her about my positive pregnancy test or respond to that clients “urgent email” that got pushed through my vacation mode responder.

Knowing your priorities and always, ALWAYS honoring them is a huge lesson I learned this year. 

Compare Energy Expenses to Income

Whether you’re in a service based industry or a product based industry, if doing your work is sucking out your soul - it’s probably not worth it.

After the aforementioned mistakes I made, I created a document that tracked how many hours a week I worked on particular projects or clients, and the financial investment I was getting from them.  I ranked the clients and projects in terms of how much I enjoyed working with them, and how much of a percentage of my business they were.

Unsurprisingly, the clients and products that were the biggest drains of my energy and most challenging to work with also happened to be the clients that paid me the least.

Within a few months, I closed out all of those contracts and didn’t offer up the option to renew.

Did my business take a hit?  Yes, frankly - but it pushed me to explore other options that were more aligned with my goals and where I wanted to be.  It pushed me to launch the Etsy Success Course, build out more workshops and eBooks, and get back into selling more products.  

Especially as I transition into being a mother and business owner, I want to set the model for my kid that working for yourself is the opposite of slogging away at work you hate - instead, it’s about finding the solutions that meet your skill set and getting paid to do it well.  

If you’re just starting up, I recommend evaluating the work that you’re doing - make sure that the energy you’re putting into a client or a project is being appropriately compensated.  I get that sometimes you have to work with tough clients or projects you don’t love - but don’t let that dominate the work you do.  

Systems Are Worth The Investment

I launched my business as a side-hustle about a year before I left my corporate job.  I advocate hard for bootstrapping your business, I recommend against going into debt to launch, and I’m a huge fan of investing your returns back into your own growth and business.

So when I came across a lot of systems that were expensive when I first started, I laughed.  Why pay $400 a year for project management and CRM software? That’s totally within my skill set.

WRONG.  SO WRONG.

Let’s run through what a typical inquiry would look like when I first launched.

Client saw blog

Client struggled to find “Contact” page

Client reached out and waited for my response (depending on the day of the week, maybe up to 4 days)

I set up time to chat with client, typically about a week or two after making contact with them, and pitched my services.

If they committed, I manually ran their cards/checks, handled all the paperwork as .pdfs or physical sheets, and had to run my books each month for a few hours.

Friends. That is a cumbersome process.  Now I use Honeybook in my business, and as soon as someone reaches out that they’re interested in working with me, they immediately get:

Pricing sheet

Clear, outlined expectations of what’s a part of my coaching practice

Details about working with me one-on-one

The option to set up a consultation, which links them to my work calendar to schedule an appointment, and automatically sends them reminders after they’ve booked.

If they decide to move forward with me after a consultation, a full coaching contract gets sent out immediately - including payments, which were automatically taken and stored.

Seriously - the amount of time I spent working with clients halved in terms of paperwork - and I didn’t spend as much time on consulting calls where people were unclear about what the coaching process looked like, and what resources were available to them. Instead, I was getting on calls with people who were already clear on my offerings and committed to the outcome.

If I were to go back and relaunch, I’d start out by investing in either Honeybook or something like it purely because it’s saved me so much time. It’s like having a personal assistant in my business that just manages my paperwork and I absolutely love it.

If looking over this list makes you feel like there’s no way you can tackle your first year in business - you’re totally wrong.  You’ve got this!  

Every job is hard.  Every job has tough days.  You’ll have bad bosses, bad clients, and things will periodically blow up in your face.

But unlike a traditional job, when you work for yourself, you know that every single one of your wins is because you worked hard to achieve them.  There’s seriously nothing as amazing and building up your work and watching it bloom.  

Instead of looking over these hard lessons and thinking that it’s not worth starting, use them as a way to anticipate some trouble that you might run into.  I never thought that a huge obstacle to growth for me would be as simple as software - but making small changes let me grow in a crazy positive way.  Similarly, I never thought of clients in terms of the energy I was spending on them, and what it’s worth was to me. 

What are you most excited about in the first year of your business?  What hard lessons did you learn, and how did that change how you tackle things?

[natashatheknitter]

The knitting community is reckoning with racism

Fiber artists of color are taking to Instagram stories to call out instances of prejudice — and to try to shape a more inclusive future.

By

Jaya Saxena

 Feb 25, 2019, 8:00am EST

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This story is part of a group of stories called

Karen Templer’s Fringe Association Co. is kind of like Goop for knitting. There are tips and how-tos for navigating knitting’s trickier maneuvers. There are knit-alongs for chunky cowls and cute fingerless gloves. There’s an online store that sells the Fringe bag, which has come to be known in some circles as the Birkin of knitting bags. And there’s the blog where Templer puts her personal thoughts.

On January 7, she blogged excitedly about her upcoming trip to India. She wrote that 2019 would be her “year of color.” She said that as a child, India had fascinated her, and that when an Indian friend’s parents offered to take her with them on a trip, it was “like being offered a seat on a flight to Mars.” She spoke of her trip as if it were the biggest hurdle anyone could jump: “If I can go to India, I can do anything — I’m pretty sure.” Templer, it should be noted, is white.

As someone who is mixed-race Indian, to me, her post (though seemingly well-meaning) was like bingo for every conversation a white person has ever had with me about their “fascination” with my dad’s home country; it was just so colorful and complex and inspiring. It’s not that they were wrong, per se, just that the tone felt like they thought India only existed to be all those things for them.

The initial comments on Templer’s blog post were supportive, but quickly, knitters and fans began to criticize her tone. “Karen, I’d ask you to re-read what you wrote and think about how your words feed into a colonial/imperialist mindset toward India and other non-Western countries,” wrote commenter Alex. “Multiple times you compare the idea of going to India to the idea of going to another planet — how do you think a person from India would feel to hear that?”

Templer has since apologized for her post, writing, “It took women of color pointing this out for me to see it ... which is not their responsibility, and I am thankful to them for taking the time,” and that she’d be continuing to raise visibility of people of color (and specifically black/indigenous POC) knitters and their work. (Templer declined to comment for this piece.) But her post triggered a wave of conversations about racism and prejudice in the fiber arts world, which thus far shows no signs of slowing down.

How the conversation started

Odds are if you’re in your 20s or 30s, you have at least one friend who’s gotten really into knitting in the past few years. The ancient craft never went away, but relatively recently, aided by its high Instagrammability, a heightened appreciation of DIY, and everyone’s desperate need to keep their hands busy in an anxiety-inducing world, it became more within the purview of urbane people who know how to flex online.

Social media and the internet have allowed more people than ever to share their love of fiber arts, whether it’s through the ease of exchanging patterns and tips, or just connecting with other people who share the same interests. It’s not just that it makes knitting feel cool; it’s that knitters can find community within a hobby or livelihood that’s often done in solitude.

Social media is also a source of income for many knitters and fiber artists, who use Instagram to promote their Etsy shops, to connect with customers who want commissions, or to interact with brands and blogs. It’s as much socializing as it is networking, whether that means tagging the yarn dyers and pattern makers who made your hat possible, or asking your followers what kinds of things they’d like to see available in your shop.

Social media also makes pointing out racism easier than ever. For weeks, POC knitters have used Instagram, and specifically Instagram stories, to share their observations, tag other knitters, and conduct polls about others’ experiences with racism in the community. Hundreds of people of color have shared stories of being ignored in knitting stores, having white knitters assume they were poor or complete amateurs, or flat-out saying they didn’t think black or Asian people knit.

Templer’s blog post was far from the first time anyone raised the issue of whitewashing in knitting. “I think exactly two years ago, I tried to speak about this,” said Korina Yoo, a 23-year-old Filipina immigrant of mixed heritage living in Portland, Oregon, who shares her knitting via the account @thecolormustard. Grace Anna Farrow (@astitchtowear), a 38-year-old knitter in New Mexico, agreed that she’d seen conversations happen but they didn’t seem to stick. “I feel like the conversations were happening and they just weren’t getting attention, or they were in pockets that were so separated that you could conceivably ignore them all,” she said.

The knitters I spoke to were frustrated that Templer’s blog post seemed to be the thing that made that conversation blow up. “To say that it started with Karen Templer is to give her more credit than she deserves,” said Farrow, “but to say that white women noticed it when it happened to Karen Templer is more accurate. … That’s shitty, but if that’s what it takes to get the conversation started, I have trouble spending a lot of time feeling bad about it.”

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Yoo and Farrow have been two of the loudest voices in the conversation, as well as Sukrita Mahon (@su.krita) and Ocean Rose (@ocean_bythesea), among others. “We’ve had overwhelming support from all kinds of people,” said Mahon. “I really feel like we have a supportive audience that wants the community to do better and be better. It’s so encouraging. I’m daring to think that maybe we do belong.”

The conversation has certainly reached those outside the POC knitting community. “I saw [Templer’s] post mentioned in an Instagram story by one of the black knitters I follow, and I think they linked to @su.krita’s stories,” said Mark Popham, a 32-year-old white knitter in Brooklyn. “Then I started following a handful of BIPOC posting about it, and I’ve been following it since.”

And while he’d assumed that the knitting community was probably as racist as the world at large (read: very), he learned more about how he could combat that in this community. “I definitely had not done anything about what that would look like in this context — how it feels to be the only person of color in a knitting group, or see an Instagram feed with all white models, or have people say explicitly racist things to you at a knitting festival,” he said. “It shouldn’t take a person of color to point out that it’s weird to have an image of a diverse community be lily-white.”

The backlash to the conversation

The most common image of knitting is still probably an old white lady sitting in a rocking chair making a blanket (a stereotype that tends to grind modern knitters’ gears, with reason). But even though the stereotypical image has gotten younger over the years, the community is still perceived as very white. Part of that is a problem of access: Mahon points to the expense, especially if you’re buying high-quality or indie-made yarns (hand-dyed or luxurious yarn can be around $30 a skein, and depending on yardage, you’d need at least three to four skeins to make a sweater). “And it just keeps getting more and more expensive and elitist, until only other white women can keep up,” she said.

But another part is pure “marketable aesthetics,” says Yoo. “At some point, those super-blue filters came through, and then the minimalism came through, and then the not showing who you are, the cup of coffee, ball of yarn … spaces could become whitewashed without you really noticing.” The popular look was to focus on the knitting, not the person doing the knitting, which made it easier to forget what that person looked like. And sometimes, when followers were reminded, they showed their prejudice.

Rose said she noticed the whitewashing of the community when she’d post a photo of herself, or part of herself, after long stretches of only showing yarn or other images. “I just noticed the space was easier to navigate when I didn’t show who I was, because then you wouldn’t assume that I was a black person,” she said. “When I didn’t show myself, people would assume that the picture was from a white person. That’s when I knew it was really whitewashed.”

Though the conversation that Mahon, Rose, Yoo, and Farrow (among many others) have pushed forward has helped a lot of people see racism and whitewashing for what it is, there has also been pushback. The conversation has gotten some attention from the press, first in the New Yorker and later in Quillette, which called it a “witch-hunt” and involved a lot of hand-wringing over people being accused of being racist.

The backlash is “usually from white people who don’t understand why we’re ‘making it about race,’” says Mahon. “It’s generally people who either don’t think this is a problem or feel uncomfortable engaging with us. There are also POC who find this discussion uncomfortable, which I find harder to deal with. They just don’t want to rock the boat too much — but we already know where that gets us (nowhere).”

Hand-dyer and knitter Maria Tusken, who is white, posted a video on YouTube saying she spoke for the “silent majority” of knitters who didn’t think racism was a problem, that people were being “hostile ... all in the name of this social justice issue.” She added that those who did were following a “one-sided belief” that was leading them to bully people who didn’t think racism was a problem. (Tusken did not respond to request for comment for this piece.)

Her video was held up as an example of the fragility of many white knitters — even if they’re not leaving explicitly racist comments, many are refusing to engage with the conversation, and appear to agree with Tusken that the real “bullies” are those who point out white privilege to begin with.

So what happens now?

Though YouTube and blog posts have been part of the conversation, a vast majority of it has happened over the more ephemeral medium of Instagram stories. Mahon, Yoo, and others have made highlight collections of the conversation, but the format makes some things difficult.

“Sometimes you really feel the limits of the platform — not being able to link to websites, having to break statements into the comments,” said Popham, “but on the other hand, I don’t think this conversation could have happened elsewhere. There just isn’t another place where you could have this community, somewhat uncensored and able to react to one another.”

Those who facilitated the conversations agreed that the temporality of Instagram stories is what let them feel free to voice their concerns. “I think Instagram stories is a little less risky,” said Rose. Your main feed is “sort of like your landing page; people will go onto your feed and they see everything there. But with stories, you can kind of go wild.”

And according to Farrow, Instagram stories replicates the way these conversations have always worked. “The fact that it connected people makes it valid,” she said. “The fact that it’s temporary doesn’t make it less valid. Most conversations are temporary and exist in the moment and then expire, but that’s how we live.”

Stories have also allowed knitters of color to retain control over the conversation. Yoo says a number of white knitters have asked that these conversations take place in person. “I think it’s just like, ‘I prefer where you can see the amount of privilege that I can exhibit and extort,’” she said. But online, everyone is closer to being on equal footing; you can’t pressure someone into following the social norms of “polite conversation.”

Talking about it is always the first step, but as to how this conversation changes things going forward, it’s still unclear. Many people have pledged, whether on Instagram or in Reddit comments, to buy more knitwear and supplies from POC sellers, and say they’ve taken to heart the stories that have been shared. “Change is happening behind the scenes, and I find that encouraging, but also, when it’s not visible, how do you know?” asks Mahon.

One way these knitters are moving forward is with Unfinished Object, a blog from Mahon, Rose, Yoo, and Farrow that aims to explore “how diversity becomes inclusion, how representation morphs into change, and how we can serve our joy while being meaningfully present in our truths — in the fibre world and beyond.” So far, Mahon has written about feeling that her local knitting community in Sydney hasn’t taken enough of a stand against racism, and the group has an FAQ on how to be a better ally.

Perhaps the biggest change is how knitters of color will use a tool like Instagram from now on. “I cannot just mindlessly scroll anymore,” said Yoo. She and others are more aware than ever of whom they follow and support in the community. But Yoo also says the most promising aspect is that they’re not the center of the conversation anymore. “We’ve been exhausted, but seeing it sparked up again, seeing new voices, new coalitions sort of forming, that was like, ‘Oh, this is great.’”

Font: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/2/25/18234950/knitting-racism-instagram-stories

[techbravo]

Introduction to Laser Engraving

Introduction

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  Laser Engraving. What is it exactly. According to Wikipedia, https://ift.tt/2ocxBeL

“Laser engraving, which is a subset of laser marking,[1] is the practice of using lasers to engrave an object. Laser marking, on the other hand, is a broader category of methods to leave marks on an object, which also includes color change due to chemical/molecular alteration, charring, foaming, melting, ablation, and more. The technique does not involve the use of inks, nor does it involve tool bits which contact the engraving surface and wear out, giving it an advantage over alternative engraving or marking technologies where inks or bit heads have to be replaced regularly.”

Well that’s about the most boring definition I have ever heard. To me, laser engraving is 21st century expressionism. It’s an artists tool. Just like a pencil, paintbrush, charcoal, what have you, it’s a really neat way of getting your artistic expression on a blank canvas. Where a common painters canvas is, well, canvas, a laser engraving canvas can be just about anything. Instead of building up on that canvas with paint, we use light and heat to burn away the canvas. By using different speed and power and even focus, we manipulate a canvas to burn hotter or lighter creating varied effects. The possibilities are endless. How cool is that? There is one down side though. Variables. Where variables are sometimes a good thing, too many of them can sometimes be daunting and overwhelming. And with a laser, there are almost infinite. For example, lets take speed and power alone. If your laser is adjustable in mm/sec and you can go from 100 to 600 in 1mm increments. And you take power, from 1% to 100% in 1% increments. Well, without going into probability theory and computations and here’s how you figure it. You take 500 (increments in speed) and 100 (percent in power) and that gives you 50,000 different speed and power combinations alone! (I think. It could be more but its 6:20 am and I haven’t slept much) If there are any math whizzes out there that can clarify, please do so. The point is not the number itself, but the vast size of the number. And that’s just two variables!  Now take into account substrate, color, shade, hue, saturation, just to name a few, and it’s a wonder why anyone would want to do this.

For me, it’s one simple phrase. Its when someone looks at my artwork and looks at me and goes, how the hell did you do this, and I see the pure wonderment in their faces. That’s what does it for me. I guess its how a magician feels after pulling off a spectacular trick.

So how do you get there? Where do you start? Knowledge my friends……….knowledge. I’ve scoured the internet for tips, tricks, techniques you name it. And don’t even get me started on scrap. You see, for the most part, with a laser it’s one and done. You can’t “unburn” something. Once it’s there, it’s there. Oh sure, sometimes you can go over it again, but how do you do it without ruining it. It isn’t easy.

I once took a 1.5 inch piece of pine that a client wanted me to burn a picture on using a cell phone picture, of a landscape scene. Now let me tell you, 1 Pine, 2 Cell Phone Picture and 3, Landscape are hands down THE WORST scenario you can come up against. So what did I do?  I bought a planar, and every time I engraved it and it came out like crapola, id plane it down and start over. This was a big piece of pine, with natural edges. When it was all said and done, I wound up with a ¾ thick piece, and a lot of kindling from shavings. Scrap happens. The key is try to minimize it.

By learning some basics about how a laser works, what substrates work, and HOW they work, and artwork techniques, (such as photo manipulation), by taking these courses, you will be well on your way to developing your own processes, and your own techniques. So let’s get started.

Laser Engraving In A Nutshell

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  How a laser works:

I’ll be taking a lot of the clinical definitions from Wikipedia and then simplifying them:

“A laser engraving machine can be thought of as three main parts: a laser, a controller, and a surface. The laser is like a pencil – the beam emitted from it allows the controller to trace patterns onto the surface. The controller direction, intensity, speed of movement, and spread of the laser beam aimed at the surface. The surface is picked to match what the laser can act on.”

Think of it as being a kid with a magnifying glass, burning things using sunlight, only this is really precise

Here are some general terms you will need to become familiar with:

Raster Engrave: Raster engraving traces the laser across the surface in a back-and-forth slowly advancing linear pattern that will remind one of the printhead on an inkjet or similar printer.

Vector Engraving: Vector engraving follows the line and curve of the pattern to be engraved, much like a pen-based plotter draws by constructing line segments from a description of the outlines of a pattern.

Vector Engraving Cuts, Raster Fills, its that simple

Power: The amount of power that is send to the lens

Speed: The speed at which the laser head moves, therefore limiting the amount of time a laser is in the work at once

A vector setting is like using a really precise scroll saw. You just set your lineweight to something small, and the laser will cut along that line.

Types Of Lasers

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  Lets talk about the two main types of Lasers: CO2 and Fiber Optic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_laser

The carbon dioxide laser (CO2 laser) was one of the earliest gas lasers to be developed. It was invented by Kumar Patel of Bell Labs in 1964,[1] and is still one of the most useful. Carbon dioxide lasers are the highest-power continuous wave lasers that are currently available. They are also quite efficient: the ratio of output power to pump power can be as large as 20%. The CO2 laser produces a beam of infrared light with the principal wavelength bands centering on 9.4 and 10.6 micrometers (μm).

What does this mean? Basically it’s the most popular laser on the market today, and readily available for a smaller price tag. It can engrave and cut a variety of substrates including but not limited to wood, plastic, paper, glass, granite, and leather. It cannot, however, engrave most bare metals, because the frequency of the laser is such that the beam bounces off the metal like bullets off Superman’s Chest. There are coatings and such that we will get into in a different course

A fiber laser or fiber laser is a laser in which the active gain medium is an optical fiber doped with rare-earth elements such as erbium, ytterbium, neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, thulium and holmium. They are related to doped fiber amplifiers, which provide light amplification without lasing. Fiber nonlinearities, such as stimulated Raman scattering or four-wave mixing can also provide gain and thus serve as gain media for a fiber laser.

Fiber Lasers are used more for marking. Barcodes, Lot numbers, etc, they are used mainly in commercial applications. It does extremely well on metal marking. The one thing about Fiber Lasers. Don’t ever look directly at the beam unless you are looking through Protective Lenses or special glass. It will burn your retinas out.

So I Bought This Laser Engraver…

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  I bought my laser after I saw it being demonstrated at a Trade Show. I saw all the cool things it could do, and it blew my mind. I originally wanted to sell glasses online through etsy. So what did I do? I bought this huge top of the line laser engraver from epilog. Its an M2 Fusion and its wicked cool. So what was my business plan? (Um, what’s a business plan) I just wanted to engrave glasses and sell them. Guess what, there’s a lot more to it. A LOT MORE. For the moment let’s focus on CO2 Lasers and what they can do.

Different Mediums

Here we will look at some common substrates:

Wood

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  Wood is by far my favorite substrate to work with because there are so many kinds. I especially like, you guessed it, photographs. By photographs, I don’t mean an interpretation, I mean a photograph. So I spent years and tons of money on materials and documenting things like a mad scientist. You see, wood is a funny thing. First of all stick with the hardwoods. Stuff like Maple, Birch, Cherry, Alder,  and Walnut. Walnut is the best for text and vector art. It doesn’t overburn and gives a nice rich deep crisp engrave. Birch is the best for photographs. Solid birch. You can do plywood but that is usually the bottom of the barrel birch.  If you get a solid piece with a nice smooth grain, it will come out beautiful.

Here are some tips when engraving with wood:

Always sand it first. Your engrave will come out much nicer

When done, wipe it down with water or sand it with 600 grit paper. “Overburn” or edge scorching leaves charred marks around your image. If you sand it lightly, you will get rid of that but still keep the crispness of your image

“Sneak up on it” It’s a term I use when you burn something multiple times fast with low power. It brings out the image a little bit at a time. You can always burn it again, you can’t unburn it. Also if you can sand it in between burning, that will help you as well, as long as your laser repeats

Stay away from Pine. What does pine have more than anything? SAP. When you engrave pine with even a little power, it boils the sap, and boy, is that stuff sticky. Plus one other caution about Pine. It catches fire really easy

Inlay: A Laser is really good for doing inlay work. You can cut and inlay mother of pearl, abalone, wood veneer and even paper! That’s a course for a different time.

Plastic

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  Plastic melts. That’s is all a laser is doing to plastic. Melting it very precisely. So Tip#1: Don’t use too much heat in one place for a very long period of time. It will essentially turn to goo.

The best plastic to engrave on is acrylic. NOT POLYCARBONATE. They are NOT the same.  Oh and if you are trying to get a nice frosty look on acrylic, use CAST acrylic, not extruded. You will know if you are using extruded because it will engrave clear.  And if you REALLY want it to look cool, buy NOVUS polish 1, 2 and 3 and polish it first. It will look like glass. Engraving acrylic, especially photos on acrylic, it tricky at first. But once you get used to what to look for, it comes out great. Then, on clear acrylic, you can light it up using flexible light strips. Again, that’s another class for another time.

Another thing about acrylic. It can’t hold a really high resolution. In acrylic you want to go fast with low power, and around 300 dpi in your image. With acrylic, you can get really cool effects also when you cut it using a vector setting. It almost polishes the edge.

Glass

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  Glass, actually, doesn’t engrave. It microshatters. That’s right. It explodes, at a molecular level. Nonetheless, it is violent. What is glass made out of? Sand…….mostly. However, there are air and water molecules trapped within the glass. When the laser hits the air and water molecules, the molecules rapidly expand, causing them to break apart the bonds that hold the silicate together. Do this a couple of million times and you get a rough surface.

Engraving anything on glass takes patience. Engraving PHOTOGRAPHS on glass takes the patience of Mother Teresa, Gandhi, and Buddha put together. Its cool when it works, however it takes LOTS of practice.

Marble & Granite

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  Granite and Marble don’t really engrave either. What the laser is doing is removing the polish of the crystals therefore creating a matte finish. Pictures do well on granite and marble. I will do a course on these two substrates as well in the future. The photo prep is not bad, you just have to get some experience at it.

Coated Metals

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  Coated metals such as anodized aluminum can be tricky as well because there isn’t really any shading. Its either exposed the underlying material, or it hasn’t. What gives it the illusion of shading is how much of the coating you have removed, and how much of the underlying material you have removed. It’s an interesting medium to work with, and with the addition of other colors, you can get pretty creative.

  Conclusion

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  This course was created to give you just a taste of what you can do with a laser engraver. In classes yet to come, I will have not only lectures, but hands on assignments of what to do and how to do it. I am going to have guest lecturers, live feeds, seminars, you name it. Thank you for enrolling in this class, and I look forward to teaching you.

 The post Introduction to Laser Engraving appeared first on LaserGods.com.

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[moisfrenchadventure]

As some of you know, from previous posts (a little bit more about me) I am a ‘doer’ and just kept going until in the end I had a breakdown. (Why do you talk about this? Some people say!! Because we should NOT sweep it under the carpet, I say, it needs to be brought out into the open. ) I am not ashamed of this, from it I learnt so much, not least reading the Tao and realising that when it comes to my mini bus of life, someone else is doing the driving!

Well this week I was reminded again of many things and I thought that I would share them with you on this sunny, warm, October afternoon:

Firstly I was told by my counsellor that as part of my recovery, and to understand myself, I had to write down everything I did every day in list form; and I mean EVERYTHING! I had to write down that I had put a load of washing into the machine, and then that I had pegged it out. That I had emptied the dishwasher and reloaded it, that I had put clothes away, fed the cats, took the dog for a walk, posted a letter, made the bed, paid a bill, made my husbands sandwiches for work, and on and on and on. ……

The reason for this was because I could not see what I had achieved. I did all of these things and would then think “right I need to get some work done now.” Or “I have not got anything done today.” When in fact when I looked at the lists that I made I had got shit-loads done!! But because I had always just kept going I no longer saw the every day things as work, or as achievements, so I loaded myself with more and more to do. (Sound familiar?!)

In fact when I first went to the Counselor she asked me what I was going to do to relax and I said paint the back of my house!!!

What made me think of this now? Well over the past few weeks I have been setting up my Etsy shop petiteFrenchfancies; and encouraged by incredible media savvy friend this has also involved linking it all together, as a brand. This blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pin interest. It has involved sharing pictures of my house (people tell me that they love it and my style -but more of that in a minute.) and hours of research for the items I am selling as well as adding them to my shop. It has meant relentless promotion of myself, which I have always found alien to me (more of that in a minute) and it has all taken a lot of time. But what did I think? I haven’t got anything done!!!

You see when I sit a computer, or on my iPad (other tablets are available!) researching I think I am sitting on my arse not doing anything!! I have to stop that, and remember what my counsellor told me. Because now I have a paint shop following me on Instagram as well as some companies and I have made my first sale with a reservation as well. Not bad when you think I have only been really promoting it over the past month!!

So my message to you – write the list of everything you do in a day, from pegging the washing out, to watering the plants, and you will be shocked. Stop beating yourself up!

Secondly I have always believed that if you want something you have to focus on it and just keep working until you get it. But do you? If you are so focused on one thing how many other things are you missing that are being thrown at your head by life?! Where does your driver take you and what things does he show you, but you just ignore them because you are so focused on just achieving that one thing?

What made me think of that? I have been writing a book for some time, but clearly that is not ‘earning’ me any money. But if I don’t write it (and I have nearly finished it and sent it off to a publisher for review in the last month) and just focus on doing work that is earning me money, then it will never be published and I will never earn money from it and will just have to keep doing what I am doing because I need money!! Get it? If you just keep doing what you are doing you are always going to get what you have got!

So my mini bus driver decided that he would take me down the road of Osteoarthritis and I now have it in both my thumbs. This means that I cannot keep doing what I have been doing because my hands won’t let me. So I have continued with my Etsy shop, worked had adding photos and stories and promoting it and I have had my first sale. Do you think someone is trying to tell me something? I could have thought ‘no I need to do work that will provide money now, not in the future’, but then I would be stuck in the loop, so life took it out of my hands (literally!) and proved to me (again) that we do not always have to go on a straight road.

Thirdly, everyone who knows me will tell you that I am extremely confident person; and I am in some ways. But  although people have always loved my houses, (even last week my lovely husband looked at me as I dusted and rearranged out things and said “I love how you make a house a home.”) and I have been told many times that I should go into interior design, because I have an eye for the eclectic,  for some reason I have never had the confidence to believe those people.

I have always listened to the n’er do wells that have said ‘mmmmmmmm’. But last week an email popped into my in box quoting the late and wonder Dr Wayne. W Dyer. This email was about understanding how our mind can make things happen if we just believe; and then my wonderful friend Linda, who lives in America but follows me on Facebook, asked me what the letters in this picture spelt out…bliss

When I replied to her she gave me the most wonderful comment about how she would love to relax in this room. Someone was telling me something!

So, after I had received some criticism this week about my abilities, I decided that f**k it! I was going to believe in me and what I was able to achieve; and I went ahead and did what I thought was right.I closed my eyes and I said ‘ I believe in me.’ since then things have took off. …..

I now have over  two hundred followers on my blog, and they are growing all the time from all over the world, and from my various sites;  as are my followers on Instagram, and my shop has now had just under 300 views.  Many friends have also shown support and encouragement (and  a big shout out to Karen for that one!) My mini bus driver stopped and picked Ms Livermore up, so that she could help me believe in myself, and then others have joined in as well. Someone is definitely trying to tell me something.

And then finally today. Today I opened a message in messenger that was explaining about the negative things we say every day that impact on our subconscious and therefore how we approach life; how the words actually act like blockers and stop good things coming through. For example how many times do you say:

‘I have to……’

Do you? Do you really HAVE to? Or do you want to? That is something entirely different. If you HAVE to then is your subconscious saying that really you don’t want to?

“I have to go to the shop to get milk.” No you don’t! You can choose not to go, but then you can’t have a cup of tea with milk, but you don’t HAVE to, you want to because you want tea with milk!

I have read this to Rich and now he picks me up every time I say it – see! Because I am a doer!! And he is right I must (oops not must!) I need (oops I don’t need!) I mean it is beneficial to me to understand that I choose to do what I do, and if I choose not to do it I will probably get it done a lot quicker than if I keep telling myself that I must!

“I HATE that it gets dark earlier now.” Do you really hate it? Seriously or do you just wish that the evenings were lighter for longer?

“I would NEVER do that” I know what my book is about, and I can tell you that you can say never if you like but until you are there, you just don’t know and will probably surprise yourself!

I thought that I would share this with you all, because I know that some people will really think about what I have said, and then apply it to their lives, and I am confident that they will benefit from it. But then there will be the ones that don’t but hey ho, I tried!

So my message to you this fine afternoon is from Lao Tzu and the 57th verse of the Tao

‘Let go of fixed plans and concepts,

and the world will govern itself

How do i know this is so?

Because in this world,

the greater the restrictions and prohibitions,

the more people are impoverished………’

‘I take no action and people are reformed ….’

‘If I keep from imposing on people

they become themselves.’

Have a good week – and please share and comment, or rate this post, I really do love all feedback, it means I have touched an emotion and as an aspiring writer – that is all I need!!

  Moisy 

  Many moons ago I was told to do something…..Perhaps we should all do it! As some of you know, from previous posts (a little bit more about me) I am a 'doer' and just kept going until in the end I had a breakdown.