#independent businesses

[liverpoollomo]

Warrington Market. Zenit E. Truprint 200.

When visiting Warrington last year the new market, opened in 2020, proved to be an ideal place to get lunch. There was a wide variety of food traders and the rest of the building was home to many other stores such as a retro sweet shop, hairdressers and a rather nice smelling coffer roasters.

I relied on the built in Selenium cell meter to try and capture the atmosphere inside the market and was pleasantly surprised with the results.

[smiggles]

I wanted to put it put there that shoe patches are an idea I WANT others to use

Please make shoe patches

I want to see others cool designs and ideas

You can buy them here on our online shop

BisonWares X CicadaCafe

[jowynncarter]

The New Era of Retailing

As I write businesses in the UK are heading into the crucial autumn trading period, after experiencing a washout summer and lack lustre spring they will be banking on an improved autumn/winter, but the September heatwave has not helped in selling new season merchandise. We’re now moving into the all important “Golden Quarter”for the retail sector that usually accounts for most of the year’s…

[bisexualbaker]

As far as I’m concerned, seeing booth after booth staffed by independent artists celebrating queer people is one of the greatest perks of Pride celebrations. Where else can I go to find a group of sellers like this? Where else would they be targeting their wares in such a way? What other opportunities can I have to directly support so many local artists, many of them queer themselves, at the same time? There may exist queer-focused artisan’s galleries, but they I can’t imagine that they get nearly as much widespread attention as Pride.

One of the things that Pride should be about is community, and part of having a strong community is supporting each other. Letting small businesses rent booths at Pride is a natural extension of that.

So let's talk about this for a minute.

First of all, how do you think Pride events fund themselves and stay free for attendees? O.o Vendor fees aren't all of it - a lot of money comes from sponsors - but like... we paid $1300 to vend at Seattle Pride this year. That's the money that pays the people who work to make Pride happen. That is not free. Pride as an event does not just magically happen. A lot of people work really hard to make Pride happen and to clean up after it.

We're a small trans-owned company and 100% of our employees are trans & queer. We jokingly refer to Pride as "Gay Christmas". The money we make during Pride means we stay open, Pride events get vendor fees, and our employees get paid for the rest of the year. This company does not exist without Pride events. The only reason we survived as a company during COVID is because my wife has a stable, good IT job.

This shit isn't free to do. It does not just magically happen. Performers need to get paid. Tech crew needs to get paid. Equipment needs to be rented for performers. Stages need to be rented. Electrical services need to be paid for so food can happen. Ice and water cost money. Trash pickup costs money.

A lot of people volunteer and donate, but festivals and big community events? They cost money, and the money we pay to be able to vend is part of how Pride events happen. Without that, small queer businesses like @nerdykeppie don't survive and the only people putting their money in to make this happen, AND MONEY NEEDS TO CHANGE HANDS FOR EVENTS TO HAPPEN, are Smirnoff and fucking Wells Fargo.

For fuck's sake. Y'all want small queer businesses, but you really don't want us to actually survive, do you?

[gawki]

IT'S SPRING!

My store is officially open again! All 62 new mushroom pins are up as well as 5 new prints. I'm still working on the bandanas, so those will be released next week. <3

[dukeofthomas]

Can't believe Bruce canonically picked up a random 12yo homeless child who had no intent to become a vigilante and suddenly thrust Robin onto him without asking if that's what he wanted because he missed Dick (whom he fired because being Robin was too dangerous) and people still act like any take that's not "all the Batkids became vigilantes on their own completely independent of Bruce (who tried so hard to stop them but sadly just couldn't do it)" is a complete idiotic bad-faith take and that you're crazy if you disagree with people saying that Bruce has never ever absolutely NEVER picked up a kid for the purpose of making them into a vigilante.

[malmseyy]

Q is over 80% funded with 8 days left! Grab yourself a cute bat friend before it's too late!

Support Q on Kickstarter now

[rowansugar]

~ New Website is Here! ~

I finally launched my new and updated shop and website with some new prints and stickers to celebrate! There are also some fun bundle discount for buying multiple prints, earrings, and keychains at the moment since my new site lets me do that ;)

Shop here!

[janegumball]

⭐️PEGASUS PINS⭐️

Link to the Kickstarter

So I have the pleasure of working with @sophieascruggs on her newest pin collection as a guest artist! 🎨

These designs will be unlocked at $5,000, and we’re currently at $3,990! Help us hit the stretch goal!

[covington-shenanigans]

in honor of this amazing post by @robotmango. thank u for ur service, I think of you and your suffering every August since 2016

(i have no idea what you and/or your husband look like, please accept any needed apologies for inaccuracies in gender/race/height/tendency to sarcasm/etc. hope you don't mind that i immortalized your already immortal and correct opinions in what I suppose is technically RPF fan art)

[zytes]

snow over cold wires / nerine sarniensis

[charlie-artlie]

and the lolbit pile just keeps getting bigger

[artificelux]

I've said before that I always want Cyber Monday to be cooler than it is, to be neon-soaked and punky...

In short, Cyberpunk Monday.

Well, what's more punk than forgoing the big corpo sites and buying straight from creators and small businesses? Supporting art and artists directly, adding value to the ecosystem of unconventional stories that don't follow the traditional sales model.

So, I'm trying something different this year... I'm going to run a 20% off sale through noon on Dec. 3. It's an automatic discount site-wide on colorofamirror.net (including all versions of the novel, plus the vinyl soundtrack). The only exclusion is the already-better discount of 25% off for the Full Moon Bundle, which doesn't stack with this sale.

This will likely be the only sale I run during the year, so if you've been interested in picking up a copy of the book or you have someone in mind for a holiday gift, this is your chance.

A noir science fiction story, COLOR OF A MIRROR is written, designed, published, and sold by me (and can be found in a couple independent bookstores in the New England area). It has received "Editor's Pick" from BookLife Reviews and a "Get It" verdict from Kirkus Reviews. I don't sell on Amazon/Kindle or B&N, and the e-book is DRM-free so you can read on whatever device you choose, making this a perfect Cyberpunk Monday offering.

--

This weekend, whether you're shopping local bookstores on Small Business Saturday or finally picking up that bespoke item from a favorite creator, let's support those that are making the art we love... not the big businesses trying to turn us into dollar signs.

[possumcollege]

(a wild jukebox has entered the monster bar)

[gawki]

After a full year of being closed, my store is officially open again for a short time! The store will close at 11:59 p.m. CST on October 9th! New prints, play mats, and patches. Experimenting with recycling clothing with one of my pals, too! And, retiring a bunch of stuff so I can make new stuff! Hope y'all like it. <3

[brainrot-jikan]

im not the biggest alhaitham/kaveh shipper (because im a rare pair ho) but it seems to me that in alhaitham/kaveh getting-together fics tend to be... unequal.

the beautiful thing about alhaitham and kaveh is that they're both equally right and equally wrong and equally dicks about it. but the writers for alhaitham/kaveh much more frequently seem to give alhaitham the burden change (the burden of the character flaw) instead of kaveh.

in any good character arc, the main character has a fatal flaw or misconception, and by the end of that arc they have addressed that flaw in some definitive way. scrooge was a scrooge and learned that being that way was detrimental; merlin from finding nemo was overprotective to a fault and had to learn that he couldn't (and shouldn't) control everything and to let go; the wolf from little red riding hood learns that you should stop while you're ahead.

stories centering around romance tend to lean heavily on character arcs, which makes sense. and since romance generally requires two individuals to be vulnerable and open and emotional with each other, it makes double sense that alhaitham/kaveh authors zoom straight into alhaitham's lack of emotional vulnerability.

this bothers me.

in society, individuals are expected to experience and present emotions in a specific way. if someone dies, you cry. if someone smiles at you, you smile back. if you're at a party, you're supposed to be having fun. if you don't do these things, you're seen as impolite at best and a inhuman freak at worst. when these behaviors are frequent it's often viewed as emotional immaturity, or a lack of ability to feel at all. the inability or lack of willingness to conform to societies emotional expectations of you is seen as a flaw and a reason for exclusion.

alhaitham is canonically disliked and avoided for being the way he is. he prefers it this way, but that doesn't mean the people perpetuating this avoidance are in the right. they are the societal pressure to conform that alhaitham blows off. alhaitham could be the way he is for a lot of reasons: avoidant attachment style, trauma, following someone else's example (eg. his grandmother), or just his base personality. it doesn't MATTER. he is the way he is. kaveh having to accept that should be part of the story.

putting the burden of the fatal flaw on alhaitham, making the way alhaitham treats kaveh and the people around him the problem, feels invalidating. it implies heavily that alhaitham's way of interfacing with the world, alhaitham's very SELF, is incorrect. my suggestion is to flip a larger portion of that burden onto kaveh. kaveh 👏 character 👏 arcs 👏

some examples/recommendations:

- make kaveh project his insecurities onto other people but especially onto alhaitham; he's overly reliant on other people for his own self worth, and he perceives alhaitham's lack of positive feedback as a direct reflection of how alhaitham feels about him. but learns along the way that alhaitham doesn't hate him, kaveh's actual struggle is with hating himself and being unable to his own self as worthy of love. maybe throw in how you are responsible for your own recovery, other people can help but you can't rely on them to carry you through self actualization.

- or, kaveh tries to make alhaitham behave more like a "normal" person, to be more pleasant and emotive and forthcoming, and then realizes he's in the wrong for trying to make alhaitham into something he's not, possibly for all the wrong reasons (not because he likes alhaitham better like that, but bc society says that's healthier and a better/more conforming way to be)

- or you could go ahead make alhaitham's issues the main problem but they're too complicated to overcome in a short period of time, so kaveh has to accept alhaitham is doing his best in his own way and not push for unrealistic and unhealthy changes. he could alter his own behavior to give alhaitham space and time and a safe place to land.

that got sappy so it's past time for me to dip out. go forth and ship things; but maybe consider letting alhaitham be a rude stone-faced bastard if he wants to be.