Etsy in Vancouver

photo pilfered from the lovely Christi of Buenostyle

My crafty social  schedule has been quite the whirlwind as of late with the screening of Handmade Nation and then the big Etsy meet & greet tour a few days later. It’s been so great seeing familiar faces from the local craft shows without the busyness that goes along with setting up & actually working a craft show. I rarely get a chance to talk to folks other than the ones at the tables beside me!

Since my mom was in town, she tagged along despite my warnings that it would probably be really boring for a non-Etsy seller. She says she had a good time though (I’m sure the free wine helped!) & it was really nice for her to meet all of my “co-workers” & get a better understanding of what it is exactly I do. I think she learned a lot & since she was wearing one of my Bee Girl scrabble tile necklaces, I had her pimping my work too. hehe

Hearing about how Etsy started was very cool. I don’t think there were many surprises about what the Etsy admins have been working on (server speed, redundancy, search) or surprise requests from the sellers. Tanis Alexis made a great suggestion about making better use of the favoriting hearts system. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to sort your favorites so you can actually *find* that particular shop you’re thinking of? Or make wish lists? Why not a baby shower or wedding registry? The functionality is already there & already being used, it’s just not very functional. 😉

Amanda from pomomama was one of the organizers along with Melanie from a Farmer’s Daughter. They both did a great job putting the whole thing together, but I had to my camera out to snap a shot of Amanda when she pulled her knitting out in the middle of the meeting. Crafters are always multi-tasking!

It was great to see Rob & Andrea from Got Craft. Their fronts too! 🙂

I won’t go through the entire list of lovely folks I got to chat with, but suffice to say it was a very nice evening. It was one of those moments that confirmed for me (again) how happy I am to be painting for a living & how RIGHT this feels for me. Every day I feel more & more sure that I’m on the right path, a path that’s been laid out just for me. Being surrounded by people who inspire me? Who are crafting creative lives for themselves too? So. Freaking. Awesome.

I remember reading one of those affirmation books years ago that under the “work” category said something along the lines of:

I earn good money doing a job that fulfills me creatively working with and for people I love.

I do work with and for people I love – my fellow sellers, my AMAZING customers, the staff at Etsy & ArtFire & the post office I visit so regularly. I know people have their complaints about Etsy, but I have to say that any time I’ve had to contact them for anything, they’ve been nothing but helpful & supportive. And the ArtFire guys with their weekly podcasts? Totally rock.

Yup, I’m a lucky girl.

Thank you.