Delicious Etsy Pet Peeves

I'd like to start with a disclaimer before I start ranting:

Yes, I know everything is subjective and that what one person hates the rest of the world may love. However, while you're on that one person's blog, you're going to be treated to that one person's thoughts, haha :)

Pet Peeve #1: Take a Peek!

Take a peek at my new necklace! I have a brand new design up, go ahead and take a peek! I'm having a sale in my shop, won't you take a peek? Ugh. I already have a hatred for cliched little phrases like this that you see everywhere and that show no sort of imagination on the writer's part. But this one, if you'll excuse my own use of unimaginative cliched phrase, takes the cake. Who wants someone to sneak around taking peeks at their stuff? Just come look at it! Is your shop really that big a secret that you require people to be so furtive about it? You can look, but only if you just peek!

The reason I really hate it though? Is because this is what it ALWAYS makes me think of:

Kilroy was here, taking a peek at your stuff.


Pet Peeve #2: Take a Peak!

I'm pretty sure I don't need to delve any further into this one.

Pet Peeve #3: Juicy

Vibrant, vivid, brilliant, sure. But if I can't bite into it and taste it, then I'm not buying that that bead is juicy. Watermelon is juicy. Hand-knit sweaters are not. (Or at least I hope they're not.)

Pet Peeve #4: Overuse of Emoticons

Particularly the wink ;) If you wouldn't wink at me for real after saying something, then why would you when you're typing? If you're not joking about something, there is no need to be winking. It gives the message an entirely different vibe than what you intended.

You should check out my treasury!

Okay cool, don't mind if I do.

You should check out my treasury ;)

Uh.. why? Just what kind of treasury is this, buddy? Are you trying to show me dirty pictures? Stop winking at me!


I only have four. Because I'm really not that negative of a person, haha. And I fully admit that I'm sure I do things that annoy other people to the point of blogging about them. So if you have any of your own to add, feel free to leave them in the comments, because I'd love to know! And with that, please go take a peak at the rest of my juicy blog ;)

Wordless Wednesday

Philadelphia International Flower Show

How is it that I've never lived more than 45 minutes from Philadelphia at any point in my entire life, yet somehow I've never heard of the Philadelphia International Flower Show before this week?

A friend invited me to go with her yesterday, and I thought it sounded fun, so I agreed, not realizing it was any kind of big deal. But then I tell my mom and my boyfriend about it, and apparently not only have they both heard of it, but they've both always wanted to go. Who knew? Not me!

It was amazing though. It was in the Convention Center, and as soon as you walked in, you were enveloped by the scent of flowers. Flowers in every direction and fancy displays everywhere. At one point we overheard someone remark that there should be arrows on the floor to direct you where to go- we mocked them at the time, but after while, we had to agree that we could see what they meant. Enormous elephant and giraffe sculptures made of flowers, an enclosed bamboo walking trail, crazy intricate bonzai trees.. we spent hours in there, and I'm still not sure we even saw everything.

The above picture of the orange flowers is what the giraffe sculpture was made from. Yeah seriously. Little glass vases filled with these beautiful blooming orchids hanging from an enormous constructed giraffe. They even had a little bird perched on top for good measure. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the show. The other favorite was the pressed flower exhibit. These things were works of art. I never imagined you could work flowers and pieces of plants into such intricate landscapes. One used hydrangea petals to make a sky that was so many shades of blue and purple with wispy white clouds; another was a clock tower constructed from all kinds of metallic leaves. It was amazing.

And of course I couldn't get out of there without checking out the vendor section. That part was hit or miss- I loved seeing all of the handmade work, and there was plenty of it. However, one of the most aggravating things to me is spotting something beautiful and different, then on closer examination, finding a "Made in China" sticker on it. And unfortunately, there was plenty of that too. I can't really complain much about it though, since it was a flower show and not an art show. I think getting critiquey about mass-produced just comes with the territory when you're a handmade artist. One thing I have to say though is that seeing the displays those vendors were using seriously got my mind working as far as my own display goes. I'm hoping eventually I'll be at the point where I can move up to doing shows on that level. Not anytime soon, but maybe next year will be my year for it!

Wordless Wednesday

Twitter Tips. Or... Twips.

I always wonder how so many people manage to keep their blogs going consistently when I struggle to post even just a few times a year. Where do they find the time? Where do they come up with topics to write about? Are their lives really that much more interesting than mine?

Or maybe it's just that everyone writes about the same stuff.

Like Twitter. Yes, that's right, I believe I've discovered the secret. You're not a real blogger until you've posted an "Awesome Tips for Succeeding on Twitter!" post. So here you have mine. Read and be enlightened.

Twips to Have You Tittering Like a Pro!

1. In order to be a success on Twitter, you must send each and every one of your new followers a direct message saying, "Thanks so much for following me, my special friend! I am so very looking forward to tweeting with you! :) You, only you ...and the 4587 other people I messaged immediately after you. Keep in touch and have a restful day!"


2. After you send said direct message, proceed to ignore all tweets from said new followers forevermore.


3. When said followers catch onto your little game and unfollow you, let them go. Unfollow them in return. But only for a week. Then add them back and hope they don't notice you're the same person they just deleted.


4. It's rude not to say good morning and good night to your Tweeple each and every day. We worry. Are you mad at us?


5. Don't you ever let your followers go a day without knowing you had three square meals and a fancy coffee. It's just cruel to leave people hanging like that.


6. If you're an Etsy seller tweeting about your new items, don't just post the link. Make sure you preface it with "Just sold and relisted!" It's vital that your followers know how lucky they are to be graced with the opportunity to purchase such hot-selling merchandise from you.


7. As long as I'm talking to you, Etsy sellers- if you're going to post your items on Twitter, then by George, do it right and post all 97 of them in a row.


8. Oh yeah, by the way Etsians? We don't care about your personal life. We only want to know what you have to sell us and how many hearts and sales you're up to. You know, the interesting stuff. Obviously.


9. Use as many abbreviations and omit as many vowels as possible in your tweets. The more indecipherable, the better. B Grg Im gn 2 mk dis twt ft if it kls m! Kn u stl rd dis? IDK I tnk Im spkng Grk! Kn sm1 trnsl8? Il py u!


10. If shorthand isn't your thing, it's okay to post multiple tweets one after the other to make sure you get in everything you wanted to say. Who needs a journal when you have Twitter to post your master's thesis on?

I think that about covers it for this class period. Please study the lesson, and if you have any of your own Twips to share with the class, please feel free to post them in the comments!

Wordless Wednesday

Spring in Springfield Craft Show

Wow, so today was a bust. Here's how my day went:


6:15am: Hit snooze on the alarm.

7:00am: Drag myself out of bed to get ready and get the car loaded up with my booth display, tables, jewelry, etc. Wish and wish and wish that the rain stops soon.

8:15am: Pick up my awesome friend Christin who agreed to be my lovely assistant today. We both wish and wish and wish for the rain to stop soon.

9:30am: Get lost in North Jersey trying to navigate from directions that went something like, "Take exit 140 towards 82 East, but don't get on 82 East, take the second ramp to get back on the Parkway South, then make a turn-aroundy-thing that's supposed to be a traffic circle but is actually a traffic hexagon to get on 22 East--NO WAIT WEST! WE MEANT WEST!" Oh North Jersey, you slay me.

10:00am: Car is unloaded, so I try to drive it out of the street and bring it to the parking area. Get yelled at by a cop for not knowing I was supposed to go down to the other end of the street to exit. He saunters out to the middle of the intersection and makes a big show of looking in all directions at the zero cars anywhere in sight, and finally signals me to come through. Ignores my apology as I drive past and, I suspect, wishes me as long and miserable a day as he is having. Well, okay, maybe not. But I do suspect he is angry at being put on Stand Outside in the Rain at the Craft Show duty.

10:50am: 20 minutes past the time we were supposed to be set up by. We weren't even close. However, this is about the time we eventually gave up on finishing the set up. Why? BECAUSE IT WAS STILL POURING RAIN.

11:30am: 30 minutes after the show's official start time. Vendors have already begun to jump ship and swim away.

12:00pm: This is about when I made the first and only sale of the day. A $10 pair of pink gemstone heart earrings. Better something than nothing.

12:30pm: Three junior high kids come by and ooh and ahh over my $5 display. I silently will them to be my second sale. No luck, my mind powers are not yet strong enough. However, I do die a little inside that I've sunk to placing my hopes on junior high kids' allowance money to make back my booth fee.

1:00pm: My aunt and uncle come by to show their support and keep us company. We enjoy the rest of our time under the safety of the canopy until..

1:30pm: ..we realize we're one of maybe ten vendors left on the entire street. Ten vendors and the giant inflatable bouncy playground things which now basically might as well be Slip-n-Slides. It's a sad picture. We pack up, and in the process, we break a $10 donut pendant, thereby canceling out that first and only sale. I curse Springfield. Somewhere, that cop laughs.

3:30pm: Christin and I bury our sorrows with Chinese and brownie sundaes. My fortune cookie reads, "You have an important new business development shaping up." Really? I check the back to see if it gets any more specific. It does not. Thanks, Fortune Cookie, for the vague yet encouraging message.


So that was how I began this year's craft show season. Just superbly! At least I know it can't get any worse than this. Unless it's Neptune City Day, that is.

Chili. It's the new ramen.

So. I really don't cook much. I pretty much survive on ramen and Kraft Mac and Cheese. It's okay, I'm a college student, I'm allowed. But I can't live like this forever. So I figured this would be a nice, practical meal to make. There's enough to it that it actually qualifies as cooking, but it's simple enough that I'll actually make it from time to time, now that I know how.

Let me show you how it's done:

1. Brown 1lb of ground beef.

2. Drain it. Drain it real good.

3. Turn the heat down so it's just sort of simmery.

4. Throw in three 8oz cans of plain tomato sauce. Or two 12oz cans if you feel like being kah-raaaazy and messing with the recipe. I actually only used 16oz, but it came out mad dry, plus it caused the peppers to not cook evenly. So listen to me when I say 24oz, LISTEN TO ME!

5. Start shaking in some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder. I have nothing even resembling exact measurements for these things, so just shake and taste and shake and taste. It doesn't flavor it nearly as strongly as you'd think it would, so keep shaking until you think you've shaken too much, and then continue to shake a little more. And then a liiiiiittle more.

6. When you have ceased to shake, cover the pot and let it soak up the spicy goodness for like twenty minutes. Or whatever amount of time you deem sufficient, I'm pretty sure plus or minus ten minutes isn't going to ruin it.

6.5. Or WILL it?!?!

7. Add a can of red kidney beans and some chopped green peppers and black olives. These should have been washed and chopped already, cause it's going to take you a good ten minutes or so to do that. So if you've just been following this and cooking as you go, I am truly sorry that I didn't include this as a previous step. But that teaches you to not read a recipe all the way through before you start, now doesn't it.

8. So after you finally add the veggie-stuff, you cover the pot again and let it keep cooking for approximately another half hour. Or again, however long. Maybe only fifteen minutes if you're really hungry and like your green peppers half-cooked and crunchy.

9. Turn off the stove.

10. Put your chili on a plate.

11. Get a utensil.

12. Enjoy.


(The picture makes it look kind of gross, but I swear it's good. In fact, I might even say it's delish.)

Welcome back, me. Why thank you!

I've broken my own record for longest time gone without a post. Okay, I admit it. I had no intention of coming back and updating this thing again. There's only so much you can write about beads, you know?

You don't know.

But whatever. I'm back, and for the sake of actually having something to write about, this is no longer a blog reserved just for updating you all about my website. What will I be writing about in addition to this, you ask? Well, you'll just have to find out. Mainly because I don't know myself yet.

Oh the suspense! Can you handle it??

I <3 Handbags. Like whoa.

You know, I just realized that I forgot to post about my new handbags. Normally I wouldn't bother if I'd just gotten them from Target or something, but these came from fellow indie Fierce Kitten Studio, which means they're worth mentioning.



The color's messed up (it's actually purple, not blue like it appears), but trust me, this bag is gorgeous. It's well-made, it's the perfect size to hold everything I need, and seriously- ADORABLE. I also got another one in a different style, but with the same purple fabric lining the inside. I'm not much of a girly-girl (I don't wear make-up, I don't have a huge shoe collection), but if there's one stereotype I fit, it's the handbag obsession. But at least I'm supporting other small businesses, right?? Right! And Georgia is a total sweetheart, so if you're shopping for a new bag yourself, go get it from her.