"From Etsy to Sweatsy"

"How a handmade mecca went from part of a movement to part of the problem."

In the above link, April Winchell, author of Regretsy: Where DIY meets WTF, and formerly of the website by the same name (may it rest in peace), discusses Etsy's fall from grace, its IPO announcement, and illustrates its journey from Main Street to Wall Street.

Hey, boys and girls, do you know how to spell "sellout?"

[Children together]

E-t-s-y...

Very good!

***

Apparently this topic needs to be revisited.  There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding peoples’ displeasure with the metamorphosis of Etsy Inc.  In fact, instead of trying to educate themselves on exactly why certain business owners are disturbed by Etsy’s practices, we see the Etsy Apologists in full force, diminishing the concerns of said business owners, and likening their disagreement with Etsy’s direction to that of  a lovers’ quarrel.  To me, this is not only rude, but an irresponsible use of your voice, not to mention unoriginal.  Regurgitating something you read on a forum or in a comment section that someone else said, once, more than half a decade ago makes you neither clever, nor informed.  If you are at all interested in why people are unhappy, by all means, ask them.  They will tell you, most are not shy.  In fact, that's how I became aware of the many hypocrisies, and double standards, or no standards at all in some circumstances, that have become commonplace in doing business with Etsy.  I couldn’t understand why anyone would be upset with a company that provided an inexpensive platform to open a storefront, and sell wares from, and then I bothered to listen to what was happening to individual store owners, and the struggles they were facing, and how or why those struggles, and concerns may impact business, and business owners alike, in the future by continuing to align themselves with Etsy Inc.

Little Girl Found

Some love, when you finally find it, actually has no beginning at all. It is with you, alive the entire time.

Primordial.

Love of self, twin flames, children born or unborn, whatever love makes your soul vibrate in unison with the universe, celebrate it!

Ob-Sassenach

It started in earnest a couple of months ago ... Innocently enough, actually ...  A woman contacted me hoping I'd be able to make her a scarf inspired by some of the knitted garments from a recently aired television series. Not being one to traverse the waters of custom orders all that often, I admit the current of curiosity was a little too strong this time, and I was soon swept away. After receiving a collage of photographs, and screenshots from Outlander, and talking it over with my soon-to-be new customer who knew exactly what she wanted, with visual aids, how could I say no?

Having already seen the first episode by stumbling upon some free-promo-thing on TV, but unable to remember any neck-wear of note, it was down to Episode Two. I gathered my checklist of knitting accoutrement necessary for the undertaking: Large needles, practice yarn, calculator, notebook, pen & measuring tape, and settled in for some gauge swatching & TV watching. Instantly recognizing "Dwalin," and "Jackie Elliot," (and they're brothers! *swoon*) I figured it had to be decent, at the very least. The hour passed in combinations of knitting, glancing, number crunching, ripping out frogging, and starting completely over, until finally the scarf in question appeared on screen ... BAM, credits.  This won't do ... Episode Three!  I HAVE to see more scarf (or so I told myself). It went on like this for quite awhile, er, long after the actual knitting stopped, in fact.  I felt myself getting drowsy ... Just one more. I can relax on the couch and snuggle in and just catch one more episode (that's how I reconciled 5 & 6). But when Six ended with Claire storming past a group of Highland Scots, marriage contract in one hand, and snatching a bottle of whiskey from Dougal (Dwalin / Graham McTavish) with the other, after he'd just rescued her from Redcoats sending one scampering like a tiny mouse just by walking toward him whilst staring, I knew I had to get Episode Seven IMMEDIATELY ... And by any means necessary!

For whatever reason, I HAD to know what happened to these people next ...

Er ...

So, I basically ended up freebasing the entire first half of Season One in a single night (I'm now patiently biding my time through the mid-season break for Part Deux's return April 4th, 2015), and it wasn't enough.  I've never seen a more vicious-to- viewers mid-season ending than Claire trapped with Black Jack Randall about to meet her doom, just as Jamie Take-Your-Hands-OFF-My-Wife Fraser bursts through the window.

End Scene.  Credits.  That's all folks, for six months!

I was online ordering the first book before Sam Heughan got to the "e" in wife, and have since been burning through them as fast as I can get my hands on them -- Let's put it this way, if drone delivery were readily available I'd have been turning the last page of Book One with my other hand waiting outside my front door for a copy of Book Two to be dropped into it without lifting an eyelid.

My new shameless addiction aside, what I find interesting is how strangers have the ability shape each other's lives, and all because someone decided to go out on a limb and ask if I could do something for her, and by doing so, she has given something back to me that I've really come to enjoy.  Don't mistake me, I'm definitely not saying we all need to become followers marching single file behind the same drummer, or white knuckle each latest piece of pop culture shot out at us by The Machine, or freak out over frivolous television shows.  I mean paying attention to the ebb and flow of even the most casual encounters, because you truly never know where the next little spark to light your fire may come from, and that is always a gift to be thankful for. 


Oh yeah, and kilts.  Because, kilts.

Welcome

xoxo

It's That Time Again ...

And not because I'm back ... well, not only because I'm back! After a rather strange, and challenging 2013 only to turn around and chop slice the tip of my finger off earlier this year with this guy, and now fully understand why he's typically sold with his little friend I packed it in, and said "so long" to the Internet for awhile.  I figured it could survive without me. I thought I was made of tougher stuff! Sew through my finger? No problem! But I'm no chef, and completely unaccustomed to chopping off finger tips, and shaving the odd knuckle off here and there so, firmly into hibernation I slipped.

For those of you saying to yourselves right now: Accidents only happen when you're not paying attention. Yeah, I used to be you ... All I can say is you've obviously never used a mandolin slicer!  Apparently, accidents CAN happen when you're focused, and paying attention when it comes to Japanese kitchen utensils.

So, why is this the most wonderful time of the year (aside from having me back, and the buzz of the encroaching holidays in the air, of course)?  The Worldbuilders are at it again with their fundraising efforts in full swing on behalf of Heifer International, which is a charity I find really interesting, and am happy to support when, and how I can.  Its simultaneous massive reach, yet grass roots way the program touches the lives of the people it helps, fascinates me.  Doubly cool, is that Worldbuilders is the brainchild of my English-101-professor-turned-bestselling-fantasy-author, Patrick Rothfuss.  While, to me, he'll always be the scruffy chinned, grad student making my essays bleed red ink, this majestic warlock of the literary world who could be cashing his advance checks, and swimming in a bin of gold coins à la Scrooge McDuck, is trying, and I think, succeeding at doing something far more special (as much as I've always wanted to swim in a bin full of money...).  Every year his assembled team of world-building minions who keep the Rothfuss machine well-oiled and maintained, crack their knuckles and get to work connecting Geeks & Geekerati alike from far and wide for this one major event (including stretch goals to keep us digging into our pockets searching for more dough, see: Neil Gaiman reads Green Eggs and Ham for one such example) to raise money for people in the kind of crippling poverty, and despair most spoiled Americans, like myself, can only begin to imagine. How much money, you ask? Last year brought in 681,000.00 USD, an amount they're looking to beat this year, with eleven days to go and the total already sitting at 492,684.00 USD as I type this, I think this will be another record breaking year. 

How can you join the fundraising mayhem?  Several ways, actually! Between online auctions for donated rarities of the geekiest sort, to buying things straight from Pat's store, The Tinker's Pack, where all proceeds go to charity all year long (every single purchase), or by just straight-up donating on the Worldbuilders page, where each donation of ten dollars gets you an entry into the massive lottery of donated books, games, and delightfully dorky miscellany. Act quickly if you're interested in getting your paws on some swag whilst helping people feed themselves, their families, and rescue their village's economy. Even though sales through Pat's website are constantly put toward charity, this particular event ends December 15, 2014 so, get to clickin' if you don't want to miss out!

xoxo

P.S. When a website offers the option for the author to scribble whatever you want on the cover page of the book you just ordered, things like this happen:

For Stormy, My favorite English 101 student of all time!

While the sentiment may, or may not be true, I was in his very first 101 class, and I do have it in writing now so, it's his word against mine at this point.

P.P.S. The finger's fine, save for a little scar tissue. I'm clearly a shape-shifter, or at the very least, part starfish. Oh, and thank God my brother wakes up at the crack of dawn, understands my left-handed texts, and is a retired medic (among other things) without whom, I most likely would've bled to death. And thank God, for rubber bands, and that one year I was in Camp Fire.  

My New Obsession

Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series

Typewriter Series #898

I heard you howling
from the depths
of me.
You were the scream
and I
was the still night air,
You whispered from
inside,
the simple truth
that there isn't a priest
with a cross big enough 
to exorcise you
from me.
You will haunt
and slam shut,
in the middle of all
my nights,
the doors inside me.
I will count your footsteps
in the cellar of my soul
and beg you
to pass through me
just once more.
Just once.

-Tyler Knott Gregson- 

Lighten Up, It's Just Fashion!

Which is true, except when it's not. 

With New York's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2014 winding down, and London's just getting underway; air kisses hanging like a thick cloud alongside thrilled gasps of front-row glitterati over how fabulous next year's donation pile is going to be, I'm wondering just how "fabulous" the people of last year's factory collapse in Bangladesh, and other sweatshop workers around the world are feeling.  My guess is, not very.

Don't be fooled by the high price on your designer duds, the people behind the construction are, more typically than not, cutting and sewing in the same human rights violating factories pumping out threads for your local one-stop-shop retailer.

At some point something's gotta give.  Right now our actions are saying that we value a pretty new dress over human life.  It's time to put the champagne down, and get real.

 

 **Updated 2022**

Originally, there was a video that accompanied this post, and while the information reported was correct, it is from a broadcasting organization I do not wish to promote on this page.  For more information on the topic of the intersection of human rights, and the fashion industry, please take a look at this list of films compiled by Remake (a registered 501c3 non-profit organization that exists to shed light on the human rights violations and climate injustice being caused by the fashion industry):

 

12 Films About Fast Fashion That Will Change the Way You Think About the Apparel Industry

So Long, 2013 ...

 

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

― Zora Neale Hurston (1903 - 1960), Their Eyes Were Watching God