I´ve Been Featured on Ecogeneration

I had a pleasant note today. I've been featured on a great blog by Ecogeneration. They have a wonderful Etsy shop where they upcycle/recycle things for longer life/usefulness. I recently won one of her coffee cup sleeves and it's great. Then she asked about featuring me for her Fabulous Friday Featured seller posts. Read about it by clicking the title to this post or her: Ecogeneration. Enjoy.

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle with Ecogeneration on Etsy

Welcome to ecogeneration - a place where you can find treasures that have been given a second chance. I create long lasting, earth friendly, and yet, creative designs for you and your home.... So starts the first paragraph in this great Etsy shop: Ecogeneration. I recently won one of their giveaways for a recycled coffee cup sleeve. It's great and even fits on cold drink cups, since I'm not a big coffee drinker. So I started checking out some of her other great recycled/reused items. I love this pillow I found in her shop and decided to ask her for an interview. I hope you enjoy finding out more about her shop and what makes it unique.
1. When and why did you start crafting?
I think I’ve been “crafting” all my life. I have been sewing since I was in High School (I had to take “Home Economics” class and yes, I’m dating myself here.) I taught myself how to knit and crochet when I was bedridden with my first child. I learned to paint when I was in college. I have been crafting practically all my life and yet, never called myself a crafter.
2. What do you enjoy most about your crafting?
The serenity. The creativity. The “me” time.
3. How did you find out about Etsy and why did you start selling there?
I am a mom to two very active teenagers. I knit and crochet washcloths, cleaning cloths, scarves, etc. while waiting for their activities to end. I use to give them to my family and friends as gifts. One of my friends suggested that I sell them and so I did some research and found Etsy.
4. What is the hardest thing to do for your shop or you dislike the most about selling online?
Advertising and marketing. But I guess like any business, you have to put in your dues. Most brick and mortar stores have visible store fronts as advertisements. That’s why location, location, location is so important. Online business is the same. But online business is invisible if you don’t’ know know how to work the internet. I feel as if I have limited control over the visibility of my shop. I also feel like I’m a computer illiterate. Oh, if you tell me the steps, I can follow, but I really have limited knowledge when it comes to computers. I feel like I need to learn so much more about computers and internet in order to advertise my shop in cyberspace and I just don’t have the time.
5. Do you rely on Etsy to help pay bills or is it mainly for fun & extra spending money?
Initially, it was for fun and to see if people would like what I create. Then, fun became more like an obsession. (lol) Since I’m spending so much time on Etsy, I feel as if I should make it into a business. I would like to stay home and work full time on making Etsy a business so that I won’t have to go back to “non-crafting” work.
6. Have you tried or do you sell in offline shops? Do you enjoy that more or less than Etsy & why?
Currently, I am trying to streamline my business. I have an eclectic mixture of products because I have too many interests – i.e. crocheting, knitting, sewing. I also upcycle a lot of materials to create my products so nothing is really replicable. They are kind of OOAK. But I’d like to come up with a line of eco friendly products that I can sell wholesale to stores. My dream is to create a line that stores across the country can carry. I think that’ll be so cool. And to impact the world on reducing waste and becoming more earth friendly by using my products……..that would be awesome.
7. Where else can you be found online?
I blog regularly about eco tips and my crafts at my blog. I recently opened a facebook –http://tinyurl.com/ecogeneration My kids cringe when I tell them I’m on FB. I also tweet http://twitter.com/ecogenerationkl It’s fun to read people’s subconscious thoughts.
And be sure to check out her great Furoshiki reusable cloth gift wraps like the one in the web ring box to the right and some of her other great items.

Recycling, Ficklefaerie and doing your part for the environment.

I recently entered a blog giveaway for some great looking reusable produce bags and won! I've won several giveaways lately, but this giveaway was really great because it was something I could do to help the environment. I like to recycle as much as I can. I compost, and do other things to try to help the environment. So when I saw this giveaway and then checked out their shop, I was really hoping I'd win. Check out Ficklefaerie on Etsy and you'll be amazed at all the great things they offer to help the environment. So I decided I'd like to know more about why they decided to make these things and how they got started, and asked for an interview. I hope you enjoy getting to know them a little better as much as I did.
1. When and why did you start crafting?
I have been crafting for as long as I can remember. I used to make little dressers for little toads, from my mom and dads cigarette packages. Back in the 60's you had to learn to make do with what you had on hand. There was no such thing as going to craft stores and getting ready made supplies. When I was 10 I got my first sewing machine and the rest is history....
2. What do you enjoy most about your crafting?
I enjoy creating something. I really don't like to repair and alter I enjoy taking a piece of fabric and watching it grow into something. I could never dream of sitting in front of the TV and just watching TV..I always have to be creating while I watch TV.
3. How did you find out about Etsy and why did you start selling there?
I found Etsy 2 and half years ago looking on line for a site to sell on other than ebay. I started selling Bath and body products. It was something my daughter was into and she was spending so much money online buying B&B products I started researching and experimenting. I found Etsy great for my first year but then there were so many B&B sellers popping up it became increasingly hard to get daily sales. Thats when my love of sewing and the enviroment took over...
4. What is the hardest thing to do for your shop or you dislike the most about selling online?
The thing I dislike the most is the constant worrying about whether the mail is going through fast enough. I live way up north and it seems that stuff moves quickly one week and another week it seems to be put on the back of a turtle. I dislike that everyone feels they should have their product in their hands the week after they order. Most large etailers tell you to allow 4-6 weeks but on Etsy it just doesn't seem to be the norm. SO I guess I hate the pressure of having to rush my products out. I am a perfectionist and like to take my time making sure my products are perfect.
5. Do you rely on Etsy to help pay bills or is it mainly for fun & extra spending money?
Etsy is done for fun and some extra spending money. I think in order to make enough money to be an income, you would have to produce larger quantities and higher priced items.
6. Have you tried or do you sell in offline shops? Do you enjoy that more or less than Etsy & why?
I have never sold in off line shops. I have certainly been asked and even bugged at the local farmers market but tsy keeps me busy.
7. Where else can you be found online?
I am on blujay.com and icraft.com and artfire.com but have had 1 sale on each of them. Etsy seems to be the best venue to get steady sales on.

Reducing our Carbon Footprint

With Earth day having been this last week, a lot of us have been thinking about how to cut down on our trash, how to be/go green in our lives, what we can do to recycle and help the earth by reducing our carbon footprint. But did you realize you can reduce your carbon footprint by mowing your yard less? In a e-newsletter I get, they had this interesting short article. Maybe we can all learn something from it. I found it very interesting. Although I try to not mow or water often so as to make my grass more drought tolerant and for it's own health. I think you might find this article interesting also.

Many people are interested in reducing their carbon footprint in an effort to save energy and limit global warming. While driving less is one of the most obvious ways to do this, mowing your lawn less can also help.
Researchers at the Agricultural Institute of Canada in Ottawa calculated the amount of carbon emissions saved by mowing the average lawn less frequently. Researchers mowed plots of cool season grass lawns only 3 times a year and compared the carbon emissions with mowing similar plots every week. They measured the emissions from mowing a lawn at 0.4 pounds of carbon dioxide per square foot of lawn. To put this number into perspective, if you have a 2000 square foot lawn, mowing only 3 times a season will cut the carbon dioxide emissions by 600 pounds. That’s the equivalent of cutting back driving a car that gets 20 miles per gallon by 600 miles.
For a bigger picture perspective, when multiplied by the 50 million acres of lawn in the U.S., we could potentially reduce carbon emissions by more than 600 trillion pounds just by mowing less.
I also try to recycle glass for use in my products in my glass shops at Etsy and Artfire, both named KayzKreationz and I try to recycle packaging to help save my customers money and to help save trees and reuse items. You can check out some of my recycled items at either one of my shops.
For more great info about gardening, check this out.

Green, Jewelry--And the Shop of the Day

Green can have so many meanings for us. As a color it can be very soothing. Green is a color that has so many shades or hues in nature, all of them beautiful. Green can also mean we're eco-friendly, recycle, and are concerned about the world around us. Each of us has our own idea and feelings about green. Today's shop of the day has a really nice Lily pad print that evokes that calm, peaceful feeling, and also a love for nature and the world around us. The shop is http://batfineart.etsy.com/ And his Lilypads are gorgeous. Check them out here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17490290

For my green today, it is about recycling and how we recycle things to be useful. Check out my Wine bottle cheese serving tray, pictured here at http://kayzkreationz.etsy.com/

And if you're looking for something green to make you feel better and look pretty, check out http://stringandstones.etsy/ for this great Unakite necklace and earrings set.

And then think about what green means to you. Maybe you'll have a new way to think about green after today.