The Results of Double Critique # 3

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A lot of hard work went into these critiques and it looks like everyone will benefit from the efforts. It's time to conlcude the critiques of BananaMiranda and iKnitQuiltSew's items. Thank you for your participation - you have opened your shops to help others learn too.

     Before                                                                   After

Sandi eloquently explains her changes in her Teddy Bear listing:

"To everyone who took the time to consider the listing for my teddy bear - THANK YOU! None of us ever have enough time and I truly appreciate your investment in me.

A common thread in all the comments was pictures. Though the pictures I had were taken in natural light, I realize they needed to be improved. Plus, positioning was also an issue as well as giving some perspective. All five pictures are new, and include a couple of perspective things... My quilter's ruler in one and a smaller bear in another (thanks SnapdragonLace for that idea!). I'm particularly fond of both bears waving goodbye in the last photo!

Michelle noted that the the shipping seemed high, and I agree. Sadly, the bear is 1/2 of one ounce OVER one pound. To try and offset the shipping-price-shock, I've noted in the description that the shipping weight is two pounds.


Michelle also asked 'what's this bear good for?' Perhaps the most valuable thing learned from this experience is that I need to remember that I KNOW, but visitors to my shop do not! And they're not their to ask, either! The first paragraph of the description is now a testament to what this bear can do for you!

All of my tags have been reworked. With the changes to the tags and the description, someone looking for a teddy bear that can be loved, snuggled, played with and then be passed down should be able to find this bear.

And finally, I am so very flattered that I was asked if the price was too LOW. The real answer is "probably." But I can live with minimum wage in a bad economy.
Again, my heartfelt thanks. It's so nice to know that people will still go out of their way to help a complete stranger!"

Thank you for sharing your shop with us!

The next two sellers will be announced soon!  Meanwhile Happy Tweeking everyone!

Thinking it's time for a few smiles :-)

It's been cloudy and rainy here in good ole Peculiar so I thought that a few smiles would be in order.  Here's the second half of the notes that mothers wrote to get their child excused from  school.

"Please excuse Tommy for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea, and his boots leak."

"Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust."

"Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his father's fault."

"Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday."

"Sally won't be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral."

"My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent a weekend with the Marines."

"Please excuse Jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well."

"Please excuse Mary for being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps.

"Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover."

"Please excuse Burma, she has been sick and under the doctor."
...... and the grand finale......

"Maryann was absent December 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache, and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever, and sore throat, her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn't the best either, sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night."
 
.... ahhhhh I don't know about you... but I feel much better now!
 
Don't forget to scroll down a bit and leave a comment on the critique posted below :-)

Double Critique # 3 BananaMiranda and iKnitQuiltSew

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We have two new sellers who are looking for advice.  I want to thank all of you for participating in this series, you are all terriffic!

Carmen, BananaMiranda opened her shop in May of '09 and is wondering why her Red Jasper necklace .  Carmen, we will look at your photos, description, tags and maybe poke around at other areas too.  She makes beautiful things and has so much energy it's nearly frightening! 




Sandi iKnitQuiltSew opened her shop only recently and offers a nice variety of hand made baby items.  She wants help with her Brown Furry Teddy Bear.  Being rather new she would like any advice that she can get.  She has plenty of listings already so she's one busy lady!

Again, I've tried to profile two types of my followers one who started following my blog from the first and one who has a new shop and looks to us for help. 

Let's go Peeping y'all!  Dig deep and have fun!  If any of you would like you are always welcome to post a link to these critiques from your blogs or Fan Pages.. (I won't complain!)

Conclusion to Double Critique #2

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Well this was a success!  You all were just terriffic with your comments.  ArtJewelry & Yarnabees busily worked on their items improving them and I"m betting the tinkering will just do the trick for both of them!  Way to go ladies!

                                       ArtJewelry's Results

    ArtJewelry Before:                                        ArtJewelry After:

It was suggested that she use a model for her display ... what a difference!

Patsy listened to all of the critique items and now has 5 photos of the necklace, changed the tags, improved the description and corrected the typo. (You didn't say one word about my typo of your shop name, Patsy lol! ---too late, I done already corrected that!) 

Here's what Patsy had to say... "

I just finished applying the suggested 'fixes'. All 5 photo slots are filled. I photographed the necklace on a mannequin which was a great idea. (I have 3 gorgeous daughters who could be models but they're always on the run.) Tati didn't like the tag - cubic zirconia - and after considering it, I don't either. So it's gone. I corrected a typo Thumbly pointed out and added color to the tags. Also added a sentence about what inspired the pendant. (Thanks to you.) iKnitQuiltSew suggested I change the title to be search friendly. This was more difficult than I thought but I think it's better.

This is a great learning experience! I'll apply everyone's ideas to my other items as soon as I start moving them. (My photos are still a tad dark but I'll work on that.) "

Patsy... Nice job!

                                         Yarnabee's Results

                 Yarnabees Before:                         


It was suggested that Gina lighten her background and make sure she had all 5 photos showing. She changed her description to include a little bio of Country Bunny and it was believed that her price on bunny was too low. She's in the process of taking pictures (yet again!) for some reason she won't go out into the rain to take pics... go figure! lol Gina, your effort is obvious nice going!          Yarnabees After:

                                          

We all applaud both of you for your efforts! The results are great and you will not have those items much longer.

Go check out their improvements and have a wonderful day!

The next two shops who have offered items for critique are Bananamiranda and iKnitQuiltSew.

It's looking like spring finally so let's go outside and enjoy it!

Double Feature Critique #2

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Today we are featuring items from ArtJewelry and Yarnabees.  Each has submitted what they consider to be their "Help Me!" items.

Patsy - artjewelry has been an Etsy buyer since 2007 and has finally taken the plunge to become a seller.  She opened her shop (itself) only recently and has truly beautiful jewelry!  She would love feedback on her Ancient Motif in Bronze Pendant.

Let's give this "Seasoned" Newbie a great start shall we?  Actually, we can learn from her as she's been on the other side of the road as a buyer, so she uses the eye of a buyer when she's creating and posting her beautiful work.  She'd like your input on her photos and let's check out her descriptions too.  She had been wondering about opening a new account since her start up date reads from 3 years ago but decided to keep her regular account name.  Check out her banner it's a great combination of her "old" and "new" membership.  Patsy?  Step up to the hotseat!

And now... it's an item from Yarnabees shop - Gina has asked for help on an item that has had lots of views but still hasn't sold.  Let's look at the photos and description and see what we can suggest.

This is her Country Bunny and he/she? needs some tinkering. So let's hop to it, shall we?  Gina......I made a special hotseat just for you, ducky!  Come have a seat... this won't hurt a bit.

So my friends let's do what we do so well!  Let's give these ladies a great critique and get them up and running.  Tell your friends to come comment too!

Ok now go peek!

The results of ArtJewelry and Yarnabee's Item Critiques will be posted Monday, April 19....If you have any suggestions the time to do it is now!

(4/16/10)

Results from the critiques of Sesenarts and Tatimaia

Wow!  What great comments you all gave!  It is now time to see the results our helpful comments...  Sesenart and Tatimaia have both paid close attention to our comments.  Let's see what happened, shall we?

Sesenart - Julie worked wonders with an item that was already wonderful!  You all know how we detest taking pictures again and again but this time... she got it SO right!

This is her 5th shot you can't get much better perspective than this! She added the dimensions to her description in inches AND centimeters.  She changed the name of her item to better describe the work. She nicely cropped her shots and discussed a frame in her description.  The new background truly sets off her piece too!  Way to go Julie!  (I nearly made this my desktop background so I could see it all the time!)


Tatimaia - Tati painstakenly wrote down each comment!  A bit of sad news for the Tatimaia Etsy shop however.  I think it's best said in her own words:

"Unfortunately I am going to close my Etsy shop. The good part is that I am moving to my own shop which I'm working on. I really love Etsy, especially the community. I am an artist, not a crafter, and need something more professional and easy for my customers. Sadly I can't keep both shops, because of time -"

Tati thought long and hard about her decision and feels that she can only properly maintain one online store.  She was SO appreciative of all our comments and critiques that she literally wrote down each suggestion.  She took a picture of that notebook and this is what you see for her "completed critique photo". 

Our efforts did not go to waste as she will apply all of our suggestions to her new store.  She's promised to give us a link to the new shop and I will post it for all of us to visit.  Tati we will miss you in labs for sure!  Come back often to see us OK?

Thank you both for participating in the first Double Critique!  It is obvious that you both spent a good amount of time working on your shops and it truly shows!  And thank each one of you wonderful followers for your excellent input!

The next two Critique Victi....er Volunteers are Yarnabees and artjewelry.  Come in soon and see what they are offering!

Until then...... Have a Wonderful!

For those who need a laugh......

It's been awhile since I spread some cheer and frankly I could use some too.  No real reason I could just use some cheer!  I was wandering around the wild wonderful web and found a great site for grins and giggles.

Those of you who have or had children remember the excuses that you were forced to write for your child.  Here are some that just had to make those working in the school office shake their head in disbelief.

Parental Excuses for their child's absence from school.

Part 1:

1.  "My son is under a doctor's care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him."

2. "Please excuse Lisa for being absent. She was sick, and I had her shot."

3. "Dear School: Please ekscuse John being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also      33."

4. "Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating."

5. "Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip."

6. "John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face."

7. "Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part."

8. "Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins."

9. "Chris will not be in school cus he has an acre in his side."

10. "Please excuse Ray Friday from school. He has very loose vowels."

And we wonder why our teachers have such a difficult time teaching children ????  LOL!!!

Happy Easter everyone!

I do have the source for these goodies:  http://www.rinkworks.com/said/excuses.shtml 

Double Feature Critiques

It's critique day!  There are two sellers who have offered their items up for critique this time.  As I stated in the previous blog there will now be two sellers per critique post so please feel free to comment on BOTH items. 

You might want to check out this previous posting for guidance in your critique : http://auntkarenscreations.blogspot.com/2009/12/critique-experience.html

Julie of Sensenarts has offered this lovely Original art textile quilted work . 



She would like guidance on promoting the item, her photography and let's check out her description and tags too.  She does offer Tarot readings so if you feel so inclined a look at her readings items would be appreciated too.

Tati of Tatimaia is new to Etsy and has been in the Virtual Labs quite often.  I have selected one of her "featured" listings to share.  Let's give her our best overall advice! 

Please remember to be courteous with your advice.... your item could be posted here too one day soon!

In about 10 days the comments will be addressed and you can come back to see how your critique effected these sellers' item listings! 

Have a wonderful week!!

Stepping it up a bit.

It seems that there are many of you who would like items critiqued.  I had set the schedule for these critiques for one a month but it seems that that is far too long.... so...

Meet our newest family member... Karla the Koran angelfish she's just a baby!  We are stepping up our reef tank as we are stepping up our critiques in this blog.

How is this blog "Stepping Up"?  I am now opening the critiques to twice a month AND doing one item from two different sellers!  How does that sound?

Now, I need TWO shops to volunteer for the next critique.  What will now be the new scenario is:  Two shops will have one item - each - up for critique, they will be introduced on Wednesday ..... when the critique has been closed (2 weeks later) then the next shops will be introduced and their items displayed for critique.  Week 1 is for posting comments to critique the shop/item.  Week 2 will be for the shop owner to complete whatever they need to work on. 

I do ask that those being critiqued please convo me with what they want to have shown and  when selected, please convo me with what you have done.  I will post those particulars and after the repair work is displayed to please come back and comment themselves with thank yous etc. 

Get your Etsy friends to come critique too!  You do not have to be a follower to add to the help!  Just so you know....I will only put items up from followers and those first selected will be from the followers who comment on the items that are being critiqued.  Does that seem fair?  :o)  Oh.... I am putting links to the volunteer shops in my link list as a thank you for your participation.

Who are the 2 brave shops to volunteer to be next?

Undercoverst's Completed Critique

Undercoverst's  journal "Harold"

She did a fine job listening to all of us!  Here's a new picture that she included in her listing because of our comments.  Sara you did great!

Thank you for allowing us the priviledge of critiquing your lovely shop!

Here is what she wanted to let y'all know:

Thank you everyone so very much for the feed back. I now have to make these changes to all my other journals! But I am excited since I believe that this will not only bring more traffic to my shop, but will help people understand what they are looking at! Thank you again everyone!!!

I changed almost everything that was suggested (now I just need to do the same for all my others)

Things I changed:

-I showed the size by placing it next to a coffee mug. I am going to do this in better light eventually, but I think it does the job (it's the second photo)

-I added Metric measurements

-I moved the part about the way I recycle things to make them into the bullet points as well as adding (*Opens Flat)

-Also the spelling error that jswrites pointed out.

-Then I added "recycled" to my tags

Again..... Thank you, Sarah!  You've helped us all!


Alright.... anyone want to volunteer for the next one??

So Spring has Sprung.....

This has been a very long season.  We all have been ready for Spring for a few months now.  Well it's here!  Today is the first day of spring!  I thought you might enjoy seeing what we, here in Peculiar woke up to this fine Spring day.

Do you think that the Easter Bunny will mind?

Our next Critique Volunteer is Undercoverst

Good Morning Everyone!

It's Zero-Dark-Thirty in the morning and I am sipping a nice wake-up cup of coffee and talking with you.  Are you ready to help our next follower?  This week's submission is from Undercoverst.  She would like this journal reviewed.  Meet "Harold"

She asked: "What I would love some feedback on is, what questions am I not answering with this? What would hold you back from buying? How's my description?"  Feel free to browse around her shop and if you see something that she might need to tweek I am sure she'd appreciate that, too!

When you are looking at the description, imagine yourself discussing "Harold" over the phone.  Is she answering all the questions that you might have about this journal/sketchbook? 

Don't forget to leave a comment!!!!

A new word to consider.

There once was a crafter who'd knit,

Who'd crochet, and who'd whittle a bit.

Her supplies filled a nation.

With stuff for creation.

Til she cried for a decrapitation!

author: jswrites

The Laughing Lady is not AK :-)

After a "bad day at the office" I needed at least a smile.  After figuring out why my embroidery machine kept telling me a thread was broken (nope it wasn't broken... ever), battling with the water company over a bill that was too low (I finally had to call a plumber to look for the non-existant leak the water company claimed we had. But he was nice and charged me $40 instead of his regular $120 house call.) and various other little pains in the neck, I needed some humor! 

I can always find something to laugh at or someone to laugh with in chats...  then I remembered the day we were just hanging out in the Virtual Lab Classroom waiting for lab to start and the "Etsy Lab Dictionary" we toyed with just for fun.

We were talking about cleaning up our descriptions and our photos.  I saw the word "crap" flashing up my screen as a word to describe what to get rid of in our shops.  We all have heard that we need to "Crop the crap" out of our shop photos and for some odd reason my silly twin's mind just took over.  I was sipping on a cold cup of coffee - decafeinated - and my fingers took over the keyboard!

Decrapitated the word hung in the room for a minute.... I could see minds  whirring taking in the information.  Everyone thought how appropriate the word was for what we were all trying to do. There were lol's streaming up the chat lane!  So......

Decrapitate:  To remove the crap from your Etsy site. 
Decrapitation:  The act of removing the crap from your Etsy site.
Decrapitated:  Having already removed the crap from your Etsy site. 

It kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

Does anyone else have a home made word that we can use?  Post it in comments give us all a good laugh!  After all on Etsy it's all about hand made and home made. Put on your thinking caps and let's hear your  home made word!

Conclusion to Illuminession's Critique

It's time to conclude the critique for Illuminession's critique of her Golden Gate Bridge item.  The above picture is just one of her improvements!  She's worked hard on the helpful comments that you left and is happy to share her results! 

Carolina replied:

I've updated the following things on my listings (there are a couple product situations that didn't allow yet for an image with a frame):

A second picture of the photograph in a frame with matting, and a note in the description that the frame is not included. I'll also be working on having a third image of the photo in a frame sitting on a desk or piano setting for each product listing.

I increased the description tags on all my images to using either all 14 or the most I could think of at that moment. (I've made notes on which images to keep thinking about more tags for.)

I added shipping to everywhere outside of the U.S.A. I hadn't done it before because I kept spacing off calling the post office for a general price quote, so thanks for the reminder. Now I'm international!

She's also rewritten her Introduction page to include more about herself.  And, she's working on changing her prices.  Well done Carolina! 

Let's go to her shop and see what we helped her to do!

Have a great day everyone.

Looking for the next Volunteer....

Ignatts is hanging about waiting....for his next ambush victim!

Illuminession's wonderful pic has been critiqued.....so it's rapidly coming time for the next shop to step up to the Hot Seat.  Who will it be? Leave a comment and let's keep this rolling!  If there's a shop you would like to nominate... feel free to post them!

Those Aussie Mechanics

As you've read in my bio, laughter is high on my priority list.  I've had this little list for about 10 years.  I just found it again yesterday and had more than a few good laughs and I thought I'd share it with you!  I truly don't know who to credit for this list but whoever it was I thank you!

Qantas Mechanic responses to Pilot's written complaints of the planes that the pilot flew.  In order to fly a plane, these pilots need a college degree.   The mechanics?  Well they need a high school diploma.

The following is a list of Pilot "gripes" and Mechanic "responses" written for record.  These are filled out by the pilots after every flight.  The mechanics review and fix the items on the "gripe sheets".

Remember:  Qantas is the only major airline to have never EVER had an accident.

Pilot:  Left inside main tire almost needs replacing.
Mechanic: Almost replaced the left inside main tire.

Pilot:  Test flight OK, except auto-land is very rough.
Mechanic:  Auto-land is not installed on this aircraft.

Pilot:  Something is loose in the cockpit.
Mechanic:  Something has been tightened in the cockpit.

Pilot:  Dead bugs on windshield.
Mechanic:  Live bugs on back-order.

Pilot:  Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
Mechanic:  Cannot reproduce problem on the ground.

Pilot:  Evidence of leak on the right main landing gear.
Mechanic:  Evidence removed.

Pilot:  DME volume umbelievably loud.
Mechanic:  DME volume set to more believable level.

Pilot:  Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
Mechanic:  That's what friction locks are for.

Pilot:  IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
Mechanic:  IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

Pilot:  Suspected crack in windshield.
Mechanic:  Suspect you are right.

Pilot:  Number 3 engine is missing.
Mechanic:  Engine found on right wing after brief search.

Pilot:  Aircraft handles funny.
Mechanic:  Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious.

Pilot:  Target radar hums.
Mechanic:  Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

Pilot:  Mouse in cockpit.
Mechanic:  Installed cat.

Pilot:  Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
Mechanic:  Took hammer away from midget.

I just love people with a sense of humor, don't you?  Now go out and have a super day!

Critique of the Month - March

Happy March everyone!

I am happy to share that Carolina of Illuminession has offered one of her items for critique.  Her shop is full of gorgeous photography and she is looking for ways to improve her descriptions, views of her work, tags and any other helpful ideas that you may have for her. 

She has submitted this breathtaking shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

How would you like to see this item displayed?  Can you suggest something to draw views in the description?  Are there tags you could suggest?

Let's take a look and make this her most viewed item, shall we?

Go peeping!!

Results of the gizecraft critique.

Angela - gizecraft has worked very hard on her shop focusing on our critique comments.  The following is what she accomplished: 

Commment from AuntKarensCreations:

1. Aunt Karen's Creations said...  gizecraft.... ooooh those pictures just POP! Good job! I was looking at your tags, you duplicated a couple of words in tags. Can you come up with alternates for one of your valentine tags and scarf tags? You are missing 2 opportunities to be found through Google with those.

gizecraft replied.... I have made changes on the tags to enable easy search. One example is tag - neckwarmer. Thanks Karen!

2.  Debra said... Debra is ZaneyMay - Nice scarf, I like the description. You could say how soft the material is on your skin or something like that. The first picture, seems a little off, but that could be because the background is removed.

GIZECRAFT: Debra, you are right on that. I appreciated it because I overlooked this important detail. I have put the right description and also took a new photo. It does make a difference. Thanks Debra!

3. jswrites said... A few picky comments:

• For a potential international audience, show the size in metric too

• Spelling: "Reversible" not "Reverseable" (text and tag)

• In Materials, "flannel" could be cotton, wool, acrylic or some other fiber or blend - remember some people have allergies, sensitivities, or preferences for what fiber they want against their skin, so say what it is!

• Care instructions? Hand wash/dry flat? Machine wash in cold water? Throw it in the washer and dryer? Spot clean or dry clean only?

• Do you welcome custom orders? The same style in different colours? A longer or wider version? I know you state that you accept custom in your Policies, but you could make a more active and positive message with the item itself.

gizecraft said:   It took me a while to make the changes but finally it is done. Now, the measurements are in inches/cm.

Thanks for letting me know about the spelling mistake (good writing is very important for readers).

Also mentioned about the material used. You are right on that! Some people do get allergies.

Also made changes regarding the care instructions and custom order! Thanks Jswrites!

And now a word from Angela:  Thank you all for helpful and good advice.  I think I followed each piece of advice you gave.  You all helped me to make my shop better!
Thank you so much!

I really appreciated Auntkarenscreations invitation on being the first to have a critique because it helped me to concentrate on my shop and take good advice from all of you. I am still learning and trying my best to have a good shop. But having a good shop means that I have to provide the best service to my customers.

Karen, thanks for starting this blog, which I believe that will benefit a lot of new sellers like myself.
:0))))) Gizecraft

Just a blurb

Today it's just a quick little note to y'all.  I've neglected the critique feature badly .... So In just a few days our first Critique Volunteer will be again featured telling us of the changes she's made and her responses to your thoughtful impressions of her items.

The next volunteer was Carolina of Illuminession.  Get ready young lady give us your neediest listing!

Have a wonderful day all and I will talk with you soon!

I need to say thanks to some of you!

My goodness what a whirlwind this past month has been!  I had a nasty cold that kept me away from the computer for a week!  I took a job at a local florist to help out with Valentine's Day floral arranging. (Holding up my poor perforated fingers...)  It was bitter-sweet working at the old shop again..... After more than 50 years in business the flower shop is being closed!  I've worked there off and on for over 30 years!  It always felt like I was home when I worked there so I do feel sad about their closing.

Meanwhile I've also been busy doing custom orders and that leads me to my thanks .....
Scrap Happie AZ thank you for asking me to embroider your new shop's aprons!  I wish you and your daughter all the best in Apricot's Boutique!

She sent me 4 of these in trade for my embroidery.  Scrappie I just love these potholders!

I also need to thank Sweet Dreams by Moosie for her generous offer to model long distance.  By the looks of the pictures she had fun modeling!  Moosie I am not cutting your head off for this one!

Isn't she just the best?  That blouse traveled from Peculiar, Mo all the way up to Wisconsin!  Moosie makes the most awesome quilts at truly reasonable price! 

Thank you all for your patience and support! 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY Everyone!