Dear etsy, HERE’S your sign!

My dearest blog readers,

Please pardon this post and all the annoying superfluous pictures of equipment and piles of wood.  etsy has ‘requested’  that I provide them with PROOF that “I” hand make the signs that I sell in my etsy shop.  I sent them links to the several posts in my blog where I show and tell how I make my signs, but that was not good enough for etsy.  Nope.  I am required to take CURRENT step by step pictures;  and those pictures MUST include a piece of paper with the date on it.

***EDITED TO ADD:  Oh my word!!  I just ‘double checked’ the incredibly ANAL list of etsy’s requirements to prove all this, and I see that I overlooked that I was supposed to also put my etsy username on that dated piece of paper that I had to show in every picture!  (so that they can be SURE that it really was me who took the pictures)  Hopefully posting it here on my blog will satisfactorily fulfil that requirement.  Afterall I DO continually promote my etsy shop here in my blog.  ***

I really couldn’t think of an easier way to ‘show and explain’ to etsy my sign making process from start to finnish other than posting it here in my blog.  I wonder HOW other etsy sellers do it when they are questioned about their hand mades???  Far too many photos and details to be able to just attach pictures to an email!!

HERE YOU GO ETSY!  THIS IS HOW I DO WHAT I DO AND WHAT I DO IT WITH:

Paint brushes used to paint sign surfaces.

MORE paint brushes and paints.

Yep!  I buy my much of my paint by the gallon.  And mix some of my own colors in smaller containers.

Stacks of wood for sign making.

MORE wood for signs.

And still MORE wood.  The wood I use is ‘reclaimed’ (stuff that other people were going to throw away!)  So I get as much as I can, whenever it’s available.  When I get into ‘sign production mode’, I can easily use up two big stacks of wood in a weeks time.

This is my scroll saw that I cut sign boards to length with.

And this is how I position the wood for cutting.  Sorry, I don’t have enough arms and hands to be able to take a picture of me doing the actual cutting AND take a picture at the same time.

This is my 4″ belt sander that I use to sand the edges and surfaces of the sign boards before I paint them.

After I cut and sand the sign boards I ‘base coat’ them with black paint.  Then I let that paint dry.  (Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the paint drying!)

After the black base coat is dry, I paint the top coat color and let it dry.

After the color top coat dries I use this orbital hand sander to ‘distress’ the sign; by sanding off some of the topcoat and allowing areas of the black base coat to show through.

Then I go to my file of stencils and select the file that contains the stencil that I need for that particular sign.

I probalby have 50 or 60 stencils in my current sign making repertoire.  I keep them in file folderds of 2-4 stencils each; grouping similar themes together for easy identification.  This is the file that contains the “Paris” stencil used to make the specific sign you inquired about.  I also have other PARIS stencils in different fonts.

I position the stencil on the painted and dsitressed sign board, applying some blue painters tape to the egdes to hold it in place.

Using acrylic paint and a small sponge applicator, the paint is gently and carefully ‘dabbed’ over the cut out parts of the stencil.

I carefully remove the stencil, then remove the blue painters tape that held it in place;  and take the used stencil to the kitchen and put it in a pan of soapy water to soak for a bit before I wash off the paint residue (which never actaully comes ALL the way off, as you can see in the picture of the stencil).  During this time the stenciled on paint dries.  (sorry again, no picture of the paint drying!)

After the stenciled on lettering dries, I use a very fine paint brush to touch up any details that need it.  Let that dry, then I apply a coat of matte varnsih and let it dry.  (no picture of varnish drying either!)  And yes I DO buy my varnish by the gallon too.

(undated stock photo) After I apply the varnish I put the paint brush I used to apply the varnish in a jar of water to soak.  Then I use a hammer to attach a ‘nailless sawtooth hanger’ to the back of the sign.

But in reality, I  NEVER make just ‘one sign’ at any given time.   To maximize my productivity I work in a modified assembly line manner.

Some days I’ll do nothing but sand a couple of piles of sign boards.

Then the next day I’ll paint them all with the black basecoat, and leave them out to dry.

Then the next day I’ll paint them all with the topcoat color, and leave them out to dry.

Then the next day, I’ll hand sand and distress that same batch.

Then after all that is done,  I store those stacks of ‘ready to stencil’ boards in my craft room.

Sorry !  I forgot my ‘date card’ on this picture!  Having a lot of boards prepped and ready to stencil really streamlines the whole process for me, and cuts down on the actual amount of time I ultimately spend on each sign.  Predominately set up and clean up time.

And by having a multitude of boards ‘prepped and ready to paint’ when I get a request for a custom color of a certain sign; I am able to go ahead and make a whole BATCH of that particular sign, in several colors; and stock up my etsy shop.

It doesn’t take any more TIME and effort to clean a stencil that was used to make six signs that it does to clean it after making just one sign; so why not MAKE MORE and WASTE LESS TIME ON CLEAN UP.  Same goes for paint brushes.

Finished signs are stacked and stored on a shelf.  (Heaven forbid!!!  I forgot my date card again!)

So, etsy, does THAT clear up any suspicions you may have had that I am  not hand crafting my signs myself??

It sure would be nice if etsy would give sellers ‘some kind of recognition’ for having gone through this tedious process of proving they hand make their items.  Perhaps even a simple notation of some kind that this particular item has been individually vetted by etsy would be nice.

4.26.13 **Edited AGAIN to add:

So, now that etsy has seen waht they need to see, I can explain why all this REALLY ‘gets my goat’!  And it’s not that I minded having to PROVE that my items are hand made by me.  What is so annoying is the sales of ILLEGAL licensed designs is absolutely rampant on etsy, and they DO NOTHING about it.

The ONLY time they will question a seller of such items is IF the holder of the license of that design (Disney, Sports Teams, Barbie, Hello Kitty, spongeBob . . .there are THOUSANDS of them) complains.   Because that is ‘all the law requires.

BUT, if one person, ANY one person, contacts to etsy and says “I don’t think that person hand-made that item.”  A full-blown investigation is launched.  And they require you to show every single step in the process and every single tool and piece of equipment used. (as you can tell from my post!) It’s a LOT of work, let me tell you.

And ALL it would take for them to validate someone selling licensed designs is to have them show their ‘credentials’.  And it HIGHLY unlikely that ANY of those sellers actually DO have permission.  It costs a LOT of money to ‘buy’ that permission.  If they could afford to legally acquire permission to sell a licensed design, they wouldn’t NEED to sell on etsy!

It’s the ‘turning a blind eye’ to illegally sold items on etsy that really annoys me about this whole situation!  It’s perfectly okay to sell ILLEGAL products, but don’t you dare sell a hand-made item that bares any resemblance to something that is manufactured!

Stepping off my soapbox !

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . . .

This is what I took to Stars to sell:

See the big glass jar filled with vintage spools of thread?

And this is what was left of it the last time I went it.  Not only did someone empty the jar and help themselves to the bigger spools that they wanted.  They actually dumped the rest of them on the floor and put the empty jar back on the shelf?!?!?

One thoughtless person sure can ruin your whole week!

Anxious to get back in to my booth later this week to see how much has sold, now that I’ve got everything at 40% off in order to scale back down to the one space.

Internet etiquette; Capitals = SHOUTING? PART 2

Thank you all very much for your comments.  Even the ones from those of you who DO think any capitalized words means that one is shouting.  The consensus is that most normal people understand that I am just EMPHASIZING a word or making a point.  Which IS my point exactly when I do capitalize words.

One comment was sent to me via email; and it sums things up nicely, so I’d like to share it:

Loved your capitalization blog. Seriously how old are we twelve? We are not yelling for goodness sake, no one will ever feel threatened by a few capital letters, or be belittled by fonts, type size or any colors you might choose to use. In the very off-chance they are offended by the big bad letters, maybe they should just speak to people face to face that way if there is yelling to be done they won’t be confused if its meant or just a typo. Thanks for soapboxing its just so SILLY
Lisa 

Those of you who seem stuck in the fifth grade mentality that ANY capitalized word is meant to be shouting AT YOU, need to just grow up!  It’s really not ‘all about you’.  Seriously, if I corrected the grammar of everything I read; blogs, convos, emails, reader comments . . .I wouldn’t have time left to even write this blog.  And trust me, poor grammar grates against me like fingernails on a chalkboard!  I correct people on TV (while I watch) all the time.  SHOUTING (yes, this time really shouting!) the proper way to say what they spewed out.

When my son was just learning to talk, I really emphasized ’proper English’.  Yes, I would stop whatever I was doing if he was speaking to me, and when he was done with his story I would explain to him the proper English way to say what he just said.   I didn’t need to do it very often, after all he LEARNED what he HEARD, and at that age he mostly heard me.

The improper use of tenses usually came from him hearing another kid say it that way; as in “I seen a dog in our yard.”  I would say to him, “Actually the proper way to say that is, ‘I SAW a dog in our yard.”   OH, if you only KNEW how much that very mis-use of grammar gets my hackles up!!!  And yet I see it quite regularly, in other blogs and on internet discussion forums.  And no, I do NOT correct those people.  It’s none of MY business how they were taught to speak.  I honestly don’t understand how people who speak like that (and they DO believe it’s the right way to use the word!) ever made it through high school?!?!?   Still, it’s not MY BUSINESS to point out their mistake NOR correct them.

But seriously, if I had the power to change one thing about how people talk or write, it would be to eliminate the improper use of the tenses of verbs.

I live a fairly secluded life these days; don’t get out in the world much anymore.  Grocery and thrift shopping, stocking my booth at Stars and the post office is about IT for me.  And I honestly don’t KNOW if I am ‘losing touch with society’ when I get these off the wall comments regarding my work and communication.  So, when I get a complaint about my blog; like the spelling this or this more recent one from the ‘capitalization Police’; I seriously wonder if I really AM doing something wrong or offensive?!?!?  I very much appreciate everyone’s input and perspective when it comes to such things.  Sometimes I honestly wonder if I am just LOSING IT?!?!

 There will always be SOMEONE who will delight in picking apart anything anyone else says or does.  THOSE people are not worth worrying about.  I guess what I really want to say is just, Thank you all for your input AND support!  And for letting me know that I am NOT the crazy one in this equation!   But I hope you will care enough to let me know if I ever DO overstep a line.   I ‘just start to wonder a bit’ when I get comments like those, more than once!

Thanks for keeping me grounded in reality.  I appreciate your support.

Stepping OFF my soapbox now; hopefully for a good long while!

Internet etiquette question

For those of you whom have never met me in person, I’m pretty ‘animated’ when I speak.  In person when I want to emphasize something I am saying I can use voice inflections, facial expressions and physical posturing.  In writing,  I feel compelled to emphasize the same words and phrases that I would if I were speaking; and the way I happen to do that MOST of the time, is to use capital letters.

While here in my blog, I have several other options for emphasizing words, italics, bold, underline and even different colors! And I admit that I don’t use those features as often as I should.  Probably because I’m just not a very good typist, and those things take extra time!  But, also it’s a bit distracting and interrupts the flow of writing to pause to hit the bold button, then to click it again to stop.  It’s just EASIER to capitalize and occasional word that I want to emphasize; or put it in parenthesis.

Back when instant messaging came into the world, all of a sudden we needed ‘etiquette rules ‘for such; and it was decided that when you type using all capital letters that you are YELLING.  Okay, that’s reasonable.  But now all of a sudden, SOME people who have deemed themselves the internet etiquette police, have decided that if you use ANY capital letters that you are yelling?!?!?  And more than once I have been accused of yelling when I capitalized a word here and there.

WTH?!?!?  Case in point.  I got a convo from a potential customer on etsy.  (A convo is etsy’s internal email system and it’s VERY rudimentary.  Not fancy options, just your basic keyboard functions. ) She was inquiring about buying 2 separate items that she wanted to buy together, and SHE thought that they should fit into a large flat rate shipping box and be able to ship for $15.00; AND even mentioned that the PO would pick it up at my doorstep.  (I KNOW they offer that service to MOST postal customers, but NOT to us who live down a 1/2  mile gravel road!)

IN my reply to her I covered all my bases, as I’ve become accustomed to doing in such instances BECAUSE if I don’t,  I’ll end up with a bunch more annoying convos with more  questions in the aftermath.  Both items (actually 8 items in 2 groups of four) would NOT have fit into such a box, AND left enough room for adequate packing materials to prevent breakage in transit; which I explained to her.

 I went on to explain that IF I forced them into too small of a box with not enough packing material, even IF I insured it; that the PO has the right to inspect the shipping boxes and packing materials used and COULD determine that the breakage was MY fault for insufficient packing.  In which case I’d be out all that money.  And I’m not willing to take that chance.

And even WITH as careful as I always package my items for shipping, that I’ve had three things get broken in transit in less than a year.  So I just don’t push my luck with things like this.

 I further explained that I always only charge exactly what it costs me to ship; whether on single or combined orders,  and will always refund any shipping overages paid of $1.00 or more.    And I wrote all this, just as I ALWAYS write; capitalizing a word here or there that I wanted to emphasize.

Here is her reply to me:

I’m sure some etsy shoppers don’t understand, but I sold & shipped on ebay for years & never had a fragile item break.
By the way, you do realize that using all CAPS is the equivalent of shouting at the other person?
So, after being talked down to & shouted at, never mind.

It doesn’t REALLY bother me.  I actually feel like I dodged a bullet by NOT getting her as a customer!  She obviously does not have much of a grasp on reality.  SHE’S never had a fragile item break, she tells me.    So does that mean that NO ONE has ever had an item get broken in shipping?!?!?  I totally don’t understand her reason for THAT remark.  Does it mean she is willing to risk minimal packaging to get cheaper shipping and she won’t care if it happens to break????

Anyhow, back on track to the etiquette question.  Do YOU feel like I am shouting  when I emphasize words with capital letters in my blog, as I’m quite inclined to do on a regular basis?  Or do you ‘get’ that  I am just typing like I talk, putting more emphasis on certain words?

OR did I miss a recent memo regarding internet etiquette, and ANY use of capital letters is considered shouting???

P.S. I feel like I am spending an inordinate amount of time on my soap box lately?!?!?  Is it just a coincidence, or am I just getting OLD & CRANKY?!?

One of my biggest pet PEEVES!

I am not a ‘haggler’.  And NO disrespect to those of you who are.  If you are brave enough to haggle for lower prices, more power to ya!  I remember a few years back, about the time that everyone was finally coming to the grim realization that THIS recession was going to get worse before it got better; and all the TV news shows were “Telling you how to haggle for lower prices, even in big box stores”!

At that particular time, we had our own retail store, and we had a LOT of ‘customer rewards programs’.  I gave a discount on their entire purchase for their birthday; and actually allowed them to use that discount ANY once a year.  (for those who had birthdays at ‘bad’ times of the year to shop for themselves; like Christmastime!)

Being that I, personally do not care to haggle FOR a lower price; neither do I like to be haggled with!  And our REGULAR customers at out store never did haggle.  Didn’t NEED to because they were getting good deals quite regularly.   So it really ‘got my goat’ when a first time shopper would come in and ask me to lower a price for them!  AND I always politely declined; explaining our incentive programs.

So, what brought on this post at THIS time?  etsy.  Hagglers on etsy to be more specific.  AND the ‘thing’ they usually want to haggle ON, is the cost of shipping?!?!?  I have really pissed a lot of etsy shoppers off with my snide replies to their ‘haggling on shipping’ comments/requests.  (not that it really bothers me to have pissed them off!  Now we’re EVEN because their inquiry pissed ME off too!)

I ‘get’ that the BIG companies can offer ‘free’ of even ‘$5.00 shipping on everything’.  But us little guys don’t have that luxury.  The big guys:

A) Get volume discounts from shippers like FedEx and UPS.

B) Have ‘room’ in their product cost to absorb some of the cost of shipping.

Even the busiest seller does not have these luxuries.

I charge my etsy customer only, and EXACTLY what it costs me to ship their package.  And when they send me a convo (etsy’s internal email system) and ask me WHY shipping is so much on a particular item; I’m inclined to reply, “Because that item wights 2 pounds and that is how much the P.O. charges to mail a 2# package!  I have no control over shipping costs!”

Now I could SEE them complaining IF, when their package arrived and had $2.00 in postage ON it, and they were charged MORE than that.  Now that is a legitimate complaint.    AND is one of the reasons I don’t buy my postage on-line and print my shipping labels with postage.  I want the customer to SEE that I only charged them exact shipping!

These are the ones that REALLY get me.  ”I really like the set of three primitive game boards you have and I really want to buy them.  But I’m really having a hard time with the shipping cost.  It’s over $50.00 with the shipping and that is more than I wanted to spend.  Can you give me a lower shipping cost?”

When they write that, THIS is what I ‘hear’ (and WISH I had the nerve to reply to them!)  . . . “I want to buy an item from your shop but my budget is tight.  I’ve never bought from you ever before and probably never will again, but I would like for you to take $5.00 out of your own pocket to help pay for the shipping on this item that I want to buy, to make it fit my budget better.”

Because I really don’t THINK they realize that this is what they are asking me to do!  the cost of shipping is NOT a negotiable thing!

There is a feature on etsy where they can ‘combine shipping costs’ if they buy more than one item from your shop.  The seller sets the shipping cost on the listing (hopefully based upon actual costs!)  and then lists a lower price to ‘ship with another item’.  For example: This item will cost $12.10 to ship, and fits in a medium sized box.  If you ADD another to the box it will only cost a % more to ship, and not double the shipping for double the items. (In most cases)

So by itself it may cost $12.10 to ship, but with another item I only need to charge maybe $5.00 MORE to include it.  so some etsy shopper gets the BRILLIANT IDEA to convo me and ask if I will give her the ‘with another item’ shipping cost.  I reply, “Sure!  If you buy another item I automatically do that!”  hehe.  I KNOW that is not what her real question was.  But it was either that, or my aforementioned snarky reply; which I SWEAR I am going to get annoyed to really reply with one of these days!

I KNOW shipping is expensive!  So is GAS to drive to the store.  So are groceries!  If you can’t afford the shipping, you can’t afford to buy the item.  Please do not ask me to take money out of my pocket to pay for shipping YOUR item though.

And even though I am not a HAGGLER, I am very frugal and a bargain hunter.  I do my homework and watch for sales and clip coupons and re-use what I can.  I shop at thrift stores and garage sales (and NO, I don’t even haggle at garage sales!!)  I guess the difference between a frugal person and a haggler is the the frugal person WORKS for their saving.  The haggler just asks, and expects things to be given to them; as if they are ENTITLED.

Really, now; Part II

Thank you ALL for your kind and SUPPORTIVE words.  I hope it didn’t SEEM like I was ‘fishing for compliments’; because I WASN’T!  But the only thing worse than not being able to accept constructive criticism, is to not GRACIOUSLY accept a compliment.  It truly did my heart GOOD to know that my blog does indeed inspire and cheer my readers.  That IS the reason I take the time to write this blog.  PLEASE KNOW that I appreciate and respect ALL OF YOU, as well in return.

After reading all your comments,  especially noting the one from an Aussie who spells some words differently than us Yankees; and the school teacher, who by nature and habit would notice ANY spelling or grammar errors:  I’ve concluded that the ‘cranky commenter’ must be of a different culture or country than the U.S. And just does not understand how we tend to ‘make up’ our own ‘blog dialect’ sometimes.

I KNOW that ‘vintagey’ is not a REAL word.  But it BEST describes things sometimes.  Fallish, beachy and upcycled also are not REAL words, but I like them and I will continue to use them; obviously much to the chagrin of SOME people.  ( not even the word BLOG, until recently, was included as a REAL word in my BLOG spell-check for goodness sake!)  But THOSE people are not the ones I write this blog for.  It is for YOU, my regular readers, and the kindred spirits who happen upon my blog while searching for ideas and inspiration.

And given that we are ‘friends’, I do hope that IF you see typing errors that truly bother you and that you feel I ought to correct; I do hope that you would feel comfortable pointing them out to me; and in a manner that I can actually FIND them TO correct them!  I would be grateful, and not offended in the least.

And I would NOT be doing so to appease said ‘cranky commenter’ , rather on general principle.   Because we should all, always be willing to ‘better ourselves’ whenever the opportunity presents itself.  We’ll never know if the ‘cranky commenter’  read your comments or this post,  because she has been BANNED from commenting on my blog.  There are enough ‘real problems’ for all of us to deal with in this life.  She can look down on us from her high horse and judge us as much as she wants.   Sadly, she is missing out on some of the BEST parts of life by doing so however.

Happy OCTOBER everyone!!  I can’t believe it’s October already.  We are STILL having sunny warm weather here the the PNW!! (Pacific North West)  Usually by now we are waterlogged!

Really, now?!?!?

Nobody’s perfect, right?  I do not profess to be even the slightest bit close to ANY level of being perfect.  And being as such, I (as we ALL are at times) am subject to ‘corrections’ and ‘criticisms’.   Of course CONSTRUCTIVE forms of the aforementioned are preferred AND typically more warmly received.  Even so, dealing with comments that are just plain RUDE, uncalled for and/or  ’MEANT to be  hurt your feelings’ still always ‘stings’ a little.  No matter how much PRACTICE we have with dealing with them.

So, WHAT brought this ‘rant’ on and where am I going with it???  A ‘new blog reader’ left a comment for me yesterday.  The first time anyone comments on my blog, I have to ‘approve’ the comment before it’s posted.  Once I have approved a comment of yours, future comments will show up immediately, but I can still delete them if I wish.  Now I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, and I DO leave comments that offer differing opinions from mine; as long as they aren’t done in a way to ‘intentionally stir up trouble’.

But here’s what I DON’T GET!  This admittedly first time visitor to my blog felt it necessary to point out to me  ’that I need to check my spelling and I had posts that were rife with spelling errors and that she found that to be quite bothersome.’    OH MY!!  Well I just better stop everything and spend the next YEAR going back to spell check every one of the 1,200+ posts I’ve done over the last five years so it doesn’t BOTHER you anymore!   sheesh!

I DO run the spell check with every post.  And sometimes spell check automatically CHANGES words to what it THINKS they should be.   Michael reads my blog and will let me know when I have things that need to be fixed; which I APPRECIATE.  Just as I would appreciate it if any of my other readers took the time to point out SPECIFIC typos to me that I could go back and correct.

But what IS the point that the commenter was trying to make?  It was NOT constructive at all, because there is NO possible way for me to find typing errors in my extensive blog history.   And it’s not like anyone is FORCING her to read my blog!  Why is it ANY of her business to point out my typing errors?!?!!? OH right; because it was ‘bothersome; to her!  PUHleeeze!!  (spellcheck that bothered blog reader!)

While I make every effort to have my blog grammatically correct and perfect spelling; the thought that I’ve missed a few typos here or there is not going to keep me awake at night.  The point of my blog is to share useful information, and inspire others to rebuild and reuse as the redecorate.  WHO CARES if there’s an occasional typographical error?!?!?

Dear unnamed commenter,

I have three things to say to you.

1) if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

2)  If you must criticize someone, at least make it CONSTRUCTIVE.

3) Look at the BIG picture.  Does it REALLY matter that there are a few typos in my blog???

Stepping off my soap box and going back outside to finish cleaning out the storage shed.

Design Star. Are you watching?

I missed it last Monday night, so I just saw that episode over the weekend.  Can you believe Cathy?!?!?!?  sheesh!!  Do the judges not SEE the parts of the show that we, the viewers see???  She argues with whomever she is partnered with and mows them over like a bulldozer. 

 Her bit today with “Oh wow, well that’s the FIRST I’ve heard of that!” when the judges called her team on the OVER STYLING (piling crap on every possible surface in the entire room!!) when her Carl tried to say SHE took over all the styling.  “I’ve got this.!”  she told him every time he attempted to get involved in the placement of stuff.  And told him to go back to his tiling.  She wouldn’t LET him be involved with styling and yet wanted him to take responsibility for it at judging???   I do NOT like people like that!!

And she WON the camera challenge, so she’s going to be even WORSE this week!!!  Have mercy.

And what’ up with Kelly?!?!?  Very forcibly insisting that she and Mark put tile on the backsplash.  Mark arguing that he didn’t think they’d have time, and Kelly PROMISING that the tile WOULD get done.  Then leaving it all to Mark AND crying when he tells her he HAS to scrap the other side due to time constraints.  These are supposed to be grown ups here!  And have then not watched other seasons in which I think EVERY SINGLE season had a major mess up involving tiling in the kitchen??? 

It’s almost more worth watching as a COMEDY than anything else anymore.  It has NEVER been as good as the first season.  First season I had David picked out from the get go.  Since then, it seems they are all egotistical buffoons who each stumble upon ONE grand idea to win a challenge and in the end it’s a total toss up as to who will win!  Might better be titled ‘Design DUD’!

Are you watching this season?  What do you think?

Disturbing (to ME, at least!) new trend in blog design.

Have you seen any of them yet?  The newly designed blogs that have posts set up so that you only see a ‘snippet of  an introduction paragraph and one little thumbnail photo’  for each post; and you have to‘click to read more’.  WTH is up with that?!?!?  WHO and more importantly WHY, would someone think this is a GOOD idea???  I am sincerely DISTURBED!

I love reading other blogs!  Have a loooooooooooooong list of favorites that I visit on a regular basis.  And for me, that regular basis boils down to ‘catching up’ on each of my favorite blogs about 2-3 times a month.  And when I go there to catch up, I want to click and read, scroll down and read some more until I come to the post I last left off at.   DONE!  Caught up and on to the next blog.

This new (and NOT so improved IMHO!) blog design makes ‘my way’ of blog reading IMPOSSIBLE.  You have to read a snippet, then click to read the whole post, then click back to go back to the main page to  read the next snippet, then click yet again to read the entire  post . . . ARGH!!!  It’s just plain ANNOYING!!!  OR maybe I am just LAZY!?!  The ‘old way’ worked just fine for me.  And for the life of me, I cannot see ANY advantage to this ‘new layout’, can you?

And as I’m sure a lot of other blog readers do, I look at the PICTURES more than I read the actual content.  And IF the pictures grab my interest enough, or it’s something I’ve NEVER seen before, THEN I’ll take the time to READ all about it. 

And to be perfectly honest, I’ve STOPPED reading the blogs that are set up like this.  They just waste TOO MUCH of my valuable time. 

Here’s the only example that I saved to show you what I am talking about (if you don’t already know)  What do YOU think of this new design?  Are you one who reads your favorite blogs EVERY day?  Or, like me, do you just catch up on them a couple of times a month?  The ONLY possible advantage I can think of to this blog design is that IF you subscribe, that it shows you the entire post, without having to ‘click to read more’.  IN which case I suppose that would be an incentive for readers to sign up to be a follower.  But I don’t want 50 additional emails a day telling me there’s a new post in one of my favorite blogs.  I want to read when I have time. When I need a break and want to relax.   When I need some encouragement or inspiration.  And I don’t want to spend half my time CLICKING forward and then back again!

What do YOU think of this new style of blog design?  And IF there really IS some ‘advantage’ to having it set up like this, DO TELL!   Because it’s NOT a good thing if you ask me.  (which no one did!)  But in all fairness, I truly WOULD like to understand WHY these certain bloggers believe that using this kind of blog design is a POSITIVE step, or improvement.   Because for me,  I see NO GOOD in it.  It’s just NOT ‘reader friendly’.

Stepping off my soapbox now . . .

Junk Salvation show report ~ Part III ~ the final analysis / my personal perspective

And NOW, after all the pretty pictures . . .  Sincerely, I WISH I could just ‘tie a bow on it and call it good’.  Go with the flow of ‘All’s well that ends well.  Alas, I cannot.

 

A VERY condensed background version first.  I have been ACHING to do a show like this for YEARS.  I have a permanently damaged spine, which limits the amount of work I am physically capable of doing.  The best way I can describe my life is “It takes me twice as long to get half as much done as a ‘normal person”.  It sucks!  It’s totally depressing sometimes.  Yet, I just ‘do my best’ with what I have; and try to enjoy life and be a blessing to others along the way.  

 

SO, every time I hear about ‘such a show’ coming along, I feel I should at least ‘look into it’.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?  Most of the time I have to ‘scratch it off the list’ right off the bat, due to the ‘too much all at once factor’.. Physically I cannot ‘Deliver, set-up, sell and tear down all in the day.” And a LOT of one day booth shows are structured as such.  Or they are too far away.  OR just not a good time for Michael to take a day off work to help me.  Michael helps a LOT, when and however he can; but his REAL job has to take first priority, obviously.

 

The JS show was right on my ‘home turf’!  Cool!  No long drive or hotel costs.  Set up the day before, plenty of time to rest up overnight for the show.  Plenty of time to pack up and get out.  LOTS of big ‘cargo doors’ on the facility for ease of delivery and pick up. The preliminary possibility that we COULD do this show are looking good!  But I have to be SURE.  My only remaining concern is the ‘parking’ situation.  I know there will be a LOT of big trucks and trailers hoping to get the best parking spots.  And I know that with ,my physical limitations, unless we can be ‘close in’ for delivery and pick up, that it will not be physically possible for us to do this show.

 

SO, I swallow my pride and email the promoters.  I really, REALLY hate asking for special consideration.  It’s completely humiliating; even though I have entirely legitimate and quite severe ‘special needs’ .  It’s just ‘not fun’ putting your WORST foot forward, ya know what I mean???  But I want to do this show SO BADLY!!

 

I direct them to my blog to jury my wares.  Tell them how much I want to do their show, but due to my physical disabilities, I would require a few special considerations in order to participate.  AND, I emphasize that I’d completely understand if they didn’t feel they could accommodate my special needs.  But I needed their assurance that they could/would IF they wanted us as a vendor.  I said we’d need our booth ‘as conveniently as possibly’ located close to a delivery / exit door.  Close parking during the show for bringing in back stock; AND close to the door parking for tear down. 

 

It’s hard to know if I ‘played my disability card’ right or not.  You never really know how people are going to react.  So, I waited with a bit of trepidation for their response.  The deadline for the early sign up discount was fast approaching, and I definitely did not want to pay 20% more a week later; so I did feel a bit of a sense of urgency.

 

In the meantime, chatting with a fellow mall vendor, she decides to also do the show.  I tell her I’ve contacted them and awaiting a reply.  SHE hears back from them the very next day; while I’ve been waiting for several days now!  What’s up with that?!?!?  A simple “I’m sorry but I don’t think we can accommodate you at this show’” doesn’t take that much time to squeeze into your day.  Wouldn’t YOU take care of ‘more complicated issues’ before the quick and easy ones? 

 

So I get a bit miffed and email them again.  And again I stress, I UNDERSTAND if you don’t think the show is a good fit for me with my disability and special needs, but please don’t leave me just hanging and wondering!  (all the while feeling MORE humiliated than ever!)  Linda responds to that email with a phone call.  Apologies for the delay.  They have been so busy with a give away on their blog, and a sick relative and fielding vendor inquiries.  Um, okay.  I’ll give you some slack on the sick relative.  But if you can’t handle promoting a show with a closely looming sign up deadline AND a blog give away at the same time; CHOOSE YOUR BATTLE! 

 

Linda assures me that they indeed CAN accommodate my special parking needs for the show; and even goes so far as to say they will make me their FIRST PRIORITY!  I don’t think I need THAT much special consideration, but the assurance was appreciated, and I proceeded to sign up with confidence. 

 

A week before the show I email them to inquiry about the floor plan.  Just want to be sure we know exactly where to pull in when we arrive.  They send me a schematic, and I see we are directly across from one of the big cargo doors. PERFECT!  We’ll be there FIRST thing on delivery day, and all looks great!

 

But then after we’ve unloaded the first part of our trailer, the food booth os being set up DIRECTLY in front of the cargo door?!?!?!  What the heck is up with that???  But there is another cargo door connecting to the empty side of the building on the other side of our booth, so we can easily just use that for tear down.  For the other show I do at this facility twice a year, it’s never a problem accessing through the EMPTY part of the building. 

 

‘Just to be safe’, a little later in the day when we see Linda, we approach her about the issue.  She says NO, you cannot go through that part of the building.  So if we can’t use that door and you’ve got a booth in front of the other door across from us, THAT is going to leave us traipsing half way across the entire building to get to a doorway!!!  Isn’t this EXACTLY what I was inquiring about from the get go, to be sure it DIDN’T happen?!?!? 

 

Then I had a bit of a lightbulb moment!  Jackie Lee was also a vendor.  Jackie is the show owner for the other shows we do there.  Jackie would know FOR SURE that it’s okay to pass through the empty part of the building.  So, I suggest to Linda to confer with Jackie.  By this time we have realized that her promise to make us her first priority have fallen by the wayside.  So, Michael inquires a couple of times as to when we can start lining up the trucks/trailers for tear down; to be sure he can be at the front.  He heads out 10 minutes early only to find that HALF the other vendors are already in line in front of him???  Gee, thanks again! 

 

It’s probably a ‘good thing’ that I was NOT feeling at all well from my cold by that point.  Had I been ‘up to par’ I’d have really raised a stink!  I mean seriously!  I had done my due diligence to be sure we could perform our duties as a vendor to their standards and uphold tha caliber of the show.  And our few special requests had blatantly been disregarded.  Had I anticipated ANY of this, I would NOT have done the show.

 

We never did hear back from Linda about going through the empty side of the building.  Everyone just started doing it out of necessity.  It’s about a half a blocks walk from our booth to the outside; through a big empty concrete building.  The ‘kids’ who had been running the door during the show (Linda and Dixie’s kids I presume; 3 of them between maybe 8-12 years old) were bored out of their minds by now.  (Can’t really BLAME them!)

  And had found a novel way to occupy and amuse themselves, but taking a little cargo cart and RACING it across the empty building.  Directly across the path we had to walk to/from our booth to our trailer!  At first I was doing more ‘packing’ and Michael was doing the ‘hauling’, so it escaped me. 

 

The first time I carried a box out they very nearly ran me over!!  I asked them to PLEASE stay on ‘that side’ of the building; and not cross over the path we were walking.  (I didn’t want to be a total meany!)  But they persisted to run as fast as they could across the entire building and then let go and ‘skid out’ across the floor totally out of control!  Now maybe for a ‘normal person’ being mowed down onto a concrete floor isn’t a scary thing.  But for ME, a tumble like that could rob me of what little spine function I have left!  Again, I was just too sick and tired to go hunting for adult supervision for these kids.  And we should not have HAD to do so in the first place!  We paid good money to them as ‘promoters’, to manage the event and provide for our successful and enjoyable participation as vendors. 

 

So, for my money, and based upon my expectations, and special requests for the show; I was completely disappointed.  It was a beautiful show ‘on the surface’, but failed miserably when it came to common courtesy and professionalism.  I really wish they would have just told me up front that my special needs as a disabled person were not realistic and could NOT be accommodated.  I’d have MUCH preferred that, over being LIED to and left disappointed.

 

Do YOU think I was asking/ expecting too much of them???    I just wanted to ‘play like the other kids’.  WHY would someone make such big promises, and then just totally drop the ball??  I almost feel like I was being punished for having asked for a little extra help.  And that the money I paid them to ‘manage the show for our participation’ was a complete rip off. 

 

Stepping off my soapbox now.