I'm gonna give them one more try but I swear if it doesn't sell I'm never going back to Tophatter again!!!

I don't even know where to begin.  My frustrations with this site are thru the roof right now.  As much as I love getting ANY type of exposure where my stuff gets to be seen and at least looked at is great but what happened this morning was ridiculous!  So in my first post about this I mentioned that I was told that if you get to an auction on time you can list an item that day for that "fair" and sell it hopefully, which I did this morning at the 9am accessories auction.  My daughter didn't have school so I was able to get there and log in at 8am which is when they opened the auction room and list this Zebra Print Cell phone Pouch with Red Satin Lining.  

I have sold one of these from my Etsy shop and personally know the lady who bought it now, and she loves it.  She uses it everyday and tells me about how much she loves it every time I see her.  It is one of my pride and joys to be honest and I haven't really tried to make many more of them because of how unique they are, but I decided that since I already have another one just sitting around it might as well get sold.  

Long story short, I get it listed and it goes into the auction but I get all of about 15 seconds of it up on the block before the item is closed and no one bought or even bid on it. They don't even tell you that there is a same day listing fee of $1 that you have to pay no matter if the item sells or not, that I am now responsible for.  Not that bad but I can't keep paying $1 every auction and not have the item sell.  I don't make enough money for that, and to me $1 for 15 seconds of exposure is FLAT OUT ROBBERY!  

You aren't allowed to have a "shop" with their site, you can only showcase the items that they let you list and schedule.  The items you have in your list are only for you to see until you can get it on a schedule.  I've just about had it with Tophatter.  

I was reading in one of the team discussion threads about this that it seems they are attracting more sellers than buyers, hoping to turn us sellers INTO buyers with their credits and what not, but as much as I want to be able to support my fellow artists, I don't have the money right now.  Once I get more money being made from this little adventure I can put more out there but it's not in my budget right now and I saw that a lot of us who were at the auction today were saying the same thing.  We were all sellers!!!

Out of the items that went up for sale, I think maybe half of them actually sold, and they sold for WAY cheaper than their retail prices from what I was seeing.  It's a good deal for people who are looking for great deals on amazing handmade stuff, but as a sellers point of view it is really devastating.  

I'm just going to focus on making a bunch new stuff for the Pic-a-dilly in April and try to keep my head up.  This time of year I've been told is hard for everyone so it's just something I need to buck up and deal with.  I love making my hats and other things, it's not like I'm going to stop just because they aren't selling off the shelves.  This is my first attempt at selling anything so I knew in the first place it was going to take some time.  

I'm off to make a new hat, not sure what, but I'm sure it will be spectacular!  

Lots of Love and wishes of beautiful creations!

Mrz Jaques

P.S.  Don't forget to check out my shop and like me on Facebook!

Cheers!

www.etsy.com/shop/mrzjaquescrochetedit

www.facebook.com/mrzjaquescrochetedit

My table can finally run free!

So by combining my love for crochet with my love for zebra print and things I can make that at least kinda look like it they have come together to create this "table runner" which is really cool, kinda funky, and totally me!  My house as I have previously posted is all decorated in Black white and red so I have been working on making other things to go along with my theme.  This is my first finished creation.  The boarder didn't turn out as good as I wanted but I am not taking it out and starting over, I am just glad to be done with it.  Talk about a "pain in the butt" pattern.  With my hats it's not as bad with switching colors because you are going around in a circle and not going back and forth.  You have no idea how many times I found myself tangled up in the red yarn .  Not the black or white, no no..... always the stupid red!  It's really beautiful on the coffee table, and I'm super proud of how it turned out for my first and only table runner I have ever tried.  I can tell you one thing about it though, unless someone begs me repeatedly, I'm not gonna make another one like this.  I am still hard at work on my afghan and it is slowly coming along.  I need to go buy at least 6 more skeins of the yarn before I get it done but that can come in a few days.  I am in the middle of a new hat right now that has my full attention.  It is a surprise design that it turning out a little more complicated than I wanted but it is ABSOLUTELY beautiful and I am pretty sure it will be a big seller when it's done.  Wish me luck! 

Black and white and red all over!

So the theme to my new house is black, white and red.  I've never been able to completely decorate my own house with whatever colors I wanted because I've either been living at my husband's parents house, or in one of their rentals which his mother decorates in her own colors, and then you are left to coordinate with that.  Not much fun if you ask me.  The whole point of moving into a new house is to make the space your own, am I right?  

I was so excited to find my carpet in this new house to be a neutral color because I have been obsessed with black, white and red.  I had already started the afghan for our bedroom, but then started on the table runner which is taking longer than expected but is almost done, and now I am working on a pattern for a center piece for my kitchen table.  

I found this really cool picture of a rose set on a black background at the Goodwill which is a perfect accent to the walls.  All we have hanging right now is our family pictures from this year.  Surprisingly we did our pictures in black, white and red.  It wasn't intentional either, we had just bought this really cute dress for our daughter that was black and red, then found a white, black and red sweater for my son, a red dress for me, and black and red sweater for my husband.  When we were putting up the pictures I laughed when I noticed how perfect they were going to go with my whole theme.  

To me it's so funny how my life falls together.  By no fault of my own I feel like sometimes the things that happen in my life are just magical.  The "I HAVE to have that" moments in a store, or the OCD freak-outs I have about making sure everyone matches and coordinates, that make absolutely no sense at the time, but seem to be absolutely perfect later on.  I love it.  

People used to tell me that I have no sense of style.  I don't care what other people think are cool.......it's true that I don't keep up on the "latest fashions" because I am not worried about that kind of stuff.  I'm a Mom.  I have two kids who take up the majority of my time and energy.  However, I do think I have a pretty good sense of style.  I walk to a different beat, but that beat is up tempo and exciting.  I love creating new things, and making things beautiful.  I am a beautiful person (inside) and I love to show people the beauty that can be found in this world with just a little imagination.  

I leave you with this thought for today.......

If everyone looked and acted the same, this would be a boring world.  Be COLORFUL!!!!

Zebra Mania

So my obsession continues and I added red!