ZETSY is NOW Available for Download

Lots of activity, just not much on this blog! I have been busy creating all kinds of Christmas items which I hope to share soon. On the programming side my husband just uploaded the links to Zetsy, our windows application program which allows the seller to download product information, including images, to a local file. One of us will be going through the various features of the program. The program is beta so we welcome any comments and suggestions. We don't like to hear about bugs, but we need to know about them too. At this time just leave comments here until we get something more formally set-up. The eventual goal of the program is also to allow uploading of changed items, including images. My husband is working on documentation as well. Unfortunately I've had him busy mailing out packages here recently! A big thanks to Tools4Etsy which has made available the .NET engine behind this program.
The first thing one should do when loading Zetsy is to look at the program options. Currently one can save 4 different shop name defaults. These defaults will appear on the opening page drop-down box. The location of the image files are also listed. Generally the default location should be used, but other locations are possible.
The main feature of Zetsy is the ability to download all the product information from a shop, including expired and inactive listings. To get at inactive and expired listings one has to give the Zetsy application permission to obtain these. This is accomplished by using the Oauth process which also can be found in the Program Options menu. We'll go through that in a posting within the next week.

Really LARGE Bag

I tried my hand at a very large bag, the largest I've ever made.   It has lots of pockets and storage.   As with all of my new design I tinker.  I'm still tinkering with this one - it may be a while before this one gets to Etsy.  I'm still in the R&D stage of this purse.   The Etsy application is still coming along, but not a lot was accomplished on this in the last few days.   My husband had to many other chores to do around the house.
We should have more about it in the next few days.  Stay Tuned - I think it will be worth it.

Ladybugs (Again)

In case you haven't noticed I have a "thing" about Ladybugs.  I've included a couple of pics of my newest creation.  I had a request for a "big bag" and I've been working most of the night in trying to create one.  We will see how this turns out!   All I can say is it will be the biggest bag I've ever made.   I get excited about making new stuff.

My husband has been working on the Zetsy program and continues to make progress.  Some new insights came tday about Oauth.   If you don't what that is or what it means to you check out the Etsy site today as it will tell you what this means for you.

New Tree Skirts and Screen Shots of Zetsy

Two post in 48 hours. That equals the entire summer output.

The very crude opening screen is shown to the left. Not very pretty is it? It is functional however. At the moment one can pull down all of a public shops items including the pictures associated with the item. I have a screen shot example of that output. It is essentially a grid of information. My husband is now working on a method of "saving" heart information and tracking that over time. Another possibility is to be able to upload changes across a description or tag. I don't know how many times I've had to manually change tags. It is possible this could work with this program. This program is a bit different approach from most of the applications which are out there which are web based. There are pro's and con's for this type of approach. Still a whole lot of work to go before this could be released. In the meantime it might up help us get organized ??!!






Enough of the boring programming work of my husbands.  I spent way too much time at the fabric stores today.  I have been working on all kinds of new stuff. My latest is working on Christmas tree skirts. I have some examples posted here. Despite the very warm temps it is time for me to try to get a jump on Christmas items. Not sure when I will get these up on Etsy

Its September ! A new Etsy utility in the planning stage

Its been since June since I've posted to the blog.  It certainly does not seem that long.   It has been a very busy summer.  My husband has been working on looking at the new API for Etsy.  What does this do and what can it do for you?   There are many tools out there that we've summarized in the past.  Most, if not all, are based on the v1 Etsy API.   This will be going away soon and replaced with the next version.   There are many new features with the new version.  My husband has been working on understanding this.  His first goal is to construct a program which will allow you to download and store all of the Etsy information in an ACCESS database.   I intend to show some screen shots and give updates on how this program is progressing.  By having this information downloaded it will be easier to post this information in other places or to print it out.   Long term changes could be quickly uploaded to your site.   The intention will be to release this sometime in the future.  He has prior experience in scientific programming but this is major upgrade in his experience.   The progress of this is a true unknown.   He was pretty frustrated a couple of weeks ago trying to figure out json strings (??? - whatever that is) but he now is able to download our sites information and store it.   The next step is to create nice-looking grids to display all of this information.  One of the first things that could be accomplished is a quick graph of views over time for a given item.  Lots of ideas.  With both of ujs having full time plus jobs all of this takes time.  We do need some time off!   My husband spent the afternoon watching the Notre Dame game.   There is hope for decent season.
      I do have some new bags and I'll be posting these soon too.   My next posting will be sooner than 2 months

Its June already ?

I've been taking a bit of a breather.  Too much yard work, to many plants to get into the ground, too many weeds to pull, and too much time finding new fabric and coming up with new designs.   I also had some out of town trips to make to check on a family member.  That took a couple of weekends a way.   I have been really busy and soon you will see the fruits of my work.  I have several new styles and fabrics and they should be loaded onto my websites soon.   The blog has been kind of quiet in this time as I have not really had much to say.   I hope you like my new styles.

Catch-up and an Entirely New Handbag

Its been a while since I've written anything. It is spring and between cleaning up the yard, the day job (the one that pays the college bills!), buying fabric, creating a display, and having a show, I've been pretty busy! I've been busy lately creating a new style. I've seen this concept in several places so I thought I would take a stab at it. Its a purse which can have different style outside flaps to it. This gives both me the designer, and you the customer, a lot of options and flexibility. You can see the basic bag's picture here.  It has two side pockets, either one large enough for a cell phone.  I still have not made the cover flap for it.   More to come soon.

I spent a lot of time for my second show in late April. It was $45 for the booth - not cheap! I made a whole display and racks to hold my handbags. I took a day off from work to get it all done. Unfortunately, the traffic at the show was very poor and I only made a couple of small sales. Certainly not enough to cover my investment. Oh well, the next show will be a lot easier since I now have all the stuff I need. I did gat a few more names for my newsletter. The first one has still yet to go out. My day job keeps interfering with my creative job. Until I sell A LOT MORE, I think I better keep being the accountant. Creativity in that job though can get me in big trouble!
I've been buying too much fabric lately. I have more ideas and creativity than the time to get it done. I need to somehow secure more help from the family on some of this. I don't have a lot of luck with that one sometimes.
On the internet side things remain extremely slow. My husband created an ArtFire site a few weeks ago. So far it has not been worth the $12 / month fee to keep. I don't think my husband nor I anticipated how difficult getting noticed by search engines would be. You can not sell anything if no one knows you exist! We'll keep working on it.   I'm going to try to do a bit better on the social media side of this business.  We'll see if that really happens.   I'm always glad to hear comments - they help keep me motivated!