Sunday 28 June 2015

Sunday Break


We had a little Sunday break and went to Akyaka, a little seashore place which is a bit like Marmaris but smaller and has still the lovely village feeling. Akyaka is also mostly popular among the Turkish tourists, it is close to two cities so people escape for the day or weekend here to enjoy some good fish and the lovely beach.


Akyaka s about 40 km from our town and most its income is from fishing and local tourism, you won't see much foreigners here.


Before you get to the beach there is a river where all the fishing boats are during the day. During the day the fish are sold, at night they are caught.



Here you can see a fisher's wife repairing a net which is done by hand. The new generation (her daughter) doesn't give much hope for their business as she couldn't take her eyes of her phone.



The walk to the shore feels like a jungle, so much fun.


There is a sandy beach to sunbath but it was crowded and not our taste, we love the rough kinds where usually no one goes.


Akyaka is always windy making it a great place to wind surf, and it doesn't feel as hot as other places.


I'm thinking of trying it out, anyone having any experience? I would love to hear if you liked it :)



Wednesday 24 June 2015

Newly Listed: Bohemian Rhapsody Weekender


Bohemian Rhapsody Weekender Leather, Vintage Embroidery and Hand woven Linen by StarBags
Full Moon Watercolor Print- Night Sky- Midnight Blue- Colorado- Full Moon Sky by lauraprill
Teal Brown Photography, dark nature print branches wall art rustic picture by CarolynCochrane
Rust Photograph Urban Decay Abstract Wall Art Home Decor Philadelphia by TheTinOwl

Tuesday 23 June 2015

Newly Listed: Woven Sterling Silver Bracelet


Woven Sterling Silver Bracelet Heringbone style Oxidized Sterling Silver jewelry by StaroftheEast
THE NATURE COLLECTION, macro photography, feather, delicate, bokeh by EmulsionProjekt
Still Waters Lake Photography Grey Blue Home Decor Print Still Waters by VictoriaEnglishCharm
fragile flower skeleton delicate lines fine art photography print nature abstract home decor by Gemfly

Saturday 20 June 2015

Newly Listed: Happy Owl Bag


Happy Owl Bag Vintage Embroidery, Rainbow, Linen, Kiss-lock by StarBags
Petrichor Original acrylic landscape painting Abstract Art, contemporary by ChanceLee
Greeting Cards - Box Set by WaterSplashArt
Wild Flowers Pink Orange Yellow Bloom Bud Fine Art Vintage Print by LeAnnStamper

Friday 19 June 2015

How to Make a Perfect Pin (for Pinterest)


For the past months I have been pretty active on Pinterest. Personally I find it the most fun Social Media platform, it is inspiring and beautiful to look at!
It is also very easy to use, especially if you have the Pinterest button on your PC as then you can pin any image you want and it will pin with the source. Another advantage of the button is that you can pin any picture you want from Etsy as the Pinterest button of Etsy itself only pins the first image of the listing on default, with this button you can choose which picture to pin. You will get a tiny Pinterest logo on the top left corner of any image online to pin quickly and easily.

But very often images are horizontal, especially Etsy sellers will know that horizontal images works best, unfortunately Pinterest likes them long and vertical. The result is that I very often see Etsy sellers pinning their items with hardly noticeable images, while their images are good they just get totally lost.
One solution is to crop your image and load it up in your Etsy listing and then pin that image.



Another solution involves some cropping again, but then loading it up directly on Pinterest. This technique is not so much known and I thought to share it here for those who struggle with the vertical image problem. This is also a good way to pin something you looove but has a horizontal image and you can not change it as the website is not yours ;)


Once you have saved and cropped your image in your computer you go to Pinterest. Wherever you are on Pinterest you will always see a + on the right side, click on that plus. Beside the Plus symbol there is also 'Add a Pin' in each board which has the same function.



And then click on Upload a Pin.



Choose the image you want to upload.


Add a description below the image, remember Pinterest is not fond of hashtags and its wonderful search engine works entirely with the descriptions so this is important. I usually just copy paste the title of the item.



Choose the board you want to post it in and pin it!



Now the downside of this system is, it has a small glitch (which I'm sure will be fixed eventually), in this process no link is added. To add your link, go to the pin and click on that little pencil icon.



This window will appear where you can see that the website is empty, copy paste the link of the item and click on save, and you are done :)


So to show you what this hassle is all for, you here can see the same item twice pinned, one without cropping and one with,  the chances to be re-pinned become so much higher now!
It seems a lot of work for a pin, but it takes just a minute (explaining took a little longer), and the results for your business will make it worthwhile!

Have fun on Pinterest, and you can follow me here at StaroftheEast :)


Last tip: if your image is in no way possible to crop, you can also make a mosaic of several images on top of each other in a photo editing program. This way you show case several images of the item and have a long image, like I did with this doily bag.

Thursday 18 June 2015

Newly Listed: Sunny Summer Jacket


Sunny Summer Jacket Vintage Embroidered Linen Plus Size US size 18 EU size  48 by StarsWear
Finch Bird Photography adorable, nature photography, teal background by VanillaExtinction
Forsythia Photography, Yellow Nature Photograph, Home Decor, Fine Art by DreamyPhoto
Central Park Photography, Spring, New York, Yellow, Minimalist, Nature Photography by Raceytay

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Newly Listed: Sterling Silver Green Sea Urchin Ring


Sterling Silver Green Sea Urchin Ring with Cubic Zircon One of a Kind by StaroftheEast
Antique Paris Map Plan de Paris - Victorian French Vintage Map Engraved by missquitecontrary
Castle Art Print, Dunnottar Castle, Scottish Wall Art, Landscape Art Print, Travel Art by AgaFarrell
Green, leaves, still life, botanical print, neutrals, earth tones, fine art print by dullbluelight

Sunday 14 June 2015

Newly Listed: Sterling Silver Cherry Quartz Necklace


Sterling Silver Cherry Quartz Necklace with Pearls wire wrapped by StaroftheEast
BOUGAINVILLEA Art Print on Panel, Pink Peach Taupe, Decor, Floral Nature by artBJC
Surreal photography Pink wall art photo landscape tree Cottage chic by sunshineartdesign
Pink Flowering Gum, flowers and bees, popular nature art print by TevaKiwi

Thursday 11 June 2015

Finished Custom order


Some online sellers do not like custom orders, many actually do not accept them as they can be a real challenge. We usually love them.


We had many custom orders which were obvious for the customer but not for us. You know sometimes we can not see the forest because of the many trees we have in front of us :)
We also have a few custom orders which we duplicated and sold very well, it widens our horizon and it is fun when the customer receive something they had imagined.


We have this jacket in a very different color in our clothing shop, and someone asked if we could make the same model with a fairy tale tapestry and with grey or black yarn. The color scheme sounded a bit boring to us, but we looove the result! Actually we are now planning to make more with grey, so there you go :)


This picture was how we discussed and figured out the tapestry and yarn color. As we did not list the finished piece in the shop, I thought it was fun to show it here :)

Saturday 6 June 2015

Spiky Visitor


Our house is the last and lowest house of a dead end street. As we are on a cliff, water rain always comes like a waterfall to our garden. But beside water also animals like to knock on our door. Every Summer we have quiet some turtles coming to our front door, looking for water, and we always put a bowl of water and some fresh lettuce for them so that they have some stock to go on.


A few days ago this hedgehog was at our door, this is the first time we had one of those. They are so cute and look like a walking sea urchin. I ran back home to grab my camera and the little guy never stopped walking. I followed him the entire street and he never looked my way but was constantly on the move.


However he did not neglect to stop when he some a nice juicy bug, ate it and then continued to walk on, it was really funny :)


Thursday 4 June 2015

Newly Listed: Fairy tale Dress


Fairy tale Dress Sleeping Beauty Red Roses Vintage Embroidery Linen by StarsWear
flower photography, botanical art, pink flowers, nature photograph, floral decor by favoriteflower
Spring Nature Photography, Fine Art Print, Pink Buds, Wall Art Home Decor by Briole
Galah - Preening in Pink - Unmatted Print by ozwildlifestudio

Tuesday 2 June 2015

Newly Listed: Caged Seashell Necklace


Caged Seashell Necklace Sterling Silver Kazaziye Handwoven Fine Silver Jewelry by StaroftheEast
Art Print Etching, February Visit, Doves Fly In, solar plate etching on handmade paper by 88editions
Botanical art print, milk weed, rustic, minimalist, nature print, fine art print by dullbluelight
Oregon Landscape Photography, Ocean Beach Art, Mountain, Coastal by EyePoetryPhotography