The Best is Yet to Come

Most likely you are aware of the situation in Turkey. You also most likely are not 100% sure what it is that is going on but don't worry hardly anyone is sure, and it is a total and sad mess.
These past few days people from all of the world contacted us through various places to check up on us and we are thankful for that. We are fine around here, sad and unsure about the future but fine.
The government and the men on the top are playing some extremely dangerous games with the people as pawns and them watching safely from their ivory towers.
Hopefully brighter days are coming, but for now it seems we are going to a very dark place.

But I will now continue on a brighter side as there is so much bad things going on, not only here but practically all over the world,
Just before shit hit the fan, actually the day of the fake coup I went to pick up our brand new car, yaaay! I had to pick the papers and plates from Muğla.
It is the first time that we are owners of a not second hand one, it smells new and we are making its history, which is a nice feeling. As I picked it up right before the mess we haven't really enjoyed it yet but it is nice.

This lab that you are seeing is where my plates were made :) I had to pick them up myself as foreigners get different plates which doesn't go automatically like normal plates. The manner was pretty old school and cute so I took some pictures.

Then with the plates I went to another town, Denizli, a bus drive from Muğla of 2,5 hours. It was a bit tiring all by all but I had a good deal on this car so it was worth the extra journey.
Just the night before I went we made a brand new evil eye charm with hamsa's and lots of eyes for lots of protection. I put it on at the dealers before driving it for the first time :)

We still need to sell our old car but that will be fine. Hopefully with my next blog post there will be some more good news, especially about the way things are going around here politically would be nice if there would be a turn to a better direction.
Stay safe and in peace everyone.

Etshit

Life is full of surprises, not all of them good.

As many of you know by now, on Monday afternoon all our six shops disappeared from Etsy. We were still able to log in to see only an empty store front, but if you put any of the shop names in the search, you get that 'uuh, there is something wrong in the URL' thing.

Our first reaction was to think of some technical problem, but the rest of the Etsy world was alive and well. We checked all our convo's  (those are still open) and all our emails, but not a word from Etsy.
Finally, on Monday evening we placed a request to be called by Etsy.

A nice lady from Admin called us and asked if we knew somebody called Sandra (from Azulado) and told us that she had committed a violation of the terms of use and our accounts were linked, so that not only her shop, but all ours had been closed.
This lady didn't know how our shops were linked and we told her that the only possible 'link' was the fact that we had her password. When Sandra lost her husband, Estella helped as far she could answering her convo's, checking her tags and descriptions, etc. Her English is very bad and she was too devastated to do much but could really use the income from Etsy.
We last heard from Sandra about a year ago when she told us that she was being so pestered by the family of her defunct husband that she felt at the brink of a nervous breakdown. Short after that, she closed her shop, and we weren't even aware that she sometime in the new year, she had reopened.

We logged in her shop on Monday to try to understand what was going on. We saw a whole bunch of unread convo's, including several 'where is my package? ' ones, but no open cases  and not a word from Etsy. We heard from  an other team member that Sandra had recently moved house again and has no Internet connection yet.

We are now four days further. We have talked to several Admin members ranging from sympathetic to outright rude. One of them told us that Sandra has two non-delivery cases, but the rest said not to know or not to be able to talk to us because we are not the account holder!

The conversations follow all more or less the same pattern:

Etsy: your shops are closed because you are linked to Azulado.
We: What is the link?
E: It can be anything.
We: We are being punished for sins that we have not committed or even know that exist.
E: We are very sorry that you feel that way, but we cannot do anything, it is to Trust and Safety to determine if your shops can be reopened.
We: It is our livelihood you are messing with.
E: It was nice chatting with you, have a great day.


When the same thing more or less happened to Betti and Jeno last year, I said again and again that Etsy sellers need to renegotiate the terms of use with Etsy. The only way to be heard is through a lawyer or a consumers organization.
I got then several comments in the spirit of 'I don't bite the hand that feeds me'
Apparently in all these years, Etsy sellers never thought necessary to organize.

Etsy being by far our largest source of income, and having 11 doggies to feed, makes this very scary, of course. But we know that we are hard working and talented enough to start anew, if necessary.
Being dependent of an organization with many despicable traits, is the worst part of all this, believe me.

By the way, most probably, Sandra is in ignorant bliss of all this since she appears to have  no Internet and she doesn't keep up very well with her shop anyhow. What is of course why we tried to help her in the first place.

We felt the need to explain in detail to friends and customers what is going on. It is too bizarre to be real, but that is all we know.

Many, many thanks to all the team members who are trying to help in any possible way. You are the best!

We'll keep you informed. Etsy convo's can still be used, at least for now.
Esther and Estella

Shit happens

Last Sunday, an hour long downpour was enough to swamp the lower parts of the town, where the insufficient or not existent canalization could not absorb it. The biggest supermarket, really a big one, was flooded and won’t open in three weeks.
Our studio, also downtown, was flooded as well. Many pieces got damaged, some of them beyond repair. Shit.


(gardenpainter4)
In such situations, I have the greatest admiration for the Turks. They are stoic and laconic and convinced that some good will come of it.
If you travel through the poorest parts of Turkey, you can find always some little old man in rags, obviously at the end of his tether. If you ask him, as is the custom, ‘uncle, how are you?’, he will smile a big toothless smile and answer, ‘very thankful’ (to God). I am always moved by this faith, by the ability to find thankfulness where there is nothing to be thankful for.


(ratsliveonnoevilstar)
I simply envy the ability to disconnect reason and simply believe. We, the infidel, can only say, well…shit happens.