Tuesday 31 March 2015

All is Well when it Ends well...


,,, or so they say :)
A few hours after our previous bomb blogpost Etsy sincerely apologized for the inconvenience and re-activated our shops. Of course an apologize does not really make it right, the 4 stressful days we had are still very fresh in our heart and mind. It was a big shock after almost 8 years on Etsy, working hard and honest it was a very undeserved treatment.
But well... what happened happened and we are now back to putting our energy in to making pretty things, these two are listed in our shop, and many more to come :)


Thursday 26 March 2015

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

Monday 23 March 2015

Dinner Time!


Some people might be wondering how life is with 11 dogs (it used to be 15). It is with lots of hugs, belly rubs and fur, they are like a bunch of little kids whom are total love junkies and we love it :)
We feed them twice a day and they always wait full of anticipation and as patient as possible although some make some impatient whining noises while the plates are prepared.


Look how cute they wait :)

Thursday 19 March 2015

Newly Listed Linen Layering Dress with Bolero


Linen Layering Dress with Bolero Vintage Embroidery Linen Dark Grey by StarsWear
Still Life Photography - rustic decor - pink spring blossoms fine art photography by LupenGrainne
STORMY SEAS photography print, dramatic beach in storm landscape by FotografieKoehler
Architecture Photography, Urban Exploration, Dreamy Home Decor, Abandoned by riotjane

Friday 13 March 2015

Newly Listed: Amazonite Branch Necklace


Amazonite Branch Necklace Sterling Silver Kazaziye Handwoven Infinity Jewelry by StaroftheEast
Spring, tree photography, sky, dreamy art, botanical, branches, leaves, fine art print by dullbluelight
Pods Photograph, Nature Poppy Photography, Home Decor, Fine Art Photography by DreamyPhoto
Large Abstract Wall Art - Beach Decor - Sea Green, Light Blue - Fine Art Print by StudioDandK

Saturday 7 March 2015

Newly Listed: Sterling silver Double Pearl Earrings


Sterling silver Double Pearl Earrings Pearl Ear Jacket Modern Pearl studs by StaroftheEast
Ethereal wall art, tree photograph, woodland, landscape, branches, fine art photo by dullbluelight
Butterfly photography - Brown blue butterfly rustic wall art nature spring insect by LupenGrainne
Rainy Wood Dock Print, Neutral Home Decor, Nautical Decor by HeartlandPhotoBySJW

Thursday 5 March 2015

Little Red Riding Hood


Today you will witness Mimi's make over to Little Red Riding Hood...


First step was trimming all her hair off, as it got all tangled up, she is a wild girl and wild girls don't brush their hair, to be honest I don't brush my hair very often either :)


Mum had been busy for hours with her costume, inside a red gingham lining, outside a super soft velvet fabric. With an adorable vintage trim as finishing touch.


And here she is, our adorable, very own miss Little Red Riding Hood!


Not to forget some flowers in a basket for grandma.


Mimi just trimmed and not entirely used yet of all the fresh air was very comfortable in it.


And of course the wolf has to get in the picture, funny enough our wolf (Tommy) loves nibbling our Little red riding hood (Mimi) on a daily bases! I have to give him credit as I find her quiet delicious myself, she is like a caramel cookie :)


If you would like to have your own little red riding hood, I will be listing this a little later today in our clothing shop, where we also have skirts for humans with little red riding hood scenes.

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Silence for a Beautiful Reason


We have been thoroughly neglecting our blog, we are very sorry for our silence! But our silence has some beautiful reasons, well at least the results are beautiful :)
As you may know by now we are going to a special silver course here in town which has been keeping us very busy!


3 days a week is quite a commitment but we enjoy it very much. Beside learning new techniques we also made some lovely friends in our group and we are having lots of fun together. I also finish off work for others as no one else in the group knows how to solder silver, which brigs a lot of extra work, hence our silence again.


I decided to give this set a separate blog post mainly as it is very special and I wanted to give it a nice spot light :)


The teacher tells us that the technique has its origin in the Caucasus, where till World War I, was used to make body armor. You can use a bracelet to pull a car, it is that strong.
Trebizond wire weaving is a local art from the northern Turkish city Trabzon.