Google Friend Connect -- please go away :-(

This morning when I looked in my blog list on the dashboard I had a gazillion blog posts to read. Quite a few were hourly updates (get a life) from a spammer.

So why did I follow these people?

Seemples. I didn't.

Like a knitwit, I had clicked on "follow with google friend connect" on someone's blog - so now all their friends appeared in my updates.

I have been googling for England trying to get rid of this oh-so-marvelous feature, but with little success. I have manually deleted myself form lots of followed blogs, some of which I probably wanted to keep!



If you have any idea how I can get friends connect off my blog - please help! I really don't want to delete my followers, they're much too precious!

Fascinating (you really need to say this in Spock's voice)

Hatastic has won the Folksy Fashioning Technology competition!

Isn't it brilliant?

You can find out how to make one for yourself here. Don't forget to check our Hatastic's slightly more mainstream fascinators in her Folksy shop.
Follow Hatastic on twitter

let's meet...StudioCherie!

Cherie is a newcomer to ETTEAM, but has been on Etsy for a while, as we shall see:

Cats or dogs?

Cats. I love their independence. My kids would love a dog, but I don't need another "best friend."

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Trek, the meerkats of course.

LOL how kind!



Fruit or chocolate?

Chocolate, what are you nuts?

Favourite colour?

Red



Favourite meal?

Something, anything made by my mom.

City break or weekend in the country?

My favorite city break involved a visit to Cartier in Manhatten. My favorite week in the country involved kayaks on the Sea of Cortez. The Cote d'Azur is a fun combination of the two, and I would absolutely love to go back there.


What brought you to Etsy? Tell us about your shop (or shops) Do you sell anywhere else?

Someone referred me to Etsy a couple of years ago, and I thought it looked really homemade, but not as in my mother's cooking homemade, more like people with unlicensed hot glue guns. Last year I checked it out again and was really impressed with how far they had come in their presentation.



Until I got on board with Etsy, I had been selling my finished items through a rep in Los Angeles and on my own stand alone website. I decided that the traditional marketing approach was too slow and not profitable enough for me. I was marketing the items I had designed two years before when I really wanted to move on to my next idea. Etsy allows me to keep up with my new ideas.
I sell my patterns also on a site that specializes in patterns and that has been great too.

What’s the favourite item you’ve made so far?

I love the duffle bags. I will be using mine everyday this Summer at the beach and traveling from here to Seattle. I also love the great fabrics that my customers have picked for their duffles. I just sent off a delicious pink one the other day.




What has been the most useful lesson you’ve learnt (about Etsy) so far?

Photography online is everything! 80% of people don't really read descriptions, they rely on our photos. Putting the work into more and better photos will pay off in the long run. I am still working on that.

If you could start again, is there anything you’d do differently?

Since life is a journey, I just keep moving and that question does not compute for me.



How do you see your store developing?

If I ever get caught up on orders, I will have more inventory of in-stock items, but I kind of hope that will never happen because made to order is so fun and it is Etsy's greatest selling point, I think.

What have you been doing today that I’ve interrupted?

Sewing a made to order compact travel changing pad bag in a fabric I never would have chosen, and it is gorgeous.

What’s your top marketing tip for today?

Read Etsy's blog, the storque. It will fill you in on their merchandising plan and offer contests to help you grow your customer base. When you post comments there, be thoughtful and positive. You never know who is reading and when you might be discovered!

So true! Thanks Cherie - as always, here are the links:

studiocherie.blogspot.com
StudioCherie.etsy.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/studiocherie/

The Next Generation

of Meerkat trekkies has arrived!



Worf presented a bit of a challenge with his cranial ridges, but I've embroidered them with a darker brown. Haven't been able to capture them too well in photos though, I'll try again in better light tomorrow. Making his Klingon sash was fun, tried several methods until I settled on using a length of curb chain.



Geordi's visor was fun! I've used a metallic covered elastic for that.



Boldly go, boys!

The Garden of England, my home.

In the first half hour of our walk today we passed:



hops (for beer making)



grape vines





cherries



plums...



oh, and we also picked up a geocoin in a cache nearby. A fruitful walk!

Meet my fairy godmother, Dawno

Anyone reading my blog or following me on twitter can't have failed to notice my excitement when my meerkat trekkies went viral.



It took me a while, but eventually I worked out the trail and it led back to a lovely lady known as Dawno who sent the first article off to boing boing.

I found Dawno on twitter and set about learning a bit more about my new fairy godmother!

She has found a very specific niche to fill with her Etsy shop, Dawno.etsy.com. As she explains: "I have to wear a badge at work and the shoestring lanyards just don't look good with professional dress. So I decided to make my own jewelry style lanyards and other people wanted their own."



Despite (or maybe because of!) her full time job this busy lady also finds time for two blogs:
http://www.beadedbadgelanyards.blogspot.com/
and www.dawnonowyouseeit.blogspot.com


and a jewellery shop, this time on Artfire!




Dawno on twitter
http://www.beadedbadgelanyards.blogspot.com/
www.dawnonowyouseeit.blogspot.com
Dawno on Artfire
Dawno on Etsy

I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU to the lady who kick started the wave of publicity which took my meerkats into the spotlight, and ask wach of you who reads this to have a wander around her stores and blogs. Thank you Dawno!

Sharks in my pond!

Meerkat mania has slowed down a bit, thankfully, so I took a little time away from knitting to sit by my pond.

*shock horror* where have all my tadpoles gone? This is what the edge of the pond used to look like in April...



I spotted some after a while, but their behaviour has changed. they used to spend lots of time in the shallows, but now they're all at the bottom of the pond, lying low.

And then I saw the culprits, circling in the water, darting around looking for their next snack. Dragonfly larvae - the sharks of the garden pond.



This isn't my pic, I googled it, but I saw four or five of these hungry beasties. I hope we'll spot them emerging, and I hope they'll leave at least some taddies behind, I want froglets!