Looking for an Etsy or Artfire alternative?

It's not easy to find a venue to sell your handcrafted items, your craft supplies, or your vintage finds. Sometimes a major venue like Etsy.com or Artfire.com can make major changes that will effect your business negatively.

Some people feel that there are no alternatives out there for selling their items other than Etsy, Artfire, or even Ebay. But there are two sites out there that are slowly gaining momentum, and they both offer great tools to help you succeed with your business.

The first alternative is Zibbet.com. It is Australia based, however, anyone in the world can set up shop. They currently have a free basic account where you can list up to 50 items for free, and they also have a month-to-month premium account as well as a yearly premium account. Currently their monthly price is $9.95 and their yearly price is $79.00. At the time of this post they are offering a free 45 day premium trial using code 45FREE, and it expires in 3 days.

To check out their complete list of features follow the link below:

http://www.zibbet.com/sell

I opened my Zibbet Shop in 2009, and to date I have sold 2 items. They do not have much internal traffic, and their site can be slow. But their admin is quick to answer questions, and there are a lot of great items for sale. The listing process is easy, and you can import your Artfire and/or Etsy shop items into your Zibbet shop using their free importer.

The other alternative is Craft is Art. It's a fairly new marketplace that accepts supplies, vintage items, and handmade items. They offer you the option to accept payments via Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, Authorize.net, PayPal, and Checks/Money Orders.

They have a basic pay as you go account as well as a premium monthly or yearly account. Premium accounts can offer multiple quantities, variances (colors, sizes, etc.), and so much more. You can either pay a monthly fee of $8.99 or you can pay for a year for only $79.99. You can also import your Etsy and/or Artfire shop items into your Craft is Art shop as well as your feedback score if you choose to.

They also offer you the opportunity to have a free for life account if you refer 5 people to open a premium shop. I need only two more people to use my referral codes, and my shop there will be free!

If you plan to go premium there (either monthly or yearly) please use one of my referral codes:

7H5C6

85FUY

To check out their full list of options and tools follow the link below:

http://www.craftisart.com/1337art/sell

Craft is Art is very quick to submit your products to Google, and you can set up your Google Analytics account so you can track your traffic. I've sold 3 items there to date in my shop, and I get a lot of internal traffic as well as traffic from search engines. I only have 17 items for sale there at the moment, but I have very high hopes that my business will be successful on this venue.

Etsy and Artfire succeed through their sellers, but if their sellers leave to other venues, these new venues can succeed too. It's the beginning of the year and now is a great time to think long and hard about your business, and what you believe will help you succeed.

Bored on the job at the office?

If you haven't stumbled upon the pure awesomeness that is toothpastefordinner you are missing out!

I've been following this web comic for years. It helps you get through an especially long, drawn out, boring, awful, slooow work day.

Click here to see the comics.

You're welcome.

My cat is actually a dog.

Or she acts like she was a dog in another life. I bought her a pack of plastic coil toys, and she loves them so much that she actually fetches them and brings them back to me like a dog.

Katniss's favorite color appears to be blue, because that's the toy she plays with the most. If I pick up the blue toy I have her immediate attention, and when I throw it across the room she runs, picks it up in her mouth, and runs back over to me.

Of course I have to take it and throw it again because it's just so darn cute. Sometimes she gets smart and when she comes back over she lays on the toy so I can't get to it.

Sometimes I throw it to a tough place, and she can't reach it so she will circle the area and cry until she can find it.

I bought these toys from Vitacost. My husband didn't believe the cats would even play with them.

In another life I'd want to be...

An amazing cake decorator. I suppose it's doable now, but I've missed so many years of practice.

One year for my mom's birthday I decided to make her a three layer cake. Unfortunately somehow it fell in on itself, and it was so odd my brother that eats everything didn't even want it.

One year for my anniversary I made my husband some cookies with monkey and dragon shaped cookie cutters. Somehow they didn't hold their shape so he had to go by my word that they were in fact the monkeys and dragons...only blobs.

Apparently baking is just not my thing, but I still enjoy the attempt. I think the closest I will get to be an amazing cake decorator is the fun of making shaped baked goods for my husband's birthday and future kids' birthdays.

I think I'll stick to the beads. :]

The picture is a dog cake from Albertson's that I bought for my mom's birthday last year.

New Unique Clip On Earrings

I've been meaning to make more clip on earrings, and I've finally done it! These clip on earrings are made with hand blown glass beads that sit inside of a silver plated brass spiral cage.

There are blue with black spiral stripes, red with black and white spiral stripes, and brown ones with black spiral stripes.

These earrings are truly fun and unique. Each bead varies in color, shape, and size, and the silver spirals are slightly different than the others.

Looking for a gift for someone with unpierced ears? Look no further! These clip on earrings are available in my Etsy Shop.

Thank you so much for looking! I hope to make more clip on earrings in the near future.

PIF - Pay it Forward

My brother shared this video with me last night. It's a live demonstration of PIF (Pay if Forward). Now if only the world would follow this example.

10 Interesting Facts about Rabbits

I took this picture of a wild rabbit that was eating under the willow tree in our front yard in the early Autumn. My friend named him "Hugo" and he used to come out everyday to eat by himself. I used to have a pet rabbit so it was hard not to try to pick him up.

I came across this picture, and I decided to find some interesting facts about rabbits. Below are some of the things I found:

1. Rabbits can be litter trained.
2. Rabbits can purr similar to cats.
3. They have 28 teeth that never stop growing.
4. They can jump 36 inches and higher.
5. They can literally be scared to death by predators.
6. Domestic rabbits cannot breed with wild rabbits.
7. They only sweat from the small pads on their feet.
8. They can weigh between 2 and 20 pounds.
9. Rabbits can have false pregnancies.
10. Rabbits can recognize their name as well as a few simple words.

5 Things I've Learned from Playing The Sims 3

The Sims 3 is an awesome simulation game where players can control the lives of characters that they create from choosing their careers to making them talk to strangers or go see a movie at the cinema. Not only that, but you can design your character to be fat or thin, muscular or skinny, a baby or an adult...the possibilities are endless! You can control what your character looks like right down to what pajamas they wear to what shape their eyebrows are.

Now I've compiled a list of 5 things I have learned [about life] since playing this game.

1. There's always something else to do. Depending on your interests you can watch tv, go for a jog, learn to garden, take a walk into town, talk to strangers at the library or park, take up a part time job at the salon, bookstore, or grocery store, read a book to learn a new skill, redecorate your house, go fishing, overclock your computer, talk into the mirror to improve your charisma, take classes to learn a new skill, and the list is pretty endless.

2. Random bad things happen...but so do good things. A burglar can break into your house and steal your stove before you can wake up to call the police. You can be on a date at a restaurant, join in the table next to you that's singing "Happy Birthday," and get a raise because it turned out to be your boss's friend's birthday.

3. You can make a living off of gardening, fishing, mooching money and food from people, selling paintings, and writing books/articles.

4. If your basic needs aren't met chances are you're angry or depressed. Who would be happy if your house is cluttered, your fridge is empty, your bed is uncomfortable, your shower only puts out cold water, your walls are bare and ugly, or you just haven't been getting enough social interaction.

5. I take life very seriously. I tend to play the game the way I want life to be in real life. Everyone in the household has a stable job, everyone gets along and has good personality traits, the house is big and beautiful, everyone likes to cook and use the computer, there is enough money to go shopping or out into town, etc. My characters tend to be normal and do what is expected of them...most of the time.

I must warn you that if you have not yet played this game it is highly addicting. When I first started playing The Sims 2 for the playstation I somehow stayed up playing 6 hours after my bedtime. The Sims 3 is much more addictive because there is just so much to do.

2012 - Why Change for This New Year?

I want to wish all of my readers a very Happy New Year where your good luck and karma are actually on your side.

I'm not going to be making any New Year's Resolutions because I was already on track to where I want to be in 2011 so there is no use changing that.

But, it is a new beginning, and it wouldn't be wrong to wake up each morning from this day on viewing each day as an opportunity for something amazing.