Celebrating Three Years on Etsy

Three years ago this month I took the plunge and put my first items up on Etsy.

Actually I joined in December 2010, but it took me months to figure out what was going on. If you want to read how it all started, you can check out my first post titled "What's Etsy?"

Which was followed by my second post, titled "First Listing," and then "Filling Up My Shop Little by Little."

In April 2011 I finally made my first sale, a Beacon Hill Staffordshire dinner plate:

which I recount in a post titled "Life So Far on Etsy." Today I wouldn't take a photograph for my shop like that, because I now prefer to shoot against a white background--for a lot of reasons, one of them being a consistent "look" among the listings and another the fact of being more often picked up in treasuries, which hopefully gives the seller more exposure to a wider buying audience.  These things you pick up and learn as you go along. Not every Etsy seller agrees with photographing against a white background, but I've become a die-hard about this.



Here, for example, is a blue and white plate I recently put up:

I think that focusing more on the item itself, without a busy background, makes for a better listing.

However, along my beginning Etsy journey, I wrote for awhile about vintage for the Examiner.com, so many of my posts here are on specific related topics, like "Writing About Antiquing for Examiner.com," "Toot: My Recent Examiner Articles on Antiquing and Vintage," "Another Assignment as a Writer on Vintage," and "An Interesting Etsy Sale, the Examiner, & Life in General."

My blogs here have also been about various vintage items, like baskets and plates or quilts and coverlets: "Thinking Easter and Talking Baskets," "Thinking About Antique Textiles: Coverlets and Quilts,"  "All About Roosters," "Inspiration from Design Sponge,"  "Design Sponge-type Food Mills Found on Etsy," "Musing on Re-purposing,"  "From Decor 8: 8 Decorating Trends in Europe," "The Beauty of Vintage Bottles," "Vintage Fashion and My New Etsy Model," and "Plate Passion."

Sometimes I write about seasonal things: "Spring in all its forms: snow, rain, cold, garden vintage....," "Happy 4th of July!" "Christmas on Etsy," "Happy Easter! Happy Passover!" and
"New Year, New Etsy Studio."

But mostly I just write generally about Etsy: "Filling up My Shop, Little by Little," "Celebrating One Year on Etsy with an Interesting Sale," "An Unexpected Gift on Etsy," "A Reunion on Etsy," "When Selling on Etsy Lifts My Spirits," "Amazing Etsy Story from Ohio Picker," "International Etsy,"  "Getting Back to Blogging and the Old Blogger Interface," "The Yellow Vintage Shirt: A Story," "Etsy and Weddings," "Oops! Or: There Goes Another Etsy Sale...," "A Passion for Books: An Encounter on Etsy," "Etsy Feedback," "How an Etsy Sale Created an International Friendship,"  "An Etsy International Friendship Part 2," and "An Etsy Sale Leads to a Good Cause."

Wow. I'm amazing myself with this list. I haven't been too great about blogging regularly (a New Year's Resolution that I'm being kind of slothful about), but all in all I've written a lot! So: Happy Third Birthday to me ~ and I hope you enjoy some of these stories!