PHOTO UPDATE: I Heart Boobies Modern Needlepoint Embroidery Stitch with Antique Embroidery Floss: The Destiny of Things, Story 599 & 600

PHOTO UPDATE: I Heart Boobies Modern Needlepoint Embroidery Stitch with Antique Embroidery Floss:  The Destiny of Things, Story 599 & 600

This story is from last year Nov, 18, 2020, I really need more time in a day!  Anyways, I chose this story today because so many things in life are still shifting, like awareness in climate and cultures to name a few, even my ideas about Thanksgiving!

Anything is possible in these modern ever changing covid times!  BEFORE: 

I think she ordered embroidery floss #2.  I am so out of it right now, I can barely function, but I am getting something done, instead of being a couch potato!  4 more 1920 J&P Coats strands, available in antique pink here.  Photo via Hoarder Rehab

 

I think all the pink sold out last year, but the link will take you to antique embroidery floss in red, blue and green. 

 

Here is the email I was given:

I got exactly what i paid for and so much more. Thank you for the extra goodies and the precious and well written note. I wish i had the art on hand my kids made with the stickers because i wanted to show you!! But thanks again, keep sharing the hoard, and the smiles :)

Such a sweet and thoughtful person!  I wish she had taken a photo of her kids collages too!  but she did send a photo of her pink embroidery using floss from my hoard of stitching threads!  Very nice!

I've never tried this kind of needlepoint stitching because it looks as though it would overload my patience to no end!  but her looks awesome and what a statement!

Photo via Etsy buyer

I must be an old fashioned fogey because back in my childhood days, you could not go around saying that statement, let alone the word, "boobies!"  Times are changing and I'm hoping in a better direction.  Maybe covid has opened the eyes of the world.  We finally had time to rest and think.  Catch up on our inner and outer personal daily lives.  Okay, sorry I'm rambling with fog head or old fogey head.

 

SAYING GOODBYE:   I think I'm pretty much done with hoarding.  Did I just say that?  It's taken decades of hard work crafting a new inner me and a new outer environment, trying to live life differently, with hoarding experiments gone horribly wrong, set backs up the ying yang with an occasional successful win!

Not easy for a memory hoarder to think less of the past and focus more on the wins for an ever changing life trying to always move forward, yet stay in the moment of that win to improve daily.  It took more baby steps and half baby steps of forward movement to counteract the huge mother may I backward steps!  All that daily practice paid off!

They are going to have their 101 year birthday soon!  Available here.  Perfect introduction for the second story!  Photo via Hoarder Rehab.

Reviews for the second story!  I think she bought out all the rest of the pink ones.

Thank you. I had some trouble ordering what I wanted as it told me it was sold out, but then part of the order went through. Perhaps it was my computer. But, these items were really helpful for my research. 

 

I'm glad I could benefit from your hoard!  Again, glad you saved these old threads. 

 

These are the kind words that keep my Hoarder Rehab going!  I wonder what kind of research she was doing?  I would be very interested!

What I Learned:

1.  That my brain is just as cluttered as my house of hoard today!  Even though I know I am the one in control of my mind, it is still going all over the place!  More practice needed!  And I just want to get this post finished to go and unclutter my home and mind!

 

2.  My goal was to clean up and organize the second room for New Year 2022, but it looks like my goal deadline is going to shift to the Lunar New Year.  My goal is to clear the two huge tables in there and that is never ending and the second is to sort through all my textiles by color, so I can find what I'm looking for more quickly.  I was sorting by type, all kasuri, katazome, stripes, plaid, linen, silks, etc, but it became to much work trying to find things to color match my projects.

3.  I've mind shifted away from Etsy.  They keep piling up more criteria on sellers and it's just no fun anymore.  Plus the criteria they put on Etsy sellers, they can't even do themselves!  More on that below.

4.  Looks like I've already started my New Year's Resolutions for 2022!  Clean and organized home!  More focus on the inner me!  Less Etsy.  Which will free up more time!  For what?  Keeping all options open!

5.  I am thankful we don't rely on income from Etsy to live because it's just not worth it anymore.  Not sure what "less Etsy" is going to look like, but I'm sure another door will open soon.  I am thankful for everything Etsy has taught me and whatever else I'll learn.  My countdown is 15 more months of Etsy!  I started that two years ago, thinking it will take me that long to let go of the rest of my hoard if I stop retail therapy!  but then again, I thought it was only going to take a couple of years to let go of all my hoard and it's taken more than 10 to get this far!

Here is how I've been using my threads lately!  Available here.  Photo via Mending Ways.

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?  I've been questioning and exploring what Thanksgiving Day really means, historically and personally.  We all know who's point of view is from the First Thanksgiving and when it really started, etc has always had it's own controversy, even more so in these days and times. So for now I guess it's Abraham Lincoln's reinstatement of Thanksgiving will do for this year, but who knows for the next one?

 

Thank you Etsy buyers for sending your stories behind the the purchase and with an update photo!  Update photos are my favorite and it's always nice to hear that my hoard is appreciated with a new 'forever" home and life! 

Sales are what they are and I'm not going to focus on Etsy so much or at least I'm going to do my best to stick to those words!   We had some issues with Etsy, not depositing our share and taking more fees than necessary!  And get this!!!!  There is very little Etsy support when it comes to your own hard earned money and fee errors!  Try finding any! 

We found a page where you can add your phone number and they will call you.  It's been days and they haven't called back yet.  The two phone numbers I had from when I started Etsy work, but left the Mr. on hold for over 30 minutes.  You can't leave a message or call back number.  The Etsy chat support, I saw years ago, has been long gone!  We found an email contact button.  They sent our CVS files and an automated email and that was it! It took daily hours to sift through the files and figure it all out, by then the deposits were made and the fee overcharges are still being taken care of.  Probably won't ever see that money lost.  I'd guess we were overcharge in fees, so that are profits were a little more than half.

Basically the straw that broke the Etsy camel back, besides the fee overages and not being able to contact a "real" person in any way of form for Etsy support is enough to help me shift away from Etsy! To expect your star sellers to keep that rating you have to answer emails in less than 24 hours and Etsy not being able to do it themselves for any type of Etsy support was enough to blow me away to do something else!

I won't leave Etsy completely and I'm not sure what it's going to look like.  Probably keep two or so shops open for my handmade or all the shops with less stuff on them.  It's really helped me as a recovering hoarder because I've totally stopped buying excessively and obsessively.  Instead I've been cleaning and organizing my hoard, finding more stuff to list and now I'm exploring how my hard work and what I love can work for me without all the crazy Etsy criteria!  Will it ever end?  I hope it will in 15 more months!

My most meaningful happy favorite stitching piece sold.  During Mother's day, these were so fun to make I made three more!  I haven't stitched a thing for my Etsy shops, since the Etsy financial debacle and the disappointment and madness in getting any help.  So just like my career job before Etsy, I've learned it's best to find something else to do when it loses it's fun because the rules don't make any sense anymore and the institution you work for loses all integrity for greed.  Photo via Mending Ways.

I stopped working with Etsy's criteria of a star seller and their other, not sure what to call them and do my best making my own goals.  My goal is to keep 180 items at each shop and I've been close to making that goal each week.  Thank you Etsy buyers for making that goal more difficult!

I'm still in limbo about which shops to shut down or do less with to have more time to explore a new adventure.  Maybe I'll keep the shops at 180 items or maybe let them sell down to 3 pages instead of 5 each.  I'm definitely doing more art for myself instead of for selling.  It's much more freeing, relaxing and fun.

Click on the shop names to visit my hoard: HoarderRehab with 180 items, The Destiny of Things- 180 items, VintageToGoEasy - 167 items and JunkDrawerAndMore - 179 items.   And now, Mending Ways with 81 items!  My current goal is in limbo, as I re think how Etsy treats it's sellers and what my next options will be.  I am immensely grateful, thank you all who are supporting my alternative to hoarding!

Maybe you'll find something and give it new life and a new home!  All pleasant lookieloos are appreciated!

 

Thank you readers for your visits and support from my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!  I will give thanks, feast on all my favorites, allow myself to sit in a food coma while thinking how Thanksgiving might change again for next year and go back on my diet until Christmas!