PHOTO UPDATE Calico Critter Themed Birthday Party with Kawaii Cute Bunny Rabbit Stickers: The Destiny of Things, Story 603

PHOTO UPDATE Kawaii Cute Bunny Rabbit Stickers for Calico Critter Themed Birthday Party:  The Destiny of Things, Story 603

Using these bunny stickers turned out so wonderful!  Cuteness overload!  BEFORE:

 12 or 24+ stickers cute pink bunny rabbit face kawaii sticker 3 colors gift wrapping packaging, available here.  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

Here is the note I received:

My daughter had a Calico Critters themed birthday party and I thought the stickers looked adorable on her packages. Thanks for the great idea!! Btw, my girls had so much fun with the Fortune Teller Fish. I think I will order some to slip in Valentine's day cards.  Again, thank you for everything!

12 or 24+ stickers cute pink bunny rabbit face kawaii sticker 3 colors gift wrapping packaging, available here.  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

I wrote back:

What beautiful Calico Critter birthday decor! And love how all your cute bunny packaging turned out! With your permission, I will add your packaging gift photo on the listing here and use the other two on my blog to inspire others and myself!

Also the fortune fish make a great alternative to Halloween candy! Thank you so much for your email and photos, it's made my Saturday so much brighter! Kennedy  

AFTER PHOTOS:  Look how cute the her wrapping turned out!

               Such cuteness overload!  And I love the one on the card too!  Thank you Etsy buyer!

                                          Photo via Etsy buyer from JunkDrawerAndMore

These look so cute I want to run out and buy some pink wrapping paper for spring gifts!  And wait til you see the Calico Critter birthday themed decorations!

How cute is that!!!!

                                       Photo via kind Etsy buyer from JunkDrawerAndMore

Saying Goodbye:  I have loved stickers since I was a kid and collected them before Mrs Grossman's stickers came out.  When her stickers became available, it was sticker madness for me!  I had to visit every stationery store around town collecting them!  Anyways, I'm sure glad her stickers are still around, but I think the bunnies are of either Japanese or Chinese origin and of course when I saw them I had to have a hoard of them!

I use them all the time as card inserts for happy snail mail, gift wrapping and envelope closures, as gift wrapping embellishments and everywhere else that needs some kawaii cute happiness!  I even like to add wiggle eyes on mine and make them kawaii cute silly!

 

12 or 24+ stickers cute pink bunny rabbit face kawaii sticker 3 colors gift wrapping packaging, available here.  There is an option if you wish to buy them with the tiny wiggle eyes too!  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

What I Learned:   

1.  I bought these years ago and I don't remember where, so when we run out of stock that will most likely be it.  Plus with all the unpleasant Etsy drama going on, I'm doing my best to quit Etsy soon, but that means I have to stop buying stuff!  And that's not easy for a recovering hoarder when items become popular to Etsy buyers!

2.  Quitting Etsy soon means 1-2 years for me because my little recovering hoarder mind works very differently than most normal minds.  For instance, it just dawned on me while talking to a friend that quitting Etsy actually means I have to stop buying things for the shops!  The concept is quite simple to most, but my recovering hoarder mind it is quite the epiphany!  It was like this huge light bulb exploded and lit up my world so bright I could see empty rooms! 

3.  So despite this new epiphany, I'm still buying stuff!  It's toned down, but it hasn't come to a halt yet.  I think it will eventually, if not soon, lol.  Actually I've started to hoard something new!  Organic seeds!  This week it was snapdragon and lobelia seeds, which I will be planting this weekend and I'm so excited about it!  So excited I dream about it in my sleep!

4.  Since all the Etsy drama, I think in my last two posts I wrote about being locked out of Etsy business for over 10 days due to an Etsy glitch and receiving little to no help from Etsy support to get new passwords to get back into our shops and now the new Etsy fees will kick in some time this month or maybe they have kicked in already.  Very disappointing and disheartening.  

Anyways, my only hope is that all the new Etsy fees goes to improving Etsy support because if you get locked out of your shops from an Etsy glitch, the only thing that might work is phoning their out of country support with at least a 5 hour wait time to hear a "real" voice or playing email roullette and emailing any and every email hoping one gets passed on to tech support!

Okay, returning to my Etsy past is such a downer!  Let me cheer up with more silly rabbit stickers! 

12 or 24+ stickers cute pink bunny rabbit face kawaii sticker 3 colors gift wrapping packaging, available here.  There is an option if you wish to buy them with the tiny wiggle eyes too!  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

Thank you kind Etsy buyer for sending your super cute Calico Critter party behind your purchase story!  Wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see your daughter's party with everyone opening gifts!  Every story seems to come at a time when I need to hear some happy news or revisit happy past Etsy events!  Gotta keep focusing on the small happy Etsy stuff to keep moving forward!

Okay, so there is a silver lining to all this Etsy drama! Ever since I lost heart in Etsy due to our Etsy business lock out mid January and now with Etsy fees rising,  I've been spending less and less time with Etsy and more time healing the soil in our front and backyard!  Yes, it was basically dead soil, like during  the dust bowl days, it only produced dust and could not sustain very many living plants!  Not even very many weeds!

12 or 24+ stickers cute pink bunny rabbit face kawaii sticker 3 colors gift wrapping packaging, available here.  There is an option if you wish to buy them with the tiny wiggle eyes too!  Wiggle eyes or no wiggle eyes, I guess it depends on the recipient.  And I don't know why center alignment is only working for some photos and not others on this posting!  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

I only do Etsy on Tues, Th and Sun. now, mainly packaging up orders for the next shipping day and if I feel like it and have the time, I relist and new list. On Mon, Wed and Fridays, which I now call Free Day Mon, etc, I am healing the soil in, what I call our backyard front yard organic farm, "Live and Let Live!"  (The name of it keeps changing, I used to call it "Our Garden of WeEden")  With many setbacks, t's taken about 10 years to heal the soil with only free resources, but it's basically now a small wild organic veggie and flower garden, which started when some Milkweed and Swiss chard seeds blew in and started growing attracting lots of Monarch butterflies!

Did you know that one of the only things Monarch butterflies eat are Milkweed leaves?  That's the long story short of it!  Back to Etsy talk!

Since Etsy raised prices, I'm in the process of raising prices too, which has really slowed down business, but we make about the same amount, so luckily I guess that works out!  Not sure how, but fine with me!

Also USPS has been raising their fees twice a year, instead of once of year, or so I've finally noticed, so I'm in the process of raising shipping fees too!  Plus Etsy takes the same item transaction fees out of shipping fees, so there is that to calculate. Oh and top of all of that, our suppliers have raised their prices too!  I hope inflation is just a temporary situation!

Time for some more cheerfulness!

 Yes, my little hoarding mind goes overboard almost everyday!  One thing always leads to another!  12 or 24+ stickers cute pink bunny rabbit face kawaii sticker 3 colors gift wrapping packaging, available here.  There is an option if you wish to buy them with the tiny wiggle eyes too!  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

I must admit, I never thought I'd find healing some dirt fascinating, nor did I ever think of dirt as a living thing, but it is!  Our dusty gray cracked dead Earth is transforming into black gold with earthworms present at 2 inches now instead of 4 and before that zero!  And who knows what other healthy organisms are taking form to grow healthy vibrant veggies and flowers.  Last year our veggies production was sparse and didn't have much taste, but this year plants are dark green and taste much better!

Also, since more things are growing this year, it all needs more watering, which is my newest best form of exercise!  I don't plant seeds all at once or a lot of them because I don't want to have a huge harvest, nor can I manage it all since I get tired easily.  I've started out in teeny tiny baby steps, first with back porch pots, then I transplanted them where we composted the dead dirt and now we have small patches of veggies growing sparsely but little by little it's taking over, which seems to be go along with my health as it grows better along with the garden.  

 

I hand water to conserve water and started out carrying around a one quart jug, now I'm up to carrying 1.5 gallons in each hand!  We also live on a sloped area, so I do a lot of squatting digging natural small irrigation ditches, which I find so fun!  Never thought that would happen! Also, there is a lot of squatting digging out unhelpful plants.  All the squatting has really improved my balance!  And I love all the free Vit. D from the sun, which has helped my physical and mental being and I'm very happy to have a farmer's tan!

I still mend and my "Make do and mend" motto is still in place, but I've also adopted a new motto, "Make do and garden!"  And I've gone back to one of my favorites, flower arranging, which I have enjoyed since childhood to middle school working for a florist.  I'm starting out with baby steps, since not many flowers have grown to their potential.

These are volunteer flowers I arranged, I did not plant them, they just decided to grow themselves when it was time for them.  The hand ink drawing is from a college friend from our Haiku club.  We send out a haiku postcard monthly to each other, if you'd like to join email me at hoarderrehab@gmail.com

I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of pink this Easter, even a pink moon!  Look for it this weekend.  I see it's already turning a light pink with a cobalt blue aura during my 5 am walk this morning! 

 

Click on the shop names to visit my hoard: HoarderRehab with 161 items, The Destiny of Things- 154 items, VintageToGoEasy - 150 items and JunkDrawerAndMore - 160 items.   And now, Mending Ways with 72 items!  My current Etsy goals feel like they are tangled up in a big conflict.  I'll either let them be or untangle my heart about it.  I am, however, immensely grateful to all who are supporting my alternative to hoarding! and especially those who keep sending their back stories with photo updates!

 

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!

 

"He is risen. He has risen indeed!"  Happy Easter!

Monkey & Donkey Cocktail Drink Hanger Toppers Sweet Wedding Accessory from Dad: The Destiny of Things, Story 602

Monkey & Donkey Cocktail Drink Hanger Toppers Sweet Wedding Accessory from Dad:  The Destiny of Things, Story 602

Make Love, Not War!  With all the stressful things going on in the world, a touch of happy news has come!

6+ Monkey and donkey champagne cocktail wine charm toppers, available here.  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

Here is the heartfelt happy news I received this morning:

Hi Kennedy,
Just wanted to leave a thank you for my order of 6+ miniature Monkeys and Donkeys.
My daughter is getting married on 7th July 2022 and their nick names for each other are Monkey and Donkey, so these will be a bit of fun on their cocktail glasses.
Many thanks 

 

 

 

6+ Monkey and donkey champagne cocktail wine charm toppers, available here.  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

That's just the cutest overload story to me!  I'm so happy I read my email and started my morning well with this bit of happy news!  I don't know why, but I find little tidbits like this so touching, uplifting and inspiring!

Here is what I wrote back:

So relieved they got to you safe and sound! and that they will have a special place with your family! Thank you for sharing your story and making my day! I love it! Best to you and Congratulations and Best wishes to your daughter and her fiance! Kennedy

I hope they bring old memories, while making new ones to everyone who loves them!

Here is a little back information on this story:

A couple of days of ago, this Etsy buyer writes and wants to know when his cocktail monkeys and donkey are arriving.  I'm not the postal tech in the family, but I do my best and find that it's in transit and has passed customs in the UK, but I can't find the tracking number, so I have to wait for the postal tech to return from his day job to ask him.

So the Mr. returns from work and he spends a bunch of time looking for the postal tracking number, which isn't on the USPS site, luckily he saves all the shipping label data, but still has to scroll through by date to find it.  Anyways, the Mr writes the buyer back and gives him a status update with the tracking number and that's that.

Then I start to wonder, how special these must be to someone in the UK because shipping is expensive and on top of that, now one has to pay VAT upfront.  As soon as that thought enters my mind, it's gone!  And usually it rolls around in my head for a good while.

6+ Monkey and donkey champagne cocktail wine charm toppers, available here.  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

Then this morning, wa-la!  My questions is answered in an email!  Which was perfect timing!  I don't watch or read the news much because it usually adds stress, rather than bringing joy, but from what people tell me, the world is still upside down with a war going on and it's destroying people's lives and home life!  I haven't been sleeping either for about 1.5 months now, first I had a cold, then insomnia, and then the Mr started on a snoring rampage!  So the negativity seems to be piling on top of piles, especially while lacking decent sleep!

My own little world hasn't been perfect either because I've made Etsy a big part of my world, which was going quite fine for the past 10 years until this past Jan!  when Etsy locked me out of all of my shops!  Yes, I was locked out of all FIVE shops!  And the way Etsy is set up, the only way you can get help is if you can log in, but I couldn't log in, so .... it was a very terrible horrible not good experience and I've been quite bitter about it and although I've forgiven Etsy, it still leaves a yucky taste in my mouth, which is why I haven't been blogging either because I just didn't want to remember any of it!  So I can forgive, but not forget and I don't even have a good memory anymore!

We have all these available in different combinations and colors for all your celebrations!  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore.

Saying Goodbye:  I have my own stash and collections of these in a shoe box somewhere and mine are vintage and/or have every different color.  These remind me of my childhood when my parents would bring them home from date night.  My brother and I would play with them long beyond pieces of them breaking off in animal duels!  My plans were to use them in my mixed media art, but I haven't used them as much as I thought I would, so I am letting them go.  Now they are very popular, so we keep selling them.

What I've Learned:

1.  These have become one of our best sellers, but they are becoming harder and harder to source at decent prices, so I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to sell these at a reasonable price.  Also Etsy is raising their fees in April, so I've been raising prices on almost everything, but I haven't gotten to these and a few other popular items at the shops yet.

2.  Since Etsy has/had become such a BIG part of my world as a way to let go of tons of my hoard and now my hoard is..... I would like to say dwindled to nothing, but it hasn't yet!  I am still hopeful my hoard will become manageable, but unfortunately my latest hoard target has been antique and vintage Japanese textiles.  They are just so beautiful to me.  Anyways, working on that now, as in working on how or what I'm going to do with it all and why I end up buying so much of things of beauty or cuteness or as stress release!  So much so I've had to stop buying, hopefully I don't start buying again, since I've been getting sleep and am finding other ways to make Etsy and stressful events not my entire world! 

Mermaids in 6-7 colors are the most popular at our other shop, available here.

Photo via The Destiny of Things.

3.  For the past several years, I've been doing my best to improve the soil in my front and back yard, so much so, we can finally grow food and beautiful flowers.  One problem:  The landlord thinks many of our veggie plants are weeds, or so he says and he rips them out!  I'm not sure how you can mistake a cucumber or bean plant that has cucumbers and beans on them as weeds, but that's what got ripped out last year with most of the other things we planted.  He's been doing that for the past three years, so good thing I have a hoard of seeds!

One time he commented to the Mr about the tropical trees we had growing and the Mr told him that those tropical trees were actually corn!  I've tried talking to him, but he just gets louder and louder until I've completely backed away from him.  And the last time, I went out to protect the plants from destruction, I ended up yelling like him.  I went back to apologize, but he just kept yelling.  I just stay away from him now and leave him lots of notes with the rent.

Improving the soil here and now gardening is now part of my new world.  I'm still mending too, but mostly the Mr and my own clothes and other things, like towels, sheets, whatever gets a hole or rip in it!  I stopped making patches for the shop when I got locked out of all the Etsy shops and am slowly getting back to it, but have lost heart in etsy, hopefully time heals all wounds.

What new things have you adopted into your new world?  Less Etsy and more saving the soil and gardening for me!  I wonder what will enter my world next!

These mermaids swords were really popular too, but I can't find anymore and have been replaced with cocktail swords of Cabaret ladies with top hats and dance canes, available here.  Photo via The Destiny of Things.

Thank you Etsy buyer for sending your sweet story behind the the purchase!  Wish I could be a fly on the wall and see your daughter and groom having a toast with the monkeys and donkeys on them!  Your story came at a time when I needed to hear some happy news and thanks for answering the question in my head!

I'm trying not focusing on Etsy so much these days!  Due to being disappointed with Etsy's star seller thing and then in Dec. bitter about the Etsy financial fiasco and there lack of support of them not depositing our hard earned cash and triple digit over charges on shipping fees.  BUT the straw that broke the camel's back was getting locked out of our shops for 10+ days mid Jan, which happened on a holiday, so we couldn't even call them!  

The biggest Etsy fiasco yet!  I'm not even sure what worked to get new passwords, but we tried everything, but sending a snail mail!  even staying on hold for 5 plus hours to talk to and out of country scripted real human Etsy support!  And then, they only wanted to deal with one shop and did not have the authorization to send a new password email, so with four other shops to do, let's say, it gives me heart palpitations just thinking about it!  I did write the ordeal down somewhere, even the support conversations!

As for Etsy support, they didn't return our calls, even though we signed up for one everyday.  We did talk to a "real" out of country person reading a script, after being on hold for several hours, with five plus hours being the record.  Eventually after waiting for days, we did get five emails, not all at once, but maybe one every few days, from a person who put their name on a form letter with a way to get new passwords, but that was days after playing Email Roulette with ANY Etsy email address I could find on each shop! So I guess I am more forgiving them I thought, maybe that's why I've stopped buying because I can't really see myself doing Etsy for another year!  Guess we'll see how forgiving I really am!  Still not sure what that will look like, but I'm trusting "Life" to show me better ways and days!

 

If you want "true" vintage cocktail party animals, these are marked 1961 on each tail and are available here.  Photo via VintageToGoEasy.

Of course, we got locked out of the shops when all of them finally had their Star Seller thing and that incentive plummeted to it's death very quickly since we could only watch our shops from the outside!  We could see the sales piling up and the emails too, but could only answer them and ask the buyers to cancel their orders through the secondary email, since we didn't know when we'd be back in our shops!  It was a sad and stressful time to work for a company that you could not call or email for any type of support.  

I am still thankful to Etsy for being the best Hoarder Rehab ever for me because without them, who knows what I'd still be buying and buying!  My house would be chuck full of stuff, probably to the ceiling with little paths to who knows where.  Also, during these uncertain times, I guess I should shift to saving my money for more than any rainy day, which Etsy helps me do.  I mean, I thought times were uncertain enough with the pandemic and was waiting to breath easy after that's over, but now the world keeps adding more and more craziness.... is the other shoe going to fall off or be put back on?  Only time will tell.

Times this by five and it will give you an idea of my shoe box collection of my vintage cocktail party animals!  I have been selling off the pink elephants and the monkeys.  The pink elephants are available here and the monkeys here.

 

My ideal situation would be to keep the shops at three pages each and Mending Ways at two pages, but I still have too much hoard to let go of and I can't photo and list fast enough!  And I really enjoy doing other things now, like gardening and writing.  I've started a little haiku postcard club as a baby step to start writing again.  I was inspired by this blog posting here of forgotten postcards by two haiku masters found in a NYC junk shop!  If you'd like to join, email me at hoarderrehab@gmail.com  It's very informal and none demanding.

Click on the shop names to visit my hoard: HoarderRehab with 163 items, The Destiny of Things- 156 items, VintageToGoEasy - 143 items and JunkDrawerAndMore - 156 items.   And now, Mending Ways with 73 items!  My current Etsy goals feel like they are tangled up in a big conflict.  I'll either let them be or untangle my heart about it.  I am, however, immensely grateful to all who are supporting my alternative to hoarding! and especially those who keep sending their back stories with photo updates!

 

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!

 

"Worry is but undernourished enthusiasm."  Moira Rose from Schitts Creek