Going Professional

Vendor's apron as per pattern free from http://kitschycoo.blogspot.fr/2009/05/craft-vendor-apron-tutorial.html

Had a bit of a design epiphany last week and started investigating the utility apron.  Ended up putting together 2 from free patterns (http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2011/10/utility-apron-tutorial.html and http://kitschycoo.blogspot.fr/2009/05/craft-vendor-apron-tutorial.html)  on the internet and then coming up with my own design for me - the idea being to replace the need for a handbag.  Hmmm now that its made I'm not entirely sure, but I know that I'd be quite happy to wear it around the house and the usefulness for sewing and gardening can't be underestimated.  Its always the issue: where do girls get to put their phones?  And for me that ends up being phone, keys, glasses, tissues - if I'm in the garden that's secateurs, scissors, seed packets, wire ties, gloves and, I'm guessing because I haven't tried one yet but scissors, pin cushion, tailors chalk, stitch unpicker for sewing.  So, I'm still in the gift category and if I keep them simple they shouldn't take too much time to make.

So, I'm moving away from the glamour aprons and into the utility aprons, I'm also realising that I want to make really stylish aprons that can go into the washing machine - sort of "now I'm baking I want to wear a pretty apron" there are aprons out there in particular from "Anthropologie" but I'm sure I can do just as well, if not better.  Definitely need to get the price down a bit for them.  

I think all my aprons can still be unique but I do need to be able to mass produce them using a selection of patterns (as opposed to making the pattern up as I go along  - and not keeping a record of it!) So, that makes 3 different ranges: the sexy/glamour hostess aprons, the relentlessly utilitarian but stylish utility aprons and the pretty protections for people who enjoy being in the kitchen and what you wear is part of the experience.

They're all going to be "aprons you love" I'll stick to the all being unique since its definitely going to be a struggle to find the fabric.  Talking of which I've spotted my first fabric on the internet, maybe I'll treat myself, more my business when I get back.

Got some bad news this morning: the overlocker can't be repaired, she said difficult to find the part and that her guy had just given it back.  Embarassingly I'm guessing that the overlocker is possibly more than 20 years old so maybe it is time for a new one.  I'll have to see what I can still do with it and see if I can't manage without an overlocker to start with.  Definitely need a new sewing machine though and a decent iron wouldn't go amiss.  So suddenly the business plan comes into focus again, doesn't it?  

I need to work out how much I can spend on fabric, of course this is all rather vague at the moment since I don't even have any patterns so I don't know how much fabric I need to make these lovely things.  Only the sexy/glamour aprons are really a unknown quantity .  The utility aprons are going to be variations on a theme and should be quite easy to cost out.

Here's a thought, are there baking aprons and cooking aprons? I want my aprons to be the sort of thing that you can be wearing when your guests arrive, even part of the outfit?

Here's the odd thing, the new ranges feel really quite contemporary as opposed to the original vintage feel of the hostess aprons.

So, I'm off to Paris am hoping for a lurk around the fabric shops, maybe even getting to buy some useful bits and pieces, haha namely things that I've seen people using on "the Great British Sewing Bee"

Ah yes, I started writing about being professional.  I know a lot about being an amateur, I've always thought of myself as a "gifted amateur" and I have always believed that the difference between an amateur and a professional is that the former doesn't get paid for what they do.  Early on I learnt that some sort of training could make a difference, qualifications, establishments frequented and contacts gleaned from them all goes some way to the identity of the professional, not least the confidence that these things give to a person in the marketplace.  But, all in all, I have always believed that success is often brokered by just "how much" a person wants it.  And I always assumed that I just didn't want it enough.

I came to a bit more of a grounding conclusion last Thursday when I churned out my 2 utility aprons during another rather short day - so not so bad on the timing front as it happens.  Professional is about the attitude and with the attitude comes work practices, disciplines and efficiency.  None of which I have!  Of course, I could have; I am by nature rather organised and careful and really quite self disciplined when I need to be.  But last Thursday, in the throes of making aprons, I made a right old mess of my workroom, I must have lost at least an hour continually looking for a pair of scissors or a stitch unpicker, kilometers trotting around the table to get my pin cushion and fabric was left on the table both used and unused when it should not have been there at all!

All it really needs is some thought, but when you're a merry little amateur, gifted or not, non of that matters you're just playing.  I actually got annoyed with my own mess!  So, the work room still needs a bit of work.  I think I need a hand sewing station, somewhere covered with a nice blanket or something.  The ironing board needs to be on the same side of the table as the sewing machines.  Need to have some sort of storage for haberdashiery and maybe get some stock in (enough for 1st year's activity?).

The utility aprons are bouncing around my head at the moment: gardening apron, sewing apron, knitting apron, cooking apron, vendor apron, cleaning apron, handbag apron. festival apron?

I keep thinking about that woman who makes aprons and keeps telling her customers "buy her some beads"  There needs to be something to stop women being offended by being given an apron as a gift.  Maybe I need to write something about apron traditions - the finery, given to each other, not domestication and work part of our heritage as women.  We need to own our aprons.

Going to Paris means that I might be able to meet up with someone for some advice about how to set myself up - its all whether I want to pay right now or not.  He's a lawyer and I'm sort of wondering if it isn't more a sort of accountant that I need - probably both. 

I'm a Pathetic Dweeb

The latest creation "Marianne" all that red white and blue just made me think patriotic

Like you haven't already guessed from my gibbering on on this blog!  Well the source of my dweebery is that I was supposed to start work at 9H30 this morning and here I am just sitting down to business and its 11am - an hour and half late for work, that sort of thing would get me into trouble if I had a boss and since I'm the boss well! Rocket up the arse matey!   I can account for 40 minutes, that part of the original timetable didn't allow for which was taken up doing exercises and yoga and, whilst I agree that a work day should not necessarily be an exercise free day, I should have organised this better and probably got up earlier for example.  Oh yes I ran on a bit on the personal correspondence too, again by at least 30mins add to that a bit of domestic faffing around and that explains the 90 minutes fallen by the wayside.  I'm wondering if I can't work later to make up for it, lets see.  I might get away with 30 mins for lunch and possibly an extra 30mins before supper.  That'll have to do.  

Hmmm not exactly the way Richard Branson or Bill Gates must have done it but then, this is my business and its not going to cost me my health, nor my sanity, so I need my sleep and my exercise.  Just have to watch it next time.

I managed to do the pricing thing and the business plan last week and both have turned up some interesting thoughts and decisions.  Not least the necessity for me to institute some sort of timesheet system.  Haha just spent a minute dithering wanting to go off and put together a sexy timesheet for me to fill in - decided that can wait and I'll pop it on the todo list, meanwhile, scrappy bit of paper while I finish this.

Number one decision and discovery - my aprons are going to be really quite expensive, correction they're expensive now that I have factored in 1 hour of plain sewing but since the apron I made on Thursday took me 3 hours they are moving into the extraordinarily expensive range - and that wasn't even an embroidered one or anything special.  There are a number of things slowing me down, so, I'm not that worried about this at this stage but it is something that needs to be addressed.  I'll probably end up talking about this on a later post since its all about work flow that hasn't really had a fair run for its money yet.

But, here's the thing, it was fantastic to actually come up with a price that truly reflected what had gone into making the object.  I know, its not rocket science and all business people already know that - there's a sort of "duh" bumping around in my head.  But here's the thing everything I make is always very intricate and labour intensive, its usually beautifully made and gorgeous but it takes me a long time.  What this means is that I have spent my entire life making stuff, loving making it but never actually trying to sell it because it would just be "too expensive".  I have always gone on the premise that no one would ever pay me for the labour, let alone the quality and creativity of my work, of course what I'm thinking is that I wouldn't pay for it and, possibly I don't know anyone who would but that doesn't mean that no one would pay for it, does it? And that's what this whole palaver is about, trying to find out if anyone will buy my work for what it cost to make it.

My mother has this annoying habit of referring to profit as any money you make over and above the price of raw materials, it is possible that she is merely expressing an attitude that is prevalent today, I'll have to hope not, because the reality is that labour is a cost and time is not paid for with profit, profit is just that profit.  Even now I'm bashing back the little voice in my head saying "yes but thing is only worth what someone's prepared to pay for it" - we're learning that bitter lesson trying to sell our house at the moment, and anyone who's had to sell their home with negative equity knows, its a bitter pill to swallow.  

Anyway, my aprons aren't houses are they?  And I have more control over my outlets (theoretically, at least) and, here's the thing, if I can't sell my aprons for what it cost me to make them, then I won't sell them - I would like to think that over the fullness of time I will either work out ways to reduce my costs or find customers who can and will pay the price but if I don't try, I'll never know.  

I read about a woman who opened up a dog bakery in Paris the other day - so, if there's a market for baked goods for dogs, surely there's a market for my aprons…I believe the comment that was made was something like "if the figures stack up anything is possible". Do you know what? I think I'll contact him and ask if I can quote him on here.  Mutter, mutter another thing on the todo list… 

I did the business plan too, I could since I'd thrashed my way through pricing, its only written out and not looking sexy yet (but that will come) but there was one part of it that gave me pause for thought.  Come to think of a a few bits, even all of it, but the one that's had me humming and haaing all week is the bit about goals.  The blog said that it was a good idea to set goals to work towards.  I'm still essentially in a "holding position" as I write this.  My aprons are posted on Etsy and are for sale but I haven't really "launched" yet.  I've got most of the social media accounts lined up but am not really completely conversant with what I'm doing with them and they'll all need a bit of polishing.  And then there's advertising which I will need to move to at some point, particularly given how expensive my aprons have become overnight.  So, a logical goal would be a launch date.

I don't think you launch with only 9 aprons for sale - I wonder how many I would need? The sewing day last Thursday made me realise that I need to invest in some better equipment - not just repair some of my existing kit.  And then, of course there's the packaging and stationery to pay for - I'd love to do a proper photo shoot too.  

Ah yes, that's all the fun stuff but what about my company status? I need to get to the bottom of that and make sure that every thing is above board and, I dare say, that's going to cost money too… so, the long and short of it is that I'm going to need some money to get started.  Fortunately I won't have to ask anyone else, banks, parents, friends - which of course, no one ever really wants to do anyway, but because we're trying to sell our house, one fine day, we'll have a bit of spare cash and I'll be able to invest into my fledgling business, and, who knows, maybe even pay it back!  Of course the big question mark with all that is when is the house going to be sold?

But that can be my deadline - I'll have at least 3 months warning before the funds will be available, which will give me 3 months to get my act together.  Big sigh, there, I really think I need my excellent photo shoot to launch and am wondering if I can take the photos and be the stylist and just hire a model.  Of course, that's the problem when you're a one woman band - everything takes just a bit more time and you don't necessarily have all the skills - finding a photographer might be a plan…

In the meantime I'll just plod on making my gorgeous aprons and building up a stock and working out how to speed up the process without losing quality or individuality, and my latest little discovery, try to fathom Canva and its many secrets…

The Price Isn't Right...yet

Introducing Evie my latest apron inspired from a 1920's pattern made from some of my "expensive" fabric

So, this is clearly going to be the way of things… start off the day with a "collecting of thoughts" and post it on blogspot. Two main jobs on the horizon today.  Sorting out my pricing strategy and putting together a business plan.  My goodness just writing that down has got me all hot and bothered and I've had to take my jumper off!

Last week I started rootling around the Etsy website looking for information and ended up perusing what they call their Shopkeepers Manual, I think that's what it was called (haha idiot! its called the "Seller Handbook") but it seems to be basically a collection of informational blogs.  Two in particular caught my attention the one about getting the price of your product right called "How to Price like a Pro" by Abby Feuer and the other one about the importance of a business plan "How to Write a Creative Business Plan in Under An Hour" by Caroline Cummings.  

Of course I haven't done any of this stuff yet, just been letting it rattle around in the back of my head for the last few days but, to be honest, the pricing thing has been an issue right from the beginning.  The way I came to my price in the first place was to see how much everyone else was charging and then charge just a little bit more knowing full well that that wouldn't get me anywhere near my costs I suppose the idea being that I needed to get them out there and that I could worry about price later.  Well, they haven't exactly flown off the shelves and after having read the blog about pricing I realised that by not pricing my aprons properly I wasn't really taking them or me very seriously. 

I have also come to realise that there's not much motivation to be had from making something that won't make you any money.  So, given that the aprons haven't sold at the cheap price (albeit that I haven't been knocking myself out to promote them either) I might as well charge what I want since they're not selling anyway.  Aha now there's a freudian slip if ever I saw one "charge what I want" that could mean anything but of course what I want is to be paid for my labour (at least) and my creativity(at best) so, what I want is not exactly the Earth.  

Of course there are a few unknowns in the mix too.  "How to price like a pro"  suggested paying myself a minimum wage that's going to take some looking into and I'm guessing that employing myself here in France is not going to be the cheapest option but, of course the idea behind that is that the business has to be sustainable even if you're only doing it for a day or two a week.  Thank goodness for the internet is all I can say.  The other imponderable - now I'm guessing that that's not even a word in English but the spell checker hasn't twitched so I'll go with it - is my raw materials.  I can't even remember where I got a lot of my fabrics let alone how much they cost.  The best I can do is "that one was expensive".  Of course any fabrics bought in the future will be systematically labelled and there will be book keeping to keep track but, to start with…I really will just have to pluck a figure out of the air.  I could also function on a sort of budget: that I don't get to spend more than a certain amount on fabric for an apron for example - naaaaa that's not going to work what about the gloriously sequinned peacock apron that just sprung into my head?

Here's the thing, all this serious stuff has meant that I've really had to force myself to work today, I really, really didn't want to sit down to do the sensible stuff.  And then I realised its not the fact that its the sensible stuff its that I'm taking this seriously and therefore finally, after all this time committing to my own little business.  Its funny really, I never really had myself pegged as a commitophobe, but then running my own business has been a dream since childhood and, for some reason I've always shied away from it.  Actually, more to the point, I've refused at the last hurdle.  

There have been a few endeavours in the past and I've always found reasons to move on to something else, but the blog about creating a business plan "How to Get Serious About your Etsy Shop" really put me on the spot - talking about fear of failure or success. 

I was just thinking about how I'm a bit of a harsh critic of aprons and am thinking that that's all part of the trying to back out of it type stunt and then musing about the fact that I have decided to stand my ground on this particular venture and wondering "why this one?".  I find the answer to that one is easy, "because I know its right" ; its right for me, its right for now and its doable.  But here's the funny thing, of all the things that I have ever made and sold or talked about selling people close to me are the least impressed by the aprons, they just don't seem to get them.  I'm thinking most particularly about my little sister, Nicky, who, strangely was the recipient of my very first "glamour apron" 7 years ago on her hen night.  Nicky died last Christmas, she was ill for a long time before hand, and was someone who had a real zest for life.  She was always very encouraging about my creative endeavours and always telling me how I should sell this or that item but never really got the aprons.  So its a bit ironic that I have decided to push through all this angst and dithering and do this thing precisely because I want to make my life count for her.  Still that just makes it all the more real.  I'm the one who has to believe in my product, oh yes, me and my eventual customers.  

And that's what Etsy had to say about writing out a business plan, even if its just on a sheet of A4 and only takes an hour (haha here's hoping) its a commitment and makes the whole thing real.  Whoop, whoop I'm going to grit my teeth and come out of this with a proper business and I'm not going to knock my lovely aprons ever again!

Onwards and Upwards!

So, what's being going on this week?  Oh yes, I was challenged to wear one of my own aprons to the Sunday lunch I hostessed last weekend.  I thought it was quite a valid point so I did.  I ended up wearing Hedy and loving it.  I took the photo somewhat drunkenly after the event but it did look lovely.  However my short crocheted dress did make me realise that I need to make a few aprons that will work with short dresses…Its also got me mentally going through my wardrobe wondering which apron for which outfit…are those glamourous photos going to turn up on the horizon soon? In any case this ain't one of them...

Now, where were we?  Oh yes, last week I managed to get the right photos in the right places and posted the most dreadful french version of my Etsy pitch on my shop in the spirit of "get something up there".  The plan for that one is to become part of the French Etsy community and then do an exchange deal where I check a French shopkeeper's English and they check my French - of course that sort of relies on equal abilities in the 2 languages and equal work load… maybe not such a good idea.  I'm in France for goodness sake! this really shouldn't be that hard to deal with so I'll move on with a mental "note to self" to get that sorted soooon.

So the new aprons "Belinda", "Gwendoline" and "Evie" finally made it into the shop and so to the world!  "Racquel" didn't make the grade in the end and will remain a curiosity made from a recycled fur coat. I didn't want to stir up an ethical storm and anyway the fur was so old it really was falling apart.

So, my little social empire has a few foundation stones and a lot of ambition.  I'd like to find some sort of "news" story about aprons for the FaceBook page and I suppose the Google+ page although that's still the mystery it was last week, maybe I can get to the bottom of that this week?

That's Feedly, FB, Google+, maybe Twitter, no, definitely Twitter (I'll do that this morning too!) Pinterest, FlickR and of course Etsy.  I'm thinking a little Tumblr activity wouldn't go amiss either.

I need to be looking after the shop a bit and sorting out this Treasury lark which looks like a lot of fun and basically getting to grips with marketing on both Etsy and Pinterest - I've been getting emails about this stuff so maybe now I need to pay a bit more attention.

And then, of course there's the merchandise!  Mustn't forget that.  I've been worrying about sourcing my fabrics for a while now and have done a tentative search for vintage fabrics on line but, the bottom line is that I don't think that's going to work for me.  I need to feel the fabric and see it move really, and a lot of the time its the fabric that inspires the garment so…. I've decided that I need to get serious about "brocante" and start systematically going to any that are announced locally.  I've already scoped out fabric shops in my nearest big city I'm now going to be searching farther a field and, of course, there'll always be Paris.  So I won't worry about that too much.

I'd like to get the packaging looking really lovely and find some nice boxes for the ultimate  gift experience.

Oh yes and the new product line!  I've decided that I want to make ties too!  This makes the fabric sourcing even more difficult but I think that's the whole point.  I've been sewing for years - practically all my life and the reason why I stopped a few years ago was that I got fed up of not being able to find the right fabrics… I'm thinking now that I just didn't try hard enough.  And of course I've always got the option of making my own fabrics - for the ties at least.  Its strange how the ties and the aprons seems to belong together, both part of the cocktail era somehow.

More Pinterest!

Phew! That was a bit of an absence.  It was only supposed to be for a week, although, in retrospect I suppose  I should have mentioned that I was popping off, indeed I would have if I thought anyone was reading this.  2 weeks ago the weather was gorgeous and, I have a big garden to deal with so I took a "garden break" to try to steal a march on the weeding and planting etc.  Other people go on proper holidays this is what I do.  Holidays for me constitute limiting my time on the computer so that's what I did... for 2 weeks.

I couldn't, however stop my urge to make aprons so, the next four are ready for launch.  Haha launch means actually taking their photos, hasn't been done yet but the photo studio is up and nearly running - that might be what gets posted here, the photo studio.  According to my book I can even furnish videos of my my work space and methods etc.  Well, for anyone remotely interested, drop me a line!

My little photo studio

It turns out that making aprons isn't the only work on my horizon.  I finally decided to create a business account for Glamour Aprons on Pinterest and that has opened up a whole giant can of worms in the form of how I'm supposed to be doing things and general tips and advice floating all over the place and, yes, you've guessed it, I need to spend some time getting to grips with Pinterest.  Good job I've already got Blogger under my belt, eh?

The way I see it, Etsy is turning out to be the shop, Pinterest should perform as my shop window and this little space here performs the function of Me in my shop.  So, in that respect why would people want to visit this blog other than to get to know me and my ethos for my aprons?  If I were out there in the real world with my shop full of aprons I wouldn't be offering another service to my clients just to get them to come into the shop, would I?  So why would I do that on the web.  This is a reference to my previous blog about making gift suggestions to stop this blog being just me burbling on about creating a web presence.

Just as well really, since that idea wasn't going to fly anyway.  Its my mum's birthday next week and I've just had a really difficult time working out what to get her.  That is something that other people, not least my little sister, come to think of it, have a gift for, not me.

So, the idea of the blog and Pinterest is to drive people to my Etsy shop and get them to buy aprons from it.  Of course I have to add to that Facebook and Google+, StumbleUpon, Twitter and I have signed up for but am only mildly interested in Tumblr (I think its out of my age bracket).  Oh yes there's Flickr too.

Essentially, anyone who's looking for aprons I've probably got it covered, even just carrying on as I am here should manage OK for the apron people since I will wax lyrical about the history of aprons and all the wonderful things about aprons, as I am coming to discover.  Which is probably what I'd talk about if you came in to see me in a physical shop.  I'd talk about the inspirations and why I make aprons, wouldn't I?

Of course, because I'm an antisocial sort of a girl if I went into an apron shop I would hope that the shop assistant would leave me alone to look around... OK so that's what I'm going to do, I'll try creating a post for every apron and explaining in more detail than is available on Etsy about that apron....

So, fine, people who know that they are looking for an apron they'll probably find me but what about the ones who don't know that they're looking for one of my aprons?  Well, I dare say if I'd got that one sussed I would already be a millionnaire and not pondering the question on blogspot.

Sweating Blood Here

Note the big gap in blog entries - that's because I have been doggedly trying to put some social media buttons on this thing! But I have not given up and finally, yesterday, I managed with the help of someone on the Blogger forum, oops I should, at least, have credited him here. I'm really sorry, whoever you were, but I can't find you back - unless you're in my history... hang on...found you Deepak Kamat! here's your link https://www.blogger.com/profile/09720758850729600278 and you truly saved my bacon with "Social Media icons - Making it inline." You and Martin Leblanc at Iconfinder.com and his blog "How to add social media icons to your gmail signature" have allowed me to produce that nifty little line of icons at the top right of my bar to the right.

I am inordinately proud of this and those little icons lead to all my other web presences, which, hopefully, will be of interest to you, my reader. That is, of course if you're interested in aprons, and, more specifically interested in glamourous, silly, sexy and pretty well more decorative than useful aprons.

Of course this is the strategy as mapped out by my book but I shall explain for anyone who hasn't dabbled where I have.

I make aprons out of vintage fabrics and off cuts and generally anything that inspires me. My aprons pay lip service to the idea of the 1950's hostess apron that I think is pretty sexy and how the happy owner of one of my aprons decides to wear my apron is entirely up to him or her. Indeed I learned a long time ago that its best not to explain your art, people who like what you do have their own understanding of what you do and its best not to disillusion them. So I don't explain my aprons, they are what they are.

I offer them up for sale on Etsy.com where I have my own shop called GlamourAprons and where I can accept credit card and payment by eBay. Cool. Ah, I haven't mentioned this before, but I live in France so any purchases will be despatched from France with the incumbant postage fees.

My blog here is to give a more human aspect to the GlamourAprons shop, possibly even represents a sort of shop assistant. I can of course be contacted via Etsy (they call it a convo), but, here you get to know me a bit better, and what my aprons and I are getting up to. So really, you get to know a bit more about my product too.

I have set up a page on Facebook for Glamour Aprons although I'll admit that at this point I don't really know what to do with it just yet.

Next to that is the button to my Google+ page which, at the moment just shows posts from here but in time, that too will have apron relevant stuff on it. I am hoping to use news feeds to post on both Facebook and Google+ but up until now I haven't really found anything that entertaining about aprons, after all there's only so much you want to read about Grandma's apron and how you remembered her at the kitchen sink and, as I have already mentioned, my aprons aren't really about that. I may need to get imaginative here. But that's the next job now that I've sorted out those Icons.

The St Patrick's day Sexy Hostess Half Apron

The next button is for my Flickr page - for anyone who doesn't know Flickr is a photo sharing site so I am using it for photos about my aprons (as opposed to the 5 "packshots" per apron allowed on Etsy), how I make them and anything that I feel is worth taking a photo of - like, for example, the half made St Patrick's apron, upstairs that's waiting for a bit of inspiration and that I'll post here too.

The final button is for Pinterest. Pinterest is a wonderful universe for anyone who loves looking, almost a visual odyssey I think it can best be described as a collection of digital scrapbooks. My sister introduced me to it and it wasn't until I wanted to see some examples of vintage aprons that I really got hooked. My relevant board for here is called Apronerie and I have pinned to it aprons that I like or patterns that I think might be useful and even the odd photo of women of the fifties wearing their aprons just a whole bunch of lovely things really, and, of course my own aprons.

Since I'm only in the beginning throes of all of this, although I have opened a Twitter account, I really don't know what to do with it, so until I start tweeting, and more's to the point, find something interesting to tweet about I'm not providing a link to that.

And then of course, there's here, which in true Blog tradition is just me burbling on about whatever I have to say on any given day, with the proviso that it has something to do my aprons or trying to promote them or sell them.

Now this little diatribe has got the juices flowing about alternative points of interest for Facebook and Google+... watch this space.

Swings and Roundabouts

As I have mentioned before, I'm on a learning curve here.  Its a structured curve because I'm literally doing things by the book, but, it is, nevertheless a learning curve.

I have got into the habit of sitting down at my computer every morning and once I have thrashed through any emails I move onto Google Chrome and go to Feedly to read my RSS feeds like a good girl.  One of my feeds is "Etsy" - I thought it would be a good idea to follow the goings on at Etsy generally and this way I've found out what potential investors might make of our not so little community, for example.

flounce detail on Sexy Hostess Half Apron, Bonnie

This morning's reading completely wrong footed me because I read something about Etsy that I didn't like.  I've spent the last couple of hours humming and haaing about what to do about this.  Actually, I sent a quick email to Etsy asking them if what I had discovered was allowed on Etsy.  Anyway I have been mulling things over along the lines of "good men are often silent "and all that and have decided not to react.

I don't want to talk about the precise nature of my shudder here either because given the nature of the web and RSS feeds I'll probably turn up somewhere and, that's just it, this blog isn't about that - its politics and, of course, not my politics and its a group of people using Etsy to promote their politics.  When I checked things by following a few links I realised that Etsy was just the neutral ground that these people had chosen and that doing a search for their group brought up quite entertaining items and not them.

So I have chilled, poor old Etsy can't help being abused and the United States is a free country, I like to think that I live in another free country and was born in yet another and everyone is entitled to their opinions.

But.

I was always brought up that you never talk about politics and religion at the dinner table.  In life, I have discovered that there are some people that I find lovely and perfectly charming until they tell me their politics and then I find them quite repugnant.  So, as far as Etsy goes, I'd really rather not know the politics of the person I'm buying something off.  On that basis I'm not going to talk about my politics.  Sexy aprons have nothing to do with politics.

Of course I'm itching to go back to the site where the group members are listed and print it off to make sure that I don't acidentally shop in their stores (haha like I'm such a huge Etsy shopper anyway).  But I won't, I'll just stay in blissful ignorance.

I think I've lost a little bit of my internet innocence here.  Up until this morning I was happily bimbling around liking people and things on Facebook and happily pinning left, right and center on Pinterest without a care in the world, just thinking that only nice fluffy people had shops on Etsy and set up boards on Pinterest but of course, probability says that's not the case, more so since for the purposes of Etsy I'm the foreigner, and the vast majority of Etsy sellers seem to be in the United States.

I reallise that if I go any further with my analysis of Etsy vendors I'm going to show my politics and possibly what this is all about (haha sound like showing my knickers, somehow) so I shall say no more merely resolve to not do or say anything political on http://www.etsy.com/shop/GlamourAprons, or on any derived outlets like google+ or Pinterest.

Which reminds me, it would be great if I could work out how to link to my various presences from this page like everyone else does - do I have to make my own buttons? Surely I should be able to copy and paste what's required from somewhere.  Still, not having any readers has its advantages, I suppose.  I've managed to get this not only off my chest, but also sorted out a policy in my head.

For the record, anyone who knows me thinks I'm rather outspoken, "Brittany's Kirstie Allsop" was my favourite (and no, I don't know Kirstie Allsop's politics - which really proves my point).  Politics has no place in my little crafting world, if others wish to hand over real estate for theirs that's their business if they shove it down my throat I just won't go to their shop.

So there you have my first internet encounter - while I'm reeling from this my sister sends me a link to a meditation site so I subscribed to their podcast and then I come here.  I'm only following one blog at the moment its called http://www.listotic.com - I do love a good list - and her blog about weighloss interested me I read it to the end and ended up buying a self help book!  Ahh swings, and roundabouts Tracy, swings and roundabouts.