Hi teamies,
This is my first time in this chat! I'd love to meet some of you as my team members & get to know you better.
A bit about me- I'm divorced, and after my attorney stole all my money, I now live in an apartment in N. Florida with my son (make that vice versa-he lives w/me lol!) He's a Sr. at Univ. of Florida, and just last week decided for the second time to change his major. He started out w/Marine Biology, changed to Criminology, and now has decided to return to Marine Bio again. All I care about is that he does what he wants with his life- if it takes an extra year of school, so be it. (Back in the mid 70s when it was MY time, I wanted to go to school for art but wasn't allowed to...you can guess where that got me. Only about eight years ago did I start doing art work, and was only able to because I became disabled after cancer (a word of advice- if you smoke, QUIT.)
I've been an Etsy seller since Nov. 2011, though Etsy has me starting in 2010 and won't change that....I must have bought something and had to open shop to do that.) As with many, I face my promotion challenges but I'm just gettting ready for a big push in revamping my shop for Fall/Winter. LOTS of revisions to do after getting a shop diagnostic done by Eureka! Well worth it, by the way, if you haven't had one!
But this is a chat that isn't supposed to be about Etsy, right? So other than Etsy... I just started a really neat thing, which Aisha (just above) made me think of- I love to paint, took oil and pastel classes a number of years ago, but never learned how to draw! SO...just yesterday I got a drawing course in the mail, called "The 5 Pencil Method" (I hope it's ok to say that here)- the teacher gives some free classes on You Tube which I took, and liked so much I signed up for a whole course. Can't wait to get started!!
Other than that, I also just recently jjoined our local Orchid Gardening club due to my love of orchids but ever since growing my first, every one I've ever purchased has died on me, so I'm hoping I'll become a better orchid gardener after I get into this (still have to attend my first meeting.) I have visions of a whole wall of orchids in my living room!
I'd love to get out more but have fibromyalgia (or so they say, I don't believe in it)as a real disease, I think it's a side effect of many other possible things from what I have heard everyone else I know tell me)...but due to this, from Spring to Fall it's rainy season here and somehow that affects me, so I'm home most of the time. These days, besides working on Etsy (which takes most of my time) I've just been drawing chakra mandalas-- having lots of fun combining art nouveau style with the new "zentangle" style that everyone's into now...which is actually just doodling with a fancy name, I think. The challenge comes in creating something unique, as every chakra has to have a certain number of petals, and I don't want to do anything that could be considered copyright infringement- there are so many mandalas already on the web, I have to be pretty careful in making sure my designs are different "enough" than everyone else's.
I'm also looking for someone who knows how to take an original drawing or painting and turn it into prints or cards to sell. If anyone reading this knows how to do that, please please convo me! I tried buying a printer that was supposed to be good for that, but it's turned out to be lousy, so for basic stuff I need a better printer- does anyone have one that works well for them? And/or does anyone know a PLACE where they can somehow send their original and have it copied?
I'll drop back in here later, and keep up with this thread. I would love to hear what some of the rest of you do with your free time, interests, places you go, anything else!
I'm off to start a treasury for this team. With over 13,000 members I guess I'll just start in the middle and maybe by 2020 I'll have everyone added to at least one treasury!!!!
I wish you all an extraordinary day!
Lisa