Breaking out is hard to do

It's the way it always starts out, and Etsy had been no different. Well, different in ways, in good ways, but more about that later. It's the setting up that is a task, the filling out of About, the Story and the Policies,  a sort of "template" for the Descriptions which gives the Customer the best and most information. the latter two which may be the most important because it really lays out to a potential Customer how a shop conducts business.

 

For days (and nights), there are the nearly constant re-edits, spell checks, grammar checks, the "second set of eyes" (and the third and fourth and fifth and on and on). And then knowing when to let it go, hoping visitors to the shop won't go to sleep, lose interest.  Because after all, there is the real business of the shop to run, what the Customer sees when they first enter the shop: the merchandise itself.

 

So the "essay writing" takes a break for awhile and takes a backseat to the actual collectibles and treasures stocking the shop.

 

But we've done this before and soon enough it all starts coming back, maybe a little slowly at first, and then seeing that only with six items in the shop, thirteen items in the shop (as of today, it takes awhile to build) that already more visitors and views are appearing than we ever imagined in such an early stage.  The happy  realization that others have actually taken the time to browse, to look around.

 

The shop still needs more though and there is the inevitable discussion of "the look" we ultimately hope to have, "the look" that says CottonwoodDrive, or several "looks" depending in the best method to showcase each item.

 

And the un-spoken knowing -- un-spoken until just this afternoon -- that when "the look" is achieved, that earlier items listed will have to be re-photographed. Making sure whatever "look" is achieved, that it does not ultimately over-run the show owners' lives. So "the look" also involves a certain amount of discussion and planning. And organizing.

 

Etsy seems to be a mellow place, a place where no one rushes anyone to shop, the kind of place that if it was actual brick and mortar, that we would like to shop there ourselves. So we stock the shop a little at a time, maybe not quite as fast as we would like, but it gets done. And we see more visitors and views.

 

We finally managed to list the first of our 1950s-1960s Retro children's bedspreads and/or coverlet, Made in the USA and mostly cotton, Atomic Age dreams. There are still three more to photograph and list and while we would have liked to have had them in the shop earlier today, life intervened and we spent most of our time lining up even more of our stock, getting it ready to "go live" in the shop, and yes, more organizing to make the processes as easy as possible.

 

For one of the things we've learned through the years is that running a tightly organized on-line venture allows for better Customer Service, faster shipping and a better quality of life for us, the humble shop owners.

 

Our CottonwoodDrive shop is less than two weeks old now. There have been no sales yet, but lots of visitors and views -- even a few Favorites -- and we find everday, a number of times each and every day, that we sure are having fun.

 

Always with the thought in the back of our minds that those time-consuming pages of About, the story of the Shop, the Policies and the Welcome section therein, well, after awhile,it will be time to edit for brevity. Short and sweet and straight to the point ...

 

Just not today. Or tomorrow. Or this week. So please bear with us.

The Fine Lost Art of Greeting Cards

Perhaps it is the reason why we have at times found them in abundance. Or perhaps it is just that their original owners appreciated objects of beauty, ephemera with which to convey their thoughts, show appreciation, love, empathy, yes, even sympathy.

Some collected more than others, a greeting card to have on hand should the occasion rise to send one, to avoid an extra trip to the store to get one. All thoughtful people had at least one box of assorted cards.

With the advent of technological wonders, mainly the internet but also less expensive long distance calling, and now even texting and "social" sites, the era of regularly sending a greeting card or a hand-written notecard is falling by the wayside.

And it is just too sad to contemplate, for many kept their greeting cards, their hand-written notecards, even their letters -- or at least the very special ones -- tucked safely away, a keepsake to take out and take in again when the mood so struck. Some even kept them in their scrapbooks, tokens of someone else's thoughts and affection for them, a reminder of friendship, a thank you for a kind gesture, a seal of approval, the sharing of joy and sorrow, a tangible memory of someone else's love.

The cards from this particular collection we are offering in the grand opening of our Etsy shop are slightly different in that almost every card is from a beneficent society or organization such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering, The American Legion, the Washington National Cathedral and others.

Someone had taken a lot of time to accumulate such a collection, almost every card having a double benefit: not only did they let the recipient of the card know they were being thought of, but they also benefitted the society or organization who had produced them in the first place. Indeed, it was clear that the original owner had gone out of their way to amass this wonderful collection.

We have acquired some of these collections through the years and we have also used them through the years. We have sent many, given many and still do. We have provided cards on occasion for family and friends to send themselves. And we even have framed a select number as miniature art pieces for our home and as gifts for others.

Studies blame the rise in price of a postage stamp for people not mailing cards so much anymore. But is it really that or is it that technology makes it so much easier to place a call, send an email or text, leave a short message on a social site? And when the recipient wants to recall that particular show of affection, empathy or appreciation, what is there but a piece of hard plastic with a glowing screen?

Would not one remember a  card in the mail, whether a pre-written greeting card or a hand-written notecard with much more affection and appreciation? A card received with a gift, a hand-delivered bouquet of flowers. yes, people still give gifts and they should also consider the sending and giving of cards as well. It just seems to mean so much more to those who receive them ...

 

And what better way to help revive a vintage tradition than with the sending or giving of a vintage card?