Virginia Is For Lovers

I've really been enjoying my stay in Shenandoah, Virginia. My grandma and I have been going through a lot since losing my grandpa but together we are getting through it. My heart has always belonged to the valley and I have been seriously considering a longer stay. I have the advantage of running my own business online. This means that I can pack up whatever I need to and go where ever I feel like going for as long as I desire. This freedom has allowed me to help my grandma in her greatest time of need. It makes me glad that I decided to follow my heart instead of submitting to the idea that the only way to make a living is by going to work for someone else in a retail store (or something like that).

So far I've been doing very well for myself. My collaboration with another Etsy shop is continuing, albeit with a few disadvantages with the distance but we are working it out through trial and error. There are many people that pass through this house and my grandma loves showing off everything that I make. She's my best promoter! Many of the people that I've met are interested in lessons. I'm sure that I could teach them in the house. It would be really great if I could get that part of my life back. I really miss teaching.

The landlady for the house also owns all of the buildings on the block. There are a lot of empty business spaces available in the gorgeous historic town of Shenandoah. I would very much love to open a yarn shop. It would be perfect in keeping with the aesthetic of an old train station town. She seemed to be really into the idea of having a yarn shop in the area. With all of the crafty people around, I should have no problem having people consign a few of their pieces. This will also be a great way to bring awareness to some of my favorite charities involving yarn. I really hope that this can happen!

I do have to be realistic. The chances of this shop coming to life are slim to none. I have no collateral for the bank, I have no money saved up, I don't have a business license (I would need a new one for the shop anyway), and I have no credit. There are a million things working against me right now. That doesn't mean that this dream of mine is impossible. I'll look into all of my options before I give up.

The Red Scarf Project

This year I've dedicated some of my time and yarn to a very special project that I'm rather fond of. It's called the Red Scarf Project. Basically, knitters and crocheters are invited to use various hues of red yarn to create beautiful, soft scarves for unisex college students. The students are foster kids putting themselves through school and may not receive such a kindhearted gift from a loved one. 

This year I have made three scarves to submit. I wanted to take this opportunity to teach myself some new skills and get rid of some extra red yarn I had lying around the house. Believe it or not, I still have some more. The new technique I taught myself this year was working short rows. You can see how I utilized this new technique in the scarf below:

I also converted a pattern that I've used about 20 times with a beret that seems to be a favorite among my customers. I took the cable panel and added a simple border around it. I plan on using this for future scarves to sell in sets with my berets. They look really lovely as their own accessories, so I can only imagine how beautiful they will look together as a dynamic set!

This year I came up with a clever little way to solve a couple of problems. One, I needed a way to keep the scarves folded. Two, I had such a small amount of each color left over that I really didn't have a lot of options as to what I could use that yarn for. So, I came up with the idea to make a coffee mug cozy to wrap around the scarves. This also presents a new gift to the student who receives this scarf. Not only is this a clever way to keep your scarf in place, but it also gives the student something to keep their coffee mug from being too hot or cold. And we all know how much college students love coffee. 

I've got some of my students making scarves as well. We're all writing letters with words of encouragement and shower them with some love for Valentine's Day. Next year I plan on getting involved much sooner. The range of time that donations are allowed are from September to December. This was a really fun experiment for me! I tried some new stuff and succeeded and tried some other things that didn't quite work out. I'll get it by next year though! 

Found A New Place To Eat - Zoë's Kitchen

There's a new restaurant that just opened up where the old Wendy's was in the Beechwood area. It's a Zoë's Kitchen! I've never been to one of these places before, but it's fantastic! I loved the colors and atmosphere in the restaurant. Plus, the food was perfection!

If you haven't heard of Zoë's kitchen, it's a chain that serves Mediterranean dishes that opened up in 1995 in Alabama. They now have 71 locations spread across 12 states.The food is made fresh every day and includes various sandwiches, soups and salads. Their menu contains dishes for vegans, vegetarians, gluten free items and some selections for meat eaters, such as myself.

This is a place that has a little bit of something for everyone. I can take my vegetarian friends there and enjoy dishes with meat if I so choose. No one has to feel left out if we're going to a fast food place. That brings up another point. This is a fast food restaurant that actually serves healthy food. It's such a strange concept in the fast food industry, I know. Seriously though, name one fast food joint that serves actual healthy food and has the option of gluten free dishes. You can't. They don't exist.

Not only are these dishes conveniently served fresh daily and with a quickness, but the prices are awesome too. I paid around $10 for my lunch, which is around the same amount I pay for a trip to Taco Bell or Burger King. It may be a couple dollars more than McDonald's, but my body thanks me for not eating something that takes years to digest.

Let's talk about my lunch for a moment. Here's a picture of what I ate:

What you see here are the chicken roll-ups for $7.79. I grabbed a side of potato salad made with baby reds for $2.09 which is both vegan and gluten free. I could tell immediately that the salsa was handmade. It was amazing and really spicy. I'm a lightweight when it comes to spice, but I could handle this level. The chicken wraps themselves were deliciously filled with feta, lettuce, tomato, caramelized onions, and wrapped with tortilla. The tortilla wasn't deep fried which was really nice. My meal was light and didn't leave me feeling shame afterwards which is always refreshing. I felt confident and ready to face the rest of the day. Yeah, food can do that. 

Here's what my friend got. It's the chicken pita pizza. He let me try a couple bites. My mouth exploded with flavor! He also had a side of beans, but I'm allergic so I didn't try it. My friend raved about the beans though, so I'm going to have to trust him. This pizza has mozzarella, feta, fresh basil, and marinara. I loved the basil. It really popped! 

Zoë's Kitchen also serves beer and wine, which I didn't realize until after reading through the menu again to see if they had some fresh lemonade, which they do. They also cater and have family meals for around the $30 range. If each meal comes to around $10 per person, then you'll save about $10 with their Dinners for Four deals. 

If you haven't been yet, I definitely recommend that you do. If you're after a healthy meal in a great, friendly atmosphere for a reasonable price then this is the perfect place to go! Tell your friends. 

RIP Hero of Canton Hats

A few people have already heard, but I wanted to make an official statement regarding the situation involving a certain network banning the sales of a certain hat. If you haven't heard, read this (http://io9.com/fox-bans-the-sale-of-unlicensed-jayne-hats-from-firefly-471820413).

Here's what I have to say:
I depend on making these hats to afford to eat. I depend on these hats to keep my business running. No one really buys anything else from my store. Out of the 125 sales on my Etsy shop 76 of those are Jayne hats. That's roughly 61% of my sales.

When fans want to buy a Jayne hat (oops I said it!) they want to buy a handmade one made by a fan for fans. They don't want a machine made hat from a company that hasn't even seen the show or claim to be a fan. ThinkGeek is not at fault here. Too many people were requesting the hat to be sold on there. They were just giving the people what they wanted.

Here's what I don't get. Why didn't they just get a bunch of people who make the hat already with love and passion for the show and pay them? Haven't we taken away enough jobs? There are too many people who make this hat that would love to work for a company like ThinkGeek and provide these hats to true fans of the show, but no we have to manufacture them with a machine. We can't have independent contractors make the hats for a retail website because that's just too complicated.

Here's what I don't get with Fox. Why after ten years do they just now get around to telling people not to sell these hats? Because someone bought the license for it? Because they realize how much money they're losing not having this licensed? To protect the company that bought the license? Because they're tired of hearing people beg them to bring the show back? Because they're Alliance? Whatever their reason, they still have a legal right to protect, but that only goes so far.

"Although characters have an identity, persona, and other expressive elements, clothing, by itself, is considered a useful article, unprotectable under copyright (a principle that's proven a major irritant for clothing designers). In a 1989 case, a court of appeals refused to protect costume designs even though the company had registered its costumes as "soft sculptures" with the Copyright Office. Other decisions reinforced the rule that costumes are not protectable. There may be instances where a movie company that owns a series such as Indiana Jones could complain that your costume sale -- for example, hat, jacket and whip -- could violate trademark laws if you used the name of the character in your advertising... To be safe under trademark principles, avoid any advertising statements that imply endorsement or an official connection with characters or films." - Posted on Whedonesque.

 With this information it seems that I can still sell the hat so long as I use terms that aren't used in the show. But hold on, here's what Fox told Etsy to tell me.

 Etsy received a notice from Kasimira C. Verdi (foxip@fox.com), Director - Intellectual Property for Fox Group Legal. The notice said that Fox is the owner of copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights in and to the television series FIREFLY (the "Series"), which currently airs on the Science Channel. These rights also include characters, images, designs, slogans and/or other distinctive creative elements of the Series, and the exclusive right to license merchandise in connection with the Series. According to the notice, use of various trademarks, characters, images, designs and/or other distinctive creative elements is not authorized. 

The letter stated that these listing(s) incorporate designs, symbols, language, images, or photographs that infringe upon the concerned party's copyright or other intellectual property right.

So who's in the right here? And who do I talk to so that I can find out? Here's part of the FAQ that they included with the cease and desist letter.

------------------------------

-Q- May I change the design or wording of my listing(s) and
reactivate them?

-A- Etsy cannot offer advice on how to change the listing(s).
Please address any questions concerning this matter to the person
who contacted Etsy (see contact information above) or an
attorney. Do not reactivate these item listings or relist these
items until the issue has been resolved.

------------------------------

An attorney. Because people trying to make a living on Etsy have easy access/can afford those. Oh, but I can try to contact Fox about this matter? Fine. They've been so great about settling this in all of those interviews they've been doing - oh wait, they haven't actually responded to anyone about this situation? Huh.

Here's part of the letter that I found downright insulting and pissed me off more than anything else.

This is a confidential matter, and we request that you not discuss this issue in the Etsy Forums or otherwise violate the confidential nature of this email.

They just took away something that I depended on to provide for myself and keep my business afloat and they expect me to keep my mouth shut? Fuck that. To these corporate asshats a $20 hat might not mean much of a loss for the people who made them. Just like how a certain retro-futuristic sci-fi show didn't mean much to them. All they see is the dollar signs and how they can profit. They don't see how this really affects the people who made the hats.

I've been looking for a job for the past two years and you know how many people actually gave me an interview? One. I got the job, but I only get to work EIGHT FUCKING HOURS A WEEK!!!! I also teach a knitting class every Friday, but I only have two students that actually show up every week and then there are weeks that they can't show up. Not a very stable income. What if these students decide that they're done learning or get to a point that they feel it's too complicated and stop coming to classes? I'm screwed. That's what happens. Does Fox care about my situation? No. Does anybody? It certainly feels that way sometimes, but I do know that I have people in my life that actually gives a shit about me.

I've been paying attention to how the fans have been reacting to this situation and it really fills my heart with pride to be a part of a fandom that genuinely cares for not only the show, but the people who also love the show. The overwhelming support of the Browncoats show that we really are unified and I feel like together we can achieve anything. To anyone reading this, Browncoat or no, thank you. This has been a very stressful couple of weeks for me and my mind is spinning trying to find a way to make this work. There's been a lot of screaming and a lot of tears. Now that I've seen how the fans have been reacting to this I feel like I'm not alone and I might actually be able to find a way to continue making a living.

Meetup

I started going to a group called Athens Area Crafters Become Awesome Business People. It's designed to help people like myself learn more about the business side to running an Etsy shop or crafting business. So far it's been very helpful and fun. I've been taking my very good friend Teenie with me. She helps me with certain things with my business so I figured that it would be just as good for her to go too. Teenie really enjoys these meetings. We get to sit in a coffee shop and listen to great advice while enjoying awesome coffee. The people in the group are really nice and talented.

Today we had Missy Kulik as our "mystery guest speaker" come in and share her story of how she got started making her products and how she grew into the business that she has today. I felt like I learned a lot from what she and her business partner Raoul had to say. I'm very excited to start using their advice and I feel pumped about making some new changes to my business.

I've been wanting to make more clothing. Missy suggested making things that look vintage. She mentioned a place where I could sell it aside from Etsy. Everyone loves vintage on Etsy, so I know it will be a hit. I made a dress yesterday that I'm very proud of. I saw a dress at Wal-mart that I really liked and it was gone when I came back to buy it. I didn't let that keep me from not getting the dress though. I went to Joann's where the patterns and fabric just so happened to be on sale at the time and bought enough stuff to make two dresses. Since the patterns were 5 for $5 I went ahead and bought more stuff for work clothes. The lady that checked me out hooked me up with every single coupon in the sales ad. Even the one for custom framing. They don't even do framing at that location! I wanted to give her the biggest hug for saving me so much money! I felt so loved. <3

I worked really hard on the dress this weekend and I was very proud with the end result. I can't wait to make the second dress. It's going to be black with white polka dots. I love polka dots so much!