I’ve become quite the Etsy fangirl in recent weeks. I’d given myself the personal challenge of finding Christmas gifts for everyone on Etsy. It’s funny though: I hadn’t realized that Etsy was relatively unknown in the general population: I’ve gotten many a “You’re ordering your Christmas gifts from where?” But I’m truly an Etsy believer! The products are unique, usually handmade, and many are an amazing deal for your money. Versus other e-commerce sites, shipping is largely cheaper. I’ve ordered from 14 different shops. Some things have started to arrive and so far I’m thrilled with the quality.

A few Etsy tips for the uninitiated:

• Design blogs are a great source for cool Etsy items. For example, Decor8 does a weekly Etsy feature and Poppytalk features a lot of handmade goods, many of them from Etsy.  As well, Etsy has its own blog that features notable sellers. Check out my blogroll for my favourite blogs.
• Check out the Treasury, featuring user-curated lists of items grouped together by theme (such as great stocking stuffers or fantastic gifts for moms).  Even Etsy’s homepage is curated with some great picks, or sign up for the daily email Etsy sends out for more selections.
• If you’re going to search for items directly on Etsy, make sure your search terms are really specific, because it’ll be difficult to wade through the pages of results if your search keywords are too broad.
• Look at the measurements of things before ordering: oftentimes you will be surprised by the size of things as it’s hard to judge from a photo. Take out your tape measure. This is the best way to ensure you know what you’re getting. You can often get custom sizes made if the dimensions the seller lists don’t suit you.
• If you’ve got questions you can easily message the seller before committing to purchasing. This includes shipping times and whether or not a shipping upgrade is possible to make sure the item gets to you in time (if ordering a gift for example). Sellers are generally extremely friendly and helpful.
• Each seller is rated by its past buyers. Check out how much positive feedback the seller has. You can also see how many orders the seller has filled. I generally don’t order from shops that have made few sales, such as less than 40, as I’d rather deal with a more experienced seller.

Do you have some Etsy tips?

One of the things I love about blogging is seeing how readers connect to what I have to say and share. I still have a lot to learn about what makes a blog fun to read and worthwhile. And I want to make this blog the best I can make it. So that’s where you come in: I want to know what YOU think of Red Glasses! What am I doing well? What could I improve upon?  Here’s a little reader survey, should you feel so inclined. It’s a wee thing, just seven questions long. And it’s anonymous so you can tell me what you really think.

I can’t wait to hear what you have to say.

xo Caroline

Art by: Sidney Pink

I’m excited to once again participate in the lovely Sfgirlbybay‘s new “Blog It Forward” project, Pin It Forward, which kicks off today.  Like last time, a group of bloggers will be taking turns blogging on a particular theme. During the last round we blogged about what inspires us (see my contribution here).  It was a great way to discover amazing blogs.

This time the topic is “what home means to us”  and as part of their blog post, everyone will be creating a “pinboard” on the new photo-sharing site Pininterest (see a great pinboard example here).  Starting today, you can follow who’s posting when with the schedule and definitely don’t forget to check back on June 29 when it’ll be my turn!

I love the enthusiasm the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver & Whistler are generating within the Canadian blogging community – blogs such as Poppy Talk and The Anthology, and even the U.S. based Apartment Therapy has gotten into the mood with a Canadian Olympics nostalgia post.

I am an avowed Olympics fangirl. Growing up, we religiously watched the Olympics on television, at first mostly encouraged by my father who was long involved in the Canadian track & field community and refereed at the Montreal games in ’76. But eventually I began to love the Games all on my own.  In 2004 we even took a trip to Greece for the Summer Olympics there and the experience of attending the games in person was phenomenal.

My friend Andrew worked on Vectorial Elevation, an interactive art piece created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer that lets the public control searchlights in the Vancouver sky via the web. I was browsing Flickr and found some beautiful shots  were already surfacing. Hope these put you in the Olympics spirit!

See the photos on Flickr: 1, 2, 3

The Young Professional Blogs Aggregator – A.K.A. YPBLOGS.com – is a collaboration of more than 275 bloggers who produce content aimed at a young professional crowd. The website invites any blogger whose posts may pique this target group’s curiosity to join the site. And of course, anyone interested in the massive pool of content (26,000 articles and counting) would do well to check out YPBLOGS.