time for a(nother) change

I haven't been here for a few days because I've been somewhere else...

Last Tuesday I spent the longest day posting beads on Etsy. Etsy... dear Etsy... What a wonderful place. A community of people who make things with their own two hands. And a support team of tech-heads who know how to make putting together a store a simple thing. It works... but... there's always a big fat but, isn't there?

While Etsy is friendly and easy, it's also a painfully slow process to list an item, and at the end of the month, it's expensive. All those tiny fees and percentages were really adding up, and I was still spending entire days at the computer, clicking the "next" button and waitng, waiting, waiting...

I went to bed last Tuesday totally beaten up and wrung out, after a 15 hour day. That's not what I'm here for. I woke up the next morning knowing I was about to change everything. No more patches! It's time for a new wardrobe.

I've spent the last week trying out different sortware, and have finally settled (I think) on GoDaddy.com. New website, new shopping cart, all in one tidy place I can call my own, and operate with relative ease. Everyone I've ever talked to who's had someone else build a site for them has been unhappy about it eventually... right about the time they want to make a quick change and that person suddenly can't find the time to do it. I have to be able to change things often because things change often. I'm so crossing my fingers that this all works.

There's only one little problem I can find so far. There's no option for International shopping. How silly is that? I'll be talking to them about it. Meanwhile, I'll just have to find a way to work around it. You know me. I can do it.

And, at first there will only be PayPal, but I plan to add a merchant account so I can take credit cards right through my shopping cart. Patience please... one piece at a time. You know I don't stop at "good enough", although sometimes I think I should!

So for the next few days, my mornings are spent "under construction", and afternoons are in the studio. Evenings, I just flop in a chair and wait for Rick to bring me food. I'll put the word out when it's all ready to go. Until then... here's a little preview of the New Look...