The Perfect Anodyne for a Worrying World
Anthropomorphic Pills and Booze – http://www.thecuriouskitchen.etsy.com
Are you having a bad day? Are the pressures of everyday life getting you down? Then let these cheerful anthropomorphic bottles help! We have anti-depressant and anti-anxiety pills topped off with a nice bottle of vodka, just what the doctor ordered… Seriously though, this is a parody of the golden age of Mad Men when it seems everyone was popping Seconal and Phenyl Barbitol and drinking heavily to boot. Think of it as a nostalgic romp through the 1950′s and 1960′s! Prints are available at The Curious Kitchen.
Anthropomorphic Cocktail Party
Who can lure you away from temperance better than a juggling cocktail shaker, a strutting bottle of vermouth, a dancing martini glass and a jolly bottle of gin? My fascination with vintage anthropomorphic food continues with this homage to the most classic of all cocktails, the revered martini. Prints of this original watercolor painting are available now at The Curious Kitchen for 20% off if you type in the coupon code “Cocktails” at checkout!
Great evening over at the Etsy Headquarters
Etsy photo booth photo
Last evening I attended the “Get Found in Search” lecture over in the Brooklyn headquarters of Etsy as part of their Success Series. It was super informative and and everyone was so welcoming. I came away with lots of notes and ideas about how to improve my tagging, titles and item descriptions in order to make my shops, Curious Portraits and The Curious Kitchen more searchable. A lot of the information I had already absorbed and implemented over the years from Etsy’s fantastic blog and newsletter but it inspired me to go over my shops with a checklist and fill in some gaps. One of the new tips I acquired last night was from Erin at Knot and Bow; she recommended putting something with your brand name in every photo. I know a lot of people use watermarks on their images but I have opted not to do that so as not to spoil the look of the photo in case some enthusiastic blogger wanted to post it. Erin has one of her labels with her brand in every photo of her products and that gave me the idea of putting my shop name discreetly in the bottom corner of all my images so that it isn’t distracting yet would always lead a viewer back to my shop in case the trail got cold through Pinterest or Tumblr.
the curious kitchen
She suggested we name our photos with keywords (instead of numbers as many of us do) so that they will come up in Google Image Search. This was new to a lot of people there so I think everyone found it really helpful. Erin also reminded us to keep an eye on the traffic sources and top keywords in our shop stats page to stay on top of where we are being found and how.
The most important thing I learned though was from Dixie Laite’s talk about targeting your customers. She writes 15 minutes of Dame column at the DYI Business Association blog(among other things) and was an overflowing fountain of useful information. For some reason I have always shied away from pin pointing my target audience. I don’t know if it seemed too overwhelming a task or if I simply didn’t understand how but now, thanks to Dixie, I feel fully armed to sit down and overcome my resistance! She broke it all down into identifying who is most likely to buy from you, seeing who your competitors (or like minded sellers) target, interviewing past customers for recommendations and identifying what makes your product different, just to name a few. She urged us to be prepared to change as we collect new information and to think about what we are really selling. Not in terms of product only but in a deeper way such as comfort, protection or nostalgia. I had never before thought of it in that way. This process requires some real work but I believe it will be well worth the effort in the end. I highly recommend reading her column at DYI which goes over all of this in more detail. Don’t forget to check out her blog The Lost Art of Being a Dame as well which is a must for classic movie buffs and lovers of vintage everything from the golden age of cinema.
Last but not least Julie Snyder of the Etsy team went over the importance of choosing simple and searchable keywords in your tags and clear and descriptive titles to your listings. Oh and they had a photo booth complete with chalkboard props for us to commemorate the evening which was great fun! I’d love to hear comments from anyone else who attended or any other Etsy seller with their tips for being found.
The Curious Kitchen on Scoutmob
I am so pleased to announce that Scoutmob is featuring my Etsy shop, The Curious Kitchen on their wonderful site! Scoutmob is a great place to find new and interesting artwork and crafty products at a discount and they really promote buying local by sorting their shops by location. They were so easy to work with and I think they did a great job of describing myself and the individual prints. Visit the page here and let me know what you think!
Shop Banner
Shot of my Drawing Table
My computer area
The evolution of Cannoli Girl
Some of the Products
More Products
One of the Item Pages
A Canine Up-date
I thought I would follow up the “Dog Portrait Deconstructed “post I did about a week ago with some adorable photos Luckie’s owners sent me …
Luckie checking out her portrait
Here she seems to be sizing it up and deciding whether she approves or not…
And happily it was an enthusiastic YES. Phew! Dogs can be such harsh critics.
Spring Fever in the West Village
As much as I love winter I must admit that this warm weather has been getting to me. The tulips and daffodils are springing up everywhere. Yesterday I took my annual trip out to Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn to Mazzone Hardware on Court St. to buy flowers for my fire escape. I love this part of Brooklyn which still has the little italian shops such as the above mentioned hardware and garden shop plus a butcher, a fishmonger and a bakery all on the same street! It reminds me of how my neighborhood was years ago when I first moved here. Many of the houses have huge front gardens that are well cared for and often filled with garden gnomes or whirligigs.
Today I rolled up my sleeves and went out onto the fire escape to turn the soil in my pots and plant my flowers. This year I am experimenting with marigolds since I was assured they would thrive in pots. Of course I always get geraniums, not only are they cheery but they are very hardy. It gets so hot out there in the summer with direct sunlight for a good part of the day so they have to bounce back when the soil dries out too much.
I went for a deep salmon pink this year for the geraniums.
My Mourning Doves quickly arrived to check out the activity.
Naturally one of my squirrels had to investigate as well.
I cut this piece of wood down today to make a little bench so I can sit out there and have my coffee in the morning. I also bought these little Basil plants but I am waiting to plant them until they get a bit bigger, I am afraid the squirrels might dig them up and tip them over the edge into the courtyard below!
These gorgeous red tulips are in the tree pit in front of my building. Morton St. always has beautiful flowers in all the tree pits as do most of the little streets in this neighborhood.
All the trees in the neighborhood are beginning to bloom as well. The white ones come first and now the pink ones (cherry?) are coming out. I thought this corner of 12th St and West 4th St. was particularly charming.
Just Desserts!
Do we really need friendly little anthropomorphic desserts to encourage us to go off our diets! Of course we do! Who can resist the allure of the Cannoli Girl or the Eclair Man? Certainly not Myself. Dancing macarons, tumbling petit fours and chocolate covered strawberries in love just make me smile. This is the newest addition to my Anthropomorphic Food series. Prints are available in my Etsy shop The Curious Kitchen along with mini print sets of the individual food people!
