And The Winner Is........

On the blog site Love EtsyFeedback, My team EtsyFriends had a contest. It was a challenge for the team members to create the ultimate look of friendship. I had posted my entry previously but this isn't about that. We asked average joes to come and tell us who's was THE best. Well I am sure that it was difficult for the person tallying the votes but a winner emerged...

Hildeguardslair WON. Her entry was from her shop CritterHabitat
1. My shop name is hildeguardslair.etsy.com

2. I signed onto etsy on Dec 26th of 2006

3. My Mom and I have always made things for the home, clothes, knitted and crochet afghans, and scarves, mittens or anything else we could think of. We had the hope of someday opening a craft shop. My Mom didn't live to see the dream come to a reality but this is the shop we always dreamed of haveing. I am so glad I found etsy.

4. My favorite thing about what I sell is taking a scrap of nothing and turning it into something. I am not explaining this well. I love making jewelry, I look at beads and I can picture how they will look when they are put together. I guess you could say the best thing I like about what I sell is the creative process, I love to make things. I love what I do and enjoy it.

5. This is the favorite thing in my Hildeguardslair shop.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15461649
I won the metal component in a trade game, then through a bnr I found the polymer clay beads and I was so excited, I love roses. It took 6 weeks for me to get the beads from the seller. There was a mix up with the mail and everything. I planned this piece in my head 9 different ways and this is what it turned out to be.

The favorite thing in my critterhabitat shop is my kitten. I love kittens and I have made so many of them. I made a little yellow kitten and that was my favorite kitten of all.

6. The only team I belong to is etsyfriends. I have checked out other teams but the friends team is it for me. The friendship, moral support and site help is the best.

7. I wish I could call promoting my shop fun. I was raised to believe if you promoted yourself you were bragging and that is a bad thing. I have to fight this everytime I list something for sale. I don't promote like I should, I do go into other threads and post my sales and my shop and let the shop speak for itself. I can talk about others peoples shops and really get it going, I wish I could feel better about doing it for my own shop.

8. I have 5 travel pillows from sygnetcreations, I bought them for the whole family, I have some wonderful lip gloss from sheltie19 and her dragons she does out of glass are to die for, I have a bunch of them. Happyathomehandmade makes the most wonderful beads, I have a lot of them. spiritedwoodland sent me the most wonderful little chair made for a fairy folk, my fire place is fantasy land with dragons, gnomes, and fairy folk, that chair just sets it off. I love my pocketpal from Mondrysyknotshop, I use it everyday. I could go on and on, I have a treasure trove of the most wonderful handcrafted items from etsy. Last year I had a handcrafted Christmas for my husbands family, every gift was from etsy.

9. My spare time is spent crafting, I call it my play time. I have to get my house work done before I can play then I craft most of the day. I am always makeing something, or planning on what I am going to make next. I do try to read a least 1 book a week, I love reading and I do some writing as well when I take a break from crafting but even that is play time.

10. I was kind of alone on etsy for a long time and it is hard to keep up the moral when views get low and no sales to speak of for a while, it is easy to just give up. I found etsy friends team and the support is so important and they are a great bunch of gals. It is so much fun when you see a post " I got a sale, wow," it is almost and good as getting one yourself you are so happy for them and they all feel the same way when it happens to you. It is like the sister hood of etsy. It is not all about etsy either, when there is a crisis in someones life they are only a convo away and they are there for you. The best way I can describe the friendship is with the old saying, "A true friend is there for you when they'd rather be somewhere else," that is the essence of the team.