Hello Everyone!

I am still very much here. I have just returned from a much needed holiday in Cambodia and Laos. It was wonderful, inspiring and where my man asked me to marry him – yay!

The craft scene is so vibrant and alive in SE Asia. You can see girls and women in shops, cafes and sitting on the streets sewing, weaving and embroidering wherever you go. Also the hand craft of some tribes people (the Hmong tribe) is their livelihood and many tribes people still make and embellish their own clothes, costume, and jewellery. Their work is intricate, colourful and traditional – it was sooooo inspiring to see craft so tightly interwoven into the lives of so many.

There are many cooperatives and groups that work with tribes people and others to support and preserve their hand craft and their precious skills so that factories don’t get a look in. These folks are not only incredibly talented, they are proud of their skills and they are seriously the happiest and friendliest strangers I have ever met on my travels. You get the sense that craft is as integral to their lives now as it has been for centuries – which to me is comforting! I felt that even on holiday, thousands of miles away from my work I was still surrounded by lovely crafters and mucho handmade goodness.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pics of tribal art and craft to show you because my memory card is corrupted grrrrrrrr! If you’d like to see some of the tribal craft you can look here.

So I’m back at work now and really happy to be as well. I still have a monster inbox to get through, but we’re getting there. My assistants have kept the shop ship-shape whist I’ve been away and now we are cooking up something new and (for me) very exciting. After all my extolling the many virtues of Etsy on CraftBoom! I am now going to open up my own Etsy shop – hurrah!

Now I know that many folks often do things the other way round, they open up an Etsy shop and then they look into setting up their own website, and many folks continue to run both – whereas I already have an established website and now I am setting up an Etsy shop. I think I have good reasons for doing this and I will explain these reasons to you in subsequent posts. For the time being you can check out my progress in setting up my U-Handbag Etsy shop here.

Ohhh! I can’t wait to get going! I’ll be sure to keep a diary of the set-up on this blog – maybe we can help each other with tips and advice. It’s great to back!

Here are a couple of helpful CraftBoom! posts on Etsy:

• How to set up an Etsy shop step by step.
• This Weeks Etsy Faves