Wordless Wednesday

Diving Diva

Modern Day Hubris

I've been thinking about this post. For days I have been writing it inside my head, but I kept thinking that I was using the word "Hubris" incorrectly as I didn't know to translate it into "modern times." Luckily Wikipedia was able to clear my confusion.

But I digress...

Part 1: A few months ago I brought myself a real pair of sunglasses, (no $10 special for this girl anymore), by Ralph Lauren. As I stood in the store trying them on, I asked myself was it too much, not just the price but was I flaunting, but in the end, I threw caution into the wind and brought them.

Part 2: My current position for a large retail company, requires that I travel through a large area that spans across half the state. While I have to use my own vehicle (an SUV), I am given a car allowance as well as mileage reimbursement. Once the price a gas went insane, I went out and leased a Mini Cooper S (Turbo) to increase my mileage and to save money. I showed off that car every place I went, I bragged on and on about it. Join a Mini Cooper forum and even gave him a name, "Super Coop" or just Coop for short.

Here's my avatar for the forum:

So where does this word Hubris enter the picture you ask? Well, during my Junior year in undergrad, I took an elective for my degree is English Literature. The elective was a course in Greek Literature that was taught by a Professor Allsup, (which is another story for later). As he spoke of the Ancient Greek tragedies he used the word Hubris so often that the word would flow into his next class (American Literature - oh yes, had the misfortune of taking two classes with Professor Allsup). I decided at the end of the semester, that he loved the word Hubris, because he loved to lecture about all the universities on his resume and his talent as an English Professor, (but yet, no tenure?). (Sorry let me put that baggage away.) So basically to have Hubris is defined as:

Hubris against the gods is often attributed as a character flaw of the heroes in Greek
tragedy, and the cause of the "nemesis", or destruction, which befalls these characters. However, this represents only a small proportion of occurrences of hubris in Greek literature, and for the most part hubris refers to infractions by mortals against other mortals.

Okay, fast forward to this week:

I lost my sunglasses last Sunday at Home Depot. As we drove home it dawn on me that I didn't have them. My DH took pity upon me and went back to search the store and parking lot, but in the end it was a waste of time. Now all I have is a left is an empty Ralph Lauren Sunglasses case.

Monday night Tropical Store Fey blew onto Florida. I spent the first few hours of the storm listening to the drip drip drip of my roof leaking (just replaced 4 years ago). The reason, because I was complaining that after 10 years I wanted to finally remodel my bedroom and update the 40 year old bathroom. (Sorry too lazy to take the photo of my newly designed ceiling?)

Wednesday after camping out at one of the stores because the wind and rain by T.S. Fey made driving a bit too scary, I came out at the end of the day to see that someone (probably in a jacked up truck) had opened their truck door and with the bottom of their door struck Coop on the hood, dented him and left a deep gouge, took the paint right off. I wonder how I'm going to pass my lease inspection now.



As I stated earlier, for days this post has been swimming in my head, but as I said, I have been a bit confused if using the word Hubris was correct, but:

In its modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride and arrogance; it is often associated with a lack of knowledge combined with a lack of humility. An accusation of hubris often implies that suffering or punishment will follow, similar to the occasional pairing of hubris and nemesis in the Greek world. The proverb "pride goes before a fall" is thought to sum up the modern definition of hubris. In reference to someone being in hubrity: hubrity is a fulfillment of being hubristic or a continual behavior of being prideful.

So, as each day of this lovey week unfolded, I kept thinking that my hubris has brought upon the bad karma. Speaking of bad karma, I wished terrible things upon the person who damaged my car. Such terrible things, like venom inside my head, so terrible that it will probably bring more bad karma...

Oh pride is a terrible thing.

To Storque or Not To Storque - Part 2

The other day I posted on the topic of purchasing two weekend spots on Etsy's Storque Showcase. I decided that I was going to keep track of hearts, sales and views (however I forgot to track the views from the previous week). I also participated in the Saturday Night Special, (I ran a 20% off on my Words of Wisdom Collection http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5628867&section_id=5496899). To further complicate things, I also listed an item, but since it has only received 4 views as of this morning, I am going to guess that it was not a major draw to my site. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14355343

So the results are:

Sales - 0

Favorite Seller Hearts - 7 (I believe one was from the SNS)

Views (since this past Saturday) The first column is the previous views (* denotes the Words of Wisdom Items), the second column is the number of views as of this morning:

14 / 51

9 / 16

31 / 40

19 / 33

11 / 14

58 / 62

22 / 24

26 / 29

74 / 82*

66 / 73*

282 / 285

120 / 123

73 / 78*

85 / 92*

90 / 95*

So what are the lessons that we have learned? Well as a comment from Silver Canyons: Personally, I think it would be better to relist one or two items a day. That will keep you active and get people to see your store more frequently that just showcasing for a day. At $0.20 a pop to relist, it sounds like the better way to go. Think of how many items you can relist. It would be way cheaper than dropping $7-$15 dollars just hoping someone see's you shop. I personally never even look at showcases. Just my humble opinion :):)

Silver Canyons...so true...Sigh

Personal Mantras

Last weekend I completed two new pendants which will be part of the Personal Mantra Collection.


The first "Trust your Judgement & Keep the Faith" is a charm cut from brass sheet, given texture and then each letter is individually hand stamped. The charms is attached with a closed brass jumpring to gold-filled chain. The Necklace measures 16-18 inches with extender chain, the charm measure roughly 1 1/4L, 1 1/8 W (HMM N227B) and can be purchase here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14130152

The second one, "Move Forward y no Pades" (and don't stop, no stopping) is a charm cut from sterling silver, given texture and then each letter is individually hand stamped. The charm is attached with a closed sterling silver jumpring to sterling silver chain. The Necklace measures 16-18 inches with extender chain, the charm measure roughly 1 1/4L, 1 1/8 W (HMM N230S) and can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14136474

Count Me in Campaign

This past weekend I began adding some of the pieces for The SheFinds & Count Me In Promotion. The first one is a brass pendant stamped with the words, "Believe in You." In keeping with the spirit of the "Believe In You" Campaign, this brass charm has been accented with a Citrine Cabochon in a sterling silver bezel.

Citrine is associated with intuition, comfort, protection, creativity, physical energy, wealth and mental awakening. The charm was cut from brass sheet, is textured, hand stamped and is attached with a closed brass jump ring to gold-filled chain. The Necklace measures 16-18 inches with extender chain, the charm measures roughly 1 1/4L, 1 1/8 W (HMM N227B) and can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14130152

A portion of all sales from the "Believe in You" Collection will be donated to an organization called the Count Me In for women's economic Independence. Their mission is to promote economic Independence and the growth of women owned businesses. Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence is the leading national not for profit provider of online business loans, resources and community for women entrepreneurs. To read more about this program, please visit my blog: http://hmmills.blogspot.com/2008/07/shefinds-count-me-in-promotion.html

To Storque or Not To Storque

I've been debating lately about advertising again on one of Etsy's showcases.

There been numerous debates on the forums on and off again about the results from participating on a showcase, such as the increase or lack of sales, increase in hearts by other sellers but not buyers, etc. etc. I had a sale during one showcase and gained several hearts during each showcase that I participated in. I also found that I would get a sale "outta the blue" which made me wonder if someone had bookmarked the page and returned later. (Yes, I do need to start asking my buyers how they found me.)

So, I did some searching online to see if there was any information regarding the success (as in the increase in sales) from advertising on Etsy's Storque Showcase which costs $7.00/day vs. the Main Showcase which costs $15.00/day. I was actually looking for some stats, but of course I could not find any information aside from opinions. I had found one article by the Syracuse Ceramic Guide, "I have never found a significant increase in sales due to having a showcase spot, however, it is exposure for your work and the more people see your work the more sales you will have in the long run." Exposure is a good thing. Since I have not been listing or renewing, or hanging out in the forums, I thought it was time to nab a showcase, but the $15.00 just seems to bit steep, so instead I went with the Storque Showcase.

Look for me on Sunday, August 10 & Sunday, August 17.

National Simplify Your Life Week

So as I was drinking my morning coffee while watching CBS New Sunday Morning there was a piece on their ALMANAC that today was the third day of National Simplify Your Life Week...HA! I thought if was funny because last night I was trying to straighten up my studio. In the morning light, I see that I didn't make much of a dent. Although to be fair, I did tried to clean off the pile on my computer desk (the one corner of the room that you don't see). I guess I should also add that it was out of necessity as the stuff stocked piled on top of the growing mound kept sliding and landing on my keyboard.

What you don't see in the photos is that my studio continues onto the patio....Per DH, "No Fire in the House", therefore my torches are outside. I have a two workstation set up, one for soldering and the other for my lampwork, which also holds my Kiln and no lie about 200 rods of glass. At this point I should add that I am eventually going to get my workstations into a shed (and yes that's on my vision board)...ah perhaps it's The Law of Attraction at work.

Okay, so I googled National Simplify Your Life Week and found one site - Online Organizing that was interesting. On their Simplify your Life Week page, ( http://www.onlineorganizing.com/CalendarHoliday.asp?holiday=27) they have a bunch of Do It Yourself and Useful links that you might find useful. There is a site with before and after pictures...the one of the handyman special would work for perfectly for me... http://www.onlineorganizing.com/FindAnOrganizer.asp?content=C03BeforeAndAfterPhoto09

There is even a link of Simplicity Quotes, Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. ~Confucius

Hmm, where to begin...perhaps I should have titled this post, "Ode to a Messy Workbench."