Last night was the much anticipated Etsy meetup. Three people from etsy graced us with their presence;
Matt,
Anda and Etsy's Chief Executive Officer,
Maria.
Matt and Anda are both old school etsyians who've been around for ages - Matt since the very beginning. Maria has been brought in more recently and it was impressive to hear her past credentials with Amazon.com and other big companies. I got to chat with all three visiting "dignitaries." Anda has that funny/quirky quality to her that I am always drawn to. She's got a great laugh and some amazing tattoos. Matt is the rockstar of etsy - he's charming, has great style and used to be in the band The French Kicks. And Maria was, of course, very business-like and professional in a laid back, likable way.
Overall, Maria did most of the talking, she's a very good public speaker and addressed each and every question thrown at her. It seemed to me that the general theme to be a bit on the defensive. She was emphasizing all of the changes that have been made, upcoming changes and new features. I guess there's been a lot of complaints/concerns.
Personally, I've never had many complaints with etsy. Maybe a few, years ago when it was first starting out. But I've mostly found it easy to use, easy to navigate and ridiculously affordable to set up a functioning on-line shop. Yay etsy!
It was a pretty good turnout, about 65 people all together. It was held at the super cute Cambrian Hall, where I put on the
Green Christmas market last year. It has great light and the sun was streaming in all "aaaaaahhhhhhhhh" through the windows. Kind of church-like. Yessssssss, the church of etsy.
I ran out of the cute name tags I ordered from etsy's
PacoKeko and it was great to see some old friends and meet new crafty people.
Oh, and you are wondering where I the cute top - it's by
Peel Designs and I got at at
Dream.
In Vancouver, my commute to work involves walking about 10 blocks. And the best part about it is that there's a bunch of kitties that I may be lucky to see and pat along the way. I know most of them by name, and those I don't, i just make up names for them. That squinty one in the photo above? I call her Magnolia after the huge magnolia blossoms I first photographed her under.
This is Mr. Mittens. (yes, that is his real name - I only wish I made that up)
Liam - a Scottish Fold. A rare sighting, he tends to keep to himself.
Liam's wife, and Mr. Mittens mom.
This is Bishop. I just photographed him today smiling in the sun. As we were chatting, another kitty-friend came round and flopped down.
Then they had a little cat-fight.
Then they were friends again. 
This is Dom. You'll see him roaming around on Main St. Sometimes I invite him up to visit my studio. Lucky me!
