An evolution occuring...Growth as an artist...

I have spent a miserable few weeks in turmoil over something I think all artists must face. My stomach churns at the thought of someone ripping me off. Makes me literally ill...like a pathetic ill, where I am laid out on a tarmac and landing planes repeatedly head in my direction...I see I need to face my fear, and not let it get the best of me...laugh at it...I need to let my artistry shine in its own right, not blanketed by watermarks...I am finding greater freedom in my art...I am really relating to this feeling:

Two Clowns Get Blown off Tarmac by A Landing Boeing 747 Jet. Watch more top selected videos about: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton

Yeah...you got to lose control to gain control.

WE ARE ON!

Great! I spent some time this weekend with Verne & Luther, and they want back into the game. I spent a lot of time with Luther teaching him all about his & Verne's new blog...got them going on that...They only have a few more jobs to do before their "outdoor labor" season is over, so I expect they will be posting some more items real soon. Verne lost his camera in a snowstorm last year, but hey, the man found their Twitter password today, so you have to give Verne credit for that! Yay Verne!

My husband, Greenbroke, is not real keen on working on his blog, so I will probably stand in some of the time and keep a daily eye out for it. He has so much on his plate right now, so I can't really fault him. My sweet DH.

Leni, of "VintagebyOlenska" fame, (Oh my...Leni!!) my darling dear friend, is back in the game too, although with her eye troubles of late, I will make a point of checking her blog on the days I go to visit with her, which on average is about every other day. She found more embroidered pillowcases and runners...and still has so much costume jewelry that she wants to pass onto someone for a small price.

Putting aside posting on itsadeal111 for the time being, I am focusing on getting some of my photography collection up on "The Demon Wolf" ...I have reserved the BlackGermanShepherd blog for ranting and raving, as you might know, I so enjoy doing...bitch, bitch, bitch...Yup, that's me.

What is really exciting for me is that I hope to have some time soon to really focus on the WWII collection of primarily aerial photographs that I have been working on for over two years now. That is a huge collection, and I have so much more work to do on it before I can present it to the public.

Out of all my collections of photographs, that one really strikes a deep chord in my heart. Every time I work on it, it's as if I go back in time and recreate emotions of loving from afar and loss. It's a treacherous road for me to be on, but I risk riding an emotional edge for the sake of one day, being able to bring the beauty of remembrance and the spirit of those who waited and longed for those who fought for our beloved America. I feel honored to be blessed with this collection and seek only to do it justice.

Ok...more work to do now...please take a look at our exclusive collective of House de Merteuil shops!

SEO? Yeah, let's get this up and running and we will work on that aspect a wee bit later...until next time, xoxo!

Clearing house for all my Internet entities...

Ideally, I wanted this name to cover all activity I do on the internet, but I really have not promoted it as such, except for on Etsy, when I was on Etsy.

Back when forum migration was going on at Etsy, early in 2011, Etsy was pushing for people to set up teams, so that particular interests were being served. Many old forum boards that were not going to see the light of day any more, on the very public boards, were then turned into teams...turned onto teams, not by Etsy, but by those Etsy sellers that wanted to continue in the vein the the original public board, in a private seeing. The only setting Etsy was going to allow. Much of the community became fragmented. Many found themselves participating in fragmented teams, many teams, with many varied users.

Personally, I did not like Etsy's forum migration, but I tried to make my own spin on the "Team" platform. I created a Team, an "Exclusive Collective" named  "House de Merteuil". I was the only member and featured my 5 Etsy shops. I didn't want any members, other than myself, as I used the platform as a hub to bring customers to, exposing them to all 5 shops, in one place, all at once. Instead of advertising each of my 5 Etsy shops separately, this team afforded the ability to bring it all together. As "Team" discussion posts, I would post treasury appearances from each shop, post sales, post any features on blogs and such.

Problem was, was the Etsy platform itself. No ability to share the teams url automatically, i.e. no SHARE+ button allowed on teams, and no way to make the links that I put on the team platform as PUBLIC...in other words, someone had to "join" my team, to see the links I offered on the Team page.

Despite repeated attempts to get Etsy notice that I was using the Team platform in a unique way, which other multiple shop sellers would also mimic, and to get them to open up a few features that would enable this unique use of their platform, Etsy chose to view me as bothersome and permamute me, no longer alowing me to share newfound use of their platform, no longer allowing me to post on their public forums.

That's Etsy. That is why I tore down my "House de Merteuil" team, and closed my shops there.