uk etsy ok!

Union Jack Pin Cushion by darlingdillydilly

i loved it when folksy arrived on the scene to allow us british crafters to buy and sell stuff in our own country and currency - but i have to say that the majority of my buyers still come through etsy, whether they're from the USA and elsewhere in the world, or from the UK. so it's with much excitement that i can pass on the news that etsy is making things way easier for UK craft fans to buy more UK craft!

local search is the big thing i've been wanting for ages as a buyer myself - if just because you know that if you buy things from just down the road, they'll get to you in the post a whole lot quicker than having to negotiate the choppy unpredictable waters of international airmail and customs. so that's just made last minute disorganised christmas present buying soooooo much easier :D

the other thing etsy are working on is currency. they've already given people the choice of what currency to see prices in (with paypal's exchange rates and currency conversion fees built in, just like on ebay) so you don't have check xe.com every five seconds - but now they've also given sellers the choice of what currency to list in. so now i'm torn... do i keep things in $USD since most of my etsy fans are from america, and UK customers can always buy in £GBP from my folksy shop? or do i switch over and hope that more UK people will find it easier to buy now? i'd love any feedback on how this affects you as an internet shopper if you want to get in touch :)

anyway, in honour of the new features, and to stop from pimping my own stuff for once (or as a not so subtle hint at what to buy me for christmas ;) here is a treasury featuring some of my favourite uk crafty gamers that i think you might like too :) and the plus side is that you still have time to order any of this stuff to get it before christmas!*

Etsy spugmeistress

*which reminds me, on the subject of last posting dates - they're now up on both shops and the OMEGAZOID fan page on facebook - basically if you're in the uk, you've got til the 20th December for first class post, but shop earlier and save yourself the stress!

a very rupee christmas and a starry new year...

shiny things :), originally uploaded by spugmeistress

...and coins for anyone who doesn't celebrate either! (wouldn't want you to miss out on displaying your 8bit love to the world)

i've been playing around with the larger (well, normal sized to everyone else) hama beads recently to come up with some new christmas tree decorations / holiday hangers in time for the impending festive season. if you don't have a tree, they also look good in windows where the translucent beads really catch the light nicely.

you can get a super mario star, super mario coin, red rupee or green rupee (or both!) or one of each in a super retro videogame christmas decoration gift four-pack. of course, they're also available on folksy for UK people, and as always i'm happy to do things in different colours, combinations or quantities if people ask nicely :)

i'm also always up for suggestions or requests - festive 8bit videogame sprites were a bit thin on the ground as i was researching, even from the snow-laden super mario levels, so i ended up going with generic shiny things in festive colours. maybe 5 gold rings from sonic the hedgehog would be a good next project? but if you can think of any christmas-themed videogames of a suitable era, let me know! either here, or on the OMEGAZOID facebook fan page and if you come up with a good enough idea, i might make you a prototype!

if you like the look of these, but want something a little bit more wearable, i've got some jewellery/accessories lined up ready to be listed so look out for those soon...

game city 5 and other such distractions

Pac Notts originally uploaded by Game City

wow, it's been nearly a year since my last post... since then i've changed jobs at work, joined a roller derby team, broke my wrist (yes those last two are connected...) and there's been another Game City festival in Nottingham, which was just as awesome as last year's! the photo above shows us playing pac-notts - live action running around pacman on the streets of nottingham, controlled by frantic mobile phone directions and a non-GPS enabled custom map back on laptops at HQ - run by the very lovely and very fun people from Pac-Lyon. too many other highlights to write about, especially as i was too busy having fun to tweet half as much as i did last year, but you can see some more about the week (and hunt for familiar faces in photos) here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/nov/01/gamecity-highlights
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/02/gamecity-humanises-gaming
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1520480@N24/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gamecityfestival/
http://twitter.com/spugmeistress/game-city


apart from catching up and testing whether this thing still works, i just wanted to check in to say that i'm currently working on restocking both the etsy shop and folksy shop in time for the holidays, and if you want to join the Facebook page for (hopefully more frequent) updates, you can Like OMEGAZOID here :)