Etsy Scandal: Ecologica Malibu

I just pitched this story:


Dear This American Life --

I'm a big fan of your program -- absolutely love it! I have a story
idea that I would LOVE for your team to investigate: I'm sure you are
familiar with Etsy, the handmade marketplace, but perhaps you aren't
familiar with the bane of artists on etsy: the resellers. Basically,
resellers are people who are pretending to be selling hand-crafted
items, and I suppose they are, if you count items that were
hand-crafted in China. These resellers are in direct violation of
Etsy's TOS that all sellers must agree to before opening an shop on
the site. The problem is that the resellers are rampant -- it's likely
that a large portion of the money that Etsy brings in from seller fees
(a listing fee of 20 cents plus 3.5% of the final selling value) comes
from said resellers. Etsy claims to be against the resellers, but a
scandal happened this weekend when a featured Etsian was uncovered by
April Winchelle (aka Helen Killer) of Regretsy fame (or infamy?).
Regretsy.com is dedicated to exposing the ridiculous antics, bad
crafting, and general bad business practices that take place on
Etsy.com. (I'm not affliated with Regretsy; just a fan!). The featured
seller, Ecologica Malibu, sells items that are patently against Etsy's
TOS; with just a few minutes of research, April of Regretsy was able
to find proof of this fact:

http://www.regretsy.com/2012/04/21/the-etsy-featured-reseller-ecologica-malibu/

(Here is the featured seller page on etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/featured-seller-ecologica-malibu/)

People began leaving comments on the featured seller post at Etsy,
hundreds of them, questioning Etsy's choice of Ecologica Malibu as a
featured seller. Usually, such conversations are shut down within
hours on Etsy; they have a "No Call Outs" policy which ensures that
everything gets hushed up quickly. This time, however, the comments
ran all through the night. First thing Monday morning, this comment
was posted by an Etsy admin:

"Juliet Gorman says:
Hi everyone, thank you all for your comments. While it is our policy
not to publicly discuss individual Etsy members, it’s clear that we
missed critical information in our process here. This is our fault,
not the person behind this shop. I ask that you continue to treat one
another with respect and understanding. Our next featured seller is
now live on the site. I am closing comments on this article while we
take the opportunity to investigate this matter more fully. I
apologize for any turmoil this has caused, and thank you for vigilance
in this matter."

A few hours later, the statement was amended to read:

Juliet Gorman says:
Hi everyone, thank you all for your comments. It is our policy not to
publicly discuss individual Etsy members. But I want to note that *if*
we missed critical information in our review process, that will be our
fault, not the person behind this shop. I ask that you continue to
treat one another with respect and understanding. Our next featured
seller is now live on the site. I am closing comments on this article
while we take the opportunity to investigate this matter more fully. I
apologize for any turmoil this has caused, and thank you for vigilance
in this matter.

All of the comments were deleted. Which means that if you happened to
miss that 24 hours or so that the scandal was ongoing, you'd have no
idea what had just happened. I knew Etsy admins would delete the
comments, sooner or later, so I did screen shots of them all and
posted them on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77635269@N08/?saved=1

Although a new featured seller was immediately up on the home page,
Ecologica Malibu's interview was still up, albeit with the amended
comment at the bottom and comments closed on the post, and the shop is
still open and making sales.

What I, and many, many other people want to know: is how can Etsy
purport to be a handmade marketplace when they are obviously allowing
non-artisan goods to flood the marketplace? As an artist myself, I
find this horrifying and have closed my Etsy shop, at least until Etsy
responds in some way. I'm sure other will follow suit. So far, Etsy
has done nothing and even featured Ecologica Malibu on the front page
the next day.

I'd love to hear Mariana of Ecologica Malibu respond to the
accusations of her being a reseller in violation of Etsy's TOS,
especially after reading this blog post by her responding to the
comments (also now deleted, but available at the regretsy link about
the shop above)  I'd love to hear from Etsy's Admin about why they
continue to allow resellers and still claim to be a place for handmade
goods. I'd love to hear from former Etsy sellers who have left, either
voluntarily or forcefully, and I'd especially like to her from April
about the reaction to her post. Hell, I'd love to hear about the
people who REALLY make the furniture being sold in her shop.

I know your readers would love it. And I know This American Life won't
let me down!

Photography: A Photo An Hour

I was inspired by Natty Malik, of Awkward and Beautiful, to create a Photo An Hour photo montage. (Here is Natty's montage). Yesterday, we were on the road traveling home from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania back to Rhode Island, so I set an hourly timer and took a picture of whatever was going on when the alarm went off. Leave me a link if you try this challenge yourself!

 

7:30 - I was awake because the dog in the room next door howled and whined all night long, but Nick is able to sleep through anything. (Jealous!)
8:30 - Everything is better with bacon, especially free breakfast buffets.
9:30 - On the road again...
10:30 - Art journaling on the go -- first time I tried journaling in the car!
11:30 - My, what a strange and pretty ring I have! (Purchased at The Attic in Bethlehem, PA.)
12:30 - Nick is a trooper: he drove the whole way!
1:30 - Exhausted self-portrait, still in the car.
2:30 - We are minutes away from home, so I am much more joyous. Pretty!
3:30 - Baked cheese crackers... mmm...
4:30 - Sebastian is glad that we're home and shows his affection by sleeping on my desk.
5:30 - My love affair with radishes (oh, and butter, can't forget that!)
6:30 - Netflix on ipad; because turning on the tv requires way too much energy
7:30 - Art journal page in progress
8:30 - Smudge looking out the window
9:30 - Nick is exhausted. So is Moira... yawn!

Sad Girl #1 by Moira

Sad Girl #1 by Moira, a photo by literarytease on Flickr.

I'm working on a series of sad girl paintings -- here is the first finished one. I'm really digging the look of the drippy eyes, so I'm doing a whole series of paintings using the technique. I'm also loving the "weird" colors for the portraits -- I'm making an effort to use every color of paint I own... haha! I don't sketch the face first -- I just choose a light color and start painting. After a few layers, the face shows up on the canvas. I keep adding layers until it feels finished. This was painted over the course of several days and changed a lot as I worked!

Recipe: Low Carb Strawberry Cheesecake Protein Bars

After I discovered that Atkins bars make my blood sugar shoot sky high, I decided that I would learn how to make my own protein bars. I wanted something that I could have on hand for easy breakfasts or meals on the go for those days when I'm completely sick of jerky, cheese crackers, & flax muffins. I found a company, Quest, that makes Strawberry Cheesecake protein bars, and I really wanted to try them, but I didn't want to pay $25 for a case of 12 bars I might not like and the closet store that sells them is over 30 miles away. So I started researching DIY protein bars -- let me tell you: there are a TON of DIY protein bar recipes out there... but NONE of them were for strawberry cheesecake bars! I found pumpkin cheesecake bars, which would probably be delicious, but I wanted strawberry, damnit.

So... I took a look at the Quest Strawberry Cheesecake bars and decided I could make my own version! Their bars start with whey protein and fiber and add in almonds, freeze dried strawberries, stevia, and flavors. I picked up a bag of freeze dried strawberries at Trader Joe's, plus a can of Designer Whey protein powder, French Vanilla. (It's actually cheaper to get the Whey Protein on amazon through subscribe and save, but I wanted to make sure I liked the stuff before ordering two cans... I do like it!)

I just started experimenting, testing as I went, and came up with a DELICIOUS strawberry cheesecake protein bar recipe! I don't have a picture for you, because, well, they aren't exactly pretty! But they taste awesome! Each bar has 150 calories, nearly 12 grams of protein, and 3 net carbs (6 total, with 3 dietary fiber). [I guess, technically, they have more carbs since they are sweetened with a touch of Erythitol, which is a sugar alcohol, but you could definitely swab that out if you are sensitive. I got a free bag recently and have been testing it out -- to my surprise, I like it!]

Moira's Low Carb Strawberry Cheesecake Protein Bars

• 3 scoops protein powder (I used Designer Whey, French Vanilla)
• 2 Tb flaxseed, crushed in coffee grinder
• 1 Tb + 1 t. slivered almonds, ground in coffee grinder 
• 2 Tb Erythitol (75% as sweet as sugar, sub sweetener as desired) 
• 1/4 cup of freeze dried strawberries, crushed 
• 1/8 c. coconut flour 
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 
• 2 oz cream cheese, softened 
• 1/4 cup water (add as needed, YMMV) 
• 6 drops vanilla flavored liquid stevia 
• 8 drops Capella Flavoring NY cheesecake

Combine dry ingredients, minus 1 scoop protein powder.

Add softened cream cheese, liquid stevia, and flavoring drops. Stir well.

Add water and mix well. Your mixture will be sticky!

Now add in the last scoop of powder and mixture well with your hands. By the time you are done, your bars will be only slightly sticky.

Divide mixture into 6 bars. Freeze or fridge until set.

If frozen, thaw in fridge overnight or for a few hours (perhaps grab one for lunch at work?)

After chilling for an hour, wrap individually and keep in fridge for a week or so or a month or so in the freezer.

The bars are quite chewy and filling!

Serving Size: 6 bars, approximately 3 inches x 1 inch

Notes:

• If you use a different protein powder, you might find you need a different proportion of water.
• Sub in different flavored freeze dried fruits (from trader joes) for a different flavor! I plan on trying blueberry next.. yum!
• Taste your mixture before adding the final scoop of protein powder -- make any adjustments before adding in the last scoop. I wanted my bars sweet but not super sweet -- you might want more sweetness than me -- same goes for the cheesecake flavoring. 8 drops tasted perfect for me, but you might want a few more (or maybe a few less!)
• Each bar has 11 g protein & just under 3 net carbs (There are 2.8 gr dietary fiber, or 5.6 grams total carbs, not counting the sugar alcohol).

Here's a link to the recipe on SparkPeople.

Random: Love Street Image

I was searching for a file this morning and came across this image that I made in June 2006. I think it was to accompany a short story I'd written about a girl waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up. It made me chuckle, so I thought I'd share. Happy Valentine's Day!

Art Journal: 31 Faces of January

In reverse order, here are all of the daily faces that I drew in January. Sometimes I set little challenges for myself (like use only two colors or draw as fast as possible; others I just drew whatever I felt like drawing. I love doing a daily sketch! This month I am doing "scenes" per special request by my facebook friends!

Video: Cat Trapped in Plastic

I have plastic covering my windows because I live in New England and the houses are all old and drafty. Smudge has ripped the plastic covering the window by my desk multiple times, hence all the tape. This time she ripped it while sitting on top of my cubby storage and managed to fall into the space between the plastic and the window. When I found my cat like this, I couldn't resist grabbing my video camera!