Immerse Yourself in the Season

Fall marks a unique time of the year when so much is beginning to change. As opposed to spring which revives us from the sleep of winter with the blossoms of summer's fruits, fall comes silencing the flirty abundance, leaving us in an awkward relationship with the introverted and coy squash, roots and tubers. There is beauty here among the earthy tones and flavors. Seeing it is just a matter of immersing ourselves in the season.

When I was younger, a chef I worked for took me under his wing, offering his wisdom. Wisdom shown in bouts of rage. He really did try to impart so much knowledge. He was always yelling at me. As the season's change approached, I would prepare to rewrite my portion of the menu to the tune of him marching around the kitchen before each shift demanding, "grind yourselves in the season!" At a time when seasonal, organic and farm to table fare was still climbing out of the dark ages, he was guiding me into the natural gifts of the seasons. It took me some time to become fully open to this simple concept, which would ultimately set me free. Immerse yourself in the season.

As a chef who currently works with small farmers and farmer's markets it is quite simple for me to follow the seasons as I create my preserves and ferments. Hey, if it's not coming out of the ground or off of a tree I can't use it. However, with my other creative pursuits I still use the seasons to get an inspirational charge. "Art imitating life" is not a new concept and I know many of you out there draw upon your experiences and surroundings to feed your creativity. This is a great process but one which we can overlook.

Pomegranates bursting when ripe remind me of hidden jewels.

As with finding inspiration for being creative during the colder and sometimes drab months we call the fall and winter, as a shop owner it is imperative to find the motivation and follow the natural trends of the changes in seasons to update our crafts, listings, and possibly, shop. Changing tags to encourage search results for the season and upcoming holidays is a good idea, as is placing items suitable for the time of year in your 'featured items' slot.

The holidays will begin to fill up the space in-between the autumn days, bringing about events, plans, commitments, and family gatherings, adding much joy along with stress. The demand of orders for your items will hopefully begin to increase as well, leaving you with a lot to accomplish: baste turkey, pack orders, mash rutabaga, pinch nose, mail packages, chat with aunt Marge. Still many of you will also be taking your shops and wares out to various locations in the Bay Area, ever increasing the demand on your time and energy. In the midst of all of the festive chaos, DO NOT let all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays interfere with the opportunity for you to get out into the world and experience what the season has to show you.

Natural patinas, color contrasts and textures. Autumn brings
so much inspiration to be enjoyed.

Submitted by Klee Wiles-Pearson of Entropy the Shop.

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, visit Our Team Page about joining SFEtsy!

SF Etsy Team --> What A Treasury! Challenge Results!

WOW! SF Etsy Team 

What A Treasury Challenge!

Etsy Treasuries - The ever-changing, 

member-curated shopping gallery

Its been a few weeks since we officially challenged the team to an SF Etsy Team Treasury Challenge on our blog  - And lets just say - We Are Impressed!  We didn't expect the heart and creativity we saw in every treasury made. Thank you for your participation. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed your curated treasures.

September's Theme: End of Summer 

Did you notice the new traffic to your shop? To your treasuries? Being exposed to new audiences on Etsy and social media is always so exciting and a challenge!  By making treasuries and sharing other seller’s items, you increase the exposure of the shops you picked and in turn your own. We hope you received some great new follows and sale potentials from this experience! 

Besides being posted on the team's social media ( Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter ) we saw the individual team members communicating with each other, commenting, liking and getting to know each other (and their Etsy shops) better - which was our ultimate goal.  Plus, we wanted you to have some fun on your individual social media venues seeing your shop and name promoted to our thousands of followers. We love all your tags, the tweets, the hashtags, and the overall reciprocal team love.. it was awesome.

For me - reaching out and sharing the works of the team these last few weeks has been so rewarding -  and it was an honor to promote your shops every day.

Enjoy the following team treasury gallery! 

Curated Just For You,  by The SF Etsy Team Members 

for the SF Etsy team Members..

End of Summer - Melody in Brown  by ArtsyLadyVintage 

END OF SUMMER by Theresa J

Fall Is My Favorite  

by Red Icebreaker

End of Summer SFETSY Team Treasury Challenge  by Tickle And Smash

End of Summer - Menagerie in Purple by Artsy Lady Vintage

Dear summer, please stay just a little longer! by Pacific Crafts

End of Summer - Autumn Colors by Eledjo

SF Etsy Team Treasury Challenge - End of Summer by Timberly Designs 

Fall is coming!  By City Circlets

SF Etsy End of Summer by Flower 7

Handmade Black & White by Hunting Dragons

SFEtsy Love - Beautiful Things! by TheresaJToo 

Summertime - an SFETSY Treasury By TickleAndSmash

Goodbye Summer By Entropy The Shop

SFetsy team end of summer- Everything brown by PaperUnlimited

End of Summer - Fresh Greens By Threads By Ionyka

A Summer Swansong  by PoppyPeach

Sunset on Summer by Amy Rose Moore

END OF SUMMER- Change in Season by Irene Irene Art 

END OF SUMMER - Falling for colors! by Camillette80 

SF Etsy Team - Delights by Victoria Veedell

Summer's Last Sigh by The Gypsy Titmouse

End of Summer Blues By Corvus Tabernus

End of Summer By PebbleAndFire

Indian Summer in San Francisco by Dorothy Designs

Wishful Thinking by Jen Norton Art Studios 

Into the Fall By Phiden

South Bay Area Collection by Christmas Tree Tops

Last Time To The Beach By VampKittyDesigns

Colors of the Pacific  by OpheliasJewels 

California's Indian Summer by Daisy Church

SFetsy Owls by OodleBaDoodle

End of Summer by DivviCali

End Of Summer By AMHodrick

Autumn's Approaching by Green Horse Craft

San Francisco .. Etsy By The Bay By Local Colorist

With Love From San Francisco By Pebble And Fire

San Francisco Green Dreams By DesignArabesque

31 Days of CraftoberGram - SFETSY Instagram Photo and Video Contest

31 Days of CraftoberGram!

Instagram Photo and Video Contest

Even Howard, Nadene
Team Co-Captain

SFetsy Team

We LOVE Instagram and Seeing 
Your Pictures and Videos!

So We Selfishly Decided to Throw a Contest!  

Excited? Here Are The Rules.

Deadline for Sign Up is September 25

Instagram Team Contest Rules

• Must have Instagram account and follow SFETSY on Instagram

• We highly suggest a Facebook Page / Fan Page and Twitter Account to extend your reach. This is very much a social media contest.

• Follow the SFetsy Fan Page and @SFetsy Twitter Account to see everyone's posts!

• You must use the team contest hashtag #InstaSFetsy in your Instagram posts. To increase your traffic - we have also included popular tags you can choose from for the individual topics - Use them to reach a broader audience if applicable.

• You need a cell phone or tablet that allows for an Instagram App Download to participate.

• Sign Up Here---- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1L2bme9YKNDM5CeOK9LwOpJSSO53GuJZXYIuAfdT8cTo/viewform
  

  
  

What We Will Do:

Katy Atchison, Katy Atchison Illustrations
Team Co-Captain      

SFetsy will tweet and promote all the photos/videos using the hashtag #InstaSFetsy on Facebook and Twitter. We want your images to go viral. Our goal is to gain some momentum with this contest online and get you some new likes and follows. We want to see your insights and your influence online grow. Plus we think it will be super fun and creative.

We encourage non participating and participating members to promote favorite images on their social media pages.  We want to see people post comments, heart and tweet their experience. This Instagram SFetsy contest success depends on its popularity online! Let's Go Viral! All shares, likes, comments and RTs count - get friends and followers to help!

Rebecca Saylor - OodleBaDoodle
Community Coordinator

At the end of month  we will review the images that were tagged in the 31 days and choose the most popular photo based on its online popularity. That's How You Win!  Your social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook are the tools you have and we encourage you to use them to engage your audience.

Instagram is an amazing way to brand yourself and your Etsy shop. We want to share how creative the team is  and look forward to what you share.  if you don't have Instagram yet - Start an account - its a free app -->http://instagram.com/.

Note: Your images may be used in the promotion of the Instagram 
contest on SFetsy but photo credit will be given to photo and uploader.  

Ashley Haak -  Kelly Drive
SFetsyTeam Blog Coordinator

At the end of the month we have a great surprise for the most liked photo of the month! 

Each day you have an Instagram mission!  Here is the list for each day in October with its photo topic goal and the suggested popular tags

• Sept 25 - Sign Up Deadline

  
  31 Days In October:

• Day 1.  SFetsy WIP  #Art #Maker #IMadeThis #Crafty
• Day 2. Coffee Revelations  #Reflections #InstaMood #InstaLive #GoodMood #CoffeeTalk
• Day 3. Selfie #me #eyes #ThrowBackThursday #TBT
• Day 4. Tools of the Trade  #MakerGear #SFMaker
• Day 5. Where You Create  #Art #UrbanArt #InstaHappy
• Day 6. Favorite Thing  #InstaLove #DayShots #FavoriteThings
• Day 7. Craft Activity #Art  #Artist #IMadeThis #MadeByMe
• Day 8. In the Kitchen #WhatsCooking #HomeChef #Yummy #foodgasm #foodporn
• Day 9. Vintage Style #Fashion #Retro #InstaFashion #Heels #Girlie #LoveIt
• Day 10. Bay Area Moment #BestOfTheBay #Mode #WestCoast #SanFrancisco #YayArea #ThrowBackThursday #StreetPhotography #Architecture #BuildingPorn #510 #415
• Day 11. Up in the Sky #SkyPorn #Sky #sun #CloudPorn #Sunset #InstaSky
• Day 12. Street Style #Fashion #Swagger #InstaFashion #StreetWear #YayArea
• Day 13. Creatures #Animals #Pets #InstaPets #CatsOfIntagram
• Day 14. Autumn #InstaFall #Autumn
• Day 15. Romance  #Hot #LoveHim #LoveHer
• Day 16. Outfit of the Day #OOTD #Fashion #InstaFashion #Model #Style
• Day 17. Signs #Urban #Spiritual
• Day 18. Portrait of SFEtsy #Friends #Girls #MyLife #SFEtsyPals #SFPeeps
• Day 19. Product/Shop Integration #WorkDay #IMadeThis #ShopEtsy #ShopLocal
• Day 20. Love Chevrons #CreativeGram #Style #GimmieGimmie
• Day 21. Landscape #Nature #Beach #Scenery #NaturePorn
• Day 22. Octoberfest #Beer #Celebrate #GimmieGimmie #YayArea #510 #415
• Day 23. Urbanite #SF #SanFrancisco #WestCoast #StreetPhotography #YayArea #510 #415
• Day 24. Costumes #InstaLove #Boo #TBT #Halloween #ThrowBackThursday  
• Day 25. InstaVideo #InstaLove #MobileArt #Gadgets #Nerdy #Geek #InstaVideo
• Day 26. Inspiration #Reflection #InstaLive #Wisdom
• Day 27. Awesome People/Person  #MyBaby #Kids #MyLife #MyLove #MyFamily
• Day 28. Circle #Shapes #CreativeGram #Style
• Day 29. Foodie Moment #FoodPorn #GetInMyBelly #Yummy #Foodgasm
• Day 30. Monsters #Halloween  #Boo  #OCT2013
• Day 31. Halloween in The City #Art #WestCoast #StreetPhotography #StreetArtistry #Halloween #Masked

Lisa Spinella - Tickle And Smash
Social Media Liaison 

Opportunity: Meet Up - Recommended But Not Mandatory

People who want to prep for the contest and want tips on learning how to use Instagram, getting followers, and have fun in person should attend Mission Meet Up on  September 18th

Meet Up Info:
https://facebook.com/events/201201246719799 
hosted by Deb Stayer @bluehour23

Pinterest: - Recommended But Not Mandatory

Amanda Hyun - MsAmandaJayne
Tweet Chat Host /Social Media

Once you sign up for the contest and if you have a Pinterest account you will get permissions on our team's SFETSY Pinterest board to post any or all of your Instagram images or videos if you want  here -----> http://pinterest.com/sfetsy/instasfetsy-31-days-of-october/
Don't forget to use the hashtag #InstaSFetsy in the description.

Tweet Chats! - Recommended But Not Mandatory
Day Chat - September 17 - Topic: Instagram 10 AM

Night Chat - September 17 - Topic: Instagram  8 PM

Day Chat - September 24 - Topic: InstaShow&Tell 10AM

Night Chat - September 24 - Topic: InstaShow&Tell 8PM