#teamINDIE

Hey there, Hi there, Ho there, and Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a big holiday for all the little costumed creepers, and for all of us who remain young at heart.  So it’s not surprising that Halloween would be a big deal for indie artisans, being that they’ve retained their childlike wonder and creativity.  Since we can’t exactly knock on their door and ask for candy, “Meep” artisans do the next best thing: give us some awesome sales!

Here’s what we’ve got on the docket so far:

PERFUMERY

Darling Clandestine is padding our treat bag with an extra 15% off of orders, using coupon code CREEPELLA.  Go on and check out their Halloween fragrance offerings while you’re browsing, including the just-listed What Mandy Makes.  Pop on over to http://www.etsy.com/shop/darlingclandestine to order!

One Hand Washes the Other is having a rare sale! Take 25% off all orders with code GONEBATTY. This would be a great time to pick up some incredible Halloween fragrances in an incredible array of formats (we highly recommend Snake Oil and Indulgence Creme!).  Just rattle your spooky little bones over to http://www.ohwto.com

Twyla Perfumes is having a two-in-one Grand Opening and Halloween sale!  Take 25% off with code BRIDEOFDEATH until November 2nd!  Visit them at http://twyla.bigcartel.com/

MAKEUP

Detrivore Cosmetics is offering 40% off today! No coupon code necessary – just click, shop, and checkout, and your 40% off is automatic!  Find them at http://www.detrivorecosmetics.net.  Take a peek at their Halloween 2012 collection too, why don’t you?

Black Rose Minerals is also joining in the Halloween fun, with coupon code HALLOWEEN. Save 31% today only!  Check out their spooky collections, Not Another Zombie Collection and A Collection of the Perverse.  Get it now at http://www.blackroseminerals.com/

Kiss My Sass is joining in the artisan event with 31% off when you use the code SPOOKY2012.  Use it at http://www.kmscosmetics.com/ and the etsy store.

Madd Style Cosmetics is taking an instant 10% off all orders on Halloween!  3 for $10 eyeshadows are also out in force for today, which is an excellent deal!  They also have TWO Halloween collections to offer: Alice in Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead.  Just take your trick or treat bags to http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/MaddStyle, and don’t forget to check out the “Clearance and Limited” section – that’s included in the sale! And don’t forget to use code SPOOKYSHIPPING12 for free domestic shipping on orders $25+ (international peeps can use HALLOWEEN12 instead, for an extra 10%!)

Innocent+Twisted Alchemy are hosting a spooky sale with code TRICKORTREAT for a sweet 31% off.  This code lasts until Nov 2nd!  Check out the shop at http://innocenttwisted.storenvy.com/!

Not a sale, but this is your last shot to pick up the Halloween 2012 collection by Shiro Cosmetics. You can find swatches of these spooky treats at Beauty Infinitum and g l o s t i x.

JEWELRY

Halcyon Adornments are bringing us a sweet 35% off with code HALLOWEEN. There are some immensely beautiful pieces in her shop, so go check them out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/HalcyonAdornments

New York Glitter is offering up her beaded treats at a hot 20% off through November 4th! Use coupon code PUMPKIN at http://www.etsy.com/shop/newyorkglitter

The Violet Toucan is presenting your treat bag with a sweet 66% off! Amazing! Just use code HALLOWMEEP to get your fix at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheVioletToucan

ETC

Ella’s Lead, crafter of exquisite leather goods, is hopping in on the Halloween sales with coupon code HOLIDAY15, good until November 7th. Pick up a new leash for your pooch, a collar for your cat, or a nice bracelet for yourself at 15% off! You can find them at http://ellaslead.com/

Vintage & Kitsch by TheCrowdedHouse isn’t handmade, but we do love us some vintage. She’s discovered some pretty neat stuff, and is letting you take it home at 15% off with code HALLOWEENY. Check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheCrowdedHouse

Have you creepy kiddies dug up any sweet sales today?  Or are there any of your favourite haunts with spooky products we should check out?  Leave a comment!!

For folks who are new to shopping indie—or even those who’ve been doing it for a while— the enigmatic “TAT” can be a perplexing beast, especially when you’re waiting for something awesome to arrive at your doorstep.

We know it’s REALLY EXCITING to have an indie package on the way, so we hope this little quiz and the explanations to follow will save you from embarrassing sadface moments at the mailbox.

On to the quizzing!

Question 1: What does “TAT” stand for?

a. Turnaround time. (For the time it takes the seller to “turn around” your order.)
b. Time at tailor. (From the bygone days of the traditional tailor, when dropping your clothes off to be mended was a much more common practice.)
c. Termites and tarantulas. (A builder’s term, meaning “working out the kinks” before a structure is liveable.)

Correct Answer: a.

TAT stands for “turnaround time,” and it means the number of days between the day you place your order and the day your package is placed in the mail. (We made those other ones up; can you tell?)

Remember, an indie company often consists of a single person or a handful of staff. If you’ve ordered a handmade item, it needs to be prepared, packaged, and labeled by whatever means the seller creates. If it’s a custom item, it needs to be created from scratch, to your specifications. Beautiful handmade things take skill, love, and time!

And remember, your order is often not the only one the indie is working on. Even if yours is a relatively simple order, the seller may have others waiting in the queue, and they all receive personalized attention, one at a time.

Question 2: What is a business day?

a. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
b. Monday – Saturday, because mail doesn’t go out on Sundays.
c. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday—EXCEPT national holidays.

Correct answer: c.

A “business day” is a weekday (not Saturday or Sunday), a weekday that isn’t a holiday. It’s a day when banks and government agencies are open for business. Remember, for many indies, their business is their full-time job; and many have “real” jobs in addition to their indie businesses. You wouldn’t expect to call the bank on the corner and get customer service at 10 pm on a Sunday, and you shouldn’t expect that from an indie seller either. (Though many of us probably *are* working at those odd hours, and many of us *will* respond to messages when the rest of the world is sleeping or partying, please don’t think that’s something we’re *supposed* to do. We’re a little crazy, most of us. )

Indie sellers have real-life responsibilities, families, children, pets, friends, social engagements, obligations, sometimes even part- or full-time day jobs—and they also require sleep! Please be respectful of indies’ personal time. Most indies do what they do because they love it, but they need breaks just like everyone else.

And please remember that TAT does NOT include shipping time. Depending on the service used (post office, UPS, FedEx, etc.) and where in the world you are, shipping time can vary, and that time should be taken into account when you’re estimating when your package will arrive. Which leads us into the next item . . .

Question 3: You purchase from an indie seller whose TAT is 14 business days. This means that:

a. Your package will arrive within two weeks after you place your order.
b. The seller will ship your package within 14 business days.
c. Your package will ship within 7 days; please allow another 7 days in the mail.

Correct answer: b.

Turnaround time does not include shipping! So when estimating the day your package will arrive, first count the TAT in business days (a quick look at a calendar helps immensely), and then add a reasonable time for shipping. Again, depending on the service the seller uses and the distance the package needs to travel, delivery time (AFTER TAT) can be anywhere from a couple of days for domestic orders to a couple of *months* for international orders. Sellers cannot control the time it takes for your order to arrive after it leaves their hands, so knowing what to expect can help ease your mind—and the seller’s, too! Because we stress about it as much as you do. Though we’ve found that shipping services generally are very, very reliable, and cases of packages getting simply “lost in the mail” are really quite rare.

Also, it’s very important to note that every seller is different when it comes to the way they ship their packages and the way they keep in touch. Some sellers may use a service that provides a tracking number; others do not. Some may send a notification when the item ships; others do not. When in doubt, take a look at the information on the seller’s website and/or any communications you receive. (But don’t expect to automatically receive a communication—not all sellers send them!)

And also please note that “14 days” is just an example! Some sellers’ TATs are shorter; others are considerably longer, depending on the volume of orders, the complexity of creating the item, and the seller’s personal schedule. Some sellers may periodically increase or decrease their TAT, depending on how busy they are.

A note for your protection: If your seller’s TAT is *longer* than 30 days, please be cognizant of that when placing your order. A long TAT may be reasonable for a labor-intensive handmade item (for example, a painting, a custom furniture piece or a tailored coat), but your rights and responsibilities as a buyer may be affected by unusually long TATs. For example, if you’re using PayPal and your order is not fulfilled, note that PayPal allows you to file a claim within 45 days of your order, and 20 more days to escalate the claim after that. Don’t hesitate to contact the seller if a discordant amount of time has passed. A long TAT doesn’t mean your seller is slacking off, but it’s something to consider as a consumer.

Question 4: When should I contact an indie about shipping my order?

a. When the indie needs more information to complete my order accurately (i.e., my address is incorrect or I added the wrong product to my cart).
b. When the TAT *and* a reasonable shipping time has passed, and my package hasn’t appeared.
c. If I have a question that can’t be answered on the indie’s website.
d. All of the above.

Correct answer: d. All of the above! Indies want to make sure your package has arrived safely, and they want you to be happy when it does! But please know that asking where an order is *before* the TAT has passed, or while the package is still being handled by the delivery service, won’t help it reach you any faster, and in fact takes away from the time the seller could be using to fulfill your order.

Take a look at the seller’s website before you purchase. Many indies will put their TAT right on their homepage. Can’t find it there? Look in their policies or “About” page. If you’ve received an order confirmation email, read that email—often there will be a note about TAT included in the message.

It’s especially important to note TAT before you place an order for a gift or a special occasion. Sometimes a seller will work with you to rush an order, but you should inquire about that *before* you place the order. Once you’ve placed it, it’s unfair to the seller—and to his or her other customers—to request that the order be rushed.

Question 5: What is the best way to get a hold of an indie seller with a question about my order?

a. On their Facebook page or “@” direct tweet.
b. Via a personal message on Facebook or Twitter.
c. Via email.
d. Via the method the seller specifies on their site.

Correct answer: d. This one’s tricky. Sometimes it’s hard to determine the best way. And some sellers don’t explicitly say what their preferred contact method is. A good rule to follow is, if the question is about your order specifically, it’s personal, and should be kept to a personal means of communication. Facebook pages are for the public. If you want to rave about how awesome the product is, by all means, do that on Facebook! But posting “Where’s my order” on a fan page is, frankly, horrifying for a seller. When in doubt, consider this: “If I were a seller, would I want this message just hanging out there for the public to see? Can it be misinterpreted in any way?”

Some sellers devote specific times each day for answering messages, and many consider 24 – 48 hours a reasonable time for a response. Business days factor into this as well: If you contact a seller on a Friday, it’s not unreasonable for them to get back to you on Monday.

We know that waiting for a response to a message can be haaarrrrrd, *especially* if you know darn well that indie’s online right now! Right now, as we speak! Because you SEE THEM DOING THINGS ONLINE, ARGH. But please, if you’ve already contacted the indie via one means of communication, give them a reasonable amount of time to respond before sending another message or trying a different means of communication. Again, some indies set aside different times of the day for different tasks, so even while they’re posting the latest product on Facebook, they might have a couple of emails waiting in the queue. And that’s okay!

If it’s been a good 48 business hours, though, taking it to Facebook is not unreasonable. Keep the communication respectful and friendly; it’s possible that your message may have honestly just been missed. Try a direct message first, if at all possible.

So! You’ve made it this far!

How’d you do? Did you ace it, or did you learn something new in this post? We hope you’ll keep TAT and its many nuances in mind as you go forth and shop indie. Got any other tips to help your fellow indie shoppers have an awesome experience? Please share them here!

I wanted to build off of Lady Bethezda’s and Amanda’s great posts on buying local food, with some alternate ideas if shopping the Farmer’s Markets is a challenge. I know when I was working full-time in retail, it was always really difficult due to my work schedule to make it to a Farmer’s Market where I live, at least on any kind of regular basis. But buying local food is important to me, so what’s a girl to do? Read on for some options that might be available where you live!

The easiest option is to see if there is some kind of home delivery in your area. A quick google search for “organic produce delivery” comes up with quite a few options if you live in an urban center. I personally have experience with Organics To You, an awesome company in Portland OR that does weekly organic produce delivery. In general, these services offer a few different sizes of “box” depending on how much produce you want, and the pricing is often quite competitive with organic pricing at grocery stores. Most of these services operate on a pay-as-you-go format, where you only pay for the boxes you get. If you go on vacation, or just need to skip a week, or whatever, as long as you notify them in advance (Organics To You only requires 48 hours notice) they won’t deliver (or charge you!) that week. They source their produce from the very same farms you find at the Farmer’s Markets. I REALLY love getting my box every week – what you get depends on what’s in season in your area, and I’ve been introduced to a wide variety of produce I might not have tried otherwise. This is probably my favorite way to get fresh, local produce regularly. It literally couldn’t be easier – a box shows up on my doorstep every Monday.

If you don’t live in an area that has a home delivery business, there are other options! Something called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become quite popular in the last 20 years. With CSA, consumers become members or subscribers of a specific farm (or sometimes coalition of famers) and buy shares at the beginning of the growing season of the anticipated harvest. Typically the share consists of a weekly box of produce, but other farm products may be included. You pick up your box each week at a meeting place in your community, or directly at the farm. There is usually some flexibility involved in getting your box to you, which makes scheduling easier. With a CSA, you pay a flat amount for the whole season (and it’s usually competitive with grocery store prices) and many CSA’s allow you to make payments if one large fee up front is challenging. Some farms also allow you to pay with “sweat equity,” by working at the farm to cover some part of the fee. The drawback is that if you need to miss a week (vacation or whatever) you usually don’t get a refund for that week’s box. Local Harvest has a search feature to help you find a farm near you.

If neither of those are options for you, but you still want to eat local, consider doing some research before you head off to the grocery store. What kinds of produce are typically grown in your state or region? Some grocery stores label what state (or country) their produce comes from, and sometimes the produce has stickers or labels with origin as well – choose those grown closer to where you live and avoid produce that’s travelled a long distance. If your town has a health food store or co-op, they generally source their produce locally, so consider shopping there. You can also find cookbooks that will teach you about eating seasonally.

Eating locally can be really rewarding! I love all the new-to-me produce I’ve been introduced to, and the challenge of learning to cook new things.

According to the Cool Climate Network at The University of California, Berkeley, most of the carbon footprint emissions for a US family comes from “indirect” sources. The main source being fuel burned to produce goods far away from the final consumer. This is distinguished from fuel burned by say, the family minivan.

View the graph here: http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/footprint

It makes you step back and think a moment about where the majority of your household food comes from. For instance, the apple you ate yesterday; was it driven to your grocery store from Mexico? That’s not so bad if you live in Texas but what if you live in New York?

As Americans we have become so removed from our food sources. Just two to three generations ago we still knew who our local farmers were. We were on a first name basis with the milk-man, who picked up the milk that morning from the actual dairy where it was produced. In our present global economy the availability of far off exotic foods has become a reality, but at what environmental cost?

Luckily farmers markets are gaining more popularity in American towns. On any given Saturday morning, numerous markets can be found in cities across the United States. This allows us to buy produce, eggs, dairy and sometimes meat that was farmed in our own backyards, or at least within 100 mile radius.

This picture was taken at a farmers market in Buffalo, NY. Sure exotic fruits like kiwi and star fruit aren’t available but locally sourced apples, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, honey, squash, flowers, etc., etc….. are to be found in abundance.

Don’t have a farmer’s market near-by? That’s okay, you can still pay attention to the carbon footprint that your food created. Look for local, or at least in your state, egg and dairy producers. Produce signs will normally state where the produce originated.

It just takes a few small decisions on a daily basis to add up to big change.

Hey guys, I got to attend an amazing DIY zombie themed goth wedding yesterday!!  It was awesome!  I didn’t have enough time to get properly zombie’d up before the wedding, so I went a little more “dead dolly” with my appearance.  Yes, my vanity is an absolute mess in the background.

Read the rest of this entry →

If you’re a fan of indie perfume you’ve probably heard about Darling Clandestine. If you haven’t, then you live under an internet rock! Evonne has an incredible ability to create the most amazing scents. She is one of those people who takes pride and care in every step when creating her perfumes. I was lucky enough to be able to ask her a few questions and she willingly answered! I hope you enjoy and don’t worry I’ll have more interviews from other indie owners!  Here’s a snippet of my interview with her! (Click to read the full article!)

It’s easy to find great indie companies online.  Etsy is a handy springboard for buying everything from cosmetics to clothing to cupcakes.  But the internet doesn’t have to be the first place to turn when thinking about indie companies.  Look around your local area, and you’re sure to find a veritable wealth of small, independent, locally owned businesses worth your interest.

My favorite part of indie shopping is knowing that my money is going towards the keeping of a local family, and not lining the pockets of a CEO who has profit and not people on the brain.  This becomes more readily apparent when eyes are turned away from the computer screen to look down Main Street.  What do you see?  Charming little shops, cafes, and boutiques?  Or a Wal-mart?  Which one do you want to see?

Shopping small indie businesses in your area is good for your local economy.  It is estimated that $0.68 of every dollar spent locally stays within the community.  More money locally means more small businesses- boutiques where you can buy local soaps and lotions, mother-and-daughter-run candy stores, small coffee shops and bookstores.  In my village, we even have a shop that sells chocolate-covered and candied apples.  We have a local independent pet store where the proprietor knows the village pets by name and everyone gets free treats and a hug (the owners, too, if they need it!).  There is more charm, more personality in these little indie shops than can ever be found in big-box stores.  They might be priced a little higher, but personalized service is worth the added expense.

When talking about indie shopping, don’t forget your local farms!  Buying food straight from the source is more nutritious and definitely more fresh.  Check out farmer’s markets for produce, meats, honey, eggs, cheese, seeds, crafts, and all manner of things.

Once a person takes the time to notice, there is indie everywhere, and it takes very little inconvenience to begin shopping exclusively from indie businesses.  Indie products have enriched my life so much that I can’t imagine going back to big-box stores.  Most of us are familiar with indie cosmetics, but take a look around and see what else you can enjoy from an independent company.  If you can imagine it, you can find an indie version.

What’s your favorite local indie company?