Hopping on the Etsy Train & Shopping Locally

I recently watched a news clip about Small Business Saturday I was struck by the fact that they were talking about ME. A small business. Wow.

In light of my realization, I thought it a good time to share with you my latest "branch" of Simply Stacy....Simply Stacy Designs on Etsy.

My crafty side has always been part of who I am, but it came out in full force a few years ago when my dear friend Anne started to sell green smoothies at a Farmer's Market and needed more vendors to fill out the event. Who says "no" to their best friend? Not this girl. I went to work and made a bunch of things for those Farmer's Markets...I coined my name "Simply Stacy" then! Sadly my biggest customers were my dear friend, Hope, and Anne's Mom. Apparently the people at our Farmer's Markets weren't looking for embroidered pillows and repurposed furniture & junk...go figure!

Never swayed, I kept making this and that and this summer at Anne's much more successful Farmer's Markets I did much better and was able to sell to a few more people than Hope and Anne's Mom (though they were still great customers!). And a few weeks ago I decided it would be great to take the next step and hop on the "Etsy" train.


I'm sure you've heard of Etsy, but if not, think of it as a huge online craft sale...pretty neat! You can check me out here. And my pal Joanna here. And a dear congregational member here.

Be careful, though, it can be one of those sites where you lose hours just browsing!
Oh, who am I kidding? I get lost on there all the time and LOVE it!

Long story short; Small Business Saturday is important, but shopping local whenever you can makes a world of difference. I'll admit I haven't always been the best about it. With 4 little ones it is much more convenient to hop online and order things to come right to my door (the UPS guy loves me) or to go to the nearest box store with everything under one roof. But the statistics are there....when I go online $0 of the money stays in my community (unless I'm ordering from someone on Etsy or via a home-based business like Partylite or Thirty One). In the box stores, $40 of every $100 stays in the community. So this year, I will pledge to shop more small businesses where $68 of every $100 stays local...that's better for our neighbors, for the local economy, and, in the long run, better for our kids.

Care to join me?