Goodbye Virtual Labs

And hello, Livestream. It's a sad day, but the Etsy Virtual Labs are offically retired. 

You can read the announcement here. 

Feature Friday, ImpossiblyAlice

Please welcome fellow Lab Rat, Sheryl, from ImpossiblyAlice, who is our Feature Friday Artist of the month

Where can we find you?

My Etsy shop is www.etsy.com/shop/impossiblyalice. You can also find me on twitter @impossiblyalice or on my facebook page: www.facebook.com/ImpossiblyAlice

Please tell us about yourself, your shop and what brought you to the Etsy community.

I discovered Etsy last spring while I was on maternity leave and I became OBSESSED with it. I needed to be a part of it. I also needed a creative outlet because my little girl had waaaayyyy too many clothes!

What does a typical day in your life look like?

My maternity leave ended in January of this year and I had to return to work. My workdays now start with my alarm going off at the horrible hour of 5:30 am (I am NOT a morning person). I allow myself to snooze my alarm once so I can wake up slowly. I quickly get eat breakfast and get ready in a rush and go to work. My work day is usually done around 3:00 pm and then I get to pick up my daughter from daycare. We play, have a snack, whatever until my husband comes home. Then we do something together or I make supper. My little girl goes to bed around 7:00 and I have 2.5-3 hours of awake time (if I am lucky!) after that to take care of things. Knit, cross stitch, clean, run errands, watch TV, etc.

We try not to schedule our weekends too much because our weekdays are so hectic. This summer we are planning to spend every weekend that we can at my family cottage.

Name your top 3:

Books…

My top 3 books is a hard, hard question because reading is something I have always loved to do. I love the novel Portrait in Sepia by Isabelle Allende. I really like most of her books. On the flip side I also love the author Marian Keyes, I am hard pressed to pick a favourite though. A book I always turn back to is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. (And I may also have a *slight* obsession with Sweet Valley High.)

Music.....

Music is another hard one, it varies so much depending on my mood. Jack Johnson, Robbie Williams, and Michael Buble can pretty much satisfy me any time though!

TV....

Hands down the best TV show ever is Lost. Ever. I also love So You Think You Can Dance (both the Canadian one and the American one even though I find the judges too nice on the Canadian one) and Modern Family.

Websites....

I don't know if I have any 3 websites that I am super loyal to. Obviously I love Etsy. For knitting camaraderie I like Ravelry. Other than that, I am a freakishly obsessive Googler. I probably Google way too many different and random things in a day.

Etsy shops

*http://www.etsy.com/shop/kssmaternity - when we are ready to have our second child this will be the first place that I buy maternity clothes from.

*http://www.etsy.com/shop/ohsoretro - she is local to me, she is an amazing sewer, and she's super nice!

*http://www.etsy.com/shop/saltcityspice - she has a great idea and uses recycled materials. What could be better?

What are you currently working on?

Currently I am working on a personal project in the rare free time I have (work is a bit hectic right now). I am cross stitching my daughter's Christmas stocking.

Where do you hope your shop to be in the next year?

I hope to have an active shop within the next year. Sadly, I haven't been able to focus as much attention on my shop as I would like to since I returned to work. I need to find a good work/family/Etsy/social life balance.

What suggestions/tips would you offer to someone new to Etsy?

I don't know if I am the best to give advice to new people since I haven't managed to find that magic formula for success on Etsy but I would advise new people to list as much as they can, connect with as many people as they can on a genuine level (don't just drop your link on other Etsy seller's face book walls and hope that they follow you back or spam people on twitter!), and learn as much as you can about how successful Etsy sellers became successful and what works for them.

Thank you for taking the time to share with us and welcome to the team!