This Labor Day Weekend

It's all happening this weekend folks! We have quite a few busy HOSTies out and about and some running for cover...

Our Cat of catiahades is at the Bellevue Labor Day Festival in Bellevue, Idaho. In the run up to this event, Cat ran several promotions in the Etsy forums inviting sellers to send her their promotional material. She collective some fabulous items and prepared some really exciting promo packs with mixed goodies to offer for sale at the event this weekend, with all proceeds coming to HOST to be used to help Etsians in need! Fantastic idea Cat - we are really proud of you for coming up with it and putting in all the work to collect and collate the promo packs. In addition to the promo packs, Cat will have her Etsy shop range of signature kitsch jewellery and items including her super fun, and funky-shaped crayons!

Our Kara of CoryellDesign has a stall at Koneheta Park in Murphy, NC, for the Labor Day Heritage Festival Arts and Crafts Show - follow this link for detailed information and timetable http://www.heritagepartners.org/hwf.htm . When she is not enjoying ice cream, buggy rides, funky music, or rescuing her beloved dog pack from the nearby 'cooling off' stream, Kara will hopefully be busy gift-wrapping for the sales fairy! CoryellDesign offers delicious jewellery incorporating fabulous gemstones, to suit a range of budgets.

And our Mother and Daughter team of Serenity from Cornucopias, and !Spring from yodamoon will be holding down a stall at this weekend's ArT the Beach event at The Lincoln City Cultural Center, OR. Follow this link for more information about this 2-day event: http://www.lincolncityarts.org/calendar-lccc.html If you are in the area, stop by and check out this friendly family stall for beads, jewellery, and handmade clothing including !Spring's (fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!) signature bloomers.

In contrast to these HOSTies, our Maggie of CrochetMaggie is staying firmly put at home with her family in Denham Springs, LA, where they are bracing themselves for the approaching hurricane Gustav. Maggie has had a busy time - as have so many others - running around preparing for the arrival of Gustav and stocking up on essential supplies. Maggie, everyone at HOST is hoping Gustav will just *pouf* and disappear leaving you all safe and sound. We are all praying, or lighting candles - whatever happens to be our thing - for you and for all those others nervously waiting to see what sort of mood Gustav arrives in... Warm, safe wishes to everyone in Gustav's path - we hope you, your friends, your families, your homes, and your businesses will come through unscathed and safe...

maisyh

The all new EXTREME HOSTie MAKEOVER

Some of our members are awfully clever with their crafting and make the most delightful things for their Etsy shops but sadly, sometimes life just gets in the way and they really don't have the time to dedicate to promoting their shops - though ironically, they need the income from Etsy to help raise or support family members and kids. One such HOST member is Bee, of supermomma45. Even though Bee is currently working a 7 day week, it is still tough raising her two sons and equipping them for the return to school.

With all the flurry about helping each other to get adverts together for Project Wonderful promotions on this team blog amongst other places, it seems that a couple of HOSTies recently came up with the cunning plan of escalating their Project Wonderful scheming to another level, and helping to overhaul certain HOST member shops that were badly in need of TLC, and a bit of a re-vamp. This was something the shop owners simply did not have the time to do themselves but these two mischievous miscreants approached the sellers in question for permission to break into their shops, ferret around and generally turn things upside down and leave them unrecognisable - but in a good way, of course!

This last weekend, the first HOST Extreme Makeover took place with much stealth and quite a significant amount of giggles... Our lovely Bee's supermomma45 shop was the first to be ransacked and in their path, our dastardly schemers left a trail of a fabulous new banner, new avatar, shop announcement, shop policies and profile. They renamed every item, optimised all the item tags and tweaked and rewrote item descriptions - leaving their signature humour along the way. The listings were renewed, with newly prettified main images and a small cash reserve deposited in the seller's PayPal account for maintenance of the shop fees and hopefully to fund the purchase of additional supplies so that new pieces can be created in time for the approaching holiday season.

Supermomma45 is now a shop with serious attitude, as well as seriously great items to tempt you. We highly recommend you take a look... What you will find is Stained glass. No nonsense. Although, there may still be a few giggles lying around in there, so do be careful, won't you?!

Rumour has it that another HOST target has already been identified, so it is likely that you will see further reports of this rampant and frivolous pair breaking in and causing delightful havoc in their wake!

WATCH THIS SPACE.

Also, "ETSY! MOVE THAT BUS!!!"

Don't make me turn this car around - Herbie Love Bug stained glass sun catcher - http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8634307 by supermomma45

A pumpkin is not just for the holidays - spooky stained glass pumpkin sun catcher - http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8172096 by supermomma45

You'd better not pout - stained glass Santa Claus sun catcher - http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8504367 by supermomma45

maisyh

Treasured moments - by mcnovelties

Here is a fun collection of items from HOST members and the HOST shop...

An early Autumn greeting, curated by me, in my mcnovelties ID :)

Click on the image for a larger view, or follow this Etsy link while it is still active: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=23551

maisyh

Treasured moments - by Lor2507

Currently one of our new members, Lor2507, and her family are having rather a stressful time as Lor's husband undergoes a series of medical tests - all of which are proving expensive when this family also has two young daughters to look after. Lor is one tough cookie though and stays remarkably positive through these difficult times... She has been sorting through her crafting supplies and listing destash items in her shop to raise some extra funds, and still found time to compile this wonderful treasury of HOST member items. What a girl! We are all glad to know you Lor :)

Click on the image for a larger view.

maisyh