hey y'all, i hope you're doing well!

i'm sitting on my porch in the sun and my laptop is gritty with pollen. it's the first nice weekend of spring so far (or it feels that way!) and i feel like i adequately appreciated it by spending time outside. april has been a month of rest and mending. i'm not the best at sewing, but i repaired a bunch of clothing and hemmed some curtains. i've been enjoying doing work i don't ordinarily do! i also went on a vacation and a half, both were really good/needed!

✷ punk rock flea market ✷ may 21st ✷

my friend naomi and i are organizing a punk rock flea market! mark your calendars, olympia! the date is saturday, may 21st. reply to this email if you wanna stay in the loop!

here's what i know so far and have yet to share publicly, but i'm really excited so i'm telling you! i should have the space paid for and officially reserved this week. it'll be held at pressing on fitness downtown (a gym run by punks! bless you olympia!) which is connected to stellar juices (a queer owned juice shop). the space is cute af and ADA accessible. i have to measure, but i think there's space for 10ish tables. there will unfortunately be a table fee, but it'll be around 20 bucks. we'll have a few tables reserved for POC, which will be free.

i've been kicking this idea around since last year, because i wanna table more markets, but most of them are either prohibitively expensive, or my stuff isn't really suited for them, or both. my friend zane recently brought it up on a phonecall and i was like, "there's no space to have it and people are so unreliable and organizing is so thankless and i hate promoting events" etc etc. but then like 2 hours later i guess i decided to prove myself wrong! i put out feelers for a space and i lucked into one. naomi had expressed an interest in co-organizing ages ago and i was pleasantly surprised when they agreed to help! we both used to co-organize the olympia zine fest, so i'm really excited to work with them and already trust them to get stuff done lol. i'll be enlisting a few more helpers for specific tasks (and to help on the day of the event) as time goes on!

✷ zine news ✷

i've been working on wanderer 8 here and there! i feel this weird guilt for not having made a zine yet this year. what i have been doing, however, is painting this weird object i got for free that is perfect as a podium for my little free zine library. i love how it's shaping up!

ID: a wooden bookshelf-type object with two vertical cubbies, and two skinnier cubbies on either side towards the bottom of the shelf. it's painted with bright colors, including teal, hot pink, peach, brown, coral and lime green.

✷ etsy strike aftermath ✷

thank you so much to anyone who bought stuff from my website or signed up for my patreon while my etsy shop was on strike!

almost 85,000 people signed the petition for etsy to work with sellers instead of squeezing every last dime out of us. one of the founders of etsy even spoke out in support of us (unfortunately he can't save us because he doesn't work there anymore lol). in the end, etsy didn't respond to the strike in any meaningful way, and raised their transaction fees 30% anyway. the next move the strike organizers have laid out is to send etsy a decorated, strongly worded letter to their headquarters. i might do it but i have mixed feelings about it's effectiveness.

i was really optimistic, but the financial hit i took from taking a week off etsy was substantial, especially because the IRS came for their pound of flesh in the same month (i thought i didn't owe, turns out i did. a lot!). i'm curious to think about other ways we can organize that will hurt etsy more than they hurt us. in the meantime, i made a series of info graphics i'll be sharing soon about the best ways for folks to navigate etsy and support artists in the aftermath of the strike.

✷ do diy ✷

i'm mostly caught up on emails, but i'm still way behind on spring cleaning. not enough time in the days, you know?

✷ patreon ✷

hi new patrons! thank you so much for signing up! i hope the archive keeps you busy while i take forever to make a new zine! i love y'all!

i'm working on sticker designs for a sticker club tier. i have no idea when it'll come to fruition, but it's in the works. i'm probably going to draw from existing button designs and make some new art, too. so far i've drawn a capybara sitting in a kiddie pool wearing a party hat and looking nonplussed.

✷ fucking hurray ✷


ID: panorama view from mt erie, water and clouds and mountains and trees!

✷ i got to spend a week with one of my partners + polycule + some of their respective family on whidbey island and it was great. i successfully relaxed and felt so grateful to be welcomed into this family as my wholeass self, not censored to be more palatable. i hope someday i can feel this way in the company of my own family.
✷i visited anacortes for the first time and got to be a phil elverum tourist with my nesting partner. we also went to the tulip festival nearby (a tradition i'm very fond of, which covid had halted for a while).
✷ i got to spend a lot of time by myself, and i feel like i've had a nice little reset after being in power-thru-it work mode for quite a while. feeling creative. not towards anything i'd like to be working on, but creative nonetheless!
✷ i saw sam miller do comedy at capitol theater this weekend and it was so necessary.
✷ i get to see lake and also big thief play in the coming weeks!
✷ big tiny victory: i got this pair of thrift store pants on whidbey that are "women's" pants but have DEEP POCKETS and i have been telling anyone who will listen about the gender euphoria that gives me.

ID: a sticker on a back windshield of a truck that says, "i hope something good happens to you today."

that's all for now, thanks for reading!

love, alyssa

~ past perzine newsletters ~