hey y'all, i hope you're seeing signs of spring where you are!

i've spent the better part of march getting out from under my to-do list, doing very unfun and boring things like taxes, on days that are technically my day off! i wouldn't recommend it. i also did a fair amount of lowkey socializing in this precious time between covid waves, which is maybe why i don't have a whole lot to report this month!

✷ trans day of snack ✷

march 31st is trans day of visibility, but i've been following the news and frankly i think we're visible enough right now. in lieu of further visibility, i propose an alternative: snacks. if you take a moment to learn about trans day of staying in and having a nice snack, i think you'll agree. i'll be making an instagram post soon about it soon, encouraging trans folks to drop their payment handles so cis folks can put up some snack money.

✷ shop vacation ✷

my webshop will still be open, but nothing will ship between april 3rd & 10th! i'm taking a real af vacation next month (file under fucking hurray). like, a whole week outside of my house, with one of my partners + polycule + some of their family. i'm looking forward to doing this thing people talk about called "relaxing." i've never tried it myself!

✷ new stuff! ✷

i ended up making a handful of new pins when i was procrastinating working on something else, they're mostly in response to all the horrible legislation floating around lately that targets trans kids/their support systems. but now it appears transphobes have taken a sudden interest in women's swimming as well. i do not have a pin for that! only a lot of exasperation and disappointment. but i digress!

i also added my old 'all cops are bad' design to the listing, because i forgot to put it in my webshop after etsy pulled it for "promoting violence." they're all up in my webshop, but not etsy. the "no gender, only furby" stickers i shared in the last newsletter are now available on etsy and in my webshop!

oh! and i also made new craft or diy stickers to give out as freebies with big orders, i love them!

also new, i changed my instagram handle to @craftordiy.art to match my website. the only reason it was craftordiyofficial was because an inactive account had craftordiy. i like this new handle, i'm hoping people can still find me.

✷ etsy boycott ✷

tl;dr: etsy is raising their rates on sellers by 30%, so don't buy anything from etsy april 11-18th, and/or consider putting your shop on vacation that week in protest.

some of y'all may have heard that etsy is introducing a higher transaction fee for sellers on april 11th. they announced this in an email, and let us know they made record profits over the pandemic in the same breath. not only did they make a ton of money the past few years, but they also bought up two of their competitors, depop and elo7. they justified the fee increase by citing their plans to grow, and pay for more advertising. but their offsite ads are already a controversial topic among sellers, because etsy opted us in automatically, used our stuff to sell their platform, and then charged us for it. etsy has been a mess for a while, but this is truly insulting. the proposed rate increase would be 6.5%, 30% higher than their already high 5% fee (most sales platforms charge around 3%). but i digress!!!

as a result, i've raised my prices on etsy, but not in my webshop. i'll be participating in the etsy boycott by putting my shop on vacation from april 11-18th (my webshop will still be open during that time). you can participate by not buying anything on etsy during that time, and/or putting your shop on vacation as well. there's also a petition (anyone can sign it).

✷ do diy ✷

the usa pages are updated to colorado at this point! i desperately need to set aside a few days to work on do diy site stuff this week, i have approximately a million emails to send.

✷ patreon ✷

i've been slowly but surely posting zines i've contributed to in the digital zine archive. much like do diy, i haven't had as much time as i'd like to dedicate to working on new physical zines, or adding stuff to patreon.

however, i have been kicking around the idea of adding a sticker club tier, in a $3-5 price point. i was thinking of giving out a handful of stickers a few times a year. we'll see. i'd love to know if there's interest, or why people feel compelled to sign up to support me on patreon in the first place- just support? specific rewards? idk but i love y'all!

✷ fucking hurray ✷

✷ flowers! are! blooming!
✷ after i shared the little free zine library i made, some people dropped off/mailed me zines for it
✷ i did my godforsaken taxes and somehow didn't owe! i would love if someone could find me a good cost of goods sold spreadsheet though, because i'm definitely still pretending i don't stock inventory
✷ the new big thief album is so fucking good y'all
✷ i went to portland for the bud tapes showcase gig this month and it was lovely, i love portland

babytooth at mississippi studios, portland

i hope you're having a good day, thanks for reading!

love, alyssa

~ past perzine newsletters ~