Fun Thing and a Not-so-fun Thing

First the fun thing:  I just got an Etsy convo from Stylish Home.  They have developed a tool to help Etsians post treasuries on their blogs, and they're using one of the treasuries that I made as their sample.  This is it. 

'Orange Pop' by BobbiLewin

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

That gave me a little boost after the not-so-fun thing that I found out about yesterday.

I came up with this garland design back in 2009.  When I came up with the idea, I did a search through Etsy and on the internet to see if anyone else was doing anything like it.  People were making garlands, sure; garlands are popular, but people weren't making them like this.  Very few people on Etsy work with this fine thread.  In fact, it's kind of a lost art.  Very few people, Etsy or not, crochet with this fine thread.  Some do, and I'm seeing more, but most folks use yarn and larger hooks, not tiny steel ones like you see in my banner up top.

So yesterday I was doing a search on Etsy to see where I ranked in relevancy, and I was shocked to find someone making garlands not only very similar to mine, but the photos were even styled similarly!  I wrote to her, explained my position.  I even told her I thought she did good work and could probably come up with her own designs.  She copies other Etsians too.  She wrote back to thank me for my interest in her shop, and to tell me she doesn't copy anyone.  I know how to use Google analytics, and it really looks like someone from her small, northern European city has visited my shop 129 times since November 1st.  Not likely to be that many separate people from that little town!

I'm trying really hard to let go of this.  I do believe it is the Universe pushing me to grow and expand, come up with something new and fresh!  It's time.  I knew that someday some unscrupulous loser who is too lazy to come up with their own ideas would copy me.  It happens to us all, but I wasn't ready for it.  This blog post is me purging the negativity of this experience so I can move on.  I've already given this thief too much of my time and emotional energy.  No more!  My energy is now going to be put into creating new ideas.  I have some ideas for a new line of houseware items.  I will need to wait until I get back to Salt Lake to really start working on it, but I can do some sketches and make notes so I don't forget.  And I will of course keep crocheting earrings, necklaces, and coasters in every color I can think of:)

Thanks for listening to my ranting and whining.  I'm done now:)