The Joys of Internationalism!

I'm a great lover of treasures around the world - Though I've not travelled much in my years so far, my sister Jooles has spent the last year or so travelling around the world, including South America, India and South East Asia.

I've been spellbound looking at all the cool things she has got to see on this mammoth Odyssey. (If not a bit jealous at times having to see pics of her on the beach in Rio whilst I'm experiencing snow and ice in a wet and windy Wales...) She is currently in Vietnam - here is a snapshot of her travels!

Etsy have just launched a new International Forum to their site - I'm a big fan of this; it is really about time I say. Etsy is an international phenomenon for everyone who loves craft to get together and share experiences and sales tips... but it is very Americanised... I'm hoping this is Etsy opening it's eyes to the wider world at large!

To celebrate the opening of this forum, and to show the best of International crafting I've pulled together an International Treasury - Around the World in 20 Listings!


(Notice I managed to find a Welsh themed item to sneak in too!)

I'm a member of the Etsy UK sellers team as well as the Etsy Cymru Team (our Welsh team), and I've enjoyed networking with the members, getting advice on Tax returns, what items are popular with UK sellers, how I can get involved with local craft fairs and trade shows and just meeting people in the same country to chat about crafting - my husband doesn't understand when I enthuse about new yarns or cool new needle types.... in fact he gets a bit fed up with the whole "knitting all hours of the day and night" thing at the best of times, so it's really nice to find people around the world who like what I like - and don't glaze over when I mention Intarsia or Fairisle...

So thank you Etsy for waking up to internationalism, and lets hope it leads to making this big old world of ours a little bit smaller....