We could smell the delicious aromas of homemade Polish food as we approached Mishawaka, Indiana to interview Linda Opaczewski. Linda enjoys cooking her family’s traditional Polish meals to keep that tradition alive for future generations.Linda’s Zibbet shop Waterfall Crafts is a great place to shop for your holiday gifts. She makes products for all ages, children, men and women. You’ll love this interview! Please enjoy the interview, leave Linda a comment, and then use the Share Tools so others can read it, too. Please spread the Zibbet Love!
I’m a 62 yr old grandmother, disabled and I always have my wheels with me. I have 3 children and 3 grandchildren. My husband is my ROCK and helps me tremendously. I sew and embroider by machine and hand, quilt and I also have an accounting business all done from my home.I love to cook, bake, any kind of strange or delicious items I make. My husband will eat it all but funny thing is I could care less to eat it. I do make a lot of the Polish food from the years gone by. Recipes passed down from family members and people from the Polish neighborhoods. I teach our youngins how to cook the Polish foods and to speak it so the family will keep the traditions going. My grandkids do speak Polish and understand what we are saying when we talk. I also am an Accountant and have clients who I do their work from home.
Sometimes it is the view out the window, sometimes it is what I was up all night thinking about. I do my best work in my sleep. Hahah. Seeing other items people have made or new designs. I am like most sewers and quilters, I have numerous UFOs in my piles and one day they will be finished.I really only look up to 1.. GOD, he is there for me thru thick and thin. He was there to give me mental support when I finally realized I was going to be in a wheelchair and be in my home 24/7..365. He was there for support when my husband got his cancer. He pulled us through it. He is the only one I look up to.
My garden is awesome. It has brought us plenty of food for the summer and has given the neighbors many time heart attacks and nervousness. When they see me turned over in my wheelchair in the garden they come running only to find me normally laughing because I flipped it. I sometimes forget that there are things I cannot do but yet I try and keep trying. Sometimes the outcome is good and sometimes it isn’t but I will not let my wheels stop me from trying. I do sell my items but I also give a lot away. Right now I am doing 200 bags for the Children that will come to Santa’s Pantry for Xmas. These are being made from bed covers cut up and serged together. Knowing the smiles on those kids faces.. makes me happy .
I like the fact that the people there are not mean and nasty. I had other shops on Artfire and Etsy. The Artfire community is not a welcoming group of people. I had been told many times my items are not handmade because I use a machine. I luv the fact that there is so many different kinds of items on Zibbet, not just all Jewelry or soaps. It gives buyers a one stop shopping venue. I like the way the Admin addresses the problems and not just lets it go. I like the fact that there are not too many “Clicks” on here. People seem to be genuine and real and helpful when needed.
These might already be there but I would like to take my items and put a Free Shipping label on them so when the customer looks at the pic, they know right away that there is no shipping or when I have a sale, same thing. Just a little banner across the pics. I wish they would take the way we have the shop performance and be able to see it in a graph for each item instead of looking thru all the listings and then be able to see them month by month., as a compassion from year to year. Tweets, Pinterest, Facebook, Linkedin, where ever I can get it out. I do have a lot of customers from when I had a brick and mortar shop. They now buy from the net or call me. Giving away items also gets a lot of business. People remember you and pass your information on, not all for free items but for what they are looking for.
#1 you have to have the times to sell. People I have talked with say if there is just a few items in the store they do not stay and look. Talk about it, use every source available to get the word out. Zibbet is a venue for selling your items, it is like the brick and mortar store. YOU have to do the advertising to get the customers in. You cannot just open a shop and walk away and expect people to find you, just like they would not find you in a B & M shop. The Internet offers many more ways to advertise and get your name out there. But you must have the time also to create and promote, that is the hard part, trying to define the time for each. Zibbet has a great yearly price and will grow in the future. It offers a venue for those who cannot pay or just want to test the waters of selling online.I’d like to be free of my chair, but realistically I am waiting for next April when my husband retires and I am not the only one in my house all day. We are making plans to go to Florida or someplace warm for the winters and stay here only during the summers. I would luv to have a B & M again and since he will be retired we might be able to do that. And I will be able to do craft shows again. I have my wheels but I cannot drive because of all the drugs I take. Him being retired will be a blessing for me and I might get my sanity back hahah. People in this world do not understand.. They think being home all day is great, YES, if you could walk outside when u want and get the mail or run to the store when needed. I walk the path that God has planned for us and go from there. Hopefully our retired days will be great. If only I could find a wheelchair that I can use on the sand by an ocean. That would be awesome!Tags: Featured Zibbeters, Waterfall Crafts
