From the moment that I discovered it, I was hooked on Etsy. I was just a little awkward 14 year old in the summer before freshman year and found it just because I was trying to help my sister out. She was struggling to make a Twiggy style dress in order to emulate the 60's model's demure and chic sense of style. A quick google search for "Twiggy dress" pulled up a couple thousand options, but to no avail. Instead, I got distracted by this new found website that I was curios about. My eyes were immediately drawn to a wildly patterned yellow and black floral dress. I remember thinking something to the effect of "Wow that's really cute!" but then pausing for a second and deciding that I did not think I could pull off the vintage style look. But after going back and forth about it with my mom, we decided together that I would get it. It sounds over dramatic, but as someone who had yet to have her own job, this was pretty dang exciting.
From that point forward, Etsy became my new favorite website. Sitting down on my sister's bed and perusing different categories became a hobby of sorts for both my sister and I. We each were going through various changes--she had just finished her freshman year of college, while I was about to start my freshman year of high school. Both of us had never had a distinct style per se, up until this point. I was just climbing out of my "awkward phase" and she had become an adult. Our shared interest in Etsy is something that I cherish and think about daily.
The countless nights and evenings spent discussing whether or not to buy a particular 1950's dress, or a 1970's cardigan, or maybe just a cute mug, are some of the nights I consider most well spent. Now that I've moved away or college, and she is staying in another city for the foreseeable future, that poses some challenges to our relationship as sisters. But something I can constantly count on is the fact that we will continue to bug each other by sending one another links to clothing items we know we should not buy off of Etsy.
But some items require a lot of back and forth, especially due to the many big purchases that she and I have made on Etsy. Our mom (who is very anti-online shopping) often gasps or questions these purchases, but knows that we have to weird or picky of a style to hop or buy anything from anywhere else. Most recently, for example, my sister bought one of the biggest purchases you can make in your life just with a click of a mouse--her wedding dress! Most people would probably think it was totally insane, but it's also as we joke in our family "classic Monica". I helped her throughout the dress choosing process by looking at all of the links she sent me, and telling her my honest opinions. This was a way for us to keep in touch while she is/was a 5 hour drive away from our parents' place and is one of the prime examples of what Etsy does for our relationship as sisters.
Without Etsy, my sister would still be one of my best friends (duh). Despite the now two hour time difference and the 2,200 miles between us, we are still linked together--through Etsy and through sisterhood.
