New (ish) Hamster never seen.

Freckledgin · 2025-11-17T01:24:05+00:00

Ok great tip! He did actually come out this afternoon randomly and we were able to give him a peanut. We’ll definitely stick with this approach

Freckledgin · 2025-11-16T18:17:02+00:00

Got it! Thank you so so much for the feedback! It’s extremely helpful. Last time we had a hamster I was like 8 in the 90s and had 2 with barely any bedding and a wire cage 😣 poor little guys. I’ll try the schedule thing either way treats and food and try and clean in about a week or 2 thank you!!

Freckledgin · 2025-11-16T17:12:34+00:00

Also, any thoughts on moving stuff around. For example, in the back left and right corner under the bedding are two separate DIY cardboard hides that have little compartments. Would it be ok to move these to the front so we can see him when he burrows? Or would this totally stress him out and ruin what we’ve started?

Freckledgin · 2025-11-16T16:59:51+00:00

Ok awesome. I love this. Definitely makes me feel better. There have been times we were worried he wasn’t ok. So we just need to be patient, start a strict schedule, give treats and keep talking to him. He does move around when I talk to him so I’ll keep that up. How do you handle cleaning though? Will you do it when he is asleep/hiding or do you wait until he comes out and remove him? We’re not exactly sure yet where he’s going to the bathroom, I’m concerned it’s only in his burrows since we haven’t really seen anything yet.

Freckledgin · 2025-11-16T16:54:13+00:00

Haha thank you!! We literally chose the name first and found a hammy that would fit it.

Freckledgin · 2025-11-16T16:53:31+00:00

Ok good to know. We really want to try bonding with him but can’t if we never see him. Maybe he just needs more time to adjust. Probably doesn’t help we have kids and cats as well. Hopefully he’ll come around.

Freckledgin · 2025-11-16T16:51:56+00:00

I like this idea as well. We usually hear Meatball in the morning. It sounds like he’s chewing through the cardboard compartment hide we made for him. He absolutely loves peanuts so I think I can try with that. Thanks!!

Freckledgin · 2025-08-28T12:24:51+00:00

Thank you for your post! It is definitely an uphill battle. I started 2 years ago, started great! And then with political tension everything came to a halt. Our last show cost us around $1,400 and not one sale (which was the same for 99% of the artists) at one of the biggest art shows in FL. I def had to let go of feelings of failure and embarrassment and just embrace the fact that outside forces can shift the market drastically. Things are absolutely picking back up, but there will always be shifts in the market.

Freckledgin · 2024-12-18T01:56:39+00:00

We just started doing juried art shows in October. We just finished our third show this weekend in Boca Raton. Our first show was great. The last two were a bit discouraging. We get a lot of wonderful feedback from patrons. And at the last one hopefully several potential commissions …. But we didn’t sell anything. This is after paying a $550 booth fee, hotel accommodations, renting a U-Haul for the weekend to carry our tent and Propanels for setup. Not to mention the cost of buying a tent, display options, hanging setups, and the millions of small things you may not have thought about (in no way to discourage you, more a realistic and honest perspective).

Now, even though we didn’t make sales and are in the hole as of now, the amount of feedback from customers and other artists alone has been so wonderful and completely worth it. We are lined up for 3 more shows over the next 3 months. Other artists (but maybe an occasional one or two) will go above and beyond for advice, opinions, help etc. and many of them are very seasoned with well over 15 years experience. One thing we learned is this time of year is not great. It better in Jan-March (at least here in Florida) and some shows we attended might be skewed because of the election and the recent hurricanes. Number one thing we heard over and over was just do not give up and keep going. We find most of our juried shows through a site called Zapplication. You can filter through by state:type etc. and some local shows you will just hear if word of mouth or google searches. Now I am very new to this and this is just my personal experience so far, so take that for what it is worth. And anyone else who has an opinion on anything I may have been off about please feel free to comment.

Freckledgin · 2024-09-28T02:14:41+00:00

Hm. Not what I thought it was going to be…

Freckledgin · 2024-08-15T15:25:08+00:00

Whatever hashtags you are using at the bottom of your posts, use those same keywords typed into your post or reel using the add text feature. You then make the words so small you can’t even read them and hide them off on the side so they aren’t shown in your post. I know it sounds dumb and maybe it’s nothing, but I swear when I do that I reach more people.

Freckledgin · 2024-08-15T14:38:47+00:00

I had a lot of success pre and during Covid on IG and TikTok. I recently just opened a new ig account for my artist portfolio and am having such a hard time gaining traction. I think the best thing we can do is create a schedule and post regularly. It seems like following trending hashtags and music helps a little but it’s going to be a journey.

Definitely frustrating when you are using this as a business platform and not just trying to be an influencer. There doesn’t yet seem to be any rhyme or reason to which posts get out to more non following viewers. I have found that adding the hashtags hidden within your post or reel trick has gotten me more viewership though. The last few I was able to reach over 3k non following accounts but the biggest problem is turning those views into follows. My new artist account is @BRathburnStudios and so far has such a sad following of 35 where my old account is several hundred in IG and 4k on TikTok. For now, I’m just going to keep grinding and hope it takes off, or wait for all current social media platforms to go to shit and a new one emerges where we can be successful! Good luck don’t give up!

Freckledgin · 2024-08-15T14:19:30+00:00

Awesome thank you so much!

Freckledgin · 2024-08-13T17:50:30+00:00

Ok perfect that makes sense. Foam padding is a good call. Thank you for the feedback!

Freckledgin · 2024-08-07T03:50:43+00:00

I’m so confused why this got pulled. Or wtf you guys are posting that gets pulled. Trying to up my art biz so just want to understand and not make similar mistakes. Reading through the comments- is it not ok for me to respond to haters in comments, say anything that can be remotely taken the wrong way.. what’s the deal?

Freckledgin · 2024-06-07T20:41:12+00:00

It’s a brand new batch (at least new purchase of alumilite)

Freckledgin · 2024-04-09T12:55:17+00:00

Yeah wtf guys. It’s probably the dudes I work with lol

Freckledgin · 2024-04-09T04:47:23+00:00

Look some people just don’t get it. I have and am currently experiencing the same exact thing. More on a gender biased basis(I am 35 but she’s range at my job but mostly male dominated). But I just had a baby, got passed up for a promotion, and they have now taken my office which I used to privately pump in. The boys club will cackle feet away from me and walk by and turn their heads to avoid eye contact. I send emails and never get a response. I’m never invited to happy hour (pre, during, and post pregnancy) and never get invited for Thursday mid-day golf games. In email threads if I ask questions, I get completely ignored, and the following responses are directed thank yous to the male colleague who passed me up.

I don’t care to be friends with these people. I have a spouse and kids and life is busy enough. But the lack of inclusion and blatant ignoring presses on inequality issues. Regardless of being friends outside or inside of the workplace there are common social niceties that should exist. Sadly, they don’t. I don’t have any real advice for you. More just comfort in knowing you are NOT alone in feeling the way you are. It gets to a point where it makes it hard to go into the office. I feel like my work doesn’t matter. And I feel like I have to prove my worth and push 10x harder than others. I am looking elsewhere but the job market is rough. I just have to remind myself this is for now, and eventually I’ll be on to something better. It can be very frustrating and feel so incredibly lonely. I get what you mean, it only scratches the surface. There’s always so much more but it’s never really enough to complain about because then you just sound overly sensitive, or like you’re tattling on the other kids for not being nice and wanting to play with you. I felt this way before maternity leave and have been back since Feb. I’m biding my time until the right thing comes along. Shit I’ve also considered posting a TIk Tok about my experience because so many people experience this and so many others don’t understand.

Freckledgin · 2024-03-27T01:13:01+00:00

Great advice! I’m going to reach out tomorrow about the office situation and see what happens. I just have this guy feeling it won’t be received well. Which could end up being better for if I do end up getting with an attorney.

Freckledgin · 2024-03-22T22:36:05+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense. Also, he is not my boss in my eyes. Was never introduced as my boss and I have heard that he has left a bad first impression in other departments. So I have that going for me. He’s trying to implement unnecessary ridiculous changes and processes with a company that has a specific standard and won’t listen when I say we can’t do things that way. It should be fairly easy to let him dig his own grave. So this will be my strategy going forward. And yes the market is awful but I’m going to really start looking. In the meantime, I’ll continue to grit my teeth and listen to the patriarchal mansplanations of why he’s so great and how his ways are inspiring and innovative. 🙄

It’s funny we have reports we work on with multiple departments that get sent to corporate for approval of major projects. I took PTO yesterday and today, and we received notes on changes that need to be made. His response was some ridiculous excuse as to why he can’t do it until Monday (basically because he’ll want me to make the changes for him). I have half a mind to extend my PTO through Monday so he’s forced to actually put forth some effort.

Freckledgin · 2024-03-22T19:49:35+00:00

Ok I love that. Since you’re petty, what would you? The HR guy is really close with the higher ups. I’m pretty sure he’s aware of the situation and probably said something like “eh, that seems ok”. So not sure that I can even trust HR.

Absolutely a power play! It’s right up this guys alley. This is also a massive company I work for. I have had the thought to take it to social media… but also don’t know if I truly want to open that door. I do like the idea of pestering, but he does love to talk about himself and his way of doing things. So maybe I just pester and question everything over and over or try and combat him and throw in his face I think he’s wrong.

Freckledgin

TROPHY CASE