March 30, 2012

I've had such an exhausting month. I hope it was all worth it. Of course it wasn't all the work that made it exhausting, it was a lot of the extraneous things (life) that did it too. Family health issues, birthdays, the woman next door locking herself out at one in the morning after I worked for 14 hours straight and pounding on the door and screaming for a half hour before someone finally let her in. And no, she's not a drunk, just a little altered from her med cocktail.

I had a semi relaxing day. I haven't sold much this week so after watching my granddaughter most of the day, I cut out the few things I sold, did the dishes and some laundry. It was nice after all the work I did.

I had bought some colored pencils on line, and was expecting them at the Post Office. I guess the people at the Post Office didn't notice them, because my daughter didn't pick them up. What she did get, however, was my new post cards. Now, I just ordered these Monday from Vistaprint and I've NEVER received anything that quickly from them. They were horrible. Cropped wrong, wrong color, just horrible. I was so disappointed. I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish working so quickly, but it didn't impress me. Now I either have to contact them and get a refund and look somewhere else or trust they will send me a new set with correct images.

This really sets me back on my brochure, but I do have time to get better prints. The cards I got were blown up and cropped off center and kind of pinkish brown instead of the nice pewter. Not terrible, but they don't match the business card I got PRINTED AT VISTAPRINT!!!! How can I send out something to potential clients that don't match? This has just been a cursed month and I suppose that because of it, none of my product designs will sell to the huge retailers that were presented with them.

One thing about all this work I've done the past three months is that I really love designing product. I like crafting, but I love designing. And I'm good at it too. I'll share my website when I'm finished, and you can see.

March 23, 2012

I've been so crazy busy with work and life, I completely forgot I wanted to start making some art again. I think I'll start small, like ACEO (postcard) size works. Flowers I think. Just to get back into it. I think I'll buy some pencils. They seem to be reasonable on eBay, just hope they don't get fractured. I need some decent paper too. Maybe someone has some pre-cut ACEO for pencil on Etsy. I like a nice smooth hot press for colored pencil. I need something that I can do in about 20 - 30 minutes while I'm taking a break out in the sun. I can't use my computer there. It will be fun.

I spent almost the whole day dedicated to my design drawings. I started with invoices. My daughter keeps asking shy I haven't sent them yet. It's not that easy, you have to have an invoice in the first place, to fill in.
I had designed an invoice for my consulting work, on MS Excel, but that was not quite right. So two hours later I had finished the form and put in the items for payment. They will be much easier to do now, but still will take a little time. It really doesn't matter what you are invoicing for or who you are invoicing, even a standard form really has to be modified to fit the circumstances. And apparently I was a bit rusty and the Excel part.

The rest of the day I had peace and quiet, because the whole family was out for the day. I spent the quiet time getting my drawings finished. Then at the end of the day, I realized that the sewing machine was sitting untouched and I should have done my sewing. That was really dumb. Oh well. Now I have to fight with my daughter for time on the machines. I really don't have much to do, and she has to go out Sunday again to take her boy to see a Dr.

It's almost April. I have one month to finish my brochure and my design website. Very hard to do when your workload has doubled and near disaster hits every day. But I'm going to try my best. I guess I should finish my taxes and send that in too. Do I really need to sleep?

March 13, 2012

Must be that conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the sky, but life has just gotten too busy the past few weeks. I'm so darn busy that I can't even find the time to finish my daughters taxes so she can get money, or sent my client an invoice so I can get money. Maybe we'll have enough to fix our car, or buy another. That would be nice.

I've been working on design drawings for a client, but I keep thinking about the new headbands I'm going to make, because I have new yarn. I sure hope I find the time to make them. Not that I can get to a model to photograph them. I wonder if I can set up a photo shoot in the park across the street with some hungry models. I can walk or ride a bike there. It's a bit of a walk into the park, but not too bad.

The weather has been so nice here too and I'm working all day and night and can't seem to get out and enjoy it much. I'm thinking retirement is looking better every day. I should have invested wisely. Oh well.

February 21, 2012

Today I felt better than I have in over two weeks. I only had to take some pain meds once in the morning. I rarely ever take any meds, just my supplements. I've been taking acetaminophen four times a day for over a week. So not like me.

Even though I felt little pain, I guess I'm still shaky. I've been dropping and spilling things all day. Starting with an egg that I miraculously caught after it slipped out of my hand and flew up after bouncing off my hand. It was funny.

Then the sewing machine would just not work right, and when I finally got it to stitch right, I ran out of bobbin thread. Really, three times with three different colors on three orders. After one order was finished I noticed a stain on the vintage fabric. I got it out, but not easy on a finished piece and not necessarily something I wanted to deal with. A few things to be made, should have taken very little time and with cutting ended up taking about 4 hours. And I never even got packaging done yet.

I keep my onions, apples and oranges on hooks on the wall. Just easier that way. The onion bag fell on the floor near the litter box in the dustpan. Gross! Now I have to wash them all and peel them and store them in the fridge. I just realized it was probably because it was on the same hook as the rolling pin my daughter used to make the beignets today.

Finally I went in the kitchen to clean up and put the last of the food away. Huge pot of rice, plenty for another meal, so I put in in a bowl covered with foil. It was like the thing was made of rubber. I put it in it bounced out on the floor. Dumped over and all the rice fell out.

I even had to take a break writing this, because one of the cats dumped a full glass of water all over the table and floor, and the paper masks my grandson made for Mardi Gras so that the black marker ran all over the table.

I did have two very wonderful things happen though. I became a Top Seller on eBay today. I don't even know how that happened, but I'll take the discount that goes with it.

I also wrapped up my website enough that I feel proud to post it. akacinders.com I don't have a shop on it yet, but there are lots of links to my Artfire shop. I'm still not throwing in the towel yet.

January 19, 2012

I've almost forgotten again why I'm writing this diary. I had hoped that I could sort out my life. Find what it is that I really like to do, and really make a living at it. I am finding that trying to set up all of the possibilities is exhausting. Add to that the exercise and I can barely move.

I know I'm crazy, but I really really love my flowers. Yesterday I read something that suggested we all follow our passion. This is going somewhere, I know it. If I can just follow this path. I love flowers, because I love nature. I love the earth and people so I want to create an art that leaves a small footprint on the environment. I do that by making my flowers out of recycled plastics.

I'm not exactly sure that really helps, because I don't think we ever should have used plastics as much as we do. I mean, seriously, disposable cameras? Well I guess with camera phones, we don't really use those any more. I guess it's not as bad as bottled water which when tested turns out to be tap water in a plastic bottle that we pay too much for. I can bottle water myself. Maybe we should all keep milk in it's original container and how about eggs. We can keep chickens and cows (or goats) yes?

My head is splitting today and I'm very tired. I only had about 4 hours sleep last night. Long story, but I was doing dishes and laundry at 3 am because I couldn't sleep.

Then someone tweeted a picture of their press kit. Press Kit? Seriously? And I started doing research. I need a freaking press kit and I need to get some press. Maybe only local to start, but I need some. Now I have to do some more research. Press kits. Once I make them though I know where to start. If I want to start locally I know which press to hit and how to swing it. I need to join more organizations too. Having the feature on Nosh will help a bit. Press kit. Ugh!