Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Facebook

...you are evil. You are a vile, time-wasting invention, created by, and I am pretty sure of this, the devil. I vow to spend less time on you, because you are seriously worthless. WORTHLESS. You hear me? Stay out of my computer.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

New Year

Every year, like most people, I am asked approximately 1,000 times what my resolutions are for the new year. I don't have any. I think it puts too much pressure on a person to decide to change a bunch of things about yourself or in your life just because it's a certain day. No wonder "New Year's" diets fail so frequently. If I want to do something, I just do it. I don't put it off until January 1st, because if I did that would indicate I don't really want to do it!

I have also gotten away from saying things like, "I hope 2012 is better than 2011!", because if it's not better than 2011? I am dead. Heh. Literally. If by March 6th, 2012 has not tried to kill me, it will officially be better than 2011. I'm not too worried about the Mayan calendar thing, either. I see no good reason that the world should end so soon, so I'm not sweating it.

So, 2012? I have absolutely no expectations of you. I'm not going to jinx myself by dragging it out and detailing all the things I would like to be better in 2012, so, bye bye, 2011.

Monday, January 2, 2012

No, wait, extend my vacation, please!

I haven't really managed to get anything considerable accomplished during my vacation. I realize that for most people, a vacation is a time to sit around and do nothing, but I am most relaxed when I'm working, and I was hoping to do that quite a bit. But here I am, just a couple days away from re-opening and I've accomplished pretty much zilch on my list. I actually already processed orders, because I couldn't wait any longer, so I guess I am technically already taking orders again.

It seems like the last two weeks just flew by. We spent a good chunk of it in Washington, where it was basically impossible to get any work done. There was food, and lights, and people, and my attention span sucks anyway. Plus the internet there is slower than any dial-up I've ever had, and I couldn't even get on Facebook for most of the trip. Anything more intensive like website work or whatever, was not going to happen there.

My studio is still an enormous mess, I haven't done inventory, and all the end-of-year stuff I've accomplished so far was mostly done by my husband, who did all the number-y stuff and determined that if I were a postcard manufacturer, I'd be rich by now. During 2011 I sold at least 10 times as many postcards as 8"x10" prints. This year we'll only be offering postcard packs, because selling the individual postcards is a pain in the ass, and not very lucrative. The 12"x16" poster prints are also phased out now, and I'll be working on phasing out some other stuff this winter/spring, and it looks like more key chains and definitely magnets in the future.

I think once I get the studio back into shape and get more than a few minutes to myself, I'll be able to get back into the swing of things. I also need to figure out what to do with a current commission. One of the faces in it is driving me bonkers and I can't figure out what I don't like about it. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it and worry about it all day long. I need to do something with it soon, or paint something else so I feel a little less worthless. I have another commission almost done, but not quite, and all that's really left is painting a foot and a bunch of leaves. I hate both of those things. I am not sure if it's worse to paint toes or 100 leaves. I'll let you know.