Tuesday 28 June 2011

All the Things We Need to Be...


I was editing about 3 million photos today (68) and my brain started to wander and it occurred to me all the different things that a self employed craftsperson needs to be... the skill sets we all have far out weigh most normal jobs...

We have to be artists and craftsmen (craftspersons?) obviously but so many people just think it ends there. I am my own webdesigner, promoter, advertiser, accountant, social media expert (I'm good at that one), photographer, designer, photo editor... the list goes on and on.

It does feel like most of my friends and family have no idea what I do all day... the amount of artists I have spoken to who say they envy that I do this full time is enormous but I wonder if they realise how little of my time I actually spend making things in relation to doing the rest of it... because without the rest of it I wouldn't have a business.

I knew how hard it would be when I started my full time self employment and took for granted that everyone else would too... this isn't the case... so many people think I sit around watching daytime TV and drinking coffee! I'm not the greatest business woman in the world and am too easily distracted... but my days start around 8am and end around 10pm... sometimes later... and it's generally 7 days a week too so in the average day I tend to do more than a 9-5 job would entail.

There are considerable perks as well tho... my commute to work is about 7 steps to the studio door, when the sun shines I can pop down to the beach for a couple of hours and I'm my own boss... which means I set my terms. I'm a lot less stressed too... this is the best decision I have ever made and if you catch me saying otherwise give me a slap and send me back here!

Thursday 23 June 2011

It's been a bad day...

I had a bad day yesterday, a truly crappy one... now I don't want anyone to think I am throwing myself a pity party here... that's not what I am about, but this was the first bad day since I quit my job so I felt I should document it.

I woke up in a bad mood which wasn't helped by logging on to a series of increasingly frustrating and annoying emails and one which got downright abusive as the day went on. I tried to bounce back from it but some thing get in your head... and when you work from home you can't escape them sometimes. My solution was to sit down and watch loads of Buffy and stab felt really hard for 4 hours... had it not been raining cats and dogs I would have gone for a walk and got out of my headspace... but I couldn't so I sat there and stewed!

Later that day I found out that work had overpaid me and want their money back... 2 weeks wages... the bosses reaction was less then encouraging, I pointed out that I gavea month notice and she didn't file the paper work til the last week so it was her fault she kinda just shrugged... not her problem I guess.

Around 4pm I had enough... I turned on the wii fit and spent half and hour punching imaginary punch bags... sometime in this the rain stopped so I went out and met my boyfriend from work.

So what have I learned from this experience:

1. Never ever ever reply to emails that upset me... ever... better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it... I take solace in the fact that I may have been wrong but I didn't resort to petty name calling

2. Physical stuff get you out of your head... next time some one upsets me I shall ignore them and punch the hell out of some wii boxer guy... hey he had it coming...

Today will be better tho... I plan to not let anyone drag me down and have a day of listing and crafting and working my ass off.

Thursday 9 June 2011

Oh Poor Neglected Blog


I have a confession to make... I am a bad blogger... I really am! I started with great plans to do a journal entry on this blog every day and totally failed! The reason said blog has been neglected is I hurt my neck... it's repetitive strain type thing which has happened this badly once before and requires copious amounts of codine and heat pack applications to fix it.

The plus side to this injury is I can still felt... the bad side to it is it makes typing on the laptop agony so I have been out of it for a bit. The codine makes me sick and sleepy, and to be honest ever so slightly stoned which isn't entirely unpleasant but I wouldn't recommend it as a hobby! It means I have been a right grumpy bum all week and my long suffering boyfriend has had to put up with me being a cowbag to him. (If he doesn't want to get shouted at he should really stop asking me if I'm ok every five mins!)

It did occur to me that had I been working in my old job I would have had to call in sick which would have resulted in me laying on the sofa for 3 days doing nothing (I get guilt when I work from home when I should be being a bookslave!) because I wasn't working I managed to make loads of legs for tweets and make 6 new designs and several old ones. It's amazing how doing something you love can make a difference to how you feel.

The neck is a lot better now (I can look right again... useful for crossing roads etc) but the codine is playing havoc with my system still and I am sleeping alot. I'm glad I kept going with work too, lots of new things to list and pictures to take (it was photo editing that messed this up in the first place) and I have learned a valuable lesson... photo editing is bad for RSS injuries... so only 20 pics at a time and not the 150 I did the other day... oops!