Financial Woes and Woah!s

Work has been very slow the past few weeks. Very, very slow. Almost glacially slow. I've been scheduled three days of the past three weeks; prior to that, I had at least three weeks of being scheduled only two days a week, and I'm pretty sure I only had two days because another coworker was on vacation. So as you can imagine, my bank account has been feeling the pinch a bit!

Luckily, I have awesome friends. The one who commissioned me for coloring pages hasn't gotten back to me about those yet, but I'm not too bothered, because she's been busy with two conventions this month, one of which she staffs (AnimeIowa, as a matter of fact). She did offer to take some of my crocheted goods to the first con on my behalf, though, and then offered to put any remaining in the AnimeIowa art show; I went to pick up everything that was left after my very short shift this afternoon, and after doing inventory, I may be looking at close to $300 USD from what I sold at both cons 👀

Furthermore, I've finally been getting back to making corn sacks! The corn-filled hot-and-cold packs, you know? Dad's been moving stuff around downstairs, and some of it is the cloth I had cut out for those, and that kinda poked me into productivity there. I've been slowly going through one whole pile of nearly 60 bags' worth of cloth, and decided I wanted to give one each to a couple of my AI friends when I was picking up my crocheted critters. One of which I planned to give to the friend who toted my crocheted stuff around, naturally. I sent her some photos of what patterns I had available last night, and she got back to me with her preference, so I got that one done up and ready to go. The other friend I wanted to make one for didn't get back to me (the one who says I'm her second favorite artist, see link above), so I decided to just make a bunch from various patterns and make her decide when I got there.

Well, as I was dropping off one to the first friend and waiting for one of her companions to fetch my remaining crochet pieces from their hotel room, a couple saw me hand over the corn sack and asked if I take commissions, because they'd like to order like. Five. On account of always losing the ones they have. Due to not having a specific pattern request from my second friend, I was able to whip out all six of my backup corn sacks right then and there and tell them to pick out their favorites, leave me with the remainder, $25 each but buy four get one free, yeah? (Second friend would absolutely forgive me for not getting to pick colors, she also wants me to make money.) Anyway, they said yes, stopped by an ATM, and boom: Much less to carry and $100 richer, just like that.

Finally I went downstairs to try and catch up with second friend again and give her the remaining corn sack (which she delightedly accepted). We ended up talking a bit about the Minion she's commissioning me for, and she asked, "How much am I paying you for that again? $75, right?" I had suggested $50 last time we'd talked, but she had also told me then and there that she was planning to pay more than that, so I decided against arguing. Anyway, she passed me $20 for a downpayment, and. Well.

Long story short, I'm somewhat less worried about my bank account now, and will be putting in an order for more safety eyes ASAP. And possibly will be buying more corn shortly as well.

This year's AI Accessibility Art

Sharing the Accessibility Pass art now that the con is over!

The zebra hoodie is in reference to Elhers Danlos Syndrome; the EDS community has adopted the moniker "zebras" in reference to the medical saying, "If you hear hoof beats, look for horses, not zebras," which is a reminder to doctors to check for common causes first. Unfortunately, a lot of medical professionals seem to have taken it as a cue to ignore possible less common causes, and, EDS being a "less common cause", the community decided to embrace the zebra reference. Since it's a typically invisible disability, and a reference that not a lot of people outside the community will recognize, I threw in a knee brace as well, Just In Case.

Anyway, when I went to pick up some stuff at the con location this afternoon, the person who took over Accessibility for me said that she got a lot of positive comments on the art! Which made me really happy, because my goal with this was to make disabled attendees feel seen/acknowledged, and I'm pretty sure this means I succeeded 💗 (Incidentally, the person who turned the art into buttons also recognized the reference, and specifically asked me if that's what the hoodie was in reference to; turns out she has a couple of relatives with EDS, so I think she appreciated the art a little extra, as well.)

I'm currently planning to rejoin con staff for next year; probably around the December meeting or thereabouts. (I'm hoping my nemesis and some of my other detractors are gone, but I'm not holding my breath.) I've missed working it, and the friend who took over Accessibility says some of the congoers have missed seeing me as well, so here's to a hopefully brighter and more accessible future at the con!