Financial Woes and Woah!s
Jul. 28th, 2024 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetWork 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-30 05:47 am (UTC)Especially with work being lean... that's really hard when you can't count on hours.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-30 10:20 pm (UTC)Ah, how rewarding
Date: 2024-08-01 08:49 pm (UTC)when your art is both appreciated and paid for.
Speaking of corn sacks, this morning I wished I had a hot pack 16" wide by 30" long. And then I wondered if my 1200 watt microwave could even handle heating up something that big. Do you know?
Re: Ah, how rewarding
Date: 2024-08-01 09:00 pm (UTC)Oof, that's one heck of a corn sack size! Biggest I've managed so far are 8"x20" (standard) and 15"x10" (done exactly twice because of how much of a headache it was with my sewing area setup/corn sack making technique). Oh, but maybe if I made three 16"x10", had some extra seam allowance on the ends, and then made them so they could be snapped together that would work? Then they wouldn't have to all fit in the microwave at once, but you could still get basically that same amount of coverage! I know I still owe you a corn sack of two, so I might try to make that happen 👀 (Edit: Snaps would be plastic for microwave safety.)