...something I should have done a long, long time ago. I am finally, now that I have my ID situation straightened out and a bank account again (well, I am still waiting to deposit money. I am starting out with literally nothing but my materials and my skills), setting up an online business to sell my knit and crocheted goods. I am also setting up a Redbubble account to sell images of my paintings and drawings and such. In order to make the knit goods store cost effective, I will have to cut down on production time (but that's fine, it's not hard to speed up from "lollygagging" and "slow as shit"). Today was my first day roughly working on the schedule I'll be imposing on myself in order to be more productive.
Rule #1: Facebook only twice a day before 8pm, and for no longer than 10 minutes.
Rule #2: LOTS OF CAFFEINE. Duh.
Rule #3: Schedule digital entertainment that doesn't involve frequent interaction with the computer. No playlists involving songs I'll want to keep skipping, no movies or shows less than an hour long.
Rule #4: It's totally ok to be distracted by the cats. They ensure that I get up and walk around enough to avoid cramps and issues brought about by sitting on my ass all day long. (Although the rest of my day involves housekeeping and running errands.)
Rule #5: Be forgiving but firm with yourself. (I had to take a nap this afternoon, thanks to the girls being little terrorists this morning, which they made up for by snuggling with me). But then I didn't want to finish off the second glove I made today- being firm involves pushing myself to keep momentum going, to not stop in between stages of creation. (For some reason, I have these issues with knitting thumbs onto my gloves. All it involves is reattaching yarn and picking up a small amount of stitches and knitting for a few rounds, but the anticipation of doing it makes it feel like it's a whole extra glove worth of knitting by itself. I've never been a fan of patterns that involve fussy bits, but sometimes it can't be avoided.)
Rule#6: Items knitted for swaps, friends, etc, are worked on after 8pm or on the weekends, at least until I see how business is going.
As far as preparation for having an online brand goes, I've got my graphics prepared. I've got a store name, I've got preview images and I've got my price points figured out. I should be prepared with enough stock to feel confident about opening some time soon after Valentine's day. I am excited! (The cat silhouette is taken from my most recent tattoo, and has much to do with the shop name.)
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Update on the spider situation: Shortly after I completed my last entry, I had a real, honest to goodness genuine meltdown. I can't remember the last time I flipped out that hard, if ever. I was wailing in anguish, sobbing uncontrollably with blood coming out of my nose, I had a raging headache, I was incredibly tense... and I couldn't sleep it off. I literally had to be sedated. It just all fully sank in, the magnitude of what happened to me. I COULD HAVE DIED. THREE TIMES. Fortunately I seem to have moved past my paranoia and panic, and I am able to sleep now without assistance. The bites are itchy as hell though, and I'm impatient for them to heal. Noli me tangere, motherfucker!
