I thought about it, and I decided on making bookmarks for Tucson Comic-Con to sell alongside my books.
As you can see, the bookmark slides onto the corner of a page, and it’s nice and graphic–with a whole slew of them on-hand, I’ll have something cool and geeky to display next to the book to draw in congoer attention and potentially get them to check out (and hopefully buy) the book. I have made several using different printed fabrics, so I’ll have a selection. I only have roughly ten ready for sale at the moment (not counting ones I’ve set aside for gifts and special requests), but I still need to make more.
It takes roughly ten minutes start to finish for one bookmark, but with a little mass production-style work I can cut out materials for over a dozen and then work in five-bookmark increments to iron, pin, sew, iron, and sew, which takes roughly half hour to 45 minutes. I’m getting faster, though.
Credit to Crafty Staci at www.craftystaci.com for the vendor apron pattern and the bookmark tutorial. Her tutorials are super straightforward and easy to follow. Excellent work, Staci!
I’m not sure how many I’ll be able to make prior to TCC, but I’ll try to get a good stock on-hand. Right now I’m using scrap fabric I have lying around that wasn’t being used, but if I run out I know I can count on JoAnn’s to have some cool stuff to grab like a quarter yard of or something. Maybe some cool-looking fat quarters. Those are cheap. 😉
Sixteen days to order books, order a PayPal chip reader, get the things I need to buy for the table, and get something together to sell besides just books.
FML.
I don’t know how this snuck up on me. I mean, I have a widget for my phone that tells me exactly how many days are left. I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s almost here.
I think I’m either going to print photos of some of the Instagram graphics I’ve made from Abnormal quotes (see below) or make up some fabric bookmarks. Handmade geeky stuff is good for cons, right? Either way, it’ll be something nice and quick that I can churn out before the con.
I think photos of images like the one above might be fun to print out, and I can sign them as well. A buck or two for those wouldn’t be too bad, right? If that fails, though, I can make bookmarks out of the fabric I already have and just have some geeky bookmarks on hand to sell for a buck or two, and those would go with the books nicely because hey, books and bookmarks go together like peas and carrots.
Either way, it means more work before con. I can do it (provided the rheumatoid arthritis doesn’t get too painful), but I’ll have to bust butt to get it all done.
Work. Home. SCA. Books. I have many different facets to my life, and I’m having a bit of trouble finding the right balance between them all.
I forgot something at work last week–something major, in relation to my new position. That was embarrassing. At home, my sleep schedule is still very off despite the new dosage of meds. I’m pulling back from the SCA to try to manage the other parts, and I’m slacking on the book promotion.
I will have to force extra time between patients for the new position. I don’t know what I’m going to do about the sleep, aside from making offerings to Morpheus or something. I’m slowly finding the balance of SCA–I need to take at least one weekend a month off from it, it seems, to be able to keep sane. And as far as book promotion goes, I’m back at it this morning–between embroidery and catnaps, that is.
*Sigh.* How do busy people do it? I’ve been mostly a couch potato my whole life, and now I have work life, social life, home life, and author life. It’s a little overwhelming.
I’m going to have to apologize to my potential future Laurel for my absence from the SCA and for my complaining in this blog about wanting to take a break from the arting. From what my husband tells me (he went to an SCA event this past weekend while I stayed home), she thought I meant I wanted to take a break from working with her on arts. Not so. I just needed a break from period art in general, and I think my “weekend off” might have given me a chance to recharge and regroup.
This week, I’ll do better. I’ll work harder. Sleep more (maybe?). Craft more. Promote more.
There are people out there with fuller schedules than mine. Surely I can juggle these few things and still allot myself enough time for each.
Tucson Comic-Con is just 20 days away, and I’ve got my vendor stuff all ready.
Well, the stuff I can make myself, that is….
I made a vendor apron a week ago, and today I made a composition book cover and a little cell phone pouch. Observe:
Aside from about ten bucks for the zipper, buttons, thread, and solid print fabric to coordinate, all of the above were made with materials I had on hand. Fabric that I already had (gotta love the exploding TARDIS!), binding that I already had on hand, Elastic that I already had on hand, a little chain clip that I already had on hand (though I don’t remember why I had it on hand), interfacing, batting–all stuff I had. For ten bucks, that’s not a bad deal. The cell phone pouch fits my phone snugly, and I’m hoping the PayPal chip reader that I plan on ordering will fit in the button pocket.
I kinda want to make more stuff, but I think I’m just manic and I need to take a break from making stuff. What I need to do is brainstorm some more on these lists of things I need to get ready before TCC. I’ve got to buy some stuff, print some other stuff, and send in some applications for business licenses. Fun, fun, fun.
I know where on the map my table is. I know when my target setup time is. I know (I think) what-all I need to bring. The key is surviving the next twenty days. Twenty days where I still have work, still have normal life stuff to do, etc.
Tucson Comic Con is rapidly approaching (27 days), and I have gained too much weight to wear any of my cosplays. Bummer, right? Well, I found a compromise the other day, and yesterday I made something new.
I only spent about nine dollars on the zipper, thread, and button–much less than if I’d decided to make even one new cosplay! There are a couple of mistakes in the apron, but they’re small mistakes and nothing I can’t live with. Plus, with making it myself, I was able to alter the pattern and make a ton of pockets for markers for signing my book. 🙂
I used a pattern I found on Pinterest, and I’m happy with the results. Crafty Staci I think was the name of the woman who came up with the design. Great tutorial, great design.
So far that’s the only real prep I’ve done for TCC. I need to bust butt getting books ordered and setting up my PayPal reader with my phone and figuring out how much change to bring for cash. Every time I think I have all the plans solidified in my head, new things pop up. I’ll get there, though. And this experience will prepare me for future cons and appearances.
So here’s what’s what: I was at an SCA baronial meeting last night (bored out of my skull), and my hair was down, and I noticed a lot of split, broken, and dead ends. Too many. So I did something about it.
This isn’t the first time I’ve gone and chopped off half my hair (or more), but it’s been a couple of years. I gotta say, it feels nice. Lighter. Not bugging the shit out of me. And the maintenance will be easier, too.
Of course, heading into what will eventually be cold weather (I’m in Arizona so as of late the weather has been still scorching in the daytime), that means I’ll need to make use of the Star Wars scarf I made myself a while back. Darn. (<–Insert sarcasm.) The hair was like a built-in scarf when it was long, but no more.
Next up in the do-it-yourself department: a vendor apron for Tucson Comic Con. I just happen to have some nifty exploding TARDIS fabric that’s been dying for a chance to be used, and this will be a great way to use it. That, and it’s an excuse to make something. Always a good thing. 😉
I went to a gaming convention the last two days–a small one–but I spent most of the time, er, not gaming.
I had intended on playing games, but I only played one the whole day and a half I was there. It was a fun game, but I got peopled out pretty quickly. Thankfully, my friends were gracious enough to give me a copy of their hotel room key so I’d have a place to escape from the crowds. It was nice. I took a solid two-hour nap today. That was really nice.
Tucson Comic Con won’t give me that luxury. I’ll be there, and I’ll be stuck. I think it’ll be okay though. I’ll be behind a table surrounded by my books. I’ll have a barrier between me and them.
I got a lot of progress done on the embroidery for my husband’s Viking hood this weekend though, and I’ll get more done tomorrow. I won’t get done, but I’ll maybe get from a quarter of the way done to maybe a third or even halfway done.
Book 3 hasn’t gotten any more written yet. I am still waiting for the alpha readers to finish their feedback on Book 2, so I don’t want to get too far and have to rewrite the whole thing like I had to do with Book 2.
Hopefully soon things won’t be so stagnant. I feel like I’ve been neglecting this blog because I haven’t had anything to say. Work is work…oh! Except I got a new certification… now I’m a certified medical laser safety officer. I’ve done an audit and everything. So yeah. There’s that, and then work is work.
Things will pick up once I get back to work on Book 2 and once Tucson Comic Con gets closer.
I had my second official author appearance today, this time at a small-town library. The venue was small, and the crowd was smaller, but it was a good time. I stood up and talked about myself and my book and didn’t freak out. The social anxiety monster didn’t rear its ugly head, which is pretty cool.
Tucson Comic Con will be a big test of that. There will be crowds, there will be people looking at the table and passing by, there will be people asking about the book, I will have to talk to people. Yes. It’s a thing. But I’m getting over it. Slowly. Kind of.
Tomorrow, after work, I’m headed off to a small gaming convention in Tucson. I won’t have a table there (the cost of a table was too much given the venue), but it should be a fun time. I’ll consider it pre-TCC practice of sorts. Maybe. Or maybe I’ll sit in the corner by myself and try to be invisible. We’ll see.
The Kingdom Arts and Sciences competition is this weekend as well, but I won’t be competing. I got so caught up in projects and book stuff and more book stuff and work and SCA events and…yeah. No time. Well, I suppose I could have thrown something together on the fly, but I don’t want to enter Kingdom with some half-assed project. I want to throw my full, sizable ass behind whatever I end up entering. Next year. Sure, I had the research paper that I did that I could have tinkered with to perfect it, but again there was that pesky time thing.
Speaking of time, I just remembered the laundry that’s sitting on the bed, waiting to be put away. And the laundry in the washer that’s probably done by now. And the packing I have to do. Crap.
I’m back to embroidering (did I ever really stop? Lol), and it’s starting to get to these arthritic hands of mine.
Whether I use a hoop or just hold the fabric myself, it seems my fingers get incredibly cramped and painful. I can only stitch for a little bit at a time, which is making projects take longer. Thankfully, I am limiting the number of projects I take on.
I have a Viking hood for my husband to embroider, of which I have gotten probably a quarter done. That’s my Current Project. My Next Project will be a mundane cross stitch for a paying customer. Then, Project Number Three in line will be a large embroidery that isn’t due until Estrella War in February. I hope to get some personal embroidery done in between Next Project and Project Number Three, but we’ll see how my hands tolerate it. I get so excited that people want things embroidered by me that I don’t take the time to say “Sorry, but I wanted to embroider X for myself first.” I need to do that. Take time for personal projects as well as commissions.
The Next Personal Project? I think some embroidery for a Viking Hedeby bag I plan on making. I have the handles, I have the fabric I need, and the rope for the strap will be easy enough to get, but I need to embroider the fabric before I put the bag together so I’m not stitching through the lining. Then after that? Maybe some subversive cross stitching or other such embroidery for hanging up around the house. Maybe something geeky. We’ll see…in March, most likely, because of time constraints.
I’ll eventually get to making garb and cosplay stuff for myself again. After I finish my Current Project and the subsequent pending projects. And after I finish Book 2 and submit it. And after….who knows what will come up next.
For the first time in weeks, I don’t have a pressing project to do…and now, I don’t know what to do with my morning “me time.”
I could work on the third book in the Abnormal series…but I’m kinda stuck. Still haven’t heard back from alpha readers, so the second book is kind of on hold. I have embroidery that I could be doing, but I don’t have the design printed on stabilizer yet. I suppose I could get to work on that…
Whatever I decide to do, I need to get it started today, because I’m going on a camping trip this weekend–mundane camping for once, so no actual SCA event to go to. It should be fun, but I still like to have something to occupy myself when I’m up at nothing in the morning and can’t get back to sleep. (Which is pretty much every day.)
Hopefully I don’t get devoured by mosquitoes again. That was no bueno.
I’ve been making up graphics of quotes from Abnormal to promote the book on Instagram, and I’m debating on trying to make something out of them. Maybe post cards? I don’t know. This is an example of what I’ve been doing:
Now, most of these are square-shaped (because Instagram likes that the best), so I’d have to do some finagling in Photoshop to get them a decent postcard size, but it might be something to consider. I’ve also made a couple of bookmark-size images of quotes that I think book lovers might like, but I’ve found that it’s kind of expensive to get those printed, so I have to debate on that.
These, I think, would make cute bookmarks. I’ll have to find the site I found earlier for printing (some printing sites don’t have bookmark sizes available) to remind myself of how much these would cost. I think I can get a decent amount printed, but I want to be sure it’s worth my time and money before I invest.
I suppose I could research that kind of thing this weekend…
What I should really be doing now is getting in Photoshop and laying out the designs for my next embroideries. I have my husband’s Viking hood to finish, but first I need to make a small patch for the SCA household we’re trying to join for the Arts and Sciences household champion banner (the household we’re trying to join won the banner this year, and each year someone from the winning household makes a patch to go on the banner). I guess that will be my weekend project. That way, I kill two birds with one stone: getting the project done, and stopping the “patriarch” of the household from nagging me to get it done. The embroidery I did for Their Royal Majesties allowed me to bide my time on that one, but that stuff’s done so it’s on to the next thing on the list.
After my husband’s hood and the patch, I have one more embroidery commission in line that, thankfully, is not due until next February. That one isn’t too complicated (I don’t think), but it’s going to be large, so I’ll have to make sure I have plenty of time. I’m not necessarily worried about the time, but new commissions have a way of creeping in when I’m not expecting them.
Well, I guess I’ve decided what to do… No writing planned for this weekend, but I’ll bring some embroidery stuff to keep me occupied.
