Back to the grind.
Finally called the blog contest today. Later than I promised in the contest post (Saturday) due to a cold medicine coma. But it seems to have worked out in the end, the winner is quite pleased :-)
There wasn't a huge turn out but I'm keeping it in perspective. Its a first run and these things usually build gradually. And I also made three sales after the contest started, and got a bunch of new followers that didn't play, so it was OK. However, putting the same thing into Twitter over and over again is SOOOOO boring. Next time, five days, Monday thru Friday, max.
I'm kinda worried that more people joined the Facebook page and blog followers than actually entered the contest, did they read the rules? Its more likely that they did read and are just waiting for something they like better. However, I'm not going to put up anything bigger than earrings until the average number of entries increases. Its not really cost effective otherwise. But if I remember to do this regularly it will probably increase slowly.
I've also considered doing one on Live Journal, small potatoes to start. Larger potatoes to follow larger turnouts. Or something from the Facebook page since it seems the most accessible of all the platforms.
The lack of signal-boosting from friends was also pretty discouraging. I suppose helping other people promote their stuff doesn't grant me similar favors. Oh well. Maybe its just the universe's way of reminding me to focus on my own work and promotions for a while, rather than boosting signals for other people.
My vacation started OK, but Wednesday night I started to feel sick at improv practice. And I continued to be sick right up until Monday morning. Just in time to go back to work, wonderful. It was upper-respiratory, and all my ritual spring cleaning plans are based on incense and essential oils, so I put that off until next weekend.
Luckily I got most of the *actual* spring cleaning settled before my brain melted into goo and filled up my sinuses. Convalescing with a clean bathroom = good. I did a clothing audit, also good, tho I just realized I forgot to check the closet. And extended that into my linens cabinets to find I own a huge number of towels that I don't use. Yikes. But I whittled my full under-bed bins from six to four, w00t. Not sure where its all going to go, too bad I didn't do this much purging before my friends' clothes swap a few weeks ago. Although several pieces from that are getting purged again anyway.
I didn't do the final look through of old school materials before I toss them. What's a good way to recycle/dispose of spiral notebooks? I took them out of the hallway so I could wash the floor, and now I really don't want to put them back. There's finally enough space there for it to be a dressing room, and I want to keep it like that.
I played with cooking chicken thighs in my dutch oven and got ... spaghetti. It tastes fine, and is easier to portion out for lunch boxes, but the texture is new to me. arcane_the_sage assures me that it won't kill anyone.
CVS jerked me around by not sending me the "20% off your whole order" coupon by mail, but Monday I got a 25% in-store coupon by email. Um... kay? So next weekend with the stocking up. I did go to Costco with arcane_the_sage on Saturday morning to stock up on non-perishables that they had on sale. Is it odd for my hoarding tendencies to act up in the spring instead of the fall?
Went to the beadshow after all, with a budget. Only went a bit out of budget, despite having a "don't buy X" list. Still not so bad thanx to the sudden Etsy successes.
All of this leads me to call my no-buy month a bust so far. So I'll continue in April and hope I can control my $$ impulses a bit better.
I missed a ton of birthdays and goodbye parties, and I'm pretty unhappy about that. I even forgot to go outside for the Supermoon. Why do I so often get sick right before or during my vacations? This is why I stopped taking whole weeks off for staycations :-P
According to the astrological charts, all the planetary whoosiwatsis are supposed to lead me towards better understanding of my connections with people, relationships, etc. Does that make it ironic that I mostly feel more taken for granted than usual? Is this something I'll have to learn about my place in the world, or is this my latest stress talking?
It makes my birthday planning for this year feel full of fail potential, even tho I have a clever idea. At least I have a lead on a free space so if only five people show up it won't be a financial disaster.
In other news, three more weeks until my purgatory of over-scheduling is over. Then I can go back to being an *audience* member more often than not, which I miss. And I'll have more time for teh jewelry again. And events other than teh improv. Yay!
I'm having some unhappy mood swings today. We're having a makeup date for my improv class tonight, but I'm not sure if I'm up for it. I'll eat dinner and see if I can make it uptown.
To see if I can, I'm cutting out the super processed junk food from my diet from now until May. Exceptions are home made baked goods and desserts (so I have to WORK for that sugar), and maybe my usual dose of dark chocolate. Not sure about the latter, yet.
And hay, I remember these! Memes! LJ was full of them long ago...
You were born during a Waning Crescent moon
This phase occurs right before the new moon.
- what it says about you -
You appreciate closure. It bothers you when people promise to do something and then don't follow through. You want to able to right the wrongs of the past. Studying history motivates you to improve the world. You put a lot of hope in the future and look forward to seeing technology and progress improve our lives.
What phase was the moon at on your birthday? Find out at Spacefem.com
Ima Theiurge! Yay!
<3 Chrysilla
There wasn't a huge turn out but I'm keeping it in perspective. Its a first run and these things usually build gradually. And I also made three sales after the contest started, and got a bunch of new followers that didn't play, so it was OK. However, putting the same thing into Twitter over and over again is SOOOOO boring. Next time, five days, Monday thru Friday, max.
I'm kinda worried that more people joined the Facebook page and blog followers than actually entered the contest, did they read the rules? Its more likely that they did read and are just waiting for something they like better. However, I'm not going to put up anything bigger than earrings until the average number of entries increases. Its not really cost effective otherwise. But if I remember to do this regularly it will probably increase slowly.
I've also considered doing one on Live Journal, small potatoes to start. Larger potatoes to follow larger turnouts. Or something from the Facebook page since it seems the most accessible of all the platforms.
The lack of signal-boosting from friends was also pretty discouraging. I suppose helping other people promote their stuff doesn't grant me similar favors. Oh well. Maybe its just the universe's way of reminding me to focus on my own work and promotions for a while, rather than boosting signals for other people.
My vacation started OK, but Wednesday night I started to feel sick at improv practice. And I continued to be sick right up until Monday morning. Just in time to go back to work, wonderful. It was upper-respiratory, and all my ritual spring cleaning plans are based on incense and essential oils, so I put that off until next weekend.
Luckily I got most of the *actual* spring cleaning settled before my brain melted into goo and filled up my sinuses. Convalescing with a clean bathroom = good. I did a clothing audit, also good, tho I just realized I forgot to check the closet. And extended that into my linens cabinets to find I own a huge number of towels that I don't use. Yikes. But I whittled my full under-bed bins from six to four, w00t. Not sure where its all going to go, too bad I didn't do this much purging before my friends' clothes swap a few weeks ago. Although several pieces from that are getting purged again anyway.
I didn't do the final look through of old school materials before I toss them. What's a good way to recycle/dispose of spiral notebooks? I took them out of the hallway so I could wash the floor, and now I really don't want to put them back. There's finally enough space there for it to be a dressing room, and I want to keep it like that.
I played with cooking chicken thighs in my dutch oven and got ... spaghetti. It tastes fine, and is easier to portion out for lunch boxes, but the texture is new to me. arcane_the_sage assures me that it won't kill anyone.
CVS jerked me around by not sending me the "20% off your whole order" coupon by mail, but Monday I got a 25% in-store coupon by email. Um... kay? So next weekend with the stocking up. I did go to Costco with arcane_the_sage on Saturday morning to stock up on non-perishables that they had on sale. Is it odd for my hoarding tendencies to act up in the spring instead of the fall?
Went to the beadshow after all, with a budget. Only went a bit out of budget, despite having a "don't buy X" list. Still not so bad thanx to the sudden Etsy successes.
All of this leads me to call my no-buy month a bust so far. So I'll continue in April and hope I can control my $$ impulses a bit better.
I missed a ton of birthdays and goodbye parties, and I'm pretty unhappy about that. I even forgot to go outside for the Supermoon. Why do I so often get sick right before or during my vacations? This is why I stopped taking whole weeks off for staycations :-P
According to the astrological charts, all the planetary whoosiwatsis are supposed to lead me towards better understanding of my connections with people, relationships, etc. Does that make it ironic that I mostly feel more taken for granted than usual? Is this something I'll have to learn about my place in the world, or is this my latest stress talking?
It makes my birthday planning for this year feel full of fail potential, even tho I have a clever idea. At least I have a lead on a free space so if only five people show up it won't be a financial disaster.
In other news, three more weeks until my purgatory of over-scheduling is over. Then I can go back to being an *audience* member more often than not, which I miss. And I'll have more time for teh jewelry again. And events other than teh improv. Yay!
I'm having some unhappy mood swings today. We're having a makeup date for my improv class tonight, but I'm not sure if I'm up for it. I'll eat dinner and see if I can make it uptown.
To see if I can, I'm cutting out the super processed junk food from my diet from now until May. Exceptions are home made baked goods and desserts (so I have to WORK for that sugar), and maybe my usual dose of dark chocolate. Not sure about the latter, yet.
And hay, I remember these! Memes! LJ was full of them long ago...
You were born during a Waning Crescent moon
This phase occurs right before the new moon.
- what it says about you -
You appreciate closure. It bothers you when people promise to do something and then don't follow through. You want to able to right the wrongs of the past. Studying history motivates you to improve the world. You put a lot of hope in the future and look forward to seeing technology and progress improve our lives.
What phase was the moon at on your birthday? Find out at Spacefem.com
Ima Theiurge! Yay!
<3 Chrysilla