A year's progress on the Big List

I mentioned in the last post, our Big List o' Unfinished Projects. The idea was that we were supposed to work on projects from the list before starting other things... that didn't exactly happen but we did make some progress. I got more done than hubby but only because he had a ridiculously busy year work-wise and his projects were much bigger both in scope and time required. Oh, and I did get stuff done in between rounds of self-pity while I was laid up with my busted ankle.

What did I get done?

• I learned about Drupal; enough to launch and contribute to several websites (frugalvictoria.com, innerharbour.com, 951.cupe.ca, and thosedewolfes.com) and enough to help hubby with a book-to-be on Drupal, plus a beginners guide which, with a little more tweaking, will get posted online.
• I posted stock photos and created a calendar on lulu and crafts on etsy and I worked on my CuppaJoe Cozy site and our CafePress store. Unfortunately, I don't think I did enough with any of these items -- while I did list a lot of items on etsy, I have yet to make a sale and while I listed only 22 out of my goal of 100 stock images on lulu, I made two sales. I sold a few more cozies online but when I did try to get them into a store, that failed spectacularly. Our biggest sale from CafePress was when we bought a bunch of our own stuff but we have made other sales.
  
• I also finished the commissioned Doctor Who scarf and I prepared my Coffee Haiku minibook; I bound the first 13 of 40 (I have the rest ready to bind, I just have to "get to it"), sold some at the Libraries craft fair, and have some listed online.

The other projects -- about half of them -- remain unfinished. Over the year I decided to abandon a few projects but I also added or adjusted some others, so I figure it still works out to "about half." I will continue to work on the projects as they are listed and have pledged to help hubby with his projects, at least as far as my abilities allow.

My biggest goal for 2008 is to get my creative stuff out there -- both online and in local stores and/or galleries. This is not something I am good at (self-promotion) so it is going to take a lot of work.... but it is something I really need to do at this point... if for no other reason than to get the stock out of our house before we move.

Oh, that's the other goal this year: moving into a house of our own (buh-bye strata), but compared to self-promotion, that one seems like a cake walk. ;)

Mid-week blaaaahs.

It's been a slow week... odd Monday (one short and two long meetings; the last one full of frustrating revalations)... Tuesday just kind of slipped away... and today... meh. I haven't been feeling quite right, which doesn't help (seriously: I found myself crying through the ending of Bicentennial Man...).... I haven't even been taking many photos....

... But least the sun's out again (though truthfully, I didn't mind the record-breaking seven solid days of rain in July)... and this weekend promises to be interesting; I have Friday off and no set plans, just "ideas"...

Among the ideas percolating is trying to come up with some new designs for finger puppets for the craft fair this November... as I was reminded, it's only four months away! Yikes. Luckily, Flickr is full of inspirations.... like these:

(Click on the image for links to information about each craft and it's creator...)

Today's creative "done" list

1. Took over 200 photos of Bucanneer Day festivities; posted a bunch on Flickr.

2. Tweaked the template and added new designs to our CafePress store (hubby added a new design too!)

3. Uploaded two videos from the parade to YouTube.

4. Wrote a pithy poem:

Rain should not fall
on June parades
but perhaps there was a
funeral nearby
in need of sobriety.

Can I Call Myself a Photographer Yet?

This week, I think I came a little closer to considering myself a Photographer.

1. I sold a stock photo on Lulu.com (I had sold some on BigStockPhoto, but I really prefer the flexibility of Lulu, so I am happier with that). Here's the photo I sold:

2. One of my photos of UVic was selected as the snapshot of the week for the UVic homepage:

I do take a lot of photos... but I am happy to know that some of them are good enough to share.