It’s a little bit short notice, but anyone reading this is invited to my baby brother’s first solo show of his typewriter art at Paper Boy, 1351 W. Belmont, Chiacago. The reception is Thursday from 5 to 8.
I’m very excited.
The hardest thing for me about working for myself full-time is the uncertainty.
From week to week I have no idea how much I will earn. And working harder — making more, listing more etc. — doesn’t necessarily make a difference. In the long run it probably does, but it doesn’t mean I’ll sell more right now. And that’s a scary thing when you need money right now to pay the mortgage.
A couple months ago I was getting to the point where I had to make a decision about whether I could continue doing this. Maybe it was time to face reality and get a real job. At least a part-time one.
But I dreaded the thought of giving up my flexibility. What if I get a big Zombie Escape Plan Journal order, but I’m scheduled to work on the day I need to finish up and send them out?
Then I found ChaCha.com. And it was exactly what I needed.
ChaCha is a service that people can use to get answers to questions* from real live people via text message on their phones. And my new “job” is to be one of those real live people.
What makes it perfect for me is the ultimate flexibility. I can work 80 hours in a week or not at all for a month. I can even log in and work for 10 minutes while I wait for the oven to preheat. And I can adjust my schedule at a moment’s notice depending on how busy I am with other projects.
The work itself is fun because I never know what question I’ll get next. Some of them are hard and take a while to answer. Others (like the weather, sports scores etc.) I can answer in less than a minute. (I get paid per question, so I love the easy ones.)
Sometimes people even ask me for my opinion or advice, which is great because in my real life people get kinda sick of listening to my opinions!
But what is best about the job is that it makes me feel like I have more control over my finances. I never have to worry about whether or not I’ll be able to pay the mortgage because if business is slow this month I can pick up the slack by working on ChaCha more. It’s such a huge weight off my shoulders!
If anyone out there reading this is interested in signing up to be a ChaCha guide, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. You can email me at christinerenee [ at ] re-conceived [ dot ] com. (And you can use that same address to tell ChaCha who referred you if you happen to sign up, and I would really appreciate it.)
* It’s actually a really cool service. Even if I didn’t work for them I’d be telling people about it.
Lately I’ve been having a lot of crappy days, as far as my business goes — you know the ones when nothing goes right and you spend six hours fixing a stupid problem that could have/should have been easily avoided?
I’ll spare you the specifics, but that’s been my life lately.
So I was pleasantly surprised to have a really, really good day today.
1) I sold a lot of stuff. More today than I did the whole rest of the week. And for no apparent reason. This is especially surprising because Fridays are usually super slow for me. And this is in spite of the fact that I didn’t list anything new today.
2) I went to the post office and there was NO LINE. None whatsoever.
3) My friend who works at a thrift store gave me another big load of cast-off books (ones that would otherwise be thrown away because they are too damaged or otherwise not appropriate to put on the shelves). And it was the best load she’s given me so far. Lots of really great children’s books with amazing images that I plan on using for pocket mirrors and book covers.
4) I got contacted by Etsy about being featured in an upcoming Storque article about “Etsy Elders” (sellers who have been on Etsy since the very beginning) that will coincide with the 3rd anniversary of the site. They are going to interview me and include a picture of me and my workspace.
What a great way to end an otherwise sucky week.
In the Etsy world, getting one of your items featured on the front page is one of the best things that can happen to you. It’s a really big deal. And it’s only happened to me a handful of times in the almost 3 years that I’ve been there.
So I was very excited to find this on the front page for a little while last night.
I haven’t been keeping up with the blog lately, but today I have some big news that I have to share.
My little CTA card books have been mentioned on the CTA Tattler!
For the last few months I have been selling my Zombie Escape Plan journals at Quimby’s — the most amazing, locally-owned book and zine shop ever that just happens to be here in Chicago.
But I didn’t realize until just now that they are selling the books on their web site too. Yay!
Today is an important day at re-conceived.com headquarters. It is the day that I received (and later passed) my 1,000th positive feedback on Etsy.
This calls for a celebration. Ice cream for everyone!
In my search for old books to cut up and use in my various projects, I often come across bits of ephemera left between the pages. Photos, personal notes, newspaper clippings, recipes…. I’ve found it all.
Last week I found an old Boy Scout handbook that had lots of ephemera stuck in it. My favorites are the ones shown. There is the previous owner’s Boy Scout (Second Class Scout) card and a couple school pictures from friends of his.
I wonder what that guy is doing now. If he’s even still alive. And if he ever wonders where he put the stuff he forgot in the book.
I’ve decided to start documenting the things I find in old books. I might even start a new blog just for that. Until then I’ll post the photos here.
This week I’ve been making tons of these little guys. They are tiny notebooks made with used CTA cards as covers. They are so fun to make and are a good way to use up little scraps of paper that are left over from other projects.
Whenever I bring these little books to shows I always sell out. They are one of my most popular items. My only problem is getting enough of the cards to keep up with demand.
If anyone out there reading this has any used CTA cards (in good condition, please), I’d love to have them! Email me at christinerenee [at] re-conceived.com and I’ll give you the address to send them to me. You can feel good knowing that they will be getting used. And as a thank you I’ll send you your very own CTA card notebook.
