I Didn't Win Mega Millions

For those of my friends outside the US, the big hum this past week has been one of the large National lotteries called MegaMillions which had an estimated jackpot of $640 Million dollars - yes, that's Million. Some locations selling the lottery tickets had long lines. I maybe buy a ticket a year - I don't really do anything with these, but DH gave me $5 to go and buy some chances, so I did. Well, I didn't win - I was so far from winning that the sheet with the numbers is sitting on my desk laughing at me. DH said he didn't win either. So, I guess we have to continue working for our money and our retirement, just like most people. Oh well....

His car is sick, very sick. The total amount of repairs that they recommended was long and expensive. We went through each item, chose those of highest priority, and are having those fixed. It will still be expensive, but at a level where we can stretch to pay it. With one car that doesn't move - we need to get it donated to the VA and get rid of it, a second car (DH's) that is old and falling apart even though it doesn't have a huge amount of miles on it, and my car that is the youngest of the bunch but with over 100,000 miles, we can't count on that either. So, we need something new. But, we didn't win the lottery, so we'll just have to make do for a while more.

The last prompt for me is from my favorite card - Maglor in History and the subject is the Fall of Rome.  So take a look at this Thomas Cole painting which I'll use as my inspiration. 

So the final prompt for B2ME came through last night and I can combine the last three into a single piece of work which I will start this morning if I have some free time. I can at least begin the research because this story will deal with the fall of Rome and that will require some reading to feel confident about the structure around which I will build my storyline. I'm also trying very hard to catch up with the backlog of stories that people have written. I kept up with them until last week, but then fell behind. It's been a wonderful experience, though.

Beginning Again

A new week begins today. According to the calendar on my wall, it actually began yesterday. But I always think that my weeks begin on Monday. In fact, I think that most people consider Monday to be the beginning of their week. So...why do calendars present Sundays as the first day on each linear row? Just one of the odd things that can sometimes clog up my thought processes :-)

Yesterday was a calm and fun day. We had breakfast at McDonald's (my DH loves Mickey-D's breakfast, and I can handle an Egg McMuffin and a Yogurt Parfait), then headed over to the shop for a couple of hours of working with wire. We had received a large shipment of heavy-gague brass and nickle wire that needed to be re-packed into one-pound coils. It took us three hours, but we got most of it done. Then we went to Dick Blick's Art Supplies. I had a simply lovely coupon for double discount plus 20% off, and I needed a new Size 0 watercolor brush. I also picked up a few other things to play with. I still had slightly over $25 left on my Verizon rebate card, so I used that and had to also put in $5 of my own money. Not bad - I certainly got my best from the rebates I got for the new phones I purchased in September. The night was spent on the computer reading fan-fic and editing a chapter for Iris. All in all, it was a wonderful and relaxing Sunday. Now to get back to creative production for the week, after all - my Wednesday is coming quickly!

Slaves to the Almighty Dollar

Aren't too many of us slaves to the dollar instead of following our bliss? Then again, others depend on us - spouses, children, parents... There really is no good answer except to turn your bliss into something that will make money. That requires you to be reasonable about your pricing structure. Nothing really ticks me off more than a crafter underpricing the value of their products because it's "just beadwork" or "it's just a hobby" or whatever. I don't think there is ANY defining structure in which you should devalue yourself, and I place a high value on hand made items. Maybe you are one of those people who underprices your work. Think hard about the facts.

1) Your materials did not come free. Certainly some materials are less expensive than others, but there are other associated costs that most people tend to forget. Those expenses include your transportation costs to get to the store and purchase the materials (or to pay for the internet connection to order on-line and the shipping costs).

2) Your time doesn't come free. Minimum wage in this country is now more than $7/hour. Are you charging at least that for your time? And a wage of $7/hour only gives an annual salary of $14,560. Could YOU live on that? No? Then maybe you ought to be charging more than minimum wage for your time.

3) But keep in mind that you cannot charge for the time spent in design work. You are charging for the time spent in actually doing the labor of making the item(s) that you are selling. So, build those down times that include design time into your pricing structure.

4) You have expenses to pay. Even if your "studio" is actually your kitchen table, you still pay the mortgage or rent, the utilities, the phone, etc. Those expenses have to come out of your pocket and your pocket, as we just figured out above, is only bringing in $7/hour at minimum wage. Suddenly that $7/hour has to stretch a long way.

So try to be realistic. Price your items according to your time and expertise. It is a guarantee that if you start actually valuing your product, your customers will also value it. Some of what sells a product are criteria like design, color, applicability of the product to the person purchasing it, and price. Price comes quite a way down the list. So if your products fulfil the first three criteria, then start working on that fourth one and don't devalue yourself any more!