But the real purpose of this post is to share the news that my Etsy shop is now open and I’ve sold 9 buttons to 4 different people. Whee!

I’m still in the process of uploading more and more buttons (I have hundreds, and the Etsy listing process is quite a chore). So keep checking back to see what gets added. Plus, my prices will go up once I figure out how much to charge, so take advantage of my cluelessness while it lasts.

Oh! And check out the new look of my blog. This may change from time to time as I try out different looks, or when I get sick of a particular look.

I’m also looking into migrating to a new host (Doodlekit), which seems very friendly to me and has all the features I’ll be wanting (shopping cart, etc.). I’m not sure if that means my Wordpress blog (which you see right now) will go away or not. I’m still an idiot about all this stuff and don’t know if I can just move Wordpress over or what, but that’ll get sorted out in time. I’d like to keep the functionality of Wordpress where my blog is concerned, but I’m not sure about all the technical stuff it would entail.

I wonder why I resist writing blog entries so much. Once I’m here, I just can’t seem to shut myself up. It’s just the idea of logging in and finding something worthwhile to write about that’s daunting. I’m still hung up on the idea that every post has to be a work of art with a theme, motif, plot, and fascinating characterization. But it’s not like I’m getting paid to do this, so I can write whatever I feel like writing.

I guess I should get back to work. It’s crushing me, along with my Zonta responsibilities, because I don’t want to do either of those. All I want to do is work on my Empire, but there’s so little time, and when I do have time, I don’t have the tools I need (Photoshop, etc.).

Only 118 days until I get my laptop, and then there’ll be no stopping me. Until then, I’ll have to focus on doing the things I can do now and stop dwelling on what I wish I could be doing now.

• Our Artwalk isn’t happening tonight. Well, it’s happening, but not at my store. The artist was in a car accident. I’m glad I won’t have to stay here until 9 tonight, but it’s too bad about his accident.
• My ex is “seeing someone” and I’m very happy for him. Really!
• I have to write press releases, and I don’t wanna. I don’t know  how and I just want a formula to use, but there isn’t one. Ack.
• There is a radio station that has played the theme song to Welcome Back Kotter two days in a row. There should be laws against that.
• I have four million things to do at work, but my brain doesn’t want to focus on any of them. I need brainless work today. Searching the internet and gathering crap that I’ll look at later kind of work. Not writing press releases and designing postcards work.
• I love my puppies, and I’m going to do some heavy-duty grieving when the time comes that I don’t get to see them every week.
• I had a very nice lunch with Ms Monkey today. I love my friends. This divorce has really made me realize who my true friends are, and I cherish them even more than I did before. There aren’t very many, but they make up for it in awesomeness.
• I must get revised button pics uploaded, so I can start Etsying them at some point. Too much to do!

The problem is, I only have two friends on there who I really interact with, so they’re getting bombarded with all the little thingies I get to send to people.

I need more friends so I can spread the love a little more broadly. So sign up and be my Facebook friend. It’s funner than it has any right to be.

Oh, and if you have any idea how to get a business Facebook page to work, clue me in. I’m having mental difficulties with that aspect.

And I’m super-excited about Chapel Bar on Monday! I’m going to walk the 4000 blocks from work to there, so I can stumble back and be sober before I find my car again. Well, it’s probably not 4000 blocks. Maybe 14. I hope it doesn’t rain. And I’m glad the walking back uphill part will be after I’m drunk, because my muscles feel no pain with vodka.

I’m actually at work right now, so I can’t write much, but I wanted to check in and let y’all know that I’m surviving.

I am The Marketing Department. I guess I need to learn about marketing now. Right now my priorities are to create a marketing plan, to get hooked up in various social networking avenues, (re)design a promotional postcard, and find ways to tap into the LGBT market.

So, basically, I’m getting paid to surf the web and learn about marketing. And figure out Facebook and MySpace. Hopefully, I’ll actually be able to implement stuff soon. Having a company email account will help. As will reading the 32 books I have checked out from the library.

At some point, I’ll be helping to design the new e-commerce site, and write item descriptions, and figure out cross-promotional stuff and participate in the ArtWalk, but for now, I’m just soaking up knowledge. It’s definitely overwhelming, but it’s good. I’m using my brain for the first time in a long time (at least related to work), and it feels good.

In other news, I have a billion buttons ready to be photographed and listed on Etsy. I have a handle on shipping costs, and how I’ll list the buttons. I just have to get a chance to do it.

Oh, and I have to start working on the Zonta newsletter, which I’m the new boss of. The June issue will be my first, and I’m redesigning the whole thing to suit my whims, so I have to start thinking about that soon.

Now, if only my house would sell, my life would be right on track.

So, to sum up, I’m quite busy right now. Lots of things swirling around in my brain, making me slightly nutty. Whee!

Sadly, the only thing I’m going to miss is my laptop. I’ve grown very attached to my sweet little laptop, with its wireless internet and Adobe Creative Suite and all my favorite setting just right.

But it’s a small price to pay to be out of here and moving on to something that might actually be fun and stimulating and challenging and interesting and not requiring a logo-embroidered polo shirt and name-tag.

Wheeeee!

So, the saga.

I had the interview, and I thought it went really well, and it seemed like she was impressed by me. After meeting the owner, seeing the store, getting sniffed by her puppies, and hearing more about the job, I fearfully bantered about the term “dream job.” So much variety, and a store filled with goodies that I’d actually like to own if I could afford it, and a boss who seems friendly and laid back.

She told me she’d wait until she returned from a week-long trip to make her decision, so I hunkered down for the long haul. The waiting was killing me. The more I thought about it, the more I desperately wanted this job. I couldn’t stop bouncing and twitching. I threw myself into button-making in a futile attempt to stop obsessing.

Then, on Monday night, I had a girls’ night scheduled with Savannah and Ms. Monkey. I was looking forward to the distraction, or the chance to ramble on and on about the job until my fellow girls’ nighters slapped me silly.

I was to pick up Ms. Monkey at her work. I was running a little early, so I called her when I exited to tell her I’d be there in about 10 minutes. Ten minutes later, I picked her up. In the interval, I got the call, was offered the job, and very nearly peed my pants in glee.

Before the drinking began, after we were back at my house, I had to email the store owner to get some more details, because in my glee I’d neglected to nail down certain vital details, like medical insurance and whether this was actually a full-time job. I knew I couldn’t really accept the job if it didn’t include benefits, so I was once again on edge, waiting to hear from her.

That night, we played the Electronic Drinking Game of Life until the wee hours of the morning. Then, on four hours of sleep, I returned to work to fret and await the email that would seal my fate.  

I finally got the reply about mid-day, telling me that there were indeed benefits, and that it was a full-time job (although she hadn’t initially planned for it to be, but I’d convinced her I had enough varied abilities to fill my time – yay me!).

Shortly thereafter, hardly able to stifle my ridiculous clown smile, I went into my supervisor’s office, closed the door, and told her I found a new job. It went very well, with her advising me how to submit my letter of resignation and wishing me luck.

So, my last day is the 18th, and I start the new job on the 23rd.

Wheeeee!

For those of you who remember my previous post about the three jobs coming along all at once, this is the third one. I think I’ll be Employee #4 or 5, behind the owner, a bookkeeper, and someone who works at the store part-time. Another person’s getting hired at about the same time as me – someone with more retail experience and knowledge, but interested in learning marketing with me. Apparently, I am now in Marketing.

I don’t know what my job title will be yet. The job listing that I responded to called it a Marketing and Events Coordinator. The job will involve a wide variety of tasks, such as:

• Design an e-commerce website with the help of a coder
• Write ad copy, website copy, and item descriptions
• Possibly create and maintain an e-newsletter
• Seek out free and low-cost publicity/advertising opportunities
• Set up a blog or two, and maybe even write one
• Find and implement social networking opportunities, like Facebook
• Oversee entries into places like CitySearch and Yelp
• Coordinate events, such as participation in the Capitol Hill Artwalk and in-store fundraisers for local charities
• Research information on how to start up a nonprofit foundation
• Help out working in the store

I’m so excited, I can hardly stand it. These are all things I’ve been interested in learning and trying out, and now someone’s giving me the chance to actually do it, and get paid for it.

I go a little crazy when something new comes up that I want to brush up on (or learn entirely). So, of course, when I got the word that I officially had this job, I immediately went to the library website. I put books on hold for marketing, web writing, search engine optimization, web design, and just about everything else I could think of related to this job. I know it’s a little crazy, but gathering knowledge makes me feel good, especially when I have a concrete purpose for having that knowledge.

So now I have to get as much use out of the Adobe Creative Suite as I can before my time here is up. There may be Adobe at the new job, but I doubt it’ll be on a laptop I can take home with me for my extracurricular button project.

Once my commute is half as long, and if my house ever sells, I can save up money to buy myself a new laptop (tablet PC – woohoo!) and put Adobe on it myself.

Maybe I’ll pay for it with button empire income. You never know.

I’m too excited and flibbertijibbety right now to really say anything worthwhile or coherent about it, except YAY!!!

This has been a very buttony weekend.

Yesterday I spent a good portion of the day designing new buttons, and then using my brand new circle punch (which is awesome) to cut out the designs that already got printed. Then I used my lovely little button making machine (which is also awesome) to make a bunch of buttons. Then I set up my photo-studio-in-a-box (again, awesome) and took pictures of all the buttons I’ve made so far.

I used little plastic dinosaurs to prop up the buttons. I stumbled on this idea when One-T needed me to take pictures of plastic dinosaurs for him, and I like it. Plus, the dinosaurs enjoy helping out and getting their faces out there. It’s a win-win.

Today, I uploaded the pictures to my photo gallery, then added captions. The captions basically just say what the button says, in case you can’t tell from the thumbnail and you don’t want to click on the link to find out.

Check ‘em out!

I’d love to get feedback on which buttons you like the best, and also if you have suggestions for improvements. Or if you have requests for new buttons. I’ve already gotten quite a few super ideas from Feazle, and they’ll appear in future batches o’buttons.

And some of the buttons are by the Amazing Mr. One-T. I think, if you click on the picture, it should say somewhere in the caption if it’s by One-T. If it doesn’t say it’s by One-T, the default is by Me.

Have I mentioned how much fun this is?

Soon, I’ll post some buttons to Etsy, once I set the prices and write copy and have all the packaging ready to go. I did some mall scouting yesterday and found that significantly less interesting buttons are selling for $1.75-$2.00 in stores. I’m thinking of doing $1.50 each or 4 for $5 to start, and see how that goes. Oh, and I have to figure out how much postage will cost. So many little details!

I’m glad I have this distraction right now, because it’s keeping me from being too obsessive about the job search. The interview I had on Friday was fantastic (at least, it seemed that way to me), and I really REALLY want that job now. But she had another interview to do, and then she’ll be out of town for a week, so I have a long time to sit and fret about it. But I want to get the job NOW so I can start planning and thinking up ideas and getting excited about it.

But this post isn’t about the job search or my inability to stop thinking about that one job. Rather, it’s about buttons. My super neato buttons that are going to make me rich. Or at least entertain me until I run out of ideas. But as I have a list of ideas that’s currently 17 pages long, single spaced, 11-point font, I don’t think that’ll happen any time soon.

I’ve been using every spare moment lately to make button designs on Photoshop. Well, compiling ideas for buttons and then actually making the button designs. Next, when my circle-punch is ready to pick up, I can actually make the buttons. I can’t wait to see what they actually like under mylar with a little pin-back.

So far I’ve made about 80 button designs. And, if I may say so, I’m pretty darn good at this. And I’m having a ridiculous amount of fun.

Once I actually have buttonized samples of all my buttons, I’ll take pictures of them (using my nifty little photo-studio-in-a-box) and put them on Etsy. It’ll be interesting to see which ones other people like.

It’s so much fun – way more fun than I thought it would be. I get to use some of the billions of fonts and dingbats I’ve been collecting for no apparent reason, and I get to use some of the billions of quotes and sayings I’ve been collecting for no apparent reason, and I get to put them all together into something little that makes me happy. And if it doesn’t turn out how I’d hoped, I can fix it. Or ditch it and move onto the next idea. There’s not a huge investment of time on each button, and it costs nothing to play around with designs on my computer.

Of course, now I’m having second thoughts about wanting to ditch this job so fervently. After all, my work laptop is where Photoshop is, and my workplace is where I frequently have giant swaths of spare time in which to insert button efforts. I wouldn’t be nearly as productive if I had a job that actually required concentration or time.

It’s weird, but I can see myself not getting bored of this, because every button is such a new adventure, and there are so many zillions of ideas out there I still want to try. I could sit here for 10 hours straight just making new buttons, and thinking up new ideas, and figuring out ways to market and sell the buttons. If only it could bring in some decent money. Maybe, someday.

Oh, and it’s not just buttons. I can buy the accessories to turn the buttons into magnets, zipper pulls, key chains, tie-tacks, or earrings. Although 1″ round earrings does seem a little odd.

The Amazing Mr. One-T is also on the button bandwagon. He actually has a real job that demands his attention, so he hasn’t made quite as many buttons as I have, but his are awesome too. Plus, he’s able to make little pictures using Illustrator, so his get a lot more creative than mine.

So, if you have anything you’d like made into a 1″ round object of desire, let me know.

I’m just going to enjoy being somewhat sought after, or at least interesting enough to warrant phone calls and emails and meetings in person.

The first prospect is for a catering company that does some pretty fancy events in the region. Weddings, business meetings, and quite a few celebrity events. It involves an intensive training program for the first 3 months or so when it would be only about 30 hours per week. Then it would evolve into a vaguely defined permanent position that would involve some event planning and some other administrative duties, but which would really vary based on how much the company grows and/or whether another event planner leaves the company.

I’ve had two interviews so far (although I’m not sure I’d categorize either as a typical interview), and they said they’d get back to me around mid-April. It’s intriguing because I’m interested in the variety of creative events they put together, and it’s a small company, and their chefs make lunch every day (yum!), but the uncertainty of the training program and subsequent position leave me a little wary. I still have many questions about this job that I would have to ask before accepting an offer, if that’s even going to happen.

The second prospect is a contract job with a major corporation, set to run through the end of the year with possible extensions and/or transition to permanent work. It’s a proofreading job, checking over website and other materials before going to print. Not so much variety and excitement, and it’s another corporate job (which I may or may not be against — I’m not sure yet), but the pay is decent and the recruiting/temp company provides full benefits.

The big worry about this job is the possibility of having to go job hunting again at the end of the year. But I do like proofreading, and I’m good at it, and it would be solid experience on my resume. The recruiter submitted my resume to the company this morning, so we’ll see how that goes.

The third prospect, which I just got today, is being a Jill of All Trades Marketing Whiz for a new company, which is basically a specialty retail store in Seattle. They need someone who can work with their coder to develop a kickass website with ecommerce, including writing copy and content, plan a blog and other social networking goodies, and help out with store and community events. So, basically web design, copywriting, content writing/editing, PR, event planning, and whatever else they might need along the way.

It sounds like a lot of fun to me, because I’d get to learn how a small business is run as well as use all kinds of creativity in writing, planning, designing, and general idea-having. My reservations about this one are due to it being a very small start-up business that may end up dying. But on Friday I’ll be visiting the store and meeting the owner and getting sized up and all that.

It’s really amazing how all three of my job prospects are in totally different arenas, career-track-wise. If I were offered all three right this minute, I really have no idea how I’d decide. They all have their pros and cons, and I guess time will smooth out some of the wrinkles and questions I have.

It’s weird how all this happens at once. I’m desperately seeking any kind of acknowledgement that my resumes aren’t just dissolving when I hit the Send button, hearing not a peep for weeks and months on end, and then three at once, bam bam bam.

That Morton Salt girl sure did know what she was talking about.