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!

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.

It feels like I need to catch up, to get doing stuff Right Now, to make my mark on the world as soon as possible, but it also feels like it might be too late already.

Sometimes I get this feeling when I’m working at a show where the exhibitors have creative or crafty items. I see all the things they’re selling, and I see how they’ve done it — they’ve taken the plunge and are making and selling their Stuff. They had enough confidence to actually go out on a limb and make it happen. And I see things that I could have done myself, and things I wish I could do, and things I can’t believe people pay money for. And it makes me sad, because I don’t know if I’ll have the courage to ever make that leap.

Sometimes this feeling comes when I’m surfing the web, reading blogs, browsing on Etsy, and it’s pretty much the same. People are actually out there making a living from their writing, or from their crafting. And even if they’re not making tons of money, they’re still doing it. They’re not making excuses, waiting for the time to be right, or dwelling on their own inner demons. They’re just doing it.

Along with the sadness that accompanies the fear that I’ll never do any of this is a sense of total overwhelmedness (if that’s not a word, it should be). There are too many options. Everyone says you have to find a niche, but how do you decide? How do you write about photography and exclude pet care and craft ideas and personal experiences and education and shopping and Shakespeare? How do you make jewelry out of soldered glass and just stay away from shrinky dinks and recycled items, and sewing and shadowboxes and calligraphy and the nine billion other things I want to make?

I am not made to be niched. If I were to have a ‘focused’ blog, that would mean I’d have to have a dozen blogs, or maybe more. One on every topic.

Short Attention Span Girl isn’t just a semi-clever title that happened to be available as a domain name. It’s me. My brain is a-swirl with possibilities and ideas and  regrets about how much of my life I’ve already wasted not doing the millions of things I want to do.

So I guess I’ll just have to do one thing at a time and try not to let it make me crazy.

Actually, the book is more like a picture book, with each page containing a drawing accompanied by a sentence or two of text.

But I’m still a genius.

The book provides gives a long list of things you can do to avoid doing the creative things you dream of doing, and for me it did a great job of pointing out the self-destructive habits I have that get in the way of living the life I want to live.

There are more than a hundred of these little guys, but I want to share the ones that really yanked me by the earlobes and said, “Hey! I’m talkin’ to you!” They’re listed here in the same order they appear in the book:

• Make your first project really big.
• Compare your work to the masterworks of the great masters.
• Be in a big hurry.
• Assume that your dream will be much too expensive and beyond your reach.
• Slide into despair rather than take one small exploratory action.
• Talk about it so you don’t have to do it.
• Consider the odds against whatever you make ever selling.
• Demand that what you do be absolutely original, totally brilliant, and ever done before.
• Demand 15 hours of free time to create, so you can ignore the 15 minutes you’ve got.
• Help others to formulate a step-by-step approach for manifesting their dreams.
• The minute you have an idea, ask yourself: How much cold, hard cash is it worth?
• Focus on how much is left, not on how much is done.
• Under no circumstances make any art just for fun.
• Focus on your future as a homeless person, caused by your pursuing your dream.
• Tell yourself you need to relax instead of create. Tell yourself you’ll write later.
• Get your main sense of self worth helping others instead of facing the blank page.
• Tell yourself you need your family’s approval.
• Tell yourself your work isn’t good enough to finish or frame. Explain to everyone that you’re not “really” an artist.
• Tell yourself if you have free time, you should do something productive.
• Rather than make art, read about art.
• Let the fear of freelance health care costs drive you back to corporate life.
• Decide to learn everything about critical theory regarding your art form of choice.
• Think about your art instead of doing it.
• Hide from the crazymakers in your life instead of setting boundaries. Hiding makes it hard to do your art.