1. The quasi-in-laws are in town, which means last week’s cleaning frenzy has been followed by lots of cooking, eating out, watching movies/TV, and checking out Austin things like Torchy’s Tacos and the new aquarium – which is not great, but not terrible. It has lots of ‘petting’ tanks, so that was cool. I didn’t take today and tomorrow off like the boy did, so I’m home doing work stuff and blog stuff while they’re out seeing South Congress and the capital and things I’ve already seen. I like his family, but after a few days of house guests, it’s nice to have the place to myself just for a few hours. When they get back, his mom is teaching me to make jam, so that’ll be cool! Just have to finish up all my work/blog stuff before then.
2. I can’t believe February is almost over. Like, it turns to March this coming weekend guys. That’s nuts.
3. I had thought I was on board to work with this awesome event planning company here in town. Their go-to graphic designer was moving on to a different opportunity, and they said they were looking to put together a team of freelancers, etc. I went in for an interview and it went well, and they said they’d email me stuff to get the ball rolling soon. But they didn’t. And now their website lists a new in-house graphic designer. I don’t know what changed or why they couldn’t just let me know and be honest, but it’s pretty disappointing. Between this and not winning the bid for design work on a national magazine earlier this year (the board chose to keep working with their current designer, even though the editor who invited me to bid was ready for a change), I’m feeling pretty discouraged. These weren’t even blind bids – both sought me out, which is usually a good sign they’re serious about working with you/like your work. I’d really like to land a big client or partnership with consistent work so I can get out of the freelance feast-or-famine cycle.
4. I’ve got two conferences I want to go to next year: Blogcation and the Creative Freelancer Business Conference (part of the larger HOW Design conference). I don’t know if I can swing either one financially, but I’d like to. Are any of you fellow bloggers considering Blogcation?
5. I know I just redesigned the blog less than a year ago, but I’m feeling like I want to revamp it again. We’ll see.
That’s all I’ve got today. What are you up to this week?
