So I'm pretty sure this is the closest I've even been to Halloween without having any idea what my costume should be. This is largely (or at least partly) because I work a closing shift on Halloween, and I keep forgetting to ask my supervisors what company policy on Halloween costumes is... :/
My half-plan at this point is to come up with something that fits the dress code (pants without holes + white shirt with collar + company apron), but also can be tweaked into some obvious costume... I'm thinking some sort of Girl Genius Jaegerkin, I already have the ears and horns, I just need to fit my fangs and find an appropriately fancy hat that won't interfere with the ears. Though I do wish I had some Heterodyne trilobite pins to tie the look together, or maybe a Mechanicsburg Arms patch...
Anywho, spending so much time handling random bolts of fabric at my day job is giving me all sorts of ideas for new stuff to make (I've had to make an "only buy it if you know exactly what you will use it for" rule, lest I entirely defeat the point of having a day job)... hopefully I can find some time to actually make said stuff in the near future. Right now, in addition to a couple commissions in the pipe, I have thoughts for drop-front LARP pants, some Viking tunic variations (which may include finally figuring out the Viborg shirt), revisiting my cotehardie pattern (the first pattern I ever made, over 7 years ago - haven't made another one since, but I still wear the dress, and hung it up as a display model while vending at an event, and it got a surprising amount of interest), continued dabbling in corsetry, a just-for-me scarf made out of this amazing Halloween fabric, and possibly taking up embroidery and/or stuffed doll making... I think walking through the embroidery aisle on my way to the break room may be having some sort of effect on me. But if I can teach myself how to do either, or better yet both, it would be REALLY cool to be able to offer custom-embroidered shirts or semi-period stuffed toys for baby larpers to play with.
Speaking of teaching myself new things, my fiancee gave me a big calligraphy ink color palette, as well as nib cleaner and extra India ink, for my birthday! I've had such things on my wish list since getting a proper dip pen at TeslaCon last year (I use it for conspicuously writing things at medieval LARPs), but now that I have proper inks instead of the too-thin fountain pen India, I think I'm going to have to learn proper caligraphy just to do the stuff justice! Maybe Unpronounceable Designs will branch out into papercrafting, just so I can justify the time spent on playing with ink and fancy pens...
One last thing before I wrap up this post: I've been working on copy for my Etsy store, as threatened... I'm not done quite yet, but I have info posted on my policy page for shipping and returns, as well as an allergen note. I also have some thoughts about shop organization (not really necessary right now, given I only have eight listings, but laying groundwork for the future is good) and aesthetic polishing in my head that I may or may not implement within the next couple of hours. If any of you would go check out the page and give me some feedback, that would be awesome. Thank you!
Talk to you in November! TeslaCon is next week, so I should have some cool stuff to share in my next post!
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Friday, October 17, 2014
Suddenly: Things!
So, let's start this off with the big news for Unpronounceable Designs: I just made my first sale on Etsy!
Okay, so "big" should probably be in quotation marks. It was just a pair of leg wraps, $15 + shipping, and because they were a "custom" color I didn't have fabric on hand for, they actually cost more than that to make. BUT.
I MADE A SALE. To a guy in California that hadn't heard of me in any non-internet capacity. This is big, in its own tiny way. Proof of concept that this "business" thing may actually work.
Anyways, as you probably noticed, life happened and I fell behind on the blog/business maintenance front. Again. Things are settling in to a more organized mode, though, so I should be able to establish a more regular posting schedule from here... or at least that's the plan.
The big cause of my absence THIS time was... jobhunting. Much as I'd love to think otherwise, starting a business doesn't pay for itself, especially when there are also student loans to deal with, and I can only sponge off of my fiancee so much. Officially, I'm still looking for a possibly mythical Good Paying Part-Time Creative Job With Flexible Hours, but I accepted a seasonal-with-possible-option-to-stay minimum wage job at a fabric store, which so far I really enjoy, and I intend to work the employee discount for all it's worth.
Oh, and I'm also looking to apply to grad school, so that'll be all up in my scheduling with an unknown scope of effect, too.
SO. Those are things. Things that may create possible hitches in the plan to be a better blogger and businessperson. But hopefully not. The tighter schedule is making me prioritize stuff a lot more clearly (it's amazing what a difference you can make by changing the the choice from "which thing do I first?" to "I can only do one thing, which one is it?"), and the fiancee is pitching in a bit more with housework, so that's a major distraction out of the way.
My immediate goals are to follow up on a couple custom inquiries/orders, and to finish writing my shop policies and whatnot for the Etsy store... I was about halfway through writing them when the jobhunting disruption happened, and dealing with that first order (OMG I SOLD A THING!) forcefully reminded me that I have basically nothing posted about how I do business, ship stuff, etcetera.
But those are tomorrow goals. Or maybe Tuesday goals, since I have day job work the next three days, and will probably spend the rest of today getting ready and trying to eke out a small fraction of pseudo-weekend relaxation. Which I'm going to get to now.
Happy Friday!
Okay, so "big" should probably be in quotation marks. It was just a pair of leg wraps, $15 + shipping, and because they were a "custom" color I didn't have fabric on hand for, they actually cost more than that to make. BUT.
I MADE A SALE. To a guy in California that hadn't heard of me in any non-internet capacity. This is big, in its own tiny way. Proof of concept that this "business" thing may actually work.
Anyways, as you probably noticed, life happened and I fell behind on the blog/business maintenance front. Again. Things are settling in to a more organized mode, though, so I should be able to establish a more regular posting schedule from here... or at least that's the plan.
The big cause of my absence THIS time was... jobhunting. Much as I'd love to think otherwise, starting a business doesn't pay for itself, especially when there are also student loans to deal with, and I can only sponge off of my fiancee so much. Officially, I'm still looking for a possibly mythical Good Paying Part-Time Creative Job With Flexible Hours, but I accepted a seasonal-with-possible-option-to-stay minimum wage job at a fabric store, which so far I really enjoy, and I intend to work the employee discount for all it's worth.
Oh, and I'm also looking to apply to grad school, so that'll be all up in my scheduling with an unknown scope of effect, too.
SO. Those are things. Things that may create possible hitches in the plan to be a better blogger and businessperson. But hopefully not. The tighter schedule is making me prioritize stuff a lot more clearly (it's amazing what a difference you can make by changing the the choice from "which thing do I first?" to "I can only do one thing, which one is it?"), and the fiancee is pitching in a bit more with housework, so that's a major distraction out of the way.
My immediate goals are to follow up on a couple custom inquiries/orders, and to finish writing my shop policies and whatnot for the Etsy store... I was about halfway through writing them when the jobhunting disruption happened, and dealing with that first order (OMG I SOLD A THING!) forcefully reminded me that I have basically nothing posted about how I do business, ship stuff, etcetera.
But those are tomorrow goals. Or maybe Tuesday goals, since I have day job work the next three days, and will probably spend the rest of today getting ready and trying to eke out a small fraction of pseudo-weekend relaxation. Which I'm going to get to now.
Happy Friday!
Friday, August 29, 2014
The Aftermath of Awesome
...is that I have a hard time making a post about the awesome, apparently.
I'm back from GenCon! Also, I'm back from the second Deeplight 2-day event, because I started writing this post like a week and a half ago, and made very little progress content-wise. So I resolved that short post is better than no post, which apparently cured my writer's block... WTF, brain?
It was quite the adventure bringing Here At The End to GenCon... 15 people, 5 days, 3 hotel rooms, and one little post-apocalyptic LARP demo running 12 times a day. Our one-hour demo event, called "One Man's Trash," went well. Like, REALLY well. We were far more popular than we could have ever reasonably expected of a first-year event. We hit the "Evil Genius Overlord will dance naked on the roof as an expression of joy" around dinnertime Saturday, with the rest of the night and the Sunday demos still to come.
Sadly, although there was dancing, the Overlord reneged on his vow and neither nudity nor roofs were involved.
Overall, it was one of the funnest most harrowing experiences I've had in a long while, possibly surpassing the 24 Hour Project I did in college (in which a collection short plays were written, rehearsed, designed, and performed in a single day). On the first day we realized that one of our tables was just the right size for a human to take a nap under, and we took advantage of that regularly, because otherwise we would implode one by by one.
People loved us... even the staff! (Con AND hotel staff... we got hooked up with a sound system partway through Friday because some of the hotel staff loved what we were doing and thought we needed to take it up to 11.) Several folks said they would be willing to travel from out of state to play with us if we ever did a multi-day event, a few approached us about volunteering to help run the demos next year, and one largish group from Philadelphia(?) emailed the Overlord a week later about starting H.A.T.E. franchise of their own. Note: this is not to imply that said franchise will actually happen, that's up to the Overlord, but it's just so awesome that they WANT to start one. Note 2: we all loved this group, they were loud and sarcastic and having an infectious amount of fun with life, and, oh yeah, they came to the demo because they were looking for an event that would sweat-test their Drow makeup and garb (which was just lovely, and held up to the workout rather well), and it makes me so sad that I was not able to play with them because I was about to implode and needed to take a turn under the table instead.
Here's some footage from the Costume Parade, to which we sent a representative from each PC faction and one NPC faction...also a Minecraft Creeper (the daughter of the NPC faction rep). Creeper shows up at about 6:10, and forward progress got held up while the PC reps were RIGHT in front of the camera shortly afterward, so you get a great look at us.
I'll try to curate some of the many amazing photos, as well as find some good YouTube footage of our mascot, Buttons, and post that fairly soon, as well as do a post-Deeplight roundup after that... But for now, I have stuff to sew!
I'm back from GenCon! Also, I'm back from the second Deeplight 2-day event, because I started writing this post like a week and a half ago, and made very little progress content-wise. So I resolved that short post is better than no post, which apparently cured my writer's block... WTF, brain?
It was quite the adventure bringing Here At The End to GenCon... 15 people, 5 days, 3 hotel rooms, and one little post-apocalyptic LARP demo running 12 times a day. Our one-hour demo event, called "One Man's Trash," went well. Like, REALLY well. We were far more popular than we could have ever reasonably expected of a first-year event. We hit the "Evil Genius Overlord will dance naked on the roof as an expression of joy" around dinnertime Saturday, with the rest of the night and the Sunday demos still to come.
Sadly, although there was dancing, the Overlord reneged on his vow and neither nudity nor roofs were involved.
Overall, it was one of the funnest most harrowing experiences I've had in a long while, possibly surpassing the 24 Hour Project I did in college (in which a collection short plays were written, rehearsed, designed, and performed in a single day). On the first day we realized that one of our tables was just the right size for a human to take a nap under, and we took advantage of that regularly, because otherwise we would implode one by by one.
People loved us... even the staff! (Con AND hotel staff... we got hooked up with a sound system partway through Friday because some of the hotel staff loved what we were doing and thought we needed to take it up to 11.) Several folks said they would be willing to travel from out of state to play with us if we ever did a multi-day event, a few approached us about volunteering to help run the demos next year, and one largish group from Philadelphia(?) emailed the Overlord a week later about starting H.A.T.E. franchise of their own. Note: this is not to imply that said franchise will actually happen, that's up to the Overlord, but it's just so awesome that they WANT to start one. Note 2: we all loved this group, they were loud and sarcastic and having an infectious amount of fun with life, and, oh yeah, they came to the demo because they were looking for an event that would sweat-test their Drow makeup and garb (which was just lovely, and held up to the workout rather well), and it makes me so sad that I was not able to play with them because I was about to implode and needed to take a turn under the table instead.
Here's some footage from the Costume Parade, to which we sent a representative from each PC faction and one NPC faction...also a Minecraft Creeper (the daughter of the NPC faction rep). Creeper shows up at about 6:10, and forward progress got held up while the PC reps were RIGHT in front of the camera shortly afterward, so you get a great look at us.
I'll try to curate some of the many amazing photos, as well as find some good YouTube footage of our mascot, Buttons, and post that fairly soon, as well as do a post-Deeplight roundup after that... But for now, I have stuff to sew!
Thursday, August 7, 2014
This week...
...is progressing much more quickly than I would prefer. Darn TIME, advancing without asking my permission...
GenCon prep is shaping up... or, more to the point, it looks like I won't need to bring much more than I would for any other H.A.T.E. event & 5-night hotel stay. Probably won't be able to get any new props built/decorated in time, though, which is sad. We'll see how things look come Monday, I might be able to do some last-minute painting...
Most of what I've been up to has been what I tend to call "invisible work" - research, paperwork, organizational fiddling, etcetera - which can be a lot less satisfying than building a new Thing, but is nevertheless important. And sometimes pretty cool!
For instance, I should be able to accept credit cards when I vend now! Much of Friday and Monday were spent researching mobile card readers, which was... rather circular. The main contenders, PayPal Here and Square, are VERY comparable, so trying to find a clear winner was pretty fruitless. Overall, I think that PayPal might be the better choice for me, partly because I already use PayPal for online orders, but there are a few more identity-proving hoops to jump through to get it, so I'm going with Square for now, just to make sure I get the required gadget in time for Deeplight. Plus, it has an offline mode, which is pretty handy, and it never hurts to have a backup, especially when you're talking free gadgets!
Also on Monday, I ordered some really cool new business cards! Which, since I want them for GenCon (to hand out to folks who ask about my garb), qualifies as some fairly major procrastination, but hopefully they get here in time. They're just UPS-printed cards (one day I'll be successful enough to commission a custom die from Raky Press, the printers of my first set of cards), but I did a ground-up design on them and I'm really proud of it - one side is just the tentacle-face-me logo, business name, and a one-sentence blurb about what I'm about on a plain white background, and the other is teal with a neat list of ALL my websites and my email. They're pretty darn sweet, hope they look half as good in person!
Also also Monday, I picked up a new commission! Okay, so I'll admit that the fact that said commission will be delivered at the next Deeplight event all of two weeks and a very large gaming convention from now is a little intimidating (especially since I couldn't get the fabric I need until last night and won't be able to get the trim until this weekend at earliest), but I've got this. That I'm guaranteed to pass at least ONE piece of merchandise into the hands of a customer at that event is enough of a stress reliever to counteract the intimidation. Plus, it's for a Viking-style tunic, which is an innately awesome-looking project that's also a really easy build - I'll probably be able to knock out all the structural stuff on it this afternoon, which will be a nice change.
In other news, it looks like the blog has reached a point where a I get a tiny trickle of pageviews during the week or so between new posts, which gives me some warm fuzzies. This is a thing that is going rightly, albeit in a tiny way.
GenCon prep is shaping up... or, more to the point, it looks like I won't need to bring much more than I would for any other H.A.T.E. event & 5-night hotel stay. Probably won't be able to get any new props built/decorated in time, though, which is sad. We'll see how things look come Monday, I might be able to do some last-minute painting...
Most of what I've been up to has been what I tend to call "invisible work" - research, paperwork, organizational fiddling, etcetera - which can be a lot less satisfying than building a new Thing, but is nevertheless important. And sometimes pretty cool!
For instance, I should be able to accept credit cards when I vend now! Much of Friday and Monday were spent researching mobile card readers, which was... rather circular. The main contenders, PayPal Here and Square, are VERY comparable, so trying to find a clear winner was pretty fruitless. Overall, I think that PayPal might be the better choice for me, partly because I already use PayPal for online orders, but there are a few more identity-proving hoops to jump through to get it, so I'm going with Square for now, just to make sure I get the required gadget in time for Deeplight. Plus, it has an offline mode, which is pretty handy, and it never hurts to have a backup, especially when you're talking free gadgets!
Also on Monday, I ordered some really cool new business cards! Which, since I want them for GenCon (to hand out to folks who ask about my garb), qualifies as some fairly major procrastination, but hopefully they get here in time. They're just UPS-printed cards (one day I'll be successful enough to commission a custom die from Raky Press, the printers of my first set of cards), but I did a ground-up design on them and I'm really proud of it - one side is just the tentacle-face-me logo, business name, and a one-sentence blurb about what I'm about on a plain white background, and the other is teal with a neat list of ALL my websites and my email. They're pretty darn sweet, hope they look half as good in person!
Also also Monday, I picked up a new commission! Okay, so I'll admit that the fact that said commission will be delivered at the next Deeplight event all of two weeks and a very large gaming convention from now is a little intimidating (especially since I couldn't get the fabric I need until last night and won't be able to get the trim until this weekend at earliest), but I've got this. That I'm guaranteed to pass at least ONE piece of merchandise into the hands of a customer at that event is enough of a stress reliever to counteract the intimidation. Plus, it's for a Viking-style tunic, which is an innately awesome-looking project that's also a really easy build - I'll probably be able to knock out all the structural stuff on it this afternoon, which will be a nice change.
In other news, it looks like the blog has reached a point where a I get a tiny trickle of pageviews during the week or so between new posts, which gives me some warm fuzzies. This is a thing that is going rightly, albeit in a tiny way.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Slight Case of Flounder
I am in the sort of mental state where that post title makes me imagine turning partway into a weird sideways fish, and I can't determine whether that mental image is hilarious or sad.
I think I'm going to go with hilarious.
Anyways, right now the part of my brain that chooses which of many tasks I need to work on has ground to a halt, as it often does. As usual, this is mainly due to an excess of choice and uncertainty regarding what to prioritize... I get so conflicted about which task I should be focusing on that I become very easily distracted and often wind up aimlessly caroming around the internet (latest landing point: Ze Frank videos).
The latest round of indecision goes a little like this (in list form, because expressing my conflict and confusion in a stream-of-consciousness-type manner worked a little TOO well, and you would have had no clue what was happening around you after reading it):
I think I'm going to spend what remains of the afternoon unpacking & squaring away the last of the debris from the Elmholm premiere (which was great, by the way - no sales, but some good conversations, and I actually got to get out of the booth and play quite a bit, so I had a fabulous time), before something tries to mildew... Hopefully with a couple household tasks out of the way, I'll be able to get some clarifty on the big projects.
P.S.: Entirely different note: This is the first post with an Amazon Associates link and/or since I set up my AdSense account (although the AdSense ads might not show up yet, since I'm still in the confirmation stage). Any feedback? It's not too busy or give-me-money-ish, is it?
I think I'm going to go with hilarious.
Anyways, right now the part of my brain that chooses which of many tasks I need to work on has ground to a halt, as it often does. As usual, this is mainly due to an excess of choice and uncertainty regarding what to prioritize... I get so conflicted about which task I should be focusing on that I become very easily distracted and often wind up aimlessly caroming around the internet (latest landing point: Ze Frank videos).
The latest round of indecision goes a little like this (in list form, because expressing my conflict and confusion in a stream-of-consciousness-type manner worked a little TOO well, and you would have had no clue what was happening around you after reading it):
- We're leaving for GenCon in two weeks, I should get stuff squared away for that... but I'm not sure what I'll need to bring other than the usual H.A.T.E. gear, and that'll only take like a day to get together (including wash & iron time). Maybe I should wait until after the pre-con meeting on Sunday, then I'll know what I'll need?
- So I should actually prep for the next Deeplight, because it's only a few days after GenCon, and I won't be able to get anything done in the time between the two. There's a bunch of relatively easy new inventory items I want to crank out before the event, and I could really use a proper sign rather than a sheet of parchment paper...
- But wait! I have a couple commissions that I've been sitting on for months because I won't be able to deliver them until the Old World event in September, and I'll be ridden with guilt if I sew other things before I finish them...
- But I really should paint the fiancee's LightStrike gear before GenCon, which takes a while, and what if it turns out I'll need to pack or build a bunch of other stuff I didn't even think of until the meeting?
I think I'm going to spend what remains of the afternoon unpacking & squaring away the last of the debris from the Elmholm premiere (which was great, by the way - no sales, but some good conversations, and I actually got to get out of the booth and play quite a bit, so I had a fabulous time), before something tries to mildew... Hopefully with a couple household tasks out of the way, I'll be able to get some clarifty on the big projects.
P.S.: Entirely different note: This is the first post with an Amazon Associates link and/or since I set up my AdSense account (although the AdSense ads might not show up yet, since I'm still in the confirmation stage). Any feedback? It's not too busy or give-me-money-ish, is it?
Monday, July 21, 2014
Fly-by Update
Oof! So much for posting at least once a week... I'll get the swing of this eventually.
Freefall was excellent. Have some pictures! Everything went down smoothly and with minimal drama (well, out of game, at least ;) ), so I think we may have even convinced the event organizer to keep it going for yet another year.
The fiancee is using up his vacation time, so last week and this week are like a giant weekend... which means a lot of much-procrastinated-about home improvement projects are finally done or underway, but I've managed to do next to no prep for the Elmholm premiere or GenCon... Panic may be required sometime soon. But in the mean time, it means I ended up skipping the Last Hope event in favor of a quiet weekend looking at butterflies, at least in part because I wanted to avoid the dreaded "pack for one event while simultaneously unpacking from another." Also because butterflies are awesome.
It came to my attention this morning that my all my Etsy listings had expired without me notice... I've renewed the listings, so everything's back up online and it's all fine, but clearly I need to either pay closer attention or rejigger my notification settings or something... (Related note: I'd love some feedback regarding product pricing - I may post a poll in the near future. I'm pretty sure my prices are fair, but they are on the expensive side, especially for a new shop, so I'm wondering if my generic inventory needs to be knocked back a touch. Thoughts?)
I'm in the process of signing up for AdSense right now (the page is open in another tab). If I can't get ads for things I actually support/use myself (I'm hoping for LARP weapons or other such complementary goods), then I won't bother keeping them on the blog, but hopefully I'll be able to generate a little trickle of supplementary income this way. I'm going to be doing a couple other things to create a revenue stream soon (as I threatened to do a few posts ago), pretty much all of which are cribbed from ByRegina's list "10 Non-Icky Ways to Make Money Blogging" (her blog is full of excellent advice for self-employed types, mainly focused on blogging, but there's a lot of helpful general scheduling/organizing type stuff, too).
I promise to make a better post, with topic transitions and everything, sometime soon. Until then!
Freefall was excellent. Have some pictures! Everything went down smoothly and with minimal drama (well, out of game, at least ;) ), so I think we may have even convinced the event organizer to keep it going for yet another year.
The fiancee is using up his vacation time, so last week and this week are like a giant weekend... which means a lot of much-procrastinated-about home improvement projects are finally done or underway, but I've managed to do next to no prep for the Elmholm premiere or GenCon... Panic may be required sometime soon. But in the mean time, it means I ended up skipping the Last Hope event in favor of a quiet weekend looking at butterflies, at least in part because I wanted to avoid the dreaded "pack for one event while simultaneously unpacking from another." Also because butterflies are awesome.
It came to my attention this morning that my all my Etsy listings had expired without me notice... I've renewed the listings, so everything's back up online and it's all fine, but clearly I need to either pay closer attention or rejigger my notification settings or something... (Related note: I'd love some feedback regarding product pricing - I may post a poll in the near future. I'm pretty sure my prices are fair, but they are on the expensive side, especially for a new shop, so I'm wondering if my generic inventory needs to be knocked back a touch. Thoughts?)
I'm in the process of signing up for AdSense right now (the page is open in another tab). If I can't get ads for things I actually support/use myself (I'm hoping for LARP weapons or other such complementary goods), then I won't bother keeping them on the blog, but hopefully I'll be able to generate a little trickle of supplementary income this way. I'm going to be doing a couple other things to create a revenue stream soon (as I threatened to do a few posts ago), pretty much all of which are cribbed from ByRegina's list "10 Non-Icky Ways to Make Money Blogging" (her blog is full of excellent advice for self-employed types, mainly focused on blogging, but there's a lot of helpful general scheduling/organizing type stuff, too).
I promise to make a better post, with topic transitions and everything, sometime soon. Until then!
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Such events. So prep. Many busy.
Well, it's that time of year again. The time when nearly every weekend has a Thing happening on it, and the few that don't are reserved for sleeping. Don't any of you dare invite me to a Thing on this, the first weekend of July, because that is my last and most vital weekend on which to prepare for the onslaught. And boy, howdy, do I need to prepare for this summer's events...
First up is this year's Freefall Game on July 12th-13th. Freefall is an amazing Firefly/Serenity themed airsoft LARP hybrid run by the guy who taught me how to LARP in the first place. This is its 8th year, so while it still definitely fits in the 'verse and flavor of everybody's favorite prematurely cancelled space western, it's also definitely taken on a life of its own and then some. I've been playing (and occasionally helping brainstorm for) this game since year one, it's my favorite annual event, and most of my favorite gaming friends and event designers (and my fiancee) are people I've met at this game over the years. I'm doing a lot less prep for this year's game than I have in the past, but for me, "less prep" just means "we already have everything we need to set up our 3-room compound with RFID-controlled locking doors, so all we have to do is load it in the truck." I also moderate the game's official message board, which has been super quiet and needs more people to post on it.
Then on July 19th there's a Last Hope non-combat game in Mauston, WI... I really hope to make it to this thing, because the last time I made it to an event was in February (and before that, October), and I'm starting to feel like a poser. But it will really depend on how strapped for prep time I feel, because...
...Elmholm Colony of LarpCraft is having its premiere event on the 26th, and I've agreed to vend at said event. I was a little hesitant when first considering it, because of how soon this event is coming up (and how many other things I'm trying to do at the same time), so I don't know that I'll have much more to offer than I did at the Deeplight premiere, but I'm starting to get really excited about it. I feel like I actually have some idea what I'm doing this time around, so even if I only have time to add a few little things to my inventory (I'm thinking that slipcovers to disguise 3-ring binders and notebooks would go over really well) and improve my signage, it will still be great to go in and set up with just those couple tweaks made and see what happens.
Brief respite... a whole two consecutive weekends of not hauling costumes and props with us. Not totally empty weekends, mind, one of them has a wedding in it, but it's local, so it doesn't really cut into my prep time for...
*dun dun dun*
GENCON. Hoo boy. As I mentioned last entry, I'm going to be helping run the Here At The End demo event, "One Man's Trash," at GenCon Indy this year. Strictly speaking, my fiancee and I are there as trusted warm bodies, and Extreme Event Prep is mostly optional and self-imposed, but dammit, I want this to go spectacularly well. So a lot of back-burner projects for H.A.T.E. are getting moved right up to the front in an effort to make everything look as cool as possible. And, since I'm going to be in a (admittedly rather small) spotlight whilst wearing garb I've made, it would be severely foolish of me NOT to bring a large stack of business cards... which means I need to put on my graphic design hat for newer, more detailed business cards (my current ones just have my email and portfolio site addresses on them), and then my web design hat to make sure all of my various websites are properly updated before the (hopeful) traffic increase. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but there are a bunch of little fiddly bits to each task that can make it all hugely time-consuming.
And then, Deeplight is having its second event, a whole three days after we get home from the con. So all the stuff I'll be scrambling around getting ready for GenCon? That's all going to be happening during so-called "breaks" from building inventory and assimilating any shop-running lessons I learn at Elmholm.
I'm pretty sure that September is rather busy, too, but two months is as far in the future as I care to do any detailed planning... I also have two commissioned gambesons in progress with nebulous deadlines somewhere in the middle of all this, and I'm halfway through replacing the shelves in my fabric closet (rendering my sewing room slightly unusable for the time being due to the sea of fabric adorning every surface). Challenge: accepted. Wish me luck!
First up is this year's Freefall Game on July 12th-13th. Freefall is an amazing Firefly/Serenity themed airsoft LARP hybrid run by the guy who taught me how to LARP in the first place. This is its 8th year, so while it still definitely fits in the 'verse and flavor of everybody's favorite prematurely cancelled space western, it's also definitely taken on a life of its own and then some. I've been playing (and occasionally helping brainstorm for) this game since year one, it's my favorite annual event, and most of my favorite gaming friends and event designers (and my fiancee) are people I've met at this game over the years. I'm doing a lot less prep for this year's game than I have in the past, but for me, "less prep" just means "we already have everything we need to set up our 3-room compound with RFID-controlled locking doors, so all we have to do is load it in the truck." I also moderate the game's official message board, which has been super quiet and needs more people to post on it.
Then on July 19th there's a Last Hope non-combat game in Mauston, WI... I really hope to make it to this thing, because the last time I made it to an event was in February (and before that, October), and I'm starting to feel like a poser. But it will really depend on how strapped for prep time I feel, because...
...Elmholm Colony of LarpCraft is having its premiere event on the 26th, and I've agreed to vend at said event. I was a little hesitant when first considering it, because of how soon this event is coming up (and how many other things I'm trying to do at the same time), so I don't know that I'll have much more to offer than I did at the Deeplight premiere, but I'm starting to get really excited about it. I feel like I actually have some idea what I'm doing this time around, so even if I only have time to add a few little things to my inventory (I'm thinking that slipcovers to disguise 3-ring binders and notebooks would go over really well) and improve my signage, it will still be great to go in and set up with just those couple tweaks made and see what happens.
Brief respite... a whole two consecutive weekends of not hauling costumes and props with us. Not totally empty weekends, mind, one of them has a wedding in it, but it's local, so it doesn't really cut into my prep time for...
*dun dun dun*
GENCON. Hoo boy. As I mentioned last entry, I'm going to be helping run the Here At The End demo event, "One Man's Trash," at GenCon Indy this year. Strictly speaking, my fiancee and I are there as trusted warm bodies, and Extreme Event Prep is mostly optional and self-imposed, but dammit, I want this to go spectacularly well. So a lot of back-burner projects for H.A.T.E. are getting moved right up to the front in an effort to make everything look as cool as possible. And, since I'm going to be in a (admittedly rather small) spotlight whilst wearing garb I've made, it would be severely foolish of me NOT to bring a large stack of business cards... which means I need to put on my graphic design hat for newer, more detailed business cards (my current ones just have my email and portfolio site addresses on them), and then my web design hat to make sure all of my various websites are properly updated before the (hopeful) traffic increase. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but there are a bunch of little fiddly bits to each task that can make it all hugely time-consuming.
And then, Deeplight is having its second event, a whole three days after we get home from the con. So all the stuff I'll be scrambling around getting ready for GenCon? That's all going to be happening during so-called "breaks" from building inventory and assimilating any shop-running lessons I learn at Elmholm.
I'm pretty sure that September is rather busy, too, but two months is as far in the future as I care to do any detailed planning... I also have two commissioned gambesons in progress with nebulous deadlines somewhere in the middle of all this, and I'm halfway through replacing the shelves in my fabric closet (rendering my sewing room slightly unusable for the time being due to the sea of fabric adorning every surface). Challenge: accepted. Wish me luck!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)