Amatheya's 2012 Debt Diary

Amatheya81

Last night I decided to stop being pathetic and make a start on a new illustration and as it turns out it's going very well. The pose is good, the stile fits with the first of my illustrations but is significantly different and I'm trying a new technique that has really made my life easier. Unfortunately I was up until gone 11 working on it and woke up feeling even more grotty today than I did yesterday but on the bright side I've booked a 4 day weekend so I can rest, recuperate and work on my illustration I only have 4 weeks to go until the vintage fair. It's starting to feel scarily close and I still need to design at least 3 more prints after this one :eek:

On diet news today I've decided enough is enough I'm having a day off. I haven't been eating sweets and chocolate but I did have a ham and cheese paninni and I'm having my favourite comfort food (chicken and brockley shepherds pie) for dinner tonight. I know I'll have put weight on when I weigh in but I also know when my body is telling me I need energy.

*Happy Dance* I finished the transfer of my loan onto my credit card today. Only one more payment next month and then it's gone forever!!! I know, I know I'll still have the ballance on the credit card but I'll be paying 0% interest on it and I'll be able to pay of as little or as much as I like depending on what type of month I'm having. It's so exciting :j

So, I'm still trying to decided which debts to pay off first. My OD is the only debt I'm paying interest on so that's an obviouse choice but after that my non loan transfer cc has a lot higher ballance and the 0% ends in only 6 months. I can't decided whether I should pay off as much of that as possible before the 6 months is up to make it easier to transfer it to another card or try to clear my lower ballance card which I've got at 0% until Sept '13. Not entirely sure what to do but then again maybe I'll make lots of money from my illustrations and be able to pay everything off this year :jWell we all gotta have a dream

Amatheya81

I'm finally starting to feel better today

I've had a lovely day at the vintage fair (I'll be selling at the next one, SCARY!) I bought myself a nice little polkadot hea scarf but nothing else so I was a good girl realy. I need a corset for the next burlesque night so after looking on eBay I've decided to buy a patter and make one (I used to make a lot of corsets) instead of buying something that will only last me a couple of wears.

My loan is now registering the money I've paid off *happy dance* it's nice to see that there's only a couple of hundred left to pay then I'm free!!!!!

Anyway, today I've got a couple of chores to do but first I'm going to sepnd some seriouse drawing time on my next painting. I may even finish it today (Yay!) I also need to look into packaging and getting cards printed as well as business cards. I know that my friend who's doing the fair with me is worried that she won't have anything to sell so I really want to make sure I have more rather than less. I also want to make sure that I have some large nace looking price points to draw people in as we're going for the pocket money crowed rather than the big money crowed.

Ooo, and I nearly forgot. My eBay sales that are finishing today are now up to just under £60 I'm not putting anything new on today but hopefully next week I'll be able to put some artwork on

I also need to start looking at other fairs throught the summer that I may be able to sell at. It's all so exciting!!!

Amatheya81

Yay!! My ebay sales ended at just under £75

Amatheya81

Ugh I'm tired. I should really go to bed now but I've been up working on my illustration business. I've been buying supplies to use at the vintage fair next week. All sorts of things from A4 cellophane bags for my prints to pendant blanks to make little necklaces out of my art. I'm planning on keeping the cost of my products as low as possible and the quality as high as possible as people at the vintage fair aren't going to be looking for art so I need my products to be "pocket money" price. Only 5 weeks to get my bum in gear and put together something to sell!!

Amatheya81

Where has January gone? Less than two weeks of it left, time is definately flying!

So, just a quick update on my goals.
Money wise I'm quite flush this month so I should be able to start thinking about making a dent in my od
Weight wise I'm back on track. last week was awfull, I just eat whatever I wanted because of how awfull I felt but the past couple of days I've started to behave again and I'm hoping that there wasn't too much damage done. I have my fingers crossed for a lose this weekend and I'm even thinking about going to the gym on Friday
Illustration wise. The illustration I'm working on at the moment is causing me a bit of trouble but I'm nearly finished, just the hair and finishing touches to go and then I'll only have 3 illustrations left to do for which I have very little inspiration I've also discovered that I'm going to have to work in a different office for most of next month which means getting a train there and back which is going to eat into my time. On the bright side my pendant making stuff started to arrive yesterday and I'm really excited!!!

Amatheya81

I forgot to add that not days after I paid nearly all my Lloyds loan off they started bombarding me with letters, calls and advertising trying to get me to take out more debt with them!:mad:

I know they are a business and need to sell their products but they try to convince you that you would be much better consolodating all your debt into one of their loans and 90% of the time that is a complete lie. I wouldn't trust their advice for the world now and it irritates me to have to tell them repeatedly that I don't want to meet with their advisors or "chat" about my current circomstances. I would however like them to drop off the face of the plannet

Amatheya81

I got my letter from the bank saying that my loan will be fully paid in two weeks today. I'm very excited as it will be a huge weight off of my mind.

Amatheya81

Ooops... I didn't mean to press post then... I haven't finished rambling yet

It's weigh in day tomorrow. I'm pretty sure that I've fixed last weeks blip So going forward hopefully I'll be back to a downward trend. I'm a bit miffed I messed up on the second week but what can you do?

Yesterday I finished my second burlesque painting :j and I've got the ideas for my next two paintings poking around in my head. I'm going to start the next one tomorrow. I've also been contacted about a commission (good but scary) and I spent today learning to make necklaces out of my art and putting it into practice. You can see what I've been upto on my blog
I still haven't finished updating my website so tomorrow once I get writers cramp from all the drawing (as I always do) I shall try to finish that up. I will also start planning a online shop and working on a selling strategy. I've decided to stick with prints and pendants and drop the greeting card thing. After all I've tried selling those off and on for the past few years and it's never gotten me anywhere. I feel good about the jewllery though and will keep you posted on how they sell.

Now I'm off to bed. I may head to the gym tomorrow and I got next to no sleep last night so I need some decent downtime tonight!!

Hope you're all having an inspiring start to the year