Some mood music, first off.

I would love to know what the secret is to working an overnight shift and not waking up feeling like you've been repeatedly kicked in the head [or, you know, everywhere]. I have a headache I haven't been able to shake since I got up today and I feel like absolute garbage. Which wouldn't be so bad I guess if I was going to bed in another 3-4 hours.

Sadly, no... I've yet another overnight shift to work instead. Ugh! *drowns self in coffee*

Still not having any luck with the job search and I absolutely refuse to go through another horrific summer at my current job. So, we're going to try something a little different a few weeks from now. I've reserved the third week of March [the 14th to the 18th] for a little stay-cation...except that rather than kicking back and relaxing, I'm going to be conducting a week long experiment.

I've done the math on my current income. Between what gets taken out of my paycheck for taxes, healthcare, and 401K stuff per week, I really only make about $7.30 an hour. Assuming a typical full time schedule is 5 eight hour shifts per week [roughly $60 a day], the experiment is to see if I can at least maintain the status quo of $300 that I normally bring home per week. If I can do that much [or if somehow I surprise myself and make closer to $400-500] I'm going to start looking into healthcare costs and tax law to see how pheasible a freelance gig would be.

What does that mean for watchers and commissioners? Probably several sets of adoptables and some fairly quick/simple YCH things that week. Depending on how much I make and how much time it all takes, I may consider reopening my Patreon with some new tiers/offerings. The goal going forward would be to try to work on quick, little things Mon-Fri and use the weekends for more in depth/complicated projects, commissions, and/or comics.

If anyone who works from home/self employed has any recommendations or advice it would be greatly appreciated. Again, not going jumping off the deep end just yet, but I'll experiment for a week to get a sense for how successful the concept would be.

Should have known better than to jinx myself by uploading my most recent post. Fear of the future/the unknown is one thing...but, to never be offered the opportunity is a totally different and utterly crushing feeling. I never did get called for an interview...

I really felt that my qualifications and experience would have at least landed me an interview, as it was still retail in a sense. If I didn't get the job after that, I would know it was my rusty interview skills. However, we're now going on 2 weeks past when they said they'd be doing callbacks for interviews and I've heard nothing. Which leaves me with a boat load of questions and suspicions...as well as a growing well of depression...

Am I really so unworthy of a better job...of a better life? Did my GM give a false reference on my performance in order to keep me where I am? Is it even worth sinking any more time into trying to get hired anywhere?

Getting that job would have made a marked improvement on my current position in life. I might actually have been able to have a savings account again and some real financial security. It would have surely been a better environment for my sanity and well being as well, just from a day to day stress level kind of sense. And I really -really- felt like I had a good chance of getting it...

Anyways...

Kicking off the week with a nasty 9.5 hour overnight shift...I really could use something to lift my spirits a bit. Music is always a tremendous help and I thought I would share some of my favorites [both old and new].

Seashore War - from Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze OST - This track has no business being as good as it is. This speaks of some kind of struggle and endless hope/belief that goes far beyond some silly ape defending his island.

Busa - from The Lion King - Simba's returning home music. This song is pure JOY!

Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship - I'm sure I've linked to this before, but this is pure 80's feel good music.

And for final consideration, I suggest This Listening Chair - Imogen Heap - This song speaks to me on so many levels. It's not necessarily a "feel good" kind of a piece, so much as it is a delving into one's self. It's meant to be a window into every 7 years of the artist's life, but I'm sure much of it is themes and events that anyone can relate to.

The rest of the album is certainly worth looking into as well! [Imogen Heap - Sparks] Especially tracks like Minds Without Fear and Run Time.

Happy listening! ^(._.)^ <3

My husband and I never really have made of habit of making a big to do about Valentine's Day [even back when we were dating]. I usually do a little doodle at least though...just a little something to celebrate being together. ^(._.)^;

However, I thought I might try something a little different this year. I thought it might be sweet if I could gather a couple pictures together to gift him as a surprise. So...would anyone be interested in doing an art trade with me? It'd be a fair trade. Meaning, if you want to just draw my husband's character, I'll draw a character for you. And if you're willing to draw me and him together, I'll gladly draw two characters for you!

If you're interested, please comment below or note me and we can discuss details further. I'll have to email you his reference info as I don't have it posted anywhere. It's still in a rather rough state, as my work schedule has kept it on the back burner for quite a while. That and he's a teacher and understandably is a bit paranoid about some parent somewhere getting upset about him being "a furry". Someday I will finish it though!

Currently living out one of those shitty predictable days in retail. The East Coast is about to get pounded with a snow storm. However, the snow doesn't start until later today. So, all of this morning we've been inundated with assholes who are off from work (because their businesses were wise enough to close ahead of time). Which would be fine if the rest of the day was unfolding like usual.

Most of the part time employees who are smarter/flakier than the rest of us have already called out and opted to stay home. Which leaves the store without a cashier for the entire day. And again, that'd be fine if it were snowing and the store was quiet. It isn't yet though and we've been busy enough that it's left everyone scrambling and trading off between covering the register and helping people on the floor.

And amidst all of this, my silent rage has been burning with every "Stay safe in the snow later!" and "Oh, I'm just poking around," I receive from customers today. Because the honest truth is that I've done my preparing and if it were left up to me [ie. if I didn't need this paycheck] I'd still be at home, curled up with a blanket and a coffee and drawing. But, instead, Im here so that other assholes who have the day off can "poke around" until the bad weather starts.

And when it does start, if a miracle happens and we actually close early, I'll then be struggling to make it home through however many inches of snow, hoping I don't get in a wreck with one of these idiots who just HAD to come out and shop. Or, you know, just hoping I don't get in a wreck...period.

My silver lining in all this? If I die in a fiery crash later...at least that lady got those plastic file boxes she wanted. She's going to do her taxes while she's snowed in. Isn't that sweet?

Really could not ask for a better morning. ^(._.)^ Finished all my early morning chores and sat down to start working...just in time for it to begin snowing. Been enjoying my coffee and just watching the snow come down for about an hour now. It's Richmond, so I'm sure the snow will stop soon/won't linger. I was born farther north though and would live much father north if it were solely up to me. Love snow so goddamn much...

Anyways, if you're working along with me this morning or just hanging out/stopping by, here's some awesome music [in no particular order] to get you through the day!

Loreena McKennitt - Snow

Sarah McLachlan - Song for a Winter's Night

Loreena McKennitt - To Drive the Cold Winter Away [if you're not feeling the snow vibe]

Loreena McKennitt - The Mask and the Mirror full album

I SO need to be done with retail. I just hate everyone and everything I come in contact with every single day. And it's not hard to see why when it's been wearing you down for over a decade. For entertainment's sake though, allow me to share a situation that just unfolded [keeping in mind that the same or similar situations play out day in and day out with similar entitled little shits]:

Customer: I have some products I would like to return.
Me: That's fine! Do you have your receipt with you?
Customer: No, an associate of mine made the purchase. I don't have anything with me.
Me: *noticing that the items were ordered online because I do not carry this brand of binders in store* Uh...ok. So, you don't have the copy of the invoice that would have shipped in the box with these?
Customer: No. I did not make the purchase. I just want to make an even price exchange with these 3 binders I grabbed off the shelf. You can do that, right?
Me: Not...really. My register won't recognize these binders because they came from our website and I don't carry them in store. [Not to mention, since you got these online, I don't even know if they're the same price as the ones you picked up off the shelf.] I really just need the order number from that invoice and we can easily do this exchange. Do you perhaps have an email about the order with that number on it...or could you call your associate and see if they can get that information?
Customer: I don't understand why this is so difficult! I just hate these binders and want to return them! I didn't think I would have to bring any evidence of purchase with me. You're clearly retarded. Please get your manager for me so they can wave a magic wand and just give me what I want.
Me: Ok. *calls manager over and explains what's going on*
Manager: Are you sure you can't get in touch with your associate to get the order number? Once we have that, the rest of the transaction will be simple.
Customer: Ugh! I refuse to do that. I just want you to give me what I want! You're just as dumb as your employee here. Where is -your- manager?
Manager: He took a personal day to go skiing. But that's besides the point. I'd be happy to help you with this problem. Your just not understanding that we have to process all these things through a computer and that computer needs certain information from the customer to complete the transaction.
Customer: This is exasperating! I didn't make the purchase and I just want to do this return! Why can't you just give me these three binders and take those and we'll call this square?
Manager: *sigh* ...

At this point I had to walk away. I have way too much on my plate to finish in a given day, rather than spend it battling pig headed idiots. I'm sure the manager took her employee's name or something and had to call our help desk and try to track down the order number with the little bit of information we have. I'm sure the lady was flustered that it took so long and I'm sure she threatened that she won't ever shop with us again.

Good.

We've just entered into a new year and I'm happy to announce that I've found an even better site to host my current commission queue. Google Docs was fine and I do like the fact that it updates/saves immediately upon every change. However, I've been looking for a more intuitive way to present the queue...ideally one that would give me the ability to show progress on commissions AS I work on them.

Earlier today I found Trello and I immediately began migrating the queue over to it using a mix of info from Google docs and by going back through my notes here on FA. And viola! Clockwork Caribou's new Commission Queue!

Each commission entry shows a checklist with the 6 typical steps to a completed commission through me. I'll be ticking off these steps on that list as they are finished for your commission! And if you have a Trello account [which is free], you can "subscribe" to your commission's card to received updates every time I check something off that list or add a new note to the commission. Obviously, I'll still be emailing commissioners as progress is made anyways, but I thought this was a neat extra way of seeing where your commission stands and what I'm currently focused on completing.

I'll be getting in touch with everybody currently in the queue over the next couple days [as some of you, I'm embarrassed to say, I haven't been in touch with for quite some time]. I want to let all my commissioners know about the queue and to check and make sure that all details about their commission are correct [and that they still want it to be completed].

Here's hoping that I'll have some positive changes in my employment this year and that 2016 will be far more productive than 2015. ^(._.)^;

Finding the right mix of music to work to is an on-going and ever changing list for me. For those who are working on anything this morning and might like some suggestions, I thought I would offer up a brief listing on some of my favorite tracks to throw on.

The trick, for me anyways, is to find [or make] a long playlist of music that is inspiring to listen to, but not too intrusive. I've found that if I make myself select one song at a time, my train of thought and general rhythm get derailed completely and I lose my focus too quickly...

Braid OST - The soundtrack to the game Braid is simply the best. There's ups and downs and it feels like a 1.5 hr emotional journey.

BT's Skylarking - Only an 11 min track, but I can easily just set this song on repeat and work. Simply a gorgeous, uplifting track.

BT Mixgasm Pt 1
BT Mixgasm Pt 2 - I'm actually more partial to part 2 of these hour long mixes. There -are- some tracks with repetitive lyrics that occasionally feel intrusive and get skipped, but for the most part this is a very reliable mix to just throw on.

Juno Reactor - Bible of Dreams
Juno Reactor - Labyrinth
Juno Reactor - Inside the Reactor - Working on expert mode! Juno Reactor has a super cinematic feel [to me anyways] and I usually throw these albums on when I'm into something more action oriented...or if I've had a bad day at work and I want something that feels more dark and moody.

The very end of last year into the beginning of this year has found me branching out into some exciting new areas. Thought it would be appropriate to compile a small list of places you can find my work [other than FA].

Red Bubble - Clockwrk-Caribou@redbubble.com
Zazzle - ClockwrkCaribou@zazzle.com
Weasyl - ClockworkCaribou@Weasyl.com

You'll notice if you visit my Weasyl page that I haven't uploaded anything there yet. I'm thinking that rather than take time to migrate my art over from FA, that I'll likely only be uploading new stuff going forward over there. If you have a Weasyl account though, be sure to watch me/follow/whatever over there. I dig how their commission system works and when the day comes that I open again, I'll be giving that a try.

Also, for my other two stores, if anyone has any suggestions for anything they'd like to see on shirts and stuff, feel free to let me know. I have a couple new designs in the works, but I'm always open to new ideas!

And as for commissions/projects as we head into the new year, I'm currently finishing up the reindeer TF spots that I took. I still have some slots from Halloween to finish as well. And those who purchased slots on the most recent page in the Nyxis's Day Off folio will receive their character sketches very soon!

I wanted to do something like this weeks ago...but the holidays are always a mess and that's fallen by the wayside. I have a dumb little graphic to promote this which I was working on yesterday evening. And it's still going to take a little while to finish this afternoon before it'd be ready to post...

SO, to save a little time (on what is likely my best free afternoon of the week), I thought I would go ahead and post the offer in a journal first (while I'm stuck at work).

I've wanted to do a little fun holiday TF stuff. After all, as a reindeer myself, I can assure you there's nothing better to BE during the holidays (pretty sure I can even fly for this entire week...dunno, have to check the manual). Rather than keep that special sensation away from everyone, I'd rather share it! <3

So (for now), I'm offering 5 PWYW slots for these reindeer transformations. Minimum payment is $5 and the max is $20 (the idea being that if you want to pay more than $5, I'll illustrate some more of the transformation process for you). Just comment below if you're interested and I'll save you a slot!

Couple important notes:
- Please only grab a slot if you're ready to send/link to ref info within the next 3 hours.
- You can also be transformed into something else if a reindeer isn't what you're interested in. Something festive would be preferred though!
- I won't need payment until the piece is finished! Please be ready to pay before Christmas though (as I'm going to be finishing these before then). Also, please let me know now how much you'll be paying (you can send this info along with your ref material). That way I'll know how much to draw for your character.

Thanks and happy holidays guys! ^(._.)^

Soon to be reindeer -
 codytheshepherd  cappies  albedo_azura  mtt3  defiance

Just got back from seeing the new Star Wars movie. If you're remotely still on the fence, as a total stranger whose opinion means nothing, I can safely tell you go see eeeeeeet!

That is all. Goodnight. ^(._.)^ <3

So proud of myself right now!

Some may recall from a previous journal of mine that I've been having difficulty getting my cell phone to charge for quite some time now. In fact, shortly after the journal I posted, gravity was no longer enough to keep the charger connected to the phone. Instead, I began having to wedge the whole set up under a couch cushion to keep everything nice and snug to get a charge. But hey, you know, whatever. Just charge your phone right when you get home [so you can use it as an alarm clock that night] rather than charge while you're sleeping, and everything works out great!

Until the cable no longer connects at all.

I feel terrible if it was because of me having to contort the cable for months, but all of a sudden both charging cords [the originals that came with the phones] no longer worked in my phone or my husband's [whose phone does not have the charging port issue that mine does]. We went out and got new cables and that worked for a while. As of super recently though, my charging port had gotten so bad that the cable could no longer be positioned reliably and I had to physically HOLD the charger to the butt of the phone for the entire length of time it took to charge. Not convenient and super painful to try and keep your hand in that position for an hour or so at a time.

SO, all that to say, I finally looked into buying the replacement part...and suddenly wished I had done so 7 months ago. Only $12 on Amazon and the part came with all the tiny little screwdrivers and other miscellaneous tools for the job. One repair video on YouTube and a couple hours of fiddling and VIOLA! My phone charges like a normal phone again! Plus, I now know what the inside of my phone looks like AND can identify many of the internal components if anything else goes wrong.

Anyways, sorry for the long winded post. I figured someone out there might appreciate knowing that there was a happy resolution to the issue. That and I felt the need to share that I essentially feel like I gained +1 to my intelligence today. ^(._.)^;

Just found these guys this afternoon and I'm hooked! Had to throw some $$$ at them and get the album.

Really awesome instrumental music! Give them a listen! Wintergatan <3 ^(._.)^

Been a little while since my last journal and I know I haven't had much to upload/update this month. So, for those who follow this stuff or care, I figured I would post a little something. I'm actually at work right now. We're that f'ed on having people (or rather, not having enough people) that I'm having to work this weekend to help put up the truck we received yesterday on Black Friday.

I'll be home later today though and I'm hoping to jump into getting some work done on the various pieces I owe. Again, I apologize that there hasn't been much in the way of progress on my work. The holidays have officially kicked off though and anyone who gets tied up with family stuff knows how your spare time just flits away. As some may recall, I lost a week at the beginning of the month while vacationing with my mom. Upon my return to work, it was demanded that I work a week of overnights to get caught up with a myriad of half finished projects throughout the building. And overnight shifts are never good for having the energy levels to come home and try to create anything...

So, in short, I've really only had about one week in all of Nov to try and work on anything, as this past week was spent at my parents, helping to prep for Thanksgiving. And then obviously yesterday I was at work (which involved getting up at 3AM...yay). I'll move ahead on things one way or another though. Largely I'm just thankful to have a job (shitty as it is), especially with all that's been going on with my husband's job.

He's still getting let go in a few short weeks. We'll be ok, but things are going to get rather tight and tedious here for a while until he finds something steady or I find a significantly better job. In the meantime, don't be surprised if I post some openings for small, quick commissions on the weekends. Just trying to build up a buffer of sorts before his current job is terminated.

Anyways, here's hope that 2016 will be a much better year! ^(._.)^

Sitting here at the moment trying not to work myself into a panic while waiting to hear how things go for my husband today. Everyone has to deal with other's opinions of them at work. Whether it's how your boss views your work or what your coworkers think of your ethics/politics. Even I am under the heavy thumb of trying to appease/impress customers every day. Unfortunately for my husband, the opinions he has to uphold are those of shitty parents who all want their precious snowflake children to be molded into perfect musicians. In the instance of some though, there's some parenting missing that makes teaching the kids anything almost impossible.

And those, of course, are the parents who have voiced their negative opinions of him the loudest. To the point where his current employer is looking at letting him go. He'll be talking with the owner of the business today...basically going in to beg to keep a job that he no longer enjoys anyways. It's the best option we have for paying rent at the moment though and there's no other real bright alternatives on the horizon as far as different employment opportunities go.

Through all this, I also have in mind the burden of our looming medical bills. My husband has also been struggling with high blood pressure along with some other ailments as of late. Which has resulted in several visits to clinics and doctors. He's got it all pretty well settled at this point, so now we just kind of have to wait for the bills to start rolling in from all the various tests and what not. It was already a concern weighing on my mind...but now, with the threat of him losing his job, it's a truly frightening concept.

It seems like a drop in the bucket to even mention, but there's also the consideration that Thanksgiving is almost upon us. Afterwards, I have to start looking into Christmas gifts for friends and family. Or...maybe we won't be able to this year depending on what happens... Which is a sad thought. We never have a ton of money to throw at gifts anyways, but I've never had to worry about not being able to spare a dime towards them. I've also never really had to consider stepping back down to a smaller apartment with a cheaper monthly rent. And potentially losing some of our pets along the way depending on the regulations of whatever place we would move to. The list goes on and on...

So, yeah...we'll just have to wait and see what the news is when he gets home...

---

Thought I'd tack on a little update to this, since my husband just messaged me. Sounds like the whole idea of letting him go was less about him personally and more about the company trying to scale back [as so many are doing now]. He has about another month and a half to work there, so we'll have to hope that by Christmas he'll have found another job.

So, I'm stuck on the shitty provided wifi for the place we're staying at in NC. And the little fucker let me access FA for maybe an hour...before blocking it.

I've never experienced that before. And it's kind of pissing me off...

Didn't sleep well last night... I've been fighting my phone/charger each day now to get it to charge at night. Who knows what combination of age + pocket lint + gremlins is causing the poor connection. Even if I have to fight it, it eventually always starts charging at some point. Always.

Well, last night when I went to bed, it wouldn't start charging at all no matter how I twisted or positioned the cable. I got up several times in the course of trying to fall asleep; after giving up in frustration the first time. Each time - no luck. Only way I was able to fall asleep was by convincing myself that this morning I would try two things to solve the problem. First, I would try just the USB end of the charger in my laptop [I usually use a wall unit]. If that failed, I would go online and see if I could locate a retailer that sells wireless charging pads for my phone model [and pray that they're not a million dollars].

Laptop charge failed this morning [and while I was at it, I tried my husband's charger as well - no luck], so I went online to look for wireless charging pads. Walmart has them...but not for my model of phone. Best Buy has them...but only if you drop $120 on a cell phone case + wireless charger combo. And even with that, I couldn't confirm if they have them in store or online only [keep in mind, it's like 6:30AM when this scenario is unfolding, so there's no calling the store]. SO, I gave up on that and pulled up my cell phone provider's website instead to try and gauge how much a repair would cost and how long it would take.

I suppose I should have prefaced all this by saying that I'm on vacation this coming week. Not going very far; just back to the beach. We leave tomorrow though and I will NEED my phone to communicate with the person I'm going with, as she will be driving to pick me up before we proceed together on this trip. My phone was at 18% battery this morning and I would only have today to try and find a solution...even if that solution was ordering something and having it shipped where we will be going [much as I absolutely do not want to do that].

I would have to go to my cell phone carrier's store front today to initiate a repair. After that, I'm sure it'd probably take a week between shipping it out and getting it back in [with an $80+ price tag]. So...not really a solution for my immediate problem of needing the phone for tomorrow. Completely and utterly defeated, I closed the laptop and just sat here for a moment...I'm embarrassed to say, very nearly in tears. There's just something so inconsolably frustrating about when technology refuses to work the way it should.

In the course of this whole process + online searching, I had turned my phone off and back on again maybe 2-3 times. It's comforting in a way that no matter how advanced things get, rebooting when there is an issue still works a decent 70% of the time. So, in one last desperate attempt, I plugged the charger in again and tried to position the cable so it would accept the charge. NOTHING. Angrily, I power the phone off to conserve whatever tiny bit of battery life is left. I'm not sure why, but I tried the charging cable one more time while the phone was off...

All of a sudden, the screen lights up and the phone starts waking itself up again. It was getting power! I'm not sure what combination of things was finally able to get it to work, but it is now off in the corner charging contentedly. I'm not going to touch it or use it much at all today in case it would decide to be finicky again while charging tonight. It's such a relief to know that I'll have it for the initial part of the trip tomorrow. And I sincerely hope the charger will continue to work while we're away. I guess I'll look into solving the charging issue when we return...even if it means ultimately replacing the phone.

Anyways, sorry about the long winded post. I just felt the need to share as it has been a rather stressful night/morning of trying to force technology to DO. And, as it often goes, things have begun working again just as inexplicably as they had failed...and with no real reason as to why or how. Hurray for technology!

So excited for tomorrow! It has indeed been a productive weekend, just like I'd hoped.

The second page of Nyxis's Day Off is completed and will be posted tomorrow! And I'm currently working towards finishing the sketch for page 3. Because of some background stuff that went on with donators on the second page, there will only be 2 open slots available out of the 4 character slots for page 3. These will be a flat sale $70 per slot to make up the $200 needed to produce the third page.

If you're not interested in the Nyxis thing, that's perfectly fine. I also have 3 Halloween inspired YCHs that I'll be opening as well. 24HR auction will begin tomorrow afternoon and my hopes are to have all 3 completed by next weekend [or early next week at the absolute latest].

In the meantime, this is really just a heads up on what's coming! Looking forward to having some uploads for you guys tomorrow afternoon! See you then. ^(._.)^

Been at work for an hour already and I'm so jazzed to just get the day over with. I finally have a weekend devoid of plans and work will be decently settled when I leave today (so, there should be no need for those assholes to call me in). And you better believe I have some plans for the extra free time!

First of all, the second page for Nyxis's Day Off should be completed over the weekend. I'm setting a personal goal for posting that and kicking off bidding on positions in page 3 by Monday. Also, I have some doodles laying around that I may convert to some stylized YCH things. And of course I'll be looking to sneak some time in to work on commissions as well. Have a couple that are right on the edge of being done that just need a little nudge to completion.

So, here's hoping for a productive weekend. I'm hoping it'll be a good one for you too! ^(._.)^

Was tempted to put up a journal last night, but it got late and I ran out of steam. Anyways, now I'm stuck at work, but I thought I would put this up now in case I forget to do so later.

Been making some progress on commission stuff and projects. However, I've found over the last couple days that it's been nice to stop sometime between 8-9PM and just do some aimless doodling to unwind. Really in the mood to draw ponies or more derpy beaked faces like my owl-bear.

I really shouldn't be doing stuff for free because I could really use the $$$...but I'm not looking to make my queue any longer either. So what the hell... Comment below if you've got a pony or a bird (avian or gryphon). No promises on how many or whom I will draw. This is more just meant to be for fun in the late evening.

Thanks ^(._.)^

Holy shit guys, I went home for a couple days to visit my parents [hadn't seen them since July]...and I come home to 32 new watchers!

I don't know where you all came from, but thank you!

So uh...I've about hit the wall with my day job. People keep leaving and more and more just keeps getting spread around without anyone being hired to help share the load. Freight that arrives on Tuesday isn't getting fully put away until Wednesday of the following week [when there was a time in the past where we could have it done in a day]. Of course, that was a time when there would be 5-6 people working in my department. Now we're down to 2, with me shouldering the bulk of the work as the only full-timer. I just don't see how things will get better any time soon and with every shitty customer and stressful shift, I'm more and more ready to be done.

And it's not like I haven't been trying to get out. A friend recently helped me polish up my resume and even helped apply to some places for me. Applications have been flung everywhere, but so far, not a single interview. Still, it's not like I don't already currently have a second job. When I come home, I work on commissions or projects...which got me wondering if I could make a living wage doing artwork. I know that many do exactly that, but it's still a little scary for me thinking about making that leap.

The math seems to make sense though... To maintain our current lifestyle of barely scraping by, I would have to make at least $300 per week [which is what I take home from my day job after taxes]. That'd be $60 a day Mon-Fri...which would mean finishing at least 4 commissions worth about $15 or so a piece per day. That'd certainly be do-able if I had all day to draw. And doing larger commissions and adoptables and stuff will help as well. Still...I don't know. I would have to figure out how taxes would figure into the whole thing and I'd have to go about getting health care on my own [since I currently have that through work].

So, all that to say, I'm just curious if anyone has any wisdom to share with me while I'm tossing this idea around. I'd really appreciate it! ^(._.)^

Been working all morning on project stuff. Time to take a break! Was tempted to doodle some adopts I'd gotten recently...but, I think I'd rather do this instead. I'd like to do some simple head shot type things to make a little extra $$$, but not take up much time. Would prefer to have an example for said things though before opening some slots for them though soooo...

Comment below with a link to a single character, as well as two colors you like. The two colors will be used for light at two different angles on the character's head shot. You'll see. ^(._.)6