Catch Up

I've been a bit absent the past few days.

Oscar and I are fighting off a cold or something, multiple symptoms, but the worst for me is the sore throat and bone-deep ache. I feel a little better today, though. I plan to take naps whenever get I sleepy enough, to help fight this sucker off.

I am working on one knitted item due April 1st, and another without a definite due date that will finish up my old-pattern obligation to Knit Picks. I have submitted a swatch and sketch to a yarn company, arranged to submit a Tunisian crochet pattern to another company (when I get it worked out) and have submitted a request for Knit Picks yarn support for a cool idea my friend Absinthia sparked a month or so ago.

I have also spent some time this week getting used to having a business, and thinking about things like taxes (and tax deductions) establishing a better system of record keeping, and deciding how elaborately and minutely I want to track the spending for Otterwise. Its a lot more fun doing this for myself than it was when I held accounting positions in other companies. :-}

So far I have categories set up for:

-Books
-Online classes and Guild membership (and Master's Level studies)
-Yarn
-Tools
-Shipping (for sending out samples)
-Advertising
- Miscellaneous

For my business model, traveling isn't really a part of it at all at this point, although I heard a rumor Sock Summit might be in Toronto next year, which isn't that far away..

Tracking income is also something I've been pondering.
So far there is:
-bread-and-butter downloads via my website and Ravelry,
-Monthly income from Knit Picks, Patternfish and the like
-Income from individual patterns to various magazine publications
-Direct sale of patterns without reversion of rights to me
-Sale of pattern directly to yarn companies with eventual reversion of rights to me.
-eventually, a book or seventeen perhaps :-}

Oscar's laptop has become more and more unreliable (blue screen of death, anyone?), and he came across a sale on minis. The desktop he is currently using for studying is slow as molasses and just about as useful.

My laptop has been a workhorse, but has everything on it; games and work and photos and writing, etc. and I have been toying with the idea of eventually (some time this year) having a business-only system. I have ADHD and extra distractions are NOT what I need when I am working. Plus my current laptop, relatively light though it is (about 4-5 pounds with the extra fan and lap desk) is still a strain on my abdomen when I try and lift it into place while taking my normal reclining work position.

The new minis weigh just over 2 pounds, and are on sale this week. Oscar had a brilliant idea. We get a mini (less than $300!) for me, transfer my work files and programs (for Otterwise and my writing) to it, then he can have my laptop. When I feel like playing games, I can still use the old laptop when Os isn't. The mini is tax deductible. Cool Beans.

So I have a Mini 10v on the way, loaded with Windows 7. Oscar is pretty happy about having Little Red, too, and doesn't even mind the moon and Yoda stickers (very much).