Let’s see here.
The Murano is about to tick over to 3000 miles — not too bad for having bought it with 13 miles on the clock back in July.
It’s been a fantastic vehicle so far; super comfy to drive, very capable in any weather, wonderful amenities like the Bose sound system and the leather interior, etc. I really like it. I’ve even come to terms with the CVT in it…
Speaking of, I need to schedule the first oil change and maintenance for it… I’ll do that today.
Back on the first of November I signed another 18 month lease on the condo, so I’ll be in DTC (south Denver) for at least another year and a half. The condo is still really great too, though I do wish I had a bit more time and money to enjoy the location.
Not that I’m doing poorly in those aspects, I just have a few long-term goals to hit and that means being frugal with both time and money.
I’ve been part-timing my art skills to help offset the upcoming house costs and doing a lot of graphic design work. It’s fun, and I like spending time slaving over a hot Wacom — I just wish my clients were a bit more solid on what they want versus me stabbing in the dark over and over and over until I hit something they like.
It’s the whole reason I stopped taking commissions back in the late 90’s; I have an allergy to doing the same thing over and over again.
One of my other clients has me making icons for their mobile app, and I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that I’m the wrong person for making icons… They’re too small and too fiddly. And the existing design is two shades of green and white at 100 x 100 pixels, which simply doesn’t leave much room for creativity let alone communicating anything to the user.
Give me 4-color process, 300 dpi, and at least business card size any day…
Here’s an example of a recent marketing project.
This is the front of an A2 card that encloses a 16G USB key that’s shaped like an actual key. Said key contains some promotional materials and whatnot, and is of a decent enough size to actually be useful — so it has some intrinsic value.
It was a fun project. 🙂
I’ve also done a couple of corporate Christmas cards, about two dozen business card designs, some thank you cards, a certificate, two booth designs, a roll-up banner, a dozen flyers of various sizes, a sample WordPress website design, and some other random stuff in the last six months… I should probably put together a portfolio.
It’s not a huge income, but it’s enough to warrant the hassles and it’s helping to hit my ten year plan…