Rattling my cage.

Who's been rattling my cage? That's what I want to know!
The last few weeks have been full of ups and downs. In November I was promised a big contract for the coming year - payable in advance (this is not uncommon as projects sometimes have budget deadlines which expire before all the reports, articles and books have been written). I took this as a green light to go ahead with my calendar, made a final selection of images, commissioned the designer etc (see recent previous blogs). The first week in December I get an apologetic e mail saying that the project has no budget left and cannot follow this order through.

I spent a few hours doing sums and the figures looked red - blood red. I had a sleepless night and realised my only safe option was to pull out from printing and posting the calendar. Having already selected the artwork and commissioned the designer I've gone for a pdf version instead. You can download it from here. And here's a preview of the cover.
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In the two weeks following this decision I got an unexpected (and substantial) tax rebate and a stream of work offers that kept me busy for two weekends in a row and until 11 o clock on Tuesday night (to meet a last deadline) and have filled my work schedule for the first three weeks of January. The last quarter of the year is always the busiest for me. This year it waited until the 5th December to kick in and make the difference.

This storm of work was accompanied by having to get my car through its road test (not too painful) the cold snap (which completely drained its battery) and the fraught process of exchanging my UK driver's licence (with a recently expired photocard) for a Dutch one (that's a story for another time - but it had a happy ending).

So the calendar might have worked (financially) - but the ice was too thin. I learnt that while the calendar might be a good way of profiling my business it is also a bit of an indulgence - an expensive and time consuming one. I hope not too many readers or clients will be disappointed at receiving a pdf this year as opposed to a fat envelope and glossy calendar. And, if you are reading this and are on the calendar mailing list please let me know if you download the file. It will save me from sending a few emails in the coming days / weeks.

I don't think my artist has wholly forgiven me for downgrading the project at the last minute although have come to an 'understanding'. It will cheer her up if you visit her website - as she is hoping for lots more traffic this year though this collaboration.

Having had the earth move (not in the enjoyable sense) so much under my feet in the past few weeks I have hardly made any preparations for Christmas: time to head to the shops and put up the Christmas lights. Festive greetings to you all.