FREEBIE: August downloadable calendar!

It’s August! And although the weather has taken a bit of a turn for the worse here in North Wales, I’m feeling optimistic. The design agency I’m currently freelancing at is great fun, there’s lots of varied work to do and our little 3 person team seems to be working quite effectively and smashing through the tasks. I’m going to be there until Christmas, and maybe by that time I won’t be loving it with all the festive campaigns going on, but I have something to look forward too.

We’re going to Scotland to stay in a log cabin away from it all over Christmas, and I am so bloody excited!! Our time will be spent trudging through the (hopefully) snowy woods with the dogs, being in awe of the magnificent Cairngorm mountains, and drinking lots of wine by the fire. *Happy dance*

But, that’s a little way away, and in the mean time, I have to try and keep my head above water with these full-time freelance hours as well as getting some new products out there in time for Christmas. I’ve already been drinking copious amounts of coffee in the mornings at the office, after long evenings of planning, designing, and worrying.

I worry that I’m not as good as other illustrators/artists/designers. I worry that I’m wasting my time and I will never make enough money to be comfortable selling the things I love creating. I worry that I’m not spending enough time with Kieron in the evenings. I worry that I’m not giving enough attention to our little pooch. I worry that I’m not spending enough time with my family and friends. I worry.

It’s that self-doubt that keeps me motivated though. I can do better, I can make every day count, I can drink one more cup of coffee. Because now is the time to do it. I am young, but not so young that I’ve had no time to just live and have fun. I am an adult, but am yet to have little humans that must come before everything else (although the pooch is, of course, a bit like having a little human).

So I’m going to work hard and get stuff done!

This week my goal was to set up a mailing list and get my first email out, and I’ve smashed it already! It went out today to a grand total of 9 people. 9 is better than 0 though, and I’m hopeful that the list will grow slowly and steadily.

I’m going to be giving away free downloadable loveliness each month to my followers (Blog, mailing list, and social media). I thought a digital calendar that could be used as a desktop background or screensaver was a nice idea, so that’s what I’m starting with.

Here’s the first one, August is my birthday month, so you’re really lucky I didn’t mark that on it!

Download it here

I hope you like it, please let me know if you have any trouble downloading it or if it doesn’t display nicely on your computer, this is a learning curve for us all! The link above will take you to my dropbox folder, if you don’t have your own dropbox account you can click on ‘No thanks, continue to view’ at the bottom of the dialogue box, and then ‘Download’ in the top right-hand corner.

My next goal is a slightly bigger one, I need to get my website up and running with details of all the services I can offer as well as a fully functional shop. I’ve been dragging my heels with this because it takes up so much time. It needs to be done though before I think about getting more products out there for Christmas. I only have a folksy shop to point people to at the moment, when I really need somewhere that goes into detail about all the services I can offer.

Time to get cracking. Not right now though, now is probably time for a bath and bed…