So my subscription is almost up. I won't be renewing. I just don't really use dA enough anymore to justify it. Alot of the new policies are crap, I've gained very little by way of critique or recognition through it when I have used it, and I'm growing sick of some of the people. A hint kids: slapping the word Steampunk on your work is not a fucking excuse to leave it sloppy and unfinished.

As of March 13 I'm finally legally a small business owner, not that it means much. So far it's been alot of setting up wholesale accounts and spending money I really don't have. Oh, and having potential clients flake out on me for no real reason. I have had a few clients who have been absolutely wonderful, supportive, and extremely understanding of the many little gremlins that gunk up the works of a fledgling business, so if any of you see this, know that you guys rock.

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So, I got a laptop as an early birthday/Christmas present from my family. I'm very happy with that turn of events, and with the laptop itself. The only downside is that it's Vista. I'm not one of those blind Vista haters, and now that it's been patched quite a bit, it shouldn't be so bad... except that Adobe CS3 won't install properly!! *Head Asplodes*

In other news, I'm rather disappointed with myself. I'm finishing projects in a timely manner and all, but I'm missing shipping deadlines because my car insurance lapsed (financial issues) and I'm paranoid about getting pulled over and losing my license (stupid holiday police quotas).

Still nothing on the forge. I haven't salvaged the fan I was going to use as a blower, and I'm still not certain where a good place to set up temporarily would be... and I still haven't got an anvil stand. The neighbor came through on a steel barrel, but it doesn't have a lid, so I have to find some sheet steel to fabricate one. Still need to get some iron pipe as well, so still no charcoal retort.

Oh, and I have a soda machine in the shop now... how's that for convenience

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Spent most of last week trimming up some trees, but didn't get the chance to burn anything since all this was green wood and I want to wait so I can use these trimmings as kindling. So no charcoal, which meant no firing the forge.

Got some new (shared)tools for the shop. A planer/jointer, a disc/belt sander unit, and a small table saw. It's all small hobbyist stuff, but is far better than nothing at all. Still haven't been able to liberate the lathe from the old garage so am still uncertain whether or not it works. Been thinking about looking up plans to build a medieval spindle lathe, just for kicks. But with the computer issues, it just hasn't happened.

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I took pics of the workshop, but I haven't been able to edit them so I can put them up. Or the pics I've taken of the new projects I've finished: a leather pouch (on commission, and paid for... woot! ) and a mug (Awaiting payment, also woot).

Sadly I haven't been able to edit the pics because my computer is dying a slow painful death. I'm having horrible memory issues, and it's the motherboard not the RAM chips themselves (of course, cause why in the world would it be something I can fix?). I can't run any of my image editing software, WinAmp crashes constantly (do you know how stupid it feels to sit in front of a beautiful set of speakers wearing shitty headphones wired to your iPod?), trying to play games would be a sad joke, and I can only browse for a short bit before I have to close Firefox and reopen it to clear the memory a bit.

In better news, there's a good chance I'll be able to fire up my forge for the first time this week. I have almost everything I need to put together something rather nice, but the first fire is probably going to be some bricks on the ground to test a few air inlet configurations. I still don't have a blower, and I haven't gotten the supplies to build a charcoal retort (I'm making charcoal by the "snuff a campfire and hope there's something decent left" method right now), and I'd like to get my hands on some clay to mix up adobe to line the fire pot (which has been far more difficult than I'd expected since the only reasonable quote I got was from a fill-dirt place, and they wanted a ridiculous minimum order) but I have what I need to make fire and heat some steel & I have a crappy anvil and no shortage of hammers, so I'm happy enough with that for now.

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A workspace, I has it.

Pictures as soon as I have time to take my camera out there.

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