Fit to be Tie-Dyed

This week is lasting forever. I’m sure that’s partly to do with how many people have asked me to do stuff for them.

Since a goodly portion of the “stuff to do” adds money into my pocket, I couldn’t say no to that part; and since the other was related to helping the daughter plan her wedding, I also couldn’t duck out of that one.

Now here’s the thing. Daughter asked me to help her design her wedding invitations. (Translation: “Mom, will you make our invitations?”) Except I’m designing to her specifications. This was the list of requirements:

• It must include a dream catcher.
• It must include crystals
• It must lean heavily to shades of purple.
• In addition to the purple, it must include every color of the rainbow.
• Don’t forget the feathers! Extra feathers!
• The background should be tie-dye
• No, really. Don’t forget the tie-dye

This was the end result. They’re going for hippie-dippy boho or whatever the latest label is. I think they achieved it.

The last addition was the tie-dye in the background. It was the future groom’s contribution, and he was adamant we include it. Hey, when you already have crystals and dreamcatchers, I guess you must add tie-dye for it to be all official-like. The 70’s are back and taking no prisoners.

The venue details haven’t been established yet, but the kids loved this design travesty.

Lest you blame my designing skills, this is what I tried to steer them toward:

It’s not everyone’s cuppa coffee, I know. But when the daughter said “super colorful” I was thinking not-white and, you know, a few colors.

I wasn’t thinking an explosion of of tie-dye and dream catchers.

(Is that a thing now, or is it just my kid who’s the ultimate hippie?)

The daughter had already decreed the fonts to use, by the way.

My book cover design project is in backorder status, which feels really weird. It kind of blew up the past week or so. If I pushed it, I could probably make as much at that as at my “day” job, but I don’t have the stamina. The actual designing doesn’t take that long, but I literally spent close to ten hours hunting for a specific image my client demanded for his cover. I’m going to start charging more.

The first cover I did for this client was fairly innocuous and I’m really happy with how it turned out. The second one was considerably more challenging. The third one’s been the pain in my ass. It’s a weird novela about cyber sex and a man who doesn’t know the difference. Oh, I got euphemisms and sidesteps, but the main storyline itself is cyber sex. This is the third cover I’ve done for this author, and he’s already asked me to do a fourth asap. Which would be okay but he won’t take any advice. He tells me what he wants, and it’s not always in his best interests to do what he wants.

I can make gorgeous covers that help sell books. But you have to let me do it…

All this is in addition to my “day” job.

You can see why I get next to nothing done. But at least this week I’m making money while I do it.

Next up: a four-day weekend. And I’m getting out of town so I can turn down all the mommy-do’s and such.