New Terminology To Impress Your Magazine Industry Friends With

The past few weeks have been a blur of holiday gift guides and New Year's resolutions compilations.

Around this time every year, the whole magazine industry compresses. Publications that put out 12 issues a year have to do all the work they normally complete in four weeks in just three, and they have to do it two months back to back, in November and December. The December issue has to be on newsstands -- or at least off to the presses -- before Thanksgiving break, and the December issue has to be done before the holidays hit. I'll let you in on a secret: the technical term for this time of year is known in the industry as a "$#!^storm."

Needless to say, stress levels run high and sometimes it all gets to be a little too much. Maybe this explains why I've had a particularly rough month with a few of my clients. But then, I would argue that maybe you haven't really become a full-fledged, full-time freelancer until someone screams at you in all caps over e-mail for something that is ultimately determined to have not been your fault in the first place. Good times.

And admittedly, I have been no peach these past several days, either. I haven't screamed at anyone in all capital letters via e-mail ... My breakdowns have been more of the tearful, blubbering, sleep-deprived sort. On the up side, this has been my most (financially) successful freelance month since I began halfway through May. On the down side, it's taught me that working around the clock and being tethered to my iPhone during every daily activity is really no way to live. I think I've finally discovered that magical "threshold" I was looking for, the one where I have enough clients/projects on my plate and it's time to stop trying to acquire more unless I want to run myself into the ground.

I'm strongly considering trading in my credit card reward points for a "no one ask anything of me" kind of vacation over next summer. And if my boyfriend forgives me for blubbering at the most random things this past month, maybe he can even come, too. I'm thinking an island. Where there's no Wi-Fi signal and no cell phone reception. But not this island. That wouldn't help anything.

In the meantime, I think I need to finally stop saying "yes" to everything and learn when to say "no."

No.

See, there, I just did it.

No.

This will be easier than I thought.

Cissie

Last weekend was fashion week here. Technically, it's only three days long, rather than a legitimate week, but they pack a lot into those three days.

One of the PR companies I work with a lot in town actually reps Ted Baker London locally and one of the PR girls contacted me to ask if I wanted to wear something from the TBL winter collection to fashion week Saturday night. Umm ... yeah!

So I got to go to the store the day before and try on a number of really fun, really cute dresses, but in the end, I chose this one:

It's called "Cissie." I loved that it was bright red (my favorite color), and that it was kind of corseted and even had pockets. I paired it with some black patent pumps from Target and some sparkly jewelry, and I was good to go. The shows I got to see that night included Neiman Marcus, Tory Burch, Ted Baker London (of course) and Betsey Johnson. It was fun, and my boyfriend didn't even mind (too much) being dragged along and having to wear a suit.

And I would have had some video from the runway shows to post, but the mini video cam I ordered got delayed and wasn't delivered until two days later, on Monday. Ah well. Best laid plans, right? Hopefully I'll get video at something other interesting event so I can try out the cam.

Sway's Weekend Music Pick: "Chasing Pirates" by Norah Jones

DIY: Dry Erase Calendar

A week or two ago, I was writing some upcoming due dates and events in my planner and I found myself really wishing I could roll the whole thing out, unfold it and stretch it so that I could see everything I have coming up all at once.

I presented this wish to my boyfriend. Casually. While he was playing video games.

"They have those, you know," he said whilst blasting a zombie to smithereens. "Those big calendars you can put on the wall and write on and tear off the sheets one month at a time."

"Yes," I said, "but that seems so wasteful. What I really want is a dry erase board with a calendar on it."

"They make those, too."

"Yes," I said, "but there's a major problem with all of them. They're ugly."

I mean, aren't they? They all have cheap wood or plastic or metal framing them and just look so sterile and middle school math class-ish. No, if I was going to have a dry erase calendar that made me walk into my office each morning just burning to get started marking all over it, I was going to have to make one myself.

And so that's just what I did.

I used this tutorial here. And I used some of the leftover fabric I had from the DIY jewelry board project here. And I went to Michael's and bought a nice frame that was 50% off. (Is it just me, or are all the frames at Michael's always 50% off? What is going on over there?)

Do ya wanna see the end result? Do ya?

Ta-da!

The low quality of the photo is intentional. I can't have anyone unearthing the details of my deep dark secretive plan for freelance writers to take over the world someday, otherwise what would be the point of all my plotting? That's what we writers do, you know -- we plot. Ah ha. Ah ha. Ahem. Sorry ...

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the finished product. I've organized it so that it's revolving, too, meaning as soon as a week passes, I erase that week and incorporate it into the calendar for next month. For example, in this photo, October is only represented by the last row and back up at the top begins November. Even though, yes, it says October at the very top. Look, I have my own system, all right? Lay off.

Total cost for the project, since I already had the fabric, permanent markers and dry erase markers, ended up being for only the frame. And since I knew I already had all the other supplies, I splurged a little -- maybe $20-$25 (on sale!). I'm sure you could find a great one for much cheaper, though. Or perhaps you even already have one lying around? One that's not holding a photo? One that you're getting really tired of moving from closet to closet in your house?

If you make your own, let me know how it goes! (And wear GLOVES. Glass cuts. And it hurts.)