This morning, I am organizing.
Painters are coming in to scrape off wallpaper in a couple of weeks. They did the downstairs over the winter. Next are the boys' bedrooms, which are covered with flowers. Ian has been telling strangers that we need to move back to our old house, because he now lives in a GIRL'S room.
My dining room table is covered with little squares of paint colors. I spent a half hour taping the paint chips to paper with notes. I am vaguely ashamed that I have opinions on the merits of Decorator White v. White Dove.
I am also finally making a list of everything that I've written on the Internet in the past few years. Well, not the stuff on this blog. This unholy mess will never be managed. I'm organizing stuff where cash was involved. I probably need to talk to an accountant about paying quarterly taxes, but that's next week's mess. The following week, I'll have to figure out how to create a writer's CV. Do writers do that?
As I was making the publications list, I realized that I've been blogging for 9 years. Wednesday was my blogaversary. Here's my first post. Ian was only one when I started blogging. My baby is now ten! I'm sobbing.
UPDATE: I finished my list of publications. Next up, I have to make an excel chart to track invoices.
I am updating my blogroll and sidebars. I'm trying to make my sidebar more useful and pretty. Be patient. This takes time.
I am cleaning up my Etsy shop. Did you know that I had an Etsy shop? Yes, I do. I should write about it sometime. Right now, I only have one print up on the site, but I am in the process of loading up the rest. Hopefully, it will be humming along by the end of the day.
Apt. 11d 
Happy blogaversary. Also, you probably don’t need an accountant for quarterly payments but you probably should make them.
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MH said:
“Also, you probably don’t need an accountant for quarterly payments but you probably should make them.”
How about just raising her husband’s withholding a bit to account for non-salary income? I don’t know if that is cricket, but that’s what we’ve always done We have a lot of small amounts of money coming in here and there from software, book royalties, babysitting, summer workshop pay, small academic writing jobs, etc.
“Next are the boys’ bedrooms, which are covered with flowers. Ian has been telling strangers that we need to move back to our old house, because he now lives in a GIRL’S room.”
That is an emergency. I’m surprised the kids have let you go this long with that wallpaper.
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I’m pretty sure you can just increase the wage earner’s withholding — if you file jointly. You can do that by filing a w2 w/ fewer exemptions or just asking to withhold more.
under a certain income level, you’re penalty free if you’ve withheld 100% of your joint taxes for the previous year. at higher income, it’s 110%.
Quicken tax works for figuring out withholding and quarterly payments..
(btw the withholding on the wage earner doesn’t work if you will be earning a lot, and might not if there’s a small business of some sort.)
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I paid quarterly for a while when I was earning extra from major outside projects. The hassle was stopping the quarterly payments when I stepped back the extra work!
Good luck with all of that and let us know how the boys’ room repainting progresses. We changed out one wallpaper border when we moved in (cars for penguins) but, otherwise, haven’t done much with decorating the girls’ rooms since they both like blue and that’s what they got.
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In Canada for freelance stuff I don’t usually look at a CV.
What I want is a great query, and 2-4 clips – URLS are fine, or pdfs – that show me you’ve delivered. I don’t know if the US is more formal.
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It is totally OK to have your husband’s withholding increased to cover the taxes on your income from self-employment. Also, whatever is withheld, in total, from his check is presumed to have been applied evenly throughout the year. Meaning that if he changes his withholding now, you will not be penalized for not making quarterly payments earlier this year.
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We do the same thing with withholding. While most of our income is taxed, we both get the occasional extra, and it makes more sense to withhold from the higher wage earner.
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Ok, guys. Thanks for the tax info. And, yes, I’ll post before and after pictures of the boys rooms, if they come out okay. I’m letting the boys pick out their own colors and they are going for dark, dark reds and blues. I’m going to paint all their furniture white and hope for the best.
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“We changed out one wallpaper border when we moved in (cars for penguins) but, otherwise, haven’t done much with decorating the girls’ rooms since they both like blue and that’s what they got.”
Penguins–that is fantastic!
I have one child in transition from coral reef to horses and another child who is waiting patiently for the hand-me-down coral reef stuff. At this point, we’re renting and just doing theme bedding and those removable wall decals. Next year, we’re buying a house, and we may do a wild horse photo mural and a tropical fish wallpaper mural, but I think I could probably get away with not going that far. Wallpaper is a very big commitment.
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Laura,
Pottery Barn has a book entitled “Kids Rooms” with some very cute boys’ rooms that use a strong red-blue-and-white color scheme.
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Wondering if something media-kit-ish (a one page PDF) with clips and URLs might be more useful for freelance work…a la JennG
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Oh, yes. This list was really just for my own purposes. I need to keep track of everything.
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I’ve been really lucky. I haven’t had to send blind queries. Either the editors have asked me to write something or they know me from blogging.
Actually, I’m working on an article for a new higher ed magazine right now. I might ask some of you for interviews next week.
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Organizing actually saves you a lot of money.Nice blog!!
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No CV necessary. Like JennG said, just URLs or PDFs of a couple recent clips. And if you want a sample invoice tracking sheet, let me know – I use a (very) simple one that I’d be happy to send your way.
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Tell the magazine that you’d like to be paid in cash and then you won’t have any tax issues. Or so I’ve heard.
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Thanks, Michaela and Matt, for the advice and the offer. Michaela, my invoice tracking sheet is pretty simple right now, because the writing gigs are pretty simple. If things get more complicated, I might ask you for help.
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