The holidays have been fun but also stressful so I had to prioritize, again—family, friends, social obligations, self. Christmas shopping, family gatherings, family trips, and visiting friends were just some of the things that kept me away from blogging.

I wanted to write about 2011 and how that year has been really good to me, to us as a family, but I didn’t find the time. Now that every thing is slowing down, I could start picking up from where I left off. I’ll start with updating my blogs to working on blog design projects. I also plan to launch my online store not later than March so I hope that I could really populate it by then.

Family wise, every thing is doing great. My baby is healthy, happy, and active. He’s an amazing baby and he is growing up quite fast. My husband and I are as happy and as in love as ever. I thank God every single day for blessing me with such a wonderful family.

My career is another story. I wont say it’s doing great because it is not really the case but I wont say it’s a crap either because I am not really trying. My career as a freelance web designer/writer is just as successful as I am allowing it to be. I could be more successful on my job but right now, it is not my main focus. My family is my number one. I don’t mind not earning plenty of $$$ as long as I am doing great job at being a mom to my baby.

This 2012, I’ll continue prioritizing family over work. I will continue putting my baby above all the other things I have to attend to. I’ll sure accept some web designing and writing gigs but not more than what I can do in my free time.

Originally, I wanted to write a post about my freelancing gigs but unfortunately, there’s nothing to write about because it’s been almost two months since I last work on anything. There were some inquiries about my web designing services but after my last client, I took a step back. Why? Well, not really sure but I’ve never met a client so…I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t mean to but she stressed me out and gave me the feeling that I am working under pressure–which was the main thing I wanted to avoid when I asked for a 10 days turnaround (and she agreed to that). I don’t know but there were plenty of negative vibes during the project. BUT I have to say that I am still quite proud of the outcome of my work despite all that.

Now, I am working on populating my online store. I am designing premade themes to sell later on but I am taking my time. That’s the beauty of working for myself… no pressure.

On another note, my latest acquisition is a Bamboo Stylus for my iPad and here are two artworks I did using my Bamboo Stylus and my latest favorite app: Auryn Ink

digital watercolor is super cool

lovin' my bamboo stylus and auryn ink app

I just finished designing a client’s blog and I think, this will be the last blog designing gig for the month of September. Unfortunately. But I’d rather have it this way than to entertain rush (anything less than 2 weeks is considered rush, okay.) orders and be stressed out.

I said goodbye to my last active employer at Odesk and I am not sending out applications anymore. I am also not entertaining employer-initiated-interviews. It may seem otherwise but I still want to continue freelancing online. It’s just that… I don’t like stress. Sure, I can juggle being a mom and a (flexible) 40hr/week job but that would only mean one thing: stress. I would have to sleep less, eat faster, forget to shower on some days, forget some of my time-consuming hobbies like reading and watching movies, and many other things. I would also probably need to steal some time from my supposedly time for my baby.

I don’t want those to happen.

I want to really take care of my baby. I don’t want to put him to sleep all the time so I could work. I want to be there for him, be with him when he is awake and when he is asleep, there are plenty of times when I just want to be beside him and watch him sleep. My baby is my number one and even my husband understands and supports that.

I also want to “live” my day. When I say this, I mean, I don’t like my day to be composed of mainly freelance jobs and housework. I also want to have a time for myself. To play with my baby, to read books, to chat with my friends, to surf the net (not-work-related), to blog for the sake of blogging, to go out, and do some other things that make me feel that there is more to life than work.

It’s unfortunate that I can’t get clients who agree to my turn around time but in a corner of my mind, I am also kind of glad. Like this week, I don’t have any turn around time to meet. Great! I can have this time to play with my newly purchased wacom tablet.

wacom tablet for my graphic designing ambitions

This new gadgetry, by the way, is also a fruit of doing online jobs. I hope that this device will serve as another way for me to widen my skills and that some day I can use this too, just like my Macbook Pro, to earn money online.

I am beat from doing a bunch of housework today but I promise to update this blog so here I am writing this quick post.

I just want to make a quick report of what I earned from freelancing online for the month of August and here it is:

my work at home earnings for august

I am glad that I was still able to get clients for my blog designing services even though I can only promise a 2-weeks turn around. I am glad that there are people who are still patient. For the month of September, I want to accept more clients. I already have one client on my queue but considering the turn around I have, I myself, would be surprise if I can get more.

I am really enjoying blog designing and it is such a shame that I don’t have the liberty to spend long hours doing it. And so far, all my clients have been nice, patient, easy-to-work with, and are really professional. This makes it more pleasant for me to work on their blog design projects.

Another month has ended and it’s time to report my monthly online earnings again. Some might be shocked to learn that I am working despite the fact that I just gave birth six weeks ago. Well, I actually just started looking at work after a month of giving birth and though I accepted a couple of design jobs, I don’t work on them full time. Right now, my turn around for one bog design project is 14 days (instead of 3-5days). This allows me to have more time to relax. By the way, I only work if my baby is asleep; otherwise every thing’s on hold.

I accepted two blog design projects; one of which is done and the other is scheduled this August. I plan to accept two clients per month. I am not hoping for plenty of clients because I won’t be able to handle them right now. Two clients per month would be perfect.

Here’s my monthly online earnings for July:

work-at-home earnings for july

Obviously I didn’t work on my Odesk task last month but this month, I am sort of oblige to render some hours because one of my employers already started giving me some tasks.

I also did ONE paid post last month. I would have like to do more but that was the only opp I found that offers a pay which is not lower than 4$. There were a lot of opps but I refuse to accept less than 4$. It would just be a total waste of time if I do.

Before I asked for a maternity leave, I told my remaining employer at Odesk that I will be able to do a bit of work again starting July, but it’s almost August and I haven’t reported to him yet so when I got an email from him asking me about continuing work, I was not surprised. I knew that one of these days; he’ll contact me about whether I still want to continue working for him or not anymore. Truth is, I am not really that eager to continue working for him. He is a very kind and patient employer, and the tasks he gives me are very interesting, but the pay is very low. He gives me bonuses every now and then but they are not enough to compensate for the low pay.

I was technically doing jobs for him but it was more like learning stuff and getting a small amount from learning.  The tasks he gave me were really interesting and I had plenty of time so it was okay. But now, not anymore.

I have to prioritize what I do with the very limited time I have for my online activities. I have to choose those that give me better benefits—emotional and financial. Blogging will always come first because, though I am not really earning from my blogs, they serve as an emotional outlet. Blogging has oftentimes cured my boredom, my sadness, my annoyance, and so on so I really have no plans on giving up blogging.  Blog designing comes in second because it serves as an artistic outlet and although I can’t really make a living from it, I earn a pretty decent amount from it. Odesk will have to come in last.

So now that I am slowly coming out of my maternity leave, I am devoting my online time on my blogs and my blog designing services. If I would have plenty of time, I would update each of my blogs once a week, but since I am still just sort of squeezing in my online activities, updating a blog each week should suffice. I also accepted a couple of blog designing projects—one for July and another for August. I told my clients who, despite the fact that I was on maternity leave, contacted me for a spot on my queue, that I can’t promise a 3-5days turn around because I am still adjusting to the whole motherhood thing. I told them that I can only promise a 14days turnaround and if they are okay with that, I can put them in my queue. Two out of four clients said they are not in hurry so they’re the ones I am serving now.

If only I wouldn’t need to do the house chores, I would have time for all my online activities. Right now, my baby still sleeps a lot. I could use his sleeping time to work on my freelance jobs but unfortunately, there are house chores waiting for me. Then there’s also the fact that there are frequent visitors who want to see the new member of our family—this is the main thing that is stressing me right now.

Sigh. I can take care of my baby very well and I can babysit him willingly but as for the housework…I wish for a maid because I’d rather work on my online jobs than do the house chores.

So sorry for not updating this blog but as you might have already guessed, I gave birth and so, you know the rest. LOL.

But it’s a month since and I should start to pick things up with my blogging again. My recovery period is technically until 6 weeks after giving birth, but I feel fine now. I just wish I have more time for all of my online endeavor.

But before I forget, I would like to report my earnings last June. I didn’t work (except for a couple of hours in Odesk) but that does not mean, I didn’t earn a cent. This month’s earnings is nothing compared to my previous monthly earnings but since I vowed to report my monthly earnings from my online freelancing endeavors, here it is:

work-at-home earnings for june

May has ended and I should have posted my mothly work-at-home earnings two days ago but my routine has dramatically changed in the last two weeks.

As expected,  my work-at-home earnings this month decreased compared to the previous months’ earnings. I didn’t really worked in the last two weeks of May. I did some few neccessary tasks for one of my Odesk jobs but that’s it. I also stopped accepting blog design orders because I really don’t feel like working now.

Here is my month’s earnings:

work-at-home earnings for may

I won’t be working in the next few weeks. I will wait until the birth of my baby and until the time I am fully adjusted to having a baby

I’m a bit disappointed last week when my Editorial job at Odesk ended. That was the best paying Odesk job I ever got so you can imagine my disappointment. The reason why it ended is a bit complicated but it is nothing negative. It is nothing I did. The job just needed to come to an end.

I still have two running jobs at Odesk. One is a writer job and the other is personal assistant job. The fist one does not have any task for me at all and the second one has almost no task for me. From my last week’s online income of 64.50$, 4.50$ came from Odesk and the rest came from my pretty blog design services.

I have some inquiries but I don’t have confirmed orders from DMP at the moment so I don’t think there’s going to be any income from DMP this week. Unfortunately, I also don’t think there will be any income coming from Odesk this week. I tried to apply to some jobs at Odesk but I keep getting rejections (bid too high). I think, it’ll take some time before I can find another decent paying job at Odesk.

I am not expecting any money coming in from my online jobs this week. Right now, I am really tempted to take opps from PPP and writing gigs from TCA but I doubt if they’re worth my time. So I am thinking, I should probably just let a week pass by without me earning from my online jobs. I should just probably focus on redesigning some of my blogs or updating them. Hmm… I’ll figure out something.

It’s been a long time since I applied for a job at Odesk and it was because I was contented with the three jobs I have there and with my blog design services. Today, out curiosity, I flipped through the job offers and was reminded again how difficult it is to find decent job offers there.

Anyway, I don’t need another online job unless something that is really interesting comes my way. I don’t have a lot of tasks from my current jobs at Odesk and I am kind of thankful for that because I would like to slow down with my online jobs from here on. Last week, I managed to earn a total of 111.80$ (51.80$ from Odesk, 60$ from my blog design services) I wanted to just work on my designing job but there was a task from one of my employers at Odesk that I just have to do so that explains the Odesk earnings for this week. My online earnings will definitely decline in the next weeks as I focus more on the coming of our first child. I also informed my employers about me having a baby soon and I am glad that they understand.

Later on, when I’ve adjusted and as long as my baby will allow it, I would like to allot a 20 hours/week on my online jobs. I am not sure if I can do more than that but I will still definitely do freelance works online. I wont give up freelancing now. A lot of mommies work at home so I think I will also be able to manage being a work-at-home mom.