Once again, tourist season has well and truly kicked in here in North Queensland. Port Douglas is full of people and all's good.
My Sunday market store has been very busy. The month of June just past was my best June ever sales-wise ... and July has started very well. So for the next couple months, I'm working 6 days a week to keep the store fed with 'turnover' stock items ... and claw back my overdraft.
It's a pretty funny life ... market life ... and, in fact, artist/crafts person life. Times are all boom or bust. During the early wet season months, it's definitely bust ... there just aren't enough people visiting the region to make big sales, so the emphasis is just to do the best you can. The upside, of course, is that there's spare time to play and explore creative stuff .. or, just do nothing ... which happens on occasions.
When 'the season' kicks in though, sales and volume of items sold leaps ... and anyone who's not adequately prepared with plenty of stock misses out very quickly.
Some call this means of earning a living a 'lifestyle job' ... but, quite frankly, I work much harder than a lot of people I know with 'real' jobs. I'm not comfortable at all with the prospect of having a real job, so I choose this lifestyle any day.
I am honoured and blessed that I have the ability to earn my income from an activity that I like doing ... and one in which I can change direction at any time I like. Even when I'm busiest making utensils and homewares, I can still work on sculpture or artistic forms. To me, that's part of the freedom of operating within an alternative economic lifestyle.
